Sparkle Day

The adventure started on Friday, a sick day for Owen, who had thrown up the day before. Feeling fine in the afternoon, Owen and I set out with our shovels to clear away the inch of snow that had fallen. After doing our driveway we crossed the street to do two more driveways -- those of an older gentleman and of a young family, like ours, whose dad was off on a business trip this week. Done with those, we saw Tony, one house further, out beginning to clear his walk.

We were off!

Done shoveling, Tony brought out his big inner tube sled. We got Owen up in it and I pulled him around Tony's front yard. "We're thinking about going sledding tomorrow," said Tony. "You should come."

So we did. We followed Tony and his wife and their granddaughter, Lexi, over to the park in the late morning and were joined by Tony's brother and their kids. 29 degrees outside on a south-facing hill, the snow wasn't going to last long. But it was a fast ride and lots of fun while it lasted.

Below are two videos, including Owen's first sled ride ever (top) with me as his co-pilot, as well as a later trip made by the two of us.





Thanks for the excellent pushes, Tony!

Owen made probably ten solo trips in-between, bravely going down the hill then helping to pull the sled back up.



Not on video, but documented in this photo, is the undoubtedly ill-conceived, but entirely fun, trip he made with his mom. I wonder what it felt like for Strawberry on the inside ...

Speaking of, we met with the doula yesterday to discuss comfort measures during the delivery. I should say Amy met with the doula as I was laid out after catching the flu Owen had at the end of the week. Although I was feeling a little dizzy in the morning, I felt fine enough to take him swimming in the morning. But I knew where I was headed on our drive home. Owen went to the kitchen to grab his lunch and I went upstairs to lose mine ...

I'm feeling good this morning, though. I didn't get to see much of last night's Oscars, which is fine. But I was thrilled to see this morning that a film I helped with (in a very small way), Taxi to the Dark Side, won for best documentary. When I was at Dartmouth, the filmmaker, Alex Gibney, contacted me to come and film a panel discussion for which I was handling the media relations. The panel, featured John Yoo (author of Bush's "Torture Memo") and human rights lawyer Scott Horton. I helped them coordinate an interview with Yoo and got them set up in a terrific, very collegial room in the Dartmouth Library (which they trashed) for their one-on-one.

Hmmm, I wonder if it's too late to go to the Governor's Ball?