The political process

My theory on elections is "Vote early, vote often." Yes, I'm from Chicago, and yes, my family has a tiny Massachusetts political history. But I'm applying that statement to a whole life of political activity. The Vote early part means that you should register to vote as soon as possible. The Vote Often part means that you should vote in as many elections as you can. Vote in primaries. Vote in school board elections. Vote for Congress. Vote for Sanjaya. Umm, strike that last one. Voting is your one true measure of saying I care enough about the process to let my opinion be heard. Having a reasoned, informed opinion is a true demonstration of your civic duty, but at least voting signals some level of interest. Too often our leaders are elected with fewer than half of all eligible voters showing up at the polls. Then they claim a mandate that the voters have spoken - when in fact most voters were not even present.

A notable absence in my theory is "And put your money where your mouth is." I don't believe that money should have as large a place in politics as it does today. It's one thing to say that money equals speech, but quite another to say that this person is allowed to speak 25 millions times louder than this other person. Publicly financed elections would allow the candidates to depend less on special interests for their office and more on voters. Yes, special interests would still have some sway, but it would be dramatically less than at current.

The other change that I would like would be to change the campaign schedule into a 20 week long affair. Every two weeks five states would have a primary, but the catch would be that the states would vote in ascending order of delegates. The first round would be something like North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. The last weekend would be Texas, California, New York, Illinois, and Florida. This would give the smaller states some value as discriminators, but leave the end result in suspense until just before the convention. Every state's voters would have an affirmative stake in selecting the nominee. The current process all but coronates the nominee after Super Tuesday and Texas's election in March. From a practical perspective, it makes sense to hold the coronation as soon as possible so that donors can give their money to the eventual nominee who can start to put together the national election team.

Health and Well Being

You know it's a bad sign when you are in the doctor's office so often that the nurses feel like they should make small talk with you. The past couple of months we've called or visited the doctor's office on the order of once a week and sometimes more often than that. Xavier had a checkup at six months, but because of a scheduling foul up we had to reschedule Oliver's appointment for a couple of weeks later. Then Xavier got sick with some strain of RSV and we were in every couple of days to make sure that his breathing wasn't getting worse. Then Oliver gashed his forehead on the countertop while playing on the stairs (see, kids, you really can get hurt) which required stitches. Then Xavier started spiking highish (102+) fevers (related to teething?) which warranted a couple of followup visits. Then Oliver complained that it hurt to urinate resulting in another trip to the doctor. I just want to know if there is a bulk rate on copays for doctor visits.

In general, my wife's health and my health have been good - no serious illnesses or injuries. We're not getting enough sleep due to our teething toddler who does not like to be wet. Some of my sleep issues are self-inflicted though. For example, last night I was out playing Magic with friends until after 1:30. I know that if I make better choices that I will be able to get the sleep I need. It's just that the time after everyone goes to bed is the time when I can do the things that I want to do - i.e. play Magic, watch TV online, read, work ...

Making better choices is a broader topic in our house. We've been trying to cut out a lot of the processed food from our diets and move to more fruits and vegetables. I've been fairly good about being good, but I do have my weaknesses. As long as I can moderate my excesses, I should be able to take off some of the extra weight that's accumulated.

What I really need to do is to make better choices surrounding exercise. I'm loath to get on the treadmill when the kids are awake for fear that one or the other will try and play with the moving treadmill and lose a finger or something. With that in mind, early morning and late night are the only other options. Early morning generally loses out to more sleep and late night loses out to more fun pursuits like laundry, Magic, or TV. For a while I was watching my TV online while using the treadmill, but ABC.com has an annoying habit of asking you to click a button to see more show - difficult to do when running on the treadmill. NBC is better in that regard, so as soon as they have something worth watching I may find myself on their site killing two birds with one stone.

Not on my game

It's been a while since I had to write anything that didn't involve curly braces in one way or another. It feels like I'm not quite hitting on all cylinders - more Pinto than Porsche. Thanks for your patience while my brain gets back up to speed.

Cleaning

My wife and I have very different organizational styles. It usually isn't a problem until one of us decides that it is time to clean the house. My wife's style is to create a number of small piles of related items scattered throughout the house. She knows what is in each stack, but, to my untrained eye, it all resembles piles of crap scattered throughout the house. My style is to have a place for everything and to put everything in its place. When I come across stuff that I don't have a place for, I create a stuff I don't have a place for pile. So I take her scattered organized piles and merge them into one large disorganized pile. But I know where that pile is and I have a place to put the myriad of crap that I don't otherwise have a place for.

For day-to-day cleaning, I do a lot of what gets done. I'll vacuum when the opportunity presents itself. I'm usually the dish washer, the toy replacer, the laundry worker, and the remover of cat vomit (for often than I'd like). Dish replacer, floor sweeper, and spill wiper are equal opportunity tasks. My wife tends to gravitate to the larger projects. She's the wall spackler, kitchen rearranger, and room decorator as well as duster, bed maker, and bathroom cleaner. In some ways it's a flawed system because anything that isn't covered by the lists above tends to build up.

Happy Birthday to me

Every year for my birthday I have a potluck, Thanksgiving style dinner for my friends. I make the turkey and the stuffing, provide the drinks, and clean the house. The couple of weeks beforehand are always a challenge because I have to make the guest list and clean the house.

Making the guest list is a challenge of restraint. If I had my way, I'd invite everyone I ever met. However, we just don't have space and seating for that size of a group (note- food is generally not a concern). My goal is generally to have about 30 adults. My initial draft guest list was about sixty adults. From there my wife and I get the list down to a managable size and the I send out the invite. I tried Evite last year, but some people really don't like it. I may go back to it though just for convenience sake.

Cleaning the house is always a big chore. I'd like to think that we aren't messy people, but I'd also like to think that we're millionaires. We started two weeks before the main event and were still putting some stuff behind closed doors on the morning of. But other than that, the house was in shape.

The event itself was successful. There were 21 adults and 14 children. Everyone had a good time. My wife told me that there was too much meat and too little in terms of sides. Considering that there were two turkeys and a ham available versus stuffing, green bean casserole, a cornmeal dish, potatoes, a bean salad and a sweet potato soup, I'll agree with her. I got a call from some friends who were overseas and were upset that they missed out. Next year, guys - I promise.

I'd like to close by saying thanks to all who attended and made the day so special.

Edit: I'd be remiss to not point out the text messages that I got from DC and Chicago to wish me a happy birthday. Thanks, guys.