Drew has been signing his name to cards for some time now and he just recently started practicing the other 22 letters. Here he is working on his I's and K's. He is very serious about his penmanship, note his furrowed brow in the picture on the right.

And, yes...he already writes better than I do.

Oh, and he's only three...WE WANT OUR LITTLE BOY BACK!!!

˙sɐǝpı ɟo ǝƃuɐɥɔxǝ ǝǝɹɟ ǝɥʇ puɐ uoıʇɐɔıunɯɯoɔ ƃuıʇɐʇılıɔɐɟ ɟo ǝlɔɐuuıd sʇı pǝɥɔɐǝɹ ǝʌɐɥ ʎllɐuıɟ llıʍ qǝʍɹǝʇuı ǝɥʇ puɐ (ʇ33l ɹo 7331) ʞɐǝdsʇǝǝl ɥʇıʍ sıɥʇ ǝuıqɯoɔ ˙ɹoɟ ƃuıʇıɐʍ uǝǝq llɐ ǝʌ,ǝʍ ʇɐɥʍ ʇsnɾ 'ʇxǝʇ uʍop ǝpıspdn ˙lnɟɹǝpuoʍ 'ɥo

Everyone came over this evening for dinner and to celebrate Will's first birthday: Ma, Pa, Aunt Catherine and Uncle David.

After dinner, Will had his first ever taste of cake! We started out letting Will use his hands, but he had no interest in the cake, or so we thought. Then we gave him a spoon and he went at like a champion. Turns out he liked the cake just fine, he just didn't like using his hands.

First taste of cake was followed by first taste of ice cream. He'd never had anything frozen before so, at first, he was a little unsure. But, after a while, he realized ice cream is a good thing!

After dinner, the unwrapping began. Will wasn't too interested in unwrapping. He might have been a little tired from all the goings-on. Fortunately, Drew was able to assist with opening packages.

Happy family with 3 1/2 and 1 year olds. Thank you everyone for making Will's first birthday extra special.

Gillian Grace Madison was born today to Aunt Michelle and Uncle Matt! From their website A day in the life...:

Gillian Grace Madison was born at 10:10 pm on July 12, 2007. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and measured at 19 1/2 inches long. She has a full head of jet black hair and the hair is about an inch long.

CONGRATULATIONS Matt & Michelle !!!

And, if you haven't noticed, Will and Gillian share the same birthday!

Will celebrated his first birthday today! We just had a small party at home with the four of us. With Drew's help, Will opened a few presents and some cards.

The Playskool Busy Ball Popper game was a big hit with both the birthday boy and his big brother.

Will got to talk to Ma and Aunt Donelda who wished him Happy Birthday. Will was very excited to finally be one year old.

Finally, we finished off the evening with some good old fashioned wrestling.

The time and date is now 07:07:07 07/07/07.

Mary and I both were part of the Arbitron radio ratings this past week. We must have some demographic desirability since we've done it before a few years ago and we also get an occasional national telephone survey. Of course, we weed out the worthless ones and the push-polls, but we always take time to participate in the legitimate surveys.

One of the reasons we try to participate, is that I imagine if we don't participate, which I never feel I really have time to do, is that the polls will be skewed towards turds who sit on their butt all day and who actually have time to take or fill out surveys. I don't want my products, radio shows or politicians picked or influenced by the half of society with calluses on their back-sides. It's a small hassle, but well worth it to have your opinions matter, no matter how statistically insignificant one responder is.

As to this week's radio listening, let me tell you, there simply are not enough hours in the day to listen to all the great talk radio out there. While meticulously maintaining a daily listening log, I managed to work in a listening variety that would make Barry Goldwater proud: Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, John Gibson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and even Dr. Laura. Ahhh...bask in the conservative greatness of my listening habits.

Now, don't for a second be a First Amendment hating liberal and think that I listen to conservative talk radio because I don't have any choice. No, I listen to conservative talk radio because it is my choice!

