Transition from Winter to Spring

Here we are in that space in Texas where it's cold some mornings - with grey skies, and then some that are bright and sunny and leaning towards hot. It's pretty dramatic the difference between the two.

I've been conflicted this whole primary season. I've always thought it would be great to have a woman president and to that end - I've been a Hillary supporter. But of course Barak is a breath of fresh air from traditional career politicians. Sigh. Then there's the whole experience question. Which, of course - some downplay. But with the state of affairs in the world - particularly the goodwill this administration has squandered internationally - I don't think the experience factor can be completely discounted. However it pans out (my hopes for Hillary are actually only slim - I think she's near concession), I'll support whomever the Democratic nominee is.

Here's some pics. Here's Johnny clean shaven. I was trying to get a snapshot of him with his sporty-goatee. Which I think he had for a day. But, ya gotta be quick I guess.

I went to the Barak headquarters doing some volunteer work. Yes, I know I just said I supported Hillary - but I'm surrounded by Barak-stars and they dragged me down there. Like I said, I don't dislike Barak at all! So, it was nice to be in the headquarters here in Austin and see the enthusiasm - and all the young people! They seem to be fanatical supporters. Nice to see. This was a pink poster there that I liked.

Yet another shot of Uno, the most photographed cat in the feline history of the species. He's just so darn cute and never shys from the camera, so what are you gonna do. Today, he turns 17! So, happy Birthday Uno.

Revolution motors will be new best friend. It's where Bono the mechanic resides and while BMW's are overall reliable cars, because you have to take them to a specialist the wait for service can be long and difficult. You can take it to the dealership sure.. for something like $125 an hour labor charge. So Bono was very nice when he did the initial inspection of my car. He works at Revolution where everyone there speaks with a different accent. I hope we become close, but not too close!!

And here's a friend John. We went to Eric's (Aka Jessica) house for an evening of the video game Rock Band. Wow, was that fun! Like Guitar Hero, Rob's favorite game, you add vocals, drums and a bass guitar. It's way more fun than just GH.

Lastly, Mike the roommate moved out. He has moved on to his own place with new friends - and although he stayed just a short time, we'll miss him. However there's a new face on the horizon. We have Eric moving in with us after the first of the month. He's currently in South America doing an intensive Spanish language course/experience. He seems very outgoing and with a great sense of humor so I think we'll get along great! He's also a coffee lover and appears a pretty happy dude - it'll be nice to add him to the Austin Homestead.

Rob is in Detroit this last weekend. He's speaking at his first recovery conference. Of course, I'm so proud of him and I know he did great - and can't wait to hear the CD. This is a picture of our nephew Grady who looks like he's doubled in size just since we saw him at Christmas!

Oh, and I've been listening to Pandora (pandora.com). I love this site. It's got my favorite music and if you haven't used it - go there. I heard about it a while ago I must admit from Mark, former roommate in Sacramento and I was all "yah, yah - that's nice - a music site". But, now I'm hooked.

I'm traveling to California the first week of April and can't wait. Going to the conference in Monterey and going to stop and visit family and friends in Sac. Hopefully, if you're from there, and you're reading this - be on the look out! I'll be at North Hall the first Thursday in April. Hope to see you there.

Until later....

March Madness - The Texas Primaries

Well... who knew? The whole voting thing in Texas is different than California. It's like a Texas Two-step. There's the voting and the caucus, and they are the same day, which essentially means you vote - twice.

I know.

First you go down and stand for an hour and a half in a line. The only good thing about this is gives you a chance to catch up on your cell phone calls but of course with one finger in an ear, because everyone else is catching up too. Or, you can spend a minute to get acquainted with of your neighbors. That's nice.

Voting was a new experience. Here they caucus and vote on the same day with the delegates that your candidate gets being divided up between vote cast in the voting booth, and vote cast at the caucus. So, if you want your vote to 'really' count - you need to attend both.

I have the sniffles. That's ok, I'll just go down to the H.E.B. and get me some cold medicine - not so fast.

