That's the ticket!

I feel like a teenager!!! I'll try to write a full review of the new Green Day album but let's just say...um, it ROCKS! I should probably state that I'm also quite a large fan...any who...

This morning, OhCountess agreed  to go to the July 11th concert at Target Center in Minneapolis! Tickets have been ordered!

W00T! W00T!

Now...where are my skinny ties and eye liner???

Such a sucker for pretty packaging

How long did anyone think I could hold out for the latest Green Day album? Thank goodness it was seriously on sale and I had some rewards bucks to spend...

My walk into work

I used to do this a lot. Let me know if you like or hate these.
Posting random pictures of the world around me with my cell phone is
fun.

This is the old main entrance to the hospital I work at. Seriously,
this campus is always beautiful.

Vaccinating your daughter

This was something I had originally written for the Stark Raving Dads blog. Unfortunately, Mr. Lady and BusyDad have been, um, busy. They never found another Dad to also answer. I had fun writing and researching the topic and didn't really want to see it languishing in the bottom of my gmail any more.

Without further adieu - (as submitted to Mr. Lady)

---

Here's the email I received:

To: OhCaptain
From: Mr. Lady

HPV vaccine. For or against?

Reply:

To: Mr. Lady
From: OhCaptain

For.

I remember thinking to myself. "Lord I hope this is about the human papillomavirus. I've heard of this one. Otherwise I'm totally busted as a bad dad for having no idea what she's talking about. I was quite impressed with our complete lack of filler words, like verbs.

From: Mr. Lady
To: OhCaptain

Maybe do you want to field a question on SRD dads about it?

Look! It's a verb! I'm still hoping this conversation is about the vaccine I've heard of.

I asked her for the actual text of the question for SRD's, This could be a way for me to get the details of the question without giving away the fact that there are about three vaccines that I will recognize from their abbreviations. Besides, I'd love to share my thoughts, I'll share my thoughts with anyone at any time whether they want to hear them or not.

From: Mr. Lady
To: OhCaptain

Yep, the whole question is "there's a lot of controversy about it. What are your thoughts?" In Canada, ever girl gets it in 6th grade. It's not an issue at all. The issue, I've found, is predominately American.

That sounds like the HPV I've heard of. It's had the lion's share of controversy. If it's a problem with controversy in the US, it's probably got something to with sex. Nobody does sex controversy like we Americans.

I think I know why she's asking me too! BusyDad doesn't have to deal with this, Fury doesn't have a cervix. They are looking for a dad with daughters not in those crazy mixed up teenage years...but a dad staring down the barrel of a needle in a couple of years and guess what, that's me. Our oldest daughter is 9. Oh, and I live U.S., I'm north of Toronto in a state commonly confused with Canada, but technically, we are Americans.

Something Mr. Lady may not have known is my wife, OhCountess, is a registered nurse currently in grad school working on a masters degree in nursing eduction (have you thanked a nurse today?). Which is great, cause she can help me answer this, except for the fact that she's in grad school and barely has the free time to breath.

In her typical busy fashion, she showed me a paper she wrote on this subject (how handy is that!). It's a place to start. Here are facts about HPV (taken from US Center for Disease Control):

• Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI).
• Genital warts. About 1% of sexually active adults in the U.S. have genital warts at any one time.
• Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, and another 6.2 million people become newly infected each year. (There are roughly 200 million people in the US)
• The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008, 11,070 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S.
• According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2004 Incidence and Mortality report, 11,892 women in the U.S. were told that they had cervical cancer in 2004,* and 3,850 women died from the disease. It is estimated that more than $2 billion† is spent on the treatment of cervical cancer per year in the U.S. (32% fatality rate)

So why wouldn't you want to immunize your daughter against this absolutely horrible virus? I did a little research and found 3 groups of people who refuse to vaccinate their daughters:

1. Freaked out conspiracy crackpots.
2. Religious anti-sex people who want no one having sex.
3. Parents that fear for the safety of their child.

Now, for the sake of brevity, let's just assume that no matter what the issue, Group 1 will exist. Conspiracy crackpots are every where. No use really wasting our breath on them.

Group 2. This is where we Americans really shine. America has a long tradition of believing that sex is the root of all evil. Now, I'm not going to be the one that's actively encouraging my daughters to have sex, they know that they aren't even allowed to look at boys until they've finished their 2nd PhD or turn 35, which ever comes later (boys are evil, I was one, I know). The argument about not vaccinating women is about control. If you prevent a woman from contracting this nasty disease, you've taken away one more reason why she should not have sex. If a woman doesn't fear cervical cancer, they are going to be having all kinds of steamy, nasty Spice channel sex every where.

I call bull shit. I just can never understand why you'd chose death over sex. You need to teach your kids valid reasons that they understand for not having sex early. Scaring kids doesn't work. Hell, I knew better then to ski straight down a black diamond trail because I could die. Um, maybe. But DAMN! That was fun. Kids try to cheat death. Deal with it.

Group 3. These are people whose hearts are in the right place. They are just worried that the risks associated with the vaccine are too great.

There is more then one blog in my blog empire. I have a daddy blog but I also have a poker blog. I love poker. Some of you may think of poker as just another casino tax on the statistically impaired, like the slot machines. Poker is actually a fantastic game that teaches you the skills of risk management and statistics. Poker winnings and losings are all about making good decisions. Over time, the person that makes the most correct decisions, wins.

So, how does this relate to HPV? Like many vaccines on the market today, there are risks. These risks range from tenderness around the injection site to possible death. I, for one, am not in favor of killing my children. They have their bad days, and despite what I might say, I love my kids more then life itself and want to make sure they way out live me.

According to the CDC, 6% of the approximate 10,000 adverse reaction that have been reported about Gardasil (the brand name for the vaccine) have been considered severe. Now, not all of these reports have been validated. So if we do the math, there have been about 20,000,000 doses delivered, that's 3 doses per person, for roughly 6.7 million people. So of those 6.7 million girls that got the vaccine,0.15% have reported a serious adverse reaction. That's in tenths of a percent.

Probably the most widely publicized side effect is the belief that this vaccine will trigger the onset of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). The likelihood that someone has the predisposition of this disease is 1-2 people out of 100,000. So if we look at those numbers, 200 of the people treated have a predisposition to this disease, not everyone of those people will actually have the disease triggered.

So, by refusing the vaccine, you believe that the 50% chance of contracting HPV is not nearly as significant as the .0001% chance of contracting GBS. In poker terms, you are making a bad bet. You are 5,000,000 times more likely to catch HPV then to get GBS. I just don't understand this thinking.

HPV is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Are we really treating our kids for a sexually transmitted disease? Well, yes. But when we vaccinate our kids for chicken pox or polio, we usually don't sit down with them explain how those diseases work or how you get them. In Canada, this is a required vaccine. Had the whole topic of how HPV spreads not been highlighted, no one would have really cared. It prevents one of the leading causes of death in women.

Personally, I say get your head out of your ass. I love my daughters. I hope that they never know what it's like to have cancer. This is just one step in that direction.

Saying goodbye to old friends

Imelda Marcos is a woman I have little in common with. I'm not a head of state. I've never been to the Philippines and I rarely own more then a handful of shoes at any given time. I think of shoes in a very utilitarian fashion. I have shoes for specific purposes.

I have work boots I use when I'm working around the yard, garage, mud, dirt, debris. These boots serve the purpose of taking the abuse. They are sturdy and I've been told, quite ugly.

I also own 2 pairs of athletic shoes. One pair because the gym here at work requires us to have dedicated shoes for their facility, bastages. My other pair is at home, in closet, waiting for me to wear them. I wear them in casual situations with jeans, shorts. They are white and comfortable. My wife tells me, well, they are plain.

I have 2 pairs of sandals. I know, I know, I might be a hippy. But one is leather. They are comfortable for walking, but I can't get them wet. The other pair are made of rubber, they can get wet but they suck for walking father then to the pool or the mailbox.

Last, there are the dressy shoes. Before meeting my wife, I had one pair of these. I had no idea you couldn't wear brown shoes ALL THE TIME! Now, I have 3 pair of dressier shoes. 1 brown, 1 black and one I wear every day. I'm cheap and those things are expensive. The brown ones I keep at work to wear when I have meetings. The black ones, well, I wear them with my suit, which is maybe semi-annually?
This story is about my every day shoes. They are brown, probably used to be dress, but they fit like an old pair of jeans.

