Families

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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?

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!

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?

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

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

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

"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!