Heather turned one year more beautiful today. I just wanted to say on here how much I love and appreciate her.

Tags: Heather
Categories: BJ, Heather
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Tags: photo,photo highlight,Sophia
Categories: Photo Highlights, Sophia
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This is just an awesome test.

Tags: awesome,naasen,poll
Categories: BJ
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The post title dates me yet still shows how young I am… heh.

Tags: gwennie,Heather,linus,photo highlight,Sophia
Categories: Photo Highlights, Sophia
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Blah! We have been busy, busy, busy. We had some close friends of ours visit us from Iowa for a week and only days after they left did my sister and her 3 kids come into town. So, here is what has been happening.

Phoebe:

• Can now successfully drink from a beginners sippy cup and seems to rather enjoy it.
• Stand on her own for several seconds and transfer to furniture with one step.
• She has taken to pointing her finger at a lot of random things. She will also get on her knees, reach her arms up and tilt her head up. It seems to me she is wanting to stand but can’t figure out how to get to her feet without something to pull herself up on.
• The little sneak has figured out to look UNDER things. I tried hiding something in between my legs as I was kneeling on the floor and she laid down to look under them and started to reach. Things are becoming less and less safe around here!
• She learned to clap her hands which I am loving right now!
• She has developed a quirk of hitting herself on the head with her right hand (always the right) repeatedly when she is in her highchair. I am trying to figure out if she is doing it out of frustration to let me know she is done eating, or doesn’t like what she is eating. The jury is still out on this one. Hopefully it will stop soon. I hate having to wash her hands and her face AND her hair after each meal!
• Phoebe turned 10 months old.
• She got sick with a cold.

Sophia:

• We had a bad storm one night and she heard thunder. She immediately said “Rain!” and I replied “Yes. Rain, and lightening, and thunder.” Later when her daddy was in her room to put her back down to bed he noticed she was scared. He asked her what was wrong and she said “Rain lights.”
• I was shopping with Sophia at Walmart and we walk by the bra and panty section. She points and yells out “Boobies!” I giggle but feel I must correct her. I tell her “No, those are bras but they look like boobs.” To test her when I get home I show her one of my bras and she again says “Boobs!” Oh well.
• Both girls had their well checks and Sophia is only 25 lbs. The doctor was shocked and thought it had to have been wrong, but it sure wasn’t. For now she has plateaued but is as healthy as ever.
• My continuous effort with her to use her manners has paid off. She almost regularly says “thanks” or “thank you” when appropriate, but still working on please.
• She got sick with the same cold as Phoebe.

The family in general:

I got sick with the same cold as the girls.
As mentioned before, we had friends from Iowa come to visit with their two kiddos. We enjoyed a day at Scarborough Fair where most of our money was spent on food, rides, and the petting zoo. It was rather hard with 2 little ones, hence all the rides to keep Sophia happy. BJ and I and are friends are pretty much in agreeance that another couple years need to pass before bringing all the kids back. We missed a lot of the shops but BJ and I still managed to buy a beautiful necklace for me and lots of incense.
Taking advantage of having stay-in babysitters we went and saw Iron Man in the theaters. I was thankful just to be seeing a movie in the theaters and for such a great movie too. We really enjoyed the break. We reciprocated it for our friends the next day and they went to the temple.
As also mentioned, my sister came in town and we have spent many days over at Granny’s playing. Sophia has had lots of water time in the backyard during this visit and she couldn’t be happier about it. Her last night in town I made dinner with dessert. I was making all new things and was a bit concerned on how things may turn out. Everything was delicious and I can’t wait to make the meal again! The menu included homemade mac and cheese casserole, sausage cigars (my own creation and name), and a peach puzzle with cool whip.

Well, that is all I can think of. There is so much I am leaving out I am sure, but this is the basics. Hope the last 3 weeks has been great for everyone else!

