Karen
1/31/10
Emily and I just noticed that the christmas list isn't up. I seem to remember that Amanda and Lindsey did it a long time ago. Did everyone still want to draw names this year -- or is it time to rethink it? Just a thought........

A few of us were having the same thought down here. I hadn't posted anything about it as I was trying to come up with some different ideas to present. Nothing earth-shaking yet. But the name-drawing thing seems to have maybe run its course. I myself don't really like the idea of generic grab-bag gifts, but that's a possibility. The range of ages and the distances make that plan more difficult. And speaking of distances, shipping costs have gotten pretty high lately, so it would be nice to that into account. I know there's a brilliant solution to this, but it hasn't struck me yet. If we all start thinking about it, maybe it will strike one of you. The good thing is, we have plenty of time -- Christmas is 328 days away. :-) So let's kick some ideas around! --Gary

Bonus: Here's a shot of Boehner, Cantor, and Pence onstage with Obama as they realize that inviting him to their retreat might not have been such a hot idea....

Why did the Republicans invite him to speak to them? Clearly, they are trying to shed their image as "the party of no" (while still saying no, of course). So they figured, hey, we'll invite Obama to talk so it looks like we're meeting him halfway, then we'll rough him up a little with our hard-hitting questions and teach him some manners, and then we'll walk away winners without having to do anything.

Here's what went wrong with that plan:
1) They apparently believed their own hype that Obama has to use a teleprompter and can't think on his feet -- not true, as it turns out! :-)
2) This whole thing was planned to happen behind closed doors, but last night the White House called the Republican organizers and said, "Oh by the way, can we let the press in to televise this?" Republicans said ok. Mistake (for them), as it turns out! :-)

The Repubs opened with a long and kind of underhanded question/speech, which Chris Matthews described as "trying to hit him in the gut with a medicine ball." Obama took the question, turned it back on the questioner (Rep. Mike Pence), and then demonstrated he had a much deeper grasp of the issue than the questioner did. And then he did that with every single question, for the next hour. He kicked butt.

Fox News, like MSNBC, was televising the whole thing live. But it didn't take them long to realize the Republicans were circling the drain, so they cut off the telecast. Ha! Obama was clearly in control, and clearly the smartest person in the room.

I am not a particular fan of the young Luke Russert, who MSNBC is trying to make into an instant Washington pundit just because of his name. But he did turn up a few interesting tidbits about today's event:

Want to see this whole thing from a perhaps more objective source? See how it was reported on in England in this article headlined "Obama Eats Republicans' Lunch." :-)

"First they ignore you... then they ridicule you... then they fight you... then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi

City of Lincoln Renews Contract With The Sun For Snow Removal Services Mayor of Lincoln Chris Beutler announced yesterday that the city will be "going green" by retaining the services of the sun for snow removal in all city streets for another three years. The mayor cited that he was perfectly content with how the sun had been managing its duties as the primary source of snow removal in Lincoln. "I think that the sun has done an outstanding job cleaning our streets of snow and ice by April every year. There is no reason whatsoever to switch to a completely untested salt and snowplow method of snow removal," said Beutler during the announcement. The sun could not be reached for comment about the extended contract.

Okay, the paper in question was "The Dailyer Nebraskan," which is a student-run parody version of the actual student newspaper "The Daily Nebraskan." They hit the nail squarely on the head with this one!

On a related note, I am going to make a prediction: All of Lincoln's snow and ice will be gone by Sunday, February 7.

I have spoken.

Anyway, I bring all this up to mention this real-life Ned Flanders in California who wants to change the mountain's name. He's described as a "devout Christian," and "Diablo," of course, is Spanish for "Devil." So this hare-brained nit is petitioning to change the name to (get this) "Mt. Reagan." Oh. My. God.

Kinda redundant, actually, as those two names refer to the same person. :-) Thank you, please tip your waitress, and I'll be here all week.

This was not the first Beatles album to be released in the U.S. -- that was "Meet the Beatles" a few months prior -- but this was the very first Beatles album. "Introducing the Beatles" had been released in England the previous year, and on this day in 1964 it was re-released in America. "Meet the Beatles" had basically the same mix of songs, and of course a different cover.

Anyway, "just look at those dirty long-haired freaks! That hair can't be clean, you know!" (That's just a little of the 1964 mainstream opinion, for nostalgia's sake.) If you still have a copy of this album -- which would have cost you about $4.99 back then, as I recall -- you can sell it today for something between $2000 and $7000, depending on condition....

Hatgidakis -- did you all watch the game last night? I didn't -- but saw this morning that they lost -- sorry.....

C'mon, Pope Benedict: Get your stepladder out, take those decorations down, and put 'em back in the basement!

