Witness this exchange between Marla and Emma earlier today during bathtime:

Emma: Mommy, did you always know you were going to have two kids?
Marla: I knew I wanted two kids but I didn’t know I would have two for sure.
Emma: And then you decided you needed Cora when you found out Henry was annoying.

Or this fun one from Sunday when I was reading the real estate section in the paper, dreaming of beach houses in Corona del Mar.

Todd: Oh, here’s a nice 3 bedroom place for only $2.5 million.
Emma: Daddy, can you buy that house?
Todd: No, sweetheart. Mommy and Daddy don’t have that much money.
Emma: Daddy, maybe you just need to work harder.

And, finally, a nice dig from the kid up the street after I tried his Ripstik board and made it all of 10 feet before ditching.

Todd: Getting started is really tough!
Max: Whoa! You made it far. That’s pretty good… for an adult.

Doh.

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Some events left me shocked, like the Democratic primary where I found myself agreeing with Dennis Kucinich all evening. Some events left me puzzled. How on Earth could anyone elect Mike Gravel to any office, let alone the presidency? Still, others left me slightly sad, like seeing Bill Richardson bow out with such low numbers.

Like I said, I should be excited about the primary tomorrow. But I’m not. In fact, I’m ready for it to be over. Why?

In large part so that annoying jackass Mitt Romney will stop calling my house every 4 hours with a canned phone message.

I ranted about phone messages in a 2006 post about elections and this year has to be the worst. All of the other candidates have honored our “do not call” preference except Romney.

Go away, sir. Go away. Take your dirty phone calls and your pandering elsewhere.

Related posts:

1. Election Day
2. Civic Duty

Fire broke out Sunday night on Santiago Canyon Road, apparently from arson. We are a good 7-8 miles away (see O.C. Register map here) and, given the way the winds were blowing, didn’t have much to worry about. We were even fairly smoke-free.

That all changed yesterday, though. As the winds shifted the far started moving southeast and ever closer to us.

Marla called yesterday as she and the kids went to the library and were able to see flames on the hills above Trabuco Canyon. The fire is still many miles away but being able to see the flames in person certainly changes the way you follow the news.

I went out last night and took a few pictures looking out across Lago Santa Margarita. That’s a much different view than from a few years ago when the hills were dusted with snow, don’t you think? The O.C. Register map is a bit out of date. The flames in the pictures are on the eastern side of Live Oak Canyon Road.

Thankfully with the winds dying down the fire department has been able to bring in choppers and planes and make lots of headway in containing the fire. The last reports indicate that it is 50% contained – a huge improvement over the 15% yesterday.

Now all we have to deal with is the giant plume of smoke drifting from the east and Camp Pendelton… More pictures of that later.

Related posts:

1. Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness Hike
2. Rattlesnake!
3. Two Front Teeth

What started as an attempt to combat comment spam turned into an impromtu launch of a redesign. I’ve been getting 20-30 nonsensical comments each day for the past few weeks and, while irritating, it wasn’t the end of the world. I could easily junk them as they came in.

This morning, though, I awoke to find a fresh batch of 500 comments. I was furious both at the time it was going to take me to junk all of them and that I’d finally have to resort to some horrible CAPTCHA test to fend them off.

While installing the Comment Challenge plugin I managed to ruin my templates and essentially broke the entire site. (That sounds familiar…)

Anyway, here’s the new look. Lots of things are still broken so please help me find them all and leave a comment. I’ll look into it when I come back!

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Chief among them is that even after reading many of those pages I have no idea what I’m going to vote for or against tomorrow. Right behind that is the fact that I’m probably one of the very few who bothered to read through it. Way to go, election process!

