A new hobby

"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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

A couple of thoughts as we wind down the week:

1. 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.


2. 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!


3. 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!


4. 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.


5. 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.


6. 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

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