Update on Inauguration

Read all about it here. :(

While the police are claiming 4,000, everybody who was there said it had to be closer to 15 or 20,000.

Purple is the new Silver

We drove down to Capitol Hill today to pick up the Inauguration tickets from Congressman Perriello's office. I didn't realize when they said "you can pick them up from 10 to 2" that that's what the other 243,999 ticket holders were also told. We brought the kids, thinking we'd waltz right in and they could finally get to see in person what they're always watching on C-SPAN. As it turns out, there were crazy lines into every House and Senate office building. And there were just a few streets closed and "No Parking" signs up because apparently some kind of event is happening tomorrow. Couldn't they just mail these out? Don't Congressfolks get free use of the postal service??

Anyway, after about an hour wait (the kids were great!), we finally got in and went upstairs to Congressman Perriello's office. I think I've mentioned this here before, but this was a pretty amazing come-from-way-the-heck-behind victory over the incumbent Republican down in southwest Virginia. And these tickets were a big thank you to Mike and Pat (Ali's folks) for all their hard work on the campaign. So we walk into the office, and we've been building this up for Jake to keep him interested and it looked like someone had just moved in after the previous tenant lost their deposit. Ok, it was such a close race that Tom probably had less time than others to get their offices set up, but I almost gave him my GSA business card so he could order some paperclips and pencils.

So Tom wasn't there, but we didn't expect him to be. One of his staff gave us the tickets and Ali and Pat were excited because they were "Purple" tickets and closer in than they expected. So Ali tried to start up a conversation with this girl and says "Wow purple tickets! Where will you be tomorrow?" She barely looked up from her Blackberry to say: "I'll be at the inauguration."

Tom, if you read this blog-- and I can't see why you wouldn't-- you might want to find someone a bit more friendly to sit up at that front desk. Oh, and thanks for the tickets.

If anyone wants to see where Ali and Pat will be tomorrow, here's a link.

Saturday Night

The kids are having a sleepover at Mimi and Granpda's tonight. We have the fireplace going - no little curious fingers. We have Hot Jazz Saturday Night tuned in - no little sleeping ears. We had a long dinner at Lost Dog Cafe - no little impatient personalities.

And to get ready for Ali's inaugural inauguration ceremony, we went out to get some inaugural long johns. It turns out they don't make "long johns" anymore. Instead, they make $55 body-wicking cold gear components. Or something. And by the way, there are apparently two million people in the DC area looking to buy body-wicking cold gear components - tonight. We went to REI and then to Dicks and both places were swarmed with inaugural-goers looking for security-approved accessories.

Ok, back to the no-kid-zone....

Haircuts and Homecomings

I came back from a four-day trip out to San Antonio on Thursday and it was so nice to be back home. Here's my welcome committee:Ali started her Masters program at CSU (my alma mater) this week. It's called Leadership and Organizational Studies, which sounds like what she was doing when she was an at-home mom. But as it turns out, that's also what she gets paid to do at Sunrise, so way to transfer those skills!

To give her a few minutes to do some schoolwork, I took the kids out for haircuts this morning. It was Sadie's first haircut, and she did great! She sat very quiety, with that suspicious, furrowed eyebrow look that she must have picked up from studying Ali's baby pictures (or I suppose it could have something to do with genes). You can't see too well from this picture, but the rest of her hair is still long, she just got a little trim in addition to the bangs. Jake got his standard cut, and chatted up the barber the whole time I was helping with Sadie. "Mommy's at home doing work for her teacher. We don't get haircuts every day, just some days. This is Sadie's first haircut. She likes yogurt" and on and on.

Pappa Ooo Mow Mow

Here's what Ali and the kids were up to while I went grocery shopping yesterday. Sadie might need a little explanation. She's got the wax dracula teeth in her mouth from Halloween, and yes, she's wearing a tutu. Oh, and those are ruby slippers on her feet. And, that blue balloon sculpture she's carrying is the base to a balloon Eiffel Tower (thanks for the balloon architecture kit, Deni & Patrick!) Sadie loves to accessorize.

Good luck tomorrow, Mike/Poppy!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

We had a fun night last night, starting out at the Dogfish Head Alehouse. We went for an early dinner and the place was packed with families and kids. When we got home, we did our usual run around the cul-de-sac banging pots and pans to ring in the new year. Here we are, practicing our technique:

Last week, we were all up in Sea Isle City, NJ to celebrate Christmas with our family. We had a great time and luckily Santa found our milk and cookies and left just a few things for the kids.

One of the highlights for Jake was getting to hang with his cousin, Arjuna. Here they are hamming it up for the camera on one of our beach walks:

And the other highlight was playing with his older cousin, Declan. Declan, you were a great sport with those two!

Here's one of my highlights:

We had so much fun with the family -- luau night, karaoke, great food, and lots of laughs.

Check out some pictures here.

What was that last post about?

We're pretty much back to normal today, I'm happy to report. Besides some lingering coughs, Jake and Sadie were pretty much back to their funny, happy, inquisitive selves. Jake, especially, is a little loopy with all the Christmas talk, and getting ready for a week-long family get-together in Sea Isle City, NJ is just adding to the excitement.

Tomorrow, we'll drive up to the (or, "go down the," as Ali would say, preposition-less) shore. DD and Pop are sponsoring a family get together and we're all looking forward to fun times with about 30 Fergusons and Edelsteins and Carrs and Pucas. We're so happy that it's become the norm that both sets of Jake and Sadie's grandparents are together on the holidays. Those kids really are spoiled. Not to mention all the sweets that Ali's always sneaking them.

Here's a video of me and Jake, working on our Christmas song routine: