Updates and Changes

First, a couple of quick housekeeping measures. Most of the more frequent visitors to the blog will notice that I've updated the links on the right hand side of the page. One blog that I would encourage you to visit is that of Lee Abrams. He is the head of XM Satellite Radio. His blog is interesting, especially for those who love music.

Second, most of you know that the last couple of weeks have been a little rough. While I am working through my emotions, I cannot begin to fathom what Amy is going through. All I can do is be supportive.

We have decided to adopt Leni's two dogs. Rosebud and Thorndyke. Both are Lasso mixes. Very cute dogs. I am more of a cat person myself, but these two pooches are really cute - but expensive. We just spent a bunch of cash on Rosebud at the vet. She is a generally healthy dog with some mild, but treatable, health issues. In our efforts to help socialize the dogs with the cats, we have been locking them up in Amy's office during the day. Well, left on his own today, Thorny decided to vent his displeasure on the carpet. He pulled it away from the tack, chewed it and destroyed the pad. We now have a carpet repairman coming out on Thursday.

Work is getting busy again. Getting ready to plan my next India trip. I know I haven't developed the photos from my last trip, but I will...eventually.

Hope all is well on your fronts...

Weekend Update

Well, another weekend in the books. This was productive weekend. Lots of stuff got accomplished. I'll let Amy talk about some of the items she got done, but I finally got our pool vacuum repaired. I just need to put it back in the pool to see if it truly fixed. We got some other stuff done around the house in preparation for the invasion of traveling guests this weekend. Amy, Teri and I made to an early voting station so we could vote ahead of Tuesday's primary. Don't forget - printing a paper copy can help reduce issues like Hanging Chads....

Cingular Wireless sent me a notice a couple of weeks ago regarding an upgraded SIM chip. Said it was important and service-impacting, but when I finally made it into a Cingular store, they couldn't tell me WHY I needed this new chip. "It will improve your service." Kinda like to know how still...

The bigger news was that I finally made it to church this weekend. Went to the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass. In the end, I was glad that I went. The readings were very timely with everything going on in our life these days, and the priest did a good job of tying everything together with his Homily. The non-religious part of the message was that we just need to take life one day at a time and that every life has a purpose. It was very reassuring, actually.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend! This week should be hectic with the Shower/Bachelor Party prep going on ahead of the main events this weekend. My boss is back from vacation, so that should be fun too.

Where am I again?

It's been a rough week here. First, lots of travel. Monday to LA/San Dimas on business for lunch with a client and so my boss can finish "separating" one of his salesmen. Lunch was good - met a new client contact for the first time. Nearly walked out with a brand-new free product as well, but didn't. Oh well. On Tuesday I was in Phoenix to try and close a deal. Went in with one expectation. We left with a completely different understanding of the opportunity and it excited us. Finally, after picking my folks up at the airport on Friday, Amy and I jumped on a plane to Los Angeles for a wedding and to spend some time with family.

Second, as you may have read on Amy's or our wedding blog, we were thrown for a medical loop last week. It is forcing us to deal with some issues sooner rather than later. It's tough. *sarcasm on* It's what every couple wants to be staring down two months before their wedding. *sarcasm off* We'll be OK in the long run, it's just tough right now.

This weekend is a bit disjointed, but then on to the following weekend with the Bridal Shower and Bachelor Party!

This kinda helps

From my previous post, I mentioned that I was having a pretty hard time picking judges in the upcoming primary election. Well, it just got a little easier thanks to the Clark County Republican Party. According to John Ralston's VegasPundit Blog, the local Republican Party green-lighted the attached flier. I've included a link to the flyer here. They even went so far as to call their group something VERY similar to a Political Action Committee (PAC) headed by Harry Reid. Not sure what the point of this piece is. I'll let you judge. However, those of you who know me will know how this will effect my votes.

It's that time of year again...

Well, Early Voting starts tomorrow in Nevada. I am finalizing who I'm supporting for the various races. The "big name" races I usually know pretty well. It's things like "Public Administrator" and the judgeships that I have issues with. I just don't know about these positions, and I don't like to make uninformed decisions. So, for key races such as sherriff, I'm left to sift through TV ads, direct mail pieces and the like. There are folks that I know I don't like. Especially when their direct mail pieces say stuff about "activist judges" and "conservative values." That's a big turn off.

