Goodbye 2009

We had such a fantastic year in 2009, that it is kind of hard to see it go. I tried new things, welcomed a lot of visitors, took a few trips, said goodbye to some great friends and met several new ones. Looking through my photos from 2009 made me nostalgic (if you can be nostalgic about things that happened less than 12 months ago.

January 2009

The year started with the tail end of our New Year's Eve party. This party was kind of a farewell to a group of our friends. We had nine friends move to different places all over the world within the next few months, and we miss them madly. We braved the crowds to see Obama's inauguration, then joined our fellow soldiers/spouses at an inaugural ball. I had a good excuse to buy a ball gown, we saw Barack/Michelle & Joe/Jill dance, and we were entertained by Bon Jovi and Josh Groban, among others. Quite a night.

February 2009

Levi & I drove to Savannah, GA to do a little exploring, then on to Disneyworld and Universal Studios, then met up with some old friends on our road trip home.

March 2009

Took a little road trip to Pittsburgh to see Adil and Ashley, saw the Andy Warhol museum at Carnegie Mellon, the French/Indian War museum at the point, ate wonderful food and incredible ice cream. Came home and saw Brendon Small in concert with his School of Rock. I got a new job at Earth Day Network. We drove up to Central PA to pick up our baby chinchillas, Snuggly Buggles and Scrambles the Death Dealer.

April 2009

My friend Shari brought her kids for a visit and we took them on the monument/museum tour. We saw everything from the Capitol to the cherry blossoms to the Holocaust museum to the White House and made huge meals for the seven of us. Flight of the Conchords concert, backstage at Earth Day on the National Mall where we met The Flaming Lips.

May 2009

Played with a pinata at Cinco de Mayo. Mom & Robyn came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. I showed them all of my favorite spots in DC, we met an old lady named Happy at the FDR Memorial, cried with the biker veterans at the Vietnam Memorial, saw pandas in the rain at the zoo, played on the giant at National Harbor, fed squirrels, and got yelled at by guards at Arlington Cemetery.

June 2009

Levi was promoted to SSG. I ran my first 5K in the pouring rain. When the weather finally cleared up for the summer we went on a hike with Mike & Suzie and relaxed at our new favorite winery in Maryland.

July 2009

Another road trip to Pittsburgh where we spent hours at the aquarium and zoo complete with a baby seal and baby elephant. Ryan came to visit for the month and we went to Busch Gardens, New York, the Late Show with David Letterman, Great Falls and took a West Wing tour of the White House. We crammed so much in, and it was one of my favorite months of the year.

August 2009

Yard work and painting at an elementary school for the Lockheed Martin volunteer day, zip lining with Sarah, kayaking for the first time, and dozens of bands (and $11 beer) at the Virgin Music Festival.

September 2009

Gramma & Grampa came to visit and we went on a tour of the U.S. Capitol. Levi and I did a high ropes course (another first) with Sarah, and I quit Earth Day Network (yay!) and got a job with Levi at Lockheed Martin. Now Levi and I commute to work together.

October 2009

Such a month... Our Make a Pizza party was a hit, Mom came to visit and we drove to Pennsylvania together to see the Amish people in Intercourse, went on another Capitol tour, toured the National Cathedral. I visited my family in Southern Utah where we went to Bryce Canyon, Snow Canyon, enjoyed the desert, carved pumpkins and had an incredible time. Tobi and Brady visited and we ran around in the rain, had all manner of fun with our friends and went to Six Flags. Whew. Another one of my favorites.

November 2009

Took a mind-blowing trip to Manzanillo, Mexico to see Ashley & Adil get married, snorkeled a coral reef and sunken ship, ATVed in the jungle, ate the best food and hung around in our swimsuits all day. Around the World party was a blast and the food was wonderful. Cajun Thanksgiving with friends then regular Thanksgiving with coworkers.

December 2009

Getting ready for Christmas, lots of shopping (hey, it's a highlight for me). Went to the National Christmas tree with Josh & Karen, moved into our new office. Visited family and friends in Salt Lake City where we saw everyone after way too long, went out to eat way too much and opened lots of gifts (yay!). Wrapped up 2009 the same way we brought it in... a New Year's Eve/birthday party with our new friends.

