Obama or McCain or ??? - Part II

Wow. Thank you very much for all your feedback on my last undecided post. I created that post with a pretty clear agenda and the hopes to join in the discussion. If you are a person that has to have your life neat and orderly, be sure to stay single and childless. Once you are married with kids, everything changes.

Seems OhPrincess1 (soon to be known as OhPrincess-Living-In-the-Dog-House) has gone A.W.O.L. on doing some homework assignments. Remember my little rant about personal responsibility...we are working on those lessons...again. Film at 11.

OhCountess has been pretty much bedridden since Monday night with some really bizarre pain in her shoulder blade. Doctors, which I will someday explain my why I believe biology and medicine aren't really sciences...another post, have done little for this other then give her pills to help her sleep. W00t! W00t! I ain't impressed. She's now doped up and in pain...thanks.

Now - why are we here? Oh yeah, we vote on Tuesday of next week. Yes. If you are a U.S. citizen and not a felon, you HAVE to vote. I firmly believe that you should never utter a complaint about anything if you don't vote. You should shut the hell up and get what you got coming. If you voted for the other guy...complain all day. You are entitled.

I've rewritten this post probably 5 times now. The more I write about one subject, the more I just rant and rant an rant. I think I will be doing follow ups on the different topics I've started and scrapped here.

As cheer_dad suggested, I took the quiz over at Glassbooth.org. I gotta tell ya, I was more then a little surprised by the results. I've always considered myself a little 'l' libertarian. I think the best role of government is to stay out of the way of the people. As V said in the movie V for Vendetta, "The people should not fear the government, the government should fear the people."

My results from the survey were that I most matched Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, but not by much. You see, it was a 20 point swing from the top to the bottom of my matching. My top match only matched me at 68% and my least match was John McCain at 45%. I always thought my political philosophy was simple, but apparently I'm alone.

I think what I've discovered over this process is that party politics will probably never be in my future. There are just some issues I feel very strongly about and each party offends one of them. I'm pro-choice, but for free market capitalism. I think consumers should drive the environmental movement. Basically, I like my government really small and unobtrusive. When I finally do share all of my opinions on the subjects, I will have offended each and every one of you.

I wrote the last piece with a particular goal in mind. I had hoped that people reading and responding would see just how difficult it is to discuss the positives of the candidate. So many people are voting for one candidate because he's not the other guy. This is a terrible problem and an even bigger mistake.

Our mission as citizens should be to elect the best possible candidates. I know people that will vote the straight ticket. I've never understood this. Why? Why do you do this?

So, where does this leave me? I have no idea who I'm voting for next Tuesday.

A really appreciate everyone's thoughts on this.

Real post coming soon! It's a contest!

I'm currently in the process of finding the time to write part two of Obama or McCain finalizing OMG that was funny part two of Obama or McCain and I really need to apologize for not getting back to that topic or really even posting in the last week. If anyone has seen the time I'm missing, please return ASAP. I missed it.

Back to the reason for this particular post. It's a short topic. If you are in reader, click through and look at my blog design...you like it? OK...now click through to my poker site...pretty neat look if I do say so myself. Well, I had nothing to do with them. They are the work of a fabulous blog designer named Nap Warder. She's a SAHM that does blog design and graphic arts cause she likes too.

She running a give away RIGHT NOW! Click this link for more details and enter. Her blog chronicles her life as a SAHM (stay at home mom...geez) and wife living in the Big City. She loses me on the Sex and the City talk but her run stories and her battles with the nannies are legendary! Check it out! Now. You know you want a blog redesign...

Almost there!

Wow. I barely remember the price of gas being this low!

This photo was taken today in Red Wing, MN.

Punpkin Patch Day

Every year we take the kids to the pumpkin patch. Today is the day!

Obama or McCain or ???

I've been sitting this election out from the comment side, but this is "the life and thoughts of a Midwest geek."

Most of my friends attempt to pigeon hole me politically. My conservative friends call me a liberal and my liberal friends call me a conservative. I tend to think of myself as a little l libertarian.

I'm finding this election season very disappointing. The partisanship is extra rhetorical much of the talk from either side is just...[holding back bad words].

