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hiking in rock creek park (why we love dc #9)
Sep
28
2008

it turns out that rock creek park (of Chandra Levy fame) has a network of trails … *actual* trails with switchbacks, elevation gain, wildlife, streams, and mud. not just the paved rec paths or glorified sidewalks you would imagine in a city park.

it amazes me that residents of Mt. Pleasant won’t shut up about the glory that is the National Zoo — though it is pretty awesome — and yet they neglect to mention the National Park-grade liking trails less than three blocks away.

even more stupefying is that we had the trails to our selves. sans a couple or dog owners and a pair of septuagenarians warning us about the perils of poison ivy (they had just been interviewed by News Channel 8 on the topic) there was nary a human in sight on a stunningly beautiful Sunday afternoon.

there are two main trails around the park … the western ridge trail and the valley trail. we looped through the bottom third of both in about two hours. the trails go from the Zoo all the way up to Maryland, but we weren’t that brave (and, frankly, should have been in better shoes).

we did get lost (yes, in rock creek park) and used my fancy-pants new iPhone’s GPS locator-thingy to save our bacon. I’d like to think that the coolness of the iPhone balances embarrassment of actually using it in the “wilderness” … but, sadly, it’s still just humiliating.

speaking of maps, those provided by the Park Service show the trails as one unintelligible smudge, which makes navigation (without an iPhone) that much more exciting. there are larger, more printer friendly rock creek trail maps here:

Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (South)
Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (North)

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Hiking in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
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live: the first presidential debate
Sep
26
2008

Guess who live blogged the debate tonight? Tonight’s coverage came from waaaay out in suburban Maryland — home of the very mighty baby boig. Also, in case you missed it, I live blogged that joint appearance by Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on Saturday night two weeks back.

