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Barack Obama will begin airing his first general election ad, “Country I Love,” today. This article in the Washington Post discusses some of its more subtle, and not so subtle, messages. Another discusses his decision to opt out of general election general financing.

Another boring week. It looks like it is going to be a pretty boring weekend too. For some strange reason it is still snowing in Denver. I can’t wait to move someplace sunny.

Things have been crazy in the lab recently; I’ve been trying to generate data for a grant renewal. I thought things were going to calm down a bit now that it has been submitted, but it appears that I can keep dreaming. I have a big meeting and a few presentations to give this month.

While we haven’t given much political commentary recently, our friends have, offering up post on both Spitzer and Obama.

I forgot to post about March Madness and the NCAA Tourney. The first tip off is in a few hours, making it too late for everyone to get their picks in, so there will be no Cody Report bracket pool this year. We saved a box of Thin Mints to give to the winner again, but I guess we will just have to eat them ourselves. .. I am taking Memphis all the way!

Well…  I guess no one wanted to talk politics 🙂  I got busy this week and did not get to follow-up after Primary day.  The caucus took way longer than expected and I (along with many other people) were concerned about if the process was being done right.  I didn’t get home until after 10pm.  There was really no one assigned to guide it, but we fortunately had a few people that knew how it was supposed to work…kinda.  They had to assign a temporary caucus president, seargent-at-arms and secretaries.   I ended up volunteering to help the secretary help everyone sign the caucus sheets b/c it was more than one person could handle.  They did not expect that many people to show up to the caucus.  Apparently that was the most Democrats that had voted in my county ever (the county is heavily Republican and ALL of the local elected officials are Republican.  There weren’t even any local democrats who ran).   After all was said and done, I ended up volunteering to be a delegate that would go to the County caucus.  From the County caucus, they choose delegates to go to the State Caucus, and from there they choose delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention.  I probably will not go past the County, but I am looking forward to the experience and learning more about what seems to be a very complicated (and often unorganized) process.  So… I still remain excited about the campaign and how our political system works (or doesn’t work).  It’s also interesting to feel excited about supporting a candidate, especially being an Independent and not having a party affiliation since I first registered to vote ten years ago.

William is headed into town tonight, so it should be a great weekend.  I hope everyone else has a nice weekend too!

The Oscar nominations were released today and “No Country for Old Men” and “There will be Blood” came out with the most. I have not seen either movie as usually is the case with the Oscar nominees. “Juno” was one of the nominations for best picture and as William mentioned, we did see that over the holidays. It will be interesting to see if there will be an awards ceremony this year due to the writer’s strike. I am really starting to wonder how long it will last and what type of programming will remain beyond the strike.

So… b/c it is so cold in Denver, I doubt William and I have many outdoor activities planned. A few movies may be planned. Any recommendations for movies either on video or theaters? Anyone have a favorite movie that they feel EVERYONE should see?

Work has been busy with month end and year end reports and gearing up for 2008.  Combined with trying to fit in my Turbo Kickboxing classes again, I am not getting a chance to sit down and relax until at least 9pm.  So that means all I really want to do at that point is veg out in front of the tv.  While doing that a couple days ago, I watched the pilot episode and then a few days later, the second episode of the new ABC show, Cashmere Mafia.   This show is from the same producers as Sex and the City and is somewhat reminiscent of the show, but with a different spin.  It is about four best friends who went to business school together and now live and work in NYC as high female execs.  It tries to answer the question, “can women have it all” and shows them on their journey to do that (with the obvious embellishments for mass audience appeal).  One of my favorite scenes was when the “stay at home mom” takes one of the main characters kids on a playdate to a Build-a-Bear and create surprise her with a “working mommy bear”.  The bear was even equipped with a cell phone and blue tooth headset and when you pushed her hand, the bear said “I can’t talk right now.  I’m on a conference call”.  The “working mom” thought it was a horrible gift, but I actually liked it.  I am sure William would say my bear would have two cell phones and would say “I’m on-call again”.  I sometimes wonder whether having a demanding career will affect my ability to be the mother I hope to be, but William reassures me that our kids will think that whatever happens in our house is “normal”.  I know that we will do everything possible to make sure our kids know that they are our priority.  Since we each come from households with working mothers and turning out as wonderfully as we did, I think we both realize that we will be just fine.

I picked William up from the airport yesterday, so Christmas came a few days early for me. We have enjoyed being together again and look forward to spending time with each other and with our parents later this week. We don’t really have any specific plans the next couple days besides going to my sister’s house on Christmas day. We went to church this morning and they had the annual Christmas production. It was very nicely done with falling snow, live animals, and more. Pastor Evans also gave a short sermon on reminding us to keep Christ in Christmas this year and every year. He talked about how we get caught up in the gifts, but frequently forget about the Giver of the gifts. It was a good message, right to the point, and several people accepted Christ, which is the ultimate gift.

