Ken's Blog

Jennifer would be so proud

2009-11-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

That was the agreement Keds and I came to as we drove away from Findlay Chevrolet Saturday night. We had just agreed to purchase a car. We didn't want to be buying a car, but found ourselves needing to purchase one after my car was deemed a total loss by my insurance company.

The nice folks at the collision shop hooked me up with none other than Justin Findlay, son of Cliff Findlay of the Findlay Auto Group. I made an appointment with his Director of Marketing to come down to Findlay Chevy last week, especially since I was interested in pre-owned cars. He hooked me up with a great salesman that had a consultative style. Keds was smart and secured some financing through her credit union, so we knew we had that as a bargaining chip.

We met with the salesman on Thursday night. I was fairly open. My requirements were a 4-door sedan, good fuel mileage and a car that would hold it's resale value. I was open, after hearing good things about the new Ford Fusion and the Chevy Malibu, I wanted to ensure they were included along with the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and VW Jetta.

We came back Saturday, and test drove five different vehicles there. It was down to an '04 Accord or an '09 Malibu. I had ruled out the Chevy HHR and VW Jetta. We went to a couple of other Findlay lots. Test drove a Camry. Definitely didn't like that. Found two more Accords. Both were '07s with decent mileage. One had leather and GPS, the other was nice, but didn't have the extra bells and whistles. We negotiated a fair price on the later, and they were going to "Certify" it since it was at a Honda dealership.

We headed back to the Chevy dealership with an offer in hand. They couldn't get the other dealership to budge on the loaded Accord. They were willing to match the Accord offer on the '09 Malibu. At that point, we ruled out the Malibu. If a Malibu was two years newer and worth the same, I was better off with the Toyota. But still, something didn't feel right. We went back to the '04 Accord. Got them to knock $2K off the price which put it below Blue Book plus they added an Extended Warranty at no charge. At that point, the deal was done.

For once in our lives, Keds and I did the responsible thing. We knew the '04 Accord was the responsible choice. This is only planned to be a 2-3 year car. Why pay any more than we needed to, and we know it will hold it's value if reasonably maintained.

Even though we didn't shop on Craigslist, I'm sure Jennifer would have been proud of us...

Life Update 083009

2009-08-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

OK. So it's been a while since I've blogged. Aside from keeping people updated on Facebook about how good my morning Peet's tastes, there's been quite a bit going on.

Work is going well for me. I really enjoy my job and I work for an awesome company. And I'm not just saying that because I'm pretty sure my bosses will see this post. This is quite possibly the best company I've ever worked for. Reminds me a lot of the old Softbank before they got all big and became ClientLogic.

Amy is still recovering from thyroid cancer. She's pretty much recovered from the thyroid removal, but is still in the process of getting her thyroid levels evened out. Her work is pretty crazy. They are in their state survey window, so things are a little tense.

Due to Amy's surgery and subsequent follow-ups, she is pretty much out of vacation time until March, so we are going to have to cancel our Hawai'i trip this year. We'll probably do a Vegas Stay-cation, but that's about it. Hawai'i will have to wait until next year.

Many of you know that Amy's Dad has recently moved in with us. It's definitely been an adjustment. Hal is definitely appreciative, but getting used to a 68 year old living in our casita is an adjustment. Oh yeah - and he's allergic to cats. The good news is that the cats have never been in the casita, so it keeps his allergies to a minimum.

My political activities are getting pretty serious. I recent ran for 3rd Vice Chair of the Clark County Democratic Party. Unfortunately, it was the same weekend as Hal's move, and while I drew a respectable number of votes, I wasn't successful. Eh. Everything happens for good reason. I've signed up for a couple of committees, and am really focusing on growing my own North Valley Democratic Club. We had a great August meeting with Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, and have a great program planned for our September meeting. The topic is "Back to School" and we have confirmed our School District Trustee will be there to speak.

So, that's about it for right now. I'm trying to get both my diet and exercise plan under control so I can get back down under 190. It shouldn't be too rough, I just need to focus. Yeah...that's it.

State of the State

2009-01-11T14:55:00.001-08:00

OK. First and foremost, I'll apologize on the front end for an number of things. First, I'll apologize for not posting as much as I used to. I am still trying to find a good balance between work, family and blogging. Second, I'm diving straight into a topic that no doubt will bore a number of you - our state budget and our Governor. Today's post was inspired by Jon Ralston's column in today's Las Vegas Sun. Instead of posting an anonymous comment, I figure that I would use my own corner of the blogosphere to discuss this topic.

As we get ready for the the biennial legislative session, Gov. Gibbons is getting ready for his "State of the State" address. It is true that the economy is the worst than most of us have seen in our lifetime and now isn't exactly the time to be raising taxes, however the situation before us has presented us with an usual opportunity to make the changes to our revenue structure and there are ways to reduce state spending without taking a machete to it. Instead, a careful, thoughtful examination of state spending is needed. Not all government spending is created equal. Where can we consolidate agencies? Where is there waste? Is our revenue structure setup so that it will provide the least amount of peaks and valleys?

I have no confidence in either of the two branches of government to come up with an actual long-term solution. Our elected officials are too caught up in looking ahead to the next election to actually do something proactive. Our Governor can't get past "No New Taxes." In addition, most Nevadans don't give a hoot about state government. In fact, I bet most people don't even know who their elected officials are in the legislature.

The answer to this lies with the people of the state of Nevada. Write and call your Assemblyperson and state Senator. If you don't know who they are, you can find out here. Write the Governor. Write the Speaker of the Assembly, the Assembly and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders. Write Letters to the Editor. Hold your elected officials accountable. I know many of the readers of this blog don't consider themselves "political," but we need our elected officials to know that we mean business, otherwise the political elite in this state will never learn. I know I am getting started on my letters, how about you?

Thanksgiving Hangover

2008-11-28T18:21:00.000-08:00

So another Thanksgiving is in the books. Our crew was a little lighter this year with Mom and Dad in Albany this year helping out my sister. Our guest list this year was Andy, Dana, MaryAnn and Nana. As usual, I was in charge of the turkey and Keds had many of the sides. What was different this year is that we had our guests bring some. Andy and Dana brought the stuffing, while MaryAnn brought her signature spaghetti squash.

This was Nana's first trip to our house. For those that don't know, Nana is 94 and while not a blood relative, someone we really care about. She was so excited to be coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Typically, her daughter and son-in-law will take her out for dinner, but due to some volunteer commitments were not going to take her out until Friday. She had a blast, even though her hearing aids were on the fritz, which made for some interesting conversations. However she understood enough when Andy said he was thankful for his partner Dana. She promptly asked "so what kind of business are you in?" They handled it well, but Keds explained it - without having to resort to pictures.

The meal was just awesome. The turkey was moist, and had a good flavor. Andy's stuffing and Armenia Rice Pilaf was nummy, the spaghetti squash was interesting and Keds' sides were stellar.

It was an interesting mix of people. It could have been a disaster, but it ended up being nice. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and was just happy to spend it with my soulmate and people I cared about.

So Internets, how was your Turkey Day?

Weekend Recap

2008-11-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry Internet peeps, I know it's been a while since I posted, so I figured that I'd take a few minutes and at least catch you up on my weekend.

This weekend was relatively uneventful. I think I'm still in political withdrawal, though. I've taken to filling this time with watching reruns of the West Wing. I love that show, and it's amazing how strikingly similar the final season was compared to this past election. There were clearly some things planned, some things were just eerily similar.

One of the good things that came out of being politically active is that we have made a number of new friends. Saturday night, we went over to Sherri and Paul's for dinner and some board games. Dinner was amazing. It was a tag-team effort and just yummy. We played Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition. I forget how long it can take if you play it they way it was intended. We didn't even finish because it was too late and our brains just weren't working anymore. But it was still a good time.

Sunday we met our friend Kara out in Green Valley. We went to a technique class at William-Sonoma where we learned about making pie crusts. The best part was sampling the pies! After that, it was lunch at Lucille's, the site of our first date. After wishing Kara a Happy Thanksgiving, we headed back home. The afternoon was mostly a mix of football and West Wing, but not in a bad way. Our Sunday Dinner was much more laid back this week with Mom and Dad helping Beth out after the birth of the twins.

The highlight of the evening, though, was a vist by the Bowens. I don't think I've seen Casey since Marshall's birthday party. That's just not cool. Paris and Marshall were cute as always. And Jennifer brought cookies. Always a welcome treat.

So Internet peeps, how was your weekend?

Oh what a night...

2008-11-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

I remember Election Night 1992 like it was yesterday. It was my first presidential election as a registered voter. I had seen then-Gov. Bill Clinton three times in person. Sitting in Scott's apartment watching the Election Night returns come in was nothing close to amazing. I was inspired and excited. Very little drama and I remember that feeling of elation when Clinton won. I was so happy.

Fast-forward to last night. Once again, there was a candidate who did more to inspire than candidates past. The night did not hang on a single, to-close-to-be called state. No talk about disenfranchisement, hanging chads or butterfly ballots. It all seemed too good to be true.

As it became clear that Obama was going to be elected President, the attention focused to local races, specifically the race in Assembly District 13. The early returns looked good, but not great. As expected, the Democratic edge in Early Voting was apparent, and we were ahead, but closer than most of us would have liked. It was a harbinger of things to come. As the returns trickled in, the lead narrowed, with the incumbent pulling a slight lead around 10:30 p.m. Then, around 11:30 it happened. The final results were in. Andrew lost. By a little more than 1,000 votes or a little more than 1 percent. He amassed more than 37K votes more than any other winner of an Assembly and even some state Senate races. But alas, the incumbent had just a few more.

Keds and I were devastated. I can't believe Andrew lost. He seems to be taking it in stride. He is obviously disappointed but I know that he'll be OK. He'll run again, and I'll be happy to work with him once again.

Last night was still amazing. Barack's acceptance speech was awe-inspiring and McCain's concession was classy. How many days until Inauguration Day?

We'll just say this is from the "What?!?" department

2008-09-10T13:05:00.001-07:00

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/10/sen-craig-appeals-foot-tap-arrest/

Putting politics aside

2008-09-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

One of the most frustrating things about politics is that people get so entrenched in their positions that they won't give an inch because they don't want to yield their agenda even though it is probably for the greater good.

Let's take a current issue - teenage pregnancy. As it is playing out in the news right now, I won't rehash the current news story. However, I think that Roland Martin of CNN hit the nail on the head. Check out his link here.

We need to reopen discussion in this country and actually debate issues and act in the common good, without focusing on imposing. As Matt would say, we need more proposers, and fewer imposers.

Check out the link and let me know your thoughts.

An interesting theory

2008-08-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

For the second time in a couple of weeks, I’ve seen stories that have linked the war in Georgia (the country, not the state) with attempts to influence the outcome of the Presidential Election.

Now normally, I would not buy into something that Vladimir Putin is pushing. Clearly, he wants to control the news cycle and spin within his sphere of influence. Second, I would like to believe that the US public is smarter than that, too. However, there was an article in The Nation that really started me thinking. While I’m not sure the US Government orchestrated the conflict in Georgia, I do think that members of a US Presidential campaign are involved.

I’ll just take a quick moment to recap events. On August 8^th, the Georgian government tries to re-establish authority over South Ossetia using its military. This provided Russia with the excuse it needed to go in and re-establish primacy in South Ossetia. The Georgian Army was simply overmatched.

Why would the President of Georgia do this? The conflict over South Ossetia was hardly new. South Ossetia was an autonomous region of Georgia prior to independence. He had to know that the Russian military would respond, given they had troops in the region as “peacekeepers.” My guess is that President Saakashvili assumed that “the West” would step in and help or it would help change world conditions in such as way to help his cause down the road.

Here are some interesting facts. President Saakashvili is good friends with a guy by the name of Randy Scheunemann, who, until March served as a lobbyist for the Georgian Government for four years. When Scheunemann left the service of the Georgian Government, he went to work as the Sr. Foreign Policy Adviser to the Sen. John McCain campaign. He also served in a similar capacity on John McCain’s 2000 campaign. In 2005, Scheunemann and McCain worked together on legislation pushing for Georgia’s entry into NATO and in 2006, accompanied McCain on a trip to Georgia where McCain re-iterated his support for Georgia’s policies.

It would make sense that by trying to re-establish control in South Ossetia, the Georgian government is doing what it can to act in their longer term interests. Influence the outcome of the US Presidential Election by changing the focus from problems at home to issues of foreign policy. And in making Vladimir Putin the second coming of Josef Stalin, they are creating a new bogeyman which Americans should be afraid.

Here's to hoping that Americans can see past the charade and focus on issues of real importance.

How to fix education

2008-08-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

As we get closer and closer to the general election, one of the “hot button issues” is sure to be education. All of the conversation is going to be how will fix education. Most Democrats will tell you that it is all about money. There isn’t enough money. Most Republicans will tell you that while money is important, there is a lot of waste and we need to find a way to incent good teachers.

Unfortunately, they are both avoiding the single largest determining factor in whether or not a child succeeds has little to do with per-pupil funding or there are 50 administrative positions for every teacher. It is parental involvement. The beauty is that parental involvement costs the taxpayers nothing. Zilch. Nada. All it takes in the time of the child’s parent. This is readily apparent in the Clark County School System. A good friend of ours teaches in a school where the parents are very involved. So many parents volunteered to help out in the classroom last year that she had to make a schedule so there weren’t too many in the classroom at once. On the other end of the spectrum, one of my neighbors works in the library at middle school that has, let’s just say, less parental involvement. The students are struggling. They work the system so as to keep progressing, but aren’t getting a solid education. That’s not to say the whole school is failing, but it is difficult to work in that environment.

While additional parental involvement may be of great assistance and is, well, cheap, it’s also something you can’t legislate. As an example, in Roland Martin’s commentary on CNN.com today, he talks about this very topic. In Chicago, the superintendent of schools was on his radio show. Parent after parent called in, livid that they did not find out until right before graduation that their child was not going to graduate. Turns out, progress reports that highlight this fact were made available to parents. They were sent reminders during every marking period that their child was at risk of not graduating – they just had to come into school and pick up the cards and warnings.

Is it any wonder that with parents abdicating their responsibilities that we are seeing issues in education?

Every four years

2008-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

I love the Olympics. Something about them just reels me in each time. I was too young to remember the 1976 and 1980 Summer Games. But there is something about the pageantry of the Olympics that gets me every time.

But what gets me about the Olympics is that every time, we focus on sports that we normally don’t give a second look to in non-Olympic events. No, not the itty bitty sports like judo, badminton or rhythmic gymnastics. No, I am talking about the “marquis” events of gymnastics, swimming and diving in the summer and figure skating and ski events for the winter games.

I mean, how many times do you sit down and watch swimming on TV when it occurs during non-Olympic years? Or gymnastics? Or figure skating? You don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, there is something about seeing the world’s best on the most visible stage that makes these sports more entertaining. You throw in that they are competing for their country and for the glory of taking home a medal, and you have something special.

So, you can bet Keds and I will be watching the Olympics this year. Watching the video of the Men 400m relay was something quite special. Can’t wait to see more!

How did I manage to come out unscathed?

2008-08-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

One of the consistent themes we are coming across as we religion shop is a dislike or distrust for organized religion. Keds often asks how come I don’t refer to myself as a “recovering Catholic” or seem to have any hang ups about my faith. I also am not pretentiously Catholic and walk around with Confession Schedules in my wallet.

You would think I would be scarred. The right pieces were in place. Crucifixes up around the house, an uncle who is a priest, and my Mom has two cousins that are Nuns. We went to church every weekend, and for a while it was at 8 a.m. on Sundays, in Buffalo, during the winter. The homilies each week became more and more about the evils of abortion. The final pieces of the puzzle – both my sister and I went to Catholic universities.

But a funny thing happened. Faith and religion both ended up being really important in both mine and my sister’s life. I think part of it is that we both went to Catholic universities – she to St. Bonaventure, me to Canisius. There were chapels on campus. Mass times were convenient to a college student’s life. And the Masses were meaningful. The homilies were directed at the issues that effect a college student’s life, and faith’s place within it. The priests were approachable. College is a time of personal growth, and both St. Bonaventure and Canisius encouraged my sister and me to do just that. We got to see Christianity and it’s worldview beyond the structure of Mass and you get to see the message of the Gospel.

My parents played a big part as well. Even though Dad isn’t Catholic, he still went to Mass with us every weekend. It was a part of who we are, an important part of life, but not forced on us – and both parents were supportive. My mother did not engage in the sort of religious blackmail that many of my friends note with their parents. In a way, we learned that faith is flexible and God is forgiving by the examples we received at home.

Two common complaints about organized religion that I just didn’t encounter was their desire for money and a falling out with a priest. I was never chastised or denied access to anything for donations being too small. Even if we had issues with a priest, there were enough churches around that you could just go to another. Heck, Denis told me he was uncomfortable with Uncle Mickey’s sermons because they were too political around the 2004 election. He just went to a different church.

So, that's why I think I'm not scarred or don't refer to myself as a "recovering Catholic." Between the role it was made in my life while growing up, the reinforcement I received at Canisius and the comfort it allows me now, I think I'm a better person for it./

A different kind of shopping

2008-07-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

Now, I don't mind shopping. My wife will vouch for me here. However, last week Keds and I were doing a different sort of shopping. We were religion shopping!

As many of you know, Keds and I are getting ready to start our family and we are tackling the question of how are we going to introduce faith in our family. Since she is Jewish and I am Catholic, you can see the conflict.

