Halloween Night

We don't do the trick or treat thing anymore with the kids. We have a church activity, called "trunk or treat" in which we pass out candy and hot dogs to the community. We probably had close to 200 people come through, as it keeps getting bigger every year. Our kids still got their fair share of candy, so they didn't feel they were missing out on anything.

In South Bend, trick or treat times are 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. I remember growing up when trick or treating didn't even start until 7:00 p.m. or later. You waited until it was dark, that was the point. Now you make sure you are all done before it gets dark. Parents accompany their kids. I remember going out without parents along. In fact, I remember riding my bike around Pixley, California BY MYSELF one year, and it was no big deal. Ain't no way that would be happening today.

Anna and Cameron had a party at their school today, North Liberty Christian School. Anna went as the "wordless book" (Dorene's creativity at work). Her hair was spray painted black and she had different color shirt, skirt and pants. Cameron wanted to go as Jesus carrying the cross. So, we dressed him accordingly, complete with cross, blood, and crown of thorns. Both won prizes for best costume. YESSS! Not that we were striving for that.

The Other Race: Mitch v. Jill

The Indiana governor's race has been largely overshadowed by the presidential election, but it is shaping up to be a very close one. Around IU, Mitch is the devil. Democrats dislike him with a passion. They are still upset about daylight savings time, although to me that's the biggest "GET OVER IT" issue I think I've ever heard. But mainly, his privatization of the toll road and desires to do more of this rankles them quite a bit (and not spending enough on education, tax cuts, and other things).

His opponent, Jill Long-Thompson, is on a losing streak. She lost to Mark Souder several years ago, then lost to Chris Chocola back in 2004. In the primary, she was shunned by the Democratic Party as they put all their money and resources into her challenger, whom she narrowly defeated. So, while I know Democrats want Mitch unseated, they haven't exactly welcomed Long-Thompson with open arms (in addition, she had zero t.v. ads for a 6-week stretch starting in September).

I happen to really like her, although that's because I've had a little bit more personal experience with her. For two of my graduate classes at IU South Bend, she was my professor. One of the classes was Public Finance, which she obviously knew a lot about and could relate much of the inner workings of Congress. She was very sharp and knew her stuff. Although interestingly, teaching wasn't necessarilyi her forte and she stumbled often in teaching the class. But I guess that made her all the more "human" and not as much of a political machine. Besides, she bought us all pizza a couple of times (that will always go over well with college students).

She seemed very much a downhome country girl from Indiana. Yes, kinda Palinesque. Seemed very much an outsider (although she wasn't) but I never felt like I was listening to a politician. I really enjoyed her as a professor and I'll be voting for her. Now, in my final exam in her class I said how much I enjoyed having her as a professor and that I'd vote for her. I guess that could either be interpreted as my thinking she's truly the best candidate or a lame attempt at a good grade.

Opening Night

On Friday night, Anna and a few of her friends went to a party hosted by our pastor's wife. The occasion? The premiere of "High School Musical 3." They went to the movie then back to their hourse for a sleepover. I can't quite imagine what the theatre would have been like packed with teen and pre-teen girls.

For the record, the High School Musical series is actually very good, very wholesome, with some great music. I'm glad to see it doing so well, because I have no qualms about my daughter seeing it. Maybe even Dobson would agree this is okay.

Catching Some Rays

As I usually do at this time of year, I actually watch major league baseball on t.v. For the 162 games that precede the playoffs, I ignore it. Both Chicago teams went down in flames, which left the best storyline to the Tampa Bay Rays, who before this year were the Devil Rays. So maybe getting rid of the devil helped them out.

Their series with the Red Sox was fun to watch. Tampa lost game 1, then thrashed the Sox in the next three games. Then, in game 5, they had a historic meltdown as they lost 8-7 after leading 7-0 with two outs in the 7th inning. They lost game 6 but then were able to win game 7 last night in a what was a very exciting game.

I saw a segment on ESPN about their owners. The primary owner is a 46-year old retired Goldman-Sachs financier. The team president, I believe is in his late 20's or early 30's and also came from Goldman-Sachs. They are definitely from the Mark Cuban school of executive sports management. Tampa Bay has been miserable in its support for the team, even this year as they went from worst to first. But the new owners have done a lot to get the fan base excited, starting with free parking at all games and making themselves very visible. I imagine their investment in the team is paying off big-time.

