Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I've just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OOTP) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP) in preparation for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (TDH):

I'm most interested to find out what becomes of Snape. I think it's interesting that only two of the books have been titled around a single character: Prisoner of Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince. In the first, a seemingly evil character turns out to be good, and in the second, a seemingly good character turns out to be evil. Or does he?

I think you could make the argument that Dumbledore and Voldemort are mirror images of what Harry could become. One is absolutely good and one is absolutely evil. And along those same lines, I think that you could make a similar argument for the contrast between Sirius and Snape. One is a pureblood and one is not. One is good mistaken for evil and the other is evil mistaken for good. One wants to help Harry succeed and one wants to see him fail. And they both see Harry as an extension of his father, James, who one loved and the other hated.

I think that that argument is little too simplistic, though. Snape has had multiple opportunities to kill Harry and he has not taken advantage of any of them. As a matter of fact, in several different situations, Snape has actually saved Harry's life. He told Bellatrix at the beginning of HBP that he saved Harry from Quirrell because he didn't know that Quirrell was host to Voldemort, but why should that have mattered? If Snape was really on Voldie's side, he could have just done nothing. It certainly wouldn't gain him any points to save him – except with Dumbledore, and it wouldn't cost him anything to let him die.

At the end of OOTP, Snape chose to inform the Order that Harry and his friends were headed to the Ministry of Magic thus helping to guard Harry's safety and the safety of the prophecy. Again inaction would not have been questioned. He could easily have claimed that Harry didn't try to warn him or that he misunderstood the warning. Instead he passed the warning along and probably saved Harry's life.

Finally, at the end of HBP, Snape once again saved Harry's life from the other Death Eaters. And not only did he prevent them from cursing Harry to death, he prevented them from cursing Harry at all. He refused to fight Harry, and he refused to allow Harry to use any unforgiveable curses. In fact, when Snape told Harry that he would never win this fight because he wasn't a good Occlumens and he couldn't perform non-verbal spells, you could read that to be a tip rather than a jeer.

A lot of people, including Harry, believe that Snape was actually a double-agent and that he is in fact evil. I tend to not believe that. Dumbledore was not a fool, and exposing Snape as truly in league with Voldie would cast doubt on all of Dumbledore's past decisions. Harry believes that the reason Dumbledore trusted Snape was because Snape was repentant about the death of James and Lily Potter, but I think that there was a much better reason for Dumbledore to trust him. First, Dumbledore never actually told Harry the reason that he trusted Snape. He just told Harry that Snape's guilt over the deaths of Harry's parents was a turning point. Second, Dumbledore didn't trust Tom Riddle after any of the times that he expressed remorse, so why would he have trusted any of the Death Eaters on just a statement of remorse. There was bound to be a better reason.

I think that there is more of a connection between Harry and Snape than we have seen so far. I think that Snape has been intentionally mean to Harry to make sure that there is no possible way that anyone would think that he wanted to help him, but I think that Snape is going to be the biggest help to Harry when it comes to defeating Voldie. It's already been foreshadowed in HBP as Snape was the one that actually helped Harry continue in Potions by taking a new position, helped Harry succeed in potions as the unknown Half-Blood Prince, and helped Harry survive to fight again as he was leaving the castle. Harry is going to need Snape's help to accomplish his task and Snape is going to provide it.

I also have a couple of other kind of random thoughts. First, I think that there is more to the connection between Fawkes, Dumbledore, Harry, and Voldie than any of us realize. We all already know that Fawkes gave two feathers for wands and that those wands belong to Voldie and Harry. We also know that those two wands can't be used against each other as a result which makes it interesting to try and figure how Harry is going to kill Voldie (I also assume that Harry won't use an unforgiveable curse as that would be bad form for a good guy, don't you think?). More than that, though, I found it interesting in re-reading OOTP that when Harry recounted to Dumbledore that he had told Scrimgouer that he was Dumbledore's man, Fawkes sang and Dumbledore cried simultaneously. That got me to thinking back on how Fawkes had been the one to assist Harry when Dumbledore couldn't in Chamber of Secrets and how Fawkes had been the one to help Dumbledore communicate with Harry, Ron and Hermione in OOTP when Dumbledore couldn't be there. Finally, the most obvious connection of all is the fact that Dumbledore's patronus is a phoenix. Of course, how this connection is going to play out is anyone's guess, but I think it is interesting to note that the phoenix is legendary precisely becuase of its ability to survive death. In fact, death is a regular part of its life. Voldie has already resurrected from the dead once. Harry has already survived death once. So what does that mean for Dumbledore in the upcoming novel?

Another random thought is that it must be important that Harry has his mother's eyes. I can't tell you how many times I noticed that that was mentioned in just these last two books. I'll bet it's even more in the previous ones that I didn't re-read. How does that play into the situation? And why does it keep getting so much mention?

I just had to get all of this out before the book is published. Let me know your thoughts if you are interested.

Besieged at the Bar

How do you handle a situation where you're completely surrounded by men with guns?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19795748/?GT1=10150

From what I can gather out of this relatively short article, Mr. Dana Farrell Shelton was intoxicated on Sunday night and police were dispatched to investigate a disturbance at the bar where Mr. Shelton was drinking. By the time the police arrived, though, things seemed to have calmed down and they found no issues. The police just simply asked Mr. Shelton, who they noted was obviously intoxicated, to move along.

Mr. Shelton is apparently not a "happy drunk" and must have taken this request as a belligerent command for he obviously felt threatened. Here he was minding his own business, now that he'd gotten those crazies in the bar to leave him alone anyway, and a bunch of guys with guns have him surrounded and are trying to tell him what to do. He obviously had no choice but to call 911, and I can only imagine how that conversation went:

Officer on the scene 1 (oos1): What's he doing now?

Officer on the scene 2 (oos2): Oh, he just got out a cell phone…he's probably just calling a cab.

OOS1: Cool. Anybody want to hit the Krispy Kreme with me?

[Mr. Shelton was actually frantically dialing 911 for help and they had just answered]

911 Operator: 911. Please state the nature of your emergency.

Shelton: Yeah…..ummmmm……..yeah……..ummmmm……..they've got guns……ummmmm……yeah.

911: I'm sorry, sir, did you say that someone near you has a gun?

Shelton: Yeah……ummmmm……they've all got guns………yeah…….and I'm surrounded.

911: Sir, can you tell me where you are?

Shelton: Yeah…….I'm at the bar……I was just having a drink when they came in with guns.

OOS2: Hey, guys, did he just say he has a gun?

OOS1: Nah, he ain't got no gun. I think he said he was done having fun.

911: Sir, can you tell me anything about the men with guns?

Shelton: Sure……yeah……..well………here's the thing……..I'm kind of surrounded by Largo police……….and they've all got guns.

911: Is this joke, sir. Did you just say that you're surrounded by the police?

OOS1: Dude, he's talking about us.

OOS2: What did he say?

OOS1: Something about being surrounded by Largo police.

Shelton: Yeah…..ummm….that's right….I'm surrounded by police.

911: Sir, you do realize that you have dialed 911, right? We are the police.

Shelton: Well…….ummm……darn………I guess you're not going to help me then.

911: Sir, I would be happy to send some help just stay where you are.

OOS1: Did you guys hear that?

OOS2: Yeah, it sounded like dispatch just called us to help out a guy that's surrounded by us.

OOS1: Mr. Shelton, we're here to help. What do you need?

Shelton: Wow……ummmm….that was fast [hangs up his phone]……can you get rid of these guys with guns?

OOS1: Absolutely, just come with me.

The next thing Mr. Shelton knows he's being escorted off to jail with a misdemeanor charge for abusing the 911 system, but I want to know who else was he supposed to call in such a dire situation?

Possum Kingdom

We all went camping at Possum Kingdom State Park this past weekend with the Getz family. Kenton and Carla have four boys nearly the same ages as our four girls and one little girl tacked on the end. Yes, there was a total of nine children between our two campsites and only three adults for most of the time that we were there since Kenton didn't get there until Friday evening and Carla left Saturday morning.

Leah and Carla headed out Thursday afternoon to go ahead and get a campsite and stuff since I couldn't leave until after work Thursday afternoon. On the way, they relied a little too much on Google maps directions and got a little turned around in Weatherford. For some reason, though, when Leah called and told me that they were a little turned around, and I was on the internet looking at a detailed street map of where they were, she was not interested in me helping them get back on track. I tell you, I'll not ever understand women. All in all, they got there safely but managed to turn a 3 hour trip into a 5 hour journey.

While there, we had a nice relaxing weekend mostly spent just sitting around camp visiting. The lake was pretty muddy from all of the recent rain, and we couldn't find anywhere along the bank to catch fish. We did see a fair number of deer and rabbits and that's really where Dixie's little adventure came into play.

Dixie is our beagle, and her little pea brain only understands two things: (1) chase rabbit and (2) do it in a big circle. They say that beagles are very difficult to train, and I'll testify to the truth of that. Anyway, Dixie was mostly behaved through the weekend until Saturday night. She was in the kids' tent and she must have smelled some rabbit nearby. She found a small hole where the kids had not zipped the door completely closed and was gone for about an hour. We could hear her baying off in the woods but really had no way to catch her. Thankfully, that last part kicked in, and she came running back around a little while later, and we got her back.

We got home yesterday and still have stuff in the garage to pack back away until our next trip. I think it will probably be sometime in September. We don't know where yet, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

What the H*LL?

Continuing the stream of name related thoughts that I've been pondering this week, I found two interesting articles yesterday.

First off, there is at least one study into this idea that names somehow relate to our lives: http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/surname.html. Richard Wiseman (Is anyone surprised that a man named Wiseman likes to study stuff?) apparently studied the impact of surnames on daily life. In an online study he determined that people with surnames beginning with letters near the start of the alphabet tend to do better in life (i.e. perceived to be more successful) than those with surnames starting with letters closer to the end of the alphabet. His reasoning is that almost everything involving lists of names gets alphabetized by last name, so the Blair, Brown, Bush, Cameron, and Branson families are just used to being first and it's no wonder that they are massively well-known in our world today. That makes some sense, but it still doesn't cover why when I say that I met a guy yesterday named Brad that you all have an image in your mind of what a Brad ought to be.

In other name related news, a boy in Australia was denied enrollment at a Catholic school: http://www.nbc5i.com/education/13655937/detail.html?rss=dfw&psp=nationalnews. Given the recent publications of the Vatican you might think that the boy's family is Protestant, but it's really much simpler. The boy's name is Alex Hell. The good news is that besides having a great shot at being successful in life based on Mr. Wiseman's study, the school has backed down and granted Mr. Hell the right to enroll his son. After all of this debacle, though, Mr. Hell is not sure that he may not accept the enrollment offer.

I would have thought that the nuns would be all about enrolling little Alex Hell. It would give them an opportunity to cut loose without getting in trouble with their Mother Superior. I can just imagine the nuns trying to teach class and asking for volunteers:

"Awww, Hell, come on up here. I really do love it when you volunteer"

Or maybe they've gotten little frustrated because homework wasn't turned in on time:

"Hell, son, you've really got to get your act together."

