Duck House

Last night Grandpa and Mimi took the kids for a sleepover, and Ali and I decided to get some dinner at Mark's Duck House. It's a Hong Kong style Dim Sum place that has great food and that we haven't been to in a couple of years. So we arrive at 6 and the place is empty and we realize we're still eating at kid-dinner-time, even though we're kid-less for the evening. So we take our time reading the menu and wondering what to get. The waiter comes over and Ali orders the Duck Moo Shoo which is the best I've ever had, and I ask for advice, since the menu is 15 pages and mostly in Chinese. He says they have some "very special, very special oysters from Pa See Fic Ocean in ginger garlic sauce" so I follow his advice. The oysters were great, and bigger than any oyster I'd ever seen before. They were the size of soup bowls.

Ali's Duck arrived and they prepare each pancake for you at the table and we chatted with him a bit about the food:

"So, how many ducks do you roast a day?"
"About 200."
"Wow! 200?!"
"Well, we duck house"
"Oh, right"

Thanksgiving Feast

Here's Jake giving his stock "smile" for his class picture today. They had a Thanksgiving feast show where all the three-year-old classes sang songs and dressed up as Indians, Pilgrims and Pumpkins. It was pretty cute, and once again there were more cameras than a Britney Spears paparazzi detail. I couldn't quite make out all the song lyrics, but there was one about an Albuquerque Turkey that when Jake sang later for me turned into the "Albaturkey turkey", which still rhymed.

Where's the Snow??

We've got the cold weather, we've got our coats, mittens and gloves. All we need now is some SNOW!!!

Paci Wars II

We first tried to retire Jake's pacifiers on his 3rd birthday, and it was a disaster. This past weekend, I casually mentioned to Jake that when he was ready, we could give his pacifiers to the Paci Fairy and she would leave him a treat. The next night, he said he was ready. He went to bed just like a normal night, and we didn't hear from him again. Until 1:00 am. And then 4:00 am.

The next night, it was a repeat of five months ago: screaming, crying, and assorted drama. After a half hour, he finally passed out. And slept through the night. The past two nights have gone the same way. It's almost like he's in withdrawal from a drug. He's just hysterical and not himself at all. And he's not even asking for pacifiers, he just can't calm himself down. It's physically and psychologically draining for us. But I'm impressed that we haven't given in and brought the pacifiers back out, as much as we'd like to. Looking at toddler chat rooms, it sounds like most parents went through similar withdrawal battles, lasting a few nights or a few weeks. I'm afraid Jake will be in the 'weeks' category.

Saturday Adventure

On Saturday we headed out west to see Dinosaur Land, a kitschy 50's style exhibit of dinosaurs in their natural environs - the backyard of an old motel near Rt. 81. Here we are in the jaws of a prehistoric shark:


Sadie loved everything about this place. We weren't technically supposed to climb on the dinosaurs, but I couldn't keep her off. In fact, I had to drag her away from this one kicking and screaming.
And King Kong was there too, because....why not? After driving an hour out to Dinosaur Land and spending only about 20 minutes wandering the grounds, we did a quick search to see what else there was to do nearby. Ali came up with the Route 11 potato chip factory, which was a nice scenic drive down the road. Here we are driving through a covered bridge on our way there:


Anyone know why there are covered bridges? Check here if you're as curious as we were. The Route 11 chip factory was a small operation, but we got to watch them slicing the potatoes and then see the chips fry in giant vats of peanut oil. Then, the chips rode a conveyor belt upstairs where seasonings were added before they were dropped into the bagging chute. It was a fun little tour, and we got to sample all the different varieties of chips.

They asked what brought us out that way and we told them we'd come from Dinosaur Land. Then they told us we really should check out the American Celebration exhibit just down the road. So, we hopped back in the car, not quite knowing what to expect. It turns out, this is the company that makes all the parade floats for the inaugural parades, as well as other parades like the Rose and Thanksgiving Day parades. The warehouse was packed with all kinds of floats and displays. Here are a few shots:
And after that, we went through their exhibit of old storefront displays from the 50's and 60's. And for that last bit of randomness, they also had a goat:

Fun day. Check out more pictures here.

Poppy Pumpkin

Poppy and Gram came up last week to help out while I was in Tampa, and they took the kids over to Cox Farms one afternoon. Here they are posing in front of Poppy Pumpkin.


And here they are, uh.......um.........I'm not sure what's going on here.

Nov. 4

Whew. Yesterday was a long day. We were up at 5:30am to get our early votes in, and didn't get to sleep until 1am, as results from Virginia's fifth congressional district were still trickling in. Ali's parents worked like crazy to help Tom Perriello upset the incumbent repugnant Virgil Goode. It was an uphill battle, and in the end it looks like it's still too close to call this morning and a recount will follow. Whoever wins, they can be proud that turnout was so high in that district, and that Tom did so well against a six-termer who usually gets 65 percent of the vote. Go SML Dems!!

Voter turnout nationwide set a 100 year record, and because I'm sure all Tripdub readers voted, we can all be proud of that. But it's still ridiculous that some people have to wait hours to vote, and that some were turned away for registration issues. Can't they just let everyone vote, wherever they show up, and then stamp their hands or something? Maybe set up voting machines at 7-11s? Or Starbucks -- they're everywhere. Is voter fraud really that big of an issue? Seems like worries about "voter fraud" are really worries about "making it too easy for minorities to vote".

I thought McCain gave a great concession speech. For all his talk of "Country First", it sure seemed like the past year he surrounded himself with people who believed in "Campaign First, Last and Only". But his speech last night sounded genuine, and made me think that maybe he really does believe in his slogan after all.

So, the main event happened around midnight when Obama gave his victory speech. Great speech, as usual. I think one thing that helped him win was that when he talks about moving beyond partisan politics, he actually sounds like he means it. A lot of pundits and even Democratic party officials didn't believe in the 50-state strategy of the campaign, but it paid off, and demonstrated a desire to govern on behalf of the whole country, not just the pockets where the "base" lives. In a country as big and diverse as ours, it's tempting to put people in neat categories and then focus on the differences. And that was the low point of the campaign, when all the McCain surrogates talked about a "real" America. I'm happy that strategy and line of thinking was ultimately rejected by voters.

Jake and Sadie were mostly oblivious to the news last night; their attention focused on making (and eating) Obama cookies with blue icing. But by the end of Obama's first term, Jake will be seven, and Sadie five. They will have seen his face on television countless times. They won't have the same assumption that the President is always an old white man. What effect will that have on this next generation of kids-- and especially the kids who look more like Barack Obama? That's pretty neat. I'm a little bit prouder of my country today.