Wee Ones

In our neighborhood we have all these playgroups for the kids (and for the moms) so you can get out of the house and meet other people.
I went to Wee Ones yesterday but decided that I will wait before I go again...the kids were way older than Sylvia and it was quite chaotic. Sylvia, though, was a star and just sat on my lap and smiled at everyone. I found it a bit brain jarring with all the kids yelling and playing and trying to not let them paw at Sylvia...Everyone there was really nice and hopefully I can get to know them better later.
Luckily there is a 'mini' wee ones group that formed for those of us with the infants...I may try that one next week. I also joined a neighborhood walking group of all moms. We're going to try to meet up at least 2x per week.
That's the report from my end.
Here's some cute snaps of my favorite human being:

Happy New Year/Christmas wrap up

Well, we got back from our Christmas/Channukah trip to St. Augustine, FL on Tuesday. What a wonderful trip! If you've never been to the oldest continuously occupied city in North America, you're missing out! From the old Spanish quarter, where you can see how the Spanish colonists lived, to the old Fort, which is replete with real, live cannon fire, the whole town brings history to life.

Sylvie was showered with grandparent affection the whole time, naturally, and it was fun to get together with my cousins for Christmas.

Jenny got a new Canon digital SLR for Christmas, so be on the lookout for Sylvie shots that are more glorious than ever!

Happy Christmakkahwanzaa!

We would like to take this time to tell everyone how much we value your friendship, especially at this reflective time of year. We feel very blessed to have so many loved ones all over the world, and we sincerely hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season!

Love, Joe, Jenny, and Sylvie

Holy crap! A CEO deferred a pay raise!

I just read an amazing story over at Wal*Mart Watch, a site dedicated to opening people's eyes to the corporate shitpile that is the world's leading retailer.

It seems that a CEO for a small firm called the RiskMetrics Group actually turned down a raise and recommended that the board give his bonus to his underlings. Amazing!

According to the article, the CEO in question, Ethan Berman,"...took the highly unusual step of sending his board of directors a memo that recommended that he receive no increase in salary and a reduced annual bonus from 2004."

In Berman's own words:

“The banker J. P. Morgan once said that he would never lend money to a company where the highest-paid employee was paid more than 20 times the lowest-paid, as it was in his view unstable...the firm’s stronger than expected performance was driven by a large number of employees in other roles, and therefore I would like to see the bulk of my direct reports, and in fact many of their direct reports, paid greater bonuses than I receive."

Ethan Berman, you fricking rock. My hat's off to you, sir.

Rough night, Santa?

Looks like Ol' St. Nick had a little too much holiday cheer the night before this scary ass photo was taken. The kid is probably crying to keep from passing out from the Vodka fumes....

More at the Scared of Santa Gallery. Thanks, Sarah, for the link.

Diesel Sweeties

Warning: Addictive Web Comic alert.

I found Diesel Sweeties from a link at the super-cool Questionable Content web comic's site.

If you could get into the smart-ass exploits of indie rock poseurs, heavy metal vegetarians and former porn stars (and their robot lovers), then Diesel Sweeties might just be for you. Three words: Crush. All. Hu-mans.

Holiday fun

Tonight we attended Woodmoor's Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was a crack up. The whole neighborhood gathers (with SO many kids, it freaked me out), and at 7p they flick the lights on this huge tree in the center of our neighborhood. The lights were a bit sad... but it's the thought that counts, it's a sweet idea and the kids love it. Santa comes too. There's also supposedly a Hanukkah menorah that they light up, but I did not see it.
We put up our tree and we re-arranged the furniture so it could be in the center of our picture window. I decorated our front lawn/azaleas/rose of sharon bush/banisters w. white pin lights. We also have a reindeer on the lawn who is made of twig and pin lights (he's super cute). I heart him.
I think it's going to snow tonight which will make it all seem quite official.
What else, Sylvia now has the beginnings of TWO teeth. They began to emerge in the last few days and she has been quite a trooper. She's still eating a ton but just has moments of pain. Carrots are her new favorite. She told me.

And we have success

The turkey was so juicy, Joe thought something was wrong with it.
Here's the listing of final food mania list:
- 11 pound free range organic turkey -- check
- homemade gravy
- canned cranberries (sorry couldn't make anything else at this point)
- mashed yukon gold potatoes
- Stove Top stuffing
- baguette
- salad
- sweet pototoes
- homemade apple crisp
- pea cassarole
- Fetzer wine
I feel like I forgot something.