I guess I have a lot of homework to do prior to voting in the primary...Ugh.

Cool new toy

Well, as many of you know, Amy and I made the trip to Southern California this past weekend to attend her cousin's wedding and to be there for her Dad's back surgery. What you may not have known, is that the weekend was made a hell of a lot easier with the assistance on my new toy - The Magellan Roadmate 700.

I got my unit for a fairly reasonable price (free). But I have to tell you, this thing is a must for roadtrips. First, it calculates the best route for the trip with estimated times and mileage. It guides you on freeways with multiple off ramps and merges with a lot of ease. It even has numerous "points of interest" pre-loaded such as hotels, hospitals and restaurants.

A good example of how useful it was came into play Saturday night. We were going to a reception at Amy's Aunt's house. We plugged in the address, and were happily on our way. We got on the 405 with no issues, and we were told to get off at the Olympic/Pico Exit (it displays your next manuever at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, there was a sign that said the Olympic/Pico exit was closed. So we got off on the exit before it, and the Magellan was able to recalculate our route and led us straight in. It got us to and from the hospital with no issues and even got us out of LA with minimal issues. The only thing it didn't solve for us was LA traffic and I'm afraid there is no solution for that.

While these things are still pretty pricey, it's definitely something to look into for your next major roadtrip.

Randon Drama

Now that the American League has won yet another All-Star Game, and secured home field advantage in the World Series, it's time for the real baseball to start being played. Everything up to now has been a mere warm up. Oakland has done a better job of staying in contention this year than in the past. They are tied for first, but the Angels are coming on fast. With the surprising strength of the AL Central this year, I think the A's are going to have to win their division they need to stay healthy and fight off the Angels.

I am so over the "Big Ben" motorcycle drama. I appreciate the guy's story and all, but the reality is that he was riding a motorcycle without a helmet. He was in a bad accident, but lots of people get into near-fatal accidents every day and you don't see them getting headline treatment on ESPN.com.

Speaking of football, training camps open soon. Football season is a mere two months away. Need to start getting my Fantasy Draft list ready...

Got my car serviced yesterday ahead of our trip to LA this weekend. I don't know why, but I always feel more secure in my vehicle after it's had it's oil changed. It wasn't a cheap day. I had skipped the 15K mile service on my car, so I got that caught up, had the AC serviced and had my Smog Check. About three times more than I wanted to spend, but at least the car is checked out and ready to go.

I got hooked on VH1's "I Love the 70s:Volume 2" last night. Truth be told, it was the one from 1973. I was laughing so hard, I nearly cried.

I nearly vomited when I read the story about Ken Lay's funeral yesterday. Comparing him to Martin Luther King, Jr. was insulting enough, but to compare him to Jesus? That makes me so angry that I can barely see straight.

This Week in Ken's Blog

Does anyone else remember the show "This Week in Baseball"? I remember watching it every Saturday before the network game of the week. Anyway...some general updates and other pieces.

First, I hope everyone had a happy and safe July 4th holiday. Amy and I did. Got to show of the new house, spent some time in the pool. Too bad it rained on Tuesday, though.

Our backyard is nearly done. All they need to do now is install an automatic fertilizer system. It's been trying, I'll say that much. First, they took longer than they originally committed and we needed to teach them the basics of customer service (i.e. returning phone calls within a business day). Then, they left a big pile of rock in front of our house over the weekend. And just when you figure they were home-free, their was a major miscommunication over the flagstone seating area. Anyway, it's mostly done now and looks good.

Amy's been home sick the last two days. Upper respiratory infection. Yick. To make matters worse, she couldn't get in to see her doctor until at least Monday, which I think is asinine. Well...she'll get better coverage after the wedding.

Wedding plans are moving along. Hit a couple of unexpected snafus this week that we'll need to work through. Neither of us are thrilled, but we will make it work.

Finally, work is going OK. All my clients are happy for the most part and that makes my life tremendously easier.

Next week will be a little hectic. Going to LA for Amy's cousin's wedding and her Dad is having surgery the day after. I need to get my car in to be looked at before that, but it promises to be a decent weekend.

