theparkerfamily.org

  • wedding of the century: international edition

    we spent the weekend in Dallas for a dutch-indo-pakistani-mexican-middle eastern-american wedding … oh, where to begin.

    the weekend began with a traditional ceremony where the families exchange gifts, the groom is forced to pay-off the brides cousins (they hypothetically hold the groom down and demand money in small unmarked bills, though in this case the pressure seemed to be more mental than physical) and the ladies get henna tattoos applied (the lady sparkler included).

    saturday saw two events, the “big one” early in the afternoon and then a formal dinner later that night. the bride had two spectacular dresses (see below), the first reception had a Mariachi band (which rocked the hiz-house), and the rest of the day saw us hanging out with one of the most spectacularly great groups of people ever assembled.

    i always forget that good friends typically have good friends, but this was a special bunch.

    explore the photoset:
    hutchins/kazi wedding, dallas, texas

  • found photo: cotton bowl, dallas, texas

    [Longhorn, Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas.]
    IMG_0219, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • live: the final night of presidential madness

    i’m desperately trying to come up with something else to liveblog tonight, mainly because i am struggling to come up with anything original that i could possibly say during another ninety minutes of political discourse.

    sure, mccain could come out with some kind of plan, and sure, obama could suddenly start spouting in arabic about the downfall of the great satan … but i am thinking the odds of this are a little low.

    I will say that there has been a lot of ink floating around lately which seems to be setting up nicely for an Obama win. The most interesting are from (admittedly moderate) Conservatives such as David Brooks:

    He’s phenomenally good at surrounding himself with a team,” Brooks said. “I disagree with them on most issues, but I am given a lot of comfort by the fact that the people he’s chosen are exactly the people I think most of us would want to choose if we were in his shoes.

    … and Andrew Sullivan:

    … McCain would have to concede that he didn’t vet her, made his decision impulsively based on no real knowledge of her, and that his first serious judgment as a presidential candidate was so monumentally irresponsible that it doesn’t just disqualify her for the vice-presidency. It disqualifies him for the presidency.

    This story line is the most interesting to me, as someone who was on the hill during the later part of Gingrich’s Republican revolution. I can say, the prevailing wisdom was that we had seen the death-knell of modern American liberalism, and that people we’re hoping that the Conservative lock on the halls of power would only be a couple of decades long.

    Sure, I’d take an Obama presidency in it’s own right, but just the possibility that we haven’t become a country of one permanent majority party is what’s making me feel warm and fuzzy right now.