thoughts from the debate

8:05 AM I honestly can’t imagine a better prologue for the debate than McCain calling for it to be canceled, and Obama educating John that a President needs to be able to walk *and* chew gum at the same time.
12:08 PM debate is looking like it’s a go. washingtonpost.com reporting that mccain has agreed to participate, citing “significant progress” on the bailout.
12:14 PM in case you hadn’t heard, mccain has already won the debate … and this “happened” while he was still trying to kill it.
5:10 PM i’m more than a little nervous about rolling out new technology (posting from iPhone) in a live broadcast event … even if it there are just three of you watching/reading.
8:18 PM at the party … negotiations have commenced as to which network coverage to watch. it doesn’t look good for PBS.
8:55 PM So we have the option of watching RoboCop or the debate. Dunno, I do like Peter Weller.
9:01 PM Here we go, in the land of the stars and bars. On CNN. *Sigh*
9:03 PM I [heart] Jim Lehrer.
9:05 PM Interesting how McCain entered from the *right* of the stage … hmmm.
9:05 PM Barack = too much makeup.
9:07 PM McCain trots out Kennedy’s illness? Nice try, but poor form … especially for what was deemed a “mild seizure.”
9:08 PM At least McCain practiced his response to the financial bailout question. Barack should have had that speech polished. You’ve *got* to map out your first fifteen offensive plays if you want to coach in this league, kiddo.
9:10 PM It’s going to be a long night if they don’t start answering Jim’s questions…
9:11 PM How is the financial crisis like the landings at Normandy? I got WAY confused on that one…
9:13 PM Point to John McCain for making a joke … proof that he’s actually alive. Especially important as he (a) isn’t moving much, and (b) his makeup makes him look like a corpse.
9:16 PM That lighting makes McCain look like he has a comb-over … or maybe that’s just reality doing that.
9:20 PM “I didn’t win Miss Congeniality in the US Senate..” NICE!
9:27 PM Barack is looking great … and I don’t think McCain is winning many points being *so* focused on pork barrel spending. It’s a bullet point, John. It’s not the whole speech.
9:31 PM Is McCain running for President or Accountant-In-Chief? Next slide, John-boy.
9:35 PM Barack is much more nimble at jumping from issue to issue … John-boy isn’t flustered, but isn’t exactly fleet of feet here.
9:44 PM I hope Petraeus doesn’t retire … who is McCain going gush over when he’s gone.
9:48 PM Watching on CNN, I am fascinated by the little graph on the bottom of the screen measuring audience response, one line each for dems, indies and repubs … I know it prolly has no substance what-so-ever but I can’t tear my eyes away
9:51 PM Barack is calling McCain out for “misrepresentation” a lot. People here are standing saying “Hallelujah,” but I wonder how the confrontation is looking to the undecideds.
9:52 PM I feel like McCain keeps fighting the last argument.
9:56 PM Is McCain sleeping with General Petraeus? I know about this “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing, but maybe John-boy should do a little more “don’t tell…”
9:58 PM John-boy supports extinction for North Korea and jokes about bombing Iran? Two good lines to Obama. I’m thinking he was well prepped.
10:00 PM McCain’s jowells are twitching … I think he’s getting ready to combust.
10:01 PM Oy. A verbal battle of soldier’s mother’s bracelets … unseemly. You can see that Obama is wearing the bracelet, John. Why bring it up?
10:05 PM McCain just called Iran an “existential” threat. Was that “existential” as in “existentialism,” as in Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche … as in “I create my own reality?” Heck, I’d agree that John-boy creates his own reality …
10:07 PM I know that I’m partial, but I’m pretty sure Obama is doing waaaay better keeping McCain honest than vice versa.
10:09 PM “Punishing countries by not talking to them does not work…” *great* line from Obama, putting McCain square in the Bush camp.
10:12 PM So, this reminds me of a funny joke I heard: Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Obama walk into a bar — stop me if you have heard this one …
10:18 PM I can’t hear the word “Russia” without thinking about Tina Fey saying: “I can see Russia from my back yard.”
10:20 PM You know at least a hundred people outside Atlanta just called the Georgia state police to report that the Russians have invaded.
10:24 PM That smirk on McCain’s face is positively Bush-ian. Do you think the general public finds it as pompous (and vaguely unstable) as I do?
10:26 PM Does anyone know what Nunn-Lugar is? Two of you? Great. Are you an undecided living in middle America? No, not so much …
10:28 PM If the U.S. is safer now than after 9/11, can we get step down from that “Code Orange” thing that’s messing up all the airports?
10:30 PM I know Obama isn’t going to say it, but could the biggest threat to our security be to remain in Iraq? Or, for us to not fix our standing in the world?
10:31 PM Spoke too soon. Obama just said “we must restore our standing in the world” and that statement shoved that audience reaction graph through the roof. Dems and Indies are way up. Even the repubs are up, up, up. Who knew America cared? Or, who knew a focus group in Atlanta cared?
10:33 PM McCain just said “blood and treasure.” Which brings up an important point … does middle America celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and do they know it was actually last week?
10:36 PM McCain just said Bush and Obama shared foreign policy stubbornness. Sharpest knock on the president so far, though (imho) it seemed a bit forced.
10:37 PM John is tiring out, Barack. Just smile and nod… and say you love America, a lot. And babies.
10:38 PM It’s over, enter the Stepford Wife!
10:45 PM Well, that’s done … not sure anyone really won or loss, but I’m drooling over the next round of polling.
10:46 PM How far up does Obama have to be to overcome people swapping teams in the voting booth due to the latent racism of Americans? Someone here at the party said 15%, though I’d guess Palin may have moderated that a bit (target for latent sexism).
10:47 PM Okay, gotta drive home. More thoughts later …
10:51 PM Not leaving quite yet. Was there any moment of this debate that we will remember in 20 years? I am thinking not. And it seemed to me that debating with McCain sullies Obama. I don’t like seeing such a gifted orator have to deal with a bean-counter like that.
10:55 PM Lotta people talking (in person, on the telly) about Obama saying “John is right” so much, and that being a sign of weakness … I’m not so sure. A sign of bipartisanship, yes. Weakness? Maybe not.
10:56 PM Okay, now I really am leaving…

a couple thoughts from the drive home

first, i liked how approachable obama seemed … he had a “kitchen table” schtick about him, and it think that will serve him well. it’s not him at his most eloquent, but i think everybody is expecting a good state of the union already. it’s still a question of if you want to drink beer with him, and the debate was a personal win for him here.

