A sports prejudice revisited

As some of you may know, I (Patrick) am a sports fan. This fandom, however, does not extend to all sports. Football, in any of its many forms, is worthy of being showered with praise and honor. Basketball is an undeniably fun sport who's playoffs and finals can justifiably be watched on TV. Baseball's history combined with the mental aspect of the game make it a sport that, while boring at times, is great if your team's competing. I have nothing against soccer and played rugby in college.
That said, there are some sports that are not worth getting out of bed for (Note: I am talking here about watching these sports, not participating in them). I realize that by evening mentioning them on this little-read blog I am wasting your time and mine. These sports are, in no particular order: car racing of any kind, animal racing of any kind, bowling, women's collegiate sports (sorry ladies), rowing, body building, the WNBA, billiards, and many other "sports" that occasionally appear on TV. You are probably thinking that many of the activities I just listed don't even count as sports. You are correct. And I didn't even mention poker.
All that to say that I have firm opinions about every sport. Almost. Hockey has always been difficult for me to categorize. I enjoyed floor hockey in P.E. Activities where i furiously hit things and people repeatedly with sticks usually go over well with me. But the NHL has continually confused me. The sport is fast, very athletic and physical, and requires excellent team work. And yet somehow i was never interested and even bored by it. Here are my main beefs with hockey:
1. The fighting seems like a silly side show. Sports should be interesting and not need drama to punch up the story lines.
2. The goalie and his padding take up 7/8 of the net. I'm sorry, but when your job is best accomplished by laying down and hoping for the best you lose me.
3. There's no way to follow the puck (But read more on this later). The fact the hockey has a spinning red light to let people know their team has scored clues you in that the action is hard to follow.
4. It's not a sport you can just grab a couple friends and go play. Unless you live near a frozen lake. Which not even most polar bears do these days.
Last week a friend here invited Kim and I to an NHL game. The response "I'd rather eat the pencil I'm holding" was almost on my lips when he slipped in the twist: It was free. All of a sudden my curiosity was piqued. I had never been to an NHL game. I could put my long held prejudices to the test and surround myself with people actually interested in hockey. We immediately accepted the invitation while I prepared some of my best hockey-scorning facial expressions.
We arrived at the game (Washington Capitals v. Ottawa Senators) right as it started and found our seats, which, despite being as far from the ice as possible, gave a great view of everything. The only bad thing about our location was that we were out of range of the t-shirt cannon. Seeing the game in person, several things struck me immediately:
1. The puck is (mostly) visible. You can basically follow all the action. Slap shots are still invisible. If the red light goes off it means the shot went in the net. If another player mysteriously appears with the puck somewhere else then the shot must not have gone in the net.
2. I like sports fans no matter what they're rooting for (does not apply to car racing). A family behind us was coaching their 3 year old daughter to say things like 'Go Caps!' and 'The Caps are so good!' Cute.
3. The fouls in hockey are like penalties in football: they can be called at anytime for just about anything. The definition for hooking (which flashed on the jumbotron) is "using your stick to impede the movement of another player" The definition of holding is "holding an opponent from moving with your hands or stick". If both of these weren't happening all game then I must have been watching something else.
4. The intermissions are HORRIBLE. One 15 minute half time is bad enough to sit through in any sport but in hockey both intermissions are 17 minutes. I should have brought a Dostoevsky novel.
5. The most fun part to watch is skirmishes near the goal that usually involve the goal tender, totally unaware of the puck's location, flailing on the ground like a beached whale. Every time the goalie ended up on his back making ice angels I giggled to myself.
I have to admit, barring the endless intermissions, I had a good time at the game. The action was fast and skillful and the fans were fired up. I would still rather go to almost any other sporting event but at least next time I'll know to bring a long novel. And $140 if I want to buy a jersey.

A Day in the Life of Kim and Jack

Today Jack and I made Christmas cookies. It was super fun. I showed up with most of the stuff to make them, shape them, and frost them. When I told Jack that we were making cookies he was stoked. Then I started to pull all the ingredient out while telling him what they were for and how we would use them to make the cookies. Once I pulled everything out he said, "Kim, where are the cookies, I want to eat them." Cute. Later we put all the stuff together and had our dough and again he asked where the cookies were. We cut out Rudolphs, Mittens, Presents, Snowmen that Jack called Johnny the Snowman, and Stockings, baked them and made frosting, lots of frosting of different colors. While they were baking Jack sat in front of the oven and watched them bake making funny faces in the window and saying things like, "oooo", "Kim, can I eat them now?", when I said, no they are too hot right now in the oven he said, "I think they're cold now." Then, you guessed it we frosted the cookies. Jack was making his cookies for the "art show", not sure what that meant but it was cute. All this fun with some good Christmas music in the background. Once we were done we ate cookies and watched Rudolph. Then went back for round two of frosting. It was a fun day.