    8:54 PM just heard five minutes on CNN where I couldn’t make out one pundit making one discernable point. it’s going to be a long, long night.
    8:58 PM tired of hearing deal people talking about real problems. can we have some fake voters talking about some artificial problems?
    8:59 PM john king: “john McCain is George bush’s older brother.” ouch!
    9:03 PM the candidates almost hugged. what are they up to?
    9:06 PM mccain has now started two-thirds of the debates with a hospital update about a prominent political figure. some one needs to explain to him that the demographic he should be targeting isn’t exactly on hospital watch.
    9:10 PM schaeffer: “senator mccain, would you like to ask a question?” mccain: “um, no.”
    9:11 PM obama: “senator mccain has obviously been listening to his own ads … now, let me tell you what I’m *actually* going to do.”
    9:12 PM eating 53-week old wedding cake. third slice. it’s *that* good …
    9:13 PM this is much more socially awkward that usual, and i honestly didn’t think that was possible.
    9:18 PM McCain shouldn’t talk about the Depression era like he was there. Oh, wait. He *was* there.
    9:20 PM I wonder if there is a “debate moderators” support group, where they go through therapy as a result of the candidates refusing to answer their questions.
    9:21 PM Ooo, McCain is getting feisty. “I’m not President Bush. If you wanted to run against him, you should have run four years ago.”
    9:22 PM … and he just tanked the rest of his response. a promising attack, snuffed out in its youth.
    9:27 PM multi-tasking. just posted pictures of a weekend of hiking in sky meadows state park, virginia.
    9:29 PM wow. jesus. finally. mccain brought his “a” game to this debate. him looking so hurt about the john lewis thing kinda made him look like a wuss, though.
    9:31 PM it seems like a slippery slope for either of them saying that the other one is going too “negative.”
    9:32 PM i’ve decided … these two need marital counseling.
    9:36 PM mccain pressing how he has been treated by the obama campaign is a bold gambit. i wonder if it pays off … or makes him look completely unfocused on the issues.
    9:40 PM obama: “I think that your focus on [Ayers and Acorn] shows more about your campaign, than it does about my campaign.”
    9:41 PM okay kids. that was fun. can we get back to the issues the rest of us care about now?
    9:48 PM i wish i had more to live blog, but nothing terribly original is happening … other than the rising levels of condescension.
    9:50 PM i wish the campaigns would watch the stupid little audience response graph on cnn. talk about issues? graph goes up. talk about each other? graph goes down. how hard is this to understand?
    9:52 PM the lady sparkler and texas in africa said within minutes of each other that this debate is waaaay too inside baseball.
    9:53 PM tee-hee! i’m going to start playing the “drink everytime McCain slips an attack in on Obama” game. think i will make it through the next 3 minutes?
    9:55 PM you know, we were *just* talking about how much better a model that Peruvian free trade pact was over the Columbian one. like, last night over dinner. this is the best debate ever!
    9:57 PM the lady sparkler just broke out the vodka. i was going to avoid telling you that it’s lemon vodka, but that tidbit was just too tasty.
    9:58 PM obama: “i was just talking to a couple of women who had to be in their mid-50s…” i hope they don’t turn out to be 40, because he may have just lost their votes. thank god he didn’t guess their weight.
    10:02 PM if mccains smile becomes any more forced, people are going to think he died.
    10:05 PM why does Joe the Plumber get all the love??? how about Evan the Fundraiser, or HGM the Freelancer, or Texas the Professor? oh, that’s why. we’re the white intellectual elites. damn.
    10:07 PM HEY! mccain is a self professed federalist. dig out those papers, kids!
    10:09 PM john, saying justices must strictly adhere to the consitution *is* a litmus test.
    10:11 PM I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of televisions cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
    10:12 PM we have to change the culture of america, john? i thought america was the most perfect country around. you can’t change it! that’s un-american …
    10:16 PM that stupid little audience response graph just went through the roof when obama started talking about education, and working to reduce the demand for abortions.
    10:16 PM last question! oh, thank god …
    10:21 PM i love soldiers too, but making them all teachers without requiring certification? i’m not sure that is such a great idea.
    10:25 PM the CNN pundits’ scorecard is currently 46% mccain, 54% obama.
    10:25 PM YES, SARAH PALIN KNOWS ABOUT AUTISM. YES. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE.
    10:29 PM john mccain’s closing statement was perfect. it’s a damn shame (for him) that the rest of his campaign hasn’t carried out that theme …
    10:31 PM go vote now, it will make you feel big and strong …
    10:32 PM cindy needs to adjust her vertical hold, or her white balance, or something … i mean, daaaaaaaamn girl.

    final thoughts

    the pundits are saying that mccain was great out of the gates (agree) that it was mccain’s best debate (agree) and it wasn’t obama’s best (agree) and that obama was on the defensive for the first third of the debate (agree).

    but they are also saying that mccain let obama back in the debate by dwelling / looking emotionally disturbed by the ayers / john lewis thing (agree a hundred times over). mccain looked angry. obama looked like an academic. wonder how all this translated into the masses …

    after the last debate, there was a lot of conversation about how mccain’s window was closing, and that this closing window means he would have to take larger risks (attacking obama) and those risks would have a greater chance of backfiring.

    i certainly think that mccain has either slowed or stopped the hemorrhaging, but did he fundamentally change the course of the debate? dunno, but my guess is no. and i am certainly not going to loose any sleep about it.

    speaking of which, good night. god bless. i’ll most likely kill you in the morning.

