Friday, August 29, 2008

We're In!

We've moved. Sort of. We're not done yet. Closing went fairly smoothly yesterday and we officially own the place now. There was a small hiccup when the funds for our loan didn't show up because the lender transposed two numbers. Since the builder owns the lender, after learning that was the problem we took it upon ourselves to move in anyway and let them figure it out amongst themselves. We figured if they wanted their money, they'd get it straight.

We closed at 11am, and by 2pm we decided we sat around long enough on them so we started moving the stuff in. There was no sense in paying movers by the hour to sit around and wait. By 5pm, a representative came by with our keys and apologized. They said "technically" we weren't supposed to be on the property, but she knew the only holdup was self-created so she "looked the other way" until final word came in that the bank fixed their error.

Anyway, we've moved stuff into the new house. And when we were finally done moving stuff into the new house we all found a mattress somewhere to collapse on last night. But there are still boxes everywhere, and will be for quite some time. I haven't even gotten much of my stuff out of my house to move over yet. K is home today unpacking. Something we didn't stop doing until 2am last night. Since K had the day off and I had to get to work anyway, I let her sleep in while I was up again at 5am getting kids ready for school. Now I'm dead tired and could really use a nap...

The day the Republicans lost the Presidency

I give McCain credit for taking this risk. He had to (and will continue to have to) if he still believes he has any shot at winning in November. But by choosing Sarah Palin for Vice President, he fell off the edge. Yes, she's a woman. Yes, she's young and very pretty - a former beauty queen. She's also a Governor, a mother of five, pro-life, and pro-gun. And that combination may win over the redneck segment of the male GOP contingent.

But this choice fails to look at what she's not. She is not pro-choice. She has no national experience. She has never been part of a national campaign before. She is under investigation for trying to use her office to get her brother-in-law fired. She has no international experience. Her actual experience governing is in a very small state, famous for its "Bridge to Nowhere" kind of political graft. Her Republican colleague, Senator Ted Stevens has been indicted for corruption.

Think about it. When Republicans and Independents go vote, will they have the confidence to vote for a McCain-Palin ticket knowing that McCain has had several recurrences of his skin cancer and will be the oldest President ever - beyond the average male life expectancy before ever taking office? Can anyone imagine Sarah Palin stepping into the Oval Office and dealing with all the problems our country faces right now? The Russians and the terrorists must be quaking in their boots.

The bottom line is that it's obvious the McCain camp is trying to woo women, especially Hillary supporters, who are desperate to see a woman on the ticket, as well as the larger-than-we-like-to-admit segment of our country who will vote for McCain-Palin simply because she's "Hot". But it's a longshot. It is reminiscent of the Republicans putting up Alan Keyes to run against Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate just because he was black. Voters saw through that pretty quickly. Additionally, how does McCain honestly think these Hillary supporters are going to vote? They don't get Hillary on the ballot but they get Sarah as the first potential woman President? There is absolutely no overlap between the positions Hillary Clinton has fought for and Sarah Palin. The two women are not remotely substitutable. They are as different as they can be. I think most women are going to feel insulted in McCain's suggestion that just "any" woman will do. And I think most people who will vote for Palin simply for her looks are not exactly the kind of people who turn out to vote on election day.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Maybe my $15 didn't go to waste.

Yep, politics time. And a quick note as to why Obama made the right choice selecting Joe Biden as his running mate. Yes, there are going to be critics out there saying that choosing a 35 year Washington veteran is hardly the "change" that Obama has been promising.

I am going to state right here that that is totally the wrong outlook. By selecting Biden, with his insider knowledge, reputation, and influence that he brings to the table, the ticket offers the hope that all the things Obama wants to accomplish - from foreign affairs and health care to economic and tax policy - might actually get done in the next administration.

The McCain camp desperately did not want Obama to pick Biden for this very reason. Without someone like Biden on the ticket - with a governor perhaps or a less effective senator - Obama risked looking like a dreamer, not a doer. But with Biden at his side, the Democratic ticket suddenly can offer itself as a can-do engine for change.

Nothing highlights this more than a look at National Security. It takes years of absorption of what the world has been doing to itself to understand how to organize an effective, disciplined strategic course for the United States -- particularly at a time when the Bush administration has wrecked whatever global equilibrium previously existed. By picking Biden, Obama immediately shored up his weakness -- inexperience in office and on foreign policy -- with the best in the business. Foreign leaders call Biden when they need America's guidance, skipping over the White House and its puppets like Condi.

Yes, there were other possible VP candidates, each with their own set of supporters. People like Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; Sens. Clinton or Evan Bayh, or even from across the aisle, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

And each of these other options had their own upsides as well. But they also had major shortcomings. For example both Kaine and Sebelius are excellent governors, but they are nearly as new at all this as Obama. The only reason that either would have made sense is for a combination of a regional, red-state grab combined with the intention that withdrawing from the international scene and focusing heavily on development at home was going to be the Obama package. That would have been a huge mistake, forfeiting the entire national security portfolio debate to McCain. (Something that McCain, based on his policies, is on the losing end to begin with.)

Chuck Hagel would also have been a decent choice, but Obama hasn't officially won the nomination yet. He couldn't risk having a GOP running mate ticking off enough super delegates to the point they throw their support to Hillary and throwing the entire party into chaos. (Bill would have loved that though, and if Obama won the nomination outright, Hagel probably would have gotten a lot more consideration.)

Finally, Hillary. Yes her. And yes, an Obama/Clinton ticket would look formidable to many people. But it would make for a dysfunctional relationship and dysfunctional presidency. Not what this country needs right now. The Clinton team had a lot of attitude issues that precluded any sort of serious consideration of Hillary.

That brings us back to Biden. The fact of the matter is that Biden polls well with many groups of Americans -- particularly elder Americans, white working class Americans, African Americans, soccer Moms, Hispanics, and Jews. Obama has just hired the guy who can not only continue to help him look fresh by helping to get the inside game into the right supportive patterns, he has hired someone who is not a knee-jerk, newcomer on national security issues who knows what poor shape America's global position is today.

There are many reasons why Joe Biden was exactly the right guy for Obama, but the biggest reason is that Biden's competence will help Obama be able to remain Obama. None of the other candidates would be able to deliver that as well.

And for that, my $15 campaign contribution to Joe Biden's presidential bid may not have gone entirely to waste...

Friday, August 22, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Why I watch the Olympics

Specifically Volleyball.


Specifically Beach Volleyball.


Specifically Team USA.


Specifically Misty May.


Specifically Misty May's butt.







Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The family mausoleum

When my dad died last year we had him cremated and then we shared the ashes with those who wanted a bit of him. A few of his NY Giants buddies took some of his ashes with them when they went to the Super Bowl last year and poured them onto field at halftime. More of his ashes were sprinkled into the ocean since he loved to fish, and even more were sprinkled on a golf course.

Well, there was still some ashes left. And his wife was trying to give them to my sister to take with her back to Long Island where he grew up. Except that my sister didn't want the ashes, she found the idea morbid.

Anyway, during the countless retelling of the story my dad's ashes became known as the "Bag 'o Bob." At which point we started discussion what each of us would be called once we died. There was a "Jar 'o Jim", a "Decanter 'o Debby", a "Mug 'o Marge", etc. Eventually even K joined in the fun, "Keg 'o K".

Then we decided instead of being placed in a museum, we would just rent a unit at a Public Storage place and leave our remains in our aforementioned containers forever. Then centuries in the future someone is going to walk into that place and find nothing but various types of containers filled with ashes.

Yea, we're weird.

Caption Contest Winner!

Yes, there is a winner for the Caption Contest I ran last week. And the winner is my very own K! No there wasn't any favoritism going on. No I'm not expecting any kind of kickbacks for the honor. (And it IS an honor to win one of my caption contests, you know!)

She won with this:

Getting good reception can be challenging, but it was the presidential debates.

How she won was even better. We were in Maryland this past weekend (To read about the trip, you can check it out HERE.) and were just waking up Sunday morning. K goes to the bathroom, I hear a flush, and then she emerges with this glorious look on her face. Shit-eating grin one might say...

She looks right at me and says triumphantly "Getting good reception can be challenging, but it was the presidential debates."

"Huh?"

"Your stupid contest on your blog. I just won."

"THAT is what you were thinking about while taking a dump?"

"I only had to pee. It would have been better if I had to crap. I do my best thinking in the bathroom."

"Well, yea, that is pretty good. You win."


(And I look forward to giving her her prize tonight. Muahahah. )

Friday, August 15, 2008

The Troops don't support the Troops!

After years of hearing that if you don't support the Bush military policy, you don't support the troops, you have to wonder what the neo-cons will try to do or spin now.

A new study released today by the Center for Responsive Politics revealed that members of the military are giving more donations to Senator Obama than Senator McCain, and when you just examine those troops who are deployed, Obama attracts more donations by a 6 to 1 factor. So much for conventional wisdom.

The fact is that our troops aren't much different than most Americans. As such, it's not surprising that they overwhelmingly oppose the Bush military policy that John McCain would continue. The latest AP polls show that 62 percent of the troops disapprove of the Bush policy. And with this latest revelation, we can see that they are beginning to speak with their checkbooks, making it known just how strongly they believe we need to begin to redeploy from Iraq and go on the offense against al Qaeda in Afghanistan where the real enemy is making big gains.

The point is our troops aren't stupid. They know that the current course our military is on is not sustainable, and they're looking for a dramatic change. And even though they don't have a whole lot of money to give, they are voting right now with their wallets. So, do our troops hate the troops? No, of course not. Our troops love America, and that's the point.

Off to the World Cup and then to Maryland

The six of us and the Beast are heading out shortly to visit some of my family in Maryland for the weekend. It will be the first time K gets to meet this batch of people, including my sister. K's all nervous, but she shouldn't be. If my family likes ME, then she has nothing to worry about. *grin*

Before we leave though we have to pick up the girls. They are participating in a soccer camp this week, and as part of it will be having a "World Cup" competition to close out the session. We don't want them to miss it. They have split all the kids into teams and given them each a different country to represent. DQ is playing for the Netherlands, and T2 represents Spain. It'll be fun to watch them play, but then we're going to have to toss them in the shower before we head on out. The last time the girls took their cleats off after a full day of soccer, we had to pull off to the side of the road and bail out it stunk so bad. We will NOT be spending 4-5 hours in a car with that stench...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A new caption contest

Reply with your best caption to this picture:



Good luck!

