Christmas Update

Hello, to anyone checking in for the first time. Our Christmas letter included the url for the Hobbled Runner, so I better get blogging.

It was a very techy Christmas for the Hobbled household. I received a Satellite Radio for the car, and the family received a microphone for the computer so we can now have "telephone" conversations (or whatever you call them now) with the brother-in-law using Google-Talk. Perhaps I'll post holiday pics soon - in a day or two.

Found this interesting. Prof. Ann Althouse discusses Sprawl by Robert Bruegmann. I like this quote - about Madison - but probably applies to the Twin Cities as well:

Here in Madison, people tend to gasp about sprawl, but absurdly, they also object to tall buildings downtown. We're progressive: we don't really want anything to change. Except we want light rail. Because light rail would be a wonderful way to spend money to help us feel really good about ourselves.

I'd read about Bruegmann's book earlier and meant to post something at that time. But since I haven't read the book, I probably don't want to go off on it. Through my earlier urban political training, I've been taught that sprawl is/was "evil" (a very over-used term). While I enjoy the various amenities urban life offers, I have to admit that I live in a suburb - albiet one mile from both Mpls and St. Paul.

I think the comment I saw last week referred to the NYC transit strike. It said something along the lines of - - with sprawl you avoid that problems caused by public transit strikes since you live in such a situation that you don't/can't depend on public transportation in the first place.

Anyway - for what it's worth - I won't be moving to the hinterland anytime soon - just interesting is all.

Stayed home with the kids today - vacation day. I must find a way to do this more often. It's much more rewarding than the corporate life - - and I actually accomplish things - - even if it's just 3 loads of laundry, errands, and cooking dinner for the family. I pride myself on having dinner ready when the spouse walks in the door. Immediately offerred her a glass of red. She doesn't know how good she's got it.