Wordless Wednesday

Clearly She Needs a Horse

D loves horses. I mean really loves horses.

However, I am not sure this is the best outlet for her desire for horse ownership.

Weekend Wisdom

"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

-attributed to Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Clone Troopers, Giraffes, Bananas and Butterflies Oh My!

The Pre Trick or Treat Preparations.

The Big Night

The Clone Trooper (Captain Rex)

The Banana

The Butterfly

The Giraffe

Hope Your Halloween was Big Fun !!!!

Wordless Wednesday

What Sanity Looked Like (thoughts on the rally)

The line to buy Metro passes (and no you can't actually see the station in the photo)

On the platform- you can still see the line of people entering the station on the walkway- they are waiting to buy tickets

Sums up the day- this is yet another train they brought into the station heading toward DC only to turn it around and take it to the end of the line empty. Although on the plus side- I can now say I was there on the day the Metro set a new 19 year record for most riders in a single day

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/11/jon-stewart-rally-attendance.html

Once we finally got there.....

This is 2 hours after the rally ended and there are still people EVERYWHERE!!!

One last sign....

Back at the hotel

And before I go- there's has been a lot of talk in some circles that this rally proved nothing- that it was really just a big comedy show and was entertainment. A gathering of young liberal white people- First of all, while I will grant the crowd was mostly white folks, who likely lean toward the liberal- there were also signs that spoke to the other side- and the vast majority spoke to the middle. The average age there was not the 20 somethings. There were people in every age bracket but the vast majority would fall in the 35-55 year old range.

But moreover than that-

Trust me when I tell you that people were not there for the entertainment.

Most people don't fly across the country for entertainment- but they did for the Rally

Most people don't wait for hours for a Metro ticket- but they did for the Rally

Most people don't drag their kids out for entertainment- but they did for the Rally

This might have been hosted by comedians but make no mistake about it- people came- HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people came to tell not only our leaders, but our media- enough already. We can no longer function in this climate of fear and insanity- sure it is a great soundbite and it makes you a buck but what does it cost us as a society.

We need to bring back sanity.

And although we did not make it to the actual rally (which looking at the photos of 250,000 people gathered on the mall- might have been for the best with the kids in tow) we stood on a Metro platform with a thousand other people to Rally to Restore Sanity.

And it was totally worth it!!

So Much For Sanity

So the DC Metro System (at least today) stinks!

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/transit-frustrations-at-rally-to-restore-sanity-andor-fear/?partner=rss&emc=rss

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/10/rally_riders_strain_metro.html

We arrive at the station in Virginia at 10 and wait in a surprisingly fast moving line for 40 minutes- then the line kind of stopped. At 11:40 we had our tickets and then the real fun began. Trains on the orange line into downtown were running an average of one every 20-30 minutes (as opposed to the "official" Metro time of one every 12 minutes during the weekend) But a bigger problem was that the stations at the end of the line were packed so every train that came in was FULL- Let me say that again FULL- like the door won't even shut full. More frustrating though was that every 12 minutes trains- sometimes empty, sometimes full (with people trying to get into town by going the wrong way and then switching trains away from the crowds) went the other way.

Anyway...

Just as we were finally about to give up at 1:30 a train that was about 1/4 empty entered the station (and yes I recognize that sane people would have given up long ago but hey we needed our sanity restored) We got on the train and then waited while more and more people crammed onto our train. Anyway we made it to the mall at 2:50 and enjoyed a nice picnic near the Washington Monument. We did have a good time on the Mall-seeing the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

We heard the rally was awesome- I can't, sadly, confirm that fact. I will say that the people attending this rally were some of most amazing nice people out there. We actually had a good time on the station platform- and really wasn't this rally about taking back America from the crazies and giving it back to the real people- Well, the real people were stuck at all the Metro stations and at the National Mall today.

We would especially like to thank the following people

The "I live here and can't believe what a mess this is" lady at the Metro station- for not only giving us her spot in line on the platform (when we still thought we might have room on a train) but also cutting us in front of the guy next to her and telling him "you don't mind, right?"

M&M lady- who gave the kids each a little bag of M&Ms during hour 2 of the great train wait

Marines 1 and 2- who entertained X during one of the many times we were stuck in the tunnel waiting for a train to clear the station- also they did it all while having D jumping up and down on their feet and K throwing a huge fit about wanting off the train

Random Strangers 1 and 2- who would reach down to grab a child as they approached the track edge

Alex and Gabe - who answered K's question "what's your name?" 50 times in a 20 minute period

Alex's mom and sister- for stepping in front of a rush of people so that we could get on the train just in case there was a spot on the train

And winning saint of the year is Megan- who not only didn't freak out when I stuck both K and D in the seat next to her, but also entertained them by showing them pictures on her iphone (including letting them play with it) and in general entertaining them for the entire time we were on the train. However- we probably won't be making Mac and Cheese a la Megan (although D is already talking about it) since pineapples just don't seem like a good addition to mac and cheese.

I will post the photos tomorrow when we get home-

(I forgot the cord to get them off the camera)