Another Friend for Baby J-Z!

Babies, babies everywhere! Just as two of the babe's favorite friends left town (Chris, Ashley, Alanna, and Carter officially moved to Philly this weekend), another is found. Cam and Eleanor has their little girl, Lyra, this weekend (they are the one's whose blog we link to on the right hand side below)! We were lucky enough to visit them at home this afternoon. See Dan and Lyra getting properly acquainted below.

"Do you look pregnant?" "Do you have a big belly?" "Are you huge?"

These are the questions those of you who are not local have asked me over the past few weeks, and I have struggled to answer them... it's kind of subjective.

So I leave you this evidence:
Three people offered me their respective seats on the metro this morning, despite me being bundled up in a winter jacket

(I guess that answers that question!)

Add'l Pics from Oliver & Alanna's Wedding

I got to take a picture with the groom (thanks to Oliver for passing this along)!



And here's one of me (sans shawl - the hot flashes are back!) and Dan that our friend Missy took.

Oliver & Alanna Got Hitched!

So we spent last weekend in not-so-sunny or warm northern California. The wedding was in Santa Cruz on Sunday. We then spent Monday day/night in San Francisco, having fabulous dim sum for dinner and finally seeing the movie, Frost/Nixon - the combination of the two made for a great date night. We highly recommend the movie and the dim sum.

But I digress... we were there for Oliver and Alanna's wedding, which was a lot of fun. Most importantly, they had a blast. They also made it into the NYT's wedding announcements. See some pics below.

(2009) Oliver & Alanna's wedding weekend

Back to life, back to reality this weekend where we have made real progress on getting the babe's room in order. We have sold our futon and are zeroing in on paint colors and the like. Stay tuned for an update soon.

Our Visit with One of Baby Z's Friends

Baby Z has no idea how many friends he already has (even if he still is in utero)!

This past weekend, we went to visit Carter - one half of Chris & Ashley's twins who you've all heard about. Alanna, the female half, is hopefully coming home later this week.

Anyway, it was great to see Carter at home (after 2 visits at the hospital) AND we got to hold him. It was lots of fun!

Chrissie gets a turn first (after he FINALLY woke up!)....




And then Dan!



Dan got to hold him for awhile, but then Chrissie got tired and hungry so we had to leave.

By Popular Demand

Despite having pledged not to fall victim to the infamous belly shot, the moms (grand-moms, actually) have spoken. So, we're posting a belly shot. Don't get used to it though, this will not become a regular habit. As of today, baby JZ is 25 weeks EGA (estimated gestational age). And the mama to be is starting to show it (though proud to say only 18 pounds heavier!). So enjoy the shot below.



In other news, we are making progress on all the various "to-dos" that need to be accomplished in the next 15 weeks. We have put up all new wood work in what will be the baby's room, have an electrician (hopefully) coming this week to put in an overhead light, and have even registered for all the things the little one will "need" when he enters the world.

We're taking next weekend off from baby prep as we journey to California for Oliver and Alanna's wedding in what should be Chrissie's last plane ride for the foreseeable future. Look for pics late in the month as we are close to picking a crib, colors, and have pretty much finalized the "theme" of the room.

Inauguration Day in the Nation's Capitol

A snapshot (and snapshots) of our day...

7:15 am - We leave our house to start the trek to the "Silver gate," where we are assigned to enter with our mall standing tickets.




8:00 am - After a brisk walk with more people than we've ever seen on the street at this hour, we find the end of the line, which is a good 10 blocks away from where the gate is (note - we have no idea where we are at this point, except that it's the back of the line). See Dan's pics below of the crowd.




10:15ish am - Three hours after leaving our house, we can just see the gate (in the distance in the pic below), but no one's moving. We are surrounded by at least 20,000 people all holding silver tickets... No one is doing crowd control - when we ask Capitol Police what the deal is, they say, as far as we know, we'll keep letting people in (despite the fact that no one has moved).



10:30 am - It's do or die time. We either accept maybe not getting in, maybe not seeing or hearing anything, and maybe getting trampled when there's a mutiny (which there was - when people "stormed the silver line barricades") OR we walk home and watch on TV...

11:15 am - A picture is worth a thousand words...



All in all, we were glad we got to experience the masses, and while we would have liked to have been out on the Mall, we're glad we got to see and hear (not to mention be warm, have a bathroom, and not get trampled).

And, we're glad that we didn't travel hundreds of miles or wait 80 years to finally see a black man Inaugurated. THOSE are the folks we felt really sorry for.  

Even from our comfy vantage point at home, Dan was still able to get some great photos of Aretha and President Obama. (These pics should be a commercial for HD TV!)





Several of Chrissie's colleagues - and many others - had similar issues with their blue and purple tickets. This drama has been reported both on CNN and in the Washington Post.

Finally, we also spent the afternoon with our nephew Ezra, who also was VERY excited about President Obama (or playing with Aunt Chrissie, we're not sure which).