What does every commie-loving socialist revolutionary do when they get in power...they take over the media lest they be criticized or unable to B.S. the masses. Vladimir Putin is doing it in Russia, Hugo Chávez is doing it in Venezuela and our own Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (elected by the most radically liberal, America hating, 8th (formerly 5th) Congressional District of California, consisting of four-fifths of the City and County of San Francisco) wants to do it here. She is the foremost proponent of the, for-the-time-being failed, Fairness Doctrine.

What a great name: Fairness Doctrine. So, obviously it will bring some fairness to the media such as television and the movies. "53% of Americans consider religion to be very important in their lives" and "45% of American adults attend church in a typical weekend, not including a special event such as a wedding or a funeral." You couldn't tell this by watching TV or the movies so, obviously, the Fairness Doctrine will bring some balance to the liberal drivel that Hollywood squeezes out. I mean, just imagine if conservatives controlled Hollywood and every television show and movie portrayed Christians in a positive light attending church on Sundays and, *gasp*, even during the week. The liberals would be apoplectic demanding that television and movies accurately reflect the percentage of Americans that attend church. So, obviously given the hostility of Hollywood towards religion and Christianity this must be what the Fairness Doctrine is about...bringing Christ to the airwaves! Ummm...nope. No fairness towards religion and Christianity needed in Hollywood for Pelosi.

Maybe, Madame Speaker Pelosi is concerned that liberals, Democrats and their supporters control the newsrooms across America. The fact that 9 out of 10 journalists who contributed to political campaigns, contributed to Democratic candidates must have Pelosi's panties in a bunch. Amazingly, however, her panties are just fine as she has no problem with the leftward leaning of the nation's newsrooms, newspapers, and the mainstream media. That the government funded NPR leans left, merits no consideration to Pelosi. I wonder if it would be the same situation if NPR tilted right?

So what is the Fairness Doctrine about? Maybe it's geared towards the nation's colleges which have become bastions of anti-competitive liberal propaganda. Pelosi must be concerned with the inherent unfairness of 90 percent of our arts and science professors belonging to Democrat/Green/freakazoid parties, with very few registered as either Republican or Libertarian. Again, not a ruffle in Ms. Pelosi's panties about this.

What is it that has Pelosi so worried about "fairness." Well, if you guessed all the truly unfair things in the world, you'd never come across what it is that so bothers Pelosi and other liberals who want to control ALL of the mass media information outlets. What bothers Pelosi is talk radio. Liberals recently tried to push their twisted views on talk radio via their all-liberals-all-the-time Air America. But, nobody wanted to listen. The network went bankrupt because people filling out their Arbitron radio ratings didn't put down any Air America programs. My theory is that liberals' message can only succeeds when sugar-coated with a pretty face, multi-million dollar special effect, or when protected from competition by tenure. In the cold hard world of talk radio, a talking head arguing for higher taxes, promotion of the unqualified and controlling the world's weather by punishing the countries that produce all the world's advances while exempting the largest polluter which oppresses its people under a communist regime...well, it just doesn't attract an audience. But, Pelosi...being a freedom loving believer in the First Amendment...has the answer: use the power of the federal government to force radio stations to air liberal dogma in equal proportions to conservative view points...and ignore the liberal leanings of every other form of mass media. Now that's fair...to a liberal.

Fortunately, the Fairness Doctrine went down in flames last week in the House of Representatives 309-115. What's scary is that there are 115 representatives who would choose to join history's worst dictators and have the government control the information you have access to. As for me, I'll continue to vote Republican, support conservative and libertarian ideals, listen to talk radio and always fill out my Arbitron radio ratings booklet.

Mary is on our homeowners association board and was in charge of this year's neighborhood 4th of July parade. We handed out American flags, hats and light-up noise makers to everyone and paraded the neighborhood to our park where everyone got all the ice cream sandwiches and red, white and blue popsicles they could eat.

Next year, we think we'll add a boom-box playings some John Philip Sousa and a contest for best decorated bike and stroller.

We had a great dinner at Ma and Pa's where Will showed off his holiday bib.

Finally, Ma, Drew and Will posed together to show off their flag shirts.