In what I sometimes laughably refer to as my "professional" life odd things seem to happen now and then. Last week, more by good luck than good judgment I did Congressman David Wu an accidental favor. We got to talking and lo, he had an interest in technology. One thing led to another and he ended up addressing the conference I had traveled to Portland, OR to organize.

One slogan at the conference was "everyone gets a pony at DjangoCon". This originally related back to the conference the previous year, where people whose feature requests were added into the release were referred to as having "got a pony". So this year I decided to give everyone a pony, and purchased 260 of the little buggers from Hasbro.

Explaining the meme to the Congressman after his talk I presented him with a pony; having two daughters he asked for a second, thereby handing me a quandary. I had previously explained to the other parents at DjangoCon that even if they had multiple children they only got one pony. In the end I decided to accede to his request. He seems to be the kind of man whose daughters could each love their own pony, so I have a feeling those ponies have gone to a good home.

Congressman Wu's campaign staff were kind enough to invite me to a breakfast meeting the following day at which Congressman Chris van Hollen (the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) outlined in stark terms the prospects that await the country if the Republicans make serious gains in November's election. It was quite frightening enough to make me put my hand in my pocket, and those of you who know Yorkshire (or what a tight-wad I am) will realize that is not done lightly.

But in my estimation the Congressman will not let those ponies down. He seems to me to be, as I wrote in another blog, a "two-pony family man". I hope his constituents re-elect him in November.