wOOT wOOt!1

It's Halloween. I love this holiday. My brother's and I used to haunt the house, our goal to scare the crap out of any kid who was brave enough to wander by. We did a pretty good job. We used to decorate the whole front yard, ghosts, tombstones, coffin, skeletons, us dressed in masks and field jackets. Fun times.
Went to Loker's house for the annual party. Good times. Went with A as Mork and Mindy. Got the whole rainbow suspenders, pulled my pants up to my bell button (that hurts after awhile). Left a little early which I had hoped not to do, but f, I was tired. Working six days is rough. I just don't enough done on my day off and so I don't really feel rested.
What else? Been listening to the new U2/Green Day track "the saints are coming".

I really like the last part. Not as seen on TV. Sad but true. I do appreciate how the song portrays the military as the "saints". Sure I'm not for the war, but I wouldn't protest the military. Those guys are just doing their jobs, and certainly not getting paid enough for it. Seppo showed me this recently:


hehe. I like the way that Cheney and Rove turn into ugly animals. I wish someone would shoot them in the face. Next week we in the US get to make a choice about the direction of our country for the next two years. It may be a referendum on Bush and his policies regarding the war in Iraq and Republicans. Ideally politicans would be honest, and as the Baz Lurhman song implies, when I get older I might think they were. But not this current batch. Not these creatins. I hope are taken to task for the things they have done to us. They have paved the streets with our civil liberties, our freedom of the press, and then let corporate America drive their SUV's all over them.
In Cali we get to vote on several Propositions. Some of them are good and the idea behind them sound good. Rebuild the roads, awesome, expand public transport, I'm very much for that, infastructure rebuilding. We need it. Do we need it at 40+Billion? I can't decide, I may take the following into account when voting next week:
"We currently have about $45 billion in GO bonds outstanding and
another $30 billion in unsold bonds. That costs the state just under
$4 billion annually to fund the debt service. There is a ratio which
should be looked at which suggests that debt service payments should
not exceed 6% of the General Fund. The current ratio is 4.8%. IF all
of these bonds were to be authorized we would add $42.7 billion in new
debt. In 2011 that would raise the ratio to 5.9%. Debt service on
this, making a lot of assumptions about what rates might be able to be
obtained - would increase by a bit under $3 billion annually. Those
payments are not available for other state purposes and endure whether
the state is in good or bad financial shape. Thus, I personally am
very cautious about trying to extend the debt load very much.

Consider this carefully when you vote on the bonds. I will vote for
some of them, but we are in dicey water."
Credit SB's uncle.
I'll finish with this, from Nightmare Before Chrismas, Jack has disappeared and the mayor is at his house to talk about the next Halloween, 364 days off, when it's discovered Jack is not home, the mayor screams:
Jack, please, I'm only an elected official here, I can't make decisions by myself!

Cornucopia

Got back on the pitch yesterday for the first time in awhile. Been really busy with Runt's wedding and travel. I could have played the weekend I got back from Europe, but I was really tired. I did get Nuno his jersey, a Deco FCB jersey, he loves it.








I guess I owe a recap of Europe. I got into Paris on a Wednesday morning, caught the metro to meet Claire, hand off my checked luggage, and spend the day wandering Paris. I did the usual, but much slower. St. Chappelle, Notre Dame, Arc' D Triumph, and the Louvre. The Louvre is for louvers. Spent about three hours there. Then an hour sitting on a canal watching the world move by. The next few days were packed with pre-wedding preping and drinking. The wedding it's self was awesome. Nico and Marie looked wonderful. Nico had the coolest tux I'd seen. The ceremonies (yes, ceremonies) were great. The reception, however, was AMAZING. It started at 6pm and the OLD people, like your grandparents age, left around 3am. I left at 5 and opened a bottle of champange in the car on the drive back just to make sure I'd had enough to drink. The highlight of the evening was cutting in on two attractive sisters and dancing with both of them to Elvis Crespos "Suavemente"....Great stuff.









Monday was a short plane ride to Kobenhavn to see Mikkel and Karen for a few days. This portion of the trip was a lot more mellow. We spent a fair amount of time sitting around drinking espressos and trying to find ways for me to move to Denmark or discussing his impending fatherhood, the state of the world, his, mine and everyone's. On the days that he worked I wandered Kobenhavn not being lost. It was surprising how much I recall about how to get around this wonderful city. I guess it's not the most fantastic city I've been to, but it feels so much like home because it's Mikkel's home and as he is my brother, it is my home as well. We went to a museum called the experimentium and they had all these little experiments based on all sorts of things, balance, vision, vocal abilities (how loud can you be?), everything was a little competition between us and the best was: who can be more relaxed. That was so funny. Sitting there trying to be more relaxed than the person sitting across from you, but thinking about beating them at the same time, we couldn't even finish it. Of course no trip to Kobenhavn is complete without a trip to the clubs, we obligated ourselves to this and had a blast. Reviving a tradition from 2004, we hit up for the 4am kebob. AWESOME. Friday was a chill day spent in the city, then off to the airport, back to Paris and home on Saturday morning. A whirlwind, but worth it to see Mikkel, Karen, Nico and Marie.

Time to hit the sack. I'm getting old.

Marrieded..........Last man standing..........

My sister got married yesterday. It was a wonderful ceremony, my brothers' and I performed the ceremony. It was nice to see Claire so happy, she's been looking forward to this day for, forever...
I was surprised at how stressful the whole thing was for me. I think it was for a few reasons. Claire is the youngest, my only sister and I am just little protective of her. Of course the other reason is that I am now the only one who is not married in my immediate family. This doesn't bother me, but it's funny to see how everyone lives have developed over the past 3-5 years. Keith has been married for three years, Alex and Michelle for one year ( i still owe them a present), and five years ago Claire and Nick hadn't met. I was engaged and almost married four years ago. Maybe it was five. It's surprising to think that at 25 I thought I had my life all figured out. If I had gotten married there are so many things that would be different in my life. I wouldn't change a single decision I have made in that time. It seems that you are offered a choice at a particular time in your life and it is up to you to choose this path or that one. Neither is wrong, but one is offered that seems so fitting that to not choose that pre-ordaned or destined path, you could be putting yourself further into the rut that you are stuck in.
Quote from the weekend- After taking off my shirt and dancing with me to Village People's YMCA, a wonderful friend of my mom's said, "Thanks for giving an old lady a a thrill." Yee-haa.