In case you ever thought your house was messy

This is messy.

Some humiliation

Just went for a physical. Can't begin to tell you how humiliating it is.

We'll leave it at that.

Why?

Why is socialized banking okay, but socialized health-care isn't?

From the Empire State Building

Check out that moon.

Matt in NYC.

The Times Square shot.


Me in front of the Empire State Building.

This is the view from our hotel room.

More to come.

My friend Chris Harris

Looks like he needs sleep.

From here: click on Wilson. I also heard, this weekend, that someone was up 5-3 (or merely up 2) on Middaugh playing 7 and gave up 7. I have a hard time walking through the shots, since Middaugh would have thrown a corner guard on his first. But I suspect it went something like this:

(other guy) Top four:
Middaugh: corner
OG: guard
Middaugh: come around freeze.
OG: Peel, miss, rock dead nuts jams on one top four
Middaugh: come around to lay three buried.

OG: draw to get our of end. Didn't go well.

The great thing about curling is that things can go from bad to worse in an awful hurry. I would have loved to have seen the end.

Update: Here's the line score. No wonder Middaugh scored 7. He was playing the cast of Zoolander and the sex addict.

The kids were a big hit

This weekend, we went to Brampton to see the family. It's a big family. About 35 people showed up, and that wasn't even all the kids!

Anyway, from Saturday night, when she sat at the little girls table and ate everything the big girls ate, to Sunday afternoon when she ran around with her cousins, danced in the rain, passed out cookies, went for a swim, she had an awesome time.

Maybe that's why she didn't wake up until 8:00AM this morning!

I get it now

From here:

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers: a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig, and Track: you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating: you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl (sports caster), 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Gavin, the sensitive little dude

Gavin doesn't like the boat rocked. If he's sleeping, or merely resting on your lab, god forbid you shout to someone in the other room because he'll most-likely scream bloody murder.

Mom calls him her sensitive little dude.

Case in point: last night I'm in the kitchen with Autumn working on getting her some strawberry milk. this is the conversation:

Autumn: I want some strawberry milk.

Me: what do you say?

Autumn: please.

Me: no Autumn, how do you ask?

Autumn: Puuuullleeease.

Me: put them altogether.

Autumn: Can I, may i have some strawberry milk, PLEASE!

At this point, mom calls from the other room to tell Autumn that did a good job. But mom raised her voice a little so that it would carry into the kitchen.

That upset the little dude. Who proceeded to wail like, well, like a baby.

Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Can you watch this?

Watch this. And tell your friends as well.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Autumn says this a lot. She'll see something and say, "Omigosh!". It's actually cute. fir instance, if she saw this, she would most-likely say Omigosh:

Watch her head explode

I've actually been in conversations with Republicans where I could see their brains working. The one standing behind the scenes with Samantha Bee is priceless. Becoming self-aware is a tough thing. You can almost feel her pain.

Some shots from Rhona

Some shots my wife took. At some point, things like this will be for sale.

So last night, just before reading books with Autumn, she stopped, turned to me and said, "Pull my finger".

I said pardon?

"Pull my finger" she said, sicking out her finger and laughing.

I didn't teach her this. At the time, I had no idea who tought her this. But, as I'm leanring, you have to go with your kids sometimes down roads that seem pretty weird. For instance, in bed the other night, she turned to me and asked:

"Can I cry?"

There's no good answer to this question. I couldn't say no, because that would make her sad, meaning she would cry. If i say yes, I'm basically giving her permission to cry.

So I asked her why she wanted to cry.

"So you'll come back in" she replied, as if it was obvious.

So I went with it. I told her she could cry, she did, I came back in, and she shut up and went to sleep.

Knowing all I know about going with it, I pulled her finger.

She smirked, batted her eyelashes, and made a cute little fart sound with her lips. Then she giggled like a two-year old.

Things are getting fun.

the art of the swaddle

Rhona is about to swaddle B. Gavin. This comes on the heels of some other breaking news. As she changed his diaper, she noted that he had an erection.

He's a boy, afterall.

She pointed it out to me. Being a boy myself, it didn't seem that neat. In fact, I think it most likely wasn't his first. But it was the first one we saw.

Now he's swaddled. And smiling in his sleep.