A New Life

MSM is porked!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:49:00 +0000

Swine Flu!!! Swine Flu!!! Swine Flu!!!
PANIC!!! PANIC!!! PANIC!!!

Does this sound like SARS? or Shark Attack Summer of 2001? or West Nile Virus? or Bird Flu?

So, here are the stats:

Twenty-six people have died of Swine Flu! TWENTY SIX!!!
Over nine months, SARS killed 775 people in the whole world.
Over the summer of 2001, 5 people died from unprovoked shark attacks around the US.
West Nile Virus killed 124 people in the US in 2007.
248 people have died from Bird Flu...in the world...ever.

It is horrible that these people are dying, certainly...but the amount of crap in the news about these horrible pandemics is really just silly.

Did you know:

36,000 people die each year in the United States from the simple flu.
39,800 peopled died in car crashes in the US last year. This was the least number of deaths (as a percentage of population) since the 1920s.
6,790,062,216 people live on this planet right now. So, the chances of you dying from Swine Flu is approximaitely 1 in 261,156,239. You are more likely to die from being struck by lightning...indoors.

Seriously...stop listening to the idiots on CNN and FOX and television and get on with your lives.

...updated...

Weight Loss Update

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:43:00 +0000

Lost 0.6 pounds this week.
Lost 1.0 pounds last week.
I currently weigh 191.8 pounds.

Not getting as much exercising in as I had hoped for. Lame excuses like interviews and networking sessions have interfered. I will have a better plan for this next week and in the weeks to follow. Jamie convinced me to sign up for the BikeMS: Tour de Farms 2009, a 2-day, 150-mile bike ride to support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. So, I have until June 12-14 to prepare for a 75-mile bike ride followed by another 75-mile bike ride the next day. I have NEVER ridden 75 miles on one day in my life...so, I need to get preparing for this.

Life is really good these days...more details to follow...

Be well.

In one ear...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:24:00 +0000

A couple of days ago, I got an ear infection in my left ear. There is nothing particularly unusual about that. I get them every once in a while...there is a little pain, the pain goes away...and we are done.

So, the infection was progressing as usual...I have the ear pain for a day, and then the pain vanishes.

But, this time, after the pain disappears, something weird starts to happen. All the high-pitched noises that I am hearing are accompanied by an echo, about half-a-second later, in my left ear.

I first noticed it with the cats. When Oreo is screaming for his dinner, he is singing in a chorus, like those famous Buddhist Throat Singers, but with even less appeal.

Then, I noticed that when DS was asking for his Cheerios cereal in the morning, he seems to be asking for it twice.

Then, the worst started to happen. I started to hear music with the extra added echo....and what is worse, the echo is about 1/2 a tone lower than the original music, so all music sounds cacophonous, like the famous Share and Enjoy jingle from the hugely successful Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints division.

Okay, now it is time to see the doctor.

So, I went to see my doctor today. Basically, he told me to "suck it up". The infection is gone and my ears will clear up shortly. He gave me some nose-spray and told me that the echo would be a round for a couple of days...or weeks...or months. It was nothing to worry about.

Well, I am happy that it is nothing to worry about, but I miss listening to music in the car. I have no problems with headphones (the echo does not seem when I am listening to my iPod), but the music in the car is downright painful...well, not actually painful, but perfect tritone painful.

Best Benefit

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:20:00 +0000

So, one of the many amazing things about Sears was how extraordinarily bad its Benefits package is/was.

As I said, I started with Sears right after Amy and I got married and so we compared our benefits, what we could get with Sears versus what we could get through OfficeMax. In EVERY case, the OMX benefits were better: Medical, Dental, Eyeware, Life Insurance. Everything. And it wasn't just that OMX's bennies are so good...it was really about how bad the Sears benefits were/are.

So, I tell you that I went to my orientation meeting with the outplacement firm that Sears had provided to the laid-off workers with some trepidation. Gee, if Sears is giving us this "Benefit", it must really suck.

Based on my experience today, I was completely wrong.

Sears provided us with 3 months of outplacement service with Lee Hecht Harrison. When I told Amy about this service, she was impressed. "These guys are big in the outplacement world." But, it was Sears, so I had my doubts.

But today was a wonderful experience. It was a 2 hour orientation meeting. The director of the office presented us with everything that LHH's offers (and everything that they don't). He was straight with us about the job market and about what we were going to need to do to find ourselves new jobs. He presented a roadmap for how to get things done, scheduled us into resume workshops, interview workshops, and 1-on-1 meetings with our consultants.

