New Pictures

I've added a bunch of new photos from the last couple of months, including our trip to Disneyland. Check them out when you can.

Imus

How do I approach this...

To begin with, I'm not an Imus fan. I honestly caught little about him from the morning show clips I would catch on my way to Sportcenter. I tried a couple of times, and just didn't find video of a radio show entertaining. Not offensive, as I've heard he could be--just not entertaining.

Another guy that I'm not a fan of, Bill Maher, jumped into the conversation a couple of days ago on Imus's show and said something that I wholeheartedly agree with--that if this issue is what is keeping the civil rights folks busy then the civil rights movement is going pretty well.

I guess my point is that I don't really understand what the big deal is. I've heard his comments referred to as "racist and hateful." Have any of these people listened to a rap album any time recently? I was going to post some from Notorious B.I.G. on here but they're even too offensive for me. Does that bother me? No--unless you're forcing it down my (and more importantly, my kid's) throat by cranking the stereo so loud that we can't hear our own thoughts. I guess I just didn't find what he said to be considered "hateful." Insulting? Oh yeah--but that's what his show does. No, those girls didn't need to be insulted--they did something that no other team at Rutgers had done in a long time. But I can find a whole lot more offensive things out there to be pissed about that no one seems to notice.

He'll get back on his feet--just ask Howard Stern. I just hate to see someone crucified for something so irrelevant.

Whew

Ok, deep breath.

I'm back, for the most part. For those who didn't figure out from earlier posts, I was the assistant chief planner for the trip that the President took to South America a few weeks ago. As a result, my life quickly spiraled into 14 hour days, six days a week, for about 5 weeks. Pretty out-of-control. What was cool was the level of involvement that I had--working with Secret Service and other major commands around the theater, and tracking hundreds of troops and equipment. In the end, it was a great experience--I learned an incredible amount, and my name got plastered in front of a huge number of high-ranking people. Awards followed, accolades, blah blah. In the end, a great (albeit exhausting) experience.

At the same time as all of this is going on, SW and I are valiantly trying to get our house on the market. When you throw 3 kids and a dog into the mix, it's like trying to push sand uphill. Sometimes we actually feel like the kids are trying to sabotage our efforts to get the house into a condition that we can comfortably show the house to others. We're not there yet, but we are close--which we need to be since it went on the market today. This has taken up pretty much all of our time when we're not working. We did manage to go to Disneyland--I'll post more on that later.

Last week I was TDY to Washington, D.C. at the Pentagon for a bunch of meetings. So that took me out of the picture yet again and pushed everything back yet another week.

Lastly, in two weeks Princess is making her First Communion, and SW and I are making our marriage official in the eyes of the Curch by having a small ceremony. When we actually got hitched eight years ago, we had it done quickly by a German JOP, with the intent of having a big wedding once we got Stateside. As we should've known, that never happened, and we've put it off year after year waiting for "the right time." Well, we'd like to take Communion with Princess, so apparently the right time is now.

All in all, a pretty crazy couple of months. I haven't had time to think about what to post, let alone actually write on here. But we have some pretty awesome things coming down the pike--mainly associated with us finally picking up and moving to the other side of the country. Hopefully I'll find the time to write on here as much as I can. Sorry about the ansence.

Stuck

Gotta break away to address this.

Apparently quite a few folks were stranded on their planes when a storm blew through (like they've been getting hammered this week). Some were stranded for as much as 11 hours. If I was in that situation, I'd be pretty pissed. Particularly if I had the monkies with me. But something you have to understand is where that anger should be directed.

Pilots like to get the mission done. At the same time, they don't like to sit in a cockpit on the ground any more than you like to sit in the back. So when a situation like this happens, it's usually not the call of the crew serving you--they tend to be just as pissed as you are.


There are so many other entities involved here--the company itself is a big one, but the airport drives a lot of what happens. Like when you pull from the gate 100 feet just to sit for 2 hours. The gate that plane is sitting at is likely needed for another plane just minutes after your scheduled takeoff. So, in order to keep things flowing, they order the airline to move the plane. If it happens to be loaded with passengers, then so be it.


I'm not sure what happened in New York. It could have been the airport, it could have been an airline getting schwacked that day (they cancelled around 50% of their flights due to weather), it could have been any number of things. But it wasn't the crew. I'm not a fan of rude stewards and stewardesses (Flight Attendant is a misnomer), who tend to have a high-and-mighty attitude. But it's not their fault if you get stuck somewhere.


So take it easy on them.

One-Armed Paper Hanger

Sorry for not posting--been pretty busy.

I'll catch up when things slow down.

Anna

I am having the week from hell...busier than I've ever been in this job. But I simply couldn't skip posting at least an acknowledgement about this one.

Finally something to get the whole NASA debacle off the television.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Anna Nicole Smith, the voluptuous former Playboy centerfold who married an octogenarian billionaire and waged a legal battle for his fortune all the way to the Supreme Court, died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 39.

The blond bombshell — who recently became tabloid fodder all over again after the sudden, apparently drug-related death of her 20-year-old son — was found unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, said her attorney, Ron Rale. She was rushed to a hospital.

Toys, Toys, Toys

I am so rich in toys right now that I can't stand myself. Our camera came in and, as expected, takes amazing photos on Auto. Since I'm pretty clueless as to how to take photos like a photographer, that's the best I'll be able to do for now. I've tried to learn a whole bunch of times, but the cameras I've had were never really that good to learn on.

For Christmas I got SW a Bluetooth headset and phone. The phone rocks--but I had heard that the headsets weren't that good. We finally tried it the other day, and were very surprised at how good they sound. So...off I went to Best Buy to get my own Bluetooth. I absolutely love it. I'm making so many calls right now that we may end up using our minutes for the first time ever. We're toying with the idea of not getting a home phone when we go to Montgomery, so we're trying to get into the practice of chraging our phones every day and actually answering them when they ring. Working good so far.

I also got a new case for my PSP that's making it a lot easier to listen to music and watch movies. I've been watching movies when I run on the treadmill and it's working out just fine. My Mom is in the works of getting a video iPod--but sticking to my anti-Apple views I'm keeping away from that for now. The new Zune's are getting horrible reviews, but they look cool in the store.

Lastly is the treadmill. We fell in love with a Reebok treadmill we saw in a sporting goods store. It's almost dead silent, and it has a 7" cable-ready TV screen embedded in the control panel. Has wild speakers on it, too. Add to that that the onboard computer has a gazillion (well, ok, seven) profiles to help you train and it's almost cause to get naked. I found it on Dick's Sporting Goods for cheaper than anywhere here, with free shipping. But I think we're going to have to reign in the post-holiday shopping spree until after tax time.

My Son's a Badass

I'm trying not to post specifically on photos here, since I just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get that cute little photo tab up there--but I couldn't resist this shot. It was taken by a mom in our TKD school that recommended the camera we bought.

It's the best TKD shot we've got of them in the last year--including the professional ones we had done.

Don to Earth

Wow, what a great blog.

I stumbled across Don to Earth, a blog written by a 93-year-old Canadian blogger. 93. Years. Like three times my age.

And you know what? He writes really well. Better than most bloggers I've read. In particular he wrote a post about dying recently, that was simply genius writing. It got Dooce-esque comments.

He's gained some pretty amazing popularity recently, so if you don't stop by now I'm sure you'll hear about him again soon. Drop by--it's well worth it.

Canon's Fire

She's on her way.



Much cheaper on Amazon than in the stores, by the way. And with no tax added. That's huge when the camera tops $700. It should be here around Valentine's Day. Hopefully now I'll be able to take pictures like this:















And this: