A Year of Change

Well, no comments yesterday so check this out,

27 Things That Every American Should Know About The National Debt: The U.S. government has stolen $15,876,457,645,132.66 from future generations of Americans, and we continue to add well over a hundred million dollars to that total every single day day. The 15 trillion dollar binge that we have been on over the past 30 years has fueled the greatest standard of living the world has ever seen, but this wonderful prosperity that we have been enjoying has been a lie. It isn’t real. We have been living way above our means for so long that we do not have any idea of what “normal” actually is anymore. But every debt addict hits “the wall” eventually, and the same thing is going to happen to us as a nation. At some point the weight of our national debt is going to cause our financial system to implode, and every American will feel the pain of that collapse. Under our current system, there is no mathematical way that this debt can ever be paid back. The road that we are on will either lead to default or to hyperinflation. We have piled up the biggest debt in the history of the world, and if there are future generations of Americans they will look back and curse us for what we did to them…

Say what you will about the times we live in. Any way you slice it, that’s a big number to ignore. Chew on that for the day unless you’d rather ignore it, as do most people, and think it won’t impact you. Sooner or later someone if going to have to pay the bill. The number is so freakin big that we can’t even comprehend it so we ignore it, 15 trillion dollars, try to figure out how much that is, if you do then you’ll understand. Look at this, this is $100 bills stacked up.

– The US Government spends 318,166,660,000 (~$318 billion, 166 million) per month (both portions)
– Of the total money shown above, the US Government borrows $137,083,333,333 (137 billion, 83 million) each month– shown on the right portion.

Remember that the little “square” in front of the man is $1 million dollars. .

Now if you don’t like hearing this, post some comments!

Today the misses goes in for surgery. I’ll pick her up around 5pm and hopefully have her home by 6. The youngest is going to a friends for the whole day and the oldest will be at his friends from 11 until I pick him up. Aunt B will be helping out with him when I’m gone and he’s not at his friends.

Yesterday Jennifer was over from about 10am until 7pm. Mom took all three kids to see the new Ice Age movie while I went to Vail and worked around here. It was hot again but we did get a little rain. Apparently the heat is back with temps in the high 90’s for the next 5 days or so with no rain in sight.

The youngest also had piano last night and the teacher raves about his natural ability. He does need to practice though so we need to see if Grandma will let him come up and play her piano. I was oblivious to him even starting piano but playing any instrument can only be good.

Time to run as I have lots to do this morning. Oh yea, I almost forgot, the swim team coach emailed yesterday and the oldest had the 3rd fastest freestyle time and has made the league relay team for the state championships! He was thrilled and is all pumped to get back to swim practice starting at 6:30 sharp this morning. We’re thrilled and proud of him. Not so much proud for making the team but for how he handled the disappointment of not making it a few days ago!

Take care and say a prayer for the misses around 11:30 Pacific Time. She should be out by 2pm PST or 3 our time.

God Bless,

Ok, no comments yesterday, what happened to everyone sending in a recipe? We can’t live on prickly pear tequila alone! Come on people or I’m going back to politics.

I’m off to Vail this morning and Mom and the boys will pick up Jennifer around 10am for the day. I’m trying to get things all wrapped up so I can take care of the misses for the next few days after her surgery tomorrow. The youngest has agreed that if he has a bad dream, he’s going to come in and crawl in on my side so he doesn’t bother Mom. Lucky Dad!

We’re waiting for our new bed to arrive at the local Marriott Hotel. It’s been ordered and now we just have to wait for it to come in. I don’t know if you remember but we ordered it, at Marriott’s cost, through our friends who own over 200 hotels. I’m not going into prices or anything but you wouldn’t believe the mark up on mattresses! It’s literally pennies on the dollar which is great otherwise we couldn’t afford it. We’re so excited as we’ve been needing a new bed for years. Too bad it’s not here today so the misses could enjoy her recovery in it.

The house is still pretty clean except for a rug of dog hair from Lacey the lab. It rained some yesterday and is supposed to again today before the mid 90’s are back tomorrow. It won’t be long until the cold weather and snow arrive but everyone is anxiously awaiting it including our lawns.

I need to leave in an hour but should be back in Denver by noon. Mom just came down but she’s not sure if the oldest is going to swim practice or not. The youngest is kicking a summer cold so he’ll stay home. Time for me to run so have a great day and we’ll keep you posted on the misses tomorrow.

