I took a few minutes after lunch today to check my Facebook. I found out...my Daughter Shae is married...over 2 weeks ago. I had NO idea. To my dismay, she didn't feel it was important enough to tell us she is married. I bought her dinner last weekend and she didn't tell us she was married.

Yes, she IS 19 and old enough to make her own decisions. She has known the guy for 3 months and much like I did at 19, married quickly. No, she didn't invite us to the JP wedding much like the Queen and I didn't invite the kids. So I guess the logic behind it all...or the reasoning is not far from my own.

However, the Queen and I always thought that we had an open communications with the kids. Something as important as a marraige would be one of those things we would expect to at least be told, not something we find out about on a social networking site with 250 of the closest friends. I guess from this point of view it is much like the Queen not telling HER mother that she married. hmmm...what comes around...

For my daughter, congrats. I am glad you found your one true love. I hope you live and love a long and glorious life together.

Oh...By the way, I have to take you off my health insurance now. Love ya, Dad.

So, it HAS been a while since I actually wrote a blog entry. Fact is, I am a happy person and the need for my written form of therapy is not as necessary. There was a rough patch over Christmas, but after changing jobs yet again, and boosting my medication slightly, all is good.

I have a new job. I like it tremendously. Multiple reasons, first...everything is a challenge. Second, I am building a new division in the company. Lastly, I am treated as a valuable person in the company.

Moving on...Sydni has a Dean's scholarship at Aurora University in Illinois. For this I am extremely proud. She will be attending in the Fall. She never gives up and for this, she is rewarded.

I coached Odyssey of the Mind for the first time this year. It was truly exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. I coached 5th and 6th graders in a Division II team against 6-8 grade kids. We placed 9th out of 12 which I think is excellent considering the team could not get the vehicle to actually function and had to push it across.

I hurt my back today...which is kinda funny since all I was doing was sitting down in a chair and the pain shot through me and the floor was at that point the most comfortable place in the house. I laid there a good 15 minutes before trying to climb onto the ottoman so my wife could laugh at my butt up in the air and me draped over the ottoman.

I am finding I am more tired these days as well. Hey, at least I still have my hair.

At a meeting of the AARP (American Association of Retired People) they showed a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old. The contest was Titled 'u @50'.So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it. Be sure to read along.




I just had to post it. Creative out of the box thinking...true or not.

On November 1, I walked into a department store to help my daughter buy shoes for work and over the loud speakers I heard Christmas Songs. Did I mention it was November 1? I am not really a person to complain about Christmas songs as I am one of those people who will often stand in the middle of sporting goods singing at the top of my lungs "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!" But when the songs start this early, by the time Christmas comes around, I will certainly be ready to throw every piece of sporting equipment in the store at the speakers.

Of course, it may be easier for everyone if they played Thanksgiving music...oh wait...no Thanksgiving songs. Mother's day, Father's day, Valentine's day, Christmas and Halloween all have songs appropriate for it. But Thanksgiving (and black Friday) get chumped by not having music appropriate for the holiday.

Let's think about this though, the Natives provided the unfortunate Pilgrims food and showed them how to harvest it. They all sat around a nice long table talking about how to co-exists only to be biochemically and physically neutralized within the following 50 years. That kinda places a damper on the song. Maybe a song about killing birds!



Won't the shopping season be fun?

Today is voting day. The candidates are still fighting for votes and most people believe the fight is between Democrats and Republicans. In my opinion, the vote is about the issues.

The publicity of the Presidential race has made me come to a rapid realization... Who I vote for is my business. With all of the polling, marketing and emails I have received as of late, I feel the forced misrepresentation of both parties are really not in anyone's interest but the candidates. It is the continuous bashing I think.

So, I am going to make this as short as I can...

Go vote. I don't care for who...just vote for the person that best fits within your personal beliefs and qualifications. Tomorrow, this will all be over.

A longer rant about another topic that I rarely talk about...but needed to be said.

The stock market has been wildly erratic and dropping. To most of the populous, this really has not meaning unless it starts affecting them directly. What means something to everyone is how much they pay in taxes, how much the bread, milk, toilet paper and gas costs, and how much money they make personally.

With unemployment rising, local and state governments running out of money, and the continued dollar falling, the citizen is beginning to feel the affects. Credit is harder to get. Houses are plentiful. Construction is down. Energy prices are rising.

People are stopping investing in the 401K plans and are sinking it into keeping the status quo, status quo. The holiday season is expected to see huge shortfalls thereby continuing the downward spiral. In a futile effort to regain consumer confidence and restore some political sponsors, the government is going to bail out the banks thereby inserting themselves into capitalism.

Now for my opinion...Stupid idea. The banks are in the banking business, the airlines are in the airplane business and the IT companies are in the IT business. The banks understood the risks and rewards from being a bank and charging exhorbitant fees to their customers for bad checks, annual fees, new checks and so forth. They in return take those fees, and your money and build big beautiful banks, invest in the stock market, and offer credit to people and companies knowing the risks.