Months ago, Uncle Mickey recommended that we shop around and find both Catholic and Jewish faith communities where we were both comfortable. It was a reasonable request. On the Jewish side, our choices are relatively limited - we would need to go Reformed and there are only two Reformed Congregations in town. On the Catholic side, there are a bunch of options, but the key is going to be distance, accent and approach. After all, as my uncle pointed out, there are far more areas of commonality between the two than areas of disagreement. It's just the one big area of disagreement.

So in typical Kraft Family Fashion, we decided now is the time and dove in head first. On Wednesday, we met with the former Rabbi of the Reformed Congregation in Summerlin. On Saturday we met with the Pastor of Christ the King Catholic Community in the southwest part of town. Both were extremely progressive and concurred with my uncle that we need to find faith communities where we are comfortable as a family. While they both clearly preferred that we stick with their respective faith traditions, they were also supportive if we chose the other.

So, after meeting with the men of the cloth, we decided it was time to check out houses of worship. The original plan was to check out Congregation Ner Tamid, the Reformed Congregation in Green Valley on Friday. However, the Rabbi was out of town and the Cantor would be leading services so we opted to pass. We are going this coming Friday, though. I'll let you know how that goes.

However, we did check out Christ the King's 9:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday. Aside from being late, it was a nice Mass. It was nice to be able to understand the priest, his homily was brief and to the point and it was relevant to our lives. In addition, it's not your typical Catholic Church. The congregation sits around the Altar and Pulpit in the round. There are no kneelers. We will definitely give a thorough try-out (4-6 Masses). I just wish it were closer, that's all.

So our quest continues. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Problem With Politics

2008-07-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

With all due respect to my wife, the biggest problem with politics is not the amount of time I spend devoted to it. It is that when there are complex issues facing our great state and Republic, solutions cannot be reduced to a slogan. Unfortunately, slogans, gimmicks and sound bites are what sell well and can influence elections.

One example of this is the rising price of oil and the corresponding increase in gas prices. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. In a truly free market economy, prices are set by the forces of supply and demand. However, even with rising demand from emerging economies like China, India and Brazil, there is enough oil being produced to satisfy worldwide demand. I’m too young to remember the last major supply shortage, but last time I checked, there are not long lines to get gas (unless you go to Costco on a Saturday.)

So if global supply and demand is generally in balance, why is the price of oil so high? It has to be speculators. That’s got to be it. There is a little bit of truth to this – speculators have artificially inflated the price of oil by reacting to global events and looking ahead to the prospects of a more limited supply. Yes, there is the Enron Loophole that has allowed the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to go along, unregulated and unsupervised with no transparency since the early 1990s. While Congress is now closing the Enron Loophole, it will really only apply to domestic traders.

But what about all this talk about offshore drilling and using domestic reserves in Alaska and the Rockies? Wouldn’t this help reduce American demand while making us self-reliant on our own supply? There are a number of problems with this solution. First, what isn’t well known is that there are currently 90 million acres open to oil companies, of which only 20 is being actively drilled on. The oil companies do not want to invest the money to further drill and explore because they are hedging their bets. They don’t want to risk creating excess supply and setting their organizations to fail down the road. They are simply pursuing offshore leases and Alaska because it is popular, and cheaper. But again, who is to say they will actually invest in the necessary infrastructure. Also, you won’t see a drop of oil from any new exploration for seven to 10 years.

The national security piece (relying on our own reserves versus importing) is also problematic. Currently, the United States consumes 21 million barrels of oil PER DAY. Our current domestic production is about 5 million barrels per day. Even if Alaska and more coastal areas are opened up, it will only net an additional 8 million barrels per day. So, by my math, that leaves an additional 8 million barrels per day that we need to get from somewhere. Plus, why would an oil company take less money on domestic oil than what oil is trading for globally? OPEC and other oil-producing nations would most likely reduce production to account for the reduction in global demand.

The answer to rising gas prices is not a simple one. We need a multifaceted approach. How else are going to address this when you consumer 25% of the worlds oil, but can only possess 3% of the world’s oil reserves?

First, we need to kill all tax breaks for the integrated petroleum companies. Tax incentives should be reserved to help protect fledgling industries that are in our national interests. To this end, we need to provide additional tax incentives for renewal energy sources and engineering to reduce our need for fossil fuels. The oil companies can not be rewarded for not investing in their own businesses. Second, we need to encourage conservation and privately-driven alternative fuel development at home. See the example of T. Boone Pickens who announced today that he will build a wind farm in Texas. We need increased transparency and oversight at the CFTC. I mean really – why wasn’t the Enron loophole closed after the electricity crisis of the late 1990s?

Unfortunately, our country has developed based on the availability of cheap oil, and there is no easy solution in sight. Find me a politician that will come up with a sensible plan, and we can talk.

More Life Updates

2008-07-07T16:14:00.001-07:00

Before going into some more heady issues later this week, I wanted to take a pause a give a quick life update.

The past week or so has been challenging, to say the least. With Thea passing away suddenly, Keds was simultaneously thrown into reliving her Mom’s passing nearly two years ago and trying to help her best friend through the grieving process. I was so proud of her. She held up well emotionally and was able to be there for her friend.

Remember that faux birthday party? Yeah, I fell for the gimmick and scheduled an appointment for us with the financial planner. My timing could not have been worse. The initial advice was stuff we already knew we had to do, it just really wasn’t the time to have the conversation. But sitting down with an impartial third party was extremely helpful and made us realize that we need to start moving on some stuff. That didn’t mean it was a comfortable experience, as Keds and I both felt like vomiting at a couple of points during the meeting. I’m still not sure if we are going to sign up with this guy, but if he leaves us in a better position financially without incurring more debt, it could be money well spent.

The holiday weekend was good, but busy. The best part was that we saw a TON of fireworks. On Thursday, we got a front-row view of the North Las Vegas fireworks at Seastrand Park from our friend Sarah’s house. Friday night, we went to a friend’s house in Centennial Hills and got to watch fireworks all across the valley. Keds was in heaven. Saturday was dinner at the Bowen’s, with a cookout at Teri’s on Sunday. We held true to our word and made it to the gym both Friday and Saturday.

We are having an issue with Mom. To make a long story short, Mom canceled on brunch plans for Sunday after being called into work. This was after Keds went out of her way (again) to add Mom to plans she made with friends because she figured she would enjoy it. Mom has not given us any indication that she is going to change her behavior, so we are going to have adjust ours. I’ll have a conversation with her this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

This week is already shaping up to be fun. While it sucks that the heat is forcing me to move my lunch-time workouts until after work, I should be able to get home at a reasonable hour. We are having lunch with Mike and Kyria on Wednesday. I am so excited. Mike and I do not spend enough time together, and he’s going to be in town. They may be stopping by after dinner on Wednesday as well, which is exciting. I also heard a rumor that Vegas Princess and her husband Charming are coming over for dinner on Thursday, which is always fun.

Not sure what’s in store this weekend, but we are definitely going to allocate several hours each day to the pool!

Life Updates

2008-06-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Whew. It was nice to take a little bit of a breather on Sunday. It’s been a crazy little stretch for the Kraft clan, but we seem to be weathering it nicely.

After a quick trip to LA the previous weekend for Elizabeth’s wedding reception, we managed to spend Father’s Day with both of our Dad’s which was nice. Keds had a random illness pop up on Monday – including a 103 degree fever. That curtailed our activities through Thursday. Unfortunately, it also meant we needed to cancel dinner plans with our friends Vegas Princess and her husband Charming, her folks and my parents. We tried to make it up, but more on that later.

Thursday was a really tough day. It appears that my new company likes to have “cutting the fat” exercise about once a quarter to twice a year. It started with the VP who hired me getting let go first thing in the morning. Having just started, and losing my last job in a “financial restructuring,” I did get a little nervous. OK, I was a lot nervous; especially when two people that I worked closely with were let go. But in the end, it looks like there was a strategy to cuts and there will be some good things that come out of this. We seem to be banding together as a division and are focused on service our customers.

Friday was highlighted both with a night out at the 51s game and getting out of work early. We were all ordered to leave at 3:30 as our office was being sprayed for bugs. From there, Keds and swung by and grabbed Dad then picked Mom up from work before heading to Cashman. Our plan was to try and watch the game with Princess, Charming and their families, but we weren’t able to get tickets close to them. Plus, it was like 100 degrees in the shade and the 51s got their butts kicked.

Saturday was a little crazy. First, I went canvassing for Dina Titus and Andrew Martin as part of the coordinated campaign. I was paired with a relatively pessimistic retiree, and knocking on doors in 100 degree heat was not all that fun. But we were able to leave some literature and spoke to some people who had never heard of Andrew, which was pretty cool. The lunch afterwards was pleasant, but it was reinforced that I need to keep my mouth shut when I start listening to idiot conspiracy theorists. After babysitting my favorite toddlers for 30 minutes (OK, they were both napping), Keds and I got ready for a dinner party at our favorite loan officer’s house.

Mind you, prior to last week we hadn’t received the invitation, and if I had checked our mail it may have been in there, but we were both a little miffed when we realized the point of the evening was not exactly as advertised. It was billed as a birthday party for our friend’s boyfriend to be catered by a professional chef. Turns out, it was actually a financial planner’s marketing event. At first, I was really annoyed and felt like we had been duped (I’m sure Princess knows how this feels J), but it ended up being a nice evening. The Financial Planner actually didn’t even try and push his services on us. We happened to have a couple of questions, and he answered them. We may end up using him for somethings in an effort to diversify. Also, our current guy, while good, is in LA so any deposits need to be mailed to him. Plus, since he was Leni’s guy, my concern is that he is almost like an uncle, and not in the good way – especially with money. Plus, we made friends with the field manager and his girlfriend, and the financial planner’s wife is actually a Registered Dietician. So, it ended up being a productive evening.

Sunday was much more laid back. The lesson learned, though, was to keep an eye on the pool temperature. No matter what the temperature, 96 degrees is not refreshing. Mom made stew meat and gravy for dinner which was uber-yummy. But it ended up being a much-needed relaxing day. Plus, the A’s won, which made it even better!

So what’s new with you?

Nevada’s Budgetary Issues

2008-06-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

So it’s official. The nation’s least-effective governor has finally called for a special session of the legislature to deal with the state’s fiscal crisis. On the front-end, I really do believe that the reason the Governor finally called for a special session was due to the Textgate Scandal and the fact that the RJ published a poll showing the Governor’s approval ratings in the sewer. He wants to change the story. However, given that our Governor has not done anything substantive and has literally danced while Rome (or Reno, I get the two confused) burn, a special session is necessary to create sound fiscal policy for the next fiscal year so that things aren’t any worse by the time the budget is ratified.

The agenda, as I understand it, is specifically to talk about suspending Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for the upcoming year. Also on the list is how to stabilize the budget for the next fiscal year. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. There may be legal ramifications to this, as contracts with the various labor unions may guarantee that the raises go through, forcing the money to come from somewhere else.

While suspending raises is not popular, I’d rather see raises suspended than see layoffs in vital services. Having worked in the private sector my entire career, suspending pay increases is not uncommon. When I worked at ClientLogic, annual increases for salaried employees were suspended or deferred for three years during financially lean years. In addition, they suspended matching funds for our 401(k). Sure, it is a demotivator, but at least you still had a job.

What I would like to see is some sound fiscal policy come out of this special sesson. I’m not holding my breath that it will, but I can still hope. These are tough times for Nevada. Real leadership is needed. I don’t care that it’s happening in the middle of a campaign or if the Governor is calling the session just to change the subject. My call to Speaker Buckley and Sen. Majority Leader Raggio is to do what is difficult and do what you were hired to do – legislate in the best interest of the State of Nevada.

Happy Birthday Tom!

2008-06-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

In past years, today would have been an awesome day. Sure, we'd both have to work, but we both knew what was in store for us after work - drinks (Crown Royal for Newman, Beer or Jack Daniel's for me) and dinner either at Santora's or Nikki Lee's. After that, we'd most likely head to the nearest PT's for a few too many games of GoldenTee and some more drinks.

However, this is not past years. As many of you know, Tom passed away on September 16th. The picture above was the last time I saw him and the last time we spoke was via e-mail the following July. I regret that working together caused some friction between the two of us, especially once he went out on leave and the way he ended up leaving town left a little bitter taste with both Keds and I. That didn't change how I felt about him. It was more of an annoyance.

I find myself thinking about him more and more lately. Mostly because it's baseball season. Tom was an avid Braves fan. It would annoy him to no end that the Braves aren't on TBS that much anymore. After baseball came football, as we both were huge Bills fans. I occasionally feel guilty for not being a better friend, but the reality is that he pulled away as he got more sick and was in increasing amounts of pain. His communication was more erratic, I'm sure partially because of the amount of pain but also because of the way things were going with Slash for him.

Tom would have been 33 today. That is simply just far too young to die. I take some solace that he was in a lot of pain, having endured double hip replacement, a shoulder replacement and had some back problems along with the severe asthma that plagued him his whole life. He is in a better place now. I'll do a shot of Crown for you tonight...

Where's Ken?

2008-06-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

I know. I know. It's been a while since I've posted a little comment out here. I've been a bit busy and nothing too exciting has happened. Work is phenomenal. I'm really digging this new job. The only issue I have is the commute. Going from no commute to a cross-town commute has been a little bit of an adjustment. Plus, there have been some adjustments at home. Going from being able to do my own thing, to leaving the house at 6 a.m. and not getting home until between 5 and 6 is an adjustment for Keds - and that's assuming I ONLY go to the gym after work. A meeting or an event or something really kills the rest of the evening.

Getting more and more involved in local politics. We hosted the local Assembly candidate for a Meet and Greet with the neighbors, which was a lot of fun. Right now it is all about organizing, most of the "get out the vote" efforts won't start until September or so.

I'm really focusing on staying focused with my nutrition and the like. It's hard when there are office birthdays, lunches and breakfasts going on, not to mention not really caring sometimes. But I'm confident I'll get it back together here soon.

I apologize for not being better about commenting on other people's blogs. It's amazing what happens when you don't have time to goof off at work...

Anyway, expect a more thoughtful and organized post later in the week.

A broken process

2008-05-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of news items this morning caught my eye and my ire. The first was that three initiatives circulated by the Las Vegas Sands and owner Sheldon Adelson were submitted to the County Registrar of Voters for verification yesterday. The second was that the Teacher’s Union reached a deal with three gaming companies to keep another initiative off the ballot but place an advisory question regarding an increase in the gaming tax.

I am not going to discuss the merits of any of the initiatives. I haven’t read them in their entirety and I’m sure they will be challenged in court. I cannot find fault with people using the means currently in place to ensure their interests are protected. I am going to discuss the process.

The initiative process is the wrong place to determine public policy. This needs to be done in the legislative branch of government. As the bill works through the committee and sub-committee process, it is vetted for potential pratfalls and loopholes. Areas of contention are addressed prior to a bill becoming law. All of this is skipped in the initiative process.

The Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act (I think that was the name) is a good example of why the process is flawed. Many states and counties had passed similar ordinances banning smoking in public indoor spaces. I would assume that similar attempts to pass one in Nevada were thwarted by the gaming lobby. So, in an effort to get something passed, the backers of the initiative specifically excluded the major casinos. Once passed, it was challenged and the criminal portion was thrown own, leaving the Health District to enforce the act – something they are not equipped to handle. So, the act is actually being interpreted differently in different parts of the state and you have these hokey efforts to meet the letter of the law, but not the spirit. Some restaurants closed their kitchens altogether others during off-peak hours. Some just flagrantly don’t enforce the act.

Many of these issues would have been avoided if we would have followed the “how a bill becomes a law” process we all learned in 5th grade. The language would have been crafted with court challenges in mind. The enforcement of the law would have been clear. And it would have been enforced consistently throughout the state. But the issue is that since the Legislative branch has done little, other than rubber stamp a budget, for the last 10 or so years it is no wonder that interested parties are reaching out to the initiative process.

The solution is to elect leaders who have the backbone to make tough decisions facing the state. Our elected officials need to act in our best interest, not those of the special interests. We, the citizens whom elect these individuals to serve us, need to keep an eye on our elected officials to make sure they are spending our tax dollars wisely and acting in our best interests.

Sunday Musings

2008-05-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

A few musings this afternoon as I watch the A's lose, which makes me sad, and the Penguins rout the Flyers, which makes me mildly happy.

My sister called this morning to tell me that one of our childhood neighbors passed away this morning. Ron Crowley in many ways was like an uncle to us. The last time I saw him was three years ago before my folks moved, and he was doing well. However, years of smoking finally caught up to him. He had a portion of his lungs removed not that long ago, and recently they discovered a brain tumor. After sending him home from the hospital on Friday and brining in hospice, he passed away this morning. Mr. Crowley, you will be in our thoughts and prayers as will your wife and children Kevin and Eileen.

This makes me even more nervous for my Dad. My Dad has had a disgustingly gross cough for the last few years. His skinny as a rail, is a closet smoker and drinks probably a six pack of beer a day (at least.) What scares me the most is that he refuses to go to the doctor. My Mom, my sister, my uncle (his brother) and I have tried to get him to go the doctor. I even took him out two weeks ago to urge him to go to the doctor. My sister is pregnant with twins and Keds and I are getting ready to adopt. I used the "Beth and I want our kids to know their grandfather" line. I'm 98% certain it went in one ear and out the other. At this point, short of telling him we are going to Disneyland and taking him there under false pretenses, I don't think anything will get him there.