Lots going on this week, Boulder today, Vail tomorrow, the misses at the docs all day Wednesday, the spaghetti dinner Thursday and something else Friday before winemakers from Italy arrive Saturday! Then next week is worse!

The oldest missed getting into the swim league championships by .15 of a second yesterday. He was really bummed and frankly should have made it but they have parents as volunteer timers and the lady missed his hand touching at least 2 seconds before she stopped her clock. I explained that life isn’t always fair and that we were really proud of him as he had better times every week. Still not much of a consolation to a 10 year old that wanted to go to league.

We made it home by about 11am and then proceeded to clean the house. The misses started upstairs and I hit the basement. About 4 hours later we met in the living room as we finished up. We had some great king salmon with mustard and dill for dinner and then the boys headed back outside to play. Finally we rounded them up at 8:45 and we all hit the hay.

There was a show on tv yesterday about people who survived disasters like plane crashes, house fires, tsunami’s and other disasters. It was interesting as it had all these PH D’s on saying it does no good to try to appeal to people by scaring them in what the future might bring but rather to educate them on how to be prepared because somebody has to be the person things happen to. For example, while everyone agrees there are not a lot of house fires, it’s important to know that most happen between 10pm and 6am and at any given time there are 300 people in our country in one. So the point is to actually practice fire drills as a family such as deciding what to do, where you meet and how to get out. They say simple steps such as even thinking and talking about it can help you should disaster strike. Then they made the analogy to the economy potentially crashing and yes, recommended going out and buying extra food and water, ah ha, so there you have it! Don’t do it because you’re scared the economy will crash, do it because if by a small chance it does, you’ll need food and water to survive. Does this make sense? I don’t know but they say that people in general all have this “it’ll never happen to me” attitude. They say don’t be so sure as the people disasters strike never thought “it’d happen to me”. Take it for what it is, it was an interesting program as it dealt more with the human brain and how we think of these things. Nobody thinks it’ll happen to them but the point is it has to happen to somebody. In closing this was not about living in fear but rather in being prepared as when were under stress we revert to what we know and have practiced whether in our mind or in actual practice. Enough said.

Ok, I’m skiping politics today to give you all a break. It’s just so nauseating, I can’t do it. It’s almost 7 and everyone is sleeping. The boys will continue to go to swim team even though they have no more meets but today we’re giving them a break.

Have a good week and go do some summer or fall cleaning like we did, its a great feeling, we should do it more than once every 10 years!

God Bless,

Here’s a comment from Aunt B,

Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

The whole World makes fun of Joe Biden. That’s all I’ll say about politics today but how did this guy get to be VP?

Anyhow here’s the first recipe and it’s from Aunt Robi, check it out,

Here’s a couple of comments, thanks

1. robi says:

   July 11, 2012 at 4:30 pm

   As as I said before the trips to Gma and Gpas were the best summers! Also mom’s tuna salad is a good summer memory! Just gotta say you have some funny boys – as they say “outta the mouths of babes” – it’s priceless!

   Reply
2. Annette says:

   July 12, 2012 at 3:08 am

   I just watched the news. Does anyone else think it is ironic and disgraceful that our olympic teams uniforms (Ralph Lauren) are all made in China? You would think we could keep that money in the U.S.A. The uniforms are also ugly.

   I haven’t seen the uniforms yet but do agree it’s ironic that they’re made in China, especially with the economy they way it is now. Grandma Annette has always been a big proponent of Buy American which actually is a big thing. In fact if everyone would only buy American for just 1 month, it would do remarkable things for our country! Sadly that’ll never happen though as people seem to care until it affects them. We’re even guilty as we buy french milled soap! It’s just so good.

   Now to politics, God Bless the U.S.A. There, that’s it! I’m sure my constant rantings have offended some of you so I’m really going to try hard to stop, so there ya go, that’s all for the day.

   Yesterday the boys had a friend over and Mom took them all to the pool. I had a long call in the am and then had to get a new phone. Boy does technology advance fast. My new phone is incredible. It seems to do just about everything. That right there is one of the main problems with us as a society. We advance technologically faster than we do mentally! We can’t mange our own inventions. Think about it. Oh well, time to move on.