I'd like to pose a challenge to those of you that are decided in your candidate. I'm still a bit undecided on a candidate and need your help. I'd like to know why I should vote for your candidate of choice, but I do have some rules.

1. At no time can you give a reason FOR your candidate is because he's NOT the other guy.
2. A reason for your candidate can NOT be a bad thing about the other candidate.
3. Please describe for me the plan, in detail. I don't want to hear, "He's gonna fix social security" or "He's going to cut taxes" - Hell, I can say that...can I be prez?
4. If you have supporting details...share them! MoveOn.org and Rush Limbaugh are NOT sources accepted...let's be real here. I like sources that aren't, by definition, slanted.
5. If you get uncivilized in your comment...you will be deleted. If you link to a post (perfectly acceptable response to this challenge) and that post is distasteful, you will be deleted. Name calling will not be tolerated. Please refer to here and here and here.

So there you have it. This is your chance to help me become less undecided. As you can tell, I want to make my decision based on who is ACTUALLY the best candidate. I like logic and reason. I'm a pragmatist and I vote.

Saturdays With Dad: Now with pictures!

For the last 12 years, OhCountess has been an angel of mercy, working as a Registered Nurse. You will never find a profession that deserves more respect. As the significant other of an RN. I've learned that one of the sacrifices I'd learn to live with is that every other Saturday, my wife works; 26 weekends a year.

The title of the post describes a topic I should write about much more often. Every other Saturdays, for me as a dad, our sometimes an opportunity to spend quality time with my daughters in my way. Every other Saturday...it's Daddy Time.

Yesterday was one of the other Saturdays. Mom was at work. As is typical for my girls, they were up and Adam at 6:30 am. A bit early for me on a Saturday, but that's life in the fast lane.

OhPrincess1 came to me with a question. She wanted to know if we had plans for the day because there was something she wanted to do. I'll be honest, I had no plans for the day so a suggestion sounded like a great idea. OhPricncess1 asked if today, we could make something in her Easy Bake Oven.
What a fantastic idea!

Step 1:  Clean the kitchen1. I don't know how many people are like me, but before I START cooking, I clean the kitchen. I love counter space and I want all of it available. I also used this is a carrot. You wanna Easy Bake...well we can't start until things get cleaned. I think we done good.Step 2: Pick out the project and get organized! OhPrincess1 picked the Cinnabon. Well why not? It was brunch time. She did a great job setting everything out and getting it organized. And note how nice it is when the counter is clean...just sayin...

Step3: Add water and mix. I'm just not sure that the bowl that comes with the Easy Bake Oven is really big enough. It was almost impossible to keep the dough in the bowl and what is with that stir thingy with the pan pusher on the end? Seriously...who designed this thing!

Step 3: Talk on the phone. Is this a genetic thing? Baking gets start, the phone rings and chatting begins. It's got to be a girl thing I just don't understand.


The dough was looking pretty darn good. Nice and smooth. You have to wonder though how anyone expects this to feed a family of four.
We just didn't think that the full size rolling pin was going to work. Look at it. That's like 200 times more rolling pin then we need. I firmly believe that you should always use the right tool for the job. OhPrincess found the rolling pin that came with a toy baking set they had. PERFECTION!

OhPrincess1 proudly loads her culinary creation into the oven. Honestly, this was about as much fun as I've had in a very long time. Just look at that face! She was so thrilled.

Waiting for these things to bake is probably the most drawn out cooking experience EVER! We did an experiment to see if it was true in this case. You know how "a watched pot never boils"...well a watched batch of cinnamon rolls still takes 14 minutes no matter how much staring you do.

While we waited for the first batch to bake, OhPrincess2 wanted to take a crack at this. We got her going on the dough trying desperately to keep a majority of the dry ingredients in the bowel. If you ever need to replace a power mixer, just use a 5 year old. Same result.

 
We got the dough mix, rolled, sprayed with cooking spray (can we just say Pam), covered in cinnamon and sugar and cut into Fourths (great opportunity to practice our fractions...don'tcha thing?

This time, we even remember to spray the pan. We didn't want a repeat of the Great Stuck Cake incident of '07. [shivers]
The first batch was done while just after we got done mixing the second batch. We quickly discovered the waiting for the 15 minutes of cool down time isn't
improved by staring either. Although OhPrincess2 was quite taken by cleaning the counter.

