Aidan has a cousin!

We were very excited this weekend to meet Kade. Jill's sister had her baby on Wednesday, so we headed up to Michigan for the weekend to meet him. He is one cute kid, we think.

As luck would have it, Jill's brother also came to town, so we got a picture with all of Aidan's first cousins. Aidan was being less than cooperative with the pictures though....

Only 3 first cousins at this point, but I think we're past 30 second cousins so far.

The night we got there was also the birthday of a girl that Jill's parents watch on Fridays, so we took her to Huckleberry Junction, a sort of Chuck E Cheese kind of place. They had a toddler section with little mechanical horses, cars, planes etc of the sit in front of the grocery store just put in a quarter variety, but he was having none of that. He was all about the ski ball.

He did need a little help from dad though. He doesn't quite understand the underhand roll technique now, but he does have a wicked overhand fastball which almost makes it up the ramp. This can cause problems with those on the neighboring ones, so we had to provide some guidance as to proper technique.

The next day we also went to Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, which bills itself as the world's largest Christmas store, and they seem to have done their best to ensure nobody ever comes close. Jill said she took this picture for the blog, so here it is....

We were looking for a tree topper of a Santa and sleigh which rotate about the top of the tree, but no luck. Jill had one as a kid so it's a sentimental thing. They did have a whole bunch of ornaments you could pick out and then have a name put on right then and there, so we did that for the babies.

And that was the trip. I'll close with a picture of Aidan hanging out with Bosco, 70 pounds of lovin English bulldog....

He snores like a jackhammer crew and when he's excited, he throws up. But, he just really wants to be loved....

Si se puede!

We tried to run this state blue for Obama (and most of the other states too), but didn't quite make it. And McConnell managed to squeak one out too, despite our efforts.

But, WOO HOOO! anyway. Definitely excited that Obama won, and looking forward to good things to come.

And I ended up voting for the guy, although with some hesitation since the local teacher's union had some not so nice things to say about that, and of course we're big supporters of education in this house. And the guy won big time (like 62-36 or something), so all my thought on the matter didn't really make a difference anyways.

Very exciting..but now I can get back to posting about fun stuff, with pictures! As soon as I get some pictures, that is. Jill's sister had a baby today, so I'm an uncle again, and this weekend we'll head up to Michigan to see the new arrival.

A Conundrum

Ok, I said I wouldn't post about politics again, but I lied. No ranting this time, though.

I'm pretty well decided on most of my votes on Tuesday (no early voting in Kentucky, as some have asked...). As you already know, Obama for President. I'm also in the "Ditch Mitch" camp for senate, and will vote for the challenger for representative mostly because the incumbant no-showed at the debates claiming his opponent wasn't running a "serious campaign". Umm, I'll be the judge of that. And we have a tax levy for parks on there too that I'll vote yes on, as I appreciate the good public parks we do have here.

The one puzzler here is actually the state representative race. I'm most geared towards voting for Democrats this year, but I'm wondering that's the right call on this one. I'm really an independant, so party loyalty isn't the issue here, I'm just in general agreement with Democrats on most issues. But, our local state representative, a Republican, stopped by the house yesterday (third time he's done it, second time this year), to ask if I had any questions. So, we had a nice chat, and while we don't agree on everything, he's not a reflexive "government bad, free market good, do away with taxes" guy (funny thing, his Democrat challenger has been hitting him in ads for having raised taxes as county commisioner a few years back). He definitely gives stuff serious thought, and is willing to consider taxes if needed for a balanced budget as long as other things for raising revenue/controlling spending are also considered. And he was also for supporting the schools better and providing assistance for teachers to get their continuing education. So, we do agree on a number of things.

And at the end of our discussion, he said "Go to this website and watch my debate with my opponent, and if you think he'd be better, than vote for him, otherwise, please consider voting for me". Bold I thought. So I did, and he did seem to have a better grasp on the issues.

But, my conundrum is this: I'm none to happy with his party, and a vote for him helps them out at the state level. So, should I put party aside and vote for the person I think is better on an individual level, or am I just being an enabler for a do-nothing Republican party in the state. The incumbant won his seat in a real squeaker the first time, so the vote I cast wil probably be pretty important here.

This has me kind of vexed, to be honest. You might be able to tell that I am leaning towards judging this my the individual, but I am a bit torn. And it's a bit inconsistent of me, since I'm not applying the same logic to the senate race (if Mitch stops by, we'll talk...).

I'm curious as to what anybody who might happen to read this thinks. Come on, sway me!