Tags: family update,family visiting,Scarborough Fair
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Bob Barr secured the Libertarian Party nomination at the LP convention in Denver over this past weekend. For those who don’t follow third party politics, the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1988 was Ron Paul. He basically had the same platform then that he did during his current primary run. Bob Barr was probably picked by the delegates specifically because he has similarities with Dr. Paul. Don’t expect me to start evangelizing his name though. Mr. Barr was a short sighted Republican until recently, and even before that was a short sighted Democrat. He has shifted his rhetoric on most of the LP talking points, but in the end find himself on the hilarious side of opposing things he used to chair. He was the anti-drug coordinator for the Department of Justice (libertarians are usually pro drug legalization to some extent). He promoted the idea that the practice of Wicca should be banned in the military (restricting religious rights would be a big libertarian no-no), and he is generally hard on immigration (a position he happens to share with Ron Paul). With this background he doesn’t have the practice to back up the rhetoric he’ll use, but at the same time he’s likely to win most of his votes from lapsed traditional conservatives.

Barr has hired a political strategist who worked on the Ron Paul campaign and another who worked on the Perot campaign. He’ll be stealing votes directly from the traditional conservative Republican base, the same base that is unhappy with McCain’s nomination. I’ll predict right now that he’ll have as much if not more impact than Nader did in 2000. If you want Obama to win in November, send some money to Bob Barr… seriously.

I’ve discussed this issue previously with friends and family but I really think Obama is going to have a tougher time in November than many people believe. Around 15% of democrats over the age of 65 voted for Obama. This November more people will vote. More people over 65 will vote. Democrats traditionally think of themselves as progressive… yet only 15% over 65 voted for Obama in the primaries. Imagine what will happen among the general electorate. If the older Democrat is any indication, Obama’s race will be more of a hindrance this November than it ever was in the primary. Bob Barr’s nomination might help things for Obama if enough votes can be shifted from McCain to Barr.

On that note, I’m voting for Barr in November. A protest vote? Maybe. He might not be a libertarian in action but the man is a small government conservative through and through.

Tags: bob barr 2008,clinton,election 2008,libertarian,obama
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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Huh? Where is it? I keep asking Heather and the only thing she says is, “I know, I know, but I’ve been so busy.”

Good I say, that means there’s a lot to catch everyone up on.

Here’s a picture to help pass the time.

Tags: Heather,lazy,Phoebe,photo highlight,Weekly Family Update
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Photo Highlights, Weekly Family Update
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This picture was shot all wrong. In post I neglected to do any sharpening to bring the hawk into a format worth cropping, and fundamentally it needs a little denoising in the dark areas since I had to fix exposure in post. If you want to print this one… wait and I’ll put up a fixed version. If not, it looks just fine at 640 x 4xx just don’t zoom in too close or crop too tight or you’ll be sorely dissappointed.

Tags: bird,birds of prey,fair,photo highlight,scarborough faire
Categories: Photo Highlights
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I’ve written similar things before, but like any discussion on global warming I’d like to frame my personal stance. I believe humans have a drastic affect on the environment. From straight pollution to the destruction of habitat to global warming, the existence of man has a significant effect on the world around us. I think we’re causing global warming, but I disagree that it’s in humanity’s best interest to fight it using the currently proposed methodology. I feel there are other concerns to human life that are more important. Disease, war, hunger, and poverty should all take priority over global warming. These are tangible things with easily verifiable statistical results in the longevity of humans.

In my arguments I appear to be a global warming denier. I’ve mentioned before that global warming is a red herring, and I stand by that assertion, but I also firmly believe that humans are causing it, or at the very least exacerbating it. Yesterday the new Wired was deliverd to our door, and in was an article on how to combat global warming. They obviously framed the article as a straw man, but the article makes a wonderful point in subtext, coincidentally it’s the same argument I have made in the past. Give it a read. And go through each of the different sections to see what they surmise as to be the best ways to combat global warming the quickest.

The comments are getting pretty crazy on the wired page. Evangelical environmentalists are up in arms, and they seem to be missing the point. The article is a straw man that is trying to point out what’s wrong with the current discussion of climate change. Rather than focusing on man as a part of the world, environmentalists are rallying behind something specious in the grand scheme of perpetual human inhabitation of the Earth. Ecological footprint is the discussion we need to have. Global warming is just an aspect of our ecological footprint, and not even the worst one, but it is being sold as the whole deal.

It does however miss the quickest way to control global warming. Kill off 2/3s of the world’s population… they get credit for mentioning the black plague though.

Read the Article at Wired.com

Tags: efficiency,global warming,wired
Categories: BJ, Philosophy etc
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Tags: grannys house,linus,photo highlight,Sophia
Categories: Photo Highlights, Sophia
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