My Mom, Toni, retired from teaching grade school after over 20 years of service over the years. Of course that has only slowed her down a little. She's now a delegate for the Democratic party in California and spends quite a bit of time protesting the Iraq war, sorting out who would make the best candidate for president (she's seen Obama and Edwards on their Bay Area trips) and working for peace at the local level with a church group. Frankly, I thought retirement looked a lot more like relaxing before I saw her retire (also I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to bail her out of jail one of these days). Say what you will about her politics, but I'm proud of her passion for peace and it's certainly carried over to her sons. She and Dad called me this week from the California Democratic Convention and they were both sure that whomever the Democratic party picked to run would make a great step in the direction of peace. On the fourth anniversary of the war she wrote a letter to the editor of our hometown paper. I'm printing it here to show her more people will read it on a blog than in a paper these days (I've got to sell her own her own blog one of these days).
From The Argus - Sunday, March 25, 2007
ON MARCH 19, to mark the fourth anniversary of the war with Iraq, more than 100 members of our community gathered together at a candlelight vigil for peace to remember the 3,218 American soldiers and the 65,000 innocent Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives in this war.
I would like to thank all of those who participated in this event. There was a sense of unity among us as we mourned the loss of all those precious lives. We stood unified, too, in calling for an end to this tragic war.
More than 1,150 vigils were held across the country that evening.
One of my favorite slogans is "Democracy is not a spectator sport." I believe that concept is at the very heart of our nation. All of the people who cared enough to stand on a street corner on a chilly night holding a candle for peace understand that concept, too.
We will continue to write, call, and e-mail our legislators and President Bush. We will march, rally, hope and pray until this immoral war is ended. We must continue to speak out, for silence is the biggest enemy of democracy.
Drew (age 4) is my oldest son. He is, perhaps, smarter than I am. The other night over dinner he educated me on what we should and shouldn't eat so I did a recap at bedtime with him in this podcast. It should also be noted by his mother, Allison, that he does not eat chicken nuggets 'almost every day' as implied by me. My mistake. In any case, I have two conclusions:
I believe PETA would have mixed feelings about this recording.
I am in for some serious trouble. Drew is very persuasive. I am gearing up for adding more tofu than normal to my diet.
Seems like a lot of folks at work and around town have been taken out by the flu. Even Miles and now Allison are victims of it's cruel curse. As a result I'll be offline today and home from work as I watch the kids (and possibly wait for my turn!!!).
My cable internet connection might also have the flu, the only way I'm able to get on is thru my Sprint Power Vision phone hooked up to my Thinkpad. It acts as an EVDO modem and is surprisingly fast though I wish it had Mac support. At this rate, I'm going to keep to my 'a post a month whether we need it or not' rate on this blog. Sad.
I'm a huge nerd, which is a surprise to no one reading this post. I'm on vacation right now but wrapping up a little work that I didn't get around to finishing before I left. It just so happens that our rental on Maui happens to have a free in room wifi connection. I'm going to have to throw my PowerBook power adapter in the ocean or something so I can forget about the web for a bit.
While I'm here I'm trying out a phone that Sprint sent me as part of their Sprint Ambassador program. I'm not sure how or why I was picked to be an Ambassador but the duties include using one of their cool Power Vision phones with a wicked fast EVDO connection for free for 6-months. I accept and it's cool and all but I still really like my Treo 650, mainly because of the thumb board. Nothing beats a thumb board for quick SMS and url entry. Just last night as I was trying to send this picture to Flickr from the Power Vison phone (a Samsung A920) I wrestled with the subject line on the keypad and ended up sending Blvd as Blud. I should mention the photo at the top of this post is from a Canon Digital Rebel, not the Samsung. Anyway, look for more pics from the Samsung on my Flickr stream and for less answering email for a little while. Aloha.
Miles turns 1 today. That sure went by fast, seems like just yesterday I was wearing scrubs. Still looking forward to more sleep and more stable walking since he's giving me panic attacks on the daily whenever he bobbles on the tile floor. Congrats on year one my little friend. Salut!
[update]A little walking video from Miles. Ignore my musical noodling.
Merry Christmas from Jason, Drew, Miles and Allison
We've had a heck of a month. Drew and Miles were both diagnosed with pneumonia and they are both finally getting back to normal just now. Goodbye fevers, medicine and coughs. Hello Santa, candy canes and carols. Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
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