An America I Can Get Behind

I'm happy. President Obama.

I love the sound of it. It's about time we had some true leadership. Sure, I'll take the Hope, Change, post-partisan stuff too. I'm just glad to have a true leader with intellect, world experience and a thoughtful, calm demeanor.

It's nice to have a president who wants to president of EVERYONE in the US. I even think he'd like to be president of the world if there was such a job and I think he'd do a great job.

Big surprise: I never voted for Bush. Any Bush, for that matter. I'm not much of an idealogue. I'm registered Green. Funny for so many reasons but mainly because I believe we need more of a third party to stir things up in the US. Too much same, same.

But this Barack guy. It's hard to overstate the impact he's had on our country and we are just in week two. He may fail, but at least he'll be honest about it. I think failure would be good for him, at first. It would just make this guy work harder. The last guy acted like he was just unlucky. 'Aw, shucks' ain't much of a leadership style. Plus, I'll say it again. He was dumb. Well-read, maybe, but D U M B, DUMB!

Sack o hammers dumb. Dumb like the US auto industry. They fight success every bit of the way ('Stop trying to make us competitive! We are the US Auto Industry, dammit!')

So anywho... We took the kids down for the inauguration. We watched it from the Lincoln side of the Washington Monument. It worked out perfectly for us. We left Joel's house at around 10am and were in-place, watching the scene at 11:10am. Not bad. That included riding down 16th St with Kemler, Susan, the kids and Dean. Our kids were in the trailer (for ease of transportation) and Dean rode his bike.

We hit the WABA bike valet parking on 16th, right next to my old digs at the League offices. After collecting our commemorative spoke cards, we marched with a few thousand friends down to 20th St, then down to the Mall. Snacks, snuggling and waiting.

Aretha was my favorite. She brought tears to my eyes. And that hat! I have a new-found love and respect for that woman. What a great choice. That Williams piece of music was stirring, to say the least. Perfect.

Hearing Barack flub the oath (thanks CJ Roberts) was perfect. Here's a guy on his biggest day and he has to laugh off a mistake that wasn't his fault. The oath is just the oath, after all, right? Why stress out? The hard part starts immediately afterwards.

By the way: good luck with that. We'll be here. Watching. Hoping.

This is the America I have been waiting for. Just when we go and screw things up with getting Osama bin Laden, screw up Iraq, threaten Iran and S Korea, torpedo the stock market AND banking system AND US economy, we go and show the world what Americans do when it hits the fan: we elect the RIGHT person to fix it all. Somebody who will make us better than we think we should be. Somebody who understands more than any one of us could but not more than all of us together.

Together.

It will be nice having somebody at the top, leading the free world, pulling us together. I'm tired of Bush/Cheney. The world joins me in that.

'The Angler' won a Pulitzer. Bob Woodward published a great article in the WaPo here.

And on a personal note, Obama inspired me to better myself. I'm hoping to help out by the second term. I re-enrolled in graduate school to get a Master's in Public Administration. Wish me luck.

WOW! I Wanna Fly!

Wingsuit
Uploaded by superchomeur

Conversation

Me: Jeremy, Daddy's going back to school!

Jeremy: Why?

Me: Because school is very important.

Jeremy: Are you gonna come to my school?

Me: No. I'd like to but I'm going to get my Master's degree and they don't teach that at your school.

Jeremy (super excited): You are going to be a Master?! I want to be a Master! (starts doing Kung Fu)

Me: Well, I'm not learning to be a Kung Fu Master, I'm going to learn about decision-making for the public sector.

Emma (excited): I want to be a Kung Fu Master too! Can Jeremy and I go to school to learn Kung Fu?

Daddy: Sure.

Stolen from Slate.com

'Bushisms, now that he is on his way out, are mostly part of historicalness.' -me

1. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

2. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

3. "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

4. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."—Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

5. "Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican."—declining to answer reporters' questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001

6. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

7. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."—Washington, D.C., April 18, 2006

8. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."—Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

9. "I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle. He's bigger than that."—discussing former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as quoted by the Sun newspaper, June 27, 2007

10. "And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq."—meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008

11. "We ought to make the pie higher."—South Carolina Republican debate, Feb. 15, 2000

12. "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."—Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

13. "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."—speaking on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

14. "We'll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America will be the pacemakers."—Houston, Sept. 6, 2000

15. "It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."—Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

16. "One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."—U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 3, 2000

17. "People say, 'How can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil?' You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

18. "Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."—CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000

19. "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend."—on the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington, D.C., June 29, 2005

20. "I think it's really important for this great state of baseball to reach out to people of all walks of life to make sure that the sport is inclusive. The best way to do it is to convince little kids how to—the beauty of playing baseball."—Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2006

21. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."—LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

22. "You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president, but I am one."—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

23. "There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.' "—Boston, Oct. 3, 2000

24. "They misunderestimated me."—Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

25. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."—Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

Welcome to the Future.

So, it's January so I guess it's time to post some Dec photos. We got a dog. Yes, a dog.

Full name: Foxy Brown Batgirl Klasmeier. She's a mutt and she's the fastest dog I've ever seen. She's been here almost a month and we've got her trained up pretty well. She walks on a leash really well and she spends a lot of time at the dog park with Susan. This one has some energy.

She's fitting in really well and having a good time. She's great with the kids. They seem really taken by her.

She's a hound-lab mix, we think. She's fit and we are going to keep her that way.

She ran away briefly this afternoon and we walked around to a neighbor's house to get her (she wasn't far) and when we got her back in the garage to hang out while we were out front, Jeremy walked up to her and said 'Foxy, don't run away again because I'll miss you and I'll be sad if you go away.' Pretty cute kid. Four is a great age, no doubt.

Here is a pic from Xmas eve before heading over to visit with my family. Pop-pop, Donna, Emma and Jeremy, all clean and ready to go out.

Susan decided to add some flair to the entry way so we got some letter-hooks for our stuff right by the front door. S, E, M, J and F for the family. This made Foxy an official member of the family.

We had an un-eventful holiday season. We saw some friends and family and Susan cooked a lot. She's trying to make the most of her time off. Besides getting the dog and learning to croche (sp?), she's been looking for a job. She's had some leads and she worked a few seasonal jobs in November/December. That girl just can't sit still.

On New Year's Eve day, we went hiking at Patapsco. Of course it was FREEZING out. We were all super-bundled up and it was blowing 30 knots and gusting to 50. Foxy got to run off-leash a bit and we all had a great time.

I'm still lacking a proper set of booties for the mtn bike and two pair of woolie socks didn't help my toes. It was one of those times when everyone hauled back to the car to warm up. Boy it felt good. After running around for an hour and a half, we earned our hot chocolate that day!

On our way out, I hit the skinny right there at Landing Rd and Morning Choice. Jeremy likes those too! We had a near-miss but everyone came away safe and sound (and I cleaned it, uphill). That kid loves him some danger...

Inauguration day is right around the corner and we've got our plans set for hitting the city and braving the weather and the crowds. Should be pretty sweet. We are excited although BO is going to have a tough go of it with all the crap that Bush has left him. Personal responsibility? Yeah, right.

Happy New Year!

Rosaryville Pics

I haven't been to Rville in years. And Shawn took some pics of me riding the horseshoe. That section of trail is pretty fun. Would've been nice to get something like that in Patapsco but I'm not bitter. Ok, not REALLY bitter...