I came away from the meeting feeling pretty good...heck, I came away from it feeling better than I felt coming away from my Sears Orientation.

So, as it turns out, the Best Benefit you can get from Sears is the Benefit they give you when they lay you off.

Who would have guessed?

What a pleasant surprise

I am back...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:31:00 +0000

So, where have I been, you ask?

This has been a very complicated year for me.

Last October, I got married to my lovely wife Amy. We have a fantastic son, who we will call DS (Dear Son) until he tells me that he is comfortable broadcasting his name to the world.

In preparation for the marriage, I decided to look for a new job. I have been a technology consultant for most of my adult life, traveling around the country (heck, around the world) to do my job....and as a single guy, it was pretty okay. But, it is not the life for a married guy and it is definitely not the life for a father of a six-year-old. So, I decided to look for a job in industry, something nearby, something stable, something where I could be home every night and every weekend with my family.

I got an offer at Sears to be a "Delivery Manager" in their e-Commerce group, to manage the delivery of a PIM application for Sears' merchants and Sears' vendors. Heck, what could be more stable than Sears? What could be more "establishment" than Sears? I took the job, and I started the Monday after I got back from our Honeymoon.

The job sucked up my life...completely. I carried a Blackberry, that I could not put down for fear of missing an important email at 11pm or at 5am. I might get scheduled into a meeting at 10am on a Saturday morning...or 8pm on Sunday night. It was worse than the worst consulting gig, because, when you are a consultant, you know that the gig will eventually end and you will be moved onto another project, possibly with a more reasonable client. But when you ARE the unreasonable client, there is no end in sight...ever....

Well, except when they lay you off on the day before your birthday.

So, I am jobless now. And while I cannot say that I am happy about being without a job, I can say that I am happy about being without that job.

I have put on 24 pounds in the last year. I attribute all of that gain to stress eating related to the job.

So, I am back...back with my family...back with Weight Watchers...back with a sense of who I am and what I want.

The job hunt is in progress and seems good so far...(said while knocking on wood). I will let you all know how it goes.

The weight-loss is in progress and also seems good so far...(said while knocking on something low-fat and high-fiber...perhaps wood). I will keep you updated on that as well.

Be well...I know I am going to be.

VOTE!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:37:00 +0000

Find out where you should vote here.

Who you should vote for here. (Hint: Obama)

But, any way you want to vote, make sure you get out and do it....

VOTE!!!

Republicans are so funny...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:40:00 +0000

...but only in hindsight.

Oh, and this non-girly-man might need 7 billion dollars for his state from the Federal Government...now that is faith in free enterprise...

Politics, as usual

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:08:00 +0000

Thanks to Lee for finding this for me. :)

Also, this:

"Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is independent"

from the AP.

And according the my friend Mark Barker (and a check of the wikipedia), Rachel Maddow has her own show on MSNBC!!!

"It was announced on August 19, 2008, that Maddow will take over the 9 pm ET time slot on MSNBC on September 8, 2008, replacing Dan Abrams."

YIPPEE!!!

Mac Daddy

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Father's Day has definitely become my favorite holiday.

Last year, my lovely wife and son got me a bike with a tag-along. It was awesome!!!!

This year was even better. Amy and DS gave me three gifts, and they all rock.

My first present was Feasting on Asphalt: Season 1. I had seen most of the show when it was on the air, but I never caught it all and Amy has recently caught the Alton bug, so it was a great idea for us to own it. It is amazing. The third disk, which is all outtakes, is wonderful, sometimes even better than the show itself

My second present was a collection of Bach Cello Suites done by John Williams, this amazing classical guitar player. More awesomeness.

Of course, the third present was the most amazing of them all. Mike Feldstein and Lee Moyer will be very happy to know that I am the proud owner of a MacBook!!!! Yippee!!! Shiny White laptoppy goodness. I have been so busy getting my officework done at home since we bought it on Sunday that I am just getting to play with it now...and it is wonderful. OSX is so very cool.

I love my wife. I love my son. I love being the Mac Daddy.

Yay for me.