Since taking this job, it's been business formal for me. Like I said, a good pair of classy dress shoes are spendy and I take public transportation to and from work. The bus stop I use in in the middle of a Wal-mart parking lot. I walk through mud, snow and rain on a regular basis.

The shoes you see on the right have been my best friends FOR YEARS.

They are pretty much waterproof, they really don't fear mud or dirt. Look at them. Would you notice if they were dirty? No.
Are they comfortable? Absolutely! Like a well worn pair of jeans. They just fit everything perfectly. My toes know their groove and the grooves know my toes. 

In the second picture, you can see where this relationship was starting to suffer. See those white spots. Not good. The edges of those holes were destroying every pair of socks I owned. This was seriously cutting into the frugality of the relationship. Buying a new pair of shoes is like giving up on an old friend. I'm a very loyal guy.

But this had to stop. Notice the heel? The hospital floors are made of polished granite and tile. Guess what happened when my shoes were wet? You got it! I slipped on my ass. My ass!

I loved these shoes. We'd been together for years. I actually don't remember buying them. It's kinda like your wife. It just seems like we've always been together. Joined at the foot.

Like I said earlier, I'm a very loyal guy. I resisted buying a new pair but choose to instead just make excuses. "They weren't all that bad," I'd tell myself. "Oh, those socks were just cheaply made." "If it wasn't raining, there's no way I slip on my ass."

I know, I needed to just be honest and admit that sometimes, shoes just wear out. Their time runs out and a new pair just has to be bought.

This past Sunday, for Mother's Day, we took OhCountess to an outlet mall north of the Twin Cities. With all this new found freedom, it's what she wanted to do. It's been a really long time since we've had time to just drive for 2 hours and go shopping.

While the Mrs. was drunk with excitement shopping at the Coach store, I stopped over to the Bass outlet, just to see. I needed a brown show that looked sort of dressy and it had to be waterproof.

As you can probably guess, I said goodbye to my old friends and put them out of their misery. We gathered around the trash bin filled with the remains of the graduation party and we said some kind words. These shoes were more then just leather and stitches. They were like an old friend that had worn out their welcome. Such melancholy filled my soul.

Below, you'll see a picture of the new shoes. My new BFF. Did I get to crazy with the style?

My wife is officially smarter then me

As I continue this journey through 2009, I'm finding time to be more precious then ever. In the last week, I apparently didn't post anything. I wanted to, I just found very little time to do much.

Let it be know that I love reading many blogs, but last week, I lost the battle. I filed for Google Reader Bankruptcy and hit the "Mark All As Read" button. I had fallen so far behind and realized that it was hopeless to delude myself that I might ever catch up. My free time has been measured in minutes lately.

About 3 years ago, my wife pitched an idea to me. "Honey, I'd like to go to grad school and get my masters, maybe my PhD." Interesting. Work will pay for most of it, so that's not much of a problem..."I will be writing a thesis and um, it's gonna be a huge time commitment."

So we'd sacrifice. It's her dream. "You wanna go back too?" she asked. "Are you insane? One stressed out parent is probably enough."

She went back to school. For the first year, it wasn't too bad. Then, it started, the thesis. Yikes. She cut her hours way back at work. Then the clinicals started. Those are hours spent working in a real world setting putting all this new knowledge to work. We missed her, but we knew there was a greater good.

At first, I would help with her homework. You know, I went to school too...but then, one day, it happened. I was proofreading her paper and there were these letters that looked like a word, but it didn't compute. Normally, I'd had enough foreign language that I could come up with some Latin equivalent and get close to the definition, but these words didn't crack so easy. It got to the point where I would just sound out the word so she would know which one and I'd ask, "Is this a verb? Cause if it is, you used it wrong, if it's an adverb your golden." I had no idea what it was she had written.

The last year of school was draining, for all of us. Seems like we could never catch our breath. But we made it through because almost 2 weeks ago, it was over. The thesis was sent to the printer and bound, the last presentation was delivered and the last paper written. She did. My wife completed her masters degree.

I was so happy. It was a day that field me happiness. I can't tell you how proud I am of her.

Last Friday, she graduated. I know there are people that think walking is silly and waste of time. We don't think so. Here's the pictures I promised last week.

That's my bride! This was at the hooding ceremony. When you get your masters degree, you wear a hood. The purple and white are the school colors.

