You HAVE to watch this!

Jon Stewart on Repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) & McCain's Flip-Flop: Video
Even if you can't abide that which is slightly left of center, this is a not-to-miss video. It's a little over 8 minutes, but don't discount the clip early thinking it's just another political view. By the 4 minute mark the parody hits.

Happy New Year!

Imagine the difficulty trying to get my squirrel to sit still with that little hat on! Thank goodness he was exhausted from partying all night!

The kids, on the other hand, had no problem posing for pictures with their hats on!

At the stroke of midnight,
a new day will begin just as every midnight before it.
A new month will begin just like the months before.
A new year will begin just like the years before.
We can make resolutions...or not.
Only new and different choices will lead to new and different results.
Let us use our fresh, empty calendars as a reminder that
we are not confined by our past
but liberated by our future.

Newest Woodworker

Jane Austen wrote "Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us."

I had to share that quote because I'm EXPLODING WITH PRIDE!!!!! My 12 year old Caleb made this clock! He used a scroll saw at school (imagine the pressure I now face to have a scroll saw at home), created his design, wood-burned the details, picked the clock parts, sanded, clear-coated, drilled, doweled...my boy is a genius! He's a talented, disciplined, patient, information-sponge genius.

All I can say is that it's a good thing I have a healthy perspective on things or I might really become annoying.

Black Friday 2009

I subscribe to a few of the Black Friday websites. They send me updates when a store releases a Black-Friday-dedicated circular. I perused the ads repeatedly, as I do every year, and after realizing that I can't even begin to afford anything that would be worth the wait in line (a conclusion I come to every year), Cale and I decided that we should go see what the fuss is all about.

At about 1:45am, we drove to the Best Buy parking lot. Holy Mother of Pearl! It may not have surprised me to find a person or two outside the doors, but there was a line! A line that began at the front door and literally wrapped around two corners of the building!

There were tents and tarps and lean-to type structures and portable stadium chairs. Caleb and I discreetly pointed and laughed at the huddled mass of crazy, sharing a moment of what almost seemed like superiority. Silly little crazy shoppers.

Then it happened. Across the street a giraffe beacon beckoned us. The curiosity overwhelmed us as we saw tens of people walking great distances with full bags. Looking around we could clearly see every parking lot within view was completely full. Toys R Us had been open since midnight, and in the two hours since, parking lots had filled up. As we entered the store I saw a crowd the likes of which I'd never seen before. I've seen movies that show shoppers in a frenzy and I've heard stories on the news where people get hurt or worse during Black Friday shopping, but I'd never really believed that kind of blind, obsessed chaos really existed. We did go ahead and make a round through the store, but of course we didn't buy anything. In fact, there were so many people we were barely able to even get close enough to items to actually see them. If we had decided to purchase something, it would have taken an hour (at least) to get to the checkout. The checkout line wrapped from the registers and snaked in and out of the aisles. Employees stood guard opening and closing ropes as a new space in their aisle became available.

Tonight we took a leap to crazy and back, and I've seen enough of Black Friday to really appreciate the idea of waiting for Cyber Monday!

Here's to time with friends and family and enjoying our times of love and serenity when we can. Happy Thanksgiving!

Whew! It sure has been a while since I posted anything. The end of summer/beginning of autumn brought a type of hectic I just wasn't entirely prepared for. I've been writing like a ...I dunno...an obsessed writer? I must have used up my supply of metaphor for the week: I've been writing a lot is the point I'm trying to make. Regardless of how fast the speed-of-life is moving, there is always something just around the corner to leave me completely joyful. My squirrelly pal [pictured above] has been amusing me daily.

He has a daily routine. He shimmies up the pole,

does a trapeze dive for the feeder,

grabs a handful of food then swings back and forth (upside down) while he chews! When that mouthful is done, he gets upright and does it all again! I tried to tell him he might choke, but being that I'm not fluent in Squirrel I was never really able to get my point across.

Another delight just outside my window are the birds whose food my squirrel has been eating. Chickadees are plentiful and apparently they're also always hungry!

This pair stopped by a few times in October. I'm new to actually caring about what birds are doing and what song they sing and although I suspect this is a common bird, I can't find it online. I'd appreciate it if anyone has a spare moment and might be able to drop me a line to let me know the name of this bird.

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