  • i’ve been working on this post for 12 days…

    i normally draft blog posts by revision. each post that goes up has probably two hours of typing through a dozen or two versions. i write like a talk, and i have to talk a *lot* before it sounds very good.

    the focus of the effort? trying to codify why mccain’s selection of palin has shoved me over the ideological edge.

    i fervently believe that the once great republican party has been hijacked by a small group of people who are squandering it’s reagan-era “big tent” appeal in order to further their own shallow, limited political motivations. a lot of people are turned off by palin for a lot of reasons, but this anti-intellectual chauvinism (from the party that brought you lincoln, no less) is the big one for me.

    so, i completed 20+ drafts, but i could never get the tone right … i could never scrub my progressive perspective from the piece, and there is such a fine line between constructive and destructive criticism anyway.

    then, after all that work, i read this piece by david brooks, a conservative commentator for the new york times … and in 800 words said what i had been trying to say for the last 12 days.

    it kills me to compliment a conservative, but this one is worth it … *sheesh.*

  • year-old wedding cake

    it’s amazing, but eating year old wedding cake really isn’t that bad … granted, the lady sparkler spent twenty minutes, a box of aluminum foil and a box of saran wrap getting the cake ready for the freezer, but when it came out it was all yummy goodness.

  • hike: sky meadows state park, virginia

    [Photo]
    ECPA20081011_5591, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Explore the Photo Set:
    Hike: Sky Meadows State Park, Virginia

  • home installation: cropp-metcalfe vs. the aircraft carrier furnace

    so, i’ve been fibbing about how idyllic our life in dc’s mount pleasant is …

    sure the neighborhood is great, and the food authentic, and everything is walkable. our space is big, with lots of windows and beautiful hard wood floors. sure, we’ve decorated and painted just about every square inch of our abode.

    but, our ac/furnace sounds like you are living on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

    … right at the base of the aircraft catapult.

    … during the first 24 hours of the Operation Desert Storm.

    so, i did what any reasonable home owner would do, which is coincidentally what the lady sparkler did when she wanted a new coffee pot: i bribed our cat to destroy the heat exchanger with an acetylene torch so that it “had” to be replaced by a quieter model.

    (and, by “bribing our cat” i mean “it was at the end of its lifecycle” and, by “destroy the heat exchanger” i mean “it apparently kept catching itself on fire.”)

    being the expert and savvy city-dweller that my wife is, we quickly came to the conclusion that uncontrolled fire in our home was a bad thing, and that we should (indeed) replace our beast with a model whose white noise wouldn’t encourage me to kill the Beatles.

    so, we solicited ourselves some bids (by “we” i mean “she”), selected a vendor who ridiculously underbid the job for the equipment they were giving us, and i stayed home from work today to see it through (by “see it through” i mean “sat here and stayed out of the way.”)

    cropp-metcalfe was great. our home inspector couldn’t believe their price, and we had a friendly install team comprised of a 60-year old west african who couldn’t really speak any english and a 20-year old latin american who couldn’t really speak any english.

    the language barrier was funny enough during the installtion — they seemed to have fundamental differences of understanding on the words “up” vs. “down” and “back” vs. “forward” — but the situation became farcical when it came time to explain to me the many features of our brand spanking new (and shiny!) Carrier Infinity Series 2-stage, variable speed high efficiency furnace (58CVA).

    but, it’s up and running, works like a champ, and the whole unit makes just a whisper of a hum, compared to our old unit’s voice of God which passeth all understanding and causes our frail human melons to explode.

    if i sound giddy … it’s because i am. it’s like christmas, only in october. it’s like that independence day movie when the fireworks going off after the alien ship blew up, only better. or like when hellen keller learned to sign the word “water,” only more poignent.

    so, i’m going to celebrate tonight by (a) sleeping through the night, (b) watching TV with the sound about 20 decibels lower, and (c) going out with my wife to celebrate our anniversary.

    good night, and god bless you, and god bless the United States of America.

  • debate, part 2: the revenge of mccain (live)

    crap. there is a debate tonight, isn’t there. ugh.