Here's the official part. The hood is placed over my wife's head by one of the PhD's in charge of the program. This ceremony occurred before the big graduation. Each discipline has their own hooding celebration.

I got some pretty good seats for graduation, huh? You can see OhCountess. She's 3rd from us in the second row of Masters of Nursing students. Look close...she's the HAWT one!

No turning back now! They called her name and me the girls were so proud.

All week leading up to this, me and the girls were cooking up a plan. There was time between the hooding ceremony and graduation...we needed to get flowers for mom. OhPrincess1 got the honor of giving the bouquet to mom. I'm not sure who was more excited.

When it was all done, we got to stop for some pictures. Congrats honey! I'm so very proud of you!

Phase one was done. She got to walk through graduation. The next day, it was party time! I had cleaned the garage to a sparkling shine. Really, she was that clean. This picture was her cake. She wanted it to represent a party and a beginning to life after grad school. Not sure if you can read the wording in the middle. It says, "Welcome to free time". 

For the first time and 3 years, it's all about the free time. No papers. No presentations. No thesis.

Welcome back honey. Take a deep breath, kick your feet up and relax. You deserve it!

I'm so very proud of you! I love you!

Despite rumors to the contrary...

This thing does post! Sweet!

OhCountess has finished everything she required to receive her Masters degree in Nursing. Yep. I'm officially now in the club of men who's wives have proof they are smarter then them. She's got me out degreed...and I couldn't be prouder.

As awesome it is for her to suddenly have seemingly unlimited free time because the homework is missing, we are working hard to get ready for the graduation ceremony and the PARTY. Why is there so much work that leads up to a night of fun?

I haven't posted much lately. Not like there wasn't stuff on my mind...OhCaptain without words? HA! I really enjoyed watching the world wear masks and run in fear of the flu. I suppose it could have been much worse, but hey, we don't need no stinking evidence that the world is ending, we just need a cool name like swine flu. Sigh.

The great state of Minnesota is trying to stamp out online gambling in a way that should just help the rest of the world pile on to the stereotypes already assigned to us. Not only did the movies Fargo, and Grumpy Old Men make us out to be a bit slow in the head, we did elect a pro wrestler and comedian to positions of high power. Now, our state is attempting to use a law that has been soundly rejected in other venues to stop it's citizens from accessing websites that don't take their business anyways. You see, here in Minnesota, our politics are driven strictly by money. If you've got money, you get your way. We lack what others would call "principles".

Oh, that rant could go on forever. I tell you what. Over the next week, be prepared a few photo posts from my phone and quick jabs, things will be returning to normal here shortly. I have very proud husband photos to post on Friday...WAY TO GO HONEY!!! Stay tuned! In the mean time, just fill up my comments with what you are doing. Google Reader is very efficient at gathering articles I don't have time to read....sigh.

Happy Tuesday! I must be a bit frazzled, I'm listening to nothing but 80's alternative lately. Elvis Costello, The Clash, U2, The Cure. Heck, I even listened to the good B52's yesterday, you know the stuff that came out before Love Shack. Is there a song more over played? Nevermind, I just need to hit post...

A little something in our pockets

I was watching the Today show this morning, getting ready for work. Matt Lauer was interviewing this video blogger person that I missed the details of. The premise of the story was people were upset that a candidate for the prize of Miss USA answered a decidedly loaded question in a way that was offensive.

She was asked by Perez Hilton if she supported gay marriage.

To the politically correct hypocritists, there really is only one correct answer to this question. The art of this answer is how you get to "let everyone be".

Just let it be known for the record that I will probably never tell anyone what my opinion of gay marriage is. This post isn't about the answer. It's about the response to it. What she said wrong was she had an opinion that the Establishment has deemed incorrect. She has offended people that believe differently then her, so by offending someone has performed act considered deviant.

So, why is this hypocritical? Isn't marginalizing her opinion the same thing they are complaining about? The interviewee on the Today show said something that surprised me in it's blatant hypocrisy. He complained that she talked of her Christian values and was all "Jesus this and Jesus that". Why was he complaining? Because that was offensive to the Jews and the Muslims of the world.

WTF?

Why is the expression of one religion bad when the expression of the other religions good? Herein lies the problem with political correctness. Political correctness dictates that no group should be marginalized by another group. The only way that it is possible to enforce this is to marginalize someone and thus hypocrisy.

