So, I was going to do a play-by-play restating of the debate but I really don't have time today.  Got people out at work and tonight's a date night, but maybe some other time.  So here's the short version:

Moderator: Please answer [question].
Biden: Certainly.  [answer].
Palin: Instead let me talk about [some canned, unrelated statement]
Moderator: Senator, your reply?
Biden: Well, that's not true because of [reasonable rebuttal]
Palin: ...

And repeat.

Sorry, I was hoping for better, but it was objectively pretty bad.  Not enough to change my vote but I can't imagine it's going to win a lot of thoughtful, independent voters to the GOP.  I don't believe anyone can "win" a debate like this - the media's insistence on granting one that status aside - since it's never a real debate but just talking points back and forth.  Still, if someone could win the debate, it would be Biden.  Which sucks, but what can you do?

Part of the problem too is that each of these four candidates represents a different point on the likable/knowledgeable spectrum.  To illustrate:

	Platitudes	Real Policy
Likable
Unlikable

6:45 PM	Leesa's home with the girls. I need to attend to dinner for a few more minutes so she's getting them changed into sleepers and ready for bed. The plan is to let them play some on the floor while we eat to get them nice and tired. Then give them a bottle until they're drowsy and send them to bed.
6:55 PM	Ok, that plan worked about as well as it always does. They're too tired to play. So it's bottle time. Lately I've gotten good at keeping dinner warm and sanitary for hours.
7:10 PM	Feeding them now - I have Kate. We're going to swaddle their legs at first just to keep them from constantly waking themselves up by kicking. They can still flip over if they need to, unlike if we did their arms too. Not that they can't flip over with their arms swaddled, but the concern is they'd only be able to do it once...
8:00 PM	Ok, the girls are fed and both asleep (guess that counts as "drowsy"). So here we go...
8:15 PM	The girls have been in their cribs for about 15 minutes now and they're quiet. Natalie stayed asleep for the most part when we put her down but Kate cried some.
9:00 PM	They've awakened a couple times but settled down after 5 minutes or so. Now they're both up and screaming like crazy. Leesa's going to go in the other room so she doesn't have to listen to it. This is probably the worst screaming I've ever heard out of them.
9:45 PM	Kate has fallen asleep but Natalie is still wide awake and screaming her head off. She is actually on her hands with her head up and sometimes even hitting the frame of the crib.
9:55 PM	Well, Natalie's been quiet for 5 minutes now. Maybe she's gone to sleep.
10:05 PM	Still quiet. Maybe I should go check and see if she's ok. They have the movement sensors in their cribs, but I had to turn her sensitivity up some since she kept moving away from the pad.
10:15 PM	Ok, I checked on them. They are both sound asleep on their bellies, looking very physically exhausted. We'll see how long that lasts.
10:20 PM	Leesa's gone to bed and I think I'll follow.
Sleeping (3 hours, 10 minutes)
1:30 AM	Awakened by crying. It's just Natalie - Kate's still asleep. I'm going to feed her and put her back.
2:00 AM	6 ounces later, Natalie's gone back to sleep. I laid her down and now she's crying again. I think. Problem is there's no way to tell which one is crying so I'm not sure when to feed Kate.
2:05 AM	The crying's stopped. Leesa's pretty sure she can tell who's crying and will tell me when it's Kate. I'm going back to bed.
Sleeping (1 hour, 55 minutes)
4:00 AM	More crying. Leesa says it's Kate. I make another bottle and go upstairs. Sure enough, she's right as always. Kate's diaper has leaked some so I change her sleeper and give her a new swaddle blanket for her legs.
4:25 AM	Kate's done eating and fallen asleep - as have I once or twice. There's either something wrong with our TV our the audio levels of the latest House episode because I can't understand half of what they're saying. Falling asleep may not help much either, I imagine.  Natalie's cried a few times over the last half hour but never more than 30 seconds or so. I've put Kate to bed and am now going myself.
Sleeping (2 hours, 5 minutes)
6:30 AM	Awakened by the alarm clock. The freaking alarm clock. That hasn't happened in a long time. One of the girls is fussing a little but not really crying.
6:35 AM	Upstairs now with today's clothes. Natalie has a leak again, so that's another swaddle blanket down. Definitely going to have to do a load of their laundry today.
6:45 AM	Downstairs with two dressed girls watching Backyardigans while Leesa gets ready to leave with them in about 15 minutes. All together a pretty painless process, actually. Total sleep time is 7 hours, 10 minutes, which is an incredible amount. I suspect some of our earlier failures were due to trying it on naps instead of actual night sleeps. Tonight, too, might present more challenges, but at least Leesa will be able to help more tonight since she works from home Fridays. Hopefully, though, they've gotten past the initial fear and they'll be sleeping easily in their rooms from now on.

