Tuesday, January 17, 2006

How's That Work?

I don't quite understand how this works. Clarence Ray Allen was executed this morning by the State of California. For the last couple of weeks, though, there's been a bit of an outcry about how it's cruel and unusual punishment because he's sick and legally blind. Now, I think the death penalty is wrong and shouldn't be available as a sentence for any crime anywhere, but I don't understand how it is crueler or more unusual for someone like Allen who had become sick and legally blind during his time on Death Row, than it would be for someone who were essentially healthy with 20/20 vision. I'm sorry that the State government is able to put someone to death in my name, but as long as he had the capacity to receive a legal sentence, I don't see how declines in his health over his time in prison could rescue him from that sentence.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Ballet Class!

Rachel had her first ballet class yesterday. She talked about it all morning and from 10 to noon asked whether it was time to go only about 18 times. She was so excited! It was very cute. When we finally went, she loved every minute and grinned ear-to-ear almost the whole time. Imagine seven or eight girls, four or five years old trying to follow the teacher's instructions... First position... fifth position... legs up on the barre... no, hook with your heel, not your knee. Don't forget to point your feet out!

I don't post pictures of her in public, so send me email or a comment if you want to see them...

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Playing Catch-up

I keep putting off posting because I have a lot to tell and it will take a while, but then what I have to tell just grows, so here's a summary for the meantime.

We went to So Cal for New Years. Dan and I have been organizing group trips to Tahoe every other year, but it just wasn't in the cards for us this time, so we went to see him and Karyn instead. Flew down the 28th and back the 2nd. Had a fabulous time.

We stayed at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn, which was fairly nice. They have 'kidsuites', which means bunk-beds, so Rachel was quite happy. Thursday we went to the LA Zoo, which was pretty nice. I took around 400 pictures, although I deleted a lot along the way and stopped just as we were about to leave with a full 1Gig CF card and 284 pictures. I went out to get in line before Dawn's father got there and walked back in with him to find Rachel and Dawn.

Rachel saw us (maybe pointed out by Dawn, but I'm not sure) when we were probably a hundred feet away and came running over top speed, yelling "We're over here" the whole way, to give Grandpa a huge hug. Not exactly calculated to hurt his feelings, as my mother likes to say.

Friday night, while Rachel went to dinner with Grandpa, we went to a really nice dinner with Dan & Karyn. Then Saturday we had brunch with Dawn's family before Dan and I made dinner at their place for a little New Year's Eve party. Rachel loves Dan & Karyn and not only got to go to sleep in their bed but wound up spending the night there, because Dawn was so tired I just decided to let them sleep. Dan & Karyn were on the air bed & I slept on the floor.

Sunday, we went to visit Brett & Cecilia and their kids and his mother Carol. We had a wonderful time with them, as we did last year right before heading home after Christmas.

Since we got home... Rachel either has another cough or the one she's had for a while got worse. I'm not really sure which. I spend a few hours Thursday afternoon attaching flexible plastic piping to two of our downspouts and running it out to the street in hopes that it will prevent any more flooding of our back bedroom.

Dawn and I are both trying to return to some semblance of reasonable eating, as well as working on getting in a better exercise habit. The house is such a collosal mess that my plans for riding my bike on the spinner aren't happening yet, but I did go walk for a while the other day.

Happy New Year to all!