Oath of Office

This picture was borrowed entirely without permission from Gary Moyers' blog. This is the inauguration of President Obama as seen from a satellite 423 miles above earth. The blue-roofed building to the right is the Capitol Building, and the dark masses are people.

Imagine that you have to write a new oath for the President of the United States to take on Inauguration Day. Write the oath based on what you think is important for the President to promise.

The question above was posed to the children of Liz's second-grade class, and here are some of their best responses:

• "I promise to every one two have 100,000 dollers to have money and two by grocerys with that mony and two techer to take vacatione and free icecream and free bulldog and puppy and I want games for my psp and plastashon and etendo bs. The end."



• "I promise to have ice cream for school only on Friday and Thursday."



• "I promise to ... the teachers to have vacation. Kids to have school. And moms to have works. And dads to have works."



• "I swear that I will give everybody half of my money when I get money."



• "I promise to keep our town clean and let the teaches go ta vacation."



• "I promise to let the techers have a vacation so thay will get a brake of school and we still have to got to school kids have to got to school and techers get $8,000,000."



• "I promise to take care of my family and not go haywire."



• "I will promise to read the Bivle of God."



• "I promise to have vacation every day."



• "I promise Mrs. Kirk that she should have three vacations."

Happy Birthday Liz!

My lovely and gracious wife celebrated her birthday today. I shall not reveal her age, but the theme of the cake was "Area 51". (Scratch & Sniff.)

Christmas in Odessa, Part 1

After thanking God that Christmas is over, I shall now proceed to talk about it some more.

One of our favorite Christmas stops is in fact a private farm-type residence somewhere in Odessa which for many years has opened its gates to the public each December and which is decked out with many small wonders:
The owners charge no admission. It's a labor of love.
There used to be even more decorations at this place in previous years, but the owners have had to scale back for various reasons.
The train has a bell for the kids to ring. Robert is almost too big to fit inside it...
not that he cares.

The ponies are the size of a large dog. They have no known connection to Christmas, but they sure are cute.

An angelic choir rotates and sings.

Thank God Christmas is Over!

Whew!