This is business. Airlines fly planes knowing they need to make money and keep the planes maintained. IT companies know they need to stay up on technology in order to survive. The government needs to stay out of it. The economy will balance itself out. Bailing out the banks will just help the banks and insurance companies. If the government thinks that injecting money into banks is going to give more credit lines they are in the great delusion, not the great depression.

Ask youself this, if you gave a person or company a loan for $20 and the faulted on the loan, what are the odds that would give them another loan? What about $200,000 or $2,000,000? The bigger the loss the less likely that it will happen again. Banks fail. It has happened many times before and it will happen many times again. The governments solution is just a stop gap that we will feel much more further down the road as our deficit increases 700 billion dollars that we didn't have.

At what point will we pay the now 10 trillion dollars back? Where could the 700 billion be used better? During the great depression, I believe it was used on infrastructure, thereby creating jobs (construction specifically), increasing spending and increasing consumer confidence. How about creating domestic product? If you have ever looked at the back of anything you purchased, odds are 85% of everything you buy is made somewhere besides the USA.

The argument is that we already have an infrastructure in place. Yes...and No. Yes, a road infrastructure is in place thanks to the great depression, however, as many people of Minnesota can tell you, it needs repair. There is more to infrastructure than roads. Energy is now an infrastructure product. With the oil problems, maybe we should be focused on lowering energy cost, increasing renewable resources and building around a new energy infrastructure. There is good news with the 700 billion, 18 billion was earmarked for renewable energy tax credits...guess someone got that part.

There are still areas of the country that do not have a safe water supply, the government could be subsidizing those local and state governments to repair those water supplies. Provide advanced educational opportunities (another blog entry), spur local manufacturing, and create soy toilet paper.

As far as the stock market...people know the risks involved when they invest. The fact that some CEOs are having $500,000 bailout congratulatory parties after being help by YOU, the taxpaper, is beyond my understanding.

As far as what you can do about it...nothing. This will just add to the deficit, the companies are likely to close or be sold anyhow (since AIG is now asking for more government money), and the economy will continue to correct itself. Right, you read that correctly. This is a correction. As a nation, we overspent, we created a deficit, and we spent money we don't have.

At the bottom of this, I fully expect the tax rate to be higher, the deficit clock to slow or stop, people to spend money they actually have in savings, USA logos proudly displayed on products, and consumer confidence to rise again. The problem is, the economy (in my opinion) needs to continue falling. It has happened before, it will happen again.

Even though the song read "Our house is a very, very, very fine house", our house is rapidly shrinking. If you have read any previous blog entries, you may know that my 20 year old daughter joined us here in Virginia after being away from us for 3 weeks.

Since then, we have been joined by the 18 year old waiting to enter the Navy. Our last house was 2600 square feet not counting the full basement. We now live in 1400 square feet total. When we moved here, we figured this was more than enough room for me, the Queen and the 5 year old. We even have swing space for a child to come visit.

Soon, the last of the "out of the house" children will be arriving here to stay with us until she and her boyfriend move into their own place. In the meantime, we are going to move into a slightly larger but better carved up townhouse in the community. It has a garage included. Soon after moving, the eldest will be moving out on her own again. The 18 year old is here until March. Needless to say, there will be a constant stream of adult children ebbing and flowing in the house.

But the 5 year old is the catalyst of this entry. Why and HOW is it the 5 year old can have the verbal acumen of some 20 somethings I know? Why is it she wants to have long winded conversations about everything from astrophysics to how the lint gets in her belly button? It is not really the fact that these conversations take place, but the fact they have to take place while I am in the middle of another conversation...

Is it illegal to duct tape a child? to a chair? Because is it not only the talking but the dancing. She will break out in some sort of kung fu ballet right in the middle of the library saying "look at me dance Daddy!"

Where do they get the energy? I am going to guess sleep. Since having very little myself lately, I find that the bags below my eyes have become more like a suitcase...and my general conversations become more like a rambling. You can probably tell. I personally think it is my defense to my daughter's long winded rambling. I need sleep.

A co-worker/friend of mine and his fiance were brutally attacked in Chicago celebrating her birthday. She was weeks away from getting medical insurance with a new job and they are asking for help. They put together a website about the story and donations:

http://www.thewalkingmiracle.com

Please help them if you can.

I have a few comments on this. The charges for this blatant attack on innocent people have been upgraded to attempted murder which is good. Unfortunately, taxpayers will be paying for their food, clothing, television, play time, bedding, housing, legal services, medical and dental care.

The people who committed the crime and placed the innocent woman in the hospital missing 14 teeth and nearly losing her life, get free health and dental care. Meanwhile the woman who nearly lost her life has over $100,000 in medical bills so far and will likely have another $100,000 added to it.

Well, of course that makes sense. Reward the criminal, persecute the victim. How messed up is a country that has this type of social health system. People who are bucking the idea of a social health care system need to wake up and realize, we already have one (actually more if you count the military) in place and it is working for the criminals instead of the people paying their taxes and working for a living. People can be productive members of society and earn minimum wage and not be able to afford healthcare at up to two times their weekly income.

Second, please send money, prayers and good juju to Joe and Jen. They need all of the help they can get.