My Son, The Astronaut

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:47:00 +0000

I was eleven years old and my brother and I were at a Funfair on Wimbledon Commons with some friends from school. My friends Ronnie and Randy convinced me to go on the Tilt-A-Whirl. I had been smart enough to avoid rides like that most of my life, but somehow these devils in my ear convinced me to go. It started out well enough...lots of speed and excitement...but then there was the nausea. Oh, yes, the nausea. Mom came to pick us up at the fair and commented that I looked a little green. I was. I was sick, very sick, and I knew two things:

No one was ever going to convince me to go on a Tilt-A-Whirl again.
My career as an astronaut was over before it had begun.

I like fairs and amusement parks, but I like the rides that go up and down (Rollercoasters et al) and I do NOT like the rides that go round and round.

Amy is pretty much the same way, certainly not as bad as me, but definitely not "Right Stuff" material.

My son, on the other hand, has all the makings of the next Chuck Yeager. Last year, we went to a Fair in Wheaton and he dragged us both onto the Tilt-A-Whirl (twice) and he dragged Amy onto the Round-up as well. Amy and I were wiped out, but DS just loved it. He has asked "when are we going to the rides again" every couple of weeks since them.

Well, it is Fair-season here in Chicagoland, and we took him over to the Glenn Ellyn fair last month and to the Carol Stream today. Again, he dragged us onto all the spinny rides, getting both of us dizzy as all heck. He, on the other hand, is giggling his way through the fun. When he asked to go on the Round-up for the third time today, Amy (who was a troopers and went with him on both of the first two excursions) and I agreed that DS could ride it BY HIMSELF. He had a great time.

So, NASA, if you are listening, DS loves his math and his science, he is a whiz with puzzles (ask me about his "Rush Hour" skills) and he does not seem to have ANY motion sickness issues. He is definitely your man.

Joss is another word for God

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:34:00 +0000

My friend Mike sent me a link to a conference that he thought was interesting and he thought we might all be interested as well. It is a 3-day conference going on right now at Hendersen State University, where 90 academic papers about "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" are being discussed.

I have been taking the train to work downtown every day, and the train trip is about 42 minutes long, just long enough for a one-hour TV show without those pesky commercials, and I have been re-watching Buffy for the last couple of months. I am now in the middle of Season 6 and I heartly declare again "Joss Whedon is a God."

Yes, I know....Buffy jumped the shark at the end of Season 5...or actually the beginning of Season 6, but one of my favorite episodes, "Once More, With Feeling", is in the middle of Season 6, after the shark has been jumped...Even at his worst, he is so much better than almost anything else on Television.

This is the man who brought us Buffy, who brought us Angel, who brought us Firefly, who brought us Serenity....oh, yeah, and he is about to bring us "DollHouse".

I cannot wait.

Cuckoo Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:41:00 +0000

This is DS's birth month, and it is a month of celebration for all of us. We have the party with his classmates at Chuck E. Cheese this Saturday and the big event with Uncle Ted and Granny and Grandma and Grandpa Rosen over the Memorial Day Weekend.

While we were down visiting Grandma and Grandpa Rosen down in Florida for Spring Break, DS fell in love with Mom's Cuckoo clock. Every hour, when every clock in the house would go off (Mom and Dad have a collection of Grandfather clocks, Station Clocks, and other chimy timekeeping devices), DS would camp out at the Cuckoo, watching the little "Penguin" pop in and out with the chimes.

When we got back from Florida, we found a website with a collection of Cuckoo clocks with videos, and he became a connoisseur: he likes the Dancers and the Woodcutters and the Children Fighting (the beer-drinkers banging their beer steins) and theWheels and...

So, when it came time for Amy and I to get DS a present, it was obvious what we needed to get for him. And it arrived today.

We set it up in the living room, and our little man could not get enough of it. It went off at 7pm, but he was in the bathroom so he missed it. We reset the clock so he could see it go off. We were sitting on the couch reading Green Eggs and Ham when it went off at 8pm. He ran into the living room, his face aglow with the excitement of the dancers and the wheel and the cuckoo!!!

Big success!!

So, it was a cuckoo evening for all of us. Yippee!!!

(Not Really) Lazing on a rainy Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:51:00 +0000

DS is off with his biological father (X, to you readers of Amy's blog), so Amy and I are just hanging around the house, getting stuff done.

It is a warm but rainy Saturday afternoon. Amy is busy getting her homework done. I am busy cleaning the library and ripping more of my CDs to the iPod. We are listening to Bach's Mass in B Minor as performed by the Bach Ensemble, one voice per part instead of the usual huge choir with soloists version.