Or they take the kids to the local skating rink for a field trip:

"That boy is Hell….on wheels."

Okay, so maybe some of those are lame. You think up some better ones and post them in your comments.

The One and Only Church

I know that I've already posted for today. Actually, I posted one thing from yesterday that I didn't get finished on time and one thing for today, but this article that I just read needed some commentary.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19692094/

In the news today, the Pope has approved publication of a paper stating that other denominations are not true churches and that they do not have a mechanism for salvation because they don't have apostolic succession. Is this guy serious? There's got to be more to this paper and the Pope's statements than what is reported in this article.

First of all, I'm pretty sure that there is no biblical basis for saying that salvation comes through apostolic succession. By the way, that means that you can trace the lineage of your bishops back to the original twelve apostles. Anyway, I thought Christ was pretty clear that He is the one and only mechanism for salvation.

Second of all, does this mean that all of the churches that Paul founded were not real churches? Paul was not one of the original twelve, he was not sent by the original twelve, in fact, he got crossways with the original twelve more than once. So the churches that he founded don't have apostolic succession and therefore are not real churches. If that is the case, then why does Christ speak directly to some of them as churches in Revelation? And why do we include Paul's letters to those non-churches in the church canon? Surely it's not theologically correct for Paul to tell them that they have salvation when they don't have apostolic succession.

I don't really understand how someone as intelligent as the Pope – you know they don't let dummies into that job – could publish something like this. It's completely contrary to my understanding of the history of the church, and regardless of all that it is bound to polarize a large population of both Catholics and Protestants against him. I really wonder if this guy doesn't want to take the Catholic church back to the Dark Ages and pretend that the Reformation didn't really happen.

Addiction

One of the most evil things that we talk about in our society is addiction. In nearly every form, it's the root of evil. Addiction to cigarettes, addiction to alcohol, addiction to TV, addiction to junk food, addiction to work, they are all the extremely evil end of things that are not necessarily intrinsically bad. So, I'm sure that I am not alone in thinking that a mechanism for eliminating addictions would be a great service to society.

As a matter of fact, Pfizer, Inc. seems to agree and has been marketing a pill called varenicline to eliminate cigarette addiction (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19683029/wid/11915773?gt1=10150), and now that they have found this drug to be so successful with smokers, they are targeting alcoholics next. According to the news article the drug works by attaching itself to the pleasure receptors in your brain in place of the nicotine, alcohol, or theoretically whatever other stimulant you're adding to your system so that there is no gain from drinking, smoking, gambling, etc.

Although the article is sketchy on details, it seems that the idea is that you would take this pill rather than grabbing a cigarette, bottle of Jack, or deck of cards and voila: you're cured of your evil addiction. I really wish there were more details on this, though, because it seems to me that if the reason a person is addicted in the first place is because of these pleasure receptors receiving stimulation from whatever evil substance you're using, then replacing that with varenicline is just a substitute addiction.

Sure, the drug has been successful in getting people to stop smoking, but are they now sneaking down to the parking garage between meetings to pop another varenicline out of a Pez dispenser? Is this drug really a miracle cure or is it just a way to divert revenue from the evil big tobacco companies to the slightly less evil pharmaceutical companies? I'm betting on the latter.

The only thing better than curing someone of an addiction is getting them addicted to a cure for addiction.

The Importance of Names

I was just talking to Leah yesterday about the way that names play into our lives and wondering if anyone has ever done a study on that. We all seem to have this subconscious idea of what people with certain names should look like or how they should behave. Or haven't you ever met someone and thought that their name didn't really seem to fit their personality, job, looks, whatever? Of course you have. We all have. I just wonder why that happens.

Is it some societal influence that we place on children so that they are molded to fit our image of what a person with their name should be? Is it some subconscious idea of emulating others that have similar names to ours? It seems unlikely to be mere chance or coincidence that so many parents just happened to pick the right name for their children, so what's really going on here?

Ironically, I just happened to have read a story about a man that is suing Honda over the mpg claims they make of their hybrid cars (http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070706/AUTO01/707060350/1148). Wouldn't you expect a guy named True to go out of his way to make sure that one of the largest car manufacturers in the world is being honest with its customers?

Does She Like Me?

During the day on Tuesday, a link to this article popped up on msn.com and it caught my eye as a good experiment for my blog:

http://msn.chemistry.com/msnarticles/IsYourDateIntoYou?trackingid=508259&bannerid=2002322&GT1=10185

Since our kids were all spending the night with various friends, Leah and I were going to have dinner and see a movie, and I thought that it would be fun to use the hints from this article to find out if my date was into me. So, I studied up on the things I was supposed to be looking for and headed out on our date.

1. Your date says your name more than usual. I didn't really notice this at all, but that might not be a bad thing. After all this time in a marriage, hearing my name is not necessarily a good thing. I rather prefer when she calls me "Honey" or "Sweetie" than we she says "Michael Wayne, I need you to help me with this now!"
   
2. Your date squints at you. I got a distinct squint while we were standing in line to buy movie tickets. Leah says that it was the setting sun behind me that was giving her trouble determining if I had a zit or a piece of my dinner on my forehead, but either way, she was definitely squinting.
   
3. Your date asks the "why" and "how" questions. As it turned out, our evening was started with a trip to the NTB. Leah's van had died during the day on Monday and the NTB mechanics supposedly tested the battery and alternator. They determined that the battery was no good and we got a new one, but they also assured us that the alternator was in good health. Tuesday evening, we discovered that they were incorrect, and I had a not so nice conversation with the manager at the NTB after Aunt Sis assisted us in delivering the vehicle to them. Throughout this whole part of our evening, I got plenty of "How are we going to pay for this?" and "Why didn't they fix this yesterday?" That must have been a good thing according to this article.
   