You may be asking what does smog have to do with cold medicine!?
Well, I'll tell you. You can't buy cold medicine with out a Texas Drivers License. Yes, I'm over 18 (barely). And yes, I have a drivers license. BUT - I don't have a Texas Drivers License. So, stuffed up head? - too bad.

And, I couldn't get my drivers license until I had a registration on my truck. And, I couldn't get my registration on my truck until I had my smog - and once you have that, and you go to two different offices (one for registration, one for drivers licenses - see?) THEN you can buy cold medicine.Sigh.

We got a new car, one that will get better gas mileage than that truck! So, now we have the truck smogged it can get covered and go in the garage until someday when gas is less than a month's salary per gallon and drive it again.

There's a picture here too of Rob sitting on the back porch. We (insert royal version here) cleaned up the backyard of leaves and now Rob loves sitting out there under the trees and watching the (grey) skies. Also here, a picture of Uno who at 17 years old, this week - still doesn't like the vacuum. You'd think he'd have gotten used to it by now! :)

Also a picture here of roommate Johnny and I at the movies. He works nights so - like a vampire we never see him in the daylight. I thought I'd snap a picture to prove he's a day-walker and not a creature soley of the night.

February in Austin - Kinda Grey

Well, I'm sure that the weather will improve soon - but lately just grey, grey, grey.

Uno is aging and seems to move around slower these days, unless there's ice cream involved. Then he's just a grey-striped flash of fur. He still is playful and likes to still attack from time to time, but more and more he's just curled up asleep on the pillow with his nose tucked under his tail. Sometimes I think I want to come back in my next life as Uno. On grey days like this, curling up on the bed and occasionally someone to call me to the dining room for ice cream, doesn't sound half bad!

Time to go - Bye Bye

Dear Mayor Kilpatrick,

This is an open letter requesting.. no - encouraging.. no - imploring you to resign. You have had a career of bringing disgrace on the City of Detroit and the people there deserve better. But, not only have you exercised poor character and judgement - now your lies and missteps are causing a financial hardship on the city.

Please consider the economic condition of the city, look yourself in the mirror and ask if you are contributing to the betterment of your constituency. Sure - you've been noted to bring new development and investment - but at what cost. Surely no one could take an honest assessment and believe your costs don't outweigh your benefits.

For the sake of your employees, residents, friends - your family (especially your wife, hasn't she been through enough?) please do the one RIGHT thing in your mayorship and step down. Leave the city in peace.

What Are We Coming To?

If there was a quicker path to socialized medicine it's the medical industries latest push to formulate a method for determining a patient's ability to pay.

The project, dubbed “MedFICO” in some early press reports, will aid hospitals in assessing a patient’s ability to pay their medical bills. But privacy advocates are worried that the notorious errors that have caused frequent criticism of the credit system will also cause trouble with any attempt to create a health-related risk score. They also fear that a low score might impact the quality of the health care that patients receive.

Is it that big a reach to think medical insurance companies won't use this system to score a patient's worthiness from a profit perspective. There's so much wrong with our countries health system, one knows barely where to begin. I think the basic bones are there and I can't say that I'm an advocate of socialized medicine. However, when I read stories like this (click the link in the title) on MSNBC it makes me wonder if it isn't going to take something as radically as completely taking health care away from the insurance companies to put us back on track.

The whole notion of a Medical Fico score speaks to the industries concern with profits over providing quality health care. Something that should be a 'right' of every human being - not just the wealthy.

Getting It Back This Week

My Truck Is Almost Done... and so we'll have to get an alarm. I don't think our new neighborhood is a problem, but more for when we're driving around out in town.

Unfortunately, I'm on a budget. What does one do when you can't afford an alarm, but can't afford to replace this top and stereo one more damn time?

Answer: Give rob an official license to nag.

With this not built-in feature I can be reminded every time I walk away from the vehicle without removing the faceplate or the Ipod from the car. If I do, there will be an alert in a grating voice that will ask "did you bring in the faceplate and ipod!?!". It will run continuously, and without interruption until I do so - so therein lies the motivation to go back and remove them at once!