Now, it's off to the World Series to play the Phillies. I don't imagine this was the marquee match-up Fox was hoping for. Red Sox-Dodgers, Chicago-Chicago, anything but these two. It'll probably be the lowest rated World Series ever.

The Final Debate (final words)

In 2012, they need to just scuttle the debates or change the format. These are not really debates in any sense of the word, just a recitation of each candidate's talking points. That said, I guess last night's was a little better than the last snooze-fest, but overall, nothing spectacular. Some random notes:

• My wife enjoyed it because it helped put her to sleep.
• Bob Schiffer by far is the best moderator. He kept control and just never seemed very impressed by either of them.
• Had McCain left Joe the Plumber alone after the first couple times, it might have resonated a little more. But the constant repeat of that name soon got hilarious. There was just something unintentionally funny of a potential commander in chief of the world's superpower saying "Joe the Plumber" multiple times. No matter what happened in the rest of the debate, I knew that people at work today would be talking about Joe, and they were.
• As expected, Obama played his prevent defense and took absolutely no chances. He didn't need to, but it would be nice to see a little passion in there.
• Typically evasive answers on what programs the candidates would cut. Also, way to be evasive on being nice to each other the rest of the campaign.
• Okay Obama, taxes will be cut for 95% of Americans . . . .I get it already.
• The whole William Ayres thing? I don't know, I just don't see it resonating. I have more problems with Jeremiah Wright. That was a true mentor of Obama's for many years, but McCain left that one alone. I personally think it's fair game.
• I wonder if Soledad O'Brien of CNN is sick of meeting with the undecided voters in Ohio. I'm sure she just wakes up the morning of every debate so excited to do this and how it will advance her professional career. With apologies to my family members in the Buckeye State, JUST PICK SOMEONE ALREADY!
• McCain quickly squeezed in a comment about the Democrats having total control after the election. This is a huge issue to me and one he should have really pushed. I don't think Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Rangel, et al are going to "change" for Obama. Why should they if they are already in control? When Clinton took office in 1993, the Democrats controlled everything and it was a disaster. Same with the Republicans in the early part of this decade. One-party control is never good and the one party always self-destructs.
• Can't believe it took 3 debates before the Supreme Court got mentioned. This is a true legacy the next President will have. At least 1 and maybe up to 3 appointments could be forthcoming in just one 4-year term.
• "Senator Obama, I know George Bush. I served with George Bush. George Bush is a friend of mine. Senator, I'm no George Bush."

The Final Debate

Say want you want about who won, who lost, who had the best lines, etc., but I think it all comes down to this:

Tomorrow, across this great nation of ours, plumbers named Joe are going to be subjected to merciless ribbing from their friends, family, and co-workers.

Allison Diane Dennie

. . .And so here she is, introducing Allison Diane Dennie, born at 1:29 p.m. on October 8. For those that want to know, she weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. Guys NEVER know this stuff, so I made sure I kept it memorized because people do ask, although I'm not really sure why.

Mom and baby "Allie" are doing just fine now, as they came home from the hospital on Saturday. As you can see from the picture above, big sister Anna kinda likes the little tyke, a far cry from the major freak-out episode when she first heard the news of her impending arrival. Cameron likes her too, and keeps volunteering to help with diapers. Whatever, he can do that all he wants.

Above is a picture of Allie at 2 days old with Aunt Dee Dee (real name Diane, which is where Allie's middle name comes from).

Mom and dad were here just a few hours ago. They were going to wait until after their vacation to see her, but couldn't wait that long. They brought along a bunch of sugar cookies, so we're glad they could come up (to see Allie of course).

McCain and Obama's Football Strategy

With less than a month to go before the election, things will get ratcheted up a notch. McCain has already announced he'll be taking things to a different level. Obama will stick to what's been working for the past several months.

McCain has definitely been the aggressor. If you have a football analogy for him, it's been a constant barage of Hail Mary passes and gadget plays designed to throw the opponent off balance. Very unpredictable play-calling and the rule book has basically gotten tossed. From picking Sarah Palin to shutting down his campaign, you just don't know exactly what this guy is going to do next. Plus, his campaign does a lot of trash talking for the opponents to post in their locker room to get them fired up.