   Aunt Robi reminded me of Mom’s tuna salad. It was sooo good. I also remember chipped beef on toast, goolash and those english muffin, cream cheese, tomato sandwiches she used to make. For today, let’s hear about some of your favorite meals your Mom made for you when you were growing up! Maybe we can do a family cookbook! That’d be fun. First I would include Grandma Dixie’s blueberry pie which the misses inadvertently told her not to make me when we were there for the reunion a few weeks ago. I’m still not over that one!

   Today I’m in Boulder from about 12 until 4 or 4:30 and the misses has a PTA meeting at 3 and then book club at 7pm. Meanwhile the boys and I will organize our fishing gear for tomorrow. We’re headed up to Eagle to Sylvan Lake where we took Grandpa Bob and Grandma Eleanor a few years ago and it rained hard on us. They just stocked the lake a few days ago. Hopefully we’ll catch something.

   The news just said Denver is running the 4th most political ads in the country. It’s no wonder we can’t get away from it! Don’t worry, I’m staying away from it, just thought you should know why it’s so much in our minds.

   Have a great day and let’s hear about those favorite meals. In fact, if you can, post the recipe with your comment and we’ll start to compile them. If it’s easier, you may send it in a separate email to Lori1654@cocmast.net. We expect everyone to participate, even if it’s a cocktail recipe (that’s for you Aunt Robi, ha ha)

   Have a great day,

A few comments yesterday, here’s one from Aunt B,

So nobody has anything to say about politics these days? I guess we’ll move on then and try to get to a subject that’ll get you all talking.

Today let’s talk about our favorite summer vacations. Let’s say it has to be one where you traveled away from home, preferably to another state. So let’s hear it, what are your memories of your summer vacations when you were a kid or anytime.

Ours were mostly filled with trips to Wisconsin. They were a blast and I think always by car. Those were the good old days. Rather than chime in myself, I’ll let Uncle T and Aunt Robi share their thoughts. We’ve already covered the fish frys, Grandma playing baseball, corn only for dinner, and the sporting goods store in Cecil with the hole in the floor so dig deep in your memory banks and bring it.

The boys decided to haul out all the empty wine boxes from the garage yesterday afternoon and build a fort. Then they cut some up and made body armor for each of them. They have great imaginations if you can get them away from the boob tube. We keep saying it but were this close to getting rid of ALL tv. It’s harder than you think. The first step is to limit them and then for the misses and I (especially me) not to just turn it on by habit whenever we walk into the room.

Today I have a meeting at 9am across town and then will rush home to grab the good looking one and head downtown for a doctor appointment. I think we have Daniella taking the boys to the pool. It’s super humid here, I hate it but the misses loves it.

It’s almost 5am and everyone’s still sleeping. Time for me to run but in the spirit of keeping the debate going, which side of America are you on? You may ask what I mean here but if you listen to the President, he clearly is trying to divide us into those who think hard work, success and independence is good and those who think they’re entitled to something, which side are you on? Maybe we can just draw a line down the middle of the country, maybe that’ll get a comment. Oh yea, according to a non biased tracking firm, so far we have over 52,000 negative ads run by the Pres verses about 8,000 by Romney. How’s that for selling a positive vision for the future? I guess when you can’t run on your record all you can do is try to paint the other guy as worse than you! (sorry, I just can’t help myself as it’s such a critical election for the future of our country and our kids)

Take care and God Bless

Today I’ll make a few trips to Fed Ex to ship wine all across the nation. I’m letting everyone sleep in this morning even though the misses wants the oldest to go to swimming. We had a meet yesterday and I just think both he and she need a break.

We had more rain yesterday but the state is still dry. We’re going fishing this weekend as I promised the boys. It’s supposed to be a bit cooler for a few days which will be nice. Hope all the ticks are gone.

Sorry for all the politics lately, it just bugs the hell out of me, all the lies. Now we have Hillary in an ad saying how much the big O lies (which is true!) and in the end saying “shame on you Barack Obama”! It’s a pretty effective ad as it has her saying how much he lied when he was campaigning against her, Wow. Alright, that’s it for politics today, I promise.

We have lots going on this month, personal and financial, in just about every aspect of our lives. We did a master calendar to keep everything straight. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Yesterday the oldest went to Big Time (the trampoline place) with his friend Shannon. They were late getting home which made us late for Aunt B’s birthday celebration. Other than the swim meet in the early morning, that was about it for the day.

The misses just got up but agrees the oldest should sleep in. I have to go print a ton of Fed Ex labels and then get ready for my conference call so time to run. Have a good week and God Bless,