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Peggy Noonan wrote an op-ed last Wednesday called "So Much to Savor". Outside the domain of who won the election, I found a lot this week to savor.

Decade of NH - Besides being election day, November 2nd also marked 10 years of living in New Hampshire. Last August marked our 15 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe nearly 2/3's of our married life has been out here. 15 years ago people found it hard to believe we got married. 10 years ago the two of us crossed the NH border in Suzanne's CRX with just two cats and two pieces of luggage. Now we have Claire, Abigail, Michael, Daniel and Timothy (and no cats). Bright, sporty two seaters are the farthest thing from my near future. ;-)

I still occasionally have dreams that I'm back in undergrad school thinking I'm not going to make it. I wake up and realize I made it though, and through my military service, and through my masters degree.

Crossing the border 10 years ago with just my wife and trying to follow the map to the temporary apartment that was setup for us, I couldn't fathom all these faces smiling back at me from the swingset and and yelling "Wheeee!" while running down the hill in back of our full four bedroom home. Savor.

Speedy election - I really hated the 2000 election. I think it was the taproot of the current bitter feelings about George Bush. Al Gore had narrowly won the popular vote, but because George Bush narrowly took Florida (in recount after selective recount), he took the electoral vote. That's the way our system is. If it was just popular vote, the candidates wouldn't bother worrying about "battleground states" and just make their appeals in big cities (currently the blue counties). Nonetheless for four years we heard the mistatement that the current President didn't really win the election.

I think I shared a sentiment of dread with a lot of the US in the weeks before the election when I heard about the armies of lawyers ready to do battle over the election process and outcome. In the end the election was finished by Wednesday afternoon. Savor. No seemingly endless recounts, no courts, just two candidates each being gracious: Kerry in his concession and Bush in trying to reach out to the Kerry supporters. I'm hoping the bitterness among the more dedicated Kerry supporters will subside soon. This is supposed to be the United States of America.

Election night I vowed not to turn on the television or radio. Instead I joined about two dozen other men, all observant Catholics, in prayer at the chapel adjacent to St. Joseph's cathdral in Manchester. As usual we pray for help in living out holiness in our daily ordinary lives, in bringing holiness to our families, and to ask God's blessing on our country. Contrary to popular opinion, we don't spend the time praying "please oh please let George win". We want God's blessings on our families, our communities, and our nation. Humility, an acknowledgement of our shortcomings, and a desire that His Will be done in our lives, communities, and nation. It was the farthest thing from the stereotype of Bible thumping "holy rollers".

iPodPhoto - After many many months of consideration, I finally splurged on Wednesday afternoon and bought an iPodPhoto. 15 hour battery life, 40 gigabytes of storage, and a color display. I plan on doing three main things with it: putting our (admittedly small) iTunes music library on it, backing up both our desktop and laptop onto it, and keeping a copy of my photo albums on it. Despite all the work I do on pictures, I actually haven't had anything up to date in my wallet for years. What kind of father doesn't have pictures of his kids in his wallet? With its fast Firewire connection the mirroring of the 200+ iTunes purchased songs took place in under a minute. The backup of my laptop took a minute or two. The thing that will take the longest is getting the albums into it. I do my own photo organization. Unfortunately for me the iPod's only means for synchronizing photos (for Mac users) is within Apple's photo album tool, iPhoto. I tried iPhoto when it first came out, was unimpressed, and never reevaluated it when subsequent versions came out. This will force me to take another look at iPhoto. Music, file backup, pictures. All good. Savor.

Nix Visit - Yesterday afternoon our friends, the Nixes, drove down for a visit. Their two daughters played with ours, and the grownups got to catchup on current events in the family, work, and the election. The weather was nice so we got to spend a lot of time outside. As things cooled off we came inside, shared a pizza, sat in the family room with the fire going and watched Shrek 2. Savor.

Suzy and Seth - Shortly after we said goodbye to the Nixes and got the kids down to bed, Suzanne called to let us know that she and Seth are engaged to marry. Awesome. I get another brother. Like me on my wedding day, when he says "I do", he inherits a big bunch of nieces and nephews. Uncle Seth. We're all excited over here. Alyssa sent a few pictures of the event. Claire made a 'congratulations' card to mail out tomorrow. We'll be praying that they have a blessed and fruitful marriage. Savor.

So many things to be thankful for. I'm trying to savor them now while they last. Soon the snow will be here and we'll be fighting cabin fever. Just today I took advantage of the last bit of warm weather to clean out the gutters so that they don't cause ice buildups this winter. Abby is sitting next to me making placemats for Thanksgiving. Michelle went to the Nashua Christmas Tree Shops to buy wrapping paper for the upcoming holiday. Already we're starting to see the early signs of winter sniffles and coughs. Michelle and I are bracing ourselves.