In British Columbia, Canada, an employee of McDonald's decided to sue the company because their hand washing policy violated her human right not to wash her hands. That's a link. You can read about it in great detail there.

Yes, it's more important that this one woman feel good about herself then it is for you to eat at McDonald's and not come down with whatever that was Bevis and Butthead were scratching. Who's hungry?

I found an article from a writer at the Campbell River Mirror, Sean Smith, called Everybody should have pocket copy of the Charter. He calls to action us common sense folks to do something extraordinary. Now, he's Canadian, they have a Charter, I'm sure that's more similar to our Constitution then it is to my Whiskey Club's rules, let's hope, but we could apply this to our Constitution and Bill of Rights as well. He suggests we carry a copy with us, a pocket version, and when someone complains about their rights being violated, whip that thing out and ask "Which one?"

Deafening silence.

I don't like hypocrisy. It's ugly. It's uglier then anything I can think of. Am I guilty of it? Sure. Is it impossible to avoid, maybe. Should we legislate it? How about we try not to. The funny thing about all of this is I really don't care about what her opinion of gay marriage is. She has one, she expressed it. Some people didn't like, others did.

We've come full circle in this nation. It once institutionalized bigotry and hatred. That was a horrible thing. Let's remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said August 28, 1963, 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I wonder if people really understand what that means. It seems to me, that today, we're only exchanging the 'color of the skin' concept and inserted other superficial traits. The content of the character is what's truly important. Not judging people by anything other. Alas, today, we judge people for all kinds of things, character is rarely one of them.

I'm guilty of being a male of nothern European decent. I'm also Irish and a geek and I paid my own way through college. I also speak a foreign language and I have a $5 bill in my pocket. I think woman are pretty. I don't like vegetables. I eat meat. I drink pop and beer and ethanol distillates. I break wind in public places. I'm sure I offended everyone by now. I represent all the evil in the world. Get rid of me and all will be better. You see, I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I'm most definitely not the status quo.

Perez Hilton asking that question is almost a vetting process in itself. It helps to discriminate against people based on their moral and religious beliefs. A candidate for Miss USA must accept certain moral and religious beliefs or at least tow the party line in order to win the crown. There was only one right answer to the people responding to her answer, but she stood by her beliefs.

Where do we want this nation to go? In British Columbia, McDonald's can no longer force an employee to wash their hands. It's offensive. What about the people who find dirty hands handling food offensive, who do we sue? My right to a life without food poisoning is being infringed.

I want to live my life in peace. Please respect that. Suck it up, turn the other cheek and move on.

Thanks to NapWarden at NapWarden Designs for the custom soap box graphics! You're awesome!

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford - Duh!

Who knew?

Getting foodie on a Sunday evening

How was your weekend? As you could probably tell, our date night ROCKED! Heart was a fantastic concert and I couldn't have had better company. OhCountess and I shared one of those rare evenings spending a little time alone together. You see, time has become very scarce.

OhCountess is counting the days to graduation. She's got 19 day until graduation. W00T! W00T! Unfortunately, that means everything is due. We get what time we can from her right now and enjoy it as much as possible.

Last night, we had a family wedding to attend. Today, OhCountess has been working hard on finishing her last paper. HER LAST PAPER. To cap off our weekend, we spent the day letting mom write the paper and dad and the kids cleaned the house. Our reward at the end of the weekend was preparing a feast suitable for eating on a blanket in the living room while watching one of our new favorite movies, Bedtime Stories.

That movie is just hilarious. I've always been an Adam Sandler movie fan, never seeming to get sick of watching Billy Madison, but Bedtime Stories is one of the few movies we can watch with the kids. Explaining why Chris Farley is kissing a giant penguin or why a guy with a potty mouth just punched Bob Barker can be so hard.

I would like to warn the vegans, those that are offended by SPAM or people thinking all foodie posts should be fine dining. The rest of this post is not for you. We are about to make an old OhCaptain family recipe - Spam Burgers.

When I was a kid growing up, there was one dinner that my grandmother would make that made my brother and I go crazy. We begged her to make us them when ever we were visiting.

Both of my parents grew up in Spamtown, USA. It wasn't until later in life that I actually found out that some people just don't get spam. To us, it was the main ingredient in one of our favorite dinners.