Did I miss something?

I think I'm really beginning to despise election years. Say what you will about the New York Times' decision to run a story exposing that the government was using broad-based subpoenas to track financial transactions, but the House passing a resolution condemning it was strictly election year politics. Is the Republican Party that desparate that they are going to lash out at one of the most historically journalistically-responsible organizations? And if you aren't doing anything wrong, why hide it? Yes, the Times is probably one of the most liberal mainstream newspapers, but still.

We have real problems in this country. Don't waste taxpayers time with silly resolutions!

Unexpected surprises

I love Capriotti's Sandwich Shop. Period. End of story. They put things together on sandwiches that you would just never think of. Don't get me wrong, their old stand-bys are good. They have ham, turkey and cheesesteaks, and they are all fine. Their turkey is awesome - it's real off the bird turkey - not that processed stuff you get at the deli counter. It's their original creations that always grab my attention. Take, for instance my personal favorite - the Bobbie. So yummy. It's basically Thanksgiving dinner, minus the gravy. Turkey, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Mayo on a hoagy roll. My friend Maria calls it "sugar on a bun." Not sure I agree, but it's fantastic. Today, I sampled a new sandwich (thanks to Lora, who forgot her leftovers on Saturday - sorry Loo. Didn't want it to go to waste!) - the Slaw be Joe. It was Roast Beef, Cole Slaw, Provolone Cheese and I think Russian Dressing (but I could be wrong there). Very, very tasty. Amy occasionally gets the Capestrami, which is basically the same thing, but with Pastrami. That's good too, I'm just not a pastrami fan.

The only complaint I have is the Capriotti's near our new house doesn't stock the little bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. That makes me sad, but I really don't need to extra carbs after eating one of their sandwiches, so it's really not that big of a deal.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Take me out to the ballgame...

In reading a lot of the other blogs there out in blogland, it appears that a lot of people (OK - me included) are going through a lot of change. Moving, changing jobs, having kids and getting married are all part of life and can be good. My life is no different. Not only have Amy and I decided to get married, we bought a house, sold mine and moved twice. But that's not the point of this post.

The point is that while change may be the only real constant in life, there are some things that are constant as well. As an example, baseball season is really just heating up. We are about two months into the Major League Baseball season. And like clockwork, the Oakland A's are starting to heat up. They have recently had a 10 game winning streak and after a better April and May than they've had in recent years, they are well positioned for another pennant run.

For my birthday, Amy got me a 10 game pack of seats to the 51s, which is pretty cool. I've got tickets to four games in July, so I'll get to see a lot of baseball.

Our pool should be ready to swim in by this weekend, which is freakin' awesome. Can't wait. It's over 100 like everyday, so the pool will be nice and refreshing.

Anyway, a little disjointed, but all I can say is Go A's.

Is it really that important?

OK. So I haven't blogged in a week and a half because I didn't have anything good to say, and now I have two in one day. So anyhow.

I am really getting sick of news outlets. And politicians. No doubt you have seen the accusations of the mis-spending of FEMA relief cards. What was supposed to help people get back on their feet is being spent by, what I am sure is a very small minority, on things that may be wasteful. My retort is - what the heck do you expect? You give people free money to spend and they are going to do just that - spend it. So what if they used it to buy football tickets, porn or a sex change operation. A knee-jerk federal reaction to help over-compensate for their piss-poor response to Hurricane Katrina has caused this. I guess my point is, who really cares? Is it really anybody's business?

For the second time, the Senate has failed to pass a "Protect Marriage" amendment. In my opinion, big deal. While Same-Sex Marriage is an important issue to some, it isn't the most pressing issue facing the country today. Neither is a flag burning. The only people who care about flag burning are in Washington, DC. Of course it's popular to support a "Don't burn the flag" amendment. However, do you know how many instances there have been of flag burning in the past year? Two, that we know of. That's it. Two. It's not a real issue facing this country.

My point is, we have very real problems in this country today. I just don't think these are among the top 10. It's just it's easier to excite a political base with these issues and the special interest groups are well funded...

Are we there yet?

Sorry about the prolonged absence. Really haven't had much to post about lately, and I've been really bad about posting on other blogs. I'm sure I'll snap out of it soon, it's just been a rough two weeks.

