Regardless of the time shift due to the autumn daylight saving time adjustment, it was still the longest weekend of the year. Friday, when I was at work, it was sunny and clear. Saturday, when I was home, it rained all day and we kept the children in the house. The only time we went out was to go to the YMCA. Michelle and I tried to go to bed early Saturday thinking that the children's body clocks probably wouldn't adjust that quickly.
Sure enough, the girls woke up early on Sunday morning. It was a clear day but now the boys were irritable because they've developed colds. At Claire's request we went to Mass at the local St. Patricks parish. Because of the boys condition and the lack of a "cry room" at St. Pats, we did some split shifts. Michelle took the girls to 8:30 Mass and I brought the twins at 9:30 to join them in the church basement for breakfast. There I met an engineer I had met about two years ago when he interviewed at (then) VAutomation. He and his wife live here in Milford. They also have four children with another on the way in January. After breakfast I loaded the family into the van but stayed behind to go to their 10:30 Mass. At that Mass I met a friend whom I had met before at Opus Dei evenings of recollection. He and his wife had just had their first baby, a boy, two weeks ago. It's always so amazing to see newborns. They are just so small and helpless.
Later when I got home the boys had already been put down for a nap. Michelle said that Daniel had fallen asleep before they even got out of the church parking lot. We thought that perhaps there would be two naps on Sunday due to how tired this cold was making them. No such luck though. I took the kids out on a bike/wagon ride to give Michelle a break from the twins moaning. I later took Claire out on a walk to go see the Souhegan river and take some pictures. Towards the end of the afternoon, I dropped Claire and Michelle off to do some grocery shopping. In an effort to get the other kids to rest or nap, I took them in the van on a drive west while Michelle shopped. I went through Wilton, Temple, and Peterborough. It was very scenic at this time of year and the kids were pretty quiet.
Shortly after unpacking the groceries we put the moaning boys down to bed. Early or not, they were dead tired. Their colds were really draining them, and indirectly the rest of us. Claire and I went to a nearby Italian shop to pick up some dinner -- a calzone, some shrimp scampi, and (Claire's favorite) clam chowder. We got the girls to bed and went down ourselves shortly thereafter. The boys crying and moaning can really take it out of you.
I can't speak about the rest of the country, but television commercials here are now just solid campaign advertising. NARAL is really spending the money here in NH. In half an hour I saw three commercials they sponsored about how US Senate candidate John Sununu would oppose a "woman's right to choose". The commercials repeat that mantra so much Michelle wondered, "choose what?" The choice of where to send their kids to school, the choice of doctors you can see, the easier choice to stay home with your kids without oppressive taxes that force many wives to work. Don't get her started!