It's a....

Below are family-friendly pictures, but we are happy to report that we did indeed see some external genitalia Monday morning so... It's a boy!

Dan is proud to say he saw "it" before the sonographer confirmed its presence. Chrissie is proud to say that all the "old wives' tales" that imply boy, like being all baby in the front and craving mad protein, held (Dan keeps telling her those are stupid).

The pics below are from the ultrasound, probably our last glimpse until the big day.

The face - still looking a little alien like - is below. (We have some concerns about the size of his nose...)



Here's one of him waving.



These two are "full body" if you will - the greyish dot is the heart, which was beating at a healthy clip.

Aloha!

Greetings from... Well, D.C. We're back from Hawaii, a little tan, a little tired, but at the same time, quite rested. Below is the link to our photos.

Hawaii 2008

In addition, we're also hoping to upload a slide show and "movie" of the pics with music, but we're having some technical difficulties.

One of our resolutions for the new year is to be more active bloggers. Look for pics of baby Z-J later this week!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I think this speaks for itself.  Santa and his helper.

UPDATE: Chrissie would like to add that she does not look SO pregnant in person. It's a bad angle.

Pardon the interruption

Sorry for the long delay between our postings... it's been a crazy few weeks. Where to begin?

While its no longer breaking news generally, there's exciting news in the blogosphere. Our kitchen is renovated, we've cooked up a storm, but now... there's a very different sort of bun in the oven. That's right! On or about May 24, 2009 -- our blog will be getting a new staff writer. The writing skills may take some time to develop -- but we're convinced that we're making a good new addition to the blog. Photos are below.


Above, you can see the baby waving! The other photos show other angles of the little tyke.

As for other developments from the past few weeks -- stay tuned! There's more to come. But no more babies!

Reflections from Our Election Day in "Real" America

We spent election day volunteering at a precinct in Manassas, VA. We'll keep the exact location between us so as not to further embarrass the folks we're about to mock, but suffice to say that while Mark Warner was elected to the Senate with about 63 percent of the statewide vote, his opponent, Jim Gilmore, beat him 51-49 in our precinct. McCain also won 63ish to 35 percent over Obama in our precinct, compared to 51-48 statewide, so there's the context.

The Background
Several weeks ago, Dan volunteered to do voter protection anywhere he was needed in VA. Once he got assigned, Chrissie arranged to be at the same place as well to hand out sample ballots and the like. Our experience in real America started Monday night, when it took us about 3 times as long as it should have to get out there due to Obama's rally (which we did not attend). At 9:15, VERY hungry, and somewhat in the middle of no where, we put our liberal, moral compasses aside (not to mention our culinary judgment) and ate at Cracker Barrel. It was nasty. But we checked into our hotel in time to see Obama's rally on tv and then went to sleep so that we could get up to be at our polling place at 5:45.

The day's best quotes:

"Which would you rather get hit in the face with - a coconut or a pineapple?"
This from a 17ish year old boy who looked liked he might bring a bomb to a school and who Chrissie really thought was going to throw one or the other at Dan or the other lawyer that was stationed with us. (Turns out, he was just a kid with issues...)

"So I just vote for the dark one?"
We were giving out Democratic sample ballots, which like their Republican counterparts, list all the names on the ballot, but bolds the candidate that is the member of that party and should be voted for. Totally innocently, someone looked at the ballot and said the above quote. Once he went inside, we had a little laugh between us.

"Only to use it as toilet paper."
We offered a woman a Democratic sample ballot, and our Republican counterpart offered her theirs. When she looked at what we were offering, she said she'd only take one to use it as toilet paper. To her credit, when she came out of the polling place, she didn't quite apologize, but had clearly realized she had been rude and started on a rant about how she was a fiscally conservative Republican and that the religious right had ruined her party. Regardless of how she may have voted, Democrats and Republicans alike could agree that using these sample ballots as toilet paper may not be the smartest move (that is, it would not be very comfy for one's rear end).


"I hope the Bradley effect is strong"
This was said by a Republican voter to our Republican counterpart. No further explanation needed.

"No, we're part of the silent minority."

A middle aged white woman said this after being offered a Democratic sample ballot. We spent the day trying to figure out what she meant...

"If you don't pay taxes, own property, (fill in other ridiculous, possible racist comment here), you shouldn't be allowed to vote."
This was said by our last Republican counterpart at the end of the day. Note that this man was also one of those "excited" by the pick of Sarah Palin.

Early Voting - Vegas Style

How cool is this? If only we could all vote early.



I borrowed this picture from the NY Times. It was taken by Isaac Brekken (for The New York Times).

If you can't see the picture well enough, it's a bank of slot machines, voting machines, and routine groceries in a store in Henderson.


See the accompanying article.

Powell: "This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

General Colin Powell was excellent on "Meet the Press" yesterday. To both Dan and I, the most phenomenal moment was not when Powell endorsed Obama, but when he said what few have been willing to say about the whole Muslim rumor (emphasis below added):

"And it is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

"I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life."