A Snowy Thanksgiving

It's snowing here in DC (well, Silver Spring, Maryland) and I am about to prep some of the dishes for our first official mini-family Thanksgiving. It's weirding me out not being in La Jolla. I associate warmish weather with Thanksgiving, not snow!
I will also miss my mom's totally yummy cooking. In honor of my mom (who LOVES Thanksgiving), I am about to make an apple crisp. She's the pie master-ette but I don't have the energy to make a pie, so I will make the crisp instead. Our friends Bill and Kim are coming over to join us and that will be fun.
Will report back tomorrow with the food news....

New Song on MySpace

Just wanted to let y'all know that I've added a new song up on my MySpace site. It's a jazzy type thing called "Standards Firmly in Place," about a lady on a rather unfortunate trip south of the border....

Check it out here

Long time no post....

Sorry to all for the delay in posting. I was away in NYC for a business trip, the folks were staying with Jenny, and things got hectic. What can I say? :-)

New York was cool, as it always is, and the weather cooperated well, with temps in the 60s the whole time I was there...nice. I had some yummy expense-account food, with a highlight being a fusion restaurant called the Mesa Grill. It was the best food I've had out in quite some time. I had the venison, which was Bambi-tastic.

This weekend I worked on storm windows, both making and reparing them. I am manly man. Grrrrr, as Jenny says.

Autumn is rad

It's so pretty here in DC right now. Our neighborhood is looking beautiful due to the trees all turning amazing colors. Sylvia and I took our walk yesterday and I told her about the trees and why they turns colors. She also got to wear her coordinating velour sweatsuit for the first time (thanks Grandma Joan)!

Deregulation sure is great, huh?

When the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) decided in 1978 that airline regulation was a bad thing and stripped pretty much all goverment regulations on fares and service, it was touted as the be-all, end-all to "save" the aviation industry.

The theory, not unlike most deregulation arguements, is that the increased competition would drive down fares and economic pressures would force airlines to provide better service to compete in the open market. And like most degregulation policies, that ideal has proven to be unattainable, due to the seemingly unquenchable corporate greed so cultivated in the American business culture.

So far as I can tell, fares have dropped, no doubt. So that part worked. But what else has fallen by the wayside in the name of corporate profits? Pay for pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants has fallen, service has certainly declined (when was the last time you got a free meal on a domestic flight?), and, most troubling, smaller markets have seen the number of service providers plummet.

With yesterday's announcement of Independence Air's Chapter 11 filing, many small cities, like Charleston, WV, where I fly often, will be left with few options and higher prices. Large cities will avoid this problem, but New York, L.A., and Chicago aren't the only places people want to fly in this country.

Poor Flyi, we barely knew ye.

I accept my nomination...

...to be the president of all babies for nations near and far. If you don't vote for me, I will squeeze your "you know whats" with my oh-so-powerful vice grip.

Republicans: the Family Values Party? Right.

It's no surprise to anyone that the country is going into ever more massive debt. We need to cut corners to turn this thing around, nobody is arguing that point. Where we differ, however, is which corners should be cut. Those natsy ol' liberals like me want to make up some of the difference by making the richest people in our society actually pay taxes again.

Those family values loving Republicans like our buddy, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert in the photo above? They want to take food out of schoolkids' mouths to save some cash. According to the article in today's Washington Post,

"The food stamp cuts in the House measure would knock nearly 300,000 people off nutritional assistance programs, including 70,000 legal immigrants, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those immigrants would lose their benefits because the House measure would require legal immigrants to live in the United States for seven years before becoming eligible to receive food stamps, rather than the current five years.

"About 40,000 children would lose eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches, the CBO estimated."

Meanwhile, according to the article,

"Republicans move in the coming weeks to cut taxes for the fifth time in as many years. Those tax cuts, totaling $70 billion over five years, would more than offset the deficit reduction that would result from the budget cuts."

I wonder who will receive those tax cuts?

The amount of dickitude exhibited by the Republican party staggers the imagination.

By the way, we have spent $216,884,337,742 (that number has jumped by several hundred thousand dollars as you were reading this sentence) on the war in Iraq. Maybe that's why we can't seem to find any money to feed 40,000 children.

Boo again...

Boo!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Harmless but freaky

I cannot deal with these bugs. They're freaking me out. They are total spazzes and they jump AT you not away from you.

WHOA! Where did that Autumn come from?

This morning it was rainy and windy. Leaves were falling out of all the trees. Pumpkins and paper ghouls and goblins were on everyone's porches. It's undeniable: Fall has fallen!

But my how quickly it got here! It seems like just yesterday I was scraping snow off of my front steps and waiting patiently for an alien peanut to arrive. It blows my mind that time can move this fast. Oh well, to my good friend Fall, I say "Welcome"!

BTW, don't miss the first staple of the holiday season tonight on ABC: The Great Pumkin Charlie Brown is on at 8pm EST. He will come this year, I just KNOW IT! :0)

Don't need words for this post....