Life

I had a long day today. I flew to Chicago Midway at 8:30 then drove two hours to the groundbreaking for our Indiana Wind Farm. Unfortunately, I forgot to calculate that I was leaving eastern standard time, landing in Central time and driving back to eastern so I missed the actual ceremony. I did get to see some people and sat next to the President of BP America, who happened to testify in front of Congress last week on the high price of oil.

I did get lucky and got on an earlier flight home; I was supposed to stay in Chicago (at the fancy Drake Hotel) tonight but the guy we were taken out to dinner needed to be in Springfield so we canceled. I don't mind, I'm tired and looking forward to a nice weekend.

I drove by a windfarm near the one we are building. It's pretty incredible, the turbines are huge. I'm glad I'm doing my part for global warming but all the driving and flying I'm doing isn't helping my carbon footprint any. I'm back to Illinois next week on "my" project.

I read my first Hemingway book in Madrid Spain. How appropriate. The Sun Also Rises was truly one of the greatest books I've ever read. I'm not sure how I got to be 22 years old before reading it; I consider myself generally very well read. My mom instilled that in me at an early age. I remember going to the West Side Library in Massillon and checking out books at an early age. Seems to me that I learned how to read at age 5 but I'm not sure. I know mom would check out ten plus books at a time and would read them nightly.



There was a time when my reading slowed down, probably through the high school years with sports and girlfriends and everything else going on. Then in college it seems like you never got to read for enjoyment, only for research and study.



Henry and I went to the library last night and checked out 10 books. We generally read two books a night. He can read the beginners books pretty good with my help. I think he's ahead of the game as far as that goes. I got a pirate book that looks to be fiction and caught my eye. I'll have to put down the Pilgrim book I'm reading. I also bought some new and used books off Amazon last night with a $100 gift card that Dominion sent me for my 15 year anniversary.



There are a lot of classics out there that I have on my list of books to read. Massillon must not have done a good job of requiring us to read those. You would be amazed at some of the books that I haven't read but I'm going to put those high on my list. The Catcher in the Rye, Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm, 1984, you are on the clock.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080523.html

This is very interesting. Buried in the last sentence of the paragraph in the above link is the line below:

Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.

Wait a minute. I thought climate change and global warming was caused by man? Are there people on Jupiter that are destroying that environment?

I'm off to Illinois again tomorrow for a full day of meetings for the wind farm. I'm coming back on Thursday and then Sarah and Henry are leaving for New York City on Friday. I'm not thrilled with them going, I encouraged Sarah to go to visit her sister but then somehow Henry was going too. I briefly thought about going but in the end know that NYC is too big and too difficult to get around with a one year old. I'm sure we'll go as a family someday but this Memorial Day weekend its Jack and I flying solo.

We had a busy weekend. On Friday, we drove out to Buckeye Lake to look at a great looking house I found on the MLS list. Unfortunately, it had been sold. We really liked it though and it seemed like a bargain. We looked at two other houses, both of which are on the water. We liked one of them but I'm starting to think a summer house is not something we'll use that much. With the kids being active in sports, I wonder how much we would use it.

Saturday morning we headed down to Cincinnati. Our first stop was the Duke Children's Museum. It was pretty good, dedicated to children and tons of fun/cool stuff for them to do. Afterwards, we headed to my favorite bar in the U.S., Nicholson's Pub in downtown Cincinnati. I had a great beer there "Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale" that was aged in bourbon casks. I love Nicholson's, they have a great selection of beers you won't find anywhere else. And the food is always great there.

After lunch, Sarah and the boys checked into the Hilton for naps and I headed to the Party Source, another great thing about Cincinnati although its in Kentucky. The Party Source is like a Wal-Mart for liquor. It's huge. It has much better prices than Ohio but the best thing is the selection. I picked up a couple 4-packs of my bourbon barrel beer and a few other essentials and headed back to Ohio.

The whole reason for going to Cinci was to watch the Reds beat up on the Indians and the game started at 3:55 p.m., an odd time but one that worked out for us with the kids. I had planned to park next to the stadium and walk back to the Hilton to get everyone so that we could leave after the game for the Montgomery Inn. I eventually found a garage, found a great spot, backed the truck in and WHAM, shattered my back window. The garage was an older one and there was a shelf sticking out a couple feet about 4-5 feet above the ground. My bumper never even hit the wall but the "shelf" knocked out my window. Of course, I wasn't very happy and decided to drive back to the Hilton because there was a chance of rain. I valeted the car and then had to listen to my wife "If I had done that,...". Not really what I wanted to hear.

We walked to the game and they let us take Jack's stroller into the ballpark. We had 8th row seats that my friends at Duke had given me and settled in to watch the game. It was a great one and the weather held and Henry and Jack were very good. What else could we ask for. The Reds were losing 2-1 when we had to leave after the bottom of the 8th inning to get to the Montgomery Inn for dinner. As we were leaving, they put the Preakness up on the big screen and I was surprised how the sellout crowd got into the race.

We walked back to the hotel and the weather was nice enough to drive the car. On the way, I turned on the radio and found out the Reds had come back in the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff home run by Adam Dunn. Figures. I would have loved to have seen that. We had a great meal (we always do) out on the patio at the Montgomery Inn before heading back to the hotel. We went to Fountain Square and got Graeter's Ice Cream and watched a bit of a movie they were screening on the big screen there. What a cool thing, they sold beer and soda and families were camped out watching this kid's movie.