    8:07 PM who am i. why am i here? no, really. why *am* i here?
    8:59 PM blah, blah, red states. blah, blah, undecided voters. blah, blah, obama, blah, blah, ohio, blah. blah, blah, debates don’t matter. blah, blah.
    9:01 PM if tom brokaw is approving the questions, why doesn’t he just ask them? i hate the townhall format. does that make me an elitist?
    9:02 PM i think we need to reevaluate making me a despot. i promise to be benevolent.
    9:08 PM mccain looks like a compassionate human being. what is he up to?
    9:14 PM oh, man! naked gun 2 1/2 is on. what am i doing with my life?!?
    9:16 PM obama isn’t looking good pointing so many fingers. just ignore mccain, and talk about a PLAN.
    9:18 PM NO ONE OUTSIDE OF THE BELTWAY THINKS THAT WRITING A LETTER IS DOING ANYTHING AT ALL. DROP IT.
    9:23 PM i hate this format. now instead of not answering the media’s questions (which we all agree is perfectly acceptable) they are now ignoring the questions of the general public. how is this good thing?
    9:25 PM mccain is going to cut entitlements and build a bunch of nuclear plants. i’m guessing he isn’t trying to turn dems to his cause …
    9:26 PM good for Obama knowing the price of gas in Nashville. nice touch.
    9:30 PM mccain is really spending a LOT of time talking about his record. are there that many who are unsure about it? if the are unsure about it, are they going to take his word at face value? i’m guessing not.
    9:30 PM “we’re not rifle shots here.” what exactly does this mean?
    9:38 PM CNN: the little audience response graph at the bottom of the screen *flatlined* on mccains crack that keeping track of obama’s tax plans are like nailing jello to the wall.
    9:42 PM social security reform isn’t tough, why hasn’t it been done yet, John?
    9:45 PM i’m thinking john’s record on climate change is a little suspect if his veep isn’t even sure global warming is caused by human beings. speaking of, i wonder if she falls into the “caused by cow flatulence” camp.
    9:49 PM don’t do it, obama. don’t go negative on mccain. we expect it from him, not from you.
    9:51 PM i have to look up that “politicians haven’t done anything in 30 years about energy, and mccain has been there for 26 of them” comment. if you *have* to go negative, that’s the way to go. let people draw their own conclusions. lead the horses to water, and most of us will drink.
    9:58 PM health care as a right for every american. god bless that man. god bless him.
    10:02 PM john mccain’s response to when to use military might is the best he has ever given … right up until that patronizing part at the very end.
    10:03 PM either i’m drunk or these things are getting easier to sit through. wait a second, i am drunk. nevermind.
    10:07 PM CNN has these analyst score cards … and i added up all six results for both candidates — Obama, 60. McCain, 11. Youch.
    10:09 PM I’m so tired of McCain’s hero-worship of Petraeus and Reagan. Why does he feel he needs to do it, and what would the analogy be for Obama. Clinton? Kennedy? LBJ?
    10:12 PM Hey, McCain’s got a new hero!!! It’s Teddy Roosevelt, now. Maybe he will shut up about Petraeus. (Or maybe not…)
    10:19 PM McCain’s negative comments flatlining on the audience response graph reminds the missus of McCain’s heart flatlining, which reminds her that he’s old, which makes her sad.
    10:21 PM gawd, he really is old.
    10:22 PM crap, Obama forgot his lines about Russia. slow and steady, my friend. noun first, then try a verb, then maybe an object … nice and slow.
    10:27 PM i am soooo tired of the “pre-conditions before talking to iran” issue. even if you are right, it’s not a campaign issue. NEXT SLIDE, please.
    10:29 PM stupid question! iran will not attack israel, and (if they did) china and russia would never oppose a response. the entire question is non-sensical. not to mention, isreal would beat the bejeeebus out of iran, so there would be no need to respond by the time we could muster the troops.
    10:31 PM question from new hampshire: “what don’t you know and how will you learn it?” damn hippies. wiskey-tango-foxtrot?
    10:32 PM wrap it up kids, i’m done.
    10:34 PM there is such a generational gap between the two candidates, and it shows in every single word, look and response.
    10:35 PM Final score from CNN — McCain, 29. Obama, 69.
    10:37 PM the disdain between the two candidates is actually pretty sad, especially considering they have both run a (relatively) clean campaign … at least when compared to the last two elections.
    10:56 PM three debates down, one to go. i hope i’m out of town for that one. maybe i should start planning a trip …

    final thoughts

    The generational gap was more apparent tonight that it ever was before … and i’m guessing it was due to the absence of the podiums. McCain looked old, and the more he looks old, i think the more the rank and file Americans (who aren’t beguiled by Palin’s neocon-ly charms) bail on his campaign.

    I’m glad the onslaught of personal attacks didn’t come … i think slinging mud would hurt both sides more than they’d help, because it causes the middle to stay home. We’ve had enough elections in recent memory that were about mobilizing the base, and that doesn’t help the national discourse by any means.

