Everything is a GO!

NORAD says Santa is near. So much to be thankful for...

Sunny Florida

A cruise on the ship Carnival Imagination out of Miami, we sailed to Key West and then to Cozumel, Mexico to see the ruins at Tulum. Returned and went to Universal Studios and Seaworld before returning home. A fun 2,700-mile round-tripper!

Cooper and Paige learned that they can sleep in a hotel bathtub to avoid Mom and Dad's snoring. 

Happy Holidays from the Robars and a Pirate Chick!

The Pirate chick attacked us in Key West when we got off the ship, so she earned a spot in the video.

Just in time

On Sunday, we got all of the leaves raked and moved out to the tree lawn just before the snow started to fly. We leave for Florida / Mexico on Friday, so this was pretty much the last chance anyway. Wendy, Paige and Coop all helped and saved me some spinal damage. Lakewood yards are small, but the trees are huge. Luckily we had some sort of la Nina effect or something this year and had almost no acorns. That is a happy thought.

Back to the future - Halloween 2008

I didn't start the blog until after Halloween, so here are some shots from the Ethel Hood...kids all a great time as always, with a little party afterwards to boot. I hate to take the decorations down!

What a day it was...

Small turnout for the Guv

Here's a photo snagged by Paige, at the Palin rally in Lakewood Park this morning. A small, but happy, crowd showed-up, I'm told. Paige, Wendy and Cooper watched it from our friend's roof deck, next to the park. Their yard was filled with Obama signs, of course.

I'm glad they went, and it's nice to see little old Lakewood get some pub. George Voinovich was there, too. Sorry to have missed him; he's a good guy and my favorite Republican!

Partying with Barack and Bruce in C-Town

Today we spent the day with 80,000 of our closest friends to cheer-on Barack Obama on The Mall in downtown Cleveland. Cooper bagged out, so Wendy, Paige and I snagged Paige's friend Bea and we jumped into the fray.

Lines of people, 10-wide and dozens of blocks long, wove their way thoughout downtown from all directions. Eventually we made our way to the mall. Senator Sharod Brown spoke (pretty good cheerleader), along with Mayor Frank Jackson (not too much of a cheerleader).

Bruce Sprintsteen played six songs and was THE PERFECT warm-up act for someone who really doesn't need one, playing acoustic versions of "Promised Land", "Youngstown" and "Thunder Road". His spoken lead-in to "The Rising" was as eloquent a speech as ever given by any preacher or politician. He talked about taking the "measure of the distance between The American Dream and The American Reality"...great stuff.

Barack stressed that we need to look at our place in the world in a new way, without race, social or economic standing, gender or other things that we've traditionally used to separate us. He also said that we don't need a NEW government, just a better one, with honesty and transparency as it's centerpiece (paraphrased). 

It was worth the wait - an historic event for everyone - just 2 days before election day in the biggest swing state in the union. Pretty cool.

Sarah Palin is at Lakewood Park, about a mile from our house, at 6:30 AM tomorrow. I think I'll find a different route to work...