For Obama, he has strictly been in a prevent defense for months and will remain so until the election. In other words he is not playing to win, but playing not to lose. Republicans are not scared of losing this election because they've been expecting to do so all along. Democrats are downright terrified to lose, so Obama is being careful not to stumble here at the end. This kind of defense typically works, although it drives fans crazy because the outcome tends to be closer than they think it should be and it keeps the opponent in the game longer than they are comfortable with.

Final score: Obama pulls out the victory as expected. McCain puts on a better show than many were expecting, but was just too overpowered to pull off the upset.

Baby Allie, Due in 3 Days

On Friday, Dorene went to the doctor to determine if she would carry through to term or schedule a C-section. She initially wanted to go for the natural delivery, but over the past week, decided to recant that wish. Not very comfortable, and not getting much sleep led her to tell the doctor, "Let's do this now" (she was serious, she told the doctor she'd go to surgery right then and there).

Well, not so fast. We still had to wait, but now it's set. The birth of our new baby girl will take place on Wednesday, October 8, at 1:00 p.m. Unless, of course, the ultrasound played a trick on us, in which case we'll have to come up quickly with a different name. Or, as Cameron asked in all seriousness, what if it comes out as half girl and half boy? Uh, next question.

Movie Review: Beverly Hills Chihuaha

Fall is the time when the studios roll out their more prestigious pictures. The summer blockbuster season is over, so it's time for the movies that will likely be up for many awards. Tonight, I got a start on an early Oscar contender with this epic and moving story about . . .okay, enough.

Read the title. This is a kids movie. Do I really have to explain what it's about? A pampered mutt from Beverly Hills gets lost in Mexico City, yada, yada, everything ends up fine in the end.

It actually wasn't half bad, in fact, quite a bit better than I was expecting. With the kids movies, you can get something that's fairly good and at least is guaranteed to have good content (Disney), very good (Pixar) or total manure (not any particular studio, but movies like "Underdog" come to mind).

We saw this at the drive-in, and about froze. I think there were about 20 cars total spread out amongst the three screens. It was really cold. Which reminds me. Did you hear about the two blondes that froze to death at the drive-in? They went to see "Closed for Winter."

Sarah Barracuda Comes Back

I wouldn't say Palin won the debate last night, but more importantly, she didn't lose either. In fact, I thought she did quite well. Now, whether that's because of the very low expectations, I don't know (her interview with Katie Couric was a little cringe-worthy at times). But she held her own just fine. For the final weeks, McCain just needs to let her loose. It's not like he's going to win anyway, so quit holding her back. She certainly has the folksy down-home appeal down pat. She kinda reminded me of Marge Gunderson from "Fargo" at times ("you betcha").

As for Biden, he got through just fine. David Gergen said it was Biden's best debate performance ever, and he was probably right. He is actually quite likeable and didn't seem so much on autopilot as Obama tends to be.

Our New Set of Wheels

We currently have two cars. A Buick Riviera with 155,000 miles on it and a Dodge Caravan witih 178,000. Yeah, kinda getting up there in miles. With baby #3 on the way, we were wanting to have a vehicle that could be a little more dependable, especially on longer trips. The other two, while still running okay, we don't know when they might just die on us.

So, we got ourselves a new mini-van. Actually, not brand new, but a used one with only 27,000 miles on it (over 150,000 less miles than our current mini-van). It's got power everything and a great feature in that all the seats fold into the floor, so you don' t have to unlatch seats and haul them into the garage when you need the extra space. Got a really good deal on it and hope to have it a long time.

For now, we're just going to park it and drive it sparingly. Actually, not only are we driving it sparingly right now, we're not driving it at all. I went to get the title done last night and discovered my license is suspended. Oops, forgot to pay that $25.00 seat belt violation from last summer. So yes, I am a fugitive.

We'll still keep the other vehicles. I mean, yes, I could possibly get $1.99 for the Buick, but it is cheap to drive and I'll keep driving it to work until it dies. Currently, it has no air conditioning, the back window stays down permanently, it makes a weird sound, and is leaking gas. But it's paid for and the annual license is about $35.00. Can't beat that.