second, that stupid audience reaction graph seemed to map indies and dems very closely together, with repubs more often swinging the opposite way. if that graph has value, which is a bold assumption, then this correlation is a very, very good sign for Obama. actually, anecdotally, i’d say that the three lines were more “together” when barack was speaking, and a little more separated when mccain was speaking. that could be good, too.

finally, a Conservative commentator (not sure who) mentioned that foreign policy and national security are the bread and butter issues for McCain, and that if he doesn’t score in this debate, he probably isn’t going to score at any debate. Now, call the debate how you will, but i don’t think anyone is saying that McCain did any better than “holding his own” … so, that could be good, too.

well, good night! god bless you … and god bless the united states of america.

p.s. i want you to know i did this whole thing from a couch using my iPhone. come on in, my friends … drink the kool-aid. the water is *mighty* fine.
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iphone makes wife love you
Sep
22
2008

on the way back from the airport last night, i had my first “come to Jesus” moment with my new, beloved iPhone …

it was late(ish) and we needed to get some food. there is nothing around the airport (bwi, yick…) and the lady sparkler said she wanted something that wasn’t fast food … like maybe baja fresh or panera, and then proceeded to start chatting up her cell phone.

so, ever looking for reasons to play with “my precious,” i brought up the fancy GPS/map thing, and typed in baja fresh. it immediately brought up my location, the location of the closest baja fresh (8.2 miles towards D.C.), plotted directions for me, and then proceeded to blink a blue dot to guide me in.

this, in itself, should have been enough to make me babble about the technology revolution all through dinner.

however, it turns out that when we made the blinking blue dot (us) match up with the steady red dot (them) there was no restaurant — but (!), when i clicked on the red dot to get more information about the restaurant, there was a phone number listed (which i clicked), and the phone dialed it automatically (!).

a nice boy told me we needed to go two blocks farther down the street. wifey ate, i didn’t go 20 miles out of the way, and evvvverybody was happy.

i’ve totally drunk the iPhone kool-aid. nothing will come between me and my previous … <ominous> noothiing </omninous>.
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return from the northern kingdom
Sep
21
2008

it’s the beginning of fall travel season, and we kicked it off with a trip to visit the Vermont Parkers, outside Burlington.

I’m certain we did stuff — we have pictures as proof — but mostly we kicked around and relaxed. I remember something about mini-golf (tho we didn’t keep score) and food / deck / backyard, but mostly I remember relaxing.

my iPhone is the personification (electronic-device-ification?) of *awesomeness.* I can’t believe I didn’t get one of these sooner (oh, wait. AT&T … that’s why.)

next up is Dallas for our second consecutive “wedding of the century.” it’ll be an Anglo-Dutch-Indo-Pakistani-Mexican-Middle Eastern affair, so should be fascinating.

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Facebook: Long Weekend in Burlington, Vermont
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kids on campus
Sep
15
2008

It’s that time of year again … when drunken freshman boys roam the streets, parkour-ing off downtown curbs to impress non-existent girls.

When young women move in packs of eight or more, with anorexic blonds leading the way (pressing the less-than-skinny into service as “rear guard”).

When you see athletically mismatched couples running together, the result of conversations that must have gone something like this:

    Buff Girl: I love running. Do you run? (Please say yes, please say yes…)

    Flabby Boy: Um. Yeah. Of course! I, uh, run all the time. (Shoes. Did I bring anything other than flip-flops?)

    Buff Girl: Great! How about Saturday night? (That’ll get me off the hall, and if it’s dark people won’t be able to tell he’s a dork …)

    Flabby Boy: Sure, that’d be great. (I hope she puts out quick. I haven’t run since that presidential skills test in 7th grade, when I puked on the second-to-last lap.)

    Buff Girl: 9 o’clock? (Oh, I’ve got the perfect outfit. I hope his cute roommate sees me.)

    Flabby Boy: Great! (Dude, I *love* college! It’s exactly like I saw in that movie…)

When on Thursday night, girls in impossibly impractical shoes — and with nary enough clothes between them for one good outfit — block up metro escalators by standing to the left.

When on weekends, shell shocked parents lead miserable looking children around Target buying those last minute essentials, like toilet paper and granola bars.

