Names for Ruthie's Cat

Top Four:
Zion
Pixie
Ivy
Lily

Other Favorites:
Zinnia
Blueberry
Fern
Ella
Esther
Rosie

Elisabeth's Birthday List (As requested by Grandma)

horses
stickers
A Life of Faith book
computer game
soccer ball
monopoly
Adventures of Average Boy
puzzle
"Surprise me"

NEW ITEM: Backpack (yellow, lime green, perfers not to have "girlie colors")

Go Highlanders!

Obadiah fell asleep in the car on the way to CSJ and stayed asleep for the entire game.

Houghton in Rutland, VT!

The final score . . . Houghton is currently undefeated!

Lucy between her grandparents.

The fan club.

Future Alumni.

Highlight

The highlight of my day was reading what the locker room nickname is for the unexpectedly impressive new running back for the Patriots, BenJarvis Green-Ellis: "Law firm."

The Republic For Which It Stands

This afternoon I did a double take when driving past a neighbor's house. I've driven past it for years now. For most of that time if I've paused to consider the house at all it has been to admire the flowers and beautiful landscaping. More recently it has been to count with wincing admiration the proliferation of lawn signs touting Obama, or other candidates who were more local if no less radical.

Today all the Obama signs were gone but for the first time in all the time I've lived here I saw an American flag there. It was attached to the side of their garage by staples or something.

Now, I'm making some assumptions about a connection between Obama's victory and their newfound patriotic sentiment, but I couldn't help remembering Michelle Obama's words earlier in the campaign about how she was proud of her country for the first time in her life.

I do not regard this new flag-waving (or flag stapling, as it were) as a positive development. Conservatives have refused to lower their flags for the same reason that they were flying them in the first place. Their affection for the flag reflects their loyalty to the "republic for which it stands," which is why the matter of who happens to be president has no bearing for them on whether or not to fly the flag.

I'm afraid that my neighbor's flag is displayed more as a token of their ideological victory than an expression of their abiding love of country. And in a few months time it will be hard to tell which is more tattered, shabby, and bleached of color: that pointed flag, or the administration that finally made it possible for my neighbors to display it.

Eat Local

Our entire dinner this evening was grown or fed in the Holden Valley. We had parsley root with chervil, green beans, pork chops with apples, and blue mash potatoes.