Utah trip

So I've been a way for a little while. I took my first trip in a long time. Wifey and I deposited the kids and took a small excursion to Nevada and Utah. Geography forced us to drive through Arizona, but in keeping with our boycott, we refused to stop and booed their citizens vociferously.

Yeah, dropping the kids off for about a week, but an expensive and not so easy thing, but it was the right thing. We love the tykes but we just needed a break.

So Zion is amazing and everyone should go check it out. It's about a 3 hour drive from Vegas. Be sure to hike the narrows. There's nothing like walking up a river canyon while literally in the river. The little town of Springdale outside the park has everything you can need and it seems like a trip that could be appropriate for anyone from 3 to 83, depending on how adventurous you want to be.

So where Zion is life from inside a canyon, Bryce is looking at amazing red stone canyons from up top. It's about 2 hours from Zion. Again, pretty easy travel for anyone. There are just a few places to stay just outside the park entrace. Sort of a tourist trap, but we can't complain too much. For some unknown reason, they upgraded us to the best room in the hotel.

Then we spent a few days in Vegas. Really, after all those days out in nature, Vegas the land of artificial probably wasn't the best way to end it. But we had a nice hotel and we spent a few days wandering the strip.

All told we drove several hundred miles. We also walked about 4 or 5 miles a day. Not so glad to be back. But it's been good to see the kids again.

More anti-Muslim nonsense

Really. This pasteur in Florida thinks it is a good idea to burn the Koran. How is that okay in this world? This is the stuff that burns me because it gives Christians a really bad name. One fringe lunatic offending an entire religion over the 9/11 actions of some other fringe lunatics. Can't these nuts just keep the sane people out of it? How would this pasteur feel if some iman said it was time to start burning bibles for all the attrocities the US has caused in Iraq?

Okay, I rant over the internet a bit, but the truth is I'm not often personally confronted by such idiocy. I guess, I know mostly sane people. Sure there are a few conservatives at work who think Palin is a hero, but it's a workplace and no one goes around pushing the message. There are discussions among friends, but never anything offensive.

But the other night, I was at a dinner where somebody just started going on about how Obama is a Muslim. Despite no evidence of this and plenty of evidence to the contrary, a large swath of this country seems to have accepted this as a truth. And really I froze. I didn't respond. I let it go. Here was a well educated person espousing nonsense, and yet, I didn't feel like there was any way I was going to be able to reason with him. As Obama was just saying today, he could argue that there were fish in the sea and the conservatives would have to take the opposite position.

I'm not sure what this says about me. Like I said, I'm not often confronted by something like this, and I didn't want to embarass anyone or get into it, but it still sort of left a bad taste in my mouth. My opinion of this person has changed a bit, and I guess I'm just a little disappointed if anything.

New School #4

Little J starts her fourth school today and she's not yet 4. J was happy at the last one and learning things (the Pledge of Allegiance already?) but there were some pretty clear signs the place wasn't being run very well. Things that the school clearly would need to get better at if it wants to survive.

So instead she's starting an immersion Chinese program. All day in Chinese. My poor kid, doesn't really get Chinese. I imagine she's going to be completely lost for the first month.

I've spent the last week cramming with her. Trying to teach her a few useful phrases, but she picks it up as slowly at school as she does at home, she's in for a world of hurt. She's got an American accent to her Chinese. Moreso than either my wife or I. It's funny, yet disturbing.

My mom made the observation, that my generation didn't do so hot with learning Chinese. The thought at that time was English was essential to getting ahead. Now it's that Chinea is going to take over the world so kids should learn Chinese.

I'm going with the thought that J will pick it up pretty quickly and that we'll all somehow end up better for it in the long run.