High tea

Bridal Shower Gift Opening

At a Herndon locale after the shower. This was Emmet's first bar experience, which made it all the more special.

Soon to be Mama and me.

Laughing!

My mom loving Baby Emmet.

Christie and Emmet

The Baby Ladies

Beautiful cookies.

Anne and the lovely rehearsal bouquet that Kathy made.

Anne's Bridal Shower
I've been long overdue in posting some photos from Anne's bridal shower. There were a bunch, but I'll post a select few. Of course we've also got to include some of beautiful baby Emmet, who made his debut to many of us.

Buoyed
I loved watching Colin Powell on "Meet the Press" this morning. He sounded so logical and like he cut through the bullshit, and that was refreshing. I was especially pleased that he called certain GOP people out for implying that Obama = Muslim, therefore = evil. Bullshit.
Transcript from what I especially liked from Powell's comments:

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

If you want a sobering look at the American healthcare system as it stands, watch the most recent POV on PBS which follows four uninsured Americans who suffer critical medical conditions. It's thoroughly depressing stuff. :(

It's Banned Book Week!
Celebrate by reading one.
The most challenged books of the 21st century look heavy on the young readers' stuff: Harry Potter, Judy Blume, The Chocolate War, Maya Angelou, and apparently something called the 'Captain Underpants Series.' Give me a break.

Pulchritudinous stuff
So much to talk about! First of all, last weekend I flew back to VA to help host our Anne's bridal shower, along with the rest of the bridal party, Kathy and Christie. It seemed to go off wonderfully, and I have lots of pictures to share and a few to post. I just need to get around to downloading them from the camera. We also got to meet Christie's baby, Emmet, and he is nothing short of beautiful. He's perfectly shaped and sweetly mellow and has a splendid little face.

The evening after the bridal shower a few of us had dinner at a local place in downtown Herndon, VA. I commented to my parents afterward that within 10 minutes of driving around Herndon I saw TWO McCain/Palin stickers. It surprised me since I seriously have not noticed ONE of these car stickers since the campaign started. This is probably because I have been nestled in Obama-land in Chicago, and I'm also not super observant, but it actually startled me a little to see two so close together. Yoicks. I'm glad that I have friends in Virginia who will represent, but this is when I wish I still had a VA vote.

I'm also dying watching the GOP spin machine trying to do damage control over the Palin/Couric interviews: it's priceless. I laughed out loud listening to McCain on NPR yesterday morning trying to say that he has consulted Palin over foreign relations issues "many times in the past." Please stop insulting the American people. The truth is that I would respect McCain's side a lot more if he didn't try to lie and spin. Back to the Couric interview, though: I was a little surprised that she didn't come up with any answers for newspapers and magazines she read regularly. I suppose it's a little delicate since you do want to present yourself as balanced, and not biased in any way (which what you read can say that about you), but not coming up with *anything*? Weird.

I'm psyched for the debate tonight.

In other news, I have one student who I see who has high functioning autism. She's earnest and wide-eyed and quite verbal. Last Tuesday, she looked up at me from her worksheet and stated: "You're pulchritudinous!" The only reason I know what that word means is because I got it wrong on the GRE. This is also the same girl who I observed with some other special needs kids. The special ed teacher asked them to name their favorite animals. Other kids named: dog, cat, horse. She named: tapir.