4. Your date gets quiet midway through your time together. Well, we did got to a movie after dinner, but I'm still going to mark this as a positive. She was definitely quiet.
   
5. You hear "you're" a lot. Well, I don't know that I heard "You're awesome" or "You're funny" like the article promised, but as we walked around the mall waiting on the movie to start, I got plenty of "You're going to love this store" and "You're crazy if you think we need a life size Batman in the TV room" (we were in Sharper Image at the time).
   
6. Your date give you a token of the evening. Right after we entered the theater, Leah turned to me and said, "Here, you keep this." She handed me her torn movie ticket stub. I think she just didn't want to have to fiddle with it or have trash in her purse, but after reading this article, I know that it was really a sign that she's in love with me.
   

Obviously, the author of this article knows a little about this subject, and apparently, Leah and I still have chemistry since we went six for six on a simple date to the movies. I wonder if you would score as high on your next date with your spouse.

Chill Out

Don't you ever sit around and think about what you would do if you were in charge? Many times, when I see something that I don't like, I just put on the list of things to do when I'm President for a day. Since I'm a pretty hard worker, fairly intelligent, and really looking to solve problems rather than worry with getting re-elected, I'm pretty sure I could fix a ton of stuff in twenty-four hours. For example, all of those guys on death row that we haven't gotten to yet: we'll invite them over to sit on the electric couch. No more one at a time, I'm putting in an express lane. The thing I'm really most interested in correcting, though, is global warming.

Apparently everything is caused by global warming. I thought my socks turned pink because I put them in the wash with one of Leah's red shirts, but after listening to Al Gore, I'm convinced that it's really because of greenhouse gases running amok in the atmosphere. I used to be skeptical, along with many scientists, but looking back on just the last thirty days I've realized that something is definitely amiss. The average high temperature in DFW for the month of June is 91.1 degrees Fahrenheit. The average high for June, 2007 was 90.0 degrees Fahrenheit. If that's not an argument to support global warming, then I don't know how I can convince you of the coming calamity.

Sure, you'll just look at the surface of those numbers and say that it can't be global warming because it was cooler this year than average, but I can see deeper. You see, the problem is that global warming is a worldwide phenomenon, so as areas that are normally frozen (like the polar ice caps) are warmed that sucks the heat out of areas that are normally sun-baked. If that doesn't sound quite right to you, just trust me, I'm sure that it makes perfect logical sense. Since we all agree now that there is an issue, we've got to figure out how to solve it.

Politicians have a problem getting to a solution because they are constantly worried about getting re-elected. They've got to make people happy, and issues like this can't be resolved without enraging a portion of the populace. For instance, higher gasoline prices could help the situation since it seems obvious that the more we drive, the more we pollute, and the more we pollute, the cooler it's going to get in DFW…err…I mean the warmer the globe is going to be. Anyway, the Democrats in control of Congress have a real moral dilemma here, though, they need the gas prices to be high to help stave off a global crisis, but if they keep the gas prices high then they are helping put money in the pockets of big oil and that looks bad to their constituency. On the other hand, their constituency is supposed to be the poor and downtrodden who can't afford to pay higher prices for gas and without gas can't go to work and without work can't eat and without food won't live long enough to vote in the next election. So do they support high gas prices, help big oil get richer, and save the world? Or do they try to bring gas prices down and keep their jobs?

We'll probably find out the real answer to that question as the election season heats up. In the meantime, consider my thoughts on the subject. According to the latest automotive ads that I've seen, hybrid cars are better for the environment because they get better gas mileage. Now, my truck is certainly not the highest gas mileage vehicle out there, but it does have a measurable difference in performance on the highway as opposed to in stop and go traffic. Given that, it seem obvious to me that my truck was designed to be environmentally friendly when it's free to just go rather than having to continually stop and start. The obvious end to this line of thought, then, is that it's not my truck that's the problem. It's the red lights, pedestrians, and bikers. If we could ban pedestrians and bicyclists, we could dramatically improve the fuel efficiency of almost every car on the road and really start making progress toward a better tomorrow. So, right after I implement the electric couch, I'm going to make sidewalks and bike lanes illegal. It's for the good of the world!

Who’s the Smartest?

Nearly all of my life I've had a little sister nipping at my heels, and now that's she's once again caught up to me in numerical age for a couple of months, I thought that it would be appropriate to share this revealing news article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19373032/site/newsweek/page/0/

I didn't even have to read the full article. I just read the blurb at the top and knew that it was good reporting and good science. "A new study suggests that older children tend to have higher IQs than their younger siblings." All of us oldest children out there already knew this to be true. We're just happy to know that our younger siblings have found scientific evidence to support our claims.

Caci, are you glad that I started reading the news again?

And just to prove that I'm not only looking for articles that help me tease my sister. Take a look at this gem:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19458575/

Again, I haven't read the whole article. Actually being able to speak intelligently about what was written is not nearly as much as reading the blurb and filling in my own ideas about what the article must have said. This one says, "Some 3.3 billion people – more than half of humanity – will be living in cities by next year…" hmmmm.

Is it just me or does that make you wonder where the other half lives now? I don't think it takes much for a group of people to be considered a city. Pretty much all you need is a group of people living together, right? So, does this mean that the other half of the population lives alone? And if they do, how do they get mail?