One of the down sides of the new house is how far we are from certain things. Like the Airport. Having taken two day-trips in the last two weeks, the new distance is not really all that fun. I got spoiled living in Green Valley, I guess. The second thing is nice restaurants are far too. Now, it was nice to meet David out for Indian food, but the trek from Aliante to the corner of Flamingo and Paradise is a bit far for it to become a regular thing. My boss asked if we found any nice restaurants, and the unfortunate answer is no. Maybe we need to take advantage of the concierge service we got with this house and start finding those "hidden gems."

Other than that, just waiting on the pool to be done. It should be plastered and filled on Friday which is pretty cool. Still unpacking. Feels like it will never end, but would like everything done by July 4th. It's always nice to set goals...

Until next time,

Sports and Old TV Shows

As we move into what a former boss once called the void between the end of hockey and the beginning of football (clearly not a baseball fan), I have a couple of observations.

First, I am very, very proud of this year's Buffalo Sabres. For a team that wasn't supposed to do much of anything much less make it to the Conference Finals. In the end, they had too many injuries to their defensemen and frankly looked tired. Oh, and that delay of game penalty that led to go-ahead goal was a little lame, but oh well.

Second, now that all is left of hockey are the Stanley Cup finals, time to turn my attention to baseball full-board. It's time to vote for the starters in the MLB All Star game. Now, I'm all for making sure the best players get in, but I'm sick of the starting line up look like the best of the Yankees and Red Sox lineups, so I'm asking all of you in Blog-land to vote. Specifically, for Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher of the Oakland A's. Both are off to the best starts ever. You may have to write-in Nick as an outfielder, but Chavez in the Third Baseman. You can access the ballot from mlb.com.

Finally, on a completely different topic, TV Land ran a 48 hour Benson marathon. I remember loving that show as a kid. Not so much now. I mean, I appreciate that the butler from Soap was able to work himself up to Lt. Governor, but still. Are there any shows you used to watch that aren't quite what you remembered them to be?

Politics as usual...

As many of you out there know, I am somewhat a political animal and am strongly considering a bid for Nevada State Assembly in the next 4-8 years. Those who know me well, know my positions on most of the current issues. However, the recent hub-bub about Harry Reid taking free boxing tickets is bordering on the absurd. It's low-level gossip. I'm also annoyed with his dodging of the issue. It's not that big of a deal. Write a check for the tickets, and move on. Saying it was necessary for him to defend local interests, saying it was necessary for him to go to the boxing matches is pretty lame.

Anyhoo. Like I said, this looks like petty partisan bickering to me. This gossip is worse than high school. In the grand scheme of things, free boxing tickets is small potatoes compared to the other corruption scandals to hit Washington this year. It's already fallen off the national stage. Let's hope it falls off the radar locally as well in the near future.

I'm back!

Well, another trip to India is in the books. It was an extremely good trip. I spent some more time with the folks I work with daily, and the client left pretty happy. I really couldn't ask for more. I did take some pictures, but not sure how they'll turn out. I didn't take Amy's digital camera because I was afraid that I'd lose it, so I need to get them developed. The good ones I'll post once I get them back.

The trips themselves were OK. I took an earlier flight out of Singapore (cutting my layover from 10 hours to 3) that got me home about 4 hours earlier, but had a stopover in Tokyo. I wasn't able to get upgraded because business class was just full, but I got an exit row seat. I'm really racking up the frequent flier miles on these trips. Those will come in handy, I'm sure.

While I was gone, the pool deck was poured, Amy got the house uber-organized and got her house mostly cleaned out. Today's my Dad's birthday, so I'm taking him to watch a hockey game. That should be fun.

Anyway, you'll get a more organized post in a few days once I get the photos back.

