Last night, Aunty Liz and Uncle Steve helped the girls carve some pumpkins! Here’s the result of everyone’s creative work:

So, we’re all ready for the visit of the Great Pumpkin this year, if it comes!

Tags: pumpkins

seankreynolds discusses the shift in attitudes regarding corporal punishment of children in his LJ today. I left this comment in response:

Often I think people mistake abusive violence and discipline. Given that we’re all just meat puppets and operant conditioning is well understood, punishment as a form of discipline is necessary; neutering a parent’s ability to physically punish is a grave mistake of our society. However, as you describe, anecdotes of unprovoked violence is abuse. Violence with the intent to cause pain rather than serve as punishment is abuse.

There’s no room in this world for abuse. However, a society that does not apply physical punishment when appropriate is equally doomed.

The fact that we no longer condone appropriate physical punishment, I feel, comes from us collectively “erring on the side of caution” as it is too easy for people to cross the line from punishment to abuse. Unfortunately, it’s the risk aversion to letting parents make such a mistake that has ultimately created worse problems.

I know this is a subject that many feel strongly about, and people’s opinions cover the whole spectrum. Is there something about my comment you disagree with? Am I missing something? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

Tags: parenting, corporal punishment, abuse

For Giftmas 2007, we adopted two cats–a brother and sister pair, originally named Pumpkin (boy) and Ashes (girl). We’ve attached additional names to them, namely Tiger for Pumpkin and Fudgebar for Ashes.

My wife did all the work of finding the cats and adopting them and without all her hard work and effort, nothing would get done around here. She also snapped off a few awesome pictures of the cats after they adjusted to the house a bit.

Here’s two pictures that she took of them that I got around to uploading:

Tags: cats

I’m busy working this weekend, but my wife and children are down in Delaware in support of my brother-in-law, Russell. Tomorrow, he will be stepping down from his position as Wing Commander of the Delware Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).

Over the years, he has volunteered an enormous amount of time and effort to the organization. He has received a number of awards–most recently the Daily Point of Light No. 3547 from the Points of Light Foundation, which goes into greater detail about Russell’s accomplishments.

It takes a very special person to give so much of himself as Russell has. The CAP is a valuable organization and has benefitted greatly from his contributions. Through his generosity, all our lives have been affected for the better.

Even though I can’t be there tomorrow for your Wing Change of Command ceremony, congratulations and thanks for everything you’ve done and continue to do.

Tags: Delaware, Civil Air Patrol, Russell Opland

Tonight, driving home from dinner, the subject of Mother Nature came up. Charlie, my 7-year-old daughter, asked, “What about houses?” We explained that houses are man-made, to which my daughter explained without hesitation, “Oh, that must be Father Nature, then”–which logically follows since fathers are men.

I am constantly reminded of how I want to be as smart as she is when I grow up.