Sunday morning, we woke up at 8:00 and headed to Bob Evans. The car ride was surprisingly quiet, the broken window didn't let a lot of noise in. We got home about 11:15 and left an hour later for Nationwide Arena and the Ringling Brothers Circus. We had second row seats "on the fifty" for the circus and Henry and Jack seemed to enjoy it. I took Jack out to the car for the last 1/2 hour because he was getting fussy.

All in all, a fun weekend that proved to be $270 more expensive because of a crazy parking garage and no signs to be careful. I guess you only need that to happen one time before you look a lot more closely at where you are backing into.

I'm trying to figure out why democrats are so outraged by the below statement by President Bush. Scratching my head...



"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."



Perhaps they feel it was directed at Jimmy Carter but he has been criticized by people of both parties for his recent feeble attempt to meet with Hamas and other terrorist groups.

I still feel sorry for Marc Dann. Someone told me today they didn't feel sorry for him because he cheated on his wife. I can appreciate that sentiment but for some reason I'm feeling compassion for the guy.

I've said before that I know Marc pretty well. It's just a case of a guy not having a clue about running a large organization like the AGs office. I'm not so sure I would be able to do it. And who wouldn't hire some close friends in that situation? I have friends that I've known for 35+ years that I would hire in a minute if given that job. However, I wouldn't cut them the slack that Dann probably gave his buddies.

The Statehouse is in a lot of ways like college. I learned that when I first came to Columbus in 1995. Drinking and carousing was part of the job back then. It's not like that any more, at least for me. I'm sorry Marc got caught up in it but I plan on sending him a note soon. That's the least I can do for a guy who made some dumb mistakes who paid a hefty price.

I know, I've been poor about posting on the blog. I'll try to get back into it with more photos.

Today was a good but kinda sad day. We found out Henry got into the all-day kindergarten class at Ready, Set, Grow in New Albany. We're happy because we could not have sent him back to take the same kindergarten studies at Children First, he would have been bored out of his mind. Mrs. Brooke says he's ready to go to regular kindergarten but we're going to hold him a year, mostly because we have to but also so he won't be the youngest in his class.

It's a sad day because we are leaving Children First and all the great teachers they have there. It's also sad because it makes you realize how fast time has gone. Henry's almost ready to go to school. Wow. And Jack will transfer along with Henry, we want both boys in the same school.

It really is amazing how fast Henry is growing. And Jack. Jack recently said his first word: ball. He loves his football and its appropriate that a Massillon boy said that as his first word. He's walking great now but has to run to keep up with his older brother. Jack's had some ear infections lately, I'm wondering if he's going to need tubes also. He's also been teething and is having a much rougher time than Henry did; his molars are coming in.

We're off to Cincinnati this weekend to catch the Saturday game against the Indians. It's a 3:55 p.m. game which probably works out perfect for us. I just hope the weather holds, the forecast is for a lot of rain.

I planted some pepper plants this past Saturday so I don't mind a little rain. I challenged the neighborhood as the reigning champ but I was the only one who actually grew peppers last year.

I read a blog recently where the author mentioned a city that provided free high speed internet for people who lived in government housing. I believe the city that was doing it was San Francisco but I'm not sure; the blogger lives in Ohio and wondered why we (insert the government, or better yet insert the word "taxpayers") couldn't do it here.



I immediately wondered, why stop there? Many of these people already receive free housing or substantially subsidized rent. Why not give them free cable tv? How about a car? Why not free gasoline?



The more our society is given things, the more it expects it. Our system has created a class of people who are stuck in the welfare cycle. They know no other way.

I'm back from Illinois. The Open Houses went well but there were two people at the first night's that tried to pass out anti-wind literature. I had to tell them they couldn't and the gentleman didn't like it very much. There were some strong words about first amendment rights and having the sheriff come haul him off to jail but in the end it worked out okay.

The worse part about the last couple nights was that I had to eat dinner so late. Last night I had a big filet around 9:00 in the evening; I'm sure I have put on a few pounds lately.

Here are a couple good photos. The top one is from the Derby party; the kids are playing rock band or at least trying. Don't ask me why Jack was wearing a bowl on his head, maybe he thought the government was trying to beam messages to him and he didn't like it?

Saturday's soccer game was miserable. We ended up combining with another team and didn't practice, we went straight into the game and played about 25 minutes. It poured the whole time. I had my golf rainsuit on but the kids were just out there. They didn't seem to mind though.

The rain was gone by 4:00 and our derby party. I think it was our best one yet, we had a ton of people this year.

We went to the park today and I cut the grass for the first time. What a great day to be outside.

I did want to comment on our Attorney General Marc Dann, who was in the news a bit this week. I've known Marc since his first year in the Senate when we went to D.C. with a Jewish organization to visit the Holocaust Museum. Bottom line, even though he has brought all his problems on himself, I feel sorry for him. He should never have been elected AG. A guy who is disciplined by the Supreme Court shouldn't be the state's top lawyer. Betty Montgomery was a much better choice but in that democratic year her die was cast. Marc is a decent enough guy, he just has no clue how to run a large office like that. I've known about his affair for some time, I think a lot of people had heard the rumors, but I'm pretty good about keeping secrets. Do I think he should resign? Yes, although the Republican party should beg to keep him around for two more years and have him run for reelection. He should resign, not just for this scandel, but for all the bad things he has done thus far as AG.

I'm off to Illinois for two days of open houses for the Prarie Fork Wind Farm.

Good rainy Saturday morning. I have a lot of topics to discuss but no time since we have a soccer game at 10 and our Derby party at 4. Looks like the rain will be gone by this afternoon so that will make things a bit easier. I think I need to talk about some of my derby trips because I'm not sure I've ever put them down on paper. And I'll probably want to comment on our Attorney General in Ohio.