    Yet again, I don’t there was anything here to change the conversation, and status quo favors the guy in the lead. My main concern is as it was after the very first one … Obama needs to start building up a lead, because once the white people are in the voting booth alone, all polls and predictions become bogus.

    update: i just heard cnn’s republican and democratic analysts hand the election to obama (pending major implosion, etc). basically, the argument was that the things that mccain would need to do to take the lead are either too late (policy shift, separation from bush) or have too high a potential to backfire (personal attacks).

    other interesting tidbit … in the initial poll, 50%+ thought that obama won (not news) but mccain’s unfavorable ratings are at 46%, while barack’s fell to 34% after the debate. if mccain is really 12% behind in unfavorables, there is no way he wins … you just can’t overcome a gap like that.

  • confessions of a (late blooming) red sox fan

    the red sox pulled another rabbit out of a hat, last night, and their improbably run through the playoffs continues.

    i hate to say it, but i didn’t think they’d make it out of the first round this year … with Manny almost single-handedly destroying the team and the team bogged down with so many injuries.

    So, when new kid Jed Lowrie slapped in new kid Jason Bay last night at the bottom of the ninth, the moment was that much more magical. and, all this excitement …

    … just made me feel guilty.

    earlier in the day, i had (yet another) water cooler conversation about playoff baseball.

    one was a brewers fan, who was (mostly) content with Milwaukee’s valiant run to the playoffs, which would have been the envy of every small market team in baseball if the Tampa Rays weren’t still in the thick of things.

    the other was an orioles fan was reminiscing about the last time they had young, promising talent good enough to win the rookie of the year award (answer: never) and bemoaning the groundswell of “fans” jumping on the red sox band wagon since ending their 86 year championship drought in 2004.

    that’s when i felt the guilt … i was an orioles fan (*gasp!*) as recently as 2002.

    it all started in earnest when i moved to a place about eight miles from Camden Yards. growing up, i had been raised to root for the home team: my Vermont brother (red sox), my Maine father (Boston braves, and then red sox) and my new york grandfather (Yankees) all supported the local teams. I’d argue that it’s your civic duty.

    but then 2003 happened. i moved to dc (who was desperately trying to get their own team, one which i root for in the National League) which relieved the Orioles of their position as the team next door. I also came to the realization that Peter Angelos, owner of the Orioles, was actually the anti-Christ based on his sad attempts to keep a team out of DC (a rant already rant-ed at length).

    so, without a team to cheer for (the Nats hadn’t arrived yet, and i had blacklisted the O’s) i started shopping around.

    basically, everyone in my family who follows baseball, follows the red sox … so there was some attraction there. also, i had already built up a healthy, low-boiling hatred of the Yankees (sorry, grand-pa) based lightly on those annoying 25 championships, but mostly on their thuggish jersey-based fans who streamed into Baltimore for the games each year. (if there is one thing the red sox and orioles share, it’s an un-abiding hatred of the Yankees.)

    so, after spending most of 2003 without a team to cheer for, the post-season saw me rooting *against* the Yankees yet again, which based on their ALCS match up with Boston, meant i would need to root *for* the Red Sox.

    i watched all seven games of the series that year, and got (what turned out to be) my only true flavor of the misery that being a Red Sox fan is associated with: series tied at 3 a piece, game tied 5-5, Yankees at bat to begin the bottom half of the 11th inning … first pitch is knocked out of the park by Aaron Boone. Yankees win the game. Boston loses the series.

    (ironically enough, Aaron Boon is now with the Washington Nationals, and is the one player i can’t bring myself to cheer for.)

    i barely knew what a baseball was during the last major Sox tragedy (Bill Buckner and the ball between the legs in ’86) but if it sucked anything like this did, I’m glad i was too young.

    and, from that point on, i was hooked. i even converted the lady sparkler into enough of a fan that she believes “@$%#$” is J.D. Drew’s middle name, knows that Big Papi needs to get his act together and start bringing in some runs, and thinks Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia are cute (I’ll take my in’s how ever i can get them).

    so, there you go. red sox nation member since October 2003. five years and two championships later, life on the bandwagon is great. i just want you new punks to know that i was hear first, even if it wasn’t by much.

  • hike: cape henlopen, delaware

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    cape henlopen state park, delaware