This was a nice, lazy weekend. We spent almost all day Saturday in the pool. Today, between the gym, church and another afternoon in the pool I think I'll be well-rested heading into the work week.

I opened up a new single-origin coffee this morning - Ethiopia Fancy. I blended it with my remaining New Guinea Highlands. It was an, um, interesting blend to say the least. I'll be interested to try it on its own tomorrow. Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, so that adds a historic element to it as well. Another shipment is on it's way. In trying to find the perfect pound that Ked and I will both enjoy, I'm trying at least one new coffee everyone shipement in addition to the New Guinea and Major D that we already like. One thing I did learn is that Keds does not like the French Press (yes Matt, I wussed out and bought one). It does make a STRONG pot of coffee, but it was different and I enjoyed it.

This week is shaping up to be busy, with a lot of after-work activities. A meeting with Jewish Family Services on Monday, the Andrew Martin for Assembly Kickoff event on Thursday and Andrew on Tuesday will make for a busy week heading into Memorial Day weekend.

Anyway, I hope y'all had great weekends as well. I've got a couple of good posts planned for the week, so let's see how that shapes up.

Deplorable

2008-05-15T12:06:00.001-07:00

I keep counting down the days until January 20, 2009. The lengths that our current President will go to in order to score political points will never cease to amaze me. I appreciate a good foreign policy discussion as much as anyone. But this President has no interest in having a discussion. Instead, he took an opportunity speaking in front of the Israeli Parliament to make a political swipe and inject himself into November’s election.

True peace in the Middle East is going to be difficult. To achieve peace and stability in Israel/Palestine and Iraq will require a lot of effort on all sides. It will mean direct engagement. Calling it Appeasement is a bit like referring to our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a new Crusade.

Our President made an already difficult situation in the Middle East worse. What he proved today is that he just doesn’t care, and that he will do anything for political gain even as he rides off into the sunset…

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T15:45:00.001-07:00

Here's a picture of me and my Mom. I just wanted to do a quick post wishing her and all the mother's out there in blog-land a very happy Mother's Day.

My Mom has always been there when I needed her. It's hard to believe that 19 years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was right after she had completed her bachelor's degree while working full-time and running a household of four. She may frustrate the living crap out of me sometimes, but I love her just the same. My life wouldn't be the same without her.

Mom, I love you. I hope you enjoyed your brunch and will continue to enjoy your Peet's Coffee (even if it is decaf!).

Friday Filibuster

2008-05-09T17:25:00.001-07:00

Yes, please note the irony in the title. This post is going to be both politcal and more than just a quick read.

A small item made news here yesterday about a bill proposed by Congressman Dean Heller from Nevada’s First Congressional district. Don’t get me wrong, it will play well in his district that covers Reno, rural Nevada and a very small piece of Clark County. The bill is an amendment to the Voting Rights Act to remove the requirement that bilingual ballots be provided if 5 percent of the voting-age citizens are deemed limited in their English-speaking skills, as determined by the US Census.

I will admit that I have mixed feelings on this bill. To be able to vote, you need to be a US citizen. To be a US citizen, you need to pass a basic English proficiency exam. So why do we go through the taxpayer expense of printing dual-language ballots? How much English do you have to understand to read what office the candidate is running for and the candidates’ names? The complexity comes in when reading and understanding ballot initiatives. This are often very wordy and tough to follow, even for those with a firm grasp on English. It makes sense that they may need to be translated to be adequately understood.

The immigration debate in this country hasn’t changed in 200 years. It started with the first waves of non-WASP immigrants. First, it was the massive amounts of Irish immigration. The next waves were from Italy and other, poorer and mostly Roman Catholic areas of Southern Europe. Many people today don’t realize there was a serious effort to bar Catholics from both citizenship and the right to vote in the 19th century. During the California Gold Rush and construction of the transcontinental railroad, there were massive amounts of Chinese immigration. If you were to walk through the ethnic neighborhoods of any major city (New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages of the “old country” would have dominated. Children learned to speak English, and served as translators for their parents who had a limited grasp of the language.

The general debate hasn’t changed. The only wrinkle is that there are a substantial number of people entering the country outside of the established processes. We need to protect our borders. We need to maintain our national security.

However, the bill as proposed by Rep. Heller does nothing to secure our borders. It just makes it harder for those citizens that are still gaining confidence in English to understand ballot questions and fully participate in every voting-age citizen's civic duty – take an active interest in public affairs and vote.

We need to call this bill what it really is - an election year stunt to rekindle debate on a “wedge” issue without actually solving things. Chances are Rep. Heller was only asked to propose this bill because it will play well in Reno, Pahrump, Ely and the rest of rural Nevada.

This country has real problems that need to be solved. People are losing their homes. Our military is under-funded and stretched thin in two theaters, compromising their effectiveness. Our infrastructure is old and at greater risk of failing.

Introducing this bill is a bigger waste of taxpayer money than printing bilingual ballots. I only hope that Jill Derby can use this argument against Congressman Heller. It's obvious to me that he is not independent and simply a tool for Republican leadership.

Work Update

2008-05-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sure several of you (need to be realistic here) are wondering how the new job is going. Generally speaking, it's going well. The worst part of it is commuting to and from work every day and getting up at 5 a.m. so I can be there by 7. Everyone is nice, and very supportive. They are making sure that I am set up for success, which is AWESOME. It's just that horrid part of a new job where you know you are competent, but aren't completely independent yet. However, I spoke to my boss yesterday and he's very pleased with my development. So things are going well. I should get my benefits packet in the next couple of days (YAY) so we can stop paying COBRA...

However, starting a new job has led to some other adjustments. I'm trying to maintain a healthy diet and exercising regimen. It's just easier said than done. The diet isn't too hard, it's just finding a way to make it into the gym as often. And when I get to the gym, I'm freakin' exhausted. My trainer even commented that I am gassing out a lot faster than I used to - the effort is still there, but energy is not.

I'm sure I'll adjust in due time. Until then, I just need to keep on truckin'...

Weekend Update

2008-05-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Before our trips to LA and Florida, Keds and I agreed that we were not going to make any plans for this past weekend. We were going to take the weekend to rest, recover and recuperate. Well, that got thrown out the window even before we left for LA.

Saturday morning was the Komen Race for the Cure. Since my Mom is a 19 year survivor and my company was sponsoring a team, we decided to do it. I registered us both for the 5K walk. While we are in better shape today, neither of us could see doing the run. However, about ¾ of a mile in, we were wondering why we didn’t sign up for the mile fun walk. Oh well, a nice 3.1 mile walk on Saturday morning never hurt anyone.

We did manage to keep some down time on Saturday afternoon. We decided it was time best spent in our 92 degree pool. Needless to say, it was more than pleasant. We both got a little sun and it provided some much-needed down time. After that, we headed over to a Meet and Greet with Tom Collins, our Clark County Commissioner. The candidate didn’t stick around very long, but we visited with some folks we know, Keds got to meet a bunch of the political types I’ve been talking to, and I think we made a new friend. Not too bad for a little bbq, I would say! Then it was off to Paymon’s for dinner, which is always yummy.

Sunday was a little more crazy. Keds and Mom went to Trader Joe’s and Costco. I met Dad out at his watering hole for a “father-son chat.” You see, Dad has this lovely rattling cough. He’s a not-so-closet smoker and refuses to go see the doctor. I get that when you are feeling ganged up on, you did your heels in and you may be just a little bit scared, but sticking your head in the sand won’t fix it. It could very easily be what kills him and ends up being a drag on Mom as well. I took a different tactic this time. Given that he will be a grandfather in the not-so-distant future, I used the imagery of his own Dad and wanted him to be around to know his grandkids. I got the impression I was talking to a brick wall, but we’ll see.

Sunday night was typical dinner with Mom and Dad. However I got the break out my new French Press. I didn’t use my favorite sort of coffee (code for ‘Not Peet’s’), but some decaf sitting around since Christmas. Adding insult to injury, I ground the beans a little too fine. Mom dug it, I enjoyed it but Dad left half his cup sitting there saying it was “chewy.” This from the man that still asks if it’s Brim…

Monday came way too fast. Getting up at 5 a.m. SUCKS, but I’m enjoying things and getting myself a routine set up.

Families

2008-04-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the last two weeks, a lot in our life has focused on family. Whether it's getting ready to start our own, dealing with the ones that live close by or visiting them in Florida and California, family seems to be a central theme in our life these days.

We are getting ready to start the adoption process. We have decided to work with a local agency because we want an infant. The initial interest form is nearly complete and ready to send in. While we are disappointed that a biological child is not in our future, we are excited to provide a loving home to children that might not have that opportunity otherwise. While the payoff is going to be great, we are not looking forward to the proctology exam we are about to endure.

One item that we are seriously working through is how to instill faith in our children's lives. As many of you know, we are an interfaith family. While we both agree that in theory all that matters is that our children have a strong moral compass and a solid faith foundation, we are working through the importance of "rights of passage." In addition, it is very important for us to show a united front with our children. Regardless of our choice, we will celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas, Passover and Easter. However, it will be present in a way that these are the holidays we celebrate and here is why they are important. It will NOT be presented as "this is what Mommy believes" and "this is what Daddy believes." We also agree that it is unfair to make a child choose between competing faiths. They will choose once they are an adult, but not before.

Speaking of holidays, about two weeks ago we went to LA to celebrate Passover with Keds' family. I enjoy these functions. We get to provide support for her Dad and get to see everyone. This year, we missed Uncle Larry and his clan. His daughters were with their Mom's family for Passover. While we missed seeing them, it actually made things a little easier. I really think they are starting to get to know Keds all over again, and it's neat to see the development. Oh, and Britta is an amazing cook. That alone is reason to attend family functions!

This past week was a trip to Florida. While we spent the most time in Orlando, we got a chance to - you guessed it - see some family. Our second night there, we had dinner with two of my cousins on my Dad's side. While there is a large age difference, we always have a good time when we get together. It's great to bounce things off of them as well and share stories.

On Saturday we headed to St. Pete to see Keds' sister, our nieces and nephew. We also got to meet our grandnephew. This was my first time meeting Keds' brother-in-law and the kids. The girls are amazing and David is growing up to be quite the young man. We saw David's PeeWee A Hockey Team, the Gulf Coast Flames, They won the game, which was awesome. We then had dinner with the whole clan before heading back to Orlando for the night.

Sunday we were off to Ft. Myers to see the rest of my Dad's side of the family. Yes, I realize we were halfway to Ft. Myers when we were in St. Pete - I never said we were good planners. Dinner with my uncle and cousins was great. They have definitely taken a liking to Keds, especially my cousins two girls. We definitely don't see each other often enough. Monday we spent some time with my uncle and his girlfriend before heading back to Orlando to catch our flight home.

As I mentioned, I've been thinking about family quite a bit. We really do need to get back to Buffalo. My aunt is going to celebrate her 70th birthday this summer, and it's been three years since I've seen my cousins. I was reading my cousin Therese's MySpace page, where she mentions her siblings that have moved away and Grampy. I miss them all so much.

Anyhoo, I'm really just rambling now. A life update and thoughtful blog post all in one! How's that for blog value?

Coming soon

2008-04-29T21:47:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA. Things have been a little crazy and we were on vacation for a week. But don't worry, there is another post coming soon. After all, I just got a fresh shipment of Peet's!

New Friends and Internet Crazies

2008-04-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed two new links on the left hand side of this blog. They are "The Deacon's Bench" and "Perspectives from the Summit." The first is written by Deacon Greg who happens to work for Katie Couric as a writer and is also a recently-ordained Roman Catholic deacon. The second is written by Greg who is a teaching pastor at a Christian church in Oregon. Who they are isn't really important. Rather my focus today is the differences in the blogs.

At first I thought the Deacon's Bench was interesting. Some Catholic news items, his personal experiences as a recently-ordained deacon going through his first Easter season. From personal experience, Easter is rough on priests. You are basically in church for five straight days. Saying Mass is often the least fulfilling of a Priest's duties. The best part for them is the sermon. He does like to throw some current events in there. However, he's gone into overdrive with the Pope's trip to the US this week.

Now I am as interested in the Pope coming as your next run-of-the-mill Catholic. However, some real humdingers were posted. First, it was about how the President really respects Catholic theology and has more Catholics on his staff than any other blah blah blah. The next piece that got my attention was one about how Sen. Obama has a group of Catholics as advisers for the Pennsylvania primary campaign. I don't think it was his intention to draw the crazies out, but he certainly did. First it was the comments about how they wouldn't be surprised if "W" converted after his presidency. I nearly wanted to vomit. Then there were the series of comments about how evil Sen. Obama is and how now they have a convenient list of supporters of this evil man to pray for. I nearly lost my dinner.

Remember how I had to step away from the blogs after the caucus? I had to do it again. First, I was offended that politicians were using MY faith for political gain. The implication is that a photo op with the Pope or a list of prominent Catholics as advisers is an endorsement for all Catholics. Second, I was offended because there are people out there that will fall for this! Enough people simply do not care about details to judge for themselves. It's conveniently forgotten that the late Pope John Paul II chided Pres. Bush for the war in Iraq and for not doing more to help God's less fortunate children.

Matt's blog is interesting. Matt's the craziest, but that's mostly because of his obsession with Peet's Coffee that makes mine pale in comparison. His deals with weighty issues of faith. It makes me think.

Anything out there rubbing your pet peeves or making you think?

What a week!

2008-04-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been away for so long sports fans. Having to get up and having to gasp drive into work has cut into my blogging/surfing time.

My first week at work was interesting. While I understand the process of project management, getting into the world of affiliate marketing is something completely different for me. So I've spent most of my first week trying to wrap my head around the industry. The one thing I hate about starting a new job is that initial feeling of non-productivity. You don't really have work of your own yet, so you are dependent on your boss to get you up to speed. That, and since I am brand new, I don't have a badge yet, which means that I can't get in and out of the building on my own.

I have managed to create my own morning routine, though. I get my coffee pot ready the night before, the alarm goes off once at 4:51 and again at 5. I get myself a cup of coffee, take a shower and get dressed then eat breakfast before leaving the house at 6 to get to the office by 7 since the office is across town. Keds has been nice enough to get up most mornings and make me breakfast, which is definitely appreciated.

So work is good. Everyone is nice and for once there is a clear induction program so that I don't feel totally lost and don't feel overwhelmed. Plus, this place promotes a healthy work-life balance which is a plus. They like to keep total hours worked in the 40-45 hour per week range.

I'll admit that I haven't been really good the last couple of weeks in watching my nutrition and getting my happy self into the gym. This week was just bad. With Annie and her brood in last weekend, I didn't get to the gym and didn't feel like going on Monday. I really worked my legs Tuesday, which was good until I remember that I was going to be doing some cardio-based stuff on Thursday with Andrew.

Let's just say that Thursday was one bad decision after another. First, I scheduled my appointment at 7. When I got home, we decided to go out for dinner, but I didn't really have a lot of time. Then we had Mexican. While the food was decent and we got to see our favorite neighbors, I was kinda full when I got to the gym. So my measurements were a disaster and the workout was less-than-pleasant. I could barely breathe, my legs were still sore from Tuesday and I was exhausted. Andrew was disappointed that I quit. And I did. But there was good reason. I just need to get back into the habit of working out and going to work again.

This weekend will be good. Saturday is the reconvened County Democratic Convention. Keds and I are both delegates, so we'll swing by the Thomas and Mack and vote. We then have reservations at Mesa Grill, sort of a combination celebration/belated birthday dinner. Tomorrow we'll go to church and the gym, but take the rest of the day off before craziness sets in for the rest of the month.

How was everyone else's week?

A Rekindled Passion

2008-04-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I love coffee. Not just any old, run-of-the-mill coffee, mind you, but really good coffee. I like my coffee strong and I don't dilute it with cream or sugar. Sometime around 2001/2002 I became disillusioned with Starbucks. I think it was precisely when I realized that I could stand on my rooftop, throw a rock and hit about 3 or 4 Starbucks outlets that I realized they lost their proverbial soul. I put them up there with Microsoft and Wal-Mart as a member of the Triumvirate of Evil, intent on taking over the world.

First, a little background. I drank coffee sporadically in high school and college. I worked at McDonald's and worked the opening shift (i.e. show up at 5 a.m.) on the weekends. I'd drink their perfectly passable coffee to get me going, but that was about it. I'd drink coffee occasionally to help me get through an all-nighter after I ran out of soda. When I moved to Vegas and started working a steady day shift, I found Starbucks. First, it was Frappuccinos. Then I switched to Caffe Mochas. Right around 2001-2002 I decided I needed to lose some weight. I was going to Starbucks every work day and getting myself a Grande Caffe Mocha, complete with whole milk and whipped cream. Not only was it expensive, but calorie dense - 360 calories per drink! That was practically a meal!

I needed to take drastic action. I was working at ClientLogic at the time, and we had just landed the Gevalia Kaffe account. Most people know Gevalia for their free coffee maker offers. The Project Manager and Call Center Director were both friends of mine, and they sent me some free coffee to try and I signed up for the delivery service as well. I used to water my coffee down with cream and sugar, but those were calorie luxuries I could no longer afford. I relegated myself to one non-fat latte a week. I have been a black coffee drinker ever since.