Amanda--Monday and Tuesday (the 25th and 26th) I have a block schedule. I didn't know if Tristen had that too. Dad said we could get Tristen if she does have that too. I didn't think Teghan would have it but I wasn't sure about Tristen. Monday I get out at 2:30 and Tuesday I get out at 1:15. My classes are now 85 minutes and I go to periods 1, 3, 5 and 7 on Monday and 2, 4, and 6 on Tuesday, so really they're just shortening the classes 15 minutes...But whatever!!!

Gary--We were watching that American Idol on Wednesday--hilarious! I love that guy!! I don't care how old he is I sooo would've sent him to Hollywood!! People were singing that all Thursday, getting it stuck in my head! Well that's all I have to say so I'll talk to you all later!!!

Falling down messes you up, and not just physically. It takes like a day or two to get back to normal, even if you're not hurt at all. Take it easy, Brent -- and the rest of you! --Gary

Oh, wow! You guys all need to stay inside and wait for the spring thaw! --Gary

Glad you don't have to go in, Emily. I was going to try to talk you out of it! :-) It's not worth having someone crash into your car and spending the next month on the phone to insurance companies.... --Gary

Yuck! I'm glad it missed us (so far, anyway), but sorry it hit you. --Gary

Your item came in just as I was posting the one below, so you missed it. The storm missed us and must have gone north -- hitting you guys. Sorry about that! (And by the way, take the whole day!) --Gary

If you missed American Idol last Wednesday, you missed "Pants on the Ground." I'll say no more and let you watch it:

And here's the coolest of many remix versions:

Nooooo! [beats head against wall] --Gary

I'm finding the iPod/cassette thing is not great when it comes to books-on-tape. Unlike a CD player, it doesn't "remember" where it stopped when you shut off the engine. So when you start up again, you have to remember which chapter you were on and start again. And furthermore, there's no way to fast-forward through an MP3. It's not uncommon for book-on-tape MP3s to be as long as 30 minutes. Starting one of those over again to get to your place is just not feasible. But for music it's great, and it sounds great too. --Gary

Things I like? The sunroof is pretty nice -- never had one of those before. Never had a remote starter before either, and this one has that. Also another thing which came in handy just yesterday: I came out of Best Buy and had to think for a moment to remember where I parked my car. But hey! there's a button on the keyring which I tapped and beep beep -- oh, my car's over there!

As to the CD player, the news is not so good: it doesn't have one. I'm not sure if my current CD/MP3 player will plug into the new car. And even if it does, the process will be expensive. I looked at new CD players at Best Buy which have USB ports so you can just plug a flash drive into it and play from that. I would love that. But the CD player costs (minimum) $90, and installation is $55, and the kit to make it compatible with my car is (gulp) $140. So, until I work up the moxie to spend $300 for a CD player, I went for a cheaper temporary fix: For $25 I bought a cassette adapter -- a thing which slides into the cassette deck (which my car does have) and connects to the earphone jack of your iPod. So you can play anything on your iPod through the car's sound system. And you'd think it would be clunky, but the sound is actually very good. But I still want the $300 USB dealie....

P.S.: It also has front-wheel drive, which is nice seeing that our ice is never going to melt apparently.

Slept like baby Jesus last night. The house was quiet and I went to bed early. Woke up feeling great! --Gary

I'm sure it is. Completely quiet up there this evening. The armed-and-dangerous thing did occur to me, but it seemed unlikely when I was just a guy who was going to say, "Hey, please turn it down, I'm trying to sleep!" Different story after he called the cops on me. Any interaction I have with him in the future (hopefully none) will be through law enforcement officers. Oh, also, I did hear the cop say his name at one point, and I'll email it to you. And then I'm going to bed early! :-) --Gary

By the way Gary, rough story! Weird that he was staring at you through his window, creeper! Why would you leave your radio on while you're gone, and so loud? Does he have a pet or something that he left it on for? Hope things turn out good!! Talk to you all later!!!

When I got home last night around 9, the music was going -- and especially loud this time. Still going strong at 10. And still going strong at 11:30, which is when I went upstairs and banged on the door. No response. More LOUD banging, and still no response. I went outside, up the back stairs and banged on his back door. Nothing. So I called the property manager, hoping to get the guy's phone number so I could call and let it ring until he answered. But at that hour of the night it's just an answering service and she didn't have the guy's phone number. She advised me to call the police, pointing out that it's against the law to play loud music after 10 pm. (I never knew that.) So I called the cops, who arrived in minutes. I let them in, and their eyes got wide when they heard how loud the music was. They too banged on the door with no response. They said it was possible the occupant had passed out or something, so they called the property manager number and said you've got to get somebody out here, now! The cops said they would leave, but would return when the property manager arrived, and would enter the premises first. It took more than an hour for the property manager to appear, with the cops (2 cars) right behind. During that time the music had stayed at the same volume, but at some point suddenly I could hear footsteps upstairs -- so someone was in there.