Eventually, we got the frosting mixed and the package reread while waiting for the first batch to cool and the second batch to bake.

The time went DING! OhPrincess was really excited. She was very proud of her hard work.
I couldn't blame her. They turned out GREAT. Apparently, my aggressive movements towards the tasty treats was unwelcome. She defended those things like French defend Paris.  Just kidding. She did a good job and I never got one.

With that crazy stir/spreader/pan pushing thing, she covered our little nuggets of goodness with sugary slurry.

All that was left for her to do was sample these little morsels.

The verdict was - AWESOME!

OhPrincess2 got join in the waiting fun. They were baked, but how do you explain to a 5 year old that until the red sticker turns something other then red...we don't touch. 

Eventually, they were cool enough. We learned a valuable lesson with the first ones. Spreading with that multi-tasker wasn't nearly as much fun as just dunking these things in the sugar stuff.

After all was said and done. We had a blast. I grew up in a family with 3 out of the 4 members were boys. I really never had an opportunity to do fun things like this. The Easy Bake Oven was just something boys didn't do. Too bad.

Haven't seen this in a while

Check out the gas price...

Stories from my youth - Part 1

I got the idea from BusyDad when sharing a story with him about stupid things kids do. He made a really interesting observation...wouldn't that make an interesting blog post. You know...it would.

Stories From Youth - Part 1

Back in high school, I really was a geek. I loved science and math. Only the truly geeky really signed up for things like "The Science Olympiad." I jumped at the chance!

The best and the brightest geeks from my school participated in a one day olympiad that featured many interesting competitions in many science disciplines. I seemed to excel in events that were multi-disciplined and required a certain amount of coordination.

But this isn't why I'm writing this. You see the reason I am sharing this with you is to teach you that while a teenager maybe capable of getting straight A's in school, scoring nearly a perfect score on both the SAT and the ACT, a teenage boy is, in the end, still just a teenage boy.

A member of our team and a future top 10 graduate demonstrated to the entire group just to what level of stupidity any teenage boy is capable of reaching. In a moment of sheer boredom, he whips open a pixie stick that he had in his bag, tears off the end and empties the contents into a pile on the tray attached to the stadium seats, grabs a card from his wallet and proceeds to turn the pile of sugar and citric acid in to long lines.

Yes folks, this future All-American scholar snorted the contents of his pixie stick up his nose.

After several minutes of shaking and his eyes producing copious amounts of tears - he gains control and says to the people around him "Oh crap, that burns."

Never underestimate the level of stupidity that can be reached by any teenage boy.

4 Generations

You don't get to see this everyday. Here is the complete progeny of my grandparents, Francis "Red" and Nellie OhCaptain (name changed to protect the related). All 4 generations of surviving relation all in one picture. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Jinkies! Um, wow. Thank You!

Twice in one week. I'm truly humbled and honored to be appreciated like this. Tismee2 (Gail) from over at Squared Off presented me with this award. It's my honor to make you smile :-)

Check out her blog. I look forward to finding her posts in my reader. She's a geek like me and writes about whatever she wants...how cool is that?

Thank you very much!

---

I'll be going through my photos from this weekend. My cousin got married in a small southwest Minnesota town. I'm not sure why it is, but putting me in a church at a wedding just gets my camera trigger finger just a twitchin. One picture I'm really excited about and not for it's artistic qualities but for something that can be extremely rare. We took a picture of all the living decendents of my grandparents. Not that the family is really that huge, but everyone all together just never seems to happen.

Peek-a-boo!

OhCaptain & family are hanging out at my cousin's wedding. Have I ever
mentioned that I only have 5 first cousins...total?

There's a first for everything!

Out of the ashes of my beloved Minnesota Twins season, arose a phoenix.

As far as I know, not once in the 5 years of this blog have I ever received an award.

Kat over at 3 Bedroom Bungalow presented me with the "Hooked on Your Blog" Award! Thank you very much!

I really should spread the love, and will do it soon. Right now, I'm working on recovering from last night's Twins game and watching my 403B shrink faster then my poker bankroll...

Thanks again Kat! I really am truly honored and humbled.