Tuesday, November 30, 2004

My new dentist

I went to a new dentist today. Not by choice so much, as by insurance company requirements. This one has a few advantages over the last one. First, this one is within 8 miles, maybe less, while the last was 40 miles away. Second, this female dentist is much nicer to look at than the soon to be retired old guy. Third, and most surprising, was the office decor. The office had a number of decorations you might see in a nicer home; tapestries, obelisks, and other decorative pieces. I was surprised that I've never seen a doctor's office market itself to females before, and of course surprised to have seen it all. What a shame the typical dentist/doctor office looks so darn drab. And even those times they make an attempt at the waiting area it is immediately obvious the thought was nto carried through to the patient or staff spaces. This really was a pleasant surprise. So, congrats to the new place for figuring out the experience is more than just waiting less than an hour.

Friday, November 26, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. We had a good time and a traditional turkey dinner while visiting with Kristi's family.

I also learned something new this year. While there was a proclamation and celebration back in 1621 (like I was taught in school), it was President Lincoln who made the Thanksgiving Proclamation that turned a historical event into a national holiday.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Shooting it up

Today, I am exhausted. I just got back from Main Event, a local entertainment/arcade/bowling/billiards place. I went with Matthew, a cousin from New York City Alabama. After shooting at giant fish in some game from Sega, we played LaserTag.

If you haven't played LaserTag before, it's a where you strap on a LV (laser vest) and carry a Photon Gun (laser pointer in the shape of a gun). The arena is lit mostly with blacklight and they pump in fake smoke with fog machines. Then you run around and shoot each other for 15 minutes. It's a lot more fun than my description.

Matthew and I played against a team of three youngsters, and we almost won. It probably hurt our score when I shot Matthew before I knew who I was shooting. Of course, he shot back at me; wouldn't you?

Right now I resting up before we head out to La Hacienda Ranch for dinner. My only hope at the moment is that Kristi lets me go to bed early.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Happy, Happy Birthday

Yesterday, I said, "It's all about ME." Today I want to recognize some other fine folks with birth anniversaries close to mine own:
Nov 11: Connie Moritz
Nov 15: John Charwinsky
Nov 20: Joy Beatty, Lauren Moritz
Nov 21: "Big Al" English
Nov 25: Michael Davidson
Happy Birthday to them, one and all.

Late add...
Nov 28: Charles "Finneal" Zimmerman

Edited on 3 Dec

Friday, November 19, 2004

It's all about ME

I know I owe y'all a bunch of entries here. And I have lots I want to, and should, and plan on saying. But today I have this to say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!


Thank you for your attention. We now return to your regular broadcast program.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Politics, two things

Everyone knows President Bush won re-election yesterday. It was a small pleasure to not have the fighting we had last time around. Today I set the television to CNN and left it on for most of the day. After watching for hours last night (I went to bed at 4:30) and then today, I finally had enough and turned it all off.

Right now, I have two issues. The first is the constant use of the word mandate. While by definition,
2 : an authorization to act given to a representative <accepted the mandate of the people>
President Bush receives a mandate by winning the election, pundits and talking heads use the word in different context. When listening to commentary and news programs, it comes across as "responsibility to act on stated plans due to overwhelming support by voters." I do not understand how 51.4% of the vote is overwhelming support. Rather, it's a very close vote according to the percentages. Isn't any election decided by less than 10 or 20 percentage points, certainly less than 3 percentage points, an indication the populous is seriously divided?

The second issue is the potential good Democrats may get to suffer through, and how they are going to blow it. I (and others) previously stated it might be a good idea for the Republicans to win. The hope behind this thought is the Dems may realize the current platform and message do not adquately addresses the concerns. (Personally, I think their current message is about tarring the opposition rather than offering alternatives, leaving no time for their weak platform to even be expressed.) Tonight, New York's Senator Chuck Schumer was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I had some hope building within me when the senator discussed how much he and others were going to have to do soul searching to discover why they lost in an election when they were very confident of a win. But then he blew it by stating they had the "right message," but somehow it just wasn't getting through to the public.

