What I Am Thankful For...

My husband.

My home.

To have my parents, and my parents-in-law, all healthy and happy.

My brothers and sisters-in-law.

My two awesome nephews.

To be both employed, and decently paid.

To be able to run.

To be healthy.

To have spending money.

To have so many of my friends be so happy.

S was right on Friday night; things are going well for the group, and we are at that sweet spot where we can welcome so many new lives into the world, have our parents be healthy and active, and be able to still get together once in a while. The beach weekend this year will most likely be the last, and I am grateful we have been able to spend five New Years there together, before we all become further immersed in our growing families.

We are very blessed.

Bocuse d'Or

This may have been the best Top Chef episode yet. I had never heard of this bocuse d'Or competition, but it was an amazing test of culinary skill and all of the dishes looked absolutely mouth-watering. And yes, the favorites from this season--Michael & Bryan Voltaggio, Kevin, and Jennifer--made it to the final four.

Everything from Thomas Keller's presence, to the revelation that the finale will be in Napa Valley, to the camaraderie between the chefs--it all came together for a fascinating episode. While Tom's review made it clear there were flaws in each dish, I doubt some of the earlier eliminated contestants this season could have pulled it off.

So who will win? Kevin's my favorite, and he has been so thoughtful and consistent, as Tom's review also makes clear. But gosh, it is a close competition. I can hardly wait for the finale!

Best Live Moments of the '00s

I certainly don't agree with all these (ahem, #1), but some, like U2's amazing performance at the 2002 Superbowl, just months after 9/11, still resonate. And some of the SNL sketches are great comedy.

9/11 is the most memorable moment, not best.

More Music

Been listening to this today. The song "All the Pretty Girls" is currently my fave on the latest Paste sampler.

All Songs Considered is considering the decade's most important recordings. What that means, I don't know. Kelly Clarkson is among them, which means influential, not necessarily best (though the explanation that her success really paved the road for future Idols is certainly true...she could have flopped ala Justin Guarini). Actually, Britney on the list just makes me sad. Not that the list-maker uppers added her, but that something with as little talent as she possesses has made such a mark on this decade of music. This actually might inspire me to come up with my own ipod list, though god, I can't believe that this decade is coming to a close in six weeks. I've gone from 23-33, single to married, FS to...well, FS.

I think a little more time does have to go by to fully evaluate the decade in music. Looking back at the 90s, I doubt the N'Sync/Backstreet Boys blandness is really as important now as it was then. And some artists are just beginning to emerge, and I think they will prove far more profound in a few years time than even now.

Recovering

Been listening to Dawn Landes today.

Soothing after several days of big meals, lots and lots of wine, little sleep, many good friends, and general over-doing-ness.

Homesick Feeling

It's rainy and cold and dreary. I'm trying to stay upbeat, looking forward to friends coming into town tonight. But I just want to curl up under a blanket with some hot apple cider and a book and disappear for a while. Or go on a long run like I did Sunday morning into the beautiful mildness of a DC Autumn.

Not sure exactly where the bummed feeling is coming from. I'm tired of working, and I feel grouchy already. I've barely seen the husband these last two weeks. And it's still two long weeks until Thanksgiving. I want to see my mom & dad and my brothers & the SILs and I really want to see my nephew, because he is so cheery and perfect.

I hope I can cheer up soon.

Running a Half

So I decided to take the plunge this morning and sign up for the National Half-Marathon on March 20. I am definitely a bit nervous tackling this new distance. The Army Ten Miler rocked, and if I had been feeling a bit better, I am confident I could have made my nine-minute mile time. But now I'm hoping to not only accomplish that goal mile, but do it for 13.1 miles! Eeek!!

One factor that drew me to this course is that it goes practically past our house, down H street to 13th NE. I remember this past March seeing the half-marathoners (and full marathoners!!) and thinking gosh, can I do that? And this past Sunday, on a gloriously warm November morning run to the Lincoln Memorial and back, I saw the runners go past the Capitol. And maybe I could do that?

The challenge will be trying to run outside in winter, because running outside gives me more energy. I ran quite a bit outside this past winter, but it was mild and I was lucky. This year, who knows? And the other challenge is daylight...I hate the winter and it get dark at 5:00pm. I already missing being able to run after work. Treking to the gym does give me the advantage of being able to do speed intervals, or hill intervals. And in the long run, that will help me conquer some of those kinds of obstacles in a longer race.

Anyway, I am looking forward to it. It'll be my last year in the 30-34 category! And if kids are in the future, I want to say I could run 13.1 miles before. And after, if I'm that lucky.

The Sniper's Execution

John Allen Muhammed is due to be executed tomorrow. Good.

Lori Lewis Rivera was one of his victims. She was only a year younger than me. She had a baby, and she had her whole life ahead of her.