In the intervening years, I went on a quest for good coffee. Gevalia was good for a while, but their quality started to suffer greatly about 3 years ago. It was about that same time I discovered the Coffee Bean (oh, and met my wife, ironically at the Coffee Bean three years ago yesterday. Happy Anniversary babe!). The whole bean coffee wasn't quite as good as Starbucks, but their Caramel Lattes are way better than Starbucks' Caramel Macchiatos. They were close to the new house and gave me a free coffee when I bought a pound of beans. Alas, the location in the Aliante Information Center closed after a Starbucks opened across the street.

So it was back to buying my coffee at Starbucks. At first, I had them grind my beans for me, as I didn't have a grinder at home. Then, we used a portion of a Bloomingdale's gift card to buy a burr (as opposed to blade) grinder for the house. The burr grinder provides a lot more control over the grind of your beans, providing a more consistent coffee ground which makes for better coffee. Since Keds and I have become aware of the subtleties of food, I figured we could tell the difference in coffee. However, we couldn't tell the difference between blends and varieties. It all tasted the same. Which led me to try Peet's.

My first awareness of Peet's Coffee was back in 2002 or so. I read Howard Schultz's book about how he ran Starbucks. If you work in corporate America, I strongly urge you to read the book. It explains why they are one of the best companies to work for and you can totally see what your company is doing wrong. In it, we learn that Starbucks was founded in Seattle by three former Bay Area residents that were fan's of this place called Peet's Coffee in Berkeley, not far from the Cal campus. In fact, in their first year of operation, Peet's actually supplied them with their raw beans. After Schultz left to form his own company that would offer espresso beverages, Starbucks actually bought Peet's. They later re-engaged with Schultz. Eventually, Peet's and Starbucks went their own way.

I tried Peet's Coffee at Mitch and Samantha's. It was good. However, as my disillusionment with Starbucks bean quality grew so did my desire to search out Peet's. Then, one day we were in Whole Paycheck (sorry, Whole Foods), and I saw Peet's coffee sitting there on the shelf. However, I was aghast at what they were charging for 3/4 of a pound! Surely it would be cheaper to buy it direct. But I also wanted Keds to try the Arabian Mocha Java blend - one of my all-time Starbucks favorites. So I go into my local Starbucks and request it. I was absolutely devastated when they told me they had discontinued this classic blend! That was it. My quest had been set.

On our next couple of trips to LA, we had every intention of stopping at a local Peet's outlet and picking up a pound or two of Arabian Mocha Java. But it didn't work out. This last trip in, though, we made the time to stop buy. I picked up one pound of Arabian Mocha Java and one pound of their signature Major Dickason's Blend. I could actually taste the difference between the blends and taste the difference in the quality of the coffee. I decided to take the plunge and set myself up for home delivery. So I did. I placed my order on Thursday, it shipped on Friday and it arrived on Tuesday. One pound of Mocha Java and decided to try something new - New Guinea Highlands. What impressed me most was that both pounds of beans had their roasting date on them - Thursday, March 27th. So cool.

I opened my pound of Mocha Java this morning and nearly got a contact high. That got me through my shower. When I took the first sip from my first cup this morning, I was hooked. I could taste all of the flavors within the coffee. I finally found what I am looking for in a coffee. I can't wait to try the New Guinea. Their write up indicates that the original coffee trees were transplanted from Jamaica's Blue Mountains. We love Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. We drank it every day on our honeymoon. I am now a certified Peetnik. Fellow readers, if you are a coffee or tea drinker, don't be surprised if you get Peet's as a gift...

City Council Meeting 4/2/2008

2008-04-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

While I don't mean to scoop ScandalMonger, I am going to report a little on tonight's City Council meeting. We knew it was going to be a hot one, that's for sure. On the Agenda were two hot items, both relating to apartments. I specifically went to speak against Agenda #32, a zoning change for property at the northwest corner of Centennial and Valley from a Planned-Use Development to R3, or apartments. When I handed in my card, it was mentioned that the requestor was asking the item be removed from the agenda. Basically, they had at least three of the five votes against and with all three running for Mayor next year passage wasn't likely, so they are most likely going to the original zoning, which is for condos, or waiting until a later time.

However, the real hot issue was agenda item #2 - the Site Plan Review for the parcel at Centennial and Revere. The land was already hard-zoned R3 and to not pass it would violate the Open-Land Development Agreement. Basically, the city would be sued by Pardee Homes. The City Attorney basically said she couldn't find any justification to disregard the OL-DA other than the citizens were mad.

About 50 people stood up to speak against it. The Mayor and Council both said they had never seen so many people turnout. Some were a little crazy, some were very methodical and presented logical arguments. In the end, the citizens of El Dorado's gripe is with Pardee Homes and they need to file a class action lawsuit against Pardee. The City Council's hands were tied. If they voted against it, the city would be sued and Pardee would have come after the city for legal fees. We already pay they highest tax rate per assessed value of any municipality in the Valley. It was much less raucous than I thought it would.

The vote went exactly as I thought - 3 -2. Mayor Pro-Tem Robinson and Councilwoman Buck voted against. Councilwoman Buck's vote was purely a self-preservation move. She lives in El Dorado and is running for Mayor. Prior to this, she didn't find an apartment project she didn't like. Poor Councilwoman Smith. She basically sealed her political fate tonight, but did the right thing. People won't understand it, though, which is sad.

What I did notice, though is that our mayor is a jerk. He was rude to people and talked down to them. Now don't get me wrong - people were sometimes out of line, but you let them make fools of themselves and don't look like the bad guy. I can't believe he's been in office nearly 12 years. What a schmuck.

That one agenda item took nearly 2.5 hours to listen to all the public comments. The rest of the meeting went pretty fast. The next showdown is next Wednesday at the Planning Commission. Basically, Pardee wants to add two more parcels totalling nearly 1,100 MORE apartments for the adjoining parcels. Should be quite the showdown because the troops are now mobilized.

Bachelor Week

2008-04-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

As many of your know, Keds is in LA this week keeping a friend company while her husband is at Science Camp. So that's left me on my own this week.

So what am I doing to fill my time? It's not like Keds left me with a laundry-list of "honey-do's." Don't get me wrong - there were a couple of things like get the sheets out of the dryer, water the plants and make sure the guest room is ready for the housekeeper. But that's about it.

No, rather, I've been spending my time watching baseball, the History Channel and playing Civ. Opening Day was Monday, and the A's played their home opener last night and I'm watching the second game this afternoon. I'm catching up on some of my History Channel programs I've recorded.

I've also worked on closing out a few business-related items, since I won't be around during the work day anymore to work on some of these thing. Plus, the casita is a disaster and I need to clean that up too. I am working with a local activist to establish a Democratic Club in this part of town. I need to get the by-laws written. The goal is to serve the needs to those north of Cheyenne or Craig Rd. on both sides of Decatur. We just need a name. And a logo.

Oh well. Enough of that for now. The A's game is on. Hopefully they can salvage a split with the Red Sox.

So funny...

2008-03-31T21:41:00.001-07:00

I just got done watching this week's How I Met Your Mother - TWICE. It was that funny. And to top it all off, there was a commercial for the new Harold and Kumar film!

Barney was at his funniest. The whittling down of his top 64, the frantic nature of explaining why certain places are great places to pick up women, even the Doogie Howser bit at the end. It was such a great episode. And everyone got in on the zaniness, even Robin, which was amazing.

Anyway, I'm saving it on DVR for Keds to watch when she gets home on Thursday...

Did you catch the episode? What did you think?

Updates and Tidbits

2008-03-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

First, thanks to everyone who stopped by on either this blog or Keds' blogs to wish me a happy birthday. I had a great day. It was followed by a rather pleasant Easter Sunday, ironically with a lot of the same people from the night before. Keds outdid herself again making an amazing feast and enlisting some help with side dishes. For dessert, we had a Costco Carrot Cake that doubled as my birthday cake. Unfortunately, we didn't pack enough of it off and we are still finishing it up. But it's still uber-yummy.

Keds and I are gearing up to start the adoption process, once my employment situation is stable. In the process, we are working through some pre-adoption child-raising issues so that we have a game plan we can talk to during the process. My Uncle Mick has been helpful, and we are going to be talking to some others in the coming week. Unfortunately, this is once again one of those areas where I have now jumped in with both feet and want to get it resolved.

Speaking of employment situation, the hope is to have this sorted out soon. I am expecting a job offer today (why won't the phone ring?!?) and have a couple of more options that look promising. I'm just getting frustrated. This waiting game is the worst. I just want it to be over...

I am pretty excited about some things, though. I signed up for recurring deliveries of coffee beans from Peet's Coffee. It's owned by the guys that founded Starbucks, because they remember getting really good coffee there while they were students in Berkeley. The coffee is roasted in small batches and then shipped direct to customers. I enjoy quality coffee and this will be a nice little treat when each shipment arrives.

I also bought a new solar blanket for our pool. With the weather unseasonably warm, I'll turn on the solar heat and hopefully the pool will be ready to go by the end of next week. How exciting!

Next week, Keds will be in LA helping a friend redecorate her master bedroom, and we have Annie and Jason visiting at the end of the week. Life just keeps getting better, if not busier as we get into April!

Update - The offer came in higher than expected. Needless to say, I took the job...

March Madness 2008

2008-03-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

March Madness is one of my favorite times of year. First, you have the drama of the conference tournaments. You can see a team like the University of San Diego knock off both St. Mary's and Gonzaga in a matter of two days to play their way into the Big Dance.

This weekend, you can totally overdose on college hoops. I mean seriously - 12 hours of practically non-stop basketball. Then, it's watching the underdogs give the big guys a run for their money. Who would have thought Belmont would come "this close" to knocking off Duke? And then there are the upsets. I just watched San Diego, who would not have made the Big Dance had they not won their conference tournament, take UConn to overtime, and then beat them. Who'd have thunk it?

If the first day and a half are any indication, this is going to be a GREAT tourament.

Weekend Update

2008-03-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

What a difference a few years makes. A couple of years ago, I would have spent this past weekend on the couch watching College Basketball and obsessing over my bracket. Not so much this year. Did I watch some basketball? Of course I did. I did miss the one game I wanted to watch, but I caught the last three minutes of the UNLV game and got to see them punch their ticket to the Big Dance.

Rather this weekend was filled with lots of running. On Saturday, I let Keds sleep in as she was really sick and was up most of the night hacking. I was able to spend most of the morning watching the History Channel, which I never do anymore. It was quite the interesting program on the Apocryphal books of the Bible. Took me back to my sophomore year New Testament class, only without have to talk about the Gospel of Q. I did find it ironic, though, that the Virgin Mary gets more mentions in the Qu'ran than in the New Testament.

After lunch, we headed out shopping as I needed a new suit, for a couple of reasons. First, all of my suits are simply too big. My navy suit is the closest to fitting, but the pants are still a little big. Second, I am out interviewing for a new job. I have a second interview on Wednesday, and wanted to make sure I wore something different. I know that sounds a bit girlish, but I did and I'm not afraid to admit it. Our first stop was the Outlet Mall on Charleston.

As many of you out there know, I am something of a brand snob. I got hooked on Brooks Brothers suits before I moved to Vegas. They aren't too pricey at the outlet mall and they are cut really well. So that was our first store. After purchasing a brand new charcoal grey suit, three dress shirts, three ties and a belt I felt more than a little satisfied. Since it took way less time than we had planned, we decided to shop the mall for spring/summer clothes as we both need them. It was a productive day, and pretty much wiped Keds out.

Sunday started off with me picking up my Mom for church. She got the biggest kick out of it. She was so happy that we were going to Mass together, she could hardly contain ourselves. When I was a kid, I always had mixed feelings about Palm Sunday Mass. You came home with a present (a palm frond), but you had to stand for the Passion. When you are 8, standing still for like 20-25 minutes is a really long time. Some parishes let you sit now, but not St. John Neumann. We stood like real Catholics. One quick funny story - as Fr. Bede was coming around the Sanctuary blessing the palm fronds with holy water, when he got to our row, he "reloaded" and pretty much aimed for Mom. She was soaked. We couldn't help but chuckle (respectfully, of course, since we were in church).

I don't know why, but the Passion definitely effected me this year. As I was listening to it, I could see a little piece of me in each of the main characters. Definitely a learning experience. I enjoy the opportunity to grow in my faith and have it connect with my everyday life.

After church, Keds and I headed out to run some errands. They were all home-related and pretty routine. We rounded out our weekend with dinner with my folks, which was pleasant. I don't know what's up with my Dad, aside from his obsession with our carpet cleaner, he's been really, really cool lately. He hasn't hassled us, and is actually friendly and engaging in conversation. What's even more surprising, there are new stories!

On Monday, we had dinner with the Bowens. A traditional St. Patty's Day feast of Corned Beef, Cabbage and Potatoes. I am personally not a huge cabbage fan, but the corned beef was awesome! Keds once again pulled together an absolutely fabulous dinner.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sure I'll post something later on this week!

What kind of city do you want?

2008-03-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am getting more and more involved in the issues that effect our community to compliment my involvement in politics. There is a saying that all politics is local - that being that issues that effect us closest to home are the issues that shape our general political views.

In an effort to be more informed, I attended the NLV Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday night. Without boring you all with details, what struck me most was the Commissioner's lack of ability to see the forest for the trees. From what I've seen of zoning changes passed by City Council, I would have to guess the same since only now that there is some organized opposition to some zoning changes to build apartments that they are taking a serious look at certain issues.

What happens is that first the Planning Commission, then the City Council review and vote on proposed zoning variances or changes. Both meetings are open to the public, but are usually sparsely attended. As the Commissioners, Councilpeople and the Mayor vote on issues, you would think that they would have some sort of master plan that they use as a guide. Well, they do. However, they are constantly ignoring or changing it. In fact the latest Master Plan is only a few weeks old and has already been either ignored or modified slightly.

Here is a perfect example. When the El Dorado tracts were purchased by Pardee in 1988, they agreed to specific zoning, including 15 foot minimums for backyards in residential neighborhoods. Well, the first item on the agenda was a request by Pardee for a zoning variance to allow for smaller backyards. Planning and Zoning Staff recommending denying the request, given the 'hardship' was self imposed. The variance will allow them to introduce a low-cost housing (sub-$200K) product in this parcel. Pardee positioned themselves very well - since the land is zoned for as many as 25 units per acre and they are proposing less than 9 units per acre, they should be given the zoning variance. To introduce the same product given the zoning restriction that have been in place for 20 years would have reduce the subdivision by about 9 lots. So that left the Planning Commission in what I like to call God's Little Acre - either approve low-cost housing or let Pardee build apartments. What disturbs me the most is that Planning Commission members were helping Pardee's attorney make her own arguments!

When Keds and I bought in Aliante, it was under the assumption that this was the "new" North Las Vegas. However, if this keeps happening, it will be the same old North Las Vegas. If the Planning Commission, City Council and Mayor's office are fine with North Las Vegas remaining the blue-collar suburb, that's fine. Just say it and move on. However, don't be surprised when the City doesn't hit their new Vision 2025...

Let the Madness Begin!

2008-03-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

If it's March, it means two things. First, my birthday. Yes, I'm still a little childish when it comes to celebrating my birthday, but my folks always made a big deal out of it, so it's still a big deal to me. But, it also means that it is time for March Madness!

What other time during the year can you absolutely overdose on college basketball? I realize most of this blog's audience could care less (except maybe Jennifer if BYU makes it in and Lora if UNLV does well), but this is just such a fine time of year.

Other than the Super Bowl, how else can you make some easy money from your co-workers and not have them get mad at you?

When do new episodes return?

2008-03-05T11:08:00.000-08:00

Given the overwhelming response to my posts from the other day, I figured I would put something up that may be of more interest (yes, please note the sarcasm). I am so glad we start seeing new episodes on Monday of many sitcoms, and a month from now on many hour-long shows. It will be a welcome break from some of the strike-filling drivel and the glut of reality TV.

This year, we've passed on our American Idol obessession to continue our Biggest Loser obsession. We both find The Biggest Loser to be less filled with BS, though it does have it's share. We were both very sad when Bernie was voted off this week. Ironic that he was the Biggest Loser the week previous, and sent home the next. I just want Dan sent home. If he makes the final I will be slightly upset.

Is there anything keeping you occupied on TV as we wait for new episodes?

An odd fact that interests only me, and maybe Denis

2008-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Did you ever wonder what happened to Mindy Cohn? For those of you a bit younger than I, she played Natalie Green on The Facts of Life. Well, it turns out she's back in TV - sort of. She's the voice of Velma on What's New Scooby Doo? currently airing on Cartoon Network. If catch the Scooby Doo-themed DirecTV commercial, listen closely and you can totally tell. If you don't believe me, check here.

Active Particpation

2008-03-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

As I was sitting in church yesterday, listening to the priest's Homily, I was struck by something. No, not a bolt of lightning or a rock. And it certainly wasn't the kid behind me kicking my chair. What struck me was while we all have different callings when it comes to how best to serve our communities, the answer is the same - we need to be active participants. This may not what he was saying exactly, but it's what I got out of it.

Being an American is hard work. It's advanced citizenship. It requires us to be aware of our community and do our part to help make it better. It means understanding the issues that face our community and ensuring we elect those we feel will do the best job addressing these issues. If they aren't, it means voting them out of office, but we should not ever judge them solely on their soundbites during the 6 or 11 o'clock news, what the candidates say in advertisements, what they or their surrogates spread as rumor or innuendo or what scare tactics are used. We need to do the research and decide for ourselves.