Even out in the relative middle of nowhere my mom still has a city listed as part of her address, so would she be counted as part of the half that lives in the city because of her address or part of the half that doesn't because of her location? These are important questions. Is the other half of the world actually moving to cities or are the cities just going to get bigger and we'll give people new addresses? I really can't comprehend the pros and cons of this without understanding whether we are talking about widening our social service infrastructure or crowding our busy streets.

I should probably read this article to better understand what they are talking about, but I don't have time. I've got to go put a sign to rent out my backyard playhouse to some of the people moving in from the sticks.

There’s No Place Like Home

Our day yesterday was long and tiring, but we are finally back home. We started by packing our things and getting ready to make the trek to the Baltimore Airport. Since we had a little spare time, I flicked on the TV and found Return of the Jedi on HBO. It didn't take very long before I realized that I've been a poor father. My kids knew Darth Vader. That was it. They couldn't recognize Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, C3P0, R2D2, none of them. Oh well, I guess we'll have to do a Star Wars marathon sometime soon.

Anyway, the time came to head out, so we gathered our things and rode to the very farthest reaches of the Washington Metro system (about 45 minutes) and waited for the airport shuttle. Packed on the shuttle like sardines, we rode another 30 minutes to the airport and were dropped at the first available curb. Following that, we walked from concourse E to concourse C to find the American ticket counter and get our boarding passes so that we could go wait in line for security. While the security line at DFW was a surprise on the way out since I almost never wait in line there, it was no surprise to stand in line for twenty minutes in Baltimore. No other airport that I've ever been to gets people through security as quickly as DFW.

Once through security we had to find something to feed the kids. Our choices were Wendy's and Potbelly's. We went for Wendy's, and found the same level of customer service as we had noticed throughout our trip. Our order was slow in being prepared and incorrect when we got it. When asked to have it corrected, they begrudgingly slapped a few things together, wrapped it up in foil and called it a hamburger. Reagan had ordered a salad with her chicken and wanted some ranch dressing. She stood at the counter unacknowledged for at least five minutes before Leah went up there and got their attention; even then Reagan ended up with chipotle dressing instead of the ranch that was requested, but her sisters shared their dipping ranch with her so she didn't have to go back to the counter. I tell you what, I really think that we are spoiled with great customer service in most places down here in the South.

Finally, we were on the plane and it started to rain. Guess what, we got to wait on the tarmac for the weather to clear. Then we got a report that bad weather was moving in to the DFW area, so we needed to wait on that too. The pilot warned us that it could be up to an hour and half, but we ended up only sitting for about fifteen minutes. Definitely not the worst that I've had to sit through. We kept getting weather reports about DFW during the flight and somewhere (probably over Kansas or Oklahoma) we got put into a holding pattern.

We flew around in circles for about an hour before we were allowed to continue on toward DFW, but with everything backed up we were going to have a to take our time getting there. It seemed like ages, and the kids were so tired of being on an airplane, but we finally started to descend. I expected to have another bumpy ride on the way down and got the sick bags ready for everyone, but we actually came down smooth as silk all the way to the runway. I was very impressed. After all of that and waiting on our checked luggage, our plane that was supposed to land a little before 6pm had us leaving the airport a little after 8pm.

We grabbed some dinner on the way home. Enjoyed some good customer service; it was so nice to be able to send one of my kids to the counter and have them be taken care of, and then we finally got to the house. All of our suitcases are piled up in the living room since it was a little after 10pm when we finally got to the house. We just threw pajamas on all the kids and everyone went straight to sleep.

It was a great trip, but definitely one of those vacations that makes you long for a vacation when it's all over.

It’s a Good Thing Aunt Sis Isn’t Here

Really, I think it would have been pretty cool if Aunt Sis had been able to make this trip with us, but Emma was quick to point out that our choice of restaurants this evening would not have been good for Aunt Sis. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant on the shores of the Potomac River, and Aunt Sis really can't abide seafood.

Earlier in the day, Leah and the girls headed out to Georgetown while I went to meet with one of our clients. I went to Georgetown with Leah the last time that we were in DC, and I decided that I would rather work than go back out there. As it turned out, neither Leah nor the kids saw anything that they wanted while out there, so they picked up some sandwich stuff and had a picnic near the World War II Memorial. About that time, I finished my meetings and joined them.

We went to the National Museum of Art for a little while because it was blazing hot and raining a little, and you'll see below that Abbie did her best impression of the Mercury Fountain sculpture. The kids also got to see a few great paintings and sculptures and learned a little bit of art history. I'm sure it was not nearly what Melissa could teach, but it was the best I could do.

Finally, after that we were able to rent the bikes and ride around. The kids had been wanting to do that since we got here, and they really seemed to enjoy. All except Abbie, that it. She was frustrated because she didn't feel like she could control the bike very well. I think that it was just a little too big for her. Emma had a blast, though, because we got her a tandem trailer, so she had her own handlebars and working pedals. Sydney had the best deal of all, though, a trailer. She just rode around in the shade of her canopy as if a princess in a chariot.

We were all pretty beat after that. It's been a fun, but tiring several days, and we are all looking forward to going home. We made reservations at the restaurant I described above and headed down there in the hotel shuttle. After waiting nearly half an hour past our reservation time ("It'll just be two more minutes," they kept saying), eating barely passable food, paying an outrageous bill, and putting up with barely decent service, Leah and I decided that restaurant service in the South has spoiled us. At least we have one thing to look forward to when we arrive back at home.

Speaking of stuff to look forward to, I just talked with Aunt Sis, and she is all set to pick us up from the airport tomorrow, and she mentioned that she was going to put in a pot roast before she headed out. That means we'll have dinner waiting when we get home. We're really going to miss her when she moves out.