Read the full transcript, from which this was taken, or watch the interview.

Hockey Mom Bingo

Thanks to a friend of Ashley's for this link. I know it's late in the day, but if you get the chance, play a little Sarah Palin Bingo during tonight's debate. And in the interest of bi-partisanship, if someone finds Biden bingo, I'll add it to the post.

Hypocrisy Abounds

This message is approved only by Chrissie, not Dan, who is tired of my ranting about the Presidential election and Republican hypocrisy (Yes - both parties do it, but the R's do it worse!).

I don't have a source for this, but it is making the rounds on the internet (thank you, Court, for forwarding it to me!). Those of you reading our blog probably already know this, but maybe you can use it to point it out to others who don't. We're looking at a long four years (and then perhaps another 8 with President Palin - YIKES!).

* If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
* If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

* Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America .
* White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

* If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."

* Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
* Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

* If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless."
* A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."

* If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African American voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.
* If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.

* If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an "arrogant celebrity."
* If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are "energizing the base."

* If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are "presumptuous."
* If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a "shoot from the hip" maverick.

* If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are "an elitist-out of touch" with the real America .
* If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

* If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an "empty suit."
* If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an "experienced executive."

* If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are "extremist."
* If you believe in creationism and don't believe global warming is man made, you are "strongly principled."

* If you have been married to the same woman with whom you've been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you're "risky.
*If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a
Christian.

* If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
* But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

* If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you "First dog."
* If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous."

* If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.

Pick Your President Contest

The Washington Post is hosting a "Pick Your President" contest where you predict who will win what state, and thus, the entire election. Chrissie's picks - entitled "Who Needs Florida!?" - are below. Note that Dan does not approve this message (though the competitive side of him might have to do his own map now!).

<p><strong>><a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/">2008 Election Contest: Pick Your President</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the 2008 presidential election and enter to win a $500 prize.</p>

Poor Jeb.

(It's been an unusually busy day for the staff of Just Bloggin'. To put this post into context, see the posts below.)

Jeb speaks on school-voucher ruling.
(http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/09/jeb-speaks-on-s.html)

Former Gov. Jeb Bush has ended his long silence Wednesday over the school-voucher amendments the Florida Supreme Court struck from the November ballot.

"It is extremely disappointing the Florida Supreme Court ruled today to deny millions of Florida voters the right to make their voices heard on improving the quality of education in our state," Bush said in a statement released by his foundation.

"Florida is facing serious challenges. Our economy experienced its first quarter of negative growth in 16 years. Tax revenues are declining.

“Now, more than ever, Floridians should have a voice in determining – not just how much they are taxed – but how their tax dollars are spent."

Bush suffered one of his greatest political defeats in January 2006 when the high court ruled his Opportunity Scholarship voucher program ran afoul of the state Constitution's requirement for creating a high-quality free public school system.

Amendments 7 and 9 were designed to erode that constitutional underpinning of the court's action ,as well as striking language prohibiting state funding for "sectarian institutions" that a lower court had also used to rule against the vouhcer program.

Supporters have argued the amendments were needed to protect other specialized voucher programs for disabled children or those sponsored by the private sector.

But although the amendments were drafted by former Bush staffers, the former governor himself has kept mostly mum on the subject.

"Amendment 9 would have empowered Floridians with the ability to ensure their tax dollars were spent in the classroom on people and programs that make a difference in student achievement – a principled fiscal policy that becomes increasingly important during these tough budget years," Bush continued.

"Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the realization that Floridians will not have the opportunity to protect important programs, including the McKay Scholarship for students with developmental disabilities and Corporate Tax Credit Scholarships for students in low-income families. These programs, as well as 350 charter schools in our great state, will remain in limbo, under the real threat of litigation from individuals who want to centralize all education decisions within government bureaucracies."

Victory in Florida!

An update from Florida. (See below for an earlier posting on the subject).

This afternoon, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Ballot Initiatives Nos. 7 and 9 (which would allowed the voters to approve changes to the religion and education clauses of the Florida Constitution) were unconstitutionally proposed by Florida's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.

For a copy of the order, click here.

Florida Happenings

On September 3rd, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral argument in Ford, et. al. v. Browning, a case which seeks to remove 2 ballot initiatives from the November 2008 ballot. The proposed initiatives would amend the Florida Constitution to allow public funds to be used for religious purposes and to allow private/religious school voucher programs. Dan has been working with the National Education Association and the Florida Education Association to try and get these ballot initiatives kicked off the ballot. For copies of the briefs -- click here.

Hopefully, we'll have a decision soon! And a video link to the oral argument should follow as well...

UPDATE: While I'm having trouble posting the video directly, click here to see the argument in windows media player, or click here to see it in real video. Don't expect to see Dan, though. He was in DC watching it online.