However, community participation goes beyond voting smartly. It requires us to be engaged in our community. We should not be content to sit back and let other people worry about our communities. We need to be out there doing what we can. We also need to be active particpants in our family life. Too often in today's society we are relying on our teachers to raise our children. This is not fair to the kids nor is it fair to our teachers. Teachers have at least 30 kids per class, and if you are looking at middle and high school teachers, that number gets closer to 150.

It is by getting involved and being active participants in our society that we can start to turn back some of the ills that we face. Don't expect someone else to do it - get off your sofa and do it yourself.

PS - Sorry if this sounded like a lecture, but this is something that's been stewing for awhile. Yesterday's homily just gave me the impetus to bring it all together.

A new hobby

2008-02-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

"We might be millionaires." That's the sentence that started off my newest hobby. Without going into a huge amount of detail that sentence was from a conversation with my Dad about a week and a half ago. Turns out that a great uncle of his owned some land that may or may not belong to my Dad and his brother. However, we aren't sure if this is a hoax or honest request. So my Dad asks for my help since I'm better at searching the Internet than either of my parents.

Mind you neither my Uncle or Father could tell me anything identifiable about this property. Just that it belonged to his Uncle "Mick" who was the brother of my great-grandfather and that it was in a small town by a river (I am being deliberately vague here). But that was it. No address. So initially, I call the Assessors of both possible counties to no luck.

So finally, I went back to a hobby that I work on from time to time - my family tree. Using the tools available through a Genealogy website, I found his name, his wife's name and their children. Some of it is sketchy because it was collected by hand, but no property addresses. But it got me going again on the family tree. For kicks, I decided to add Keds' family tree as well. I figured as long as I'm working on this, I should at least create something for our kids.

So now this is in full-blown obsession mode. I made contact with distant cousins and was able to fill in a tremendous amount of information. My first cousin did a lot of work on our mutual grandparents so I have that info. Plus, I got a TON of old pictures from my folks. It's really interesting. Mind you, I may go blind in the process trying to figure out what ship my ancestors were on coming through Ellis Island, but what the heck. It'll give my kids a great story!

Have any of you done work on your family trees?

A few random thoughts

2008-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

A few random thoughts as I wait for the Green Flag to drop at the Daytona 500.

My Valentine's Day gift this year was a new cell phone. The one I settled on was the LG Shine. It's a slider phone, which is new for me. It's 3G, which is cool because I do check scores on the Internet often. The voice quality appears good and I'm just figuring out what else it does.

We also got our Harmony remote this week. I got it set up on Saturday. Keds is very excited. She feels like she can now used our TV without messing with multiple remotes.

Keds and I went out on a date last night. Dinner at PF Changs (always yummy) and then a movie. Last night was Charlie Wilson's War. It was definitely the sort of movie I'd enjoy. Based in history, it's the story of a real-life former US Congressman that made it his personal goal to fund the Afghan Mujahideen defeat the Soviet Red Army. He happened to be on the right House subcommittee to make it happen. A number of characters in the movie are historical, while I have no doubt that some of the scenes were dramatized to help keep the audience interested.

What struck me as we were watching the movie was that the more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1980, the real front of the Cold War went through Pakistan to Afghanistan. In 2001/2002, the front line of the War on Terror went through Pakistan to Afghanistan. Because the US did not focus on aiding the fledgling Afghan government in the 1990s, the country descended into anarchy and gave rise to the Taliban. It was only six years ago that we drove the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan, but we are doing the same thing. Yes, we have made some improvements keeping troops on the ground there, but since our focus is divided we aren't doing what we need to do to ensure the fledgling government can get it's legs underneath it.

You can say the same thing about Iraq. Our government was so naive thinking that we would go into Iraq and they'd welcome us as liberators. You need to make sure people's basic needs are taken care of before you can advance to a more participatory form of government.

So enough of the soapbox and back to the movie. It was clear that this was the bias of the movie. It was written by Aaron Sorkin. But as Phillip Seymore Hoffman's Gust Avrakotos said towards the end of the movie, "we'll see." I also like Charlie Wilson's quote that was put up on screen. I can't repeat it here, but it was apropro.

Have a great week. If something strikes me, I'll post again.

A most freaky accident

2008-02-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not have heard, on Sunday Florida Panther's forward Richard Zednik suffered probably the most heinous accident is all of hockey - his carotid artery was nearly severed by a teammate's skate in a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Zednik was extremely fortunate that 1. the artery wasn't totally severed so it could be easily found and repaired and 2. that his juggular vein wasn't even touched. The game was in Buffalo. To read more about this, click here.

It was eerily similar to an accident that happened nearly 19 years ago in Buffalo. The date was March 22, 1989. I remember it for two reasons. First, it was my birthday. Second, I was listening to the game in the car on my way to my violin lesson. Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk's juggular vein was severed when St. Louis Blues' forward Steve Tuttle accidentally skated over his neck. He was basically bleeding out on the ice. Word at the time was that had he been at the other end of the ice, he would have died.

The amazing thing, though, was that not only did he survive, but he was back at practice four days later. If you want to see it, you can go to YouTube and search "Malarchuk" and you'll get every angle. But I'm going to warn you that it's pretty gruesome.

With all of the random sports accidents this year (ironically two of them took place in Buffalo), it's just another example of how fleeting life is and how quickly it all could be gone. We should live life to the fullest and take everything for the miracle that it is.

Spring Training 2008!

2008-02-14T12:39:00.001-08:00

As hard as it to believe sportsfans, but Spring Training is upon us! For my beloved Oakland A's, pitchers and catchers reported yesterday, and the batters return next week. While this is definitely a rebuilding year for the A's, they should at least be entertaining. "Opening Day" is early this year, with the A's and Red Sox playing in Japan the next to last week in March, and then things really kick off on April 1st.

On top of it, Sunday is the 50th running of the Daytona 500. I don't watch as many races as I used - they are just too long and often too boring - I like to catch this one. We'll see how my guy does this year. I'm just hoping for a top-15 or top-10. But Daytona is so wild and unpredictable.

Have a great Valentine's Day everyone!

Weekly Roundup

2008-02-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

It's been kind of a busy week this week. First, our friends Janell and George were here with their adorable daughter Madison. Keds really misses having Janell around and Madison is too cute for words. We are getting to know George better as well. George and I are both tech-heads, so we were able kill sometime at the AT&T Wireless Store and Best Buy. We enjoy having houseguests. Our house is pretty big and will continue to be until we have kids.

If having houseguests wasn't enough, we decided to have a Super Bowl party. About 10 folks showed up and it was the perfect sized crowd with the perfect mix of people. I really need to apologize to my Dad, though. He was the only guy rooting for Pats (sorry Vegas Princess). The rest of us were rooting for Giants. Well, not so much rooting FOR New York as much as rooting against New England. With each sack, I kept coming up with a new insult for Tom Brady. So, sorry Dad.

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. I didn't make it to church to get ashes, but we are giving up soda and had some yummy tuna for lunch and salmon for dinner.

Thursday night, I had the steal of the week. I got a pair of Levi's (size 34 mind you) for $4! That was so awesome. We thought the price tag was a mistake, but it certainly wasn't.

Friday night we had Casey's birthday party. We love spending time over there and we played Casey's favorite game Cashflow. It's a little bit involved and takes a little getting used to, but it is a fun game.

Saturday I spent most of the day in Pahrump at the quarterly meeting of the Nevada State Democratic Party Central Committee. My name was being placed in nomination to become a member from Clark County. It was an interesting meeting - a lot of post-caucus wrap up and some cheerleading. The mood was definitely lifted by an article in that morning's "No New Taxes/Less Government Spending No Matter What the Situation" Newsletter that showed continued momentum going into the Caucuses and coming through January without the new registrants on Caucus day. There were a host of initiatives to help ensure the momentum keeps going. Oh, and my nomination was approved so I am now a full voting member of the State Democratic Party's Central Committee. I'm already a member of the Clark County Central Committee, so I'm excited about being more and more involved.

Saturday night, we went over to Lora's house for dinner and spent time with her husband and her little Madison. Karl and I watch the Bud Shootout while Keds and Lora spent some girl time together.

Today is a whole lot of nothing. It's the first Sunday in a long time that we don't have to be somewhere, so we watched a little Food Network, ate breakfast, enjoyed some coffee. We might go do some cardio or just take the dogs for a walk later to help them burn some of their energy since they spent most of yesterday alone.

How was your week? Any exciting plans for Valentine's Day (or Friendship Day, depending on your PC perspective)?

Happy Ash Wednesday!

2008-02-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season. So we avoided any beef, pork, turkey or chicken. We've decided that this year we are going to give up soda again this year.

The good news, is that this season ends on Easter, which is early this year, March 23rd.

So what are you giving up for Lent?

So cute

2008-02-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

So Keds and I are sitting on the couch and Thorndyke is sitting just out of sight of the bedroom door. Midge - who's spent the last four days locked in the bedroom - is just itching to get out. So she camps out in the bedroom doorway. She eases her way out. Gets into the living room and then spots Thorndyke - her arch-nemesis. She pauses for a second with one paw in the air, then turns around and runs back into the bedroom.

Poor Idgy. If she wasn't such a fraidy cat, she could have some freedom. Oh well.

Devastated

2008-01-30T16:10:00.000-08:00

OK. So maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but I am seriously bummed bordering on upset that John Edwards suspended his presidential campaign today. It caught me totally off-guard. I didn't expect him to win the nomination, but was expecting him to be in it at least through Super Tuesday and honor his pledge to stay in it through the convention. I believed it especially after Noah left to head up a signature-gathering campaign in Indiana. Just yesterday I received an e-mail asking for money so they could hit a specific dollar amount by the end of the month (thankfully, I held off on that donation).

Of the top three Democrats, he was the one with the vision and the policy knowledge to work through the details and put thoughtful answers to many of the key issues facing our nation out there. Unfortunately, he was completely overshadowed by Sens. Clinton and Obama. I think when Obama threw his hat in the ring, he was to this election what John Edwards was four years ago - the fresh face touting change. As an African-American, he also brought a "rock-star" quality that frankly John didn't have.

The article I read on CNN.com indicated that he wasn't getting enough media exposure to be competitive on Super Tuesday. That was definitely the case - all the major news outlets were essentially ignoring him and focusing on Sens. Clinton and Obama. They tried to downplay the money issue, but lets face it - he didn't have the money to spend on TV advertising so average Americans really weren't exposed to him. By ignoring him, the mainstream media made it a two-person race because a race between a woman and an African-American garners more ratings, sells more papers and drives more Internet hits than a three person race between a woman, an African-American and a white Southern man.

Isn't it ironic that John got more media coverage today than in the last two months?

I know I'll end up voting for a Democrat in November. I know that because John was able to set the debate, Sens. Clinton and Obama plans on a lot of issues are essentially the same. There are some minor differences in there.

On a different note, Ralph Nader is considering another White House bid. I hope he gets a visit from Gov. Howard Dean, MD and gets a good beating. It's because of Ralph Nader in the first place that we've had to endure the last seven years.

PS - On our way to LA this past weekend, when we stopped at a Starbucks in Baker, someone with Nevada plates had a vanity plate "4 Bush 2" I am all for supporting your candidate, but limit it to some bumper stickers and yard signs. Don't pay the money for a vanity plate - that'll be with you for years unless you pay to switch it.

First goal achieved!

2008-01-24T17:12:00.000-08:00

I used to get nervous about getting on the scale. However, today I got on the scale at the gym with my trainer for a set of measurements. I have met my first goal!

We recalculated my plan with some new goals, and I think they are ultimately do-able. We are going to focus on some weight loss, but also maintaining Lean Body Mass and hopefully building some.

I'm so excited. It makes me happy. One may even say happy-ful!

So pretty

2008-01-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

First, let me say that it's freakin' cold out there today! The rain that moved through definitely cleared junk out of the air. But it's still cold.

This being said, I'm used to seeing snow on Mt. Charleston. However today, there was snow on the Sheep Mountains just north of my house and most of the Spring Mountains west of town had some snow on them. I know it created some havoc for folks coming in from Pahrump, but this doesn't happen that often so it's a nice little treat.

Step away from the blog...

2008-01-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Ken and I have a problem. I have recently been told that I am a political snob, and have agreed that this, indeed, the case. I have little to no tolerance when people do not have the same level of knowledge that I do and do not do the same amount of research that I take the time to do.

At the same time, I also have no tolerance for people that want no part of the process. These are the people that we elect to make decisions on how to spend our tax dollars. That people aren't interested in that drives me absolutely nuts.

I also need to stop reading JohnEdwards.com's blog and the comments on the Las Vegas Sun's website. I get all fired up. I just need to step away from the blogs, that's all.

Oh, and here's a picture of John Edwards and I from an appearance last week in Las Vegas.

I wonder if they have a 12 step program for people like me.

So I've been busy...

2008-01-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. Again, it was one of those things where I was wanting to blog, started a half a dozen posts and then ditched them.

It's been a crazy, but absolutely amazing couple of weeks. How so? Let me count the ways.

First, as many of you know, I was both a Temporary Chair for the Nevada Democratic Presidential Caucuses and a Precinct Captain for the John Edwards for President Campaign. I've spent a lot of my free time since the beginning of the year canvassing my precinct (I got lucky and had a small precinct - just four communities) trying to make sure folks knew about the caucus and to try and sell them on my candidate. Unfortunately, I was finding a lot of support for Sen. Obama, some for Sen. Clinton and some for my guy with a chunk of undecideds. I definitely got to know my neighbors and I'd say it was a good experience.

Caucus Day was insane. With such a small precinct (200 or so registered Democrats) turnout was projected between 20 and 40. Eighty-four people showed up. It was impressive. No one expected that many. It was a little chaotic as folks were trying to either figure out of find their precincts. Unfortunately, John wasn't viable. I'm still kicking myself a little bit (I'll get over it soon, I promise) for not making a deal with the Clinton people to ensure our viability so we could have gotten a delegate, but oh well. It really wouldn't have made a difference statewide.

With all the campaign appearances this week, we saw John twice. Once at the Egg and I. We met Madeline Stowe from Last of the Mohicans and his national campaign manager Rep. David Bonior. Keds and I were interviewed by NPR. Keds actually made it on the radio. we had pictures taken with the Senator and made in on the Channel 8 News. We went to a pre-debate rally that was cool, but we left with a little less of our voice. We saw John again at a town hall meeting in Henderson with Madeline Stowe and James Denton from Desperate Housewives. I sat behind the Senator, and made it in a couple of shots, again on Channel 8. Finally at the "after-party" on Caucus day I met Jean Smart, of Designing Women, 24 and Samantha Who? fame. I got my picture taken with her as well.

This past Sunday was Keds' birthday. On Saturday, we had a group outing to Samba at the Mirage. It's her favorite restaurant and a number of our friends were there and she had a blast. Then it was back to our house for some fun with our new Wii. On Sunday, I took Keds to a movie and dinner. Then back to the house for Costco Birthday Cake.

In the middle of all this, we got to see some out-of-town friends. Shawn was here for a few days from Reading. She stayed here and it was good to visit. Keds' friend Marc from Phoenix was here and he came by for dinner on Monday. My friend Darrell was here from Nashville, and we had dinner with him Tuesday night. Oh, and did we mention we had two guys from the Edwards campaign staying here? They really just used us as a place to crash, but that weren't intrusive. This being said, we'll be happy to get our house back.

Sorry for the marathon post. I'll try and post a little more often so I can keep the posts more manageable. For those of you that caucused, how was your experience?

Weekend Recap

2007-12-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

While I'm glad that we are done with our travel for the calendar year, that doesn't mean we've slowed down that much. Thursday and Friday, we hit the Opportunity Village Magical Forest and the Ethel M Cactus Garden with the Bowens. Keds has photos of the kids (including Jennifer who turns into a six-year old at places like this) that I'm sure she'll post on her blog later. Friday also brought the shock of the A's trading their ace Dan Haren to Arizona. I've learned over time to trust Billy Beane, but this one stings a little.

Saturday was an interesting day. It started off with some volunteer work with the John Edwards campaign. Initially they paired me up with a partner, and we were given a nice neighborhood in Green Valley to cavass - we each had one side of the street. From the start the dude wasn't thrilled since he lives in the "Northwest." Then he ran into his neighbor, who had a custom list printed for himself. Now mind you, it wasn't his own neighborhood, but it was closer. So he started angling to get out of it. My favorite line was "I signed up to be a precinct leader and I think I should get to know the people in my area." Ultimately I told him that I lived in Aliante and I was willing to head out to Green Valley. Right before they went over the logistics, he informed me that he was going with his neighbor. Fine - just hand your packet back in and see if they can't get anyone else. After our quick and dirty training, I told the trainer my partner flaked. He offered to go canvassing with me, but when we checked in with the desk, he did tell them he was going with his neighbor, but didn't hand his half of the packet in. So we got a new neighborhood - in the neighborhood of Owens and Pecos.

Needless to say, the neighborhood wasn't nearly as nice. And Ryan and I were totally out of place in the neighborhood. Of the folks that were home, about 75% with Latino and the adults didn't speak English. In addition, a representative from the Culinary Union was also canvassing the neighborhood. Probably the most interesting that happened was that I was chased off someone's front porch because a little girl answered the door when she shouldn't have. She then woke her mother that was sleeping. I exercised some bad judgment here, but if that's the worst thing that happened all day it really wasn't that bad.

After dropping Ryan back off at campaign HQ, I had some lunch and then met Keds who had picked my Mom's best friend Maureen up at the airport and they were at the Galleria, not too far from where I was. We had some more lunch, and then I headed home. Keds had a "Girls Night Out" Saturday night, and I just relaxed at home and then headed over to Mom and Dad's to visit with them and Maureen.

Sunday was a breakfast and football double feature. Dad and I watched the Bills play in the Blizzard Bowl in Cleveland while Keds made an awesome breakfast of French Toast and Brown Sugar Bacon. After watching the Bills game, and seeing the Dolphins get their first win of the year, Maureen and Keds arrived home from Home Depot and Maureen got to work hanging the Roman Shade she made for our kitchen window. It looks AWESOME. We then went to Binion's Ranch Steakhouse at Binion's downtown. So good. Our filet was so tender, you could cut it with a fork.

Monday, Paris turned 3. We had her birthday part last night.

And now we are in the full run-up for Christmas. Hal isn't coming in now, since he's hospitalized with pneumonia. We are seeing our friends Vegas Princess and Charming Wednesday and both Keds and I are looking forward to The Biggest Loser Finale tonight.

Have a great week!

A trip worth taking

2007-12-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

First, I would like to announce that we are done traveling for the year! OK, so there are only three weekends left this year, it's still three weekends that we don't have to travel!

This past weekend, we traveled to Philadelphia to attend my little cousin's Bar Mitzvah. A quick family history lesson for those of you that may be confused. My oldest cousin on my Dad's side converted to Judaism so she could marry her now husband. It was her son's Bar Mitzvah that we were attending.

Along with this being the first time I was seeing most of my cousins in nearly 9 years, and not having seen my uncle in 5, it was also Keds' first time meeting my entire Dad's side of the family since none of them made it to the wedding. This was also Keds' first time dealing with the weather in the Northeast at this time of year. Add to this, a total of 11 hours of flying time with Mom and Dad set the weekend up with quite a bit of stress.

In the end, the weekend was a lot of fun. The weather mostly held up (but it was still pretty cold) and I was glad to see my cousins and they all took to Keds like I thought they would. TC did a fantastic job at services. The cantor had earlier told him his Hebrew was flawless and from what I could tell, he did extremely well. My cousins got a little choked up, as there was a lot of talk about their Mom this weekend. It's hard to believe she's been gone for nearly three years now.

So now we are back home and glad that we can focus on getting ready for Christmas.

No more travel in 2007!

A goal achieved

2007-11-29T20:17:00.000-08:00

I know you all must be sick of hearing this, but I hit a couple of milestones today. First, I officially last 20 pounds since I've started working out again. I'm stoked. I'm under 200 pounds and I'm not that far from my goal weight. The second goal that I accomplished was that I am under 25 percent body fat. Actually, I'm at 23.6% body fat - out of the unhealthy range for men and into the "Acceptable" range. Eventually, I would like to be in the "Fit" range.

All I can tell you right now, is that I am comfortably into size 36 pants and 34s are in sight!

They say nothing motivates like success, and they are certainly right!

We're off to LA this weekend, but it is mostly a social visit which is great. I'm looking forward to seeing our friends and Hal this weekend, sort of a pre-Hanukkah visit.

Have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving Weekend Update

2007-11-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Weekend. Mine was pretty good.

We ended up with 11 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, Keds' Dad wasn't able to make it this year. His eye issues got the better of him and he wasn't comfortable making the 4.5 hour drive from LA. The dinner was awesome. The food was yummy, the mix of people was just right - everyone participated in some of the conversation.

Then we had a Thanksgiving redux with the Bowens. That was enjoyable. Keds and Jen went shopping while Casey and I chilled at their house and kept an eye on their kids.

Keds is nearly done with our Christmas shopping. I wish I could say the same. I haven't really even started shopping for her yet, but part of that is because I can't keep a secret and also can't resist giving her the gifts.

We started hanging the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations this weekend. The Menorah isn't quite right next to the Nativity set, but they are all up in the same house.

What Thanksgiving weekend wouldn't be complete without a little football. While I've blocked out last Sunday's debacle against New England, today's Jacksonville game was completely different. A 12-man on the field penalty that ends up sustaining a drive that leads to a touchdown, at least two interceptions that lead to six points? Come on. The Bills simply are not a playoff-caliber team right now. I like JP Losman and he is very athletic, but I am not sure he's a good fit for this team. Without a solid running game, there is no passing game. I just hope Marshawn Lynch is back next week against Washington. I'm just hoping we end the season at .500 or better.

Must Read

2007-11-20T11:33:00.001-08:00

I think this article is a must-read for anyone living in the Las Vegas valley. It's written by Brian Greenspun, the editor of the Las Vegas Sun. He's one of my favorite columnists and this is something that I think everyone should read.

Read the article here.

Caucus!

2007-11-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

Keds and I went to our Temporary Chair Caucus training on Saturday. At first, we were a little apprehensive - not because we don't want to volunteer, but because we weren't sure what to expect.

We showed up at Cashman Center a few minutes before 10 a.m. (which was amazing for us - we usually run late), and are told to park on top of the hill, but we had plenty of time to walk all the way down the hill nearly back out to Washington Ave. where the entrance to the meeting rooms are. We registered, got our name tags and headed into the main meeting room for the introduction.

After starting about 30 minutes late, we got into the meat of the training. The cool thing about the caucus process is that you have the opportunity to support your own candidate, and the fact that delegates are apportioned according to what percent of folks in that precinct support that candidate. The other really cool thing about this, is that it is entirely local. The people in the caucus are those people that live in your election precinct - your neighbors.

My biggest concern though, in this notoriously apathetic state, is that turnout will be poor. The Republicans are having their caucus the same day, so my recommendation is that everyone who is registered with either one of the two main political parties block out January 19th. The total amount of time is less than two hours of your Saturday, and it will keep your home state from being a national political laughing stock. Plus, given the closeness of races in Iowa and New Hampshire, we have a unique opportunity to help shape the presidential race!

Friday Thoughts

2007-11-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

A couple of thoughts as we wind down the week:

Keds is in LA today to kick the contractor in the backside. Well, hopefully kick him. I'm a little disappointed that it's not done and this guy didn't call us to discuss any delays. I feel like we were taken advantage of.

Missed the meeting with Councilwoman Smith. I got my dates screwed up. Oh well. We managed to walk to and from the elementary school, so we got some cardio in for the evening!

Has anyone tried the Sugar-Free Gingerbread Lattes at Starbucks? OMG! So good. I was wondering how I was going to make it through the holiday season abstaining from these yummy treats. Now I don't have to!

Keds and I watched most of the Democratic debate last night. While the candidates inability to answer yes/no questions was annoying, CNN's blatant desire to illicit soundbites was even more maddening. All in all, though, we enjoyed the debate.

Thanksgiving is nearly hear. Keds finished up the bulk of the shopping for the holiday meal yesterday. She just needs to get the fresh veggies early next week.

Tomorrow, Keds and I are off to Caucus training at Cashman Center. It should be interesting. We'll let you know how it goes.

That's it for now. Enjoy your weekend!

This was a new one

2007-11-13T11:20:00.001-08:00

As someone who has been bad in paying bills on time in the past, I'm no stranger to collections calls. Thankfully, this only happens on the extremely rare occasion that I completely space a bill (like the credit card I never use, but turns out has an annual fee). However, today was something completely different.

I got a phone call from an auto finance place. At first gearing up for a sales call, turns out they are looking for a neighbor of mine whom I don't know personally. This was a first. At least it wasn't for me.

Second, while I don't currently support the Hillary Rodham Clinton candidacy, I think this lunacy about whether or not her campaign planted questions in the crowd is just that - lunacy. Of course they did it. And of course all the other campaigns are doing it. She just got caught. It's no different than making sure hecklers aren't within 100 yards of a camera when a major political figure is speaking. It's the same thing - control the situation. I hate stupid process stories. This is why I am starting to boycott 24 hour news channels

Happy Monday!

2007-11-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone out there in blogland had a great weekend. I had a pretty decent one.

Friday started out well. We had dinner and went to Williams-Sonoma with our good friend Jennifer and her two kids to get some things for the house/Thanksgiving. We were hoping to run into a another friend of Jennifer's there, but she wasn't working. Since Jen rarely gets down there, we checked out Gap and Pottery Barn kids. The prices in there were a really good form of birth control, let me tell you.

Saturday was a lot of shopping. We spent 5.5 hours at the mall, mostly shopping for Keds. Since she has lost over 45 pounds and has dropped two sizes, she needs some new clothes. Plus, since we are going to my little cousin's Bar Mitzvah in early December, she needs a pretty new dress in her new size! She's meeting my Dad's entire side of the family, since none of them made it out for the wedding, so she understandably wants to look awesome, which I know she will.

Saturday night, we gambled a little waiting for a table at Cabo, one of our favorite restaurants. The food was awesome as usual, but the service was LOUSY. Our drinks sat empty for a good 20 minutes. He never checked on us, and it's like he disappeared for another 20 minutes when we were ready to go. It was so bad, I was able to convince Keds to ding his tip. She normally starts at 20% and goes up from there. I believe a tip is for good service. You meet my expectations, you get 15%. If you exceed, it goes up with 20%, depending on how impressed I am. But that's me. I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on tipping, to know if I'm just plain cheap or not. After dinner, as we were in line for our 7x points multiplier, we saw Loraloo and her husband, which was awesome, if not unexpected. We visited for like 20 minutes, until the smoke in the casino was really starting to get to me. Normally, I can stomach smoke for a while and only detest it after I leave, but since I'm still getting over this upper respiratory thing, it wasn't good.

Sunday was pretty mellow. Watch my Bills play an ugly game, but come out on top 13-10 over the still winless Miami Dolphins. That made me happy. In the past, they would have rolled over and lost, but the team continued to battle. My only complaint was that DirecTV changed the HD feed to Baltimore-Cincy game, as Dad and I watch the Bills win in *gasp* regular resolution. Oh well. We still won. In the afternoon, Keds and I worked in the kitchen getting things organized in the pantry and moved all of the bar items out of the kitchen cabinets and, well, into a bar. Keds was thrilled to have the cabinet space back, and the casita is becoming more and more complete!

We ran out to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some shelf thingys for the pantry, and our our way back, we say Cubby and Amanda on their way back from church. Since we hadn't seen them in over a year, we decided to tail them. Well, we were a little slow, and when we got to their house, we assumed they were already inside. We knocked on the door and rang the bell, to no avail. However, on our way back home, we saw them stopped a cookie and lemonade stand, so we stopped and chatted for like a half an hour. They also told us we need more pictures on our blogs, so we'll take that under advisement.

After that, I was off to 4 p.m. Mass. I prefer going either Saturday night or Sunday morning, but this worked out OK. I missed half of the gospel reading because our priest is from Sri Lanka and his MTI is pretty strong, but his homily filled in the gaps. Dinner was soup and grilled cheese, which was perfect, and then we settled in to watch some TV with the fireplace going.

All in all, a pretty busy weekend, but enough fun built in so that it wasn't uber-crazy. This week promises to be busy with dinner guests Tuesday and Wednesday, a thing with our NLV Councilwoman on Thursday (thinking up what questions I can ask), Caucus training Saturday Morning and then having friends over for UFC on Saturday night. Oh, and most of our remaining new furniture should be in this week too!

I'm sure I'll post more later in the week. Sorry for the long one today!

Being Sick Sucks

2007-11-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

I've spent the majority of this week either fighting off something or being downright sick. It started last week with what felt like an ear infection. So I did the proactive thing and called my doctor. He sent me on my way with antibiotics and all the other fun things you get with an upper respiratory infection. I thought I was starting to feel better when suddenly I wasn't. Basically, I came down with a cold. I nearly passed out at the gym on Tuesday, and that's when I finally gave in to being sick and decided to take it easy.

I'm feeling much, much better now. Keds took great care of me making Chicken Soup and making sure I had plenty of tea with honey.

In other news, I'm loading all my CDs into iTunes. It's not that exciting of a project. Actually, rather tedious, but this way we'll be able to put the CDs into storage.

Life Update 24 October 2007

2007-10-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

I sort of stole the concept for the title from Martin, but reformated it so it wouldn't be quite so obvious.

Lots of stuff has been going on lately, namely:

Monday was our one-year wedding anniversary. I can't believe Keds and I have been married for a full year. It seems like just yesterday we were walking down the aisle at Emerald Gardens.
Oh wait. It was just two days ago that we walked down the aisle at Emerald Gardens. To celebrate our anniversary, she arranged dinner under the gazebo at Emerald Gardens. Tres Romantique!
I'm still looking for a new job. It's a lot of hurry up and wait, and you really can't take rejection that personally. What makes it more difficult is that I am looking to either stay in Vegas or work remotely. I'm sure I could have a new job in like 10 seconds if I was willing to move.
I finally decided on which iPod I want - the 16GB iPod Touch. It's got a good mix of what I'm looking for.
I'm down about 10 pounds, which is uber-exciting. I can't wait to get below 200, and from there shoot for 180. I've already had to start wearing a belt again, as my pants were starting to be a little on the loose side.
I am trying to cut down on the amount of TV I watch. If I can keep it to an hour of prime time a day, I'll be happy.
Although, we did watch The Biggest Loser last night and were absolutely shocked that 1. Neil threw the weigh in and 2. They didn't vote him out. With gaining 17 pounds, you know he'll have a monster loss next week, you would have thought the other teams would have had no choice. Poor Jez... I'm also a little annoyed that they threw that Survivor game play element in there.

That's it for now. No major new furniture deliveries, the rest should all be delivered by Thanksgiving.

It's all coming together

2007-10-13T11:34:00.001-07:00

While I'll let Keds go into more detail about what's going on with our redecorating, it's really exciting to me that everything is coming together. Our house is looking more and more like a home. Coordinated furniture and a color scheme that is contemporary, versus say something that my grandparents would have had.

Keds and I are continuing to lose weight, but in a methodical manner that will hopefully ensure that it stays off. The increased physical activity is welcome and we are enjoying the spectacular fall weather.

Nothing says fall to me like Football and the World Series. Unfortunately, the Tribe took an unceremonious beating by the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALCS, but that's why they play seven games. I'm not a huge Cleveland fan, but I like to root for the underdog, so Go Tribe! On the National League side, the Rockies took a 2 games to none lead over Arizona on a bases-loaded walk in the 11th inning. Since we saw the Rockies play in Denver this year, we are rooting for them to make it to the World Series.

Go Bills! That's all I have to say. But how cool is it that at almost any point on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon you can flip on the TV and find football on? We are going to the UNLV game this afternoon with some friends and their family/friends, but it should be a good time. I'm not emotionally invested in either team, which will keep me from drawing ire from the group we are going with (they are ALL BYU fans), so I'll probably just end up wearing my Canisius sweatshirt or something.

With the change in temperature, also comes election season. I'm fortunate that there enough informed people in my life that we can intelligently discuss politics without animosity. What astounds me the most about elections though, is how uninformed the general public is. There is an old adage that all politics are local, but if that's the case why can most people name the president of the US, who probably has the least impact on their daily lives, but most cannot name their State Assemblyman or Senator?

Anyway, have a great weekend. I'm off for a walk or something.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

2007-10-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

My name is Ken, and I am a Buffalo sports fan.

There. I've admitted it. Too bad there isn't a 12-step program for people like me. I realized I had a problem as I spoke to the television and let out a string of curses tonight as Dallas kicked a game-winning field goal as time ticked off the clock. Don't get me wrong, the Bills played a great game, keeping the Cowboys off balance and weren't embarrassed on national TV. But a bad interception in the closing minutes along with a failure to recover an onside kick cost them the game.

I will admit that I got really sick of Tony Kornheiser saying how bad things have gotten with the Bills and blah blah blah blah blah. You know what? Everyone knows the Bills were a pre-eminent franchise 15 years ago, but that was then, this is now. These things go in cycles. I just wish our cycle would come back around.

Until then, wish Keds and our pets the best. It's going to be a longggg season. I try not to throw things at the TV.

At least the Yankees lost tonight. I'm now rooting for a Colorado-Cleveland World Series. Seeing the Red Sox make it would be un-American, but thank God we don't have to suffer through another Yankees/Red Sox ALCS.

We've been bugged!

2007-10-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

In our quest to drop our unwanted pounds, Keds and I are both working with personal trainers. We found out that the bodybugg was on sale this week. If you watch the Biggest Loser on TV, you'll see the contestants wearing these armbands. That's what this is. The price was TOO GOOD to pass up, so we picked one for each of us.

So here's what it looks like. We are both wearing them constantly, even when we sleep. We then upload our calories burned up to the bodybugg website it gives you a little graph. It's pretty freaking cool.

We are both enjoying our sessions with our trainers. I was in quite a bit of pain over the weekend, but a good soreness. Keds had her first true workout with her trainer to day and she loved it! We are both committed and we are tracking our calorie intake. It's amazing how you adjust your diet once you start tracking how much you eat.

This weekend will be rough. We are off to LA this weekend and activity will be hard to come by. We'll just have to be uber-careful with our menu options this weekend and I'm sure we'll be fine.

Walking is harder than you think

2007-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

OK. So I had my first "real" training session on Friday. You would have thought I hadn't lifted weight in two years the way I feel and today is Sunday! The first couple of steps are the worst, and today my abs are feeling it. I didn't want to stand up straight, now did I?

Truthfully, it felt good. Plus, Keds and I are going on regular bike rides, so those are fun. Look out Teri! We'll be riding on over in no time! The nutrition plan is going OK. Logging my food is a PITA, but it's a good pain. Keeps me honest.

