Leaving a Legacy

This could be the beginning of the end. I like to tell people about a passage in Heller's book Catch-22 where an old Italian man says to an American soldier what makes you think America will be great forever. He's commenting on how the Roman Empire fell...and all great "empires" fall.

I think America is heading down for that fall. If we do not get some fiscal responsibility in government we will be there sooner than you think. We already spend way more than we take in and yesterday we just added a potential $700B additional burden to our treasury. When will it stop. Why can't government leaders make hard choices and say we have to balance the books? The pundits all talk about greed and banks making shaky loans and people buying big mortgages that they cannot sustain. Where is the pointing at Elected officials and their greed? They make decisions to get re-elected not to benefit the people. Just look at the pork in the Bailout bill - that's all you need to see to understand my point. This bill that was sooooo important was ballooned to 400+ pages from it's original 3 to include waste that is beyond belief. Unfortunately both Pres candidates voted for it.

I hope you saw the interview with Bill O'Reilly and Barney Frank. I'm not a huge supporter of O'Reilly, but I loved his argument. Frank refused to take any blame for the situation. O'Reilly called him a COWARD. I agree. Someone needs to get in front of the podium and say "I made a mistake." Is that so hard?

Grrrrr.
OBTW - I plan to ask those next to me at the soccer game today how they feel about America's economy. I'll tell you if they have "fear in their voice."

Swively Chairs

Who doesn’t love a good swively chair? Ted was with me when we picked up Cory and his carpool buddies from preschool. Upon our return to the base, we were dropping Ted off at his office building, and it just so happens that the dad of one of the boys in our van works in the same building. The boy was curious what we were doing there, and when he found out that Ted works there, he said his daddy did, too. He then said, “My daddy’s in charge of the whole work. He has the biggest office with lots of swively chairs.” You know you’re in charge when you have lots of swively chairs.

a mid-day off

As you probably know, New England is famous for its autumn...and with good reason (although, I must tell you that Northern Virginia's fall is pretty darn awesome, too). Well, we are close to the height of the season, and the leaves are just stunning. Hopefully we'll go out sometime soon and scope out some great landscapes.

Yesterday we took the kids on another fun fall adventure. They had the day off in observance of Rosh Hashanah, so Ted took the day off and we drove north to Parlee Farms where we headed out to their apple orchards and picked apples, rummaged around their pumpkins for some overpriced farm pumpkins, and strolled down the raspberry bushes for some fresh raspberries. The best part is the apple cider donuts, though, that you can buy hot and fresh there. Yum, yum, yum.

We came home with 20 pounds of apples (we selected Jonagolds) and made two apple pies last night. So good. It was missing the a la mode part, though. Must go buy some ice cream tomorrow!!

We also came home with 2 quarts of raspberries that I was planning to make jam with. I say was because sadly we left them on the counter last night, and apparently fresh raspberries must be refrigerated, because they looked awful this morning. How disappointing. They were good at the farm at least, and I picked out a few this morning for my cereal.

Have You Had Your Muffin Yet?

If you've never read the book by Laura Numeroff 'If You Give a Moose a Muffin' you ought to. It's an adorable children's story. She has several other tales that follow a similar thread, as well--'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' and 'If You Give a Pig a Pancake.' Kathy Fictorie wrote her own story about what would happen if you gave a mom a muffin, and it's all too accurate. I find myself constantly sidetracked from what I'm doing, that I can't seem to get anything really done. I'm guessing there might be an appropriate seniors version for this same story. If you'd like to read her version you can by clicking here. I've spoken with several of my girlfriends about this, and all agree that this version pretty much sums it up. Really, I have daily examples of this happening to me. The only thing I'd change in the story is the beverage. :)

Running...but not for President

I run because I am lazy. A friend of ours coined that phrase and Kristi and I really seem to agree with it. We love not having to rely on a big gym, fancy equipment, and special techniques. Kristi and I both enjoy getting outside and going for a quick run. We've tried to pass that along to the kids - a desire to stay healthy and active. We took the kids out to a youth fun-run as part of a local 5K run. Riley and Mary Beth really enjoyed it. Dad enjoyed watching them run and smile at the same time.

A couple of quick rants as I listen to the debate and the larger "Race" for President!

1. No bailout - let the free-market run it's course. House Republicans - stand strong!!

2. How can the Speaker of the House say she and the Democratic controlled Legislative branch have nothing...nothing to do with the current crisis? She's been the highest ranking member of the House for quite some time, and in the House for years and years. Unbelievable.