During the getting serious phase of dating my wife, she at first told me she would never eat these little round slices of goodness. Of course I talked her into trying one (I used the "you made me eat squid" line - they told me calamari was onion rings. That one still hurts). Her love for me grew. After eating her first, she too became a fan.
There was a time when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (she was 9 or 10 at the time) had come to live with us. OhCountess was working evenings and I decided to make my favorite childhood dinner. It's impossible to make a single serving of these, so a batch was made. I put 2 on a plate and brought them to our house guests. At first they said, "You're kidding, there's no way we are eating these."

I left the plate and told them to throw them away if they didn't want them but this was all I was making.

5 minutes later, my SIL returned the now empty plate and asked if I could make them some more. The rest is history.

You see, these aren't the prettiest things in the world and I'm quite sure they aren't health food but making them and eating them is always really easy. Here's the recipe:

• 1 can of Spam. We prefer the lite or low sodium varieties.
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup. Again, the light or low sodium is preferred. There will be plenty of salt...trust me. Besides, it's not a true Minnesota recipe without cream of mush.
• 1 6-8oz (170-225 g) brick of medium ore sharp cheddar cheese.

That's it. To prepare them, preheat your oven to 350° (177° C). While the oven heats up, put the spam and the cheese through a meat grinder. This is mostly to just schmooyee them together.

Once everything is ground up, add a can of cream of mushroom soup to the meat and cheese and stir until well blended. Spread on burger buns (we prefer the cheap ones, fancy ones just don't get crispy...go figure)

Bake for 10 minutes or until the spread starts to get gooey.

This is both OhPrincess1 and OhPrincess2's favorite dinner, just like their dad's and their uncle's. We have yet to serve these to anyone that have tried them and really didn't like them. A couple of vegans looked at them and thought we were the devil incarnate, but I could have served them a slow cooked slab of prime rib and got the same response.

The best part of spam burgers is we can do them together. I operate the meat grinder and the kids are in charge of spreading the love.

You know what, I think this is the first post I've ever done in the "Food Porn" category. hehe. 

I leave you with the only Heart video I could find from the last 2 or 3 years. Just in case you didn't know who they were...

What a show...here's the pics!

We posted pics to here and to Twitpic. Figured I'd also put up the pics we took with the better then our phone's camera camera.

Enjoy! (We did!)

Magic Man

Out on a date: Heart in Concert

The blue is the stage. The band will be Heart. Our 5 year old was
actually mad we didn't take her too. "Mom! They are one of my 2
favorite bands!"

Perhaps, Dad is play a wee bit too much Guitar Hero.

Tea Parties: Do the politians get it?

I've been watching the reactions to the Tea Party Day celebrated across our country. Reactions to the event have been quite surprising to me.

I've made no secret that my biggest issue in the last election was the economy. I watched President Obama make promise after promise and all just seemed to add to our nations debt. To me, this isn't a partisan issue. George W. Bush wasn't afraid to run up a debt either. He spent plenty of money on some truly horrible ideas.

So, on my local newspaper's website today is an article covering the local Tea Party gathering at a local park. Our newspaper is usually pretty balanced in their coverage. It's a fairly tech savvy group of writers over there. Several of them are active twitterer's.

One thing that struck me in the article, in some of the comments and from other areas of the US, is how this issue can be so blindly political. Pretty soon, this issue needs to move from partisan bickering to just plain mathematics and economics. Regardless of your political views, eventually, you can only spend what you make. Period.

But Olmsted County DFL Chair Lynn Wilson said the tea party was clearly a partisan event for economic conservatives.

"I wish these people had shown so much interest back during the last eight years when our budget deficit skyrocketed," Wilson said.

From this quote pulled from the above mentioned local article, I gather that the DFL just doesn't get it. I don't think they realize that people were upset about the spending during the previous administration, but the resposne we were getting from their party was "Tax cuts for 95% of Americans and free healthcare!" What?

In physics, as well as accounting, one law that never changes is the idea of balance in the system. In physics it's the law of conservation of mass/matter. Matter is neither created nor destroyed in a controlled system. It's only converted from one state to another. 

In accounting, 

Assets = Liabilities + (Shareholders or Owners equity)

So, OhCaptain, what the hell are you talking about?

Hopefully soon, our nation realizes that we need to live within our means. From what I've read, this was what the Tea Party movement is all about. We are increasing dramatically the Liabilities part of the equation without regard for what this does to the equation.

