Lest our children accuse us of being anything but fair, we want to make sure we give them the same experiences. So we took Nolan for his first adventure to “The Little Gym” last weekend. He loved it, as we knew the busy boy would. We knew this because we had done it with Mylie when she was about the same age. So, here, for your viewing enjoyment is Nolan (left) at 9 1/2 months and Mylie (right), just shy of 9 months old.

Thumbs up for the VP Debate last night! It was much more entertaining and less deserving of shoe-throwing than the previous presidential debate. I do think most people who watched in anticipation of a blow-out would have been disappointed. Sarah Palin was in excellent form, and definitely came across as fun and exciting, and as the Washington outsider that she claims to be. To me, that is highly refreshing. Senator Biden did a good job of not putting his foot in his mouth, although he seems like old news… we’ve been there, done that. He also did a poor job of building up Obama, I believe. But anyone expecting either one to fall on their face went away empty handed.

Again, however, I doubt anyone’s vote will be swayed. If you loved Sarah before, you love her more now. If you hated her before, you probably hate her more. As far as Biden is concerned, he hung around on John McCain’s vote against funding the troops a little too long. Did he think he was going to trick anyone into believing that John McCain doesn’t support our troops? Honestly… McCain has the “commander-in-chief” personna way more wrapped up than Obama could ever hope to have. So advice to Senator Biden: Don’t try to pretend otherwise. Move on to a different subject that you have more of a chance of winning.

The other thing I realized last night – I understand why candidates coming from the legislative branch have such difficulty running for the executive branch. Seriously. We don’t want to hear any more from either side about a specific vote. It’s worse than twisting the numbers in statistics, especially in a two-minute monologue. But as far as Senator Biden’s declaration that you can’t judge someone’s motive for voting a specific way – OF COURSE YOU CAN! That’s what you have to do! You have to look at why they voted a specific way… Perhaps it was because there was too much pork in a specific bill. Or perhaps it was because you’re in the pockets of lobbyists. In order to understand how someone will operate in the executive position, you absolutley need to know why they’ve voted the way they have over the course of their tenure. And not the reason they espouse… but the real reason. Generally, if you bother to look closely at all, it’s rather apparent.

So, my vote for the debate – Sarah Palin, hands down. Though I will say, it wasn’t the slaughter it could have been. And truly, the real winner for the night – Dennis Miller on The Tonight Show: