Bath Fun

The girls have, for a few months now, been playing a bizarre game called, “Note-nen, Bee-sa, Menny.” Vivi so loves this “game” that she often starts requesting it as they march up the steps after dinner. It’s simple and – did I mention? – bizarre: they sit sideways, next to each other, with their backs against one wall, feet against other wall, and knees bent. Then they loudly chant, “Note-nen… bee-sa… menny!” and, on the last word, abruptly straighten their legs, creating a huge splash and a great deal of laughter. Then they repeat the game again and again, faster and louder each time.

Obama Republicans

This article, “Growing Doubts About McCain’s Judgment, Age and Campaign Conduct,” from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is full of interesting and – if you’re a Democrat – good news about Obama’s improving chances in November. As my astute friend Matt pointed out, one interesting datum is that the number of undecided voters is remaining more or less level, while the number of McCain voters is shrinking, presumably as many flee the GOP ticket for, you know, people who know what they’re doing.

Call ’em Obama Republicans: “Impressed by young go-getters with excellent educations, good family values, and the genius to know when to bring in the experts? Us, too. That’s why we’re voting Obama ’08.”

Wife & Mama, PhD

On Friday, Shannon was elated to receive our copy of the fall issue of the Macalester Today, which includes her lovely essay, “Mama, PhD.” Apparently the alma mater doesn’t have enough dough to put the magazine’s contents online, so we put up a scan of her essay. I hope you like it as much as I, a wholly unbiased reader, do – and maybe join me in congratulating her on the accomplishment!

Autumn On and On

Having had quite a bit of fun on our this autumn’s two previous farm outings (alpacas and pumpkins, you’ll recall), today we went to a lovely little farm on the western edge of town for more of the same. We were joined there by a family with girls the same age as ours, and proceeded to have a ridiculous amount of fun. A sandbox filled six inches deep with corn kernels! Gourd sculptures! A “hayride” that was actually a long wagon-borne tour of the farm! Cows! Gorgeous autumn colors everywhere! Suffusingly warm sunshine! A haybale maze that was also an excellent climbing/balancing thingy!

In short, it was a fantastic time.

Vivi on the Haybales

Julia on the Haybales

The Scene

Pre-K Civics

The four of us were in the kitchen this morning, attending to various needs (parents: coffee; children: coloring), while NPR ran a fair-and-balanced review of the presidential candidates’ weekend activites. Julia recognized Barack Obama’s voice, how he was one of the men who wanted to be president, and how Mama and Daddy wanted him to be president.

Then NPR ran a sound bite of a John McCain speech, leading Julia to ask about him. I told her his name and tried to explain that he also wanted to be president, that both of them really wanted to be the next president. She interrupted her coloring to look up at me and ask, “How are they going to work that out?”

Hoofing It

Today, in my new role as the coordinator of Carleton’s part of Northfield’s (and the country’s) United Way campaign (“Live United”), I schlepped all over campus to deliver more than a thousand pledge packets to every last employee – or actually, to the diligent volunteers who will get the packets to the actual employees.

Though this task took the better part of the day, and proved that those plastic USPS mail trays are meant to sit on carts, not to be carried around, it was actually a fun job. I probably met 20 people whom I didn’t know, explored some of the campus’ interesting corners (or non-corners: Goodsell Observatory is a very cool, very round building), and felt like I was contributing in some small, stair-climbing way to the campus campaign

I also witnessed the raging insanity of Family Weekend. What a madhouse. Current students with their parents, prospective students with their parents, (probably) prospective parents with their prospective students. Campus maps on a third of the eye-level vertical surfaces. Free food everywhere, much of it being consumed by tired-looking adults standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Audiae, Mercedeses, Acurae, and Lexuses crowding the streets. Young kids trailing after mom, dad, and the big sibling, taking advantage of the others’ distraction to help themselves to that free food. (Caramel-covered apple slices and ice cream!) Grown men and women attired unflatteringly like their children. Kids attired flatteringly like their parents. Britney Spears songs blasting from speakers in front of the campus center. The pleasing smell and sigh of damp leaves. Grown-ups standing perfectly still except for their swiveling heads, trying to figure out where the hell they were. Endless Carleton swag flying out of the bookstore. A lot of people looking pretty happy with the whole situation, and with the college.

Leafed Out

An old friend delurked today to fill me in on her life since the last time I talked to her; among other interesting features, this life includes finishing three marathons. *sigh*

I can’t run that far once, much less three times (gawd, I hope she hasn’t run all three this year – or this summer!), but I can offer a slideshow of the scenery in the Carleton Arb last weekend. Tell you what: ambling through this sort of beauty makes the ambling a lot easier.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Looking (Too Far) Forward

Gotcha. I’ll stop instant-messaging with friends about your legacy after 2016. I may have been slightly ahead of myself.

With their final debate behind them, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain began the final 19-day sprint to Election Day on Thursday, with Mr. Obama admonishing supporters to avoid growing complacent about the Democratic effort to win the White House and its recent gains in opinion polls.

“Debates Over, Candidates Begin Final Sprint,” NY Times

Falling Indicators

Fleece is appropriate morning, noon, and night.
The girls mistake the frosted grass outside for snow.
The centipedes come inside every night, to my disgusted chagrin.
Parents worry about the inevitable start of the cold-weather illnesses.
Minnesota Public Radio reports windchills.
Hot coffee is the only realistic option.
The college girls are wearing their Uggs again.
The winter-fearing are grumbling about the snow.
Hardware stores are selling snow shovels and de-icing salt.
I have stopped leaving my bike helmet and shoes in the garage overnight, switched from biking gloves to mittens, and added an earband to the commuting clothing.

Politix

Entry 1
It’s news to me, but 7-11 has, for the past few elections, been running a promotion wherein voters can indicate their presidential preferences by choosing certain cups for their coffee. Despite the fact that not every state has 7-11s, the final totals in 2000 and 2004 apparently lined up pretty well with the final outcomes of those elections. (This means, I guess, that just as you were about to enjoy your last cup of delicious steaming Kerry, five guys in black robes ran up, knocked in out of your hands, and handed you a cup of cold, grounds-filled Bush.)

And but so, you want to know who’s ahead now, right? You’ll have to click through the Flash-y website to see the exact numbers, but as of 9:17 pm tonight, Barack Obama leads John McCain, 59.68% to 40.32%. I think that’s called a “landslide.” (For what it’s worth, McCain is only “winning” three states [North Carolina, New Hampshire, and West Virginia], and only by narrow margins.)

Anyone out there near a 7-11, go buy a large Obama cup for me. I’ll pay you back.

Entry 2 (promoted from my Tumblr site – see the right side of this page)

At his rally in Lakeville, Minnesota, last week, a woman asked John McCain about Barack Obama being an “Arab.” McCain cut her off, but the full story is even worse. (See the video: she appears at about 0:50.) Apparently, the woman may have actually said that Obama was an “Arab terrorist,” and in an interview with reporters after the event, both repeated that slur (describing her sketchy sources for that information) and said she’s a Minnesota GOP campaign worker. See the full transcript of the interview at The Uptake. Nice campaign you’re running over there, Republicans!