Wednesday, I took Anna to her favorite pizza parlor for lunch. She's not a big fan of pizza — she prefers the salad bar—but loves the pizza parlor's enclosed play area. It's perfect for both of us: she gets a safe place to play and I can keep an eye on her while I write.

As usual, I was sitting where I could see Anna play. She was in the ball pit with a boy and a girl both about her age. Suddenly, the boy picked up a ball and threw it at Anna. Understandably, she screamed her head off.

I got up immediately and ran in to get her. I gave her a big hug right away, then walked her out, and sat her on my lap for a few minutes to calm her down. Meanwhile, the boy walked out of the play area too. His mom called him over to the table.

"What did you do, Spencer?" She hadn't seen the incident.

He mumbled something in reply.

"Well you go over there and apologize to her right away," she demanded.

He resisted at first, but then gave in.

"I'm sorry," he said pouting.

"Thank you for apologizing," I said to him. He walked back to the play area. Soon he was playing with the other girl again.

"Are you ready to go back in too?" I asked Anna.

"Yeah," Anna said wiping a tear away.

I set her down and she ran into the room. The boy had returned to the ball pit, and Anna started to walk over to him. He said something to her, but I couldn't hear it. Suddenly she stopped.

Again, she screamed her head off. I went in and got her. I put Anna on my lap again and tried to figure out what upset her. The boy walked out too, and headed straight over to his mom.

"What did you say to her, Spencer?" she asked.

He mumbled something in reply, and his mom started laughing.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He asked if he could throw the ball at her head," she replied.

Anna didn't get the humor, of course.

"That's not fun-ny!" she said. I can't help but laugh when she says that.

Anna was done playing, so we headed home. That night I told the story to Julia and the two of us sat down with Anna. We explained to her that while we understood why she screamed and cried when the boy threw the ball at her, she should have just told him 'no' the second time instead of screaming her head off again.

"So what do you say the next time a kid says something you don't like?" Julia asked.

"I say 'no,'" Anna replied.

"And what don't you do?" I asked.

"Scream off my head."

Yesterday, NBC almost got lucky. For two weeks, they've made us sit through highlight reels of tape delayed events, inane commentary, meandering interviews, sappy human interest stories, and countless plugs for NBC programming. I had just about given up on watching. Then came the one event they decided to air live and uninterrupted from coast to coast: the Gold Medal Hockey Game.

What a game it was. The U.S. trailed Canada throughout only to tie the score at 2-2 with 24 seconds left in regulation. Both teams played great, both goalies were superb, and the coverage was excellent.

For Canada, it was the crowning moment of a spectacular Olympics. Every Canadian old enough to remember will tell their kids where they were when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in overtime.

For the United States it was a disappointing end to an amazing tournament. Team USA played their hearts out and did better than anyone thought they would, but sometimes even when you give everything you've got, you still lose.That's a lesson we all learn at some point in life, and a lesson we all pass on to our own kids. When it happens, like it did yesterday to Team USA, you hold up your head, shake your opponents hand, and know in your heart that no matter how much it hurts you can be proud that you gave everything you had.

That's where this piece would have ended, but like I said above, NBC almost got lucky. Then came the closing ceremonies.

I've never been a big fan of the closing ceremonies, and given NBC's poor coverage of almost everything else I decided to take a pass on watching. I'm very glad I did, because in the middle of the closing ceremonies, NBC cut away for a half-hour to show an episode of "The Marriage Ref." Whoever was responsible for that decision should be ashamed of themselves, and NBC should either apologize and fire whoever was responsible or pull out of covering the 2012 Games.

That's another lesson we all learn in life at some point. Take responsibility for your screw ups. I doubt NBC will.

After a couple of months of reflection, I have come up with a new theme for this blog. I realized that I am a father first but I'm also a writer, a musician, a devout Anglo-Catholic, a history buff, a former Obama for America volunteer still following politics, and many other things besides.

The previous, sporadic posts on this site reflect this wide variety of interests—that won't be changing. In keeping with the new title, however, I plan to shift the focus to about 50 percent fatherhood and 50 percent everything else.

As far as my position with Examiner.com goes, I've come to the conclusion that my writing is not a good fit for their site and I am no longer writing as their Portland Stay-at-Home Dad Examiner. I plan to redirect the time and energy I had been devoting there to this blog.

I have also decided to keep the old posts and transform this site rather than scrapping it and starting over. Expect a far greater volume of posts over the next few weeks and months, ideally four of five a week once I get into a rhythm.

So welcome to Fatherhood Etc. I will strive to make it entertaining, enlightening, and only occasionally aggravating. I understand that few people will agree with everything I post, but I hope that everyone will find something of value here.

Now that I'm writing for Examiner.com, looking for other writing opportunities, and back to writing the book after a too-long hiatus, I am rethinking this blog. It's been a month-and-a-half since I posted anything, and even before then the posts have slowed considerably.

I've been wondering for a while what the problem is, and I think I've figured it out. This blog isn't really about anything. It's kind of a catch-all. When I first set it up, I wanted a place to write when I was inspired. Well as any decent writer will tell you, if you wait to get inspired to write something, you never write anything. Having learned this lesson many years ago as a composer, I should have known that it applies to writing too. Oh well.

So I'm putting this blog on hold until I can figure out its place in my writing schedule.

Short Answer: Nothing.

Barack Obama is still President, the Senate Caucus still has sixty members (and will continue to do so unless Joe Liebermann screws up and follows through on his fillibuster threat), the House still has a Democratic majority, and a public option of some sort will be in the final health care bill that goes to the President's desk (though it might not get there until January). New Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia change none of this.

Long Answer: Let's go through the results one at a time.

Virginia Governor

This one hurts if you're a Democrat. It wasn't even close. But before you give into the "Obama is doomed narative" here are three points to consider. First, Creigh Deeds distanced himself from the President until the last week of the campaign. Second, he opposed the Public Option in a debate with Republican candidate Bob McDonnell and even speculated that he might opt out as governor. Third, he focused his campaign on McDonnell's twenty year-old master's thesis. Not surprisingly, the voters that gave Virginia to Obama last fall largely stayed home. Blame this one on a lukewarm candidate who ran as GOP-lite.

New Jersey Governor

Jon Corzine was supposed to lose this one and he did. His approval rating was hovering in the 30s and he was tarred, rightly or wrongly, with his previous position at Goldman-Sachs. The real surprise was that Corzine almost won anyway. Apparently New Jersey is so blue, that the best candidate the Republicans could find was now Governor-elect Chris Christie, the "law and order" attorney general whose own record was tarnished by improprieties (and a continuing association with Karl Rove). The race became a "lesser of two evils" scenario to such an extent that independent candidate Chris Daggett was briefly seen as having an outside shot.

NY-23

Wait? There was an election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, right? With all the buildup in the media, plus Sarah Palin's endorsement of Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman over GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava, we were all anxiously awaiting the results, and then . . . nothing. Was the election canceled? No, it's just that Bill Owens, the Democrat, won after getting a last minute endorsement by Scozzafava after she dropped out of the race. Well, it's not like a Democrat hadn't won the seat in over a century . . . actually that's exactly what happened.

CA-10

There was an election in California? Really? Yes, and the Democrats held the seat.

So the final scorecard was two governorships for the GOP, and a slight gain in the House for the Democrats. What an unmitigated disaster for . . . no one.