The cops went back upstairs, banged on the door, and the guy opened the door right away. (I'm listening to this from my own doorway downstairs.) Turns out the guy had been out for evening and had left his radio on, and arrived home via the back door when I heard the footsteps. I heard the cop say, "And you thought it was okay to leave your radio on this loud?" The other one said, "This is the second time tonight we've been here, you know!" I don't know what else happened, but I did hear them taking down and calling in his name, birthdate, etc. Then the music stopped. And the cops left. It's now after 2 am and I thought, Case Closed.

An hour later, just as I was getting to sleep, I heard someone knocking on my door. What the...? I got up, peered through the peephole, and saw the same cops. I opened the door, and they told me they got a call from the upstairs guy reporting that I was making a disturbance. I was like, "Is he nuts?" I told them that I had immediately gone to bed. They both said, Yeah, that's what we figured -- he must have assumed it was you who had made the complaint and wanted to mess with you. They apologized and then, to my disappointment, left the building -- I was hoping they'd go upstairs and bust him for making a fake complaint, and maybe throw in a little police brutality. But no. So I went back to bed and got a few hours sleep. Then this morning when I was outside scraping my windshield, I glanced up at his window and saw the curtain slightly parted -- he was watching me. This has not been my month!

"It wasn't the money," I heard him say this morning, "it just wasn't fun any more." But have you heard his plans? He's going to start up a new show on Fox where they try to find new singing stars by having unknowns come on and audition and then compete against each other. ...wait a minute, where have I heard that before...? --Gary

Campus is beginning to come back to normal. I drove through it on Saturday, and the streets were jammed with cars and U-hauls as the students returned from Christmas break. Classes started up again yesterday so the hallways are full of people, after a month where the hallways felt like a ghost town. Always weird when the population of your immediate environment increases (or decreases) by some 40,000 over a weekend.

Everybody getting ready for the Oscars? Only 54 days away. :-)

No other news here that I can think of at the moment -- just checking in!

So Lincoln is off of school again, how many days will have to make up? We have two days to make in SC, one in April and now adding one to the last day of school.

Marsha, how bad is it in Minnesota? Stay warm everyone :)

Warmer on Sunday -- up to 27. And Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday it's supposed to be above freezing! Maybe we can melt a flake or two....

I am at least glad to be home with no where to go today. Erika and I have been playing lots of Wii! But, pretty sure Mom and Dad will not be happy when they finally make it home tonight...

It is a snow day for Lincoln schools. Not because of snow (actually there's bright sunshine out there) but because of the windchill. --Gary

Driving the old one -- which surprisingly is still street legal: In spite of being smashed in, the taillights, brake lights, and blinkers all work! I'll drive it until I decide to repair it, or more likely, get a new one. Sad, though, because I really like that car.... I just spoke with Livy on the phone, and her sources say that tomorrow and maybe even Friday will also be snow days. (I think she said Paul has a friend who is a school principal who told him this.) School was closed today (and maybe for the rest of the week) not so much because of the snow but because of the windchill. On Thursday or Friday (can't remember), the high is only supposed to be 1 below.... --Gary

Good to hear about your car Gary, I hope things keep improving!

Thanks! I'm pretty sure you have gotten more snow than we have, but we have enough! --Gary

Quick update for those interested in my car situation: The insurance company made an offer a while back to cover the repairs. I had some estimates done, and they were all higher than the offered amount. So I spoke to the insurance company and they agreed to add on another $500. That was fair, so I accepted it. I'm not sure that I will have it repaired -- my car actually is still driveable, so I can drive it until I either have the repairs done or find another car. So things are looking up. Now if we can just melt some of this snow....

The Advent pages end today. And I gotta say I'm totally done with it for this year.... So the webpage resumes its regularly scheduled programming tomorrow -- except I'm banning all winter/snow/cold pictures for a while!

OMG, that is a cute puppy! Looks like he likes his new home already!

Teghan, I heard you were in Sundays paper again, but I haven't seen it. You're a celebrity!

Sam, those socks have been so nice in this cold weather, I put them on as soon as they come out of the drier. And the chocolates were excellent! Karen, thanks for the really cute tray and goodies. Marsha, the necklace is so pretty. I love keys!

Erika, I'm glad you liked your present. I thought the earrings would look especially nice on you.

I am sick of winter! I have to do the drive into work tomorrow and that will be the first time in about three weeks. Kinda nice being home.

Anyway, a very cold drive in this morning. And even though I was suffering a little from cabin fever and I wanted to get out of my house, going back home and bundling up under a blanket and watching movies now seems like a great idea....

I don't plan to buy a new one -- not right away, anyway. I'll be talking with the insurance people in the next day or two and will work out the final settlement amount. I'll have more details then. --Gary

Gary, what's the status with your car stuff?

Not much movement, and it's partly in the air. I'll know more in a day or so and I'll make a complete report then. --Gary