Happy Birthday to Me!

I've never been 20 before so this is sort of a new thing

I Have Not Yet Begun To Write!

This blog isn't dead. Really. It isn't. My excuse for not posting anything for the last decade or so is that I've been trying to get ahead early in the school semester so when things speed up as the semester moves on I'll be at least partly alive.

A few days after I posted some photos of Peter & myself skating apparently someone (oh yes, someone reads the blog!! Oh man, who would have thought that) emailed my mom and at some point in the email said that that post was inspirational. Although I completely agree, a couple days later when Peter and I were out skating I did something even more inspirational - I made a hole in the ice.

[pointing out one possible route to get to Narnia]

Someday someone is going to figure out that I am really not temperature sensitive... Anyways, if you really want to break me just play any pre-20th century composers music (ex. Bach, Mozart, etc) for long enough and I'll tell you everything you want to know.

What? Posts Have To Have Titles?

Peter takes his first steps on the ice for the first time
since he broke his leg in three places a few years ago

Peter practicing his Olympic program

still practicing...

done for the day, off to met the media to discuss his comeback
(ESPN got the first interview, look for it later this week)

the overflow crowds on the ridge of the rink/stream

I prepare to go through my Olympic program, ummm, actually to go ice skating for the first time since I was about six years old (to put that in perspective, at that time I still had blond hair, was just beginning to read, thought clowns were scary [which they still sort of are...but that's another blog post] and Bill Clinton was still in his first term as president )

trying it out

it actually isn't that hard...

experimentation

Connie apparently found my Sasha Cohen falling practice
humorous for some reason. Maybe it's because I'm so good at it
(do they give out points for dramatic spills btw?)

believe it or not this is actually pretty hard...

Peter & I practice our duo (again)

I get ready to go into a sit spin while Peter does something... no idea

What Ever Happened To Global Warming By The Way?

SuperShrink Me

Typically when you judge, watch or are in a debate round you take notes of the round on a full page of paper (called flowing). Last Saturday I drove Peter and Aidan up to a practice debate tournament in New Hampshire and watched a few rounds. Because I have nothing else especially lame to post about I thought I would post a couple photos of some of my flows from a few of the rounds that I observed. The paper that the sticky tabs are on is the normal size flow pad with the notes/arguments written on it from one round. The three other sticky tabs are condensed flows of three rounds with the same amount of information on them as the first paper they are on top of – just written really tiny (the red one is two sided).

Why McCain?

Just something I was thinking about yesterday for no reason in particular... this will be the last post I make about the 08 pres. election - for real - I promise!* I really can't think of one positive reason why I wanted McCain to be president. None, nada, zip, zer0. The most prevalent reasons given for voting for McCain, and largely the reasons why I connected the lines for him on the ballot were largely based off the fear of what Obama might do if he was elected (ex. radical judges, universal healthcare, etc) - not real reasons why McCain would be a excellent or even good president. McCain was a terrible debater ("my friends/my friends/my friends"), not really inspiring on any of the major issues, essentially very baaaaaaaaaaah.

On the other hand unfortunately there really weren't any great alternatives to vote for soooooo... Obama probably really was the "chosen one." It's an understatement to say the the Republican Party is a total mess right now. Who knows... Federalist Party (1792-1820ish) - Whig Party (1834-1854) - Republican Party (1854-today) - ?

*unless I am bribed with $$$$$$$$ - then I'll think about it

Income Tax, Property Tax, Death Tax, Cow Tax...?

Apparently the EPA wants to implement a $175 annual tax per cow in the name of fighting global warming. What next, taxing cats and dogs, gerbils? Now that's the change I'm talking about...

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