Life is quiet but good. I am happy to be home with my wife. I am bummed that DS is not here with us, but we will get to see him tomorrow.

Five Years Ago...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Five Years Ago today, the War In Iraq was over. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

As of today, 4061 American Troops have died in Iraq, 97% of them AFTER the mission was accomplished.

Let's end this endless war. Let's end this war now, before McCain commits us to the next hundred years of war.

Yes, I am back, and I promise to start blogging again.

My home life is wonderful. My weight maintenance is still on-track. Things are good. I keep finding excuses to not-blog...and that has to end. As we enter the sixth year since the war ended, I will see what I can do to post every day...if only just a little thought.

I will catch you up on all the things happening in my life in the next couple of days. For now, know that I have missed you all and that I will make it all up to you.

Be well,

H

Two Things

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:03:00 +0000

First: Go Giants!!!

Second: Ouch!!!

The Year That Was

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:59:00 +0000

Okay, okay...it has been a long time since I posted. I am officially sorry. Life is a little crazy right now, but I thought it was time to do the 2007 retrospective...yeah, I know, I couple of weeks late. Get over it :)

At the start of 2007, I am living with Amy and her wonderful Dear Son (who is known as DS to some of you) in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. I am working for Crowe Chizek as a technology consultant, traveling around the country building software applications for Crowe's clients. I weigh 181 pounds, having lost 236 pounds in 534 days of weight loss.

January 13, 2007: I propose to Amy and she says "Yes!" We begin planning for our wedding on October 13th of 2007.
January 20, 2007: Lilly Frances, daughter of Keith and Laurie Vaden, is born. Everyone is doing fine and my niece is beautiful.
February 1, 2007: I turn 42. I fit into a Small Jacket for the first time in my adult life and I am wearing a pair of 29x30 jeans. I am now officially half my size, having started my weight loss with a 58 inch waist.
March 24, 2007: Amy's birthday. Amy and DS and I travel down to Florida for the celebration of my mother's 65th birthday. Amy re-meets Jeff and Laurie (my brother and sister) and meets Keith and Lilly (brother-in-law and neice) and Lisa (Jeff's significant other). And everyone gets to meet DS. A good time is had by all. DS has a great time, calling out for "Uncle Jeff" and "Uncle Keef" at every opportunity.
April 21, 2007: I hit my goal weight of 167 pounds. I have lost 250 pounds over 646 days. Now, the hard part begins...maintenance.
May 8, 2007: I begin a new project in Columbus, Ohio. While I am a traveling consultant, I have been lucky to have not really done any traveling while working at Crowe. Being away from Amy and DS really sucks.
June 8, 2007: We celebrate my first Father's day. We celebrate early since DS will be with his biological father on the official Father's Day. Amy and DS have bought me a bicycle with the coolest accessory ever...the tandem bike for DS. Riding with my little man and my amazing woman is awesome...and it begins my love of cycling.
June 9, 2007: I hit lifetime at Weight Watchers. Yippee!!!
June 28, 2007: The project in Columbus finishes. I have been there 4-days a week since it began and it is now over. Amy and I decide that it is time to start looking for a new job. Travel no longer holds the allure that it once did. While I do enjoy traveling with my family, I really do not enjoy going somewhere and leaving them behind. The job search begins.
July 2, 2007: I celebrate 1 year in Chicagoland.
July 14, 2007: I celebrate 2 years since I started my weight loss. The French celebrate 318 years since the storming of the Bastille.
July 23, 2007: I celebrate 1 year since my first re-date with my fiancee, Amy.
August 7, 2007: Sears Holdings contacts me about a job as a Delivery Manager in their eCommerce group.
August 24, 2007: I interview with Sears Holdings at their eCommerce office down on State Street in the Loop.
September 20th, 2007: I get a job offer from Sears Holdings. I will be a Delivery Manager for their eCommerce group, working on their Item Content Management team.
September 29, 2007: I travel back to Virginia for Mike and Laurel's wedding. They have a wonderful wedding and I am thrilled to be a part of it. Plus, I get to see a whole bunch of friends from back East who I haven't seen in quite a while. And, I get to go visit with my friends at GW Hospital.
October 10, 2007: My last day at Crowe Chizek. Those people who have not yet left take me to the India House.
October 13, 2007: Amy and I get married at the Barn of Barrington. Aaron officiates. Jeff is my Best Man. Aundria is Amy's Maid-of-Honor. DS was Mr. Adorable. I am a happy, happy man.
October 15, 2007: Amy and I go to Vancouver, BC, for our honeymoon. It rains and rains and rains. We have a wonderful time.
October 22, 2007: I start work at Sears Holdings.
November 22, 2007: My first Thanksgiving with the family. I cook Thanksgiving dinner for Amy, DS, and Amy's dad, Sherman. And, it is a healthy, Weight Watchers friendly, Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome, if I say so myself.
December 25, 2007: My first Christmas with the family. We have set up a really nice Christmas tree. We bought the tree from Kmart (with my employee discount...teehee) and the ornaments from Home Goods (with a wedding-gift gift card from there...yay!!). DS had a great time decorating the tree. Now, he has a great time unwrapping the gifts from Santa. Santa bought him a VSmile, an educational video game, which has since consumed his life...
December 31st, 2007: Amy and I celebrate our first New Years as a married couple by painting our bathroom, a disastrous project that you can read all about on Amy's blog.

So, that was my year. Hopefully, I will post again before we get to the next New Year...one can only hope. :)

Be well,

H

Halliburton: Gang-Raping America, one person at a time...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:19:00 +0000

Oh...my...god...

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

My sympathies go out to Jamie Leigh Jones, a woman who was doing her job in the KBR facility in the Green Zone in Baghdad. She was raped by multiple men, put under guard in a shipping container by her employer, KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary. She was told that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job. She was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, until a sympathetic guard lent her a cellphone to call her Dad in Texas.

Oh, and this happened two years ago and the Justice Department has not filed ANY charges!

They cannot, because of the ass-backwards rules we have about oversees contractors (see the Blackwater s**t-storm for more details). She can only file a civil suit, which she has done. KBR has moved for Jones' claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom. It says her employment contract requires it.

Oh yeah, and...

In arbitration, there is no public record nor transcript of the proceedings, meaning that Jones' claims would not be heard before a judge and jury. Rather, a private arbitrator would decide Jones' case. In recent testimony before Congress, employment lawyer Cathy Ventrell-Monsees said that Halliburton won more than 80 percent of arbitration proceedings brought against it.

When will this end...

[[...sigh...]]

Oh, by the way, I am alive and well and not working for Halliburton.

I love my live, but I am super-busy right now.

I promise I will post again soon.

My Awesome Life

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:45:00 +0000

Okay.

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to post.

Life keeps getting better and better and it is hard to find the time to write it all down. But, in the interest of keeping you all up-to-date, I will give you a summary now and then fill in all the details in the next couple of days.

I am married. I married the woman of my dreams, surrounded by my friends and family. I will write all about it soon, but in the meantime, go read Amy's wonderful post about the wedding. I love that woman.
We went to Vancouver, BC, for our honeymoon. It was an absolutely fantastic trip. I will also write about it soon, but, again, in the meantime, go read Part I of Amy's wonderful post about the honeymoon. Have I said that I love that woman.
I started my new job this week and it has been great. I love the work, I love the people, I love working downtown (and out in Hoffman Estates), and I really love being home with my family. I will post something about this as well.

So, I owe you three posts...and they are coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, go read Amy's blog....she is a great writer...and I love that woman...but I repeat myself.

I love my life.

The Softer Side of...

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:52:00 +0000

Okay.

I promised some news and here it is.

"As many of you know, I’m soon to be married and will become a husband and father for the first time. The joy of this change is tempered, however, by concerns over being away from my family during out-of-town engagements. After much careful and difficult consideration, I have decided to resign my position with Crowe Chizek. My last day with the firm will be October 10th, 2007.

"I have accepted a position managing a web development team for a large local retailer in the Loop . It's a good opportunity for me, and it allows me the ability to be home with my family every night."

Well, the "large local retailer" is Sears. Yeah, I know they are a national retailer...heck, an international retailer...but they have a large presence here is Chicagoland. I will be working downtown as a Delivery Manager in their eCommerce group and I will start there after we get back from the Honeymoon.

No more consulting. No more travel. Home with my family!!!

Yippee!!!

Getting Ready

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:57:00 +0000

Sorry that it has been so long since I posted.

Things have been kind of hectic in my world, as you might have guessed.

Last weekend, I was in Virginia.

I stayed with the Hanson-Walker clan. I got to go into the Hospital and visit my friends at the George Washington Hospital Weight Management Program. I got to say hello to Dr. Frank and I got to pick up my before picture, which I will be posting to my Flickr site shortly.