I decorated the house this year and I really think it looks nice. I am sure we will post pictures at some point. With a few new pieces of furniture and other gifts from the wedding, it is really starting to feel more like a “home”. We are thinking of inviting a few people over tomorrow night to hang out and play Nintendo Wii, so we’ll see what happens. I suggested we see The Great Debaters (a movie that comes out Christmas day starring Denzel Washington and Forrest Whitaker). I have seen previews on tv and on Oprah and it looks good.

In terms of Christmas traditions, William and I hope to start some, but haven’t figured them all out yet. We did decide that each year we would buy a new ornament for the tree and gradually build up. His mom has a story behind just about every ornament on her tree, so I think he wants to do the same. My family didn’t really have any traditions per se besides the usual family gathering and the Chinese Christmas Eve dinner that we have to celebrate my aunt’s Chinese heritage. I will miss fighting for those egg rolls this year! One year we had karoake and that was a lot of fun. Sometimes we even break out in Christmas carols (sounds cheesy, but it really is fun when you get everyone involved). I am sure once kids are in the picture our list of family traditions will grow.

Anyone else have a Christmas tradition they would like to share ?

p.s. the title for this post was b/c I have that song in my head. Toni Braxton has a version on her 2001 Snowflakes album that is so nice.  Click here to enjoy it!

William and I are settling down from what was a very busy work week for both of us, especially for William who called me this morning when I was making breakfast at 7am (the first time I think I have ever made a hot breakfast before work) and reported he was just then going to bed . We need something to blog about. Any suggestions?  Any suggestions for Christmas gifts?  I have no idea what I want this year.  I doubt William will buy me clothes or stuff for the house, which is about all I think I want at the moment, so I am stuck.  William has already begun compiling his list (as usual).

I don’t think either of us has done anything all that interesting this week. Kyllan has been attending some events for a conference in Dallas the past couple of days and I will be attending a conference in the middle of nowhere this weekend. (Seriously, I have no idea where the conference is at.) I’ll be giving a presentation this Sunday on some pretty interesting data I’ve generated in the lab. Hopefully I’ll get the manuscript out soon.

What are you guys watching for the new fall tv season? I caught the pilots for Chuck and the “re-imagining” of Bionic Woman. I thought both were interesting, but don’t know that I will continue watching. One new show that I think I will continue to watch is Life. There really isn’t anything all that good on. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until January for three of my favorite shows to air new episodes. (24, The Wire and Battlestar Galactica.)

So as you may already know, William is back in the lab. I actually made the drive back to Denver with him last Saturday and it actually wasn’t that bad. I caught up on all the tech news and previews of Halo 3 by listening to the tech podcasts that he downloaded. Yes… he had enough podcasts to last the whole trip, and we still didn’t make it through all of them (apparently he listens to these on a daily basis, so he had 3 weeks to catch up on).

Anyway… now that I am not planning a wedding anymore and William is back in Denver, I decided to find a new hobby to fill my free time and I thought, what better way to start of a marriage than by taking some cooking classes to perfect my skills. Now… this is when William would chime in a tell you that I don’t cook, but the truth is…. I can cook, I just don’t. My schedule is always so busy (usually 12 hour days and this week I had a 17 hour day since we were working on the business plan and budget). So when I get home, I am usually exhausted and don’t feel like cooking even though I would prefer to do that. However, I decided that hopefully my schedule will calm down a bit to give me more free time, and I definitely want to be able to cook for William once we live under the same roof. So today, I took my first cooking class at the Viking Cooking School. I took a course titled Girls Night out in Vegas that featured several recipes from popular chefs of Vegas restaurants like Emeril and Bobby Flay. The menu included Emeril’s New Orleans Barbecued Shrimp, Emeril’s Petite Rosemary Biscuits, Bobby Flay’s Grilled Fennel-Spiced Pork Chops with Lemon-Sage Vinaigrette, Commander’s Palace Stone-Ground Goat Cheese Grits, and Chocolae & Peanut Butter Ganache Tart. It was a hands on class, so it was great to learn recipes and techniques while chatting with the other students. I had only one mishap when I spilled vinaigrette all over the cooktop, but I was able to salvage it. It was kinda embarassing, but oh well. All the food came out great and I am excited about trying the recipes at home on my own, especially the pork chops since William tends to order pork chops many times when we go out for dinner. I enjoyed the class so much that I think I am going to enroll in the 12 week essential cooking series, which includes classes like making stocks, making sauces, sauteeing and frying, etc… It will definitely allow me to expand my skills.

So… William can rest assured that I will cook more for him and be excited about coming home for dinner.

On an unrelated topic, I would like to share with everyone that Drew (our nephew) asked his mom the following question on Thursday: “Can we go get a brother on Saturday?” My sister tried to explain that brothers are not readily available, and so he asked if she could go get one to put in her belly. Looks like Kim and Rob have some decisions to make 🙂