*sniff*

Boy, I miss college.
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one down, one to go …
Sep
14
2008

well, we (finally) polished off that hallway-painting-project that we started way back on labor day weekend.

actually, we finished up most of it last week, but still had a couple of touch-ups left for today … a switch plate here, an empty picture frame there, that sort or thing. we’ve got a couple more things left in the bathroom, however, so we won’t be able to slay that beast until next week.

never thought such simple projects could take so long. they say that, for home improvement projects, you should take your original estimate and double it … but, i think we are somewhere around 16x.

well, at least it looks purdy.
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live: joint sarah palin / hillary clinton appearance
Sep
13
2008

In a suprising turn of events, I’m hearing rumors (from Washington insiders) that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton will be making a joint appearance tonight! Because I live blogged both conventions (and hope to do at least some of the debates!) i figured I should do this special event, too …

Saturday Night

11:30 PM hillary looks like she has had work done. who is she trying to impress, her fancy Hollywood donors?
11:30 PM And why did Sarah and Hillary decide to do this appearance on Saturday night? I bet if Hillary weren’t there, NBC would have put Sarah on primetime!
11:31 PM that sarah, she’s so pretty! boy, they look realllly great together (sarah, and sarah). Sarah is so gracious to reach out to those lefty women’s libbers.
11:32 PM “God hugging us closer.” She has such faith in God. It’s inspiring.
11:32 PM Did she just say MILF? Sarah is teaching me new words…!
11:32 PM Now I have to look up “flurge” too … Hillary and her high-falutin’ vocabulary. I don’t understand why just can’t she talk like regular Americans.
11:33 PM Alaskan jokes are SO funny!
11:33 PM MILF and flurge aren’t in the dictionary for some reason, so I have started looking them up on the interweb. It is so useful!
11:34 PM MILF! Tee-hee! I love that Sarah, she is so naughty!
11:34 PM Flurge. *FLURGE.* Oh my. I never liked that Hillary woman. She’s such a crass little harpy…
11:34 PM Hillary ranting on something. Only focusing on "she who would be VPILF." (I made a funny!)
11:35 PM Hillary seems more animated than usual. I’m thinking something must be up … it’s like she’s a completely different person, but I don’t like this one either.
11:35 PM Oh, Hillary. Get off the stage.
11:36 PM I think this was definitely a win for Sarah. So funny, and I think she leads in the “who would you rather drink a six pack with” area. (I’d like to drink a six pack or two with that Palin…!)
11:37 PM Vote McCain!

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karma
Sep
13
2008

I’m writing this from my brand new iPhone … from the side of the road next to our broken-down car.

Ain’t karma a #%*£?

It’s hard not to think that something is up. Hurricane Gustav came after the Louisiana Spindlers. Hannah tried to get the Virginia Parkers (but failed) and took a swipe at us (the DC Parkers?) but we had fled south.

And, just today, the Texas Spindlers took Hurricane Ike on the chin, though by all accounts they weathered the storm. But, in the immortal words of The Lady Sparkler, “if I were [the Oregon Spindler], I’d be on typhoon watch…”

So, considering every one is happy and healthy (and I have an iPhone), I guess a temperamental radiator isn’t such a big deal … thank the good sweet Lord.
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washington, dc at night (again)
Sep
12
2008

[Photo]
ECPA20080829_5346, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
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The National Mall at Night, Washington, DC
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choose your superpowers
Sep
05
2008

I’m reading a fun (read: trashy) little book called Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories, and while I don’t normally do fiction, this one is pretty good.

so, each hero in each story has a strange new power to meet a modern threat (to become a meerkat, to mind-control televangelists, to never forget a name) which got the lady sparkler and i to thinking about what powers we would take if given the choice …

mine was easy. ever since i was a child, i wanted (a) to have bionic eyes which would zoom, see infrared, take pictures, etc. and (b) the power to be invisible. i’d totally be the little monkey boy who’d come back with the intel and then let the main characters go off and do the dirty work.

she floundered a bit, but soon settled on the ability to fly (”that’s be so cool! zooming in and out of the clouds…”) and to time travel, which — i’ll have you know — includes *both* going backwards and forwards in time, *and* stopping it all together. she also wants a costume that kicks major heiney, too (first draft is above, right).

I thought my desired superpowers say a lot about my personality, but her’s seem an even better match. i’m curious, tho … are we the only ones who have thought this through?
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