"I'm ready Kim!"


"Wow, we're making a mess."


"ooooo, I think they're cold now."






"That Good!"

The Cernas in Town

My family plus Meghan (David's girlfriend) came for Thanksgiving. It was so great having them here. I think DC wore them out though, they went to all the major museums, to the top of the Washington Monument, saw the glory of the National Cathedral and still had time to shop and just hang out. I loved having everyone in our little house, surprisingly it fit us all well. Meghan and David did take turns on the couch and the floor-sorry guys, but they didn't complain at all. Meghan and I made dinner for the family and Jack and his parents. My family enjoyed meeting them. It was an all around good week and I really miss having Dad asking me 101 questions about everything I do : ), Meghan and David constantly teasing and laughing with each other and Mom's funny one liners and expressions. It's really quiet here now and I can't wait to see them again for Christmas.



Our table...we had more food than this. Seeing as how we barely had room for our immediate family we decided that we are a long way from being able to host a real Thanksgiving.

Patrick being such the man of the house by carving the turkey he made.

The only thing Meghan bought while she was here, a finger puppet from the Native American Museum.


Mom and Dad walking The Mall.


One of David's cool pictures from the Washington Monument.


Meghan making her Inaugural Address.


Mom and Meghan riding the carousel in at the National Mall (they were the only ones on the "ride").




Here we are totally bored with the DC scene.
(That is Barak's Inauguration stage being build in front of the Capitol.)

Patrick at Work and Play

Well, I know it's been a while since I rapped at y'all but I'm back and I've got some good news.
As some of you know, all my classes are in the evening because the school expects that students will hold jobs and find internships during the day. I've devoted a lot of time this fall to applying for different positions at a lot of places around the city.
In the last couple of weeks I secured two different internships for next semester.
The first is a 15 hour per week research position at the Hudson Institute. I'll be helping the director of the political/military section with several research projects that he has going on. Most of them focus on Russia or central Asia. It's an unpaid position but is extremely flexible. I can work from home or come in to the office. Also, research work is great to have on my resume. Ask me in mid-January how it's going.
The other is a congressional internship (paid!) with Adam Smith from District 9 in Washington. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee so I'm looking forward to being involved in that in some way. There will a fair amount of phone answering and mail opening but that's life. Again, I'll let you know how that's going in January.
For now I only have a couple weeks left in my first semester. I have finals in two out of three classes and big papers in two out of three as well. Classes on the whole have been very good. My European Union class is fantastic and I've learned way more than I expected to. I also have an intro to Europe, Eurasia, and Russia. That class has been up and down but I'll be happy to be done with it. My last class is a history of Eastern Europe class which has been good, but I would have liked more lecture. The professor seems to think we understand things better than we do and continually looks for in-depth discussion among the students. The only problem is that we usually don't know what we're talking about. Kim here, real quick Patrick is doing really well in his classes and I am very proud of him.

Enough about work and school, on to other subjects!

Kim's family is coming this week which promises to be a great week. We're really excited to have visitors again and Kim has the whole week scheduled out for them. Kim? Making a detailed schedule? Shocking.

We also bought our tickets home. We get in on the 18th and head straight to Walla Walla. We'll get back to Tacoma on the 24th and be at the First Pres. Christmas Eve service. Then we'll be in Tacoma until the morning of the 1st. Kim is using all her vacation days to be gone for that long. Yikes. No trips home in our future after Christmas for a long time.

