Saturday, November 01, 2008

Thanks to cousin CB, Jesse had a cute hand-me-down costume for Halloween.

Beau took him trick or treating at a couple of specific houses in our neighborhood while I tended to the candy distribution at our house. About the time we ran out of candy, they got back home with a larger amount of candy in Jesse’s bag than I would have expected for 4 houses. Folks were apparently way more generous than I.

After they got home we got into the car to take him to Marmie and Pop’s to show off his cuteness.

Bonus photos today - Jesse has transitioned from the high chair to a booster at the table.

Friday, October 31, 2008

I went to the funeral of The Amazing One’s husband this morning.

I posted a request for prayer for TAO and her husband when he was first diagnosed with cancer back in the spring. I started to post last week about how he had deteriorated in the past couple of months, but I lost that post in the intertubes ether and didn’t bother to try to rewrite it. Suffice to say, he had not responded well to radiation or chemo and later developed clots in his lungs and a tumor in his heart. Two weeks before he died he had a small stroke and TAO arranged for hospice care.

His siblings all flew out from California the weekend before he died and got a chance to all spend some good quality time with him. He was lucid enough for that time and it was such a blessing for TAO and his siblings, who also sort of looked at him as a father figure. He was the older one and helped their mother raise them when their Army father was deployed.

He died last Friday. He was 58 years old and leaves behind his beloved wife and two grown sons as well a bunch of friends and coworkers who adored him. From the tributes given at his memorial service this morning, he was the best of men. Having met him, I agree wholeheartedly.  I grieve for TAO and her loss - she was separated from her husband far too soon but they had a wonderful 25 years together.

Please pray for her - peace and comfort and for God to reveal Himself to her through this process.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

On my commute I spotted an unnecessary quote on a minivan. I didn’t have my camera, so no picture.

In Loving Memory
of
“D---- A-----------”

Now the sentiment caught my eye because I recognized the name. The man lovingly remembered was a member of my former church and died of cancer last year. Then I spotted the quote marks around his name.

Why?

A Fairfax County cop died in a training accident and his funeral is today. There’s a huge motorcade/procession this morning and as a result they shut down all exits onto the Outer Loop of the Beltway from Braddock Road to Route 1 in Alexandria (basically, that’s I-95N headed into Maryland). They expect 3000-5000 cars, not people but cars, and that it will take at least 1 full hour for the procession to clear. That means that a major interstate is shut down to all northbound traffic in late rush hour. That is insane.

Fortunately for me, I woke up earlier than I have been and managed to get on the Beltway 10 minutes before they closed my entrance. I walked into my office at 9:05am.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

So Sen. Obama proposes that folks take the day off to go vote. Others suggest that the day be a national holiday.

I say no way to both.

There is no need to take the whole day off to go vote. The longest I stood in line to vote ever was maybe 2 hours. Usually I get in and out in about 30 minutes. As for the holiday idea, that’s ridiculous - half of the people don’t even bother to vote, so they would get a free day off and that just hurts the economy.

If you want to vote, get off your lazy butt and go vote.

Monday, October 27, 2008

We won’t be getting the house. I’m OK with that. And I believe that our house hunt is on hold indefinitely while we work to improve our financial situation. Beau may not agree with me on this, but I’m sure we’ll discuss it at length.

Mentally, emotionally, and physically I’m done with the hunt. I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t.

There are other things that I want and need to be doing with my weekends. There are other things that Beau can be doing with his time as well.

We are done.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

We watched American Gangster last night.

I liked it a lot. It’s a compelling story as a movie alone but knowing that Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts are real people and this case was real made it fascinating to watch.

I highly recommend it, but know that the subject matter is disturbing and violent, the language is adult, there is nudity and one sex scene.

AG gets 4 stars.

Bonus: A Charlie Rose interview with the real Frank Lucas, Richie Roberts, and writers Marc Jacobson and Nicholas Pileggi.

This interview of Joe Biden is priceless. His convoluted answer to the Marxist question is laughable.

