How does an idiot like this get elected to the Senate?

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-25-james-inhofe-senate-top-skeptic-explains-climate-hoax-theory/

Snow Bunnies

So, on Wednesday I took the girls snowboarding. I'd taken Miriam for a practice run a few weeks earlier to the super short bunny hill and she had fun, but was done after an hour or so. Gwyn had never been. Gwyn wanted to go straight to the top and only after much cajoling was reluctantly willing to practice a bit on the bunny hill (which is really just a 20 foot section they have roped off for practicing. So after 20 minutes of that we head to the top. Then it took us about 40 minutes to get halfway done the mountain, after which Gwyn wanted to walk the rest of the way. That might not seem that long, but the mountain is only 400 ft. high. She actually did pretty well for a five year old who'd never been before. She really liked the chair lift and was mad because I made her hold onto the bar and sit all the way back. So Gwyn was done, but after we ate our dinner in the lodge, Miriam and I went back up and she did really well. She can't really turn yet, but she can go straight for a ways before she starts going too fast and falls on purpose. We worked on riding on both edges, although it wasn't steep enough that you really had to turn that much. Anyway, she had a lot of fun and wants to go again. No one cried and she thought it was funny when she fell into the ditch beside the trail (with Bekah, not me), at least she did when I talked to her forty minutes later. Anyway, babies and toddlers are cute, but I'm finding big kids are pretty fun too.

Settlers of Maine

So Gwyn has been really into games lately, mostly Crazy Eights and Uno. So, on Friday night I decided to teach the girls how to play Settlers of Catan. It turns out, you actually don't need to know how to read to play. Gwyn has her own distinct strategy of buying lots of development cards, which has actually served her pretty well. The girls wanted to play again Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday we upgraded to Seafarers, since Miriam was complaining about too many sheep. Overall, we are very cooperative traders and pretty good neighbors on the island, except Gwyn who likes to cut people off. It's pretty exciting that we can have a full game with just our own little family (who needs friends, I guess). And it is great relief to think we might be permanently past the mind numbing, Chinese molasses drip torture of Candyland.