Tuesday Nov. 4th

As some of you may have heard, there was an election on Tuesday. Kim and I watched the coverage on Tuesday night and had a map of the US on the wall. As the results came in we colored each state red or blue. We were ready to go to bed at midnight when they showed some footage taken outside the White House. There was a huge crowd (mainly college students) celebrating outside. Kim and I threw on our coats and headed down there. We walked through the crowds and watched as people celebrated. I couldn't help wondering if they knew exactly why they were so happy. Are they just stoked to see a black president or do they really expect life to drastically improve? Or was it just a chance to be a part of something historic?
Immediately follow the election a lot of emotions came to the surface. The coverage on TV immediately turned to Barack's election as historic because he's black. While I appreciate this and understand it's historic significance, many of the comment made on TV bothered me. "America has finally put its racist past behind it." Really? And if the voters of the US had decided that John McCain had better policies and would make a better president then that would mean that we still hadn't dealt with our racism?
"America did the right thing." Did those who vote for McCain do the wrong thing? Have they refused to put their racist past behind them?
I guess I loved that race wasn't an issue during the campaign but it comes out immediately following the results. I do understand how historic it is and I hope it's a great celebration for now and quickly fades to the background. I (Kim) think it will because like our friend Liz said he did not have race as his platform and it's great to rejoice in it but I think his plans and ideas do not revolve around his race.
The other thing that Kim and I had trouble with was the reaction from the Christian community. Not the wider Christian community, just the people with whom we interact. There was such a 'the sky is falling' reaction. A couple people said they were moving to Canada, apparently betraying their ignorance about Canadian social policy. I understand why someone would be worried about aspects of an Obama presidency. But there was so much angry, unthoughtful, reaction. If we are looking to involve ourselves in society, to influence society, and to make our society a more just and godly place, reacting to this election with cynicism, sarcasm, and anger is exactly the wrong way to do it.
Obama won this election because he has a positive and productive view for America's future. McCain came across as not having a positive forward looking program, but as simply attacking Obama. I don't want to follow someone with no idea where to go, I want to follow someone who powerfully points the way to the future. That is what the Christian community needs to do. We do ourselves no good by making thoughtless and reactionary judgments on what the next 4-8 years hold. We will have an impact when we can point the way to a future that others want to be apart of. Right now a lot of Christians aren't doing that.



Kid in a Volvo: Such a beautiful example of Swedish-American unity.



This is the crowd outside the White House.

Milton Delaware

For my birthday Patrick planned a trip out to the Delaware coast. There were a few milestones on this trip. The first was that we had never been to the Atlantic Coast before. It was great seeing it and it was strange seeing the sun set behind us while we looked out on the ocean. Another milestone was while we were driving our Civic hit 100,000 miles! The bummer was that we missed it! So we celebrated the 100,010th mile, which was still ok. And the last milestone was that we bought gas for $1.99!
While we were were there we stayed at bed and breakfast called the Governor's Bed and Breakfast. It was cool, because a lot of Delaware governors are from Milton and some of them lived in this house. While we were there it was 74 degrees and beautiful. We played in the water and went to the little shops around the coast. It was a great break from studying for Patrick and a good change of pace for me.



Patrick's footsteps heading to France instead of Hawaii. That's the Atlantic for you.


This one's for you Brett Taylor! : )



Here we are celebrating our 100,010th mile!


The beautiful drive home. A week later the colors are even more brilliant.

Wow It's Almost Been a Month!

I finally have stuff to write about other than mosquito bites! Actually quite a bit so here I go:

• The Taylor's Visit
• Two weeks ago our friends from Tacoma, the Taylors (Brett, Pami, Madison and Elliott), surprised me with a visit. The story starts out months ago when I said that Madonna was going to be performing in NYC and that I didn't think that there would be many other concerts that could be better than that, Madonna in NYC. Pami was one of a few friends who I tried to talk into flying over and going to the concert with me, she told me that she looked up tickets but they were all sold out. So the hope of a Madonna concert ended there for me. Little did I know that she, Brett and Patrick were scheming up a plan. It all came to fruition on October 9th. Patrick called me and asked me to go to FedEx Kinkos so that I could sign some paper work the insurance lady was sending over for his bike that was stolen. I was a bit frustrated bc I thought that it would be better if we did it together bc the parking in that area is horrific, but I went anyway knowing how stoked he was to get his bike ASAP. So I get there and I asked for the paper. I was given on that said, "Happy Birthday for the other Washington! Love the Taylors." I was kind of mad bc I thought it was so dumb for them to fax that over when they could have just emailed it. So (with out paying, I didn't realize this until later) I turned around to walk out the door but I heard someone say "Hi Kim" and when I turned around the whole Taylor family was there. Then before dinner that night they gave me a little envelope and inside was a tickets for me and Taylors up to NYC on the train and tickets for me and Pami to Madonna! It was such a great surprise.

Brett and Elliot hiding and waiting for me at FedEx

Me and the Taylors at FedEx

• So they stayed with us in DC for two nights and about a day and a half. We saw some of DC's main attractions. One thing Patrick and I hadn't done yet was visit the Georgetown area and walk up and down M Street, so we took the Taylors there. It was amazing, all kinds of cute shops and fun restaurants. We also visited the oldest house in DC cleverly named, "The Old Stone House." There wasn't much to see other than the amazing back yard. We had a great dinner down there and the next afternoon took the train into NYC.
  
• Oh, upon Julianne's request I also feel compelled to tell you that Patrick and Brett hung out one night with Paul and Christian Werner, Julianne's dad and uncle. But really, they had a great time and it was great for Patrick to see Paul while he was here and meet Christian, who is studding at Johns Hopkins.
  