Weekend is going well. Most of our new furniture is in, we are slated to have our respective offices painted this week and can't wait for the rest of the furniture to come in! Jo and Steve were in town from LA, and it was good to visit with them as well.

Today is a little bitter-sweet. My Bills finally won! 17-14 over the Jets. It was a tense final three minutes, but they pulled it off. Bring on the Cowboys! Sure, they are 4-0 and just blasted the Rams, but they are coming into OUR house. I did catch a little of the Cowboy game today, and it looks like Wade Phillips is finally wearing a headset and washed his sweatshirt. I didn't notice a mustard stain, but it was early in the game.

Today is also the last day of the baseball regular season, while I love the playoffs and World Series, my beloved Oakland A's will not be a part of the post-season. They won't even finish at .500, but hopefully they'll start loosening the purse strings this off-season as they get closer to opening their new ballpark.

Tonight, we are off to Jennifer's to have dinner with her and her kids (and maybe her sister in law). We enjoy our time over there and the kids are a hoot!

Have a great week! I'm getting opinionated, so there may be some other posts during the week so keep an eye out for those.

Back in the Saddle

2007-09-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well sports fans, if you haven't picked it up from Keds' blog, we are making a full-court press to get back into shape and drop a few pounds. About 4 years ago I had great success with personal training at 24 Hour Fitness. My initial trainer was a flake, but I got serious and became religious about following the meal plan and exercising regularly. My goal is to repeat the same thing this time, only keep the weight off. My initial goal is to get under 200 pounds. From there, I want to get back down to around 180-185. That's a good range for me.

They've changed a couple of things since the last time I used their training. Their nutrition program is entirely online now. Makes keeping track of the food you eat a lot easier. Plus, if you are logging it, you are conscious of what you are eating. We start the weight training piece tomorrow. We are starting with legs, which I hate. I'm expecting to not be able to walk much on Saturday or Sunday.

Add the new bikes that we've got, and I'm hoping to drop some serious weight in no time!

Wait for it...

2007-09-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

So last night's HIMYM season premiere was a bit monotonous. The obligatory "Ted and Robin's breakup isn't going to be as smooth as they made it look" episode. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad they didn't have a horrible breakup and I'm sure there are going to be some additional pratfalls this season, but as Lora mentioned in her blog, I'm guess we get to meet "Your Mother" this season.

But just when I was about to write off the episode for being somewhat predictable, came the last bit as the credits were going to run. Slap Countdown. Barney's look of utter horror nearly knocked me off the couch I was laughing so hard...

As premieres come out this week and next, it will be interesting to see what else sticks this week. I've got Bionic Woman, Private Practice and Cane as potential new shows to get into. We'll see what sticks.

A Friday Morning Rant

2007-09-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

We were talking to our friend Jennifer the other night. They are now trying to sell or rent out a lovely 2800 sq ft house about a mile from their current residence. To a certain extent, she's not thrilled with the idea of selling it. They originally had the house built to be their primary residence, but then came across their current house with a ton of land and really decent price. So they rented their original house out.

Fast forward two years. Their ARM was getting ready to adjust, as many are right now. However to refinance now would mean to refinance at an Investor Home interest rate, which is higher than a primary residence. Their renters moved out, and they decided to sell instead. They priced it under market value and have not really gotten much traffic. So now they are looking to rent it and which ever happens first, they'll go that route.

She was showing the house to some prospective renters the other night. They are people who are in the process of letting their home go into foreclosure. Their reason is that they "got caught up in the ARM Scam."

WHAT? ARM Scam? Adjustable Rate Mortgages are great products if used right. They can help people get into houses quicker, rebuild their credit and then refinance. Lenders are required to provide you a truth in lending statement that highlights what your payment would be after the rate adjusts. You are required to initial these documents when you receive a Good Faith Estimate. You are shown these documents when you go to the Title Company when you sign all of your documents to purchase your house.

I hate the fact that people are not taking responsibility for their own actions and taking steps to remedy the situation before it gets to foreclosure. Call your lender and see what terms can be worked out. If your lender can't help you, call around and see what other options are available. Are there bad lenders out there? Yep. You need to be careful. But also make sure you are actually reading the documents you are signing and ask questions if you don't understand.

OK. Rant over.

A life too short

2007-09-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

I think I'm still in shock. It can't possibly be true. He was a pain in the ass and a little bit of a drunk, but he can't possibly be gone. But he is. I spoke to his mother. She confirmed it. Tom Newman, of my best friends, a groomsman in my wedding and someone who was there in the beginning of mine and Keds' relationship passed away on Friday.

I knew that Tom wasn't doing well. His last e-mail 10 weeks ago indicated as much. He had double hip replacement about a year and a half ago, but then told me he had both of his shoulders replaced and was looking at knee replacement as well. I knew the Bionic Woman was coming back, but not the Six Million Dollar Man. I've made attempts since then to get in touch with him. Pings through Google Talk, e-mails, phone calls and text messages. Hell - Keds and I were just talking about him this afternoon. I missed him so much, but it hurt that he wasn't responding.

It started off as rumor. An e-mail from someone to someone who called Keyser who called me. Since I was in Costco at the time, I couldn't really check but then I decided to call his cell phone and his Mom answered. How horrible is that? To ask a mother if it's true her baby boy is no longer with us. I can't imagine how besides themselves his parents must be. To lose a son at 32 is inconsolable. No word on funeral arrangements yet and they still aren't really sure what happened. But she did mention that he didn't communicate much - he was still in that much pain.

I know that Tom would not want us to grieve for him (OK, maybe a little grieving). He'd rather we all drink a shot of Crown Royal at the Skyline Casino and celebrate life.

Tommy...I miss you and love you. You were like a brother to me. I still can't believe he's gone...

Which one?

2007-09-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm torn. Seriously torn. When I got my new phone in September of last year, one of the reasons I got it was because it came bundled with iTunes, but with a 100 song limit, regardless of the size of the SD Card in the phone itself. While I'm not really close to butting up against that limit, the idea of the really low limit is frustrating for me.

So enter Apple. Fresh with the release of the new line of iPods and the iPhone, I'm really really torn. Part of me wants the iPhone, if only because it looks really cool and I like the idea of having one device for both phone calls and as my MP3 player. With the recent price cut, they are even more affordable. But, they only come with 8GB of memory and the idea of having to use a touchscreen to type makes me a little nervous. However, the iTunes Wi-Fi store also looks pretty cool.

But then there are the regular old iPods. The iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without the phone, and is priced accordingly and still has all the web-surfing features that I love about the iPhone, you just need to be in a wi-fi area. The new iPod Nano looks pretty cool. It's a fraction of the price of the iPhone or iPod Touch, and does what I need it to. Then, there's the good old iPod Classic. It has more capacity than I would ever need and would probably work just fine.

So which one should I add to my Christmas list?

We aren't in Kansas anymore

2007-09-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, Keds and I are back from the Emerald City. Noooo....not Oz, but Seattle. Originally intended as a trip to mix a little business with pleasure, things changed about mid-week. My business meeting was canceled, but Keds and I still ended up going to visit Janell and George.

Keds went into some of the finer details about the weekend, but my big thing was the purchase of my new laptop. With my current job situation and my only real PC my work laptop, I am goign to need something else. So Saturday, while Janell and Amy were at Janell's stamping party, we went PC shopping. After visiting Costco and a local computer shop, we ended up at Circuit City. They had a nice HP 17" laptop with 200GB of hard drive space and 2GB of RAM, with dedicated video RAM. Pretty sweet machine, at a pretty sweet price. After going back to George and Janell's, talking to Keds about it and comparing against HP and Dell direct prices it was decided this was the way to go. So I hopped onto Circuit City's website and bought it, selecting in-store pickup at the store closest to my house. I got it up and running last night and it's pretty sweet.

All in all it was a good trip, but it's good to be home - for a couple of days at least. We are off to LA this weekend for Rosh Hoshana and to check on the house. It should be almost finished, which is exciting.

Licking my wounds

2007-09-04T11:10:00.001-07:00

I usually don't complain and I typically don't like to feel sorry for myself, but right about now I can't help it. One of my accounts is in pretty dire condition. Some issues are of my own doing, most are not. They are operational issues like making sure we have enough agents hired to handle incoming call volume, making sure the agents that are handling calls are achieving their performance metrics and processes aren't being followed. Where I've been falling down is asking the operations team hard questions and keeping an audit trail.

So now this troubled account is being taken off of my plate - which is something my boss and I have talked about - but the positioning will most likely be that I am being made to be the scapegoat and that sucks. I am always one to admit to my mistakes. But instead of the operations team needing to take the drastic action, I feel like my boss is making the dramatic gesture at my expense.

Don't get me wrong - I love getting to work out of the house and it gives me a lot of freedom. But I think it may be time to re-evaluate things.

A clear day

2007-08-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those clear days in the Las Vegas Valley. You know - you look out your window and can actually see the mountains. I hate those days that it is so hazy that you can't see the mountains. All that particulate matter in the air just can't be healthy...

Rainy Monday

2007-08-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those rare rainy days in Vegas. A two hour thunderstorm last night was pleasant. I'm surprised the dogs didn't go completely crazy during the storm itself. Poor Thorndyke had to go out and he won't go in the rain.

Weekend was a little crazy. Friday was a great double-date with our new friends Mike and Kara. Dinner at the Elephant Bar and then we saw Superbad. So funny. It wasn't on our list to see, and not sure if it was worth the $10 a ticket, but we enjoyed ourselves. Plus, it gave us the ability to visit Green Valley Ranch, one of our favorite locals casinos.

Saturday, Keds and I slept in until 9 a.m.! That's huge for us. So relaxing. We started looking at new office furniture for both of us. We are definitely going to use the Ethan Allen Design Service - especially to put some sort of theme to the casita. Dad and I were able to hang two of three kitchen valences which make the room look a little softer, a little more finished. Saturday night was UFC at Lloyd and Teri's.

Sunday, we were out of the house early and were able to run a few errands and pay a visit to the new Best Buy that opened up around the corner. That'll be dangerous. My Mom, Lora and Madison came over, and we spent a nice afternoon in our pool. Madison was extremely cute and definitely didn't want to get out of the pool. If you'd like a more in-depth recap, check out Lora's blog here. We closed out the evening with our neighbors the Bowens. It was a little bit of a cluster - Casey ended up writing a contract for a new home and Jennifer got tied up showing their rental property. If you know anyone looking for a new home in the Aliante area, it's a great house. It wasn't built as a rental, and since they both worked for Pulte when it was built, there are some nice custom features. We ended up having a nice evening, even if it was a bit rushed.

So here we are on Monday. The skies are clearing. Keds is off to LA tomorrow and Wednesday to finish up some stuff on her Mom's house and then we are looking ahead to our Interior Design appointment on Thursday and straight into Labor Day weekend!

PS - Someone is back in blog-land. Click here to find out who!

Friday Findings

2007-08-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from seeing my doctor. I love my doctor. Uber-thorough and someone who clearly keeps tabs on his patients. Because of two meds that I am on, I need to go in 3 times a year so he can check liver and kidney function. It only sort of sucks because I have to fast ahead of the appointment. Keds is doctor shopping since she'll have to stop seeing her SMA "Dial a Doctor" when she finally comes off Cobra.

So today, we truck down to his office at Vegas Valley and Maryland Pkwy. My appointment was at 10:30. I got called back around 10:45 or so. He comes in around 11 a.m. and then sees me (I was the first patient of the day). I go to the nurse to schedule my annual in four months. I ask about blood work and she said the lab is closed! So I fasted and schlepped down to Sunrise Hospital for no apparent reason! Oh well...at least my annual got scheduled.

In other news, I got my second replacement American Express card in a month. All because of two stupid airline tickets that someone in Jamaica booked. These aren't mine to pay, and I wish that the Customer Service agents would have told me to submit this as fraud versus a dispute. I could have saved a lot of time and aggravation. Besides, it's like $1000 on that card.

Another weekend home. That's exciting. My Dad and I are going to install the valences Maureen made for us a few months ago.

We bought new living room furniture this week. We debated between good quality/pay a little more or less expensive, but maybe some cool features.

We ended up (don't laugh) buying Ethan Allen. It wasn't that much more expensive than RC Willey or Wickes Furniture (we won't buy from Walker again), and it looked substantially better made. Plus, you get their design consultant service for FREE! That's so freakin' awesome. She came out, brought samples of each of the lines we were looking at, measured the room and the pieces that are staying and will put together a floor plan for our review. She even measured out the casita so that we can put that room together as well. I only agreed to get the furniture begrudgingly, but I see the need. Now that we have committed, I'm looking forward to having it come in!

Sunday, we have Lora and Madison coming over to go swimming that should be fun!

Still seepy

2007-08-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

I hate my job. And my animals. Not really, but both kept me from sleeping in this weekend. On Saturday, it was my job. My phone rang around 7 a.m. (after a lovely wrong number at 6:30 a.m.) to let me know phone lines were down. After making a bunch of phone calls, the issue was resolved. But the damage was done. Keds and I were up.

On Sunday, it was the bloody dogs. Keds is getting better at telling Thorndyke no, because letting him out is a waste of time if Rosebud doesn't have to go out. But he gets all yippy and barky.

Other than this, it was an OK weekend. Helped Teri in her classroom, did a LOT of furniture shopping and had dinner with my folks last night. The weekend didn't turn out the way we want, but it was OK.

It was just hard this weekend. It's hard to believe it's been a year of the events of a year ago August. Keds definitely was struggling with it for most of the weekend. She will always miss her Mom, but it's just a matter of can she move on. I think she's getting there. I just wish I could fix things for her...

I survived

2007-08-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

I know - I'm a big wuss. I've put off going to the dentist since 1995. I went briefly in 2005 for a cleaning, but that dentist had me getting like 8 fillings or something insane and was charging me an arm and a leg. I chickened out and never got them taken care of.

Even this year, Keds (who rumor has it may be blogging again soon - she's redone her formatting) made me an appointment that I had rescheduled not once but three times. They only found 3 cavities - all on the same side of my mouth. But cavities mean the drill. Drilling teeth hurt - and I don't trust Novocaine. But given that Newman had to endure a double hip replacement with nothing more than a local, I figured I could suck it up and survive it.

We got there, I was led back to the impending chair-o-doom. Clearly nervous the hygienist tried her best to assure me things would be OK. Then the dentist came in and tried to reassure me. What I will say about the dentist in Green Valley was at least he had TV screens to entertain me. First, the initial numbing gel. After a little bit came the Novocaine. My bottom gums didn't feel too numb when he came back to check on me, so he gave me a little more. Then came the drilling. After a few minutes, Keds came back to check on me and she stayed the rest of the time.
I think I was in the chair for less than an hour, and I survived. I'm not going to let this go on too long again. I can't freakin' stand the dentist.

Showtime Rules!

2007-08-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite shows is back! Weeds' season premiere was last night on Showtime and boy was it a hoot and a half! For those of you that have never seen it, it's about a suburban LA widow (Mary-Louise Parker) who needs to find a way to support herself and her two kids following her husband's sudden death. So to support herself, she turns her side job selling, well, weed, into her full time gig. With her mooching brother in law, her accountant (Kevin Nealon) and her freinemy Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), it is just one of our very favorite shows.

When we last left our heroine Nancy (Parker), she was staring down about half a dozen guns (and not small ones at that), her FBI Agent "husband of convenience" had just been killed by a bunch of angry Armenians, her eldest was on the verge of being arrested and her youngest had run off with Uncle Andy's girlfriend. But she was still able to hold on to her cell phone and Diet Coke.

I won't go into a plot summary (you can find a good one on TVGuide.com this morning), but we'll see as the various plot elements from last season are coming together we'll see how they effect the direction of this season.

We also watched the premiere of Californication. David Duchovny in his first series-starring gig post-X-Files. We are going to reserve judgment on this one. His character is a little too morally depraved for Keds' taste I think. He's clearing trying to replace his ex-girlfriend with a series of clearly loose women in Hollywood. I'll give it four episodes before deciding if it stays on DVR or not.

But seriously, check out Weeds. It's good stuff (pun intended).

Weekend Update

2007-08-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh....The first of at least two weekends at home. We'll chalk it up to an adjustment weekend. We got some shopping done for me and Keds helped Teri build up her work wardrobe. Saturday night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Paymon's Mediterranean Restaurant on Sahara. Sunday was a relaxing day with church, breakfast with the folks, some quality pool time and dinner with friends.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all peaches and cream this weekend. The biggest struggle that Keds and I are going to face in her transition into "sabbatical" is that her expectations of the weekend and my expectation of the weekend are going to have undergo some serious discussion. I'm sure we'll work through it, it just isn't something we even thought would be an issue.

This is going to be a tough week, for reasons many of your should know. We'll get through it, but I'm sure there will be plenty of tears along the way.

What am I packing for?

2007-08-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here it is Thursday, and we aren't going anywhere this weekend or next. Quite the foreign concept. You mean we are actually be in town this weekend? Whatever will we do with ourselves? Part of me just wants to stay home and do nothing. The other part says we should do something fun and get out of the house.

I know something for sure - I am going to log some serious pool time this weekend.

Relaxing Weekend

2007-07-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend we had. First, thanks to Mike and Kyria for planning out an awesomely relaxing weekend. Some things I learned this weekend - the worlds largest living organism is the Aspen Grove in Sylvan Lake State Park in Eagle, Colorado. Second, gelatinous cheddar cheese sauce is really scary. Third, never buy an unsalted pretzel for anyone unless they explicitly request it.

