Suddenly, it was Inauguration Day

We moved the television downstairs yesterday so that a couple of friends and I could watch the inauguration from the comfort of the living room couch like civilized folk. [Incidentally, I've been wanting to paint the salvaged piece of furniture we are using as a TV stand up in the bedroom for some time now and this proved to be the perfect opportunity. Also, the paint color? New Hope Grey.] I'm a sucker for pomp and for circumstance and for peaceful transfers of power even when we haven't been waiting for this day for so long; it was moving, delightful, fun.

Do you think "tis the gift to be simple" was meant in part as a tribute to the outgoing president?

I think all of the classrooms at the kids' school kept their televisions on until 10am (that's 1pm DC time). When I asked Jonah about watching Obama become president today he said that yes, they had, that he watched Yoyo Ma play the cello and that he liked getting to watch TV while they were doing their work. "Then," he told me, "we got to watch the workers tearing down our old playground. That was FREAKIN' AWESOME!"*

Heavy equipment scooping up pea gravel and yanking out metal structures; he will not soon forget what he saw on the day Barack Obama became president.

*For the record, that is not an expression we use in this household. When I relayed this story to his teacher, knowing she'd find it amusing, she said: "That's public education for you."