Good luck 2010... you have some huge shoes to fill.

I Feel Like This Kid When I Watch the News

Fear definitely played a huge part in this election. Be afraid of Obama because of his name, because he is different, because he hates white people, because he won't know how to make big decisions, because he wants to give your money to poor people, because he is a Muslim, because he is pro-abortion, because he will take your guns, because his friends are terrorists. The list of things you should be afraid of was endless.

Be afraid of gays getting married. If society gives homosexuals equal rights, your marriage will be less sacred, your kids might decide to be gay, churches will lose their rights and next we'll be seeing people marrying their pets or house plants!

Most of the things that we should be afraid of don't even make sense. Can you tell me why churches would not be able to marry people anymore if homosexual marriage was legal? What law says that churches cannot refuse to marry people? I'm pretty sure that the whole separation-of-church-and-state thing protects churches from things like that.

Many people are terrified of this "change" that Obama is going to bring to us. I can't tell you how many emails I have received with a picture of Obama photoshopped over Bin Laden's face, that said, "You wanted change, you got it," or something similar. REALLY?!?

I am 115% confident that Obama is not a terrorist or a communist or the anti-Christ or any of those terrifying things that I have heard. I look around and see that we obviously need to do something different, and that is his plan. Sure, different can be scary, but at this point, going down the same path is far scarier.

To the people who buy into this fear business, I guess the point I am trying to make is, give the guy a chance. God knows Bush and the Republican-majority congress got several years of chances. We even gave them a couple before we started bitching. It is someone else's turn now! Let him try out a few things before you start yelling that he hasn't found Bin Laden yet, or that people are still losing their houses and jobs, or that the stock market is still down, or that the Sunnis are still fighting the Shias. Stuff like this does not change overnight, but at least we voted to start heading in the right direction.

Garrison Keillor Says It Best

"And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
"Good luck with that, sir.
"Meanwhile, the casual revelation last month that Mr. McCain has never figured out how to use a computer and has never sent e-mail or Googled is rather startling. It's like admitting that you've never clipped your own toenails or that you didn't know that toothpaste comes out of a tube because your valet always did that for you. It's like being amazed at the sight of a supermarket scanner. What world does Mr. McCain live in? Where does he keep his sense of curiosity? My 94-year-old mother has sent e-mail. Does somebody plan to show him how it's done and will they explain to him what "LOL" means?"

Fifteen Minutes of Absurdity

Today while I was radio surfing I heard a voice that makes me flinch. I decided to stop and listen for a minute, because he manages to get me so worked up sometimes that it is like a mini cardio workout.

On Rush's program he talked about how there is no explaining the idea of liberalism the same way there is no way to explain crazy. We are deranged. A boy called in and suggested that we sign on to the idea of global warming because we are putting our own fear of death onto the Earth. We are so self important that we believe that our life is tied into the Earth, therefore killing the Earth is like killing us.

Why is it so easy for Rush to say these things and stay at the top of the charts? Why do people listen to his gasps for breath between words and his grating voice and raspy chortles? I understand that there are loud members of the fringe on both sides, but it is disappointing that some of them manage to gather a large audience.

So, for all of you who, like me, believe in... no... understand the science behind global warming, rest assured that someone out there understands that your true purpose is to save yourself. I mean, after all, we are just deranged. There is no way to explain the insanity that is liberalism, right?

On the other hand, Limbaugh is as simple to explain as anything. He makes more money for being cruel and outlandish and making ridiculous statements than he does for saying something that resembles reality. The idea that any American voter should care that Barack Obama is not a true black person because he does not have slave blood is something that I do not understand. I sat there wondering why he would even bring that up. I am sure this helps his agenda in one way or another, but I guess it will take some time for me to figure out the steps between.

Thank God I only listened for fifteen minutes.

Good Versus Not-So-Good

Here is some good:






And some not-good-at-all: