Trail of Lights, Trail of Puns

We took the kids, plus Oscar from next door, to see the 37th Street Trail of Lights tonight -- a Central Austin tradition. Honestly, it's really tacky, and not even that impressive (to me), but the kids were totally fired up about it -- and that was before we even left our street! They were shrieking all the way there every time we even passed a house with what one might call minor illuminations. I guess we don't get out that much at night, LOL!

In retrospect, I was kind of wishing we had made it a family-only event, because we ended up having that lovely dynamic where Ian and Oscar are wound up and as a result, not very kind to Eliza -- whereas had it been just us, I think Ian and Eliza would have just enjoyed being silly together, and as usual, thought whatever Caroline did or said was hilarious, so no one would have been left out in the proverbial (and literal) cold. We had to do a bit of follow-up after dropping Oscar off at home, and I even had to call him to task a couple times, which I hate to do with anyone else's kids, and that did put a bit of a damper on the high spirits we all felt when starting out on our adventure. But anyway. Another learning experience for all, and on balance a fun memory made, I think.

On a totally different note, what's up wihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifth Putin being ? OK OK, I understand why Time chose him, I really do, and I understand it's not an endorsement, but still ... I was expecting Al Gore, who got the #2 spot. I read the whole article, which arrived today, and having lived in Russia for a month during a time of mass instability, I get why most Russians feel like he's been a very positive influence on their country, like maybe democracy and freedom weren't all they were cracked up to be and at least now they aren't standing in bread lines and what not. But I still find his leadership style, his personality, and even his vision to be, well, quite unsettling. Chilling, even.

And not the kind of chilling that Gore thinks we need. :-) Sorry, bad pun, although my brother says there's no such thing as bad puns. But still, looking at Putin and Gore, talk about polar opposites! OK, yeah, I know, I'll just stop right there.