Sarah Palin really IS the voice of the worst of conservative hypocrisy. Letterman apologized for a concept he never intended that was invented by the Palin family’s disingenuous indignation - gotta stay in the news. He made an expertly crafted joke based on a multitude of facts the dude and dudette would rather we forget.

In reality though Dave did screw up by missing the fact that the younger daughter accompanied the governor. And in reality anyone with two brain cells to rub together knew he was referring to the older daughter. Expertly.

In fact the very vast majority of us had no idea the young one was there; we do know the Palins have been exploiting their children’s private lives with disastrous results for 9 months. Sad and sadder.

Family values: How much network time your family’s stories and life lessons can buy you. Nice, real nice dudette.

Kalalau Valley. Hey it IS pretty up here!
Flickr’ed by fredline

The trip was magical. I really feel we did the perfect thing dropping pops off the cliffs of the Kalalau Valley. It felt like standing in an artwork so beautiful it kinda hurt a bit. Soon after his ashes spread over the ferns and assorted fauna, a mist/fog filled the valley -lingered- and then burned away in the sun. Then the clouds rushed over the north ridges and filled the valley completely as we retreated.

It’s good to know we can always return there and say hi.

Pepper Dog!

Too many goodbyes as we head towards another decade. Pepper departed peacefully at the vets office where we were fortunate to comfort her as she disembarked. Seems humans can learn a lot from dogs and from Pepper in particular. She endured a lot in her youth, yet she maintained enthusiasm for each day and practiced a barely-in-control brand of excitement that regularly threatened the existence of various collectibles and drinking glasses. Memory is the best and worst of our lot. She’ll be missed by many.

Fredric & Clementine
Flickr’ed by D.C.Cedar

M has been behind the camera all day, even caught the elusive “Clemmi in repose with legs flayed about in a questionably relaxed manner.” Laying on a cool stone kitchen floor with your doggie on a warm spring evening, that’s good stuff!

Thud says, “This year may you take holiday greetings in the spirit they are offered.”

The War on Xmas rabble-rousing really needs to go away, us versus them is the exact opposite of the spirit of the season.

Go hug some loved ones, it’s a limited time offer in the grand scheme of things.

Only nine months into the Library of Congress’ pilot project placing Library photos on the Web site Flickr, the photos have drawn more than 10 million views!

There are more details on the LC blog. It’s nice to see the people as a whole get actual access to this content being preserved by their government. And to see the context of the content enhanced by the same folks.

Another new activity on the myloc.gov site. Worked closely with Ed Outreach to rather quickly build a new map exploring experience from the ground up. Fun for the whole family!

Clemmi plays with her ball for everyone’s amusement. Lhasa apso powers activate!
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Two pieces have found the light of day in the last week or so. I gave amtava.org some polish and hooked up a fun little map app to help their members figure out their regions.

Also collaborated with a neighbor to get her company’s site up to speed. This one has a carousel that actually tied in really well with their 360 Degree Approach branding.

Gonna put mom’s site together in the next few weeks too. Rich’s site is pretty sweet, I hope he gets around to using the wordpress capabilities at some point.

Enjoy all the pretty!

It’s now been ten days since we suddenly lost of our little Winston. I miss him a ton and wish everyday I could hear his crazy “keep-it-up-and-you’re-gonna-get-bit” warning snarl. I initially figured it would be a few months before we started looking for his successor but his departure left too big a hole in our home. We have built a life we really love here on Capitol Hill with our furry family; Winston was taken from us quite some time before we expected and it just doesn’t feel right.
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