finally finished it

I got a book called Team of Rivals-- about the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln- for Christmas. I just barely finished it. Written for more of a broad audience (ex: no footnotes on the pages) in a very comprehendable voice. It focused on the inside story of Washington D.C and more specifically the inner workings of Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil War.

Nearly everyone in Lincoln's cabinet was very intelligent, had studied law and had experienced tremendous amount of loss during their lifetime. The author paints Lincoln almost as a miracle worker in getting the most out of the people he appointed to assist him in cabinet positions.

On the final page it summarized Lincoln's ambition to achieve based on his disbelief in an afterlife and his desire to accomplish something his fellow men could remember him by.

Although it generally doesn't go very deep, there is a lot of information there to really digest and internalize to understand the timeframe and thought process of the President and Cabinet. It really makes life in Washington seem pretty swell.

Gelato, Panini and Rome

From top: 1) Colesseum, 2) Fresh Gelato closeup, 3) Inside the enourmous St. Peter's Basilica, 4) Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica-- very very large.

This place is where the Roman Senate and Government

headquarters was located, Ceasar was cremated around here.

Also it was all underground until the 1930's, when Mussolini used

dynamite to excavate it to what it looked like at the time of Christ.

Oahu

My favorite comment I overheard in Hawaii was while I was down by Waikiki, it went like this:
Woman: "No, I like Hawaii"
Man: "uh huh"
woman: "I would just like to change the people of Hawaii..."

Unfortunately I didn't catch the rest. But here a couple videos from last Saturday in Oahu:

These are what they use to practice with for when they twirl fire. I had it for a little while, it was pretty fun while a bit frustrating to balance the stick on your thumbs just right.

Sunset Beach-- Great for surfing, the sand pebbles were huge and so soft.

Viral comments

Alot of the comments I get to my posts lately appear to Spam or possibly some other type of virus. I thought the strange looking letters you type in to make a comment would prevent that.