Run Megan, Run!

Well, I have now officially been upstaged not once, but twice. Yesterday, Megan completed her second half-marathon. In order to be there on time for the 8:30 a.m. start, she left the house at about 7:00 a.m. and rode with another woman in the ward who was also running the half. The kids and I arrived a little past 9:00 a.m. and drove past Megan as she was at about mile 4. We quickly parked the car near mile 5 to get out and cheer her on, but by the time my molasses-like quickness got the children out of the car, we only saw her turn the corner from the distance.

We had to decide quickly what our next step was--whether to get back in the car and try to drive to a new location to see her or not--and opted to pile 3 kids into a 2 seat stroller and try to chase her down. That didn't work really. Fortunately, the course had a lot of backtracking. At mile 8 we finally caught up with Megan. The kids were happy to see her and waved excitedly as we jogged alongside her for about 100 yards. Luckily, we managed to get ahead of her long enough to capture the following photograph:


Mile 8 also happened to be mile 12. So, we saw her coming back as well. Being the genius she is, Megan wore a bright yellow t-shirt to assist us as we strained to recognize her in the pack from a distance.


I jogged alongside her while pushing the kids in the stroller again until she finally pulled away from us and out of our sight. Megan's parents also participated in the day, running the 5K. We all finally met up at the finish line.


Regrettably, Alison and Kaitlyn both upstaged me as well by partcipating in the kids' marathon: a 1-mile run. Alison participated by running (and taking a few walking breather breaks) the entire course on her own. Kaitlyn participated by sobbing for half a mile while I carried her in my arms and on my back as I ran and tried to keep pace with Alison. Megan met us at that halfway point and Kaitlyn almost jumped into her arms; I was surprised at the sudden ease of my jog.



As we turned the final corner I pulled ahead of Ali in an attempt to get her to sprint to the finish line. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect: she stopped running and started walking. The large crowd at the finish line immediately took her side and started yelling things like, "C'mon...you can beat your dad!" and "Don't let that ugly, slow, out-of-shape old guy getting upstaged by his entire family beat you!" Somehow, I felt a great flood of opposition and slowed considerably, just as Alison took off again and surged out in front of me beating me by "about two feet" by her estimation.


However, Max was the most exhausted of all us and immediately crashed as soon as we were able to hobble back to the car to drive home.

Thursday Night

I don't even want to talk about the BYU-TCU "game" on Thursday night. Leave it to BYU to get your hopes up and con you into getting emotionally involved, only to dash your hopes into small, unrecognizable pieces.

I was in Chicago on Thursday night so we watched the game on DVR on Friday night instead. Rather than watch the game on Thursday night, I was at a team dinner where the topic of discussion turned to politics.

The intelligent and enthusiastic younger team members tried their vigorous best to argue in favor of wealth redistribution (i.e. taxing the "have's" to give to the "have-nots" still leaves the "have's" comparatively better off and makes the whole better off). My problem with this is that it actually takes away individual freedom by placing decision making control in the hands of government instead of the actual individuals, and is a remarkably similar excuse to those oft given by felonious kleptomaniac n'er-do-wells. One of the major non-Republican candidates, for example, is proposing, as I understand it, to raise taxes on social security on those who make over a certain amount, but without providing any additional social security benefit whatsoever. In other words, if you make more than X, you have to pay more in social security tax, but the social security benefit you receive at retirement wouldn't change at all. Paying money for zero benefit at all hardly seems fair. At least with income taxes, you can argue that the wealthy are paying for the public resources they consume since trade-enhancing infrastructure enables business, whose profits flow in proportionately greater measure back to them. If 40% of Americans who pay no taxes at all will suddenly get a "rebate" check from the government for no change in behavior that doesn't strike me as a particularly efficient way to incentivize improvement. That's called welfare or handouts. Which leads me to a second point: I believe in work.

In the case of healthcare, the proposal on the table by one of the major non-McCain candidates actually seems to put in place a structure that moves us significantly toward a single-payer system. I'm certainly for healthcare for those who need it; no one wants to see others suffer. My problem with a single-payer system is that there is no competition. Competition is a very good thing. We have anti-trust laws and government reviews to prevent monopolies. This is because monopolies can essentially charge what they want, which leads to little to no incentive for improvement. Competition, on the other hand, forces improvement because today's customers may leave tomorrow if they're given a better, lower-cost option. Constant improvement is the mandate for survival. No competition, government run healthcare is a scary prospect.

As you know, I'm not really one to post for reasons other than to inform or to entertain. And, I don't think I've done this subject any justice whatsoever. However, with the election drawing near, I feel a desire to weigh in. I'm not really enthused about either candidate, to tell the truth. But, when you vote in a few weeks, please carefully consider which candidate values each person's individual freedom the most, and is most likely to keep government interference at a minimum. Please do not vote for Barack Obama.

Happy Birthday Mr. Max

Can someone please tell me what happened to the last 367 days? I turned around and suddenly my little boy is one! We held the official celebration today as Megan and I had another commitment on Friday night which prevented our being able to celebrate then.

We took the girls to Toys R' Us to pick out presents for Max, but their initial selections were, shall we say, less than desirable. Kaitlyn insited that Max wanted--needed--a "Maggie Leigh Magnetic Dress-up" doll kit.

Alison, on the other hand, thought Max would enjoy a tricycle, nevermind the fact that he's still learning how to walk. Her other top choice was something like a 6-ft. basketball hoop. It's clear that the family tradition of getting family members the gifts that you really wanted yourself lives on (a la the time that as a teenager I gave my father electric guitar strings for Christmas when I owned the only electric guitar in the house).


Fortunately, we were able to settle on some things that Max actually might enjoy: stacking boxes, a Sesame Street push-botton-door-opening thingy, and a firetruck he can sit on and push around.

Max also scored on thoughtful gifts from our neighbors Todd and Amy, from his cousins, and from his grandparents.


However, I think Max may have most enjoyed his birthday cake, which he finally figured out how to eat after trying several different approaches:


Unfortunately, when Max was finished he eating, he thought the best way to indicate that he had consumed enough was to take handfuls of the remaining cake/frosting/saliva mixture and toss them over the side of his highchair.

Megan took floor clean up, and I took bath duty.

Student of the Month

On Tuesday, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Alison was one of two students in her class presented with the prestigious "Student of the Month" award in front of a crowd of about 100 other proud parents. The other recipient from her first grade class was a little neighbor girl who lives just 2 doors down and who is a friend of Ali's.

Ali was recognized for her high IQ, vice-presidential demeanor, genetic good looks (particularly from her maternal parent), ability of her father to dress her in matching clothes in the morning, AND/OR "academic achievement." I'm pretty sure that all of the other things were implied, and that they just didn't have space on the certificate so that's why they abbreviated it to just "academic achievement."

We're proud of you Alison!