Useless Information

There is sickness in the Tate home and I (Joel) am currently about as ill as I have been in a very, very long time. When you lack the energy to do just about anything and you find a "Presidents of the United States of America" laminated placemat and a Rutland area phonebook within reach what else are you going to do.

The Presidents whose surnames are not shared with anyone contained in our local phone book:

Washington

Polk

Fillmore

Buchanan

Garfield (although there were a couple of Garfinkels)

Roosevelt

Hoover

Eisenhower

Reagan

Clinton

Obama (although there were a number of Obara and O'Baras)

Doesn't it seem strange that there would be so many of our presidents who are not represented here in our area, not that Rutland is a demographic microcosm of our nation, or anything.

Millard Fillmore seething about the fact that his progeny has done such a bad job of perpetuating his name.

My Couch Potatoes

We watch America's Funniest Home Videos every Sunday night and the kids love it!

A Valentine's Day Breakfast

Joel made us breakfast!

The girls showing off their new socks.

This is not a new sock . . . but worth showing off anyway.

My Kitchen Helpers

Last Saturday morning, the big girls were at basketball and the "littles" wanted to make cookies.

Great Lines

I just heard a great line in a song by P.T. Walkley, "Audrey Macy," about a trust-fund girl. He says about her that "She wakes up when she wants to but still finds time to yawn."

I admire that sort of descriptive wit wherever I come across it.

Adversarial existence

This morning Christine took the three girls to the Paramount for a play leaving Obie and me to enjoy some time to ourselves. Unfortunately, this has not been father-son bonding time. I have been aggressively multi-tasking. Obie has been multi-obstructing or, even, multi-sabotaging.
But here's the miracle of the thing (praise God for having made even our hearts so fearfully and wonderfully well) my love for him yet increases, my fondness swells to heart-wrenching levels.
Nothing else might get done, but my love at least grows.

Memo to SNL

The new administration is a gift to comedy writers who are not under its spell.
How about a skit where Daschle, on his way out of Washington, orders the driver of his limousine to swing by the IRS where Daschle tries to explain to an incredulous receptionist why his payment on back taxes should be returned to him. "You don't understand: I only paid it because I thought I was going to get a position which would advance my career!"

Or how about a skit where Obama has a press conference to unveil a new plan for balancing the budget. He will announce the creation of a new cabinet position: head of the Department of Civil Integrity. Then he will nominate a succession of former congressmen and lobbyists. The subsequent revenue produced as candidates get their back taxes right will balance the budget in a year.

Or, you know, they could do more skits about how dumb Bush is, how mean Cheney is, or how greedy Republicans are.