Three Supreme Court justices--Stevens, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor--"objected to the court's haste, saying it "highlights once again the perversity of executing inmates before their appeals process has been fully concluded."

No, Rivera's death was hasty. Rivera didn't have the benefit of these past seven years to see her family grow, to enjoy DC and her life here. Her death was "perverse." She had no appeal.

I remember being in DC at that time, walking that route from our old place on 23rd to Pentagon City. You looked over your shoulder, you were timid, you cautiously turned on the news and wondered if and when there would be the next vicitim. It was only a year after 9/11 and the anthrax letters. It was a scary time, and it was terrorism. I frankly think Lee Boyd Malvo should be executed, too. He was old enough to know right from wrong, and he was old enough to know the consequences he'd face as a cold-blooded murderer.

I hope Rivera's family can find some peace, if not closure. I don't like the death penalty, but some crimes are so heinous that they warrant a greater punishment. This is one of them. And I hope that the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, faces a similar penalty once he is brought to justice.

Two Columns

Lots of truths in this week's Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer columns about Tuesday's election.

First Peggy:

A president has only so much time. Mr. Obama gives a lot of his to health care. But the majority of voters in New Jersey and Virginia told pollsters they were primarily worried about joblessness and the economy. They're on another path, and they don't like the path he's chosen. A majority in a Gallup poll out Wednesday said they now think the president governs from the left, not the middle. The majority did not expect that a year ago.

The president chose promises made before the recession fully took hold, rather than more pressing and pertinent public concerns. In the language of marketing that has become the language of politics he thereby, in his first year, damaged his brand.

I think that is true. Voters don't like the health care proposals, they don't like the spending, they don't like the unemployment rate, they don't like ethically challenged incumbents, and they don't like it when they are ignored.

"Public opinion is everything," Lincoln is said to have said. It is. It can be changed and it can be shaped, but it always has to be listened to. This White House has gotten bad at listening. It paid the price for that on Tuesday.

I agree that the election wasn't primarily anti-Obama, but I don't agree that it was just anti-incumbent. Just twelve short months after "hope and change" voters are still hoping for change. It just wasn't delivered, as promised, in 2008.

As for Krauthammer, he contends the results of the election proves that last year's premise of the a major realignment in American politics was little more than fallacy. He points out that weak candidates weren't the problem, like the Dems maintain--Deeds and McDonnell nearly tied for years ago in the AG race.

Just last month Gallup found that conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1 (40 percent to 20 percent) and even outnumber moderates (at 36 percent). So on Tuesday, the “rump” rebelled. It’s the natural reaction of a center-right country to a governing party’s seeking to rush through a left-wing agenda using temporary majorities created by the one-shot election of 2008. The misreading of that election — and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed — is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009.

This misreading of the mandate caused the problem. This is a center-right country. Perhaps all of those voters who didn't show up this year are all liberal, young, and make this less center-right than the pollsters demonstrate. But they didn't show up. Last year was about the cult of Obama, and not some transcendence of the liberal-progressive politics that Nancey Pelosi seems to think governs this country.

The Maine vote against gay marriage--60% turnout, mind you--also indicates that this liberal progressiveness may be overstated. And when you don't turnout to vote, like 40% didn't, then it is really overstated.

And I even thought a year ago that politics is politics...incumbents get arrogant and get blamed, parties swap sides, you find your beliefs again when you are on the sidelines. Politics is cyclical, and no matter what anyone thinks, nothing is permanent.

Let's see what 2010 brings. I'm going to prognosticate now that many Dems will lose their seats in the House, even if they don't lose the majority, several governors will go down, and perhaps Harry Reid will suffer the same fate as Tom Daschle. But a lot can happen in twelve months--just look at this past year.

Best Of, Already??

It's only November 5, but apparently, Amazon is releasing the first "Best Of" 2009 list already. It's music.

What I own (or have some of) on the ipod today:

48 Thao, Know Better Learn Faster
37 Cass McCombs, Catacombs
35 Antony And The Johnsons, The Crying Light
32 A.C. Newman, Get Guilty
31 U2, No Line On The Horizon
30 Imogen Heap, Ellipse
29 Cave Singers, Welcome Joy
22 Iron & Wine, Around The Well
15 The Swell Season, Strict Joy
14 Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
13 Passion Pit, Manners
11 Metric, Fantasies
10 Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career
08 K’Naan, Troubadour
07 Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion
05 The Avett Brothers, I And Love And You
04 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
03 Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
01 Neko Case, Middle Cyclone

It is two months too early for me to come to my own conclusions, though I do love some of the Passion Pit, Avett Brothers, and Swell Season. Breathe by U2 will show up as favorite tracks, along with Girls by Animal Collective and of course the Cave Singers. And then there are the tracks I've been assembling on my new music in 2009 list on my ipod so that will help me sort. Gosh, is it already November? I know there has to be a number of tracks out there that I still will fall for in 09!