A Tall Tale

I’ve always thought that our son was somewhat on the imaginative side. He can see spaceships, robots, and weapons (of course) out of ordinary trash items. It’s up to me to help him create his visions with glue and fine motor skills. I’ve enjoyed watching his creative side. In the following picture he's holding a leaf to his head and telling me he's a tree:

It’s been especially interesting over the past week. Let me see if I can do this story justice:

It begins last Wednesday on Cory’s first day of preschool—
Ted asks Cory what he did at school.
Cory: I played hockey
Ted: (shocked that a 4 year old would be allowed to play hockey day one of preschool) You played hockey?
Cory: Uh huh.
Ted: You played REAL hockey?
Cory: Uh huh.
Ted: With skates?
Cory: Uh huh.
Ted (thinking that perhaps he played field hockey, or some similar game with a ball on the playground): Where did you play hockey?
Cory: In a big room
Ted: Was it like carpet or was it a real hockey rink?
Cory: It was ice.
Ted (thinking that there’s a nearby building with a rec center that perhaps he played in): Cory did you PLAY hockey or did watch other people play hockey?
Cory: No, we played. The teachers watched.

Ted relates this story to me, and I’m thinking this is obviously not true, as Ted well knows. But when we ask Cory about it, he insists he played. Apparently, another thing about Cory, besides his imagination, is his ability to fib. I was telling some neighbors about it later, and one of them confirms the conversation Cory and Ted had, saying she thought he sounded very believable. We decide not to press the matter, but find it oddly funny that he’s convinced he played hockey.

Two days later on Cory’s second day of preschool—
I pick up Cory from school, and we’re walking to our car
Kristi: Oh, dear, I forgot to ask your teacher about your hockey game you played the other day
Cory: Well, I was just being silly.
Kristi (smiling to myself, but not wanting to say I thought so): Oh. So you didn’t play.
Cory: No, I couldn’t because I was too little.
Kristi: You were too little?
Cory: Yeah, only the 5 year olds could play, not the 4 year olds.
Kristi: I bet you can’t wait until you’re five.

It’s now Monday, his 3rd day of preschool. This morning at breakfast we asked him if he thought he’d play hockey today. With his mouth full of cereal, he matter-of-factly said, “Cancelled.” However, I guess it wasn’t cancelled, because this afternoon he told Ted he scored 10 goals in hockey today.

Tonight during prayers he thanked God for hockey. I thank God for little boys with great imaginations.

TDY cont'd

My weekend in Arkansas was fun. My friends and I headed out Saturday morning to a nail salon for pedicures. We wait our turns to get a chair, and when it's my turn I slide into the chair and dip my feet into the warm water. What happened next I was not completely prepared for. The person who sat in front of me to do my pedicure was a man—I don't know why this was disconcerting to me exactly, but it just seemed a little too, I don't know, weird. I'm not exactly a foot person, so when I imagine a man massaging my feet it's usually Ted. It didn't help that he was a mostly cute, friendly, normal looking kind of guy. So I spend most of my pedicure trying to relax by not remembering who's sloughing dead skin off my feet and commenting on possible corns. Then he's kind enough to offer a free design on my toes—so now I have a guy painting flowers and sticking sequins on my toes. It just seemed weird. Not surprisingly, my friends got a huge kick out of it.

One of my girlfriends and I spent a good portion of Saturday playing the other two of our friends off of each other while we were secretly planning a bridal shower for one and buying a birthday gift for the other. Each of those two friends thought they were being helpful by sneaking off to do something for the other (each knew about the other's surprise), but ultimately we were preparing stuff for her as well. Thankfully we were successful in pulling off both—we had a great wedding shower Saturday afternoon, and surprised the other late Sunday night with the birthday present.

A highlight of the weekend was floating the Buffalo River on Sunday. I had done this once before as a kid with my family, although I remember it only because I've been told about it, really. It might interest some of you to know that while in college I took a canoeing course to fulfill my Physical Education requirement. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago, too, so really I offered no expertise in the matter. Canoeing is great, though, because you really need no expertise on a peaceful river, and we enjoyed a few hours together just paddling and relaxing in the warm sun.

The weekend is now over, sadly, and we'll be getting back into the groove of school beginning on Tuesday. Summers are much too short!