We are coming up on the last weekend, and I'm fired up. I'm so fired up that I'll be making some calls on Barack's behalf. You can do it too. You can do one call, or five, or fifty. All you have to do is go to my.barackobama.com, and it'll spit names at you. Then, you dial the numbers they give you and read the script they provide. I'll also be doing visibility on Monday and Tuesday, waving my signs at a busy intersection reminding people to vote. If you want to commit to waving a sign for the Strong Schools; Strong City referendum, you can sign up here. I plan to wave their sign and also my Obama sign.




Let's vote for Barack, Al Franken, Keith Ellison, YES on on the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment; and of course, YES for the Minneapolis Public Schools.

So far, in our first six hours, the kids are doing a pretty good job without Dan around. He's in Pittsburgh for the week, a place he's never been and a place where he'll spend many hours in a warehouse sifting through boxes. To make Shef more amenable to being cared for only by me, I bought him a little Star Wars Lego set. He's happy with it.

Speaking of Legos, here's a video of Shef and Mac having a little conversation. Usually, when Shef says a sound that's kind of like "alego, lego, lego," Mac does something similar. Not for the camera, though.


Untitled from Savvy Mom on Vimeo.

There are some amazing photos of Barack, his family, his staff, and his supporters here. The photographer's name is Callie Shell. Here's an example:



Shell writes a little narrative with each one.

We will win this election. We just have to.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Shef's first skating lesson and how we all spouted lines from Ice Princess the whole time we were at the rink.

Well, that super-fun activity has continued from Saturday to Saturday. We start on the way there, and then we continue for the duration of the lesson and on into skate removal and return.

We've done the lines of all the characters, including a supporting skater called Nikki Fletcher, aka The Jumping Shrimp.

"A BLT, hold the B, heavy on the L."

"Well, if it isn't The Leaping Dwarf. It's the JUMPING SHRIMP, actually. Like that's an improvement."

"Six months with Tina and she's going to whip my BUTT!!"

This really cracks us up, and it never seems to get old.

Last week, midway through the lesson, when Dan and I were yukking it up with our usual pitter-pat of IP dialogue, I noticed that one of the really good skaters looked pretty familiar. I stared at her while she put some stuff into a bag monogrammed with her name.

"Um, Dan," I whispered, "I think that girl IS The Jumping Shrimp."

He tried to look at her surreptitiously, but she probably noticed. Then, he got out his smart phone and we checked it out on IMDB.

Sure enough. Nikki Fletcher skates at Shef's rink. And she's probably heard us acting out her feature film every week in the small lobby. We've had finer moments, surely.

Mac is four months old now, and today we had him baptized. I'm glad he's officially a child of God. We all enjoyed the service. Since our church is exploring world religions, the music and readings were inspired by Hinduism. I thought that was cool. I'd like it if both of the boys grew up to value religious pluralism.



Mac has some new tricks this month like scooting in circles and eating his toys with more voracity. He's also been enjoying chewing on books. And he has a tooth! One of the bottom front two.

Cari and I were in the same graduate program at the U, and we started blogging around the same time. I've had her on my blogroll forever, and I know a lot of people who read this blog also read hers.

For the last 14 months, Cari has battled an aggressive type of breast cancer that, in August of this year, metastasized to her brain. Now in October, the cancer is also in her spine.

I'm not particularly devout in my Christian faith, but Cari is in hers. When she asked for prayers for her and her family, I dusted off my old rosary beads and started offering those familiar and comforting prayers to the heavens.

Now Cari's situation is more serious than ever, and I think it would be good to get her some more prayers. I feel sort of sheepish asking this, but if you're at all inclined, if you prayed when you were little but haven't for awhile, if you're not sure it will work, if you just have thirty seconds - would you pray for Cari, her husband Melvin, and their three adorable kids?

You can read more about her here.

Okay, thanks.

When I was little, my mom and dad read me all of the Little House on the Prairie books. I also watched the tv show. So, when my mom offered to take me to the new musical version of the story at The Guthrie, I jumped at the chance to see Melissa Gilbert, who played Half-Pint for ten years, star as Ma.

It turns out that Melissa Gilbert is not a very talented singer, but that was okay. She only had one solo, a ballad called "Wild Child," which she sang to Laura, her former character. The moment brought a tear to my mom's eye and mine.

When I got home, Dan summarized the debate for me and showed me some clips of McSame smirking and being sarcastic. He did not appear very presidential in these clips.