I took this chart from the Tax Policy Center website to show you the number that we really need to be thinking about. Our national debt's annual interest payments are now at 9% of our total budget. For every dollar you pay in taxes, 9 cents goes to interest.

Let's remember what interest is, it's money down the toilet. We pay interest because we borrowed money we didn't have to buy things we didn't need.

Our government has become a spending machine. George W. spent like a crazy man on "The Global War on Terror". A valiant effort, except for the fact that they have no idea where billions of dollars went.

One the economy tanked late last year, The Department of the Treasure was given a $700,000,000,000 to help save the financial sector. The most amazing fact of this bill? It has almost no oversight. The Treasury Secretary has final authority over its disbursement. That's $2,303.96 for every man, woman and child currently a resident in the U.S. and this wasn't even the beginning of the spending.

The stimulus bill passed by Obama and the Democrats totaled $819,000,000,000 and change. Running the math again (damn math), that's another $2,695.63/person living, right now.

Anyone think it would be a good idea to just right a check to everyone for $5,000? A check to a family of 4 would be $20,000. Not too shabby but quite possibly the dumbest idea ever.

This process is like a college kid getting a couple of credit cards. Sure, they have $10,000 in available credit and they will spend it, but come the 15th of the month when the bill comes, they still don't have a job and can't pay the bill. Spending this kind of money is just hitting the ATM every month with your credit card and living outside your means.

We have to quit spending. Period. Tax cuts won't help this problem. Bailouts won't help this problem. Spending less will.

I just don't see how someone thinks that because I want the U.S. government to live within it's means, I'm a radical right-wing extremist. I'm not. I'm a guy that wants a future for his kids where they can afford to enjoy themselves and not be burdened with the bills of our generation. The waitress is coming with the check and some one's gonna need to pay it? Who should it be?

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That's so beautiful, I'm tearing up.

Prepping for Easter: Community Ed Delivers

The lives at the continue to just be busy. OhCountess has just past the 4 weeks to go mark for her Masters degree. While it's great she's ALMOST done, it also means that everything is also due. 3 years of work. We are so very proud of her and we miss her.

Our community education programs are fantastic. There are many interesting choices for both personal and family time activities and learning. This past Thursday night was family time for us. I got to snap some pictures of my girls at work decorating stuff in preparation for Easter Sunday.

This class worked out great. It was egg decorating time. For our price of admission, each kid got a dozen boiled eggs. Then they had several tables set up, each with a different egg decorating kit on it. Wow. Was this fun. Here's the highlights in photos.

OhPrincess2 getting the stripes on this egg just right.

It was fun to watch them work so hard on getting each egg just right. OhPrincess1 had a plan for this green and blue one.

This table featured metallic paint. OhCountess and OhPrincess2 went to town making shiny eggs.

You want to see a 5 year old focused...I'm so proud of her getting this one just right.

One of the best things about being a dad is watching your kids grow creatively. OhPrincess1 did this one with blue polka dots and red dots made wispy. So COOOL!

One of the other projects was to decorate cloth "baskets". The hot glue guns were operated by grown-ups and the kids arranged the decorations.

The last activity of this class was an organized egg hunt. Not the ones we just decorated, but a whole new set. Each child was told that there were 13 eggs they could collect, but the catch was they could only collect only one egg of each shape/color. There were 3 different sized blue eggs, for example.

This event was a lot of fun for all of us. Everyone is still working on getting the dye off their hands. If this class is offered again next year, you can count us in. Tomorrow - we eat. Nummy hard boiled eggs.

Have a Happy Easter everyone!

Play Ball!

A rite of passage for a little girl

I've written about this before. In our house, we don't believe that you do things like pierce the ears of a child without their desire.

Our 9 year old has had her ears pierced for a while. Her mom was really excited when she wanted to get them pierced. For some reason, I wasn't. She passed the test which means she came to me on her own and had to ask me if she could get her ears pierced. I then proceeded to grill her with a series of questions that are both scary (Do you know that this will hurt?) to showing signs of resposibility. When she succeeded, I knew my baby girl was growing up. I hate that.

Our 5 year old has been asking to get her ears pierced for a while now. She's even passed the interview with daddy. Finding the right time to do it was proving to be a challenge.