I know it's not the same as having an actual alarm - but maybe later in the summer I can scrape the pennies together for this.

Besides, in the meantime - it's far cheaper, much louder, more annoying than a car alarm and you don't have to have bulky 'booper' in your pocket. Hell - I may put off getting an alarm indefinitely!

Back "Home"

Well, we made it home safely. It was a long drive. Basically about 21 hours. Whew. But, it was nice and in the end, we drove through like 7 states. We had a little chevy though that got good gas mileage and we had good music and it was a nice weather. Mostly.

We had a very Lego Christmas. Ryley, our nephew, is totally into the lego starwars thing. So, Rob spent his holiday sorting through thousands, and thousands of plastic pieces.

I - went shopping - for glassware. I mean, I am in the glass capital of America right? But, I was surprised that the only pieces I bought were all made in China :(

Come to think of it - so was everything else. I was surprised that these glass pieces weren't even made in America and so when we went back to mom's I checked all the open gifts, and was surprised to find 'everything' was made in China.

Wow.

But we had a great time. There's one picture here of Malcom the fatt cat. He was so cute.

Glad to be home in Austin. Sounds funny to say Home and Austin still in the same sentence. But, it's so nice - there's no snow here!

Michigan for "Chismas"

On a trip to Michigan for Christmas. I put "Chismas" in the title, because we were still giving Rob's Mom a hard time from last years' place settings. Mine said "Chis" and so we've taken to celebrating Merry Chismas.

It was a very long drive.

14 Hours to St. Louis, and additional 9 to Michigan, but I likes to drive. What I didn't like was the snow. We didn't get too much of it thank goodness. But, what we did get slowed us down and so I had to concentrate hard which of course makes you exhausted once you reach your destination.

Stopping in St. Louis was fun! We finally had an opportunity to visit with Rich our good friend who we have been saying we should stop and see but never seem to find ourselves in Missouri!

Now we had a chance.

This picture of Rob was on a particularly sassy cold portion of our trip outside Indianapolis when he was giving me a hard time about how balmy that mid 20's weather is. He likes to play up his midwestern roots sometimes while my teeth are chattering.

Fine.

I simply got the in the car, cranked up the heat and locked the door. He finally said through the closed window that it wasn't that warm outside. I thought not.

There was some snow on the ground. I took this picture over the head of Mom's figurines in the window so that you could see it looks mighty cold outside, because it fricken is! I don't care what these thick blooded Michiganders and Ohioans say. I'm looking forward to hitting the Texas stateline!!

Brrrrr.

Here's a Cool Picture Blog

There's a great site that has photos of the campaign. It includes pictures of the candidates, but more importantly a variety of supporters. Some really, really cool pictures. Take a look!

December in Austin

Well - It's Christmas time and we've been doing the usual. Staying busy trying to set up home - meetings - and work.

We're getting ready to drive to the midwest for the holidays and I've been checking the 10 day forecast for the conditions in St. Louis and Michigan.

Yah.

It's going to be a slower drive than I thought. It's looking pretty wet and cold and so that means we'll be creeping along. But hopefully not so slow that we dont' get there until new year!

Here's a picture of Yoda in a stupid game I got sucked into the other day on the web. And our new roommate Johnny. He's a nice guy and it is so (SO) easy to kick his *ss in Risk - that's it not even believable. But - he's got Mikey our other roommate advising him in strategy. Maybe he should find a new advisor!!

Here's also a picture of Rob in our laundry day the other evening when we were at home and realized over half our towels are trashed! I think I know what we'll use our gift certificate for Linens and Things for (thanks Mom, Rocki & John, Peter & Gina!)

And we dined at whole foods on Sunday. Ahem. Ok - I like whole foods. It's a great place with lots of selection of healthy tasty items. But there's a reason some folks call it whole paycheck. I had an order of sushi, a salad & a cranberry drink. Total? $19.35. Wholly cow! I've spent less on dinner at a restaurant. But, at least we had the birds to watch. They fluff up and dive into the stream to take a bath and boy are they loud too. But, it was a beautiful day.