Gettin' Outside

Been a bit chilly recently -- though relatively so, I guess, considering what you family folks in VT, ME and WA are dealing with -- but lots of sun, so we've been heading for fresh air -- good for both kids, whose asthma has been acting up lately.




Kept Declan home from school today, to monitor his asthma and take him to the doctor. He asked if we could "go ride black-horse on the beach" by the house so we did. The whole time he played down there he was saying, "Galloping, galloping, galloping, galloping, galloping..." over and over. What you can't really see in these pictures, of course, is black-horse, one of his favorite new toys - just a little plastic horse...



The other day after my bike ride, Elsie fell asleep on my chest. It's been a loooong time since either one did that and it felt so good.


Kaleigh came home Sunday night. We had a great time staying up late and talking over a couple beers. (Sorry Nana.)

Elsie in the Leaves

This morning Elsie and I went downtown, to put up some posters for a friend who's organizing a wine tasting party. After we did our work, we just wandered around.

Elsie discovered that an 18th century churchyard is a great place for walking around and pointing at things.

I discovered Elsie has a taste for fallen yellow leaves. Like, a literal taste. Like, eating.

Barack and Lance

Just saw this, from an interview with Obama’s campaign brain trust (sent by Cynthia – thanks).

Axelrod said the Jeremiah Wright affair was probably a pivotal moment in the whole campaign. "You know, pandemonium erupted, and there was this sense that we were in crisis. The only one who was calm was Obama."

The candidate called his aides and told them he wanted them to clear some time on his schedule. "And he said, 'You know what? I'm gonna make a speech about race and talk about Jeremiah Wright and the perspective of the larger issue.' And he said, 'And either people will accept it or I won't be president of the United States. But at least I'll have said what I think needs to be said,'" Axelrod remembered.

Gibbs said there wasn't a discussion. "If there had been a discussion, probably most of the people in the campaign would've advised against it," Dunn added.

But he didn’t put it up for discussion. He knew what was the right thing to do – to be forthright and trust people to make their own decisions. He wasn’t interested in the spin, he just wanted to answer the question.

It reminded me, surprisingly, about Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour de France. He was chasing a guy down a mountainside, the guy fell and Armstrong had the presence of mind to continue off the road, through a field, dismount before he got to a ditch, run across the ditch and back onto the road, then get back on the bike and in the race without causing any more crashes.

So why do I connect them?

Both are neatly packaged, singular examples that illustrate the broader picture of why I respect each man so much, why I am so proud of them, why, in my opinion, they are the champions that they have become.

By the way, if you want to watch the Lance thing, here ‘tis:

From The Officemates

Some pics my coworkers have taken and given me recently.

Here's Elsie and me at my boss's son's Halloween party:


Here's me working. I look so boring:


Here's me driving to DC to pitch to Discovery, and then sitting in the lobby, practicing my pitch:



And here's me standing in the rain, having left the building with another "We love it!" but without a greenlit series.


Maybe my coworker should spend more time helping me develop pitches and less time documenting the process...

Stream Of Declanness

This morning Declan and I went for a Collection Box Walk down to the beach near our house.

What? Don’t know what a Collection Box Walk is?

Well, Declan has this plastic box, originally a tackle box, that he calls his Collection Box. It’s normally filled with rocks, shells, pine cones, sticks, seed pods… stuff like that. A Collection Box Walk, as you might have guessed by now, is when you go for a walk, trolling for new stuff.

So we went out, box in hand, while Mom and Elsie went shopping.

While we were at the beach, Declan saw a beer bottle someone had left on the beach.

“Daddy, look. Someone left a bottle there and that might hurt the earth and hurt the earth’s feelings, and we don’t want to hurt the earth because we might get sick and we wouldn’t have any place to live.”

Later, as we walked home:
“Hey, did you see that?”
“No son, what?”
“A squirrel ran across the roof of that house and jumped all the way, way, way to that tree. It was like super-yoga!”

And a few minutes later:
“I’m so mad someone left that bottle.”

And then:
“Why are some sticks sharp?”
“Well, some of them are just kinda pointy at the end so that part’s sharp.”
“Claws are sharp. Lions have claws.”
“What else has claws?
“Um. Tigers. Doggies. Pumas.”
“How about snakes?”
“No, they don’t walk on feet. Hey, feet and wheat! Those are rhyming words!”

Man I love adding all these new experiences to our own Collection Box.

The Stars Are Aligning

May they shine down on a new path for the US tomorrow.

B & B on stage together. I mean, come on. How cool is that? (Thanks for sending the link to these pics to me, Ames!)

This is the first time I've donated money to a political campaign, and yesterday, for the first time, I volunteered and did some voter canvassing for a few hours.

Usually, I feel like I'm essentially voting against someone on the other side, but with Obama, I'm really voting for him.

Please stars, please continue to align. Holy cow do we need it.

My canvassing partner had two interesting things to say: 1) that her 82-year-old mother has never voted before in her life but she's making a point to vote this time, for Obama, and 2) that her husband has voted Republican all his life and he's voting for Obama.

Funny conversation from yesterday's canvassing:

65-year-old woman opens the door to a small apartment in a building no one seems to be taking care of.
"Hi, I'm David and I'm with the Obama campaign. I was hoping to talk to John Wheeler."
"Oh, he ain't home. But he's voting for Obama!"
"Great. He knows where to vote and everything?"
"Yup."
"And would he need a ride?"
"Oh no, he got a car."
"And how 'bout you, are you gonna vote?"
She smiles broadly: "Oh, I wish I could sweetheart, but I'm a convicted felon!"

Safe to say, the nicest felon I've ever met.

Happy Halloween

"Declan, what do you want to be for Halloween?"
"A puma!"
"A puma?"
"Yeah, a puma! Roooaaar!"

So he was a puma. Which, as long as you throw out the package, looks a lot like a lion costume. (Don't tell him.)

Amy was a matador. Or, I think, a matadora.

Elsie was a kitty cat. Though at a party we went to yesterday, someone said she looked like one of the Wild Things. Which I think I like better. As long as they're not referring to that movie with Neve and Denise and the swimming pool...



I was, as you can see, a banana. All night Declan referred to me as Banana instead of Daddy.

"Let's go this way, Banana! Roooaaar!"


Because of my get-up, and the fact that Declan decided not to wear his puma head, this conversation went on at a lot of houses:

"Oh look, a monkey and his banana."
"I'm not a monkey, I'm a puma!"
"A what?"
"A puma!"
"A what?"
"A puma!"
Awkward silence as the adult scratches his or her head.

I think not many people in our neighborhood know what a puma is...

Kaleigh, what were you?

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