All kidding aside, it was a great weekend. Saturday was appropriately lazy and Sunday wasn't bad either. Keds and I got to spend some time with my best friend and his family. It was a great weekend. The Rockies are absolutely beautiful. Very green and it was the perfect escape from the Vegas heat.

Too bad we forgot the camera...

Today

2007-07-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today must be "vendor day." The landscapers were here this morning, the pool guy is here right now and the housekeeper will be here later. All in all, I can't complain. They all do a decent job, it's just going to drive the dogs absolutely nuts.

Oh well. They'll survive.

Home Again

2007-07-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

If only for a few days. LA was good, accomplished enough to set up our next trip. Keds needs to go to Home Depot and Lowe's this week to start shopping for some of the items for the renovations. I'm think that could be the last LA trip for quite some time, at least another month or so.

This weekend, we are off to Colorado to visit Mike and Kyria! I'm so excited. I am currently planning on taking 1/2 day on Friday and all day Monday off, but I may shift that off day until the end of the week so we can spend an extra day in LA and get some work done.

We will see how Keds' and I adjust to her being off of work now. I don't foresee too many bumps, but I'm guessing there will be some.

I'll bring back pictures from Colorado.

I know it's been a while

2007-07-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry friends out there in blog-land. I know it's been a while since I posted. Part of it has been that I've been so busy at work these last few weeks that I can't steal time out of my work day to blog anymore. Also, I've been waiting for Keds to blog. We've been spending so much time together lately, and have so many shared experiences that I wanted to leave her something to blog about. Well, that strategy has clearly backfired, so here I am.

We are headed back to LA this weekend, however the trips are definitely winding down. As far as we know, the estate sale was successful in that everything but a few pieces of furniture sold. The goal this weekend is to inspect the house and start shopping for the remodel.

Work has been absolutely nuts lately. I'm in back to back to back meetings constantly, which I hate. I am not getting any work done because I'm too busy being on the phone!

I am still locked in mortal combat with Sears. I know it sounds strange, but I am. A long time ago I was a slacker when it came to paying my bills on time. However, I've corrected my bad habits. When Keds and I moved into our new house, we needed appliances. I sold my appliances with my old house, and Keds left hers for the renters. So I applied for a Sears card, since they area always running some sort of deferred payment incentive. And what do you know - they were. Twelve months no payments, no interest. Perfect.

Since we weren't in the new house yet, and my legal address was still my house in Henderson, I used that address. I didn't see a statement for months. But again, I didn't think much of this, since nothing should have been due. Fast forward to November. We are a nearly married couple - just back from our honeymoon. I'm in India, and my wife tells me that MY PARENTS got a call from a collection agency saying that I have an account past due. Keds buys time until I get back. I talk to a rep, and the amounts are different. So I dispute the charge.

Fast forward again to January. The collection agency says that Sears said the charges are valid and that I need to pay nearly $1500 (the original bill was about $1100) otherwise the account will be charged off. I had the money and paid the full amount so that it showed paid in full and didn't get Charged Off. However, in looking at the documentation they sent me, I was charged for a Payment Protection Plan. I NEVER sign up for those. So I start calling around at Sears.

Surprise, surprise - it comes back that I never signed up for this service. It wasn't showing up on my credit report yet, so I didn't sweat it. However, in May I received word that it was showing up on my credit report (gotta love credit monitoring programs). I launch into dispute mode. I assembled my documentation and the appropriately firm letter and sent it to Sears in "The Lakes, NV." For those of you who don't know, that's still Las Vegas, but Citibank didn't want their bills coming/going from a Las Vegas address. I paid to send it certified mail with return receipt and sent a second first class packet with the same information with a "Certificate of Mailing." Thirty days go by and nothing. So today, I send two more packets, with an even more firm letter this time. We'll see what happens.

Wish me luck!

Ma and Pa

2007-06-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted about my folks. It's hard to believe that two years ago, they had sold their house and were getting ready to drive cross-country to the desert Southwest. It's definitely been an adjustment, both for me and for them. They've settled into their new home, which is much smaller than the one they left in Buffalo. Mom's gotten herself a job, I've had to adjust to having them much, much closer and with that comes added some additional stress on my life.

I often look at them and wonder how they have made it through 35 years of marriage. My Mom is so outgoing and pleasant. My Dad likes to sit on the couch and watch TV with his can of beer. But, they've made it work and I can't really fault them for that. They epic control battles are humorous, though.

Here's an example - they "agreed" when they moved here they would only have 1 car. For the first few months they lived here, it worked OK. Her job was a couple of days a week, and she was home by about 6-6:30 on those days she did work. However, that one didn't work out. Next thing you know, she takes a job at the Galleria Mall, which is clear on the other side of town, and her hours are not nearly as regular.

So now, Dad is truly trapped at home on the days Mom works. He wants some mobility. OK, so it's he can go to the bar, drink some beer and play some video poker. He keeps threatening to go buy a car. Mom, for her part sticks to her story of their agreement and that when Mom was a "stay at home" Mom, we only had one car.

Oh the beauties of marriage...

Denis

2007-06-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

I've known Denis now for 14 years or so. He's one of my closest friends from college. He is one of those folks that always seems to have way too much time on his hands, even when he has a lot of work to do. Take the night before his senior thesis was due - he was about 5 or pages into a 55-60 page paper that he hadn't even really started researching yet. But still, he wanted to go to Denny's for dinner. That's just how Denis is.

Denis is definitely "wacky." In school, he used to tell us stories of his grandmother back in Ireland that had Alzheimer's. You couldn't help but laugh. The 6-day trip to London with her dead husband to see what race their great-grandchild was, yelling at the Bishop for ruining her tarts and the stories went on. And don't get me started on the Baby Shower card he went to sign when he had no clue what to say. Let's just say it took on a life of it's own.

Denis finally left Buffalo at the age of 34. To move to Hays, Kansas to be the Headmaster of the local Catholic prep school. Yep. Quite literally the middle of no where. The most exciting thing is that you can go to the world's largest ball of twine. If you don't believe me, check this out. It weighs about 9 tons. Talk about someone that just can't get a break.

I tell you about Denis because he is a true character and a good guy. Maybe all of you out there in blog-land can find other interesting things for him to do in Kansas.

Evil Bill Update

2007-06-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to update everyone on the Evil Bill situation.

On Friday I was speaking with Bill and we were having a perfectly nice conversation, covering both business and personal topics. I was telling him that we should have the remaining docs by Monday and will FedEx or fax them. Then, I mentioned that we were still going to shop the mortgage. That's when things went south, FAST.

I didn't get a chance to say that we were only going to check with banks/direct lenders, when he said "then I respectfully decline to be a part of this process." To summarize the rest of the conversation he felt that he was going to have to put too much time and effort on this loan and they run an honest business blah blah blah. "I am offended that based on my relationship with Keds that you would shop this." And some more blah blah blah. I didn't mention that his previous meddling had cost us $1400 and that as a family friend they should be willing to do this for minimal to no profit. That would not have accomplished anything.

So I fill Keds in. She starts to freak out. We really didn't mean to piss Bill off, but Keds called this one. We figured Bill would run and call my Mother in Law's attorney (BTW - MIL never used Bill for refinances either) because that's the usual path. I decided the best defense is a good offense, so I got to the attorney first. He was speechless. Had no idea what to say and should Bill call would do what he could to put Bill in his place.

So, I got in touch with a loan officer I had previously worked with and she is just awesome. Keds spent some time talking to her and said that it was completely different - no lectures and she genuinely wanted our business. She pulled Keds' credit, and was willing to provide the credit report to Keds so she didn't take too many unnecessary hits on her credit report. She had the perfect product for the right rate, but it was going to be iffy at best to get this done.

So it's getting late in the day on a Friday. We hadn't heard. I was getting nervous. About 5:20 or so, my phone rings. It's Keds. She wants to conference me in. Her bottom credit score jumped 200 points! That made her previous top score her middle score and squarely into the right loan! Keds has all the documentation ready and will drop it off on Monday. The loan will be done by the end of the month. How cool is that? Oh, and you should ask Keds about her "just because present."

So, I'm debating what, if anything, I should say to Bill (in e-mail of course). I do feel a little bad - she was operating strictly off of information I had given but he did know what the credit situation looked like a few months ago. He was going to pull credit at the last possibly minute to see if it came up on its own without doing a Rapid Rescore. However, given the initial rates he was quoting (7 5/8th vs the 6 7/8ths we got - ON THE SAME LOAN PRODUCT!), I am pretty sure he would have made sure they made good money off of us. But I never meant to piss him off. This was strictly a business decision.

At this point, I don't think we are going to say anything until the new loan is DONE. I've done enough mortgages to know that there is always something that can go wrong. That, and he is pre-disposed against this lender, but I think he is pre-disposed against all lenders but his own...

Anyway, things are looking up. Have a great week!

The return of Evil (um) Bill

2007-06-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Author's Note: Names have been changed to protect the innocent or clueless

So Evil Bill has returned. I say this half jokingly because I don't really think Bill is Evil. Their heart is in the right place, but as my Mom used to say - "It's not what you say, it's how you say it."

Let me back up a bit. Bill is a Mortgage Broker. He did Ked's refinance of the townhouse a little more than two years ago, but with a two-year adjustable rate mortgage and a two-year hard pre-payment penalty. When the rate adjusted, the interest rate JUMPED. I mean higher than a Mexican Jumping Bean jumped. From 7 percent to 10 percent.

Now, in that two years, Keds was supposed to clean up her credit. Mine was on the mend as well, after buying the new house and getting married. We got the notice in February but needed to do some quick work. We paid off our consumer debt. We were a little slow in getting some items paid off, but things were looking up in March.

Enter Evil Bill. In March, we had gotten quotes from two prominent mortgage lenders and then contacted Bill to see if they wanted our business. At this point, we needed to do the financing with me on the loan, to ensure the credit score would get us the best rate. Bill flat out refused to do this. This house was a gift from your mother... Don't think that Ken won't hesitate to take half of this... Blah blah blah blah blah. Again, looking out for Keds, but not in a positive way.

We decide to hold off until Keds score improved. Fine. But now, Bill is making us jump through a bunch of hoops to do a Rapid Rescore and seems to get offended when we talk about shopping this. While I understand she wants a commitment so that she makes money, we need to feel like we aren't getting screwed and getting the best deal possible.

Evil Bill finally quoted me a couple of rates last night. They don't sound that attractive, to be honest, but I also know the market is changing. He is out of the office today, so Keds and I are going to shop a couple of rates today and see where we can get. Wish us luck!

Productive weekend

2007-06-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Man are we both exhausted. Our second consecutive weekend in LA, but probably one of our most productive to date - or it at least it feels that way. All of the stuff we are keeping LEFT. The movers came, took the boxes and the furniture we are keeping and it all came out. The master bedroom is nearly done. Some focused effort in the bedrooms and those will be done. The Estate Sale is set for July 7th (YAY!) There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. I'll let Keds tell the story of the New Adventures of Dumpster Girl.

I just forked over $75 to Cox to "professionally install" my cable modem. I've been having issues on and off since we moved into the house, but it's been really really bad lately. Since I use it for work, this has been really annoying. Let's hope this is resolve.

The A's swept the Giants this weekend, so all is right with the world for now...

Let's go Oakland

2007-06-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

OK. So as I write this, Curt Schilling is holding the A's hitless through six innings, and the BoSox are up 1-0 over the Swingin' A's of Oakland. This team just baffles me. How can they take at least three out of four games from the team with the best record in baseball, but they always seem to drop the series against, say Tampa Bay? I just don't get it. I know they are typically slow starters and they seem to have been hit by the injury bug a little bit more this year than in the past, but man. Now if only I could watch them on TV more often...

Math is not my friend anymore

2007-05-23T14:29:00.001-07:00

You would think getting solar heat for the pool, a spa and a laptop for Keds four months ago would satisfy my appetite for a new toy for a while. But no. It's just simply isn't true. Now, I've recently become obsessed with a old-new toy - DirecTV.

Keds and I have gone back and forth on this several times. I had DirecTV when I had my own townhouse. I suspended service for the three months or so we lived in her townhouse. When we moved into our new house it was going to be a discussion point. But, at the time the DirecTV HD Receiver with DVR service was simply too expensive. At like $300 or $400 I couldn't justify the expense. We got more for our money with cable, plain and simple.

Well, now the HD Receiver with DVR is much more reasonable ($199 online). With the Sports Pack I can watch most of the games of my beloved Oakland A's and there is a possibility that we could order the NFL package. These are just things that cable can't offer. They are offering three free months of HBO, Cinemax and Showtime. I figure this has got to beat cable's price.

After the math is said and done, it's a wash. We must be getting some killer deal on the Cinemax, HBO and Showtime, because we are paying much lower than what Cox is showing on their website.

I may hold out and see what sort of deal they offer when the NFL Sunday Ticket comes back, usually in July. That's really only another month.

WARNING - Political Post

2007-05-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

OK. It looks like the State of Florida has decided to go and shake things up a bit and move it's 2008 Presidential Primary to January 29th. While this flouts the rules of both major parties, it could have serious implications for the candidates. It's the earliest "big state" to go, and will change the dynamics. But, with sanctions coming from both parties I'm sure this will die out.

For those locals that are registered Democrats, the state party has launched a Caucus Website. It's here. I'd strongly recommend getting involved. We were moved up by the national party, and it's our chance to add some diversity to the process!

So sleepy

2007-05-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

Our first weekend back in LA was, ahem, eventful to say the least. I'm not sure if we are just overly ambitious in what we plan, or if we aren't making realistic plans but we just don't feel like we are making a dent. One of our friends mentioned we still had a lot to do, and I found myself without anything meaningful to come back with. There is a lot to do, and I don't think Keds' psyche can handle much more of this.

We got a late start on our way back - 3:30. Didn't get home until almost 8 o'clock. By the time we ate dinner, unloaded the car it was time to watch Desparate Housewives. By the time we watched last week's and this week's episodes it was time for bed. And I was tired. Barely keeping my eyes open tired.

The Spa is working out nicely. Very relaxing. I think I should make it part of my end of the work day ritual.

I'll admit to being sad - my Sabres didn't put up much of a fight against Ottawa. I really hoped this was their year, but they really do better flying underneath the radar. The good news is my A's took 2 of 3 from the Giants. I guess I'm squarely in baseball season now!

A good night's sleep and other musings

2007-05-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

For the first time in weeks, I feel like I'm getting a good night's sleep more and more consistently. Last night was the best. Maybe it was the fact that we packed the dogs to the kennel last night instead of today. Maybe the spa is working wonders. Whatever it is, I'm feeling more refreshed.

I'm actually glad that Melinda got booted off American Idol last night. She was a phenomenal singer, with little, if any, stage presence. She'd be another Taylor Hicks - appealing to a niche that really isn't in the grain of American Idol. That being said, I'll be voting for Jordin next week. I like Blake as a performer better, but I think he'd be too hemmed in by the American Idol machine.

Speaking of Taylor Hicks, I took Keds to his concert a couple of weeks ago. I swear we were the youngest ones there...

OMG, the spa is AWESOME. We've been in it every night this week. At 100 degrees, it was a little too warm for Keds, so I turned it down to 95 degrees. With solar heat for the pool and the spa, we are good to go this summer!

Off to LA this weekend. We'll have two solid work days and will be able to accomplish some much needed business items. I'm just getting so sick of these trips. They are very wearing. Keds is going to be careful so she doesn't get sick this time. I'm not sure her PTO banks can handle it...

Is it Friday yet?

2007-05-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here it is Monday, and I'm already wishing it's Friday. I know this is bad, and I'm usually not this way. I think it was because it was Mother's Day weekend and we were just very, very busy.

Don't get me wrong - Mother's Day was great! Keds cooked a fantastic dinner and we got to spend time with my folks, some good friends and Maureen. Mom and Maureen were in heaven with all the little kids around this weekend.

What really sucked was that our spa was not working. Yeah, we were able to get it delivered and hooked up on Friday, but by Saturday morning it was clear something was wrong. The breaker was tripped and kept tripping when it was reset. After some troubleshooting with our salesman, we narrowed down what the issue was - a wiring problem at the breaker box. It wasn't something I was comfortable fixing (you mess up with electricity and you get hurt). They sent their tech out this morning and he was done in 30 minutes. I think Keds and I are both looking forward to getting into it tonight...

This week is already shaping up to be crazy. My Dad's best friend from his childhood is coming to town on Tuesday, we are having dinner with Vegas Princess and Prince Charming on Wednesday and then Thursday it's off to LA.

Good God! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Let's go Buffalo!

2007-05-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

On to the Conference Finals! My beloved Buffalo Sabres were finally able to solve Henrik Lundqvist and turn on the offensive jets to get past the New York Rangers in six games. Up next is our divisional rivals, the Ottawa Senators. We always seem to meet these guys in the playoffs. I will cheer on my Sabres. On to the Stanley Cup Finals!

It was also a good weekend for my Oakland A's. They took 2 of 3 from Tampa, which is good because the Devil Rays are perennial cellar-dwellers and they need to win some of these games early so they don't dig themselves too big of a hole by the All-Star Break.

Weekend was busy - mostly just running around and installing garage shelves (YAY!), but it was good. The garage immediately looked more organized.

On deck this week - electric for hot tub will be run on Wednesday and my boss is at a conference today and tomorrow so it should be relatively quiet.

I'm down another three pounds this week, so it looks like I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. If I add exercise, I'll be down to my target weight in no time!