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Smithsonian

To go through all of the different museums that make up the Smithsonian would take days and much of it would bore the children to tears, so we have trimmed our visit down to a few key areas. Today, we went to the first two: The Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum. I guess technically the zoo was the first since it is also part of the Smithsonian, but it's so far away I forgot to count it.

The kids really enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits in the Museum of Natural History and we spent probably two hours in only three or four rooms. Reagan and Abbie both went over every exhibit in detail reading nearly all of the captions and explanations. After that we tried to find some lunch. Remembering that we had seen a McDonald's on the Mall earlier in our trip, we headed there to get something quick and easy. Apparently, free enterprise is alive and well in DC because a quarter pounder with cheese is about $9 at the Mickey D's on the mall.

Instead of stopping there, we went a few blocks over and ate at a more traditional McDonald's location. By the way, the kids are loving the fast food, but Leah and I are tiring of it quickly. Anyway, this particular McDonald's was about the nastiest fast food joint that I've ever been in. Our feet stuck to the floor no matter where we walked, there were no clean tables, the restrooms were locked (and I'm not sure that wasn't to keep something in), and every person behind the counter (most of which had untucked and disheveled uniforms) was extremely rude. At least we didn't have to pay $9 for a fast food burger, though.

After eating, we wen to the National Air and Space Museum (one of my favorites) and spent another couple of hours tracking down the Wright Flyer ("It's the real one!" Reagan discovered after reading the caption) and Amelia Earhardt's plane (the only thing Abbie wanted to find in there). In addition to those finds, we also went through a very cool series of rooms that the kids really enjoyed that provided a series of experiments so they could learn about how airplanes fly. They even got to sit in the cockpit of a plane and work the controls (today was a light picture day, and those are really the only shots I got). Finally, my favorites, we saw "Glamorous Glennis" (the X-1 Yeager flew to break the sound barrier), "The Spirit of St. Louis" (Lindbergh's plane), "SpaceShip One" (Paul Allen's commercial spaceship that won the X-Prize a short while back), "Voyager" (the plane that circumnavigated the globe), "The Spirit of Texas" (Perot Jr.'s helicopter that circumnavigated the globe), and a wide variety of space vehicles from probes to lunar landers.

After all of that, we went to rent bikes and discovered that they are only open until 6pm on Sunday. We've postponed that until tomorrow, assuming that we have time then. We're also planning to visit the National Art Museum (another of my favorites) and possibly the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Right now, the kids are already in bed and we've got some dinner on the way to our room. I think they would go to sleep on their feet if we made them go out anywhere else.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

How to Fit on the Subway

We had a really full day today, so full in fact that my camera battery is currently dead. I'll post some shots as soon as it gets recharged. In the meantime, here's a rundown of our day:

We slept in a little, and that was good for everyone. After eating, though, we set out on our adventure. Our first stop today was the International Spy Museum. I couldn't take any pictures inside, but believe me when I tell you that you're not missing much. After paying the hefty fee to get all of our family in the door, we waited in line for about 20 minutes. Finally, we were let into the exhibit, which was advertised to us as being "great for the kids." In fact, we saw lots of neat Cold War Era items, but since our kids are all under the age of eleven, it was pretty much meaningless to them. It was really not what we expected, and at the behest of the children, we left after seeing only about half of the exhibits.

Since it was nearly lunchtime, we hunted for a place to eat. Word to the wise, when in DC, plan ahead for eating because there's not a McDonald's on every corner. We ended up taking the train back to Crystal City which is a shopping center beneath an office building. We ate Subway in the food court and pretty much got raped on the prices. At least we all had sustenance.

Ready for more, we took the Metro to Arlington Cemetery where we witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The kids were great, standing and remaining silent through the process as requested. I understand that there is a guard there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, which is pretty cool; the one thing that I really wonder is whether or not they go through all of the pomp and circumstance after the cemetery is closed to visitors. Like at 2am, are they out there putting on that whole show? Or are they like, "Yo, Bob, kinda cool out this evening." "Yeah, Skip, it's a bit nippy….There's some hot cocoa hidden in the bushes on the left." "Thanks, Bob, see ya in an hour." Almost makes me want to sneak back in just to see.

While we were at the National Cemetary, we also stopped to see the memorial for the Challenger and Columbia crews, Robert E. Lee's house, and the Kennedy gravesites. From the Lee's mansion, there is a great view of the city, and I hope that my pictures turn out okay so you can enjoy, too.

Since that took several hours, we were already hungry again, and we needed to find something less expensive than $10 Subway sandwiches (I told you we got raped on the price). We stopped on the mall at a bike tour place to ask about renting bikes tomorrow and got the lowdown on a nearby Mickey D's. Cleverly disguised as an office, building, we were nearly at the front door before the kids even realized where we were headed.

We hung out on the Mall after dinner and saw the White House, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. The kids all agreed that the Lincoln Memorial was the best of the day, and they were all greatly surprised at the size of Lincoln's statue. I got some good pics of the monuments, and we hung around until after dark to get some night shots, too. I hope that they turned out okay. I didn't have a tripod, so I had to improvise a little with fence posts and park benches.

Finally, we are all back at the hotel and all of the kids are asleep. Two of them were asleep before we even got here. Leah and I are going to let them sleep in a little tomorrow and then we are going to rent some bikes and we'll tour the Mall again on bicycle. The kids are really looking forward to that. Afterward, we're going to visit some of the Smithsonian museums and then maybe let the kids watch a movie in the hotel tomorrow evening. After these past two days, we need to slow it down a little for them.