After many false starts and struggles, tonight is the night that the girls begin sleeping in their own beds and not in their bassinets in our bedroom.

Last night, Natalie managed to turn around onto her belly while completely swaddled - arms too.  Then today Kate managed to flip over a bouncer (a what?) while she was inside it.  So it's no longer a matter of convenience, it's become unsafe for them to stay there.

So, yeah, probably a long few nights ahead of us because they don't like their beds and are just remarkably stubborn (for some reason).  But hopefully when we're done they'll be sleeping on their own, upstairs in their own beds, without the need for swaddle blanket, vibration device, white noise machine, blackout shades, and all the rest of the baby sleep-aids.  You know, hopefully anyway.

I thought for sure I'd mentioned this here before, but I can't seem to find any record of it.  So it's a little late, but you, yes YOU, need to go see this right now if you haven't already.  And if you have, go buy the videos and soundtrack off of iTunes.  And if you've done that too... well... ok then. 

Come on, it's a musical about a love triangle between a superhero and a villain.  Starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion.  Created by Joss Whedon and co. during the writer's strike without any studio's assistance.  There's no way it can be anything less than awesomerrific.

Fine, if you want to see more before you drop any money on it you can see a Flash version first (embedded below).  Cheapskate.

Seriously, click on a link above and go see it.  Right now.  Now.  Just click on -- no, put down the damn sandwich and go look at it.  Now!  Go!

An explanation of the current real estate crisis in easy-to-follow cartoon format:

http://www.manausa.com/blog/30/financial-markets-mess/

Really?

Yes, it's due out on 10/17.

...



REALLY?

Well, the last letter actually seemed to work out all right, so here are few more.  Political-style...

To Congress:
Stop mentioning how long you've been working every time you're on camera.  No one in the real world is impressed.  Really.  Many of us do it all the time.  There's an economic crisis and you worked until 1 AM last night?  Wow, that's quite a sacrifice.  I'm very impressed that you've given up 2-3 hours of sleep to prevent the free world from imploding into economic chaos and destruction.

To Senator McCain:
You messed up.  The whole "canceling the debate" gambit failed.  As much as I appreciate the idea of a Senator doing his current job first, don't worry about it.  There are 98 other Senators that are perfectly qualif... well... equally qualified to deal with the crisis.  You're just getting in the way and causing political friction.

To Senator Obama:
Come on... you've been campaigning for President since 3 weeks after you were elected.  It's clear you had no intention to do your actual Senator job so just go campaign.  Stop with the photo shoots and flights out to D.C. and just get back at it.  You're messing up the whole process too.

To every news commentator:
STOP saying "main street" in comparison with "Wall Street".  Seriously, it's just maddening.  You managed to get past saying "gravitas" all the time, and you've even started cutting back on "heartbeat away from the Presidency" when talking about Governor Palin, just stop saying "main street".  It doesn't make you look in touch with the "common folk" especially with everyone else saying it too.

So there.

An open letter to The Office:

I'm not going back. Seriously, I'm not.

You dragged out the whole romance thing between Jim and Pam for three seasons and I went along with it. Because it's funny and clever and, I'll confess, I got caught up hoping they would get together. And now that they have you want to futz with it and cause some conflict to shake things up. I can understand that, I really can. The formula is as old as drama itself - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Every show with this kind of situation does it eventually.

But you know what makes it different? It's that the characters are really meant to be together. This isn't two people just thrown together, or opposites attracting, or two people drawn together for no discernable reason whatsoever. This is two people who have a lot in common, really like each other, and should be together.

If it sounds like I'm just getting all sentimental, I'm not. It's not about some desire to see fictional characters find happiness. It's about maintaining a sense of dramatic integrity. There's no believable reason why they should have a conflict right now. Based on the season finale and the ads leading up to the season premiere Thursday it looks like there is to be some conflict over the fact that Jim failed to propose. But that's an absurd premise and emotionally dishonest to boot.

So go, go send Pam to wherever that art school thing was. Get your Lily subplot done, let Pam find some independence and some alluring artist guy so she can wonder if "Jim's really serious" - or some other BS, nonsense premise. Just have her back and them back together within three episodes.

But I'm not putting up with the drama. It's a comedy, for crying out loud. Enough with the drama, enough with the bizarre, uncomfortable episodes of last season. Make with the funny or I'm moving on. Got too much competition for that time slot on our DVR as it is.

From HijiNKS Ensue:

Played with a remote-controlled car, no less...