Is this for real?

I can't decide if this ipod tag line is supposed to be funny, or if the ad agency really thinks that "funnest" is a word (or that fun is an adjective for that matter, but that's a discussion for another day).

All I know for sure if that this ad makes me scream every time I see it. I'm sorry, Apple. I meant to say that it makes me scream "everytime" I see it.

Bad dog

I've been thinking about my new "nephew" lately--my sister's new dog, Tony. They're having problems dealing with his separation anxiety and subsequent destruction. Ah, yes. Poor Barley was significantly more disturbed than Tony is now, and he still came through just fine. Hang in there, Cara! Tony will come around.

With that said, be patient with him when he has a relapse.


...or two:

Ay, matey

I know recent reports of pirates looting oil tankers and other ships is very serious and nothing to joke about. Really, I know that. But every time I hear a serious newsperson mention pirates, I can't help but laugh.

I think of National Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is wonderfully infectious.

I think of Matt and his brother playing pirates. Matt made his brother walk the plank, and his brother was knocked out when the plank snapped in half.

I think of one of my very favorite musicals, and then I have an impossible time getting this song out of my head:


"And it is, it is a glorious thing to be a pirate king."

Hurrah for the pirate king, indeed.

Fireside Chats

I'm a huge FDR fan, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that I'm a bit of an Obama fan, too. So I'm loving the marriage of the originator of the weekly presidential address (i.e., the fireside chat) with the king of YouTube (1,800 Obama videos on YouTube have been viewed more than 110 million times).

The fireside chat comes to YouTube. What a great time to be alive.

Barley's favorite things

Helping in the kitchen:

Sleeping in (often, while also sleeping "under"):

Opening the mail:

Guarding the house (in this case, after helping to open the mail):

Putting away clothes:

A new favorite

Those who know me well know that I'm typically not lukewarm about anything. I either love something or I hate it. My new very favorite thing is the Web site Bring Fido. It has information on and links to thousands of pet-friendly facilities across the country--from lists of hotels and airline policies to pet-friendly destinations and priceless photos of pets on vacation.

For two people who love to travel, but hate to leave our little Barley boo at home, this site is a lifesaver.

"A Walk in the Woods"

Every fall, the kids from our church spend a weekend up at our camp in Western Maryland. The kids go to a bunch of different schools, so they look forward to this time to reconnect. This year, our theme was "worship," and the weekend was led by Mudhouse, an acoustic duo.
Aside from worshiping together, rekindling old friendships and spending hours in the beautiful mountain scenery, the kids also get to help out around the camp, though there are always more kids than there are jobs.
This year, a few of us took a hike up to "shock rock." The power lines run so low that if a person sticks his or her hand in the air, s/he can shock someone else. In other words, the perfect game to play with a bunch of teenagers on a cliff.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I can't wait for next year!

"Life is a Battlefield," part II

I'd like to take a break from my post-election euphoria to share another little adventure Matt and I had last weekend. Ever since I visited Antitam with my parents, I've wanted to visit other historical sites near us. So Matt and I took a drive down to Fredericksburg, Virginia, home of the Civil War's Battle of Fredericksburg.

We started our trip with the beautiful drive down to Virginia. We couldn't have picked a better weekend; the colors were at their absolute peak:
(Full disclosure: this photo was taken in our back yard. But I swear the colors along I-95 were equally beautiful. All the photos I took had nose smudges in the way.)

We started our day of history with lunch along the Rappahannock River, a key to the success of the Confederacy during this battle. The Union soldiers were slow in their attempts to maneuver across the river, giving General Lee ample time to anticipate their actions and prepare his soldiers accordingly. One big stumbling block for the Union was the laborious construction of pontoon bridges such as the one below.
Unlike the Battle of Antitam, which was fought in an open cornfield, the Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in and around a town that was dangerously close to Washington, D.C., as shown by the marker below. After the battle, residents returned to their houses, such as the one below, to find bodies strewn about and bullet holes in the walls. During breaks in the battle, families of soldiers would come out to the battlefield to visit, as would "Hooker's girls" (and, yes, that is where that euphemism comes from).
Because the Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in such relatively close quarters, Lincoln and Lee could actually see each other from the opposite blufs rising up from each side of the Rappahannock. Lincoln was stationed in the house below, which was a thriving plantation until Union soldiers took it over shortly before the war.
This house also doubled as one of the strangest museums I've ever visited. As soon as we opened the front door, we were greeted by a Wednesday-Addams-looking girl who offered to show us around. Fearing her to be the ghost of a Confederate soldier's daughter, we opted to meander around alone. One of the featured items on display in the house was this "chamber chair," complete with a convenient hole in the bottom that's reflected in the mirror on the floor. "I wish we had something like that," Matt said. "Gives new meaning to a 'padded toilet seat,'" I replied.
Elsewhere in the house, curators had preserved some of the graffiti left behind by Union soldiers. Apparently, whatever paneling they didn't use for firewood, they defamed, much to the pleasure of historians everywhere:
Across the bluff, we hiked up a hill that lead to where Lee's Confederate Army was headquartered. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the same hill that we climbed as a family during our vacation to Washington, D.C. when I was in fourth grade. (I wanted to go to Disneyworld, but that's a moot point now. I'm not bitter anymore. Honest.)

When hiking up that hill, my dad, always the teacher, decided to avoid the paved blacktop path and hike straight up the hill with his camcorder, "Into the clutches of General Lee himself," he narrated. Of course, his students would have had to ignore the fact that Union soldiers never actually marched up said hill. But, again, that's a moot point. As my dad stopped to pan around "to show the Union soldiers' view" (i.e. to catch his breath), he panned right, then slowly panned left. When he panned left, he caught my mom, sister and me, walking easily up the paved path. He quickly panned away, muttered something about "lazy Confederates" and journeyed back up the hill. Amazingly, this cinematic masterpiece was never shown to his students.

