Before	After

That’s right – I’ve officially joined the ranks of the slightly visually impaired. I’ve been suffering from an unusual number of headaches lately, even for me, so I’ve been investigating if there’s anything I can do about my chronic sinus problems, but I also decided to have my vision checked, since I hadn’t done that for probably five years or so. As it turns out, my advancing age has worsened my slight farsightedness and slight astigmatism to the point that I’m probably exerting too much effort while reading, particularly the eight hours each day I’m in front of my computer at work.

So, glasses it is. I’m wearing them all of the time for now; I may wear them less often after I’ve established how much they help. I’m not especially fond of having hardware hanging off my face, and I really don’t like the reduced field of vision – I have to turn my head a lot more than I used to. Oh, and cleaning the glasses isn’t much fun, either, nor is dealing with glasses in the rain. I could go on, but I should really focus on being thankful for a technology that allows me to read without so much effort. We’ll see if it reduces the number of headaches – so far, so good.

It was Julie’s thirty-somethingth’s birthday today! (I’ll give you a hint – it’s a prime number, and she won’t be able to say that again about her birthday for another six years. Not that she would ever say such a thing. For some reason, I’m the only one around here that seems to take interest in the mathematical qualities of our ages.)

She claims to have had a great birthday weekend, even though I didn’t have to wasn’t allowed to buy her a gift. She decided to build “credit” for new living room furniture instead, so we visited a couple of furniture stores on Saturday, including the gigantic Costco Home warehouse. We didn’t find anything too promising, but we’ll keep looking.

We also went to the new-and-improved Everett Children’s Museum, which was really fun for all three kids, and great for Julie and me to watch them have fun. After that (proving that, in fact, we were celebrating Julie’s birthday) we went to Wight’s Home & Garden, which is having a huge Christmas extravaganza with all manner of Christmas stuff for sale, including millions of ornaments, a few of which were purchased and brought home. For dinner, we had tasty Mexican at El Gitano.

Sunday was also an exciting day. We went to church at the host church for Bethany’s preschool, because Bethany and her classmates sang a few songs for the congregation. (Bethany did great!) Then we went to Applebee’s for a birthday dinner (i.e., lunch) with Julie’s parents! (The old-fashioned Reformed man in me wants to assure you that going out to eat on Sunday is an incredibly rare occasion for us; in fact, Julie’s birthday falling on a Sunday is probably a prerequisite.) After dinner, we went home for cake and gifts, graciously provided by Julie’s parents.

So, I had a great weekend, and I think Julie did, too. Other festivities will come later this week, of course – Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night. I’m going to bed.

The only joy in plumbing is the knowledge that you’re not paying an exorbitant fee to a plumber, and even then, you wonder. Still, I decided that I should at least try to clear our clogged bathroom sink drain, so I went to our brand new Home Depot (my shadow will never grace Lowe’s again) and bought a $10 “drain cleaning tool” – that is, a snake.

It ultimately took all 25 feet of that snake – probably because our bathroom is on the second floor – but the sink is now draining freely. Sometimes it pays to plumb.

What a night that was, one week ago tonight! I must confess that I expected that Kerry and the Democrats would be the winners last Tuesday night. Perhaps it is simply a result of the state in which I live, and the city in which I work, but I felt like the “anyone but Bush” sentiment combined with the strong “get out the vote” campaign was going to be enough to get rid of Bush. Little did I know how impressive the Republicans were going to be at getting their base to get out and vote, particularly in the hotly contested states of Florida and Ohio. Four more years – hopefully President Bush can make good on his promises.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad election, at least in terms of who and what I voted for as compared to the actual outcome. I vote against just about any “citizen initiative” – many of the initiatives failed, though a few did pass, including a crazy new format for primary elections that will allow for the possibility of two members of the same party running against each other in the general election.

I vote for just about any “referendum” – the only one on the ballot, regarding charter schools, failed. Of course, no charter school money would ever end up going to a religious school like Mount Vernon Christian School, so I don’t have a whole lot of stake in that.

I vote for just about any Republican – most of them lost, though there were a few victories. The Senate gets to enjoy the company of Democrat Patty Murray for her third six-year term. But the biggest prize, governor of Washington state, is still “too close to call.” The lead literally switches between Rossi (R) and Gregoire (D) day to day…

Finally, I voted for the winner in every one of the non-partisan races, so that was a welcome change from previous elections.

Mostly, I’m glad for the opportunity to vote. I’m glad that there were no terrorist attacks, no major riots (though plenty of protest rallies, including one in Bellingham on Wednesday), and no protracted legal battle for the presidency. Regardless of the outcome, that makes me proud to be an American.

I returned to work today after a bit of a vacation – my mom arrived in Seattle this past Tuesday, and hung out with my family for about a week. I brought her back to the airport this morning – hopefully she survived the long flight back to Florida.

We had a great time. The best part was that the kids got to spend some quality time with their Grandma Freeman, of course, but we also did some special things, like watching the Red Sox win the World Series, attending Bethany’s preschool’s Harvest Party, going to the Children’s Museum in Bellingham, eating at Billy McHale’s, celebrating Rebecca’s first birthday, carving pumpkins with friends, and having a nice Sunday dinner with family.

Our house is your house, Mom – come back any time! We miss you already! And drag that husband of yours along next time!