Taylors and Connallys outside the Capitol

Natural History Museum's new Ocean Exhibit

Us and the kids


The boys smoking their cigars and having a beer on the porch

• Now about Madonna. No matter what you think of her or her music you can not say that she is not an amazing entertainer. It is like not liking Alex Rodriguez or baseball but appreciating seeing him turn an amazing double play or hitting a grand slam, it's still really fascinating. Or like if you think history is really boring but being amazed at the monuments around here and being intrigued to learn more. That's how the concert was for me. I was not a huge Madonna fan, I have great memories of listening to her and Micheal Jackson with my parents when I was little and hearing album after album of hers while growing up. So I was stoked to see her and knowing that she is one of the best at her job just increased the excitement. I was just so impressed with her musical and physical talent (she was dancing and running around stage all night and played the guitar). The way that she mixed all her old music into her new music was really cool. The production was amazing. I have been to musicals in London, on Broadway and several in Seattle and I have been to several concerts but I've seen anything as elaborated and as well choreographed as this concert was. The dancers and musicians that she brought in were fabulous. Here is all the types of music she played: pop, old school rap, Romanian Folk (with amazing Romanian musicians), Latin, disco, and tecno. Crazy, right? They had hip hop dancing, break dancing, tap dancing, and Latin dancing. It was so good and fun! Thanks Taylors!

Me and Pami at Madison Square Garden just after seeing Madonna

• October Days
• Besides the Taylors coming we've had a few other excursions this month. We went for a walk along the C&O Canal which runs right along the Potomac River. There was a path that cut through to the Potomac and we explored that as well. It was a fun day.

C&O Canal

Potomac River

• We bought our first pumpkins for our house. There is a cute little pumpkin stand near our house that we visited and now we have pumpkins.

• Patrick and I decided to head into town last Saturday to see the American History Museum that we hadn't seen yet. Turns out it was closed for remodel until the end of November. So we went to the Old Post Office Tower. There is a great view from the top. We also visited Potbelly for the first time. It is the best sandwich place ever! yum. Then on our walk back to the car Patrick fed a squirrel. Cute. These are the kind of stories you get when I write, sorry.
  

View from the Old Post Office

Patrick feeding the squirrel : )

• Today we had the 4th rainfall since we've been here. Boy, does it know how to rain here. It is coming down like a hurricane right now. It's pretty cool too bc it's really warm out.

• Jack
• Times with Jack get better and better each week. We are two good buddies now. I love hanging out with him. We made tye-dye pumpkin t-shirts last week and planed flowers and beans this week. We've also explored various parks and the river as well. The kid is fantastic and fun. I have another amazing job.

Hanging out on the Potomac watching the planes fly right over us to land

Our Pumpkin Tye-Dye T-shirt

Quick Hits

Here are today's quick updates:

1. The bike saga is winding its way to a good conclusion. My stolen bike will be covered under renters insurance so my friend Jon found me a sweet new mountain bike. I'll probably have it in a couple weeks and when I do, rest assured, you will see pictures. I also got an old road bike to take to school which is really important. I ride 40+ miles a week just getting to class and back and save quite a bit of money by not taking the metro.
2. Kim is covered with mosquito bites. They drive her crazy and I never seem to get them. (my life is pretty boring if all we can find to talk about are my mosquitoes... - Kim)
   
3. My parents came to visit for six days this week. It was great to have them give the guest bedroom a test run. We went to some Smithsonians and Mt. Vernon. and did some general city exploring. They did a lot on their own also. We had a sweet BBQ on Sunday with our friends the Tifts also. It was a really good week.
4. Seattle is undoubtedly the worst place in the USA for a sports fan. The Sonics left, the Mariners are the worst team in baseball, the Seahawks are 1-2 and have everyone injured and just called me to come in for tryouts (but I took a page out of my brother-in-law's playbook and turned down a sure-fire football career), the Huskies are worse than I've ever seen them and the Cougars look like they just might be worse than the Huskies. Just to add insult to injury we also have a WNBA team. At least that's the rumor.
5. Kim's nanny work is still going well and she's working with 2 1/2 year old Jack on his reading.
6. Get your reservations in soon for staying at the Connally hotel. October is wide open but will fill up quickly, for sure.
   

That's about it.



Lunch with the Connallys and the Tifts.
Patrick's new bike.
Cute Jack at the Natural History Museum
Mt. Vernon


Roosevelt Island. Kathryn, here is the dragonfly we saved for you, then it got eaten on our front porch. Sorry.