For little girls, it was suggested that we do this at a time when the store had two staff available. That way, each ear could be pierced simultaneously. Not a bad idea.

Now - a rite of passage for a little girl: in pictures

This week was spring break. Mom had a lighter load at school and the local Claire's had 2 staff working Friday afternoon. The chair you see here was ready and the time was right.

She chose her big sister as the person she wanted to hold hands with. She was a little scared but to say she wasn't excited would be a colossal undersatement.

Her hair was pulled back revealing the smile that had been on her face since we told her where she was going. She so wants to be a big girl.

She was really trooper and just sat so still while the clerk marked the spot. It took a couple times to find the right spot everyone agreed on. She didn't wiggle a bit. I didn't even know that was possible.

There's that smile. I think she's ready!!!

All done! Look the smile is still there. All looks good.

Well, she held her smile for a minute. And that's the full 60 seconds, but the waterworks did finally start. She was so brave for sooo long! My heart broke.

But in the end, my baby girl became a little girl. She's really happy with the results and has been going out of her way to make sure everyone knows. She's a big girl now...look! Can't you see my ears?

Awards: Yeah!

Back on November 17, 2008, WeaselMomma, Father of Five and Dmarks took the time to remember me and listed me as the recipient of several awards. I had written these up, but never got to posting the nice pictures that go with them.

Having a memory that's some where between a sieve and a steal trap. I had never forgotten that I had these pictures out there that needed posting.

This time, I think the steal trap was working because I just really didn't want to forget. They are pretty cool.

---

Michelle, from over at Confessions of a Desperate House Wife, list me on as a Kreativ Blogger Award recipient.

Now, this was from a post on April 1. There is a chance that his is an April Fools joke, and I'm the butt of said joke...but I'm running like I ain't.

The rules:

1~ I share with you seven things that I love

2~I nominate seven other bloggers for the honor

Seven Things I Love:

1. Dancing with the devil in the pale moon light. No, wait, that would be the Joker from the Tim Burton "Batman" movie. I know...I love movies! Not slasher movies, or movies that involve entirely too much romance. Good movies. Funny movies. Movies where things go "BOOM!" I'm also a sucker for really good animated kid movies.
2. Music. Need I go on here? If you read any of my tweets on Twitter or random posts around here, you'll find out, I love music.
3. Hugs.
4. Quiet walks holding hands with my wife. I know, I'll go get a room.
5. Being amazed by my kids. They amaze me all the time, but I never get sick of it.
6. Laughing with friends. Be it hanging with the guys over a card table, stinking up the burban on the drive back from the cities...Laughing is great.
7. I love my family. My wife, my kids and the rest of the people that share our bloodline. You know who you are :-)

Now, who to list that doesn't already have this? I'm gonna have to research this a little. Or, I could just assume that since you read this, you have to be a kreativ blogger. I know you come here to make sure your blogs are better then the worst of them...I set the bar soooo high :-)

1. MumblingSages: great guy and I bet he's never been memed.
2. Carrie: she tells great stories of her kids.
3. Reggie Girl: She averages about 10 pictures per post. Seeing her hometown through her eyes is a blast.
4. Tom: Being Michael's Dad
5. Father of Five: You had better already be reading him
6. Gail: Squared off yet curvy - she's across the pond and busier then me.
7. YOU - go tag yourself! You know you deserve it!

There are so many deserving blogs, really, if you see your blog in the blogroll on the right...your tagged. If I'm missing your blog...let me know.

Taking a break

OhCountess is giving a presentation at work today, so for an hour, I
got play with the kids. I love working :-P

Need more time? Gmail to the rescue!

I've really been struggling lately to find time to do anything. My blogs need attention. My camera and photos need attention. I don't remember the last time I got my sock drawer organized. I think my kids have grow, I wouldn't know if they have. I just don't have time!

Calgon. Take me away!

When I opened Gmail this morning, I got the best present a busy professional, father, husband, blogger and social networking guru could ever ask for.

I've got a new assistant!

Gmail introduces Gmail Autopilot. This is from the announcement:

The easiest email could possibly be.

As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.

Yes folks, they were listening. Epic Win! Truly intelligent auto-responding email that's even adjustable. Personalized, computer generated responses to email.

You've got to check it out for yourself. Could it be too good to be true?

Thank you Google!

BTW - Happy Day After March 31st!