So, also, I finally took the plunge and ordered a new camera off Amazon, since there were some Sony deals for $159. Very excited to finally have a quality digital camera. I just hope I have a chance to fiddle with it before the convention.

Thirty Years Ago and Last Night

Another notable milestone of the week is the 30th anniversary of the Iran Hostage Crisis, when Iranian students stormed the American embassy and took hostage dozens of Americans for 444 days, memorable released the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration (to the great dismay of Jimmy Carter).

A few years ago, I read a great book by Mark Bowden called Guests of the Ayatollah which recounted this crisis. His journalistic background made the tale a real page-turner, and for someone who was only a pre-schooler during those years, gave some real insight into what happened, what the repercussions were, and why Carter handled the entirely incident so ineptly, including that failed rescue attempt.

Last night was another milestone, as the GOP recaptured the governor's office in both Virginia and New Jersey. Bob McDonnell's win was expected; Chris Christie's was hoped for in the wake of the inept way zillionaire Jon Corzine ran the state, not to mention all sorts of tangled ethical issues. It wasn't a total GOP sweept--Hoffman lost in NY-23--but considering how crazy that election was, it was a pretty successful night. So good news in PA supreme court races, Maine's voters rejected gay marriage to the consternation of many libs (ahem, "progressives"), and the 2010 election season has officially started. Granted this was no referendum (according to the MSM) on Obama, though I think it was Jonah Goldberg's comment that summed it up. Something about how if Obama was only good for gushing profiles of Michelle and Miley Cyrus tickets, then hey, let his coattails be even longer!

What Hath God Wrought: Book Review

In record time, I finished the 855 page What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe last night. Yes, I'm a huge nerd in my current reading obsession of the antebellum period. I read it mostly during football weekends, when I felt like I needed to be a little productive during back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back football games. Howe certain had his biases: anti-Jackson, anti-Indian removal, pro-Mormon, anti-Mexican War, pro-John Quincy Adams, pro-Winfield Scott (and sidenote: so that is who Scott Circle is named for!), and pro-womens movement. He celebrated the religious revival of the era, the crusades against slavery, poor beleagured Henry Clay (you wondered how he kept missing his presidential chances), and offered a good round-up of presidents of that era. Not terribly notable Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Martin Van Buren, who was little more than a protegee of Jackson's; Harrison and Tyler, a monumental failure as a Whig prez, James K. Polk, who actually accomplished his goals in advancing the borders of America and retired when he said he would. And eventually Zachary Taylor, who died not too long after his victory in the Mexico War and election. I really felt like I learned a lot about the era--it's glossed over during that period between the War of 1812 and the much-more written about Civil War era. But the antebellum period certainly had its highlights...the conflicted abolitionists movement, slavery rebellions, technology and communication revolutions, the formation of the two-party system (still basically the same as 1860...next year will mark the 150th anniversary of the formation of the GOP...how will we note that?). I definitely remained a fan of Adams and Scott. The personalities were fascinating then and remain so today, and the scandals just as notorious.

I'm going to start from scratch on David Reynolds' Waking Giant, which I attempted to read a year ago during moving and never quite finished. The long discussions of Emerson and Thoreau sort of bored me, because I was much more interested in the politics, but I know I think I have a much more firm grasp of the history of that era. I'm going to also move into my new buy, The Age of Lincoln, to transition into some Civil War era books which I will likely borrow from dad when I'm in Michgan for Thanksgiving. Anyway, I give What Hath God Wrought an A, and I hope this current reading momentum continues.

Twenty Years Ago

The Washington Post had some features in its Outlook Section this weekend reminding us that it was two decades ago that the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching footage of that historic day on mom & dad's black & white TV, watching with awe that this symbol that utterly defined the Cold War was breached. The joy displayed that night was the enduring image that you remember in a year with historic images.

Twenty years later, some of the leading figures, like President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, are gone, but many of the leaders--Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Gorbachev--are still with us. Twenty years can be a lifetime--like those 21 years between the events of 1989 and the Prague Spring (still the favorite paper of mine from college). But it's a generation later, and most of the young 'uns around here were toddlers during those events. They don't remember the threat of nuclear war, the angry rhetoric, the arms build-up, the summits, the old world order, or the Soviet Union itself. Soviet communism was so defining, and its aftermath was little more than a holiday from history, until Islamic terrorism reared its ugly head (again).

Still will always associate that with the Jesus Jones song..."I saw the decade in, when it seemed/the world could change at the blink of an eye"..."Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history."

Postscript...Rich Lowry's column Obama is ignoring this anniversary: It's all about W.