Season/Series Ending Episodes

The middle-to-end of May means the end-of-the season episodes. Some of them were really good. Here's a quick rundown of my takes on the ones I've seen and shows that I'll definitely miss:

1. The West Wing - This is one of my all-time favorite shows. While it's experienced some down years the last few seasons, it definitely ended on a high note. This was one of the best seasons since the last election season. It was nice to see Josh and Donna get together finally and see the transition. While I firmly believe the show had run it's course, I will be sad to see it gone. I'm now going to have to start collecting season box sets.
2. Grey's Anatomy - This is one of Amy's favorite shows. I'll watch it, I just don't seek it out. I liked it, up until Meredith (who I think is uber-whiny) hooked up with Derek again.
3. How I Met Your Mother - Great show. Great season ender with Ted and Robin finally doing the deed, thanks if part to Ted's dramatic gesture. I totally saw Lily and Marshall splitting up...for now. Also, I love the "Pause" feature. If you saw the show, you'll know what I'm talking about.
4. Two and A Half Men - That show cracks me up. 'Nuff said.
5. That 70's Show - Oh my God! I have not laughed that hard at this show all season. It was good to see Eric (Topher Grace) and Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) come back for the final episode. It was hilarious to watch Kitty give the house tour. Cracked me up. Most of the loose ends wrapped up. Bringing back "The Circle" and Hyde talking about the car that runs on water was a hoot. Amy wants to know if Donna goes off to college finally, but I think she does. Finally, nice touch having it end New Year's Eve, 1979. Perfect.

I still need to watch the Will and Grace and CSI finales, and will catch the ones from this week once I return from India.

What were some of your favorite season-enders?

More updates

As Mother's Day weekend has come to a close, there is quite a bit going on here.

1. Mother's Day was very nice. Leni was in town for the weekend, and we were able to spend some quality time with her. On Sunday, we had a brunch at the house for our Moms and then took them out for dinner that night. It was a nice day.
2. As you have read from both mine and Amy's blogs, we are really settling into our home nicely. Still need to hang up art and unpack some boxes, but it's starting to all come together.
3. We have a tenant for the townhouse! That's very exciting. One less thing to stress about.
4. Our pool is really starting to take shape, literally. The plumbing, electrical and steel work were done last week. We passed inspection Monday, and they poured the concrete this morning. It's really starting to take shape now. All we have to do is finalize the tile/grout/decking selections and we're off and running!
5. American Idol is down to the final three. I have a feeling that Elliot's time may be up. I had initially thought he would go home a lot earlier, but he's grown on me.

Anyway, that's all for now!

That's about all for right now.

Bits and Pieces while I'm slacking

As I can't really bring myself to finish my weekly report, here are some quick odds and ends to catch folks up.

• Amy and I are now settling into our home. The pets moved in last night and the home theatre is now setup. Starting to feel like home now.
• The "parade of trades" round 1 is complete. A bunch of folks need to come back, but that's OK. The majority of the work is done. Also, figured out how to use the SmartBox. That's cool. Wish I didn't need to router, but oh well. Now I just need to organize that cabinet.
• Leni's here for Mother's Day weekend. She came in last night and is here until Tuesday. I'm glad she'll be able to spend some quality time here and see the house.
• After all the hub-bub of Chris getting voted off American Idol, I really think that was the best thing for him. He could have easily sailed to the finals and then get stuck making a Pop Album that he would have hated. Now he can practically write his own ticket.
• One other thing for those that are belly-aching about Chris being voted off - did you vote for him?
• Mom and Dad update - their backyard is nearly finished, and should hopefully be done by the weekend. They are uber-excited.
• Booked my next trip to India. Working it in such a way that I spend a little less time away from home, but not much.

Talk to you all later...

You had to know this one was coming

Now that Amy and I are officially "in residence" in our new house you had to know a post was coming about the move itself, right?

So anyway, the move itself wasn't horrible. This being said, it wasn't the most organized move I've ever had. It was not boding well from the beginning. I usually take a week off to move, unpack and get settled. I didn't have that luxury this time. Amy took off Thursday and Friday, and I was off Friday. However it just wasn't enough. First, our initial plan was totally killed because of delays with the carpet. "What do you mean our work order fell behind a file cabinet?" pretty much sums that up. That compressed the schedule and the move took longer because the movers then needed to collect my stuff from my storage unit. Teri and Josh were a huge help unpacking boxes and helping us get stuff setup.

For all of our planning, though, we still have what I'll call the "parade of trades" coming through the house. This morning was hectic and Wednesday and Thursday morning will be more of the same. Hopefully I can still get some work done. When it's done life will be awesome. That's all I have to say, but it will be hard to beat how we feel right now!