Oh, and I almost forgot. While we were walking to and from the Lincoln Memorial, Leah commented that she's never seen so many joggers in any one city before. Reagan very quickly quipped, "They have to jog so they can fit on the subway."

UPDATE - 6/24 - Pictures are now online:

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Pics Online

Here are the pics from today. Pay particular attention to Abbie's photo skills as she did her best to get a shot of a gorilla, and also notice "The Summer House." Leah and I didn't see this on our last visit, but the kids found it pretty quick. It's amazing how quickly thirsty kids can hone in on water. Anyway, when we started hitting the caches, it was the first thing on our list, and we found out that it was built shortly after the Capitol becuase visitors complained about not being able to find water nearby. Anyway, enjoy!

Friday, June 22, 2007

Standing on the Train

I seem to have misplaced the cable for getting pics off the camera, so I don't know when I'll be able to show you any of the pictures that we are taking. I'll post some as soon as they are ready, though. In the meantime, I'll just continue to update on our trip so far.

We got up pretty early this morning and headed out to the zoo. Surprisingly, there is no entrance fee for the National Zoo. Not so surprising, it's not the best zoo you'll ever go to. I guess it's true that you get what you pay for. I was particularly impressed by the fact that they have an entire section of the zoo dedicated to tamarins. This is especially interesting when you note that that is also pretty much all that's in the small mammal house. I swear, those things must breed like rabbits because the zoo is about out of room for housing their collection. If I never see a tamarin again, I'll die happy.

The "O-Line" was about the coolest thing at the zoo, but it wasn't even really worth the entrance fee. Basically, it's a series of cables suspended in the air over the zoo that allow the orangutans to move from one area to the next. They are deterred from climbing down by electrified wiring, and the height keeps them from jumping down. Pretty much, the sign says, "We hope not," in response to the question of whether the orangs will escape as a result of this program. It was pretty neat to see them traversing in the air above us, though.

After the zoo, we grabbed a bite at a McDonald's near the Metro station on the way to the Capitol, and the kids thought it was the best since it was underground. Once we arrived at Union Station, we had to figure out how to get to the Russell Senate Office building to meet with a tour guide in Senator Martinez's office. Senator Martinez is from Florida, but a friend of mine from Ecom has recently moved to DC to be with her fiancée and he works for Senator Martinez, so that's how we got the tour organized. Anyway, we set out with an intern that may have only given one or two tours previous to ours, but it was still pretty interesting.

The kids enjoyed riding on the basement tram from the Russell Senate Office building to the Capitol Building and then finding our way through the maze of tunnels beneath the Capitol. They also enjoyed hearing about the history of the building and checking out the paintings and sculpture. The tour wasn't very long but it was informative and was well worth our time. We all enjoyed it.

We decided after touring the Capitol that we wanted to stroll down the National Mall, and I had some virtual geocaches setup for us to go through. Since it is Washington D.C., it's not very common for someone to hide a traditional cache in the area (generally, a cache is a small container that is hidden for other to find and the exact coordinates of the location are posted on the internet; you can imagine why unattended packages hidden around D.C. would be a problem). Instead of traditional caches, people setup virtual caches which generally involves making your way to the prescribed coordinates and then answering some specific questions about the location. Generally, there will be a significant marker at the location with information that can rarely be found anywhere except at that location. For example, one of the ones that we did today involved a scale model of the solar system that exists in the National Mall, and we had to answer questions like where, specifically, the picture of Earth that they used came from. Anyway, it was a good distraction for the kids that kept them moving forward and helped them learn some things about the area as well.

About the time that we got to the Smithsonian Castle, we were all beat, so we jumped back on the Metro and headed to the hotel. Quickly, we dropped off our stuff, and got on the shuttle to a restaurant. We ate at a pretty decent restaurant in Old Town Alexandrian and then we came straight back here for some R-E-S-T. The kids are completely beat and are almost all already asleep. Tomorrow, we don't have any appointments, so we are going to let them sleep as long as possible.

So what about the title of this post? I bet you're still wondering. As we sat around the dinner table, we asked each of the kids what their favorite part of our day was, and almost unanimously, they said that it was standing on the train. On our of our trips today, the train was pretty packed, and the kids had nowhere to sit, so we all stood for the duration of that trip. If I had known that was all it took to give them a good vacation, I think we could have saved a ton on our budget.

The Long Way Around

I'm not sure how much internet access I'm going to pay for in this hotel room, so I don't know exactly when this will be posted. I generally get free internet, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

We're in DC and at our hotel, and it's been a long day in getting here. We woke up about 5am and starting getting the kids ready for our 8:30am flight. Leah wanted to leave the house by 6am, and I think we pulled out of the driveway at about 6:04am. Good job, Leah.

I had already set a notification on the AA site to text my phone with gate information two hours before the flight, so I was a little surprised when 6:30am rolled around, and I didn't have any messages. I asked Leah to get out the flight info and call AA to get the gate info, and it was then that she clarified our departure time. She had been telling me 8:30am every day for a week, but it was actually 8:50am. No big deal, just another 30 minutes of sleep I could have had. I made it up on the plane.

Anyway, DFW almost never has lines at security except when you have four tired children in tow, and then everyone in the metroplex is trying to get to gate C2 along with you. Yep, we had to stand in line. The first time I've ever had to do that at DFW, and you all know that I fly out of there fairly regularly. We made it through with no hitches and set off to our gate.

