I feel that I need to provide my loyal readers more of an update than just a few pictures from Christmas. However, these updates will need to wait. There is a lot on my plate right now.

My wife's great-aunt, Anne Goodmaster, passed away on December 22nd. Today was the wake and tomorrow is the funeral. I need to pause, reflect, and add my words about her passing.

Politically, it is an interesting time. My entry Inside Connecticut Democratic Politics has gotten a bit of attention, and many people are now thinking about the race for Chair of the State Democratic Party. As I put in a comment on that entry, I believe that the current candidates are all very good. Some people have been urging me to run as a dark horse to get focus on particular issues, such as the direction of the party and who the next DNC Chair should be. I have written to some of the candidates to get their views on the issues. If they well thought out in their views, I believe my entering the race would be a distraction. However, if the issues are not being addressed and my candidacy would provide a useful bully pulpit to address the issues, I would consider running.

For more of my thoughts on current party politics, please read the policical section of this site.

On yet another front, yesterday, I started working with Nick Lewis to take SmartCampaigns to the next level. This was the site that I set up to provide technology for my wife's campaign for State Rep. I have used it to help a few other candidates in their campaigns, and I'm looking to expand it to support people focusing on issues, philanthropy, and even simply as bloggers.

We are in the process of moving SmartCampaigns to a new platform that we can use as a hosting reseller. All of this is taking up more time than I have, so the full story of the smoking jacket must wait until another day.