Wilco, etc.

I left off a few things from my previous post, not because they were trivial, but because they deserved a blog post of their own.

The first was the Wilco concert that K took me to. It was "nice". That's exactly how the band described it. The crowd was "nice". The venue was "nice". We smelled "nice". Wilco's music was "nice". Not great. Nice. Wilco is good, but by no means a Led Zeppelin. (Guess you had to be there!)

On the other hand, my date for the evening was amazing. I haven't really had the time or the energy to explain just how taxing my job has been over the past few weeks. I think K has an inkling, but even that doesn't do it justice. It has sucked. So much so that I've been seriously considering a job or career change.

Anyway, I'm off track. In a wonderful twist of irony, I was sitting there at the concert, probably being less than a stellar companion to K (off in my own little world of computer hell) and thinking how nice it was to have someone like her to be with and do stuff with at times like this. Of course, being in my own little world I didn't take the time to tell her that. Or to thank her for putting up with me while I'm partially somewhere else. I'm an ass. (Baby, in case you are reading this before I talk to you tonight, you're the best!)

Another thing I didn't post about was our date night Saturday night. After an early evening of boxing up K's gameroom we decided to get showered and head over to a little hole in the wall bar called "The Flip Side". From the outside, it's in the middle of downtown and doesn't merit a second glance. But inside they bring in great live bands, have a nice selection of beer, drinks, and wine, and to top it off, it's a non-smoking bar. We like it because it's also quite a diverse crowd. It ranges from a spattering of college aged kids all the way up to a fairly good number of senior citizens. And the senior crowd tends to be the most lively. Anyway, it was a beautiful night out so we sat on their patio and told stories about our pasts back and forth to each other all night long. It was so nice to be able to get away from the kids, appreciate each other, relax, unwind, and laugh. On top of that, we drove the Beast. The Beast was happy.

There's more, but it'll have to wait.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Blogging 23/6

I should rename this blog to "23/6". That would be short for "Some of the details, most of the time!"

Yep, it's been close to two weeks since my last post. I'll blame this one on the Chinese and all their little virus and trojan creating punks. My company has been bombarded with intrusion and hack attempts over the past month, and the last two weeks have been relentless. At first we (and by we, I mean ME) were able to block about 98% of them, but the two percent that got in caused massive chaos. Since then we (and by we, I mean ME) have been able to pretty solidly slam the door shut on them. And it's been cleanup, both of our data, and of our reputation ever since.

On the upside, I no longer need to blog as often. I showed K my blog the other day for the first time. She had no idea what a blog was. But since then, she's not only read and critiqued mine from top to bottom, she's started her own. (Over HERE. Go check it out.) And she's good at it. Better than I am. So if I'm not telling you what's going on, you can hop over there and she'll fill you in.

With that said I'm going to still try to keep up. Here's the summary for the past two weeks, in reverse order:

1. We're going to visit family in Maryland this upcoming weekend. Depending on the weather, we'll be swimming, boating, and hanging out at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

2. My uncle is coming to pick up K's Volkswagon Beetle to keep until we finish with the move.

3. My cousin just got engaged two days ago, and her fiance is a mechanic who offered to help get the aforementioned Beetle running for us.

4. We are just about finished with our wedding invitations and they will be mailed tomorrow. No really. We mean it. There's a long story here, but it will have to wait.

5. We need to mow K's lawn. It's a mess. It's also an acre and a half. And the riding lawnmower is broken. Another long story.

6. DQ and T2 are in soccer camp this week. They seem to like it. Especially the salads for lunch. (Yes, another long story.)

7. GB bought himself an XBox 360 with the money he has been saving. Forza 2 Motorsports is a really cool game in case you were wondering.

8. The beach was fun. Except for the jellyfish. Ask GB. (Or everyone who wanted to pee on him.)

9. GB and I went to play paintball. That was also fun. Until some guys on my team thought I wasn't on their team. And four of them unloaded into my back from about 15 feet away. Nevermind.

10. The Beast doesn't like the Lexus. It gets mad when we drive the car instead of the truck to save gas. One of these days we're going to come home and it is going to have eaten it. Or driven over it. No, really.

10. There's more, but I don't remember it all right now. And I do need to get back to work.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Our 2nd big purchase

Now that the house is out of the way, it has come time for us to figure out how to move 6 of us at once without having to get a minivan. So, we researched, and we thought, and we planned, and then we bought, a Ford Expedition.

Gone is my Azera in the trade, and after all the dust has settled not only did our payments go down, so did our insurance. In fact it looks like it went down enough to cover the added cost of gas. No, really!



K took the "Beast" (as it has now been named) to work today and shortly thereafter I got an e-mail letting me know how she loved how everyone moved out of the way for her. She also loved how she got to sit up high and look down on everyone else.

I'm guessing I'm not going to get to drive it very much...