All done zoo

Trick or treat

Owen on metro

We are going to Boo @ the Zoo

More election predictions

It was pointed out to me that no one likes my prior-posted election prediction and that maybe I should go back to blogging about my children. I will, right after this post. First, here are my predictions for the individual competitive Senate races for this year:

Republicans will win:
Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri.

Democrats will win:
Rhode Island, Ohio, Montana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Independents will win Connecticut and Vermont.

If I left out your favorite state (e.g., Washington state, which Maria Cantwell will win), take it up by email or in the comments.

Election question

Here's a hypothetical:

Suppose you're running for Senate in a red state. Your success depends on winning an overwhelming number of the votes of the highly-educated urban/suburban part of your state. These voters are socially liberal, yet fiscally conservative. They respect military experience, yet are skeptical of the current administration's war in Iraq (more than the average American voter, even). Yet they're affluent, willing to vote their pocketbooks, anti-tax, and generally anti-union.

You, as a candidate, are a former Vietnam veteran, who has been an early and articulate critic of the war. You're also concerned about economic injustice. Your opponent has been an early and aggressive defender of the war. Do you (a) run on the war or (b) run on your vision of using government to address the inequalities of wealth in our country? If you're Jim Webb of Virginia, the answer is (b), though I can't for the life of me figure out how you arrive at that answer.

Mobile blogging - the explanation

Hi loyal readers. You'll notice, if you scroll down to the next two posts, two particularly grainy photos. You may wonder why. The reason - I've learned to "mobile blog." Basically, I can take pictures with my cell phone then send them automatically to the blog. Because I'm older than 30, I find entering text on a cell phone incredibly annoying, so you'll not get much description, but, well, there it is.

Take care!

Matt

Check this out!

Election prediction

This isn't normally where I indulge my non-child interests, but I am now going to make a prediction about the mid-term elections.  Please note, this isn't what I want to see happen, it's what I think will happen.

 

I predict the Democrats will take control of zero houses of Congress.

 

Again, I don't want to see this happen, but my read is that the number of races that are too close to call is higher than the number of seats needed to take either house, (see, e.g., this polling breakdown) and, for that reason, I think the Republican turnout machine is going to thwart the anti-Republican surge.

Owen turns his back on you!!

Yes, gentle blog reader, Owen is turning his back on you. If you'd like to see worse pictures, you can! To see the newest photos which were of such low quality they didn't make it onto this blog, click here.

Owen, the close-up

 

Mom and Zoe after the party

B held Zoe after the party. 

Zoe's baptism party

Zoe was baptized yesterday. Here's a picture of her at her party, coyly responding to a compliment. 

Grandpa Art & Mimi

Owen gets read to by grampa art and mimi. It is, of course, a Thomas book. 

Waiting

Mom can be really slow with dinner, and it doesn't help that Dad's messing with that #&$! camera again. 

Portrait of the artist

I like to think Owen looks like an artist in this one, albeit an artist who works primarily in Thomas toys. 

Bad squash?

We tried to use reverse psychology to get Owen to eat his squash. Now he feels like he's getting away with something. 

Ask and ye shall recieve

Wow, you guys really like the web albums. In response to your numerous emails of encouragement, I'm posting this evening even more photos in the Kaiser Web Album. The albums are labeled with (hopefully) descriptive titles. There's plenty more where that came from too, it just takes a long time to upload several hundred photographs onto the internet. Please keep those comments coming, either through the comments section here, or by emailing me.

This installment of web albums, features photos which didn't make the blog from Andy's visit, my birthday baseball trip with Andy and Dad, B's trip out West, Terry's visit to see Zoe, and lots of generic Kaiser family hanging-out. Enjoy!

Exciting (?) development

Here at Kaiserstrasse we comb the internet to find newer and better ways to deliver the quality, and, as importantly, the quantity of photos of Owen and Zoe that you, our discriminating viewers demand. To that end, we're happy to announce a new feature - the Kaiser Web Album page. Simply click on the link to see my web photo album. It's, basically, all the photos from a particular bit of time, instead of just the ones I've selected to put on this page.

On the web album, you'll see my dramatic experiments with shutter speed. You'll see photos where everyone is looking another direction. You'll thrill with excitment at seeing seven or eight photos of basically the same shot. No longer will you be limited to only the photos I put on the blog. Instead of seeing the pictures that are the best/most in focus/lend themselves to a (sometimes) funny comment, you'll see all the photos. So if you've got the time to sort through 103 (yes, 103) photos from our trip to Lancaster PA, and related (in the sense that they were on the same memory card) events, you'll love our new web album feature. If you'd rather not see eighteen out-of-focus pictures of Owen playing on the carpet with his trucks, feel free to stick with the blog.

Just email me to let me know what you think. If there's a lot of interest, I'll put the rest of my Kaiser Kid picture oeuvre online.

Trip to Lancaster PA

This weekend the Kaiser family went with Eli and his parents to Lancaster Pennsylvania to ride the Strassborg Railroad (it's the country's oldest still running railroad line) and visit Dutch Wonderland's Happy Hauntings (Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park for the toddler set). More pictures follow!

Pictured here is the steam engine which pulled us a dramatic 9 miles! 

Zoe on the train

Zoe also liked the gentle rocking motion of the train. 

Trying to pinch the camera

Yet falling short. 

Kaisers on the train

B, holding Zoe, looks across the aisle, while Owen deftly moves his head into the camera frame. 

Owen contemplates life on the rails

The train had yet to leave the station, when already Owen began to think that perhaps a nomad's life is not for him. He did seem to enjoy sitting on my lap, though. 

Owen, Eli, and the Matts

We were about to ride the rails on the Strassborg railway. VERY exciting. 

Owen and Eli drive a Bulldozer

Owen and Eli drove a bulldozer.

You would be amazed how many times that fact can be remarked upon. 

Owen was driving a truck (with Eli)!

Owen and Eli drove me around in this Hummer. 

Eli and Owen

Owen and Eli, in the bar, playing with trains. 

Zoe is embarrased

She's never really comfortable being in my lap when I wear that T-Shirt. 

Owen and Mom

They're playing with his Thomas gear. 

Waking up is hard to do

You'd look like this too if someone stuck a camera in your face as soon as you woke from your nap. 

Owen in an Irish bar

Aside from his size, Owen really blends in an Irish bar. 

Bad idea T-shirts

Zoe's t-shirt says "Looking for Trouble."

Why did we get that for her? Why do we dress her in it? 

A tow-truck altered reality

Owen gets really intense about his toys.