And then I got to go to a wonderful wedding. Mike and Laurel had their nuptials at the Cabell's Mill in Centerville, VA. Laurel looked radiant. Mike looked dapper. Ben officiated with grace and skill. It was a really fine time.

Watching Laurel and Mike go through their wedding and getting to be a small part of it was so cool. I was the Best Man at Aaron and Jane's wedding and the Best Man at Tom and Mary's wedding, but it was different then. Rather, I was different then. I didn't really get how hard it was to pull all of it off, to get it all together and make it work. I have been a project manager for most of my adult life, but this is different. Managing your own project, and a project that is just THAT important to you, is a different thing entirely. So, being a part of Mike and Laurel's wedding was really nifty because I got to "watch", to see Mike and Laurel manage all those things, to get everything together, to rally the troops to go out and get more ice, tie those bows, restart the music on the iPod, et al. Oh, yeah, and do all this and also manage to bask in the glow and the excitement of marrying your love. Mike and Laurel handled it beautifully. And I got to watch, and take notes, and learn from their experiences so that I can try to make our upcoming nuptials as great an experience as their's was. Thanks guys. You really helped.

This past weekend, Amy and I were ready and prepared to do some of our last-minute wedding things...but we didn't need to. We have almost everything taken care of. So, we went out and did a little shopping on Saturday. Sunday, my brother Jeff and his girlfriend Lisa came into town. Since these were our first Wedding guests, Amy and I went into the city and gave them a little bit of the Chicago tour. It was butt-kicking hot downtown, but we had great time down at the Millineum Park, checking ot the Bean and the Picasso and the various other architectural landmarks.

So, the wedding week has begin. Mom and Dad come into town on Wednesday. And then the happy avalache of people start showing up on Thursday and Friday. Yippee!!!

Oh, yeah, and I will have other news for you on Wednesday. Good news, I assure you. And, no, we are not pregnant, if that is what you are thinking. :)

I am a happy, happy guy!!!

"Childrens do learn"

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:20:00 +0000

...and Dubya does not.

Talking about "No Child Left Behind" to a bunch of New York schoolkids yesterday, our glorious president said:

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."
My pal Mike, who is getting married this weekend, just loves to send me these "Bushisms" and so I am happy to return the favor.

Baghdad Burning

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:19:00 +0000

I consider myself well-read.

Okay...Stop snickering...

Well, I just found Riverbend's blog, Baghdad Burning. She is a young Iraqi woman who is/was living in Baghdad since the US occupation. She started her blog in October of 2003 and has been writing about it ever since.

Here is what she says about herself....

"A little bit about myself: I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. ...
A lot of you have been asking about my background and the reason why my English is good. I am Iraqi- born in Iraq to Iraqi parents, but was raised abroad for several years as a child. I came back in my early teens and continued studying in English in Baghdad- reading any book I could get my hands on. Most of my friends are of different ethnicities, religions and nationalities. I am bilingual. There are thousands in Iraq like me- kids of diplomats, students, ex-patriots, etc.

"As to my connection with Western culture… you wouldn’t believe how many young Iraqi people know so much about American/British/French pop culture. They know all about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt, Whitney Houston, McDonalds, and M.I.B.s… Iraqi tv stations were constantly showing bad copies of the latest Hollywood movies. (If it’s any consolation, the Marines lived up to the Rambo/ Terminator reputation which preceded them.)

"But no matter what- I shall remain anonymous. I wouldn’t feel free to write otherwise. I think Salam and Gee are incredibly brave… who knows, maybe one day I will be too. You know me as Riverbend, you share a very small part of my daily reality- I hope that will suffice. "

I am in the midst of reading her blog and it is amazing. I suggest you do the same and start at the beginning.

Or, heck, just go buy the book of her blog.

Happy Labor Day

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:23:00 +0000

"There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a Union

"Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir

"The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a Union

"Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?

"Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union

"The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union."

- Billy Bragg

YARGSS

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:46:00 +0000

Yet Another Republican Gay Sex Scandal...

From Roll Call:

A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.

YARGSS!!!

Happy Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Howard) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:41:00 +0000

Alberto Gonzalez resigned.

Of course, when you ask him tomorrow, I am sure that he will have no recollection of resigning.

Gee, and on a Monday morning...

I am sure more feces will be hitting the rotatory air circulation device before the week is out.