Daddy, Papa and Me

We are number 900 and something in line for the Aptera, I still lust over this car. With the look and at 120-300 mpg (depending on if you plug it in or not) and considering gas here is now $4.20/gallon, this is a beautiful car. And yes Mom, we'll sell our slot in line, for a price... ;)

Emma has also, along with a lot of Clinton supporters, swung her support to Barack Obama. If you read a few months ago, Emma was a diehard Hillary supporter. We've been very careful not to say anything about Hillary at all in a bad light in front of Emma, but slowly she changed her mind and a few weeks ago she 'decided' that she'd be fine with either Obama or Clinton as president. Then a couple days ago she decided to take down her picture of Clinton on the front door (which has always been an object of curiosity from passerbys as the see the Obama poster and then that) and said Obama was her choice. This was the day before the nomination was clinched. I NEVER remember being that interested in politics at 6 (or 10 for that matter). She still asks me why only men have been presidents. That's a hard one to explain.

Our adoption process is moving along!! We finished most of our homestudy now, should be complete by the end of the month. Since we are gone most of the summer (Utah, Europe), we'll start matching for our second child starting September or so.

Just interesting, the Fox News piece trying to suggest that Obama ripped off parts of speeches from Cuomo is just sad. If THAT is all they have, it's hysterical in a sad sad way for Fox News.

Wow, school is almost over! Emma and her classmates gave a little performance of some music and a play they practiced in music class (The Grimm Brother's tale Stone Soup). They were soooo cute and Emma just beams when she's performing. I'll get pictures (maybe video!?) up when I have it.

Hey, we are leaving for Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) next week (for 5 days), we had a timeshare Guy's parents gave us so we are using it.

Emma is getting a letter from Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Sunday. I'll explain next week :D

Today is the D-Day anniversary. Both my paternal grandfather and my paternal grandmother's brother (Uncle Boy) were there in WWII. My granddad was a radio man, my Uncle Boy helped liberate a concentration camp (though I could never get him to talk about it). Thinking about it, I realize how huge that was, most men of military age off to war, most at home working to win the war. I can only imagine how HUGE an impact it had on that generation and how little in our lives right now even comes close to comparing. Humbling.

This was forwarded to me by Guy.

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

Read it and tell me what is remarkable and at the same time unremarkable about it.

We are going to Puerto Vallarta for 5 days, then I'm off to a conference in Seattle for another 3 days. Posting will be more sporadic than normal (which is pretty sporadic lately).

Today was not one of our better days. School issues, I have food poisoning, etc.

But Mexico and the beach are calling.

So, as many of you know, legal and fully equal marriages started in California today!

We were married in the 2004 San Francisco weddings and have a domestic partnership from the state of California. We plan to get married (for the fourth time to each other LOL!) in October, but I decided to start saying "We are married" and "He's my husband" from now on. For all intents and purposes we are and we'll have a piece of paper and the legal status to prove it. Before we've tried to explain to people (custom officers, hotel clerks, rental car agents, etc) we are "domestic partners" and what that means and how that compares to marriage and what the differences are and .... it's all so cumbersome and humiliating and demeaning, trying to explain your relationship and convince someone else that it's important enough for them to consider us a family.

Well, we've decided no more. From now on, since marriage is legal in California and we are to be married, we are going to explain NO MORE. We are going to pronounce ourselves married and say we are husbands and we are are a family. No more humiliating, demeaning equivocation and explanations. From now on it will be a direct statement that anyone should understand and if they have a problem, it will be their humiliation and they will be the ones that will have to equivocate and explain why they don't accept our legitimacy.

So, we went to Puerto Vallarta Mexico last week on a short vacation (on ff miles and a timeshare given to us by my in-laws). We had our first 'test' of being 'married while driving (or traveling in this case).

I've been giving a lot of thought to the ever-rising cost of energy lately. Why? Because our car only gets 20mpg (or less) and it costs nearly 20 dollars to visit Emma's grandparents for the evening just in gas costs and because our monthly gasoline bill has gone up 3x in 4 years. Also because even though we've insulated our home, changed all our bulbs to compact fluorescents and made changes like not using the dry cycle in the dishwasher and others.. and those changes have lowered our energy usage tremendously... the price we pay for that lower electricity and gas heat is... the same.

You hear a lot of reasons why gasoline has gone from under 2 to over 4 dollars a gallon in the last few years and despite the fact that speculation and other factors has something to do with it, the main reason is reduced worldwide supply (and here) and increased worldwide demand (and here). These are two basic economic facts, supply and demand, that will stay with us for the next few decades and continue to raise the price of fuel (and everything else that relies on fuel, like agriculture.

So, what are the solutions?

A couple weeks ago Emma got a letter from the Hogwart's school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We didn't hear an owl, but Emma was sure she hear some wing fluttering. The letter was not stamped, but it was addressed to Emma in the brightly painted room off the kitchen in San Francisco. It had an official Hogwarts wax seal and stamp, written on parchment and was signed by Minerva McGonagall.

The contents of the letter said that they had heard that Emma will be doing extensive travels this summer including such exotic locales as Mexico, Utah, Massachusetts, Germany and ending up in London England. The letter goes on to say that this is a fortuitous coincidence because it just so happens that Hogwarts needs to create a potion to ward off the some dark wizards and the things it needs can be found in these exact locations. They wanted to know if Emma was willing to gather these items and take Hogwart's summer school lessons to make sure she knew what she was doing. These lessons would be in Muggle Studies, Spells (language), and the Care of Magical Creatures. They wanted her to keep a journal of her observations and activities. At the end of her trip a wizard or witch would meet her at King's Cross Station in London to obtain the items and see how her lessons went.

Emma had just finished the second book of the recounting of Harry Potter's adventures and decided she was more than willing, excited even, to take the lessons and obtain these items for Hogwarts, though she was a bit concerned that Voldemort might find out she is doing this. As she brought the letter into me she remarked "Hmm, Hogwarts must be real then."

So, we awaited the next letter...