As far as the candidates go, I made some simple rules for myself that have greatly simplified candidate selection. I’ll share them with you:

1. I’m not voting for incumbents.
   Sorry, Arnold. I’m so dissatisfied with the general state of everything that I can’t bear to bring myself to re-elect any of you. Childish? Yes, but I can’t think of any other way to make a statement. (And he’s going to win, anyway.)
2. I’m not voting for anyone who called me on the phone.
   Sorry, Garamendi. I’ve had it with using canned telephone messages. You can’t tell me anything meaningful in a 60 second recording AND you’ve disturbed me and my family in whatever I was doing. Send me a helpful pamphlet instead or leave me a call back number if you really want to talk to me.
3. I’m not voting for anyone who can’t be bothered to write a statement.
   You lose, judges. That’s right, all of fourteen of you except for Shelia Hanson and Lyle Robertson are giant losers that earn my NO vote tomorrow.
4. I’m not voting for anyone who supports the 241 extension.
   Sorry, Jim Thor. You’ve been a fine mayor but anyone who supports building a little-used and too-expensive toll road through a wildlife area and state park doesn’t deserve support. Save the Trestles!
   I’ve been in this situation before. See that parking lot in this picture? That’s where my house used to be.

Whew. After all of that typing my fire has gone. How did Thomas Paine do it?

Related posts:

1. Dear Mitt Romney, Eat It.

Being the fine father that I am I wanted to responsibly show my children the beauty of nature. I remember thinking about It being important to teach them to appreciate wildlife…

… until I heard the high-pitched rattle start up.

Then my thoughts were all about, “Let’s get the Hell out of here!”

It seems that we crossed paths with a Western Rattlesnake, one not uncommon in Southern California. The past few years of above average rain have increased the population of their prey (rats, mice) and, in turn, the population of rattlesnakes has exploded.

We’d previously only seen gopher snakes so close to home.

Marla relayed to me tonight that a friend’s dog was bitten by a rattlesnake in their backyard just earlier today.

Guess I’ll have to add that to the list of things to look out for when we venture outside! (There are also tarantulas, mountain lions and deer across the street.)

Related posts:

1. Playgroup Picnic at O’Neill Regional Park
2. Arroyo Trabuco Wilderness Hike
3. Bamboo, I Choose You!

Sun: Orange County to Chicago (2000 miles)
Mon: Chicago to Orange County (2000 miles)
Wed: Orange County to Seattle (1100 miles), Seattle to Vancouver (140 miles)
Fri: Vancouver to Vancouver (don’t ask), Vancouver to Salt Lake (950 miles), Salt Lake to Orange County (700 miles)
Sat: Orange County to Las Vegas (275 miles)
Sun: Las Vegas to Orange County (275 miles)

I swear I’m staying on the ground this week.

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We just finished celebrating Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish New Year. It is a happy celebration, with lots of focus on family and lots of reflection on the past year and the year to come. Marla made a yummy honey cake last night that I’m looking forward to digging into tonight!

Marla heard the Rabbi speak this week about his experiences during the past year that he and his family spent travelling the world exploring religion and God. It sounds like he learned a great many things – and came back with many more questions. I’ve always found that the leaders I looked up to the most were the first to admit that they didn’t have all the answers and struggled to find their way, too. No wonder I like Rabbi Spitz.

He and his family were features in Faith and Fear in the OC Register recently. Use “poweredbysteam” as the username and “password” as the password if you don’t have an account.

Happy New Year!

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I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support the Komen Orange County Race for the Cure® on September 25, 2005 in the fight against breast cancer.

1 in 7 women will be stricken with breast cancer in her lifetime and the more money we raise, the more the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation can give back to fund vital breast cancer education, screening and treatment programs in our own community.

Please join me in the fight by pledging in support of my participation in the Race or contributing generously to Komen Orange County. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities in Orange County and national breast cancer research.

It is fast and easy to support this great cause- you can make a donation online by simply clicking on the link to my personal donation page. If you would prefer there is also a downloadable form to send in donations through the mail.

Whatever you can give will make a difference in the lives of many. I truly appreciate your generosity and will keep you posted on my progress.

Thank you so much for your time and support in the fight against breast cancer.

Click here to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation on my behalf.

Love, Marla

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She was born just one day after Henry was supposed to arrive. Gran and Grandpaw Northcutt would have been in real trouble had he come on time. What to do when you have two new grandchildren thousands of miles apart?

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