Holy Mackerel
It's been a month since the last post! Things have been good: busy at work, three different Thanksgiving feasts, and dealing with the onslaught of the frigid temperatures. Oh, we also got to meet Jackie and Brian's baby, Ethan! He is quite a little cutie and I captured a lervly photo of he and Todd that I need to post once I get to downloading it.

It was seven degrees this morning, which was great. I lost my mittens, but I have Todd's gloves which may be oversized but are effective. I made the mistake one morning of going out without gloves and trying to scrape down my windshield and then I was disabused immediately of the notion that that might be a good idea.

Last night we watched "Wall-E" and I can't stop thinking about how much I loved that movie. I loved that it was a little bit dark and didn't try to kowtow to standard Disney audiences. I loved that Wall-E added a vowel to EVE's name so he produced it like: "Eve-ah" which reminds me of some of the toddlers that I see. I cried a lot at the end. It didn't pass me by that Wall-E looked a lot like that robot in "Short Circuit," though.

We also watched "The Fall of Fuijimori" the other day on Netflix online (thanks, Charles!). It was amazing: I can't believe that all of these huge happenings (and absurdity) was happening in Peru for a decade and I had no idea! Scratch that...I can believe it. Both because I have my head in my ass and that it probably was not detailed thoroughly in our media outlets.

Speaking of toddlers that I see (a couple of paragraphs back), one of them is built like a little football player and I adore him. Seriously, he has no ankles. Last session he reached his arms out to me for a cuddle, so we cuddled while he identified his facial features for me (he got all the main ones). That was a recognized moment of goodness and definitely one of the many benefits to working with two year olds: hugs and kisses.

From Yes We Can (Hold Babies)

Thrilled.
I am still buoyant over the election results. We had a little election party last night (with America/Obama themed desserts) and lots of celebrating was done. The house across the street blasted "We Are the Champions" after the election was called. Go America for coming through with this one.

In honor, I have to post one of my favorite Obama web sites called Yes We Can (Hold Babies)
which I hope is not going to end with the end of this election. I think that the web site was inspired by the picture above, and really...how can you beat it?

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.

Lots of viewing ahead
One particularly awesome wedding present we received (Thanks, CC!) is a contraption that allows viewing of Netflix movies directly to your tv. Last night we hooked it up and watched movies and shows for hours. Seriously, this is an excellent machine as there's a fair selection of stuff available, there's no limit to what you can watch, and the picture is good.

One of the movies we watched was the documentary "Please Vote for Me." It's an hour long documentary about an election for class monitor in a Chinese school room and is is one of the best movies I have seen all year. It's funny, chock full of cute kids, and is relevant to our election year this year as there's tons of mud slinging and maneuvering to obtain votes.

We also watched "Heavy Metal in Baghdad," which was good and sad. I also think it would be an excellent movie to show American teenagers to help them get one snapshot of their peers in Iraq.

In other news, yesterday was very productive besides all of the movie watching. We painted the guest room and it's pretty much finished besides a couple of touch ups. It's a spring green color and I like it very much.

Late summer
It's the last week of summer, and I cannot describe to you how fantastic the weather in Chicago is this week. Today we had a fire drill, and I was ready to drop everything and flee work so I could frolic in the streets. Or just lie on the lake front. It's sunny and mid-70s and breezy and it makes one want to weep at the beauty.

Anyway, last night we went to go see one of Todd's friends perform stand up in Berwyn. Where is Berwyn, you might ask? I don't really know myself, but it's just on the edge of Chicago. The standup was in this makeshift stage in the corner of a crowded, somewhat gritty, and wholly charming bar which hosts a weekly open mic. Adam, who is well practiced in stand up, was one of the regulars and it was clear, as he had the right rhythm for the jokes and the deliveries were right on. There were a few other good ones, but for the most part it was a glaringly painful experience. You watch these guys *struggle* up there, telling mind-blowingly terrible jokes, and literally sweating. I mean, I felt for those guys because God knows I wouldn't have the balls to do this, but I also have zero urge to stand there and do bits in front of strangers. One guy, who was up there for the first time, was so nervous that he was having breathing problems. He also told a joke about black people hating to swim. The last guy, who was in his 50s, wore a muscle shirt and a greased pompadour and spat out a string of totally gross, nasty, and mostly bad jokes that made me shudder. Oy.

Beyond that, life's just been busy with work and putting away wedding gifts, and vacuuming cat hair from the floor and carpet.