Sarah Palin, or, WTF?

Here's my two cents on Sarah Palin:

The Republicans are mistaken if they believe that 18 million Democrats are going to jump parties to vote for a major ticket with a woman on it, merely because there is a woman on it.

Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton, really, really loved Hillary Clinton. It is more about her cult of personality at this point.

Governor Palin might be a rogue wheel in Alaska, and her popularity might be 80%, but they have like what, 4 people living there? She is going to find that the big party machine's leash is very short and very tight, and John McCain is not going to tolerate being upstaged. Neither is Mrs. McCain.

Joe Biden will crush her in debate. Having Russia live next door to you is not enough to call yourself an expert on foreign policy. That's like saying me living next door to Roland makes me a radiologist.

At least Olbermann will be hilarious for the next 66 nights.

I love my life.

1. I have a good husband.
2. I have a good mother.
3. I have three good children.
4. I have good friends, and they know who they are.
5. My brain works.
6. I sleep well at night.
7. Chocolate is proof that there is a benevolent God.

Toys, or, My New Theory (also will post on 9.39)

My theory about toys is this: it's not about what the toy can do, it's what the child can do with the toy. This is why I am way, way over toys that blink, sing, shake, sparkle, and generally act like a mental anesthesizer for the girls. I realize that a lot of research goes into toy manufacturing and marketing. However, after working with Ellie in play therapy for three months, plus everything else I've learned about early childhood in graduate work, I am convinced unless toys encourage children to ask the following questions, they need to be thrown out.
--what does it do?
--what CAN it do?
--what can I do with it? (how can I, within my power and knowledge right not, act upon this thing at this moment)
--what else can it be used for?
--if I do this to it, what happens?
--can I mimic something I already know with it? (I have found this to be true with anything that vaguely resembles a phone...if it looks like it could have a receiver and a mouthpiece, Helen is talking into it).

Right now I am into wooden toys, not for their greenness or hoity-toity "it fits into my design asthetic" ness, but because they are very "blank" for Ellie. They require her to explore and act upon them in ways a lot of toys do not. I am interested in Plan Toys especially, and am going to browse their website soon.

Bahamas, or, What do you read on vacation?

I read Edith Wharton, of all things, and just thought she was as good as I ever did. This volume passed the time on Coco Cay, which is Royal Caribbean's island and really a wonderful respite.

Our tablemates were an interesting group. Tammy (next to me) is an emergency room physician in Atlanta. Her husband Robert works at a college (I think Morehouse). Sandy works at a large law firm in Peachtree Center. Her husband Dick...does something. I never figured out what.
We went to the Kennedy Space Center. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html The Astronaut's Memorial is incredible. It's a launch pad with a black granite face (to represent space). Everyone who has been lost has his or her name engraved, and at night it's illuminated. Thank you for your sacrifice.

This is Launch Pad 39B. The Challenger launched from this pad on January 28, 1986.

This is the face of the Visitor Center, which faces the "Rocket Garden." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Garden

This was a dessert demonstration I observed. They designed fruit as well as vegetables. Afterwards we got samples. I snagged some chocolate covered strawberries.

Some clown wanted to be a smarty pants and left this in the window of their cabin, which looked onto the Promenade Deck (Deck 7). Wharton, yes. Melville, never.

My palm tree on Nassau.

Sunrise in the Bahamas, August 17, 2008.

Coco Cay, Bahamas. My view for a day.

If you can wiggle it, go, go, go on a cruise. Is it cheesy? Sort of. Will you eat too much? Oh, yes. Way. But your whole perspective will be altered, in a positive, happy place way.

It was a big week, or, unscheduled time is fun!

1. We tried, for the first time, Cumberland Pool's kiddie pool and it was a hit. I had heard it was pretty crowded, and I was unsure about how Ellie would go for it, but they all loved it. We went with the Knight girls, which made it great, because Cheryl is as good if not better than herding children as I am, and anything Kelsey would do, the twins wanted to try. I'm thinking this will happen again this week.

2. We joined the Cleveland Botanical Gardens (http://www.cbgarden.org/) and took the girls to splish splash in the children's garden. A huge hit. I am looking foward to the winter activities, and any Christmas displays they have.

3. SSS and I took the kids to the zoo. It was a nice day, not too hot. There was a near-catastrophe of an overwhelmed-diaper sort, but we survived and the children had fun. Helen and Ellie rocked out at the giraffe exhibit and Emma clung to her binky, of course. There were lots of people there who did their usual stare thing, especially because we had the triple with us. That thing gets me more attention than I ever imagined.

3. It was my birthday week. We went to Lopez. Do I look 37? What does that even mean anymore? It's funny to think that 20 years ago I started my senior year of high school. Well, thank God that's over with. We also went to the orchestra with Grobles, which was great as always, as was my baked brie, which I think Pat would kill for.

Win, Place or Show? or, If it's the first weekend in August, we're in Twinsburg!

We attended Twins Days at Twinsburg today and the girls came in second place in their contest, Least Alike Females Age 1-3. Last year they won their event, but the 12mos & under crowd is mixed gender. Now the kids are split and there were 17 nonidentical girl sets in the group. The girls who won are biracial and each is developing on her own track. Helen and Emma were nonplussed, however. Anything that allows them to adorn themselves with "dress up" is fine by them.

The post-awards ceremony meal consisted of Ritz crackers, blackberries, chicken and banana raisin bread with milk. Snack of champions.