The right message??? Jeez, Senator Schumer must of done a lot more cocaine than any other winning candidates out there. If Democrats had the right message they would not have lost a race with a president who has high unfavorables about his performance on the war, the economy, jobs, and health care. If Democrats had the right message they would not have lost seats in both houses of congress. I could go on, but what I really want to do is scream. ARGH!

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Voting

I voted today for NONE OF THE ABOVE. Unfortunately, some other group of candidates is going to win.

Family, part II

I said something interesting the other night to Kristi, interesting in that I live by this, but may have never expressed it before. The something is, "You have to interpret my mothers actions through a filter of good intentions. "

She is one of those folks in life some people find annoying. I base this on the experience of myself, siblings, and girlfriends. She means well, I know her well enough to be absolutely certain of that. It's just she asks questions when others would rather not answer them, and she makes statements others might not make, and she has-at times-acted a bit oddly, though certainly never deranged nor dangerously. If you just looked at these actions, you might never see the person inside.

Her heart is good and very willing to share, but you have to look through the filter of her intentions. And if you cannot do that, you may not want to hang around.

Town Council Meeting

Tonight, as Kristi's prodding, I went to the Flower Mound Town Council meeting (Agenda). I enjoyed it, but jeez, did it ever take some time. The meeting started at 6PM and went (without break) until after 1AM. At least half the citizens who filled out the form indicating a desire to speak on the main topic were not around long enough to do so. All-in-all, the meeting was organized and well run.

Pines of Flower Mound: Concept Site PlanThe primary topic was the voting on a Special Use Permit to allow a larger footprint for a single retailer in a planned retail shopping area. The town requires this process for all retailers desiring over 25,000 sq.ft. In this case, the retailer is Kroger and the intersection is just outside our subdivision. The developer,Rosebriar, did a world class plan to develop this site and was recognized by both proponents and opponents for their efforts.

The amazing thing to me, and it's been this way for a long time, is the folks who seem to do nothing more than scream, "Not in my backyard." Now these opponents never used this phrase, but they did say quite a bit about how the town shouldn't allow another grocery store (even though it is the market, not the council, that should make this decision), or the traffic would be a problem (even though the Traffic Impact Study indicated it would meet or beat town standards), or how Central Market or Whole Foods would be a better tennant (even though neither is remotely interested in the location, the nearby demographics, and the traffic would be much worse), or how this was against the town's SmartGrowth plan (even though this type of growth is allowed and the plan is about intelligent growth, not maintaining the status quo).

I did get up to speak in favor of the proposal, because why else stay for most of the day, but I doubt I'll take the effort to find, tape, transfer, and store the clip for you.

Vegas visits the Isles

In welcome news, a controversial Gambling Bill has passed the British House of Commons with a pretty resounding win of 74 votes, 286 to 212.

Okay, it may not be welcome to everyone, but I like gambling and I like big casinos. The idea of having a couple casinos similar to Las Vegas (called "super-casinos" in the UK press) would make it much more interesting for me when planning a vacation. I already want to go overseas because (a) I like it and (b) we have relatives in north of London, but this is more than just icing on the cake, it's a whole extra piece of cake!

So bring it on. And please don't forget to include a poker room.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Pooh Bear's Balloons

About yesterday, Halloween: We once again had a great time, or at least me and the kids did. I dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh and followed my longstanding tradition of handing out balloons with a bag of candy attached as the weight to the ribbon. Like most years, Mom and Steve came by to help. Kristi had already filled the candy bags, so the going was certainly a little easier. This year we gave away balloons and candy to 85 kids, with just candy to another dozen or so. We run pretty steady at about 100 kids a year, give or take 5. Since I know how many balloons I give out, it's pretty easy to keep a count.

Because Cameron enjoyed the video tape of last year so much, Steve videotaped me handing out candy again this year. I certainly hopes he likes this one too. Hmm, maybe I should figure out how to get a snippet online. If you know how, let me know.

Book for the library

Here is a limited edition book I think would be neat to have, but would honestly not fit in with the rest of my books. Of course, since the book is so big it takes a short walk to turn the pages, how many homes would it actually fit into?

Seriously, Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom is a big book, and worth checking out if it comes to a library near you.

HA, HA, "checking out!" Oh, I kill myself sometimes.