Embrassssss

Just thought I'd report that my partner is indescribably huggable this morning. Given enough sleep, all I want to do is roll around in bed not sleeping.

Exhortation

The latest from Team W:

Dear Charlie,

Across America, volunteers for the President are sending tens of thousands of e-mails, recruiting new volunteers, writing letters to the editor, calling talk radio, and registering voters on behalf of the President's optimistic agenda.   As the National Political Director for the President's campaign, I'll be writing you over the next 5 months to ask for your participation in these critical re-election activities. 

You may have participated in many of them already.  I want you to get credit for it!  To make sure your efforts are recognized, I've created the Volunteer Leaderboard.
 
www.GeorgeWBush.com/GetActive/leaderboard.aspx
Beginning today, the Volunteer Leaderboard on GeorgeWBush.com will display the top national volunteers for each activity and your national volunteer ranking. Recruit enough volunteers, register enough voters, or write enough letters-to-the-editor, and you can reach the top of the board!
At the end of each month, I'll send a special campaign memento to the top 5 volunteers overall and top 5 volunteers in each category.

Reach for the top and take action on behalf of the President today!

Sincerely,

Terry Nelson
National Political Director

I don't want to get my hopes up, but something tells me that using the words "President's optimistic agenda" indicates an unease within the campaign. I mean, you only need to call it "optimistic" if lots of people are calling it something else.

Personally, I think "optimistic" is a very good thing to call it, though I would append the phrase, "in the extreme."

Where I Teach

I saw this festive vehicle -- U of A graduation was this past weekend -- at my parking garage this morning:

If "college is for losers," does that mean that this is the car of a winner?

That coyly absent wheel cover sure gets me hot and bothered.

Bean At Work

Since Skylar had today off from pre-school, I brought her to the office with me. While distressed to learn that there wasn't that much "work" for her to do at this end-of-semester juncture, she had fun sharing her Dragonology book -- see knicolini's blog entry from today on the subject -- with everyone she saw.

It seemed appropriate, under the circumstances, to set her up in my office for some "downtime" with the underrated Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit, a childhood favorite of mine:

The best part was the moment of recognition during the cavern scene when she turned to me and said, "It's the Ring of Power!," captured for you here in the manner of Marcel Duchamp:

Isn't retroactive foreshadowing fun?