The kids had a good time looking out the window at the planes anticipating what was to come next. Finally, we were allowed to board, so we all settled into our seats for a good long flight. Everything went pretty well. Emma fell back to sleep, Abbie listened to music, Reagan watched a movie on my PSP, I worked my Games magazine. It was a nice flight, but we had to land eventually.

As we started our descent, we came into some turbulence. Reagan started to feel queasy first, and Leah armed her with an airsickness bag. Next, Leah started to get a green around the gills, and she armed herself. Finally, Abbie looked at me like she was going to faint. I quickly put a bag in her hands as well, and got it there just in time. As it turned out, Abbie was the only one that actually needed a bag, but I was sure glad that there were plenty to go around; just in case.

We flew into Baltimore, and once we were on the ground, we had to trek halfway across Maryland to get our luggage and catch the bus to the DC metro. The bus ride and train to the hotel combined was about an hour and a half, so the kids were pretty restless by the time we arrived at our stop. Thankfully, our hotel is just across the street from the metro station.

Since none of us had eaten since breakfast, we quickly dropped our things in our room and headed out to find dinner. The server at the restaurant looked at us a little funny for ordering dinner at 4:00pm, but we were too starved to care much. Following dinner, we walked around Old Town Alexandria for a bit and went down to the waterfront where the kids enjoyed looking across to the Capitol Dome and seeing all of the boats.

Tomorrow we're going to the zoo and on a tour of the Capitol Building, so the kids are already in bed and headed off to sleep. I should have some pictures to post after our day tomorrow and of course, I'll have another post.

Beach Vacation

Leah likes the beach. I prefer the woods and mountains. You can imagine how our discussions over vacationing destinations generally go. She wants to go somewhere sunny with an ocean and I want to go somewhere dirty with hiking trails. And I've always believed that I had a pretty good argument.

When you are in the woods, there are birds, plants, and woodland critters that are not the least bit interested in having you for dinner. Man is the top of the food chain there. I mean, sure, there are bears, snakes, and poisonous spiders, but they are really not all that common to see on most hiking trips and even if you do see them, they are relatively easy to avoid. On the other hand, I've always argued that the ocean is full of stuff that is waiting for you to sit still long enough to become dinner, and there are plenty of things that would just as soon skip over the waiting part. And that's not to mention the fact that the ocean itself with its riptides, undertows, crashing waves, and high saline content is ever ready to help put you on some aquatic dinner plate.

Now, though, I have an entirely new level to take this debate. According to scientists (http://www.livescience.com/health/070604_beach_ecoli.html), the beach itself is a breeding ground for E. coli. So, now, not only is the ocean and pretty much all of its inhabitants deadly, the beach leading up to the ocean is full of bacteria just sitting around waiting to make me sick. And Leah still wants to take a vacation to a sunny beach somewhere. I think we'll have to compromise and go to a city with a zoo and aquarium.

Nuts!

Those of you that enjoyed watching "Jericho" last season were disappointed I'm sure when you heard the news that the show has been cancelled. I thought it was a pretty smart drama with enough intrigue to keep it interesting, and although I was disappointed with the death of Johnston Green, I was more interested in finding out about the new design for the stars and stripes in the final episode. Of course, not too long after that I heard the news about the cancellation and all but gave up hope of ever learning the truth of what happened with the bombs.

For those of you in the same boat as I, I have good news today. CBS, in part due to receiving 50,000 pounds of peanuts at their New York offices, has reversed its decision and ordered seven new episodes of "Jericho" for the 07-08 season. The decision to order the remainder of the season is dependent on the volume of viewers for the first seven episodes. You can read the entire article here: http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=264639&GT1=7703

Make sure that you watch and tell your friends to watch, and if you haven't seen it yet, get caught up with reruns over the summer or the DVD set in September.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so let me get you caught up on a few things going on here:

Leah resigned her position at the church a couple of weeks ago. After six years, that's been quite an adjustment. We were both very heavily involved in children's ministry at our church for so long that it's been hard to step away even with the certainty that this is the direction God is calling us. So, this coming weekend will be my last to teach for a while and I'm really going to miss it. I'm sure that God has other different opportunities for us, but we haven't hit upon them yet. For now, I think we'll just try to enjoy having a short rest.

Reagan finished fifth grade and we attended her fifth grade graduation last week. Who ever heard of fifth grade graduation? I hadn't, but I'm not sure that means much. Anyway, it was a nice ceremony. Reagan invited several family members to attend and many of them made it, so she was pretty happy to enjoy their company at lunch after the ceremony. The most disconcerting thing for me, though, was listening to the teachers speak.

The writing teacher gave an award to one of the students because "well, uh, he's got imagination." Hmm….I hope she writes better than she speaks, because that's not really inspiring me to believe that he's any better than my kid. Don't they all have imagination? Then, the art teacher or something gave an award to the students with perfect attendance and said, "On time is ten minutes early and on time is late. After that there's nothing to talk about." Ouch! My brain still hurts from trying to figure that out. Finally, the principal inspired me to purchase a new dictionary for the school when she closed the ceremony by telling the students and parents that she and the entire staff are "anxious to see these kids take the next step in their lives." Well, if she's worried about their ability to make it in life after fifth grade, then why are we letting them graduate?

Other than all of that, I've been working and helping Leah get things ready for our trip to DC later this month. We're trying to squeeze as much in to the five days that we are there as possible, and somehow the zoo made it on the list. I figured that we could go to the zoo in Dallas, but the kids are adamant that we have to go to the zoo in DC while we are there. As a matter of fact, when we asked what they wanted to see most they didn't say White House, Capitol Building, Washington Monument, President, or any other well known DC sight. They said, "Do they have a zoo?"