Election day birthday (from Nov 4)
Why yes that is an "I Voted!" sticker on my shirt (I'm such a dork)
Notice how the cake has orange frosting (leftover from jack-o-lantern cookies) and a tree made of a small portion of the 13.5lb of trick-or-treat booty.

Alec (yellow shirt) was the McCain fan in the family "Because he's more bigger"
The older boys voted against McCain (in their school mock elections) mostly because Palin says "nuculer".

Marriage

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27650743

I was listening to the audio from Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" from yesterday this morning. The "special comment" segment was about Proposition 8 in California. It really touched me for some reason. This jumped out at me:

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

I decided to look up which states kept these laws on the books for so long. I found a wikipedia entry for the laws:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws

I was surprised to find that Filipinos ("Malays")were included in some of the laws for "Races" banned from marrying whites. By my count, in the early '60s, when my parents were married, there were still 8 states that would have prohibited that marriage.

Now my parents have 11 grandchildren. I have to hope that some day they will look back, shocked at how wrong the laws were back in 2008

After reading Sherry's blog post about glasses, one of my friends posts a 'flashback' album on facebook- with this awesome shot of me at about 6th grade. I'm the little guy.

Foxy new look

Foxy new look
Originally uploaded by pavasm.

Nice heft, not too thick where your mouth touches, I like it a lot!

Boo!

Boo!
Originally uploaded by pavasm.

I thought this made a great mask- moustache built in!

So Proud

(image from nbc.com)
My wife's cousin is a Gladiator. She was new for the second season and she did a awesome job. It was a bit surreal to see her each week battling the contenders. She's totally my daughter's hero right now.

She's now heading out for a USO tour with some of her fellow Gladiators to visit troops in Kuwait and Iraq. I'm just really impressed she's taking this opportunity to really show support and appreciation for the folks who are serving over there.

Have a safe trip Jennifer!

mushrooms
Originally uploaded by pavasm.

It is so cool to see mushrooms pop up. I missed an opportunity to take a picture of a fabulous mushroom the other day because when I found it I snatched it up and ran in the house to make a lewd joke to my wife. It was a stinkhorn (specifically phallus impudicus - wow!).

McCain + blue

McCain + blue
Originally uploaded by pavasm.

Used to have a good reputation, but the owners insisted on changing the recipe. Now they are often ignored on the plate, with diners focussing on the moose burger.