[via Hot Air]

Saturday, October 25, 2008

View my page on Team Sarah

Friday, October 24, 2008

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 15/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you’re very well informed. If you vote this election, you’ll know exactly who (and what) you’ll be voting for. You’re likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

[via Thinkling Bill]

I asked Beau if I could tell this tale on him. He doesn’t think it’ll be funny to anyone but us, but we’ll see.

We both wear Breathe Right strips on our noses at night. I, because of my pregnancy congestion. He, because of his general nighttime congestion. With Beau there are two factors to consider: 1) he thinks it is wasteful not to try to reuse the strips, so he tries to reuse and 2) he often has his head under a pillow at times in the night. So over the past couple of weeks, when Beau has awoken he has found the strip to be anywhere but on his nose. Once he found it on his underwear. Once I found it stuck to the comforter. This morning he said, “Guess where the nose strip ended up?” I had no clue. “On my forehead.”

I busted out laughing.

“That’s not the best part, though,” he continued. “I woke up at one point and it was on my finger, so I put it back on my nose.”

I continued to laugh hard enough that I started to cry. That’s priceless.

On my own night weirdness front, my dreams continue to be bizarre. The other night I dreamed that Beau and I were good friends with Todd and Sarah Palin. In the dream we were just hanging out with them. Then last night I dreamed that Sarah Palin and I were hanging on the Straight Talk Express bus, but we never talked politics. We talked about babies, just mom to mom. It was great.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

You can read the whole thing here.

FWIW, I agree with him and I look forward to dressing up my kids and taking them out to get candy for me.

I read through Daniel early this summer. I’ve always loved the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (or Rack, Shack and Benny to you Veggie Tales fans).

Anyway, when I first got the Shane & Shane Pages CD, I thought the song Burn Us Up was sort of weird. Who would do a song about S, M, and A? But after several listens, I think it may be one of my favorite songs on the album, not just for the story it tells but because musically it’s a very cool song. It is the Song of the Day.

Burn Us Up
by Shane & Shane

There were three before the king.
There were three who wouldn’t bow to him.
For when you heard the music play and you were standing you would burn.
They looked at him and said…

Burn us up. Burn us up. Burn us up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
We give up. We give up. We give up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
Oh won’t you throw us in the fire.

The king enraged at what they said.
Sent the three away to find their death.
The palace stopped in unbelief when the guilty raised their hands to sing…

Burn us up. Burn us up. Burn us up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
We give up. We give up. We give up.
Oh, king won’t you burn us in the furnace your desire.
Oh won’t you throw us in the fire.

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction!
It’s the declaration of my Lord!
You’re not an image of gold!
You’re the God of Old.
You have made us. Come and save us. We are yours!
But even if you don’t we will burn.

So burn us up in the furnace of your desire.

Beau and my mother confirmed that they have access to the blog now. However, my Dad can’t access it from work now.

Let me know if something seems wonky to you, please.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

1. Still no word on the house. We had to counter offer - best and final - we assume because the other offer was the same as ours. So we upped our offer by $6K thinking that the other folks will have upped by $5K.

[UPDATE 4:00pm]: Beau called our realtor. Our realtor had called the seller/bank and was told that a decision would be made late today or early tomorrow AM. He got the impression from the conversation that the two offers were very close, but that maybe we edged them out. But we’ll find out when we find out either way.

2. It is so aggravating that Gmail access here is so spotty. I can get in with no problems at random times during the day and not at all other times.

3. It turns out that Verizon FIOS users can’t get to my blog lately. I’m working on a solution with my host, but since I can’t get into my email the process has halted because I don’t have the link to the trouble ticket handy. The technician talked about migrating to a new server location, which means the blog will be down for the time that takes.

[UPDATE 4:00pm]: The lovely tech person helping me with the FIOS issue, which I believe must be a DC area thing only, will be migrating my blog to a new server overnight. Who knows how long it will take to resolve, but let it be known that your access may be spotting for a bit.