Matt and I, lazy Confederates that we apparently still are, opted once again for the paved path:
Still, the Union army did penetrate one part of Stonewall Jackson's line of Confederates. The berms that the Confederate soldiers built to protect themselves are still there, as is a marker for the point at which the Union broke through (really, that was the one highlight for them of the entire battle, and it was short-lived at best).
What trip to a Civil War battlefield would be complete without a few pictures of some cannons and the obligatory "sunken road"? After all, the Civil War was the first battle in which such weaponry was used, and it was the first battle using "modern warfare": less marching in formation, more lying in wait for the enemy. In the photos below, Matt is firing one of the cannons (obviously ignoring the very helpful sign), and the house pictured above with all the bullet holes is shown at the end of Fredericksburg's "sunken road." That part of the stone wall was constructed before the war, and it's still littered with bullet holes.
I'm sure that Matt and I wouldn't have made this trip if it wasn't for my American-history-teaching, Civil-War-loving father, Fred Berg. After all, the only reason we chose to visit "Fredericksburg" on that family vacation years ago was because of the name. It was only fitting, therefore, that we saw this license plate as we finished our day at the battlefield:

Mr. President

On Tuesday, I drove to Pittsburgh to spend my birthday and this historic election day with Jessica, my birthday and election partner. As the clock in the bar ticked down to 11:00 p.m. Eastern time, we all counted down the seconds with the anticipation of New Year's Eve, Superbowl Sunday, two birthdays and an election, all rolled in to one. Fighting back tears, Jessica and I held each other until we realized we didn't have to hold back the tears. I looked around, and we weren't the only ones crying--far from it. Strangers were hugging, crying and holding each other. I bawled my way through his acceptance speech:



After the speech, I went out into the street and saw people pouring from the surrounding houses. One woman ran down the street, yelling, "I can't be alone! I have to hug someone!" I shouted back, "I'll hug you!" and we stood together, hugging, crying, celebrating, rejoicing. When I went back inside, the bartenders were giving away free drinks, which Jessica and I gladly accepted (purely in the spirit of the celebratory and momentous occasion, of course):

I first came in contact with President-elect Obama over three years ago when I was still working on Capitol Hill. I went to a Veterans' Affairs subcommittee hearing on veterans' employment issues. I was one of maybe six staffers and visitors in attendance. The meeting was like any other until the Chair recognized the Junior Senator from Illinois. Senator Obama leaned forward to speak, and he had the room in his hand with his first words. "How can we be talking about employing veterans," he asked, "when there are thousands of homeless veterans in my home state of Illinois alone?" He continued to speak with such passion and such clarity, that I thought it was a shame there were only six of us there to hear it. I also remember thinking that, because there were only six of us there, he must really must believe what he's saying. This isn't an act; this isn't political posturing. This guy really believes what he's saying.

I saw an interview with Colin Powell yesterday that helped bring everything full-circle for me, especially this quote: "President-elect Obama did not put himself forward as an African American president. He put himself forward as an American who happened to be black--who happened to be African American. And that ought to come after the title."

Of course, yesterday's Doonsbury hit the mark pretty well, too:
Here's to President-elect Obama, a great leader who happens to be black...and white.

Vote

Why vote today? Although there's really no excuse not to (as evidenced by the woman with the cast in a wheelchair at my polling place this morning), here's a brief, albeit not exhaustive, list:

1. Because 90 years ago, a person like me couldn't vote.
2. Because I was the minority at my polling place this morning. Not since my mom and I stumbled into the NAACP convention in Minneapolis have I felt so outnumbered.
3. Because of the 50-year-old black man I met waiting in line to vote for two hours this morning who said, "I finally have someone to vote for."
4. Because all the 18-year-old girls going to vote for the first time will see the name "Sarah" on a major ticket instead of "Dick" or "George."
5. Because 151 years ago, a black man wasn't even a person, and in a few hours, he may be the person.
6. Because I will ask for nothing else for my birthday if you spend a few minutes at the polls today.
7. Because if you don't, you have to sit down and shut up for the next four years.

Why will you vote today?

Edit to #5 at 1:30 a.m. Eastern time: He is the person. Eat your heart out, Supreme Court of 1857!

Best birthday present ever

My birthday isn't until tomorrow, but Matty surprised me this weekend with my present.

We took this photo just before we left. Matt wouldn't tell me where we were going. Oh, the anticipation!
I knew we were going somewhere in D.C., but that was it. I found out that we had a reservation for "between 7 and 8," which confused me even more. I thought we were going to a play or dinner theater, but no. What a great surprise when we pulled into a parking lot and saw this enormous boat:
We spent the rest of the evening sailing down the Potomac River, seeing all the monuments and other attractions from the water. I've seen these buildings hundreds (maybe even thousands) of times, but I'd never seen them from this angle, and they've never looked so beautiful:
Matt and I stuffed ourselves silly with the ship's wonderful food. After our final course, Matt had had enough. "Stick a fork in me. I'm done," he said:
The ship had a dance floor, too, so we boogied the night away after dinner. I've never considered myself a great dancer, but I do like to think I have a fair amount of rhythm. That was all put to rest when several African American couples started dancing by us. My worst suspicions were confirmed: I suck.

At one point in the evening, the band announced all the birthdays on board and asked the whole ship to sing to us. I think Matty was the only one who sang "...to Rachie," but he was the only one I was listening to.

Hundreds of people may have been singing, but nothing says "happy birthday" like a candle in some flan:
...not to mention, spending an evening out with your very favorite person: