A Day Off

It's Friday and I'm not at work. Ahh! So refreshing. Parent-teacher conferences were held this week. That means that we teach our normal schedule and then hold conferences in the evenings and before school when we can fit them in. We do get the today off as a trade-off day. I'm so thankful for that. If I had to teach today, there's a pretty good chance it would have been movie day . . . all day. So my plans for my day off are as follows: no plans whatsoever. I am sitting here typing this procrastinating a run with Winter, but after that, nothing. I'm lovin' it!

Follow Up

Since this blog has taken a back seat to Facebook, I rarely ever look at it. But this afternoon, I took a peak and realized that we haven't posted a thing since the summer.

Just 2 posts ago, I wrote about running. I'm glad to report that I am still running and actually finished the "Run the Bridge" race again with my friend Malayna. I also have worked back up to running 10 miles, so I'm on my way to running a half marathon, hopefully by next spring. Winter keeps me motivated too, as she's started running with me. She's a great companion.

The Year of Fun continues. Since the last post, we took a Disney vacation with my parents, sister and her family. Walked miles and miles and sweltered in the heat and humidity, but have a marvelous time. We took another trip out to California to visit Sean's brother's family. As always, we had a ball! Sean purchased a Triumph motorcycle in August, upgrading from the Ninja. He's been on several rides with a group from church. Loving every minute of it. Just 2 weekends ago Sean and I took another weekend trip to NYC and saw "Promises, Promises" and took in the sights of New York. Always a good time.

So, you can see we are still enjoying ourselves. I asked Sean what happens when the Year of Fun ends. He said we just move into version 2.0. :)

Year of Fun

Wow, we've really fallen behind in this blog thing. Yesterday, my cousin asked me if I was still blogging and I thought it might be time to post something.

At the start of the new year, Sean declared this the year of fun. We've had a lot of stress and frustration in our life over the past few years. So he decided that we should let it all go and just have fun. Not a bad idea! And fun we have had.

In January, I spent a weekend with my college roommates in NYC and Sean bought a motorcycle. Too bad it was a bit too cold to ride it. He still managed to get a few icy rides in. He also started playing several gigs at McCleary's Pub with the Matt Goss Band. In February, we spent a lot of time doing things with friends and took a trip out to Chambersburg to spend a weekend with my parents. March brought Spring after a LONG winter, and that in itself was FUN. We made our annual trek to Cove Valley Camp for Maynard and Friends weekend. Great times with old pals. The best news of the month turned out to be that my sister and her family have moved back to PA for good! I'm so glad to have them nearby again. And just last weekend, Sean and I took a mini-vacation to New York. More on that to follow. As you can seen, the year of fun has started off on the right foot. More fun is on it's way as we move into May and the summer.


For those of you who do read this blog, I hope this brings you up to date. Hopefully we can keep up with it in the future.

School's Out

Yes, another year complete! We said goodbye to the kiddos on Thursday and yesterday was a teacher day to finish packing up our rooms for the summer and tying up all of those loose ends. Now the summer is before me and I can't wait. I know it will go fast. It always does.

Huh?

We haven't blogged in a while.

We're just to frikkin' busy. So a big sorry to the 3 of you that actually read this blog.

We shall return soon, I promise, as soon as this all slows down!

Sean.

9 Days

9 days left of this school year! It's the last day of May and I'm wondering where time has gone. I remember as a child thinking that time tended to stand still and adults were silly when they said "time flies by." I must be getting older, because time does fly by. For me, at least, it seems to be going at rapid speed. So welcome, June and summer. I'm so very ready for you!

Busy busy

Hi Folks,

Not much to update you on except that we have both been quite busy. Marci has had a bunch of school stuff going on, and I've been kept busy with work, rehearsals etc, etc.

Winter is now getting huge. We love her, it seems that the small puppy phase is slowly slipping away and we are approaching the adolescent years. She sleeps most of the time, and if I had doubled my size in 8 weeks I would be sleeping a lot as well.

I am being kept entertained by watching this circus we have now, called the government.

What a joke, and yes that includes republicans as well.

American idol? Hmm lets see, either Danny or Adam. I cant stand Adam, because everytime I see the guy perform I feel like I'm at a dinner theater. Anoop, sorry buddy, you just looked too much like any regular dude.

Ok, gotta go.

S.

New Car

Somehow Sean and I managed to get ourselves back into debt. We now have monthly car payments on a brand new 2009 Subaru Forester. Little did we know when we began this Easter weekend that we would be driving home a new car. Yesterday we started out with a little trip to the Subaru dealership to "just take a look." We were sold after a test drive and talking with our new sales-guy friend Derek. We did a little more comparison shopping today but still came back to the Forester. Lest you think we are impulse buyers, I want to assure you that we have been talking about a new car for a while. However, this weekend it all just came together. We got the price we wanted on the total package. So, happy driving!

Space for big doggie (and Sean's amps, guitars, etc). It's supposed to be my car.

Marketing

I got a nice surprise in the mailbox tonight. Apparently I qualify for an AARP membership.
I even have my own shiny new card with my name on it.
The brochure tells me that I can get big savings and discounts wherever I travel, and access to "AARP endorsed group health insurance." Sweet. I didn't think I was that old yet, but this is awesome!
Oh wait - it says something about being "over 50" to join. Ah dangit.
Maybe if I just pretend I belong, and then I flash the card surreptitiously and various retail locations when I purchase something. When I do this I'll accompany it with a nice grin and a wink and I might just get a discount or two. I'll say something like, "its fine, I'm with AARP." Wink.

Perhaps carrying this card will make me feel more cool. Just like those nice medication commercials you see on TV (you know, like the one about *cough* "genital herpes") All you see on those ad's are people canoeing, biking, roller bladeing, holding hands, smiling, and having a great time. By the end of the commercial you are convinced that having this disease could make your life way cooler, fantastic even!
(Side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrea, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, depression, anger, anxiety, dry mouth, temorary hearing loss and possible blindness.)


Sean.

Africa

I saw a documentary on a blog tonight that tore my heart to shreds, and then gently put it back together.
It was of a small village in a dark corner of Uganda, with two little children whose bodies had been ravaged by starvation and polio. They were left hopeless, and abandoned cared for only by their older sister who walked a few miles just to get water to bathe them. With no food or hope in sight, she knew the least she could do was pick them up out of the dirt and dust and cleanse their broken bodies. I sat here as the tears welled up.

Fortunately, the children were rescued in the nick of time by a charitable organization that took them from the shackles of their deadly circumstances and put them in a home where they received medical attention, and rehabilitation.

I am trying to process the deep confusion I have as to why this is a scene all to familiar from Africa. Why does the continent with the most natural wealth and resources on the planet have so many parts that suffer like this. Why? Civil war, famine, AIDS, dictatorships, polio, rebel fighting, government coups, corruption...the list goes on and on.

I spoke for hours with an old friend of mine last night. They emigrated from South Africa to Canada 2 years ago. His story is amazing. They left their home, (like me) to find a better life elsewhere. He told me that his whole outlook on life has changed. No longer is he living in a constant state of stress, wondering when his house is going to get broken into again, or if he is going to be carjacked on the way to work. His wife can play with their daughter in the park, and he knows they will come home that night.

While I love the USA, there are times when my heart yearns for Africa. The smell of the sweet air after a rainstorm. The feel of the warm, dry Drakensberg winds. The sound of the Indian ocean crashing onto a rocky beach. Looking up at night and feeling the Southern Cross looming safely over me. We left our home for a better life, and we found it but all in all, why did it have to be that way? Why couldn't we have had a better life on the continent of my birth, of 5 generations of my family.

Africa's problems run deep into the earth. I don't know the answer. Perhaps it is the hapless victim of the human nature to take, take, take. Almost as if God gave all humanity this wonderful gift brimming with life, color and variety - and all we've done collectively is to pull it to shreds.

If there is any doubt that man is born with a sinful nature, I present Africa as compelling evidence.

Sean.

Not your fault

As I turned into the last corner on my long trip home tonight, my ear caught these words from a commercial playing over the car radio. It went something like this: "Are you in more than ten thousand dollars worth of debt? Do your credit cards have you locked down? Are you tired of calls from collectors? We'll it's not your fault."
"What?" I thought, as I felt for the button on the garage door opener. How is being in debt way over your own head, not your own fault?" I turned the car off, and left the radio on, determined to listen a little closer. In what can only be described as some brilliant Americanized marketing, the voice I was now hearing went on to explain to me that credit card companies have devised a scheme to "keep you in debt" because "that's how they make their money."
Wait a minute. If I spent over $10,000 dollars of someone else's money and I cant pay it back then just how does that profit them?
Well, to cut a long story short, this genius has devised a plan (not for free I might add) to get you out of debt, and a way to stop the "evil" credit card companies from calling you.

Why not just pay what you rightfully owe? Oh that's right, you cant because you don't have any money.

Personal responsibility. We seem to be missing that in our country these days. I remember amassing quite a large debt with a certain credit card company in my early twenties, but I don't seem to remember an "evil agent" from Visa putting a gun in my back, forcing me to spend money. Oh no, I did that all by myself. Because we are all taught that having debt is normal right? One needs to "build your credit" when you are young so you can take on more debt when you are much older. Spend now so you can be more in debt later - got it.
And why have a savings account for a rainy day - isn't that what a credit card is for? Yes, of course, because borrowing more money when you are flat broke is always a good idea. Especially at a 21% APR.

These days, normal is broke, or only 4 weeks away from it.

I'm proud to say that we (Marci and I) are free of all debt, but our home. You read that right, no car payment, credit cards, student loans - nothing. Why, because we got sick and tired of owing everyone else money. It took 3 years of hard work. Marci (a.k.a Minister of Finances) wrote out the last check for someone else, last year. I cant tell you how liberating this experience was. I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have a great marriage is because we are not under the stress of debt anymore. You should try it.




Sean.

Happy things

The top 10 things that have made me happy this past week. (Other than being married to an awesome woman)

1. Coming home to a house of 5 lovely ladies in Pajamas. (See previous post below)
2. Finally got the home studio set up. No more dragging amps, guitars, cords and junk up and down the stairs to practice.
3. Wife suggests, and even encourages me to order a new Macbook.
4. New Macbook arriving tomorrow.
5. Have discovered that Starbucks is actually capable of making a decent cup of coffee - It's called the "americano" Give it a try.
6. Starbucks name has been redeemed to its original form, "Charrbucks" no longer required.
7. Twitter app for Iphone. Lets me keep in touch with the other 2.7 people that are somehow interested for no apparent reason, in my life.
8. American Idol is back - " let my pipple gooo" (see American Idol 2007 for reference)
9. Central heat.
10. Grandma Utz potato chips. Mmmhmmm.

that's it.

Sean.

Cars

The latest round of bailout talks with American car manufacturers has got me thinking. First of all, I think that I am sick of everyone being "bailed out" and second of all, I am feeling less and less sorry for companies that are begging for rescue from their own poor management and years of selling cheap, poor products.
I asked Marci last week to name just 1 small, quality, fuel efficient car made either by Chrysler or GM. She thought for a few seconds and couldn't name any. I then asked her to name 1 similar vehicle made by Toyota, Honda, or any other "foreign manufacturer." Within seconds she named 3. Try this little experiment yourself and see what happens. I'll leave it with you to digest the results. But the exercise seems to answer itself.
For fun, I decided to do some research on the top ten worst rated cars of 2007. So here they are:

10. Saturn ION
9. Chrysler Aspen
8. Chevrolet Trailblazer
7. Hummer H2
6. Hummer H3
5. Chevrolet Uplander
4. Dodge Nitro
3. Chevrolet Aveo
2. Chrysler Sebring
1. Jeep Compass.

Suspiciously, (or not) every car is either a GM or Chrysler product - with GM having the distinct honor of having a total of 7 in the top ten. Congrats to Chrysler who only had 3.
Absent from the list is any foreign manufacturer. Ok, so you may ask what are the criteria for this list? I'll let you read it for yourself here.
Very impressive. Is it any wonder why both companies, once giants in the auto industry, are literally days away from bankruptcy - and don't even get me started on unions, where the average wage to work in a GM factory to build these wonderful products is $28/hour.
Just if you wondered, based on an average year (with no overtime), that's a salary of $58,240 per year.

Caveat - I point the finger squarely at big unions and poor management for this one, NOT the guy on the production line trying to make a decent living.

I won't go into the depths of how Detroit has sold us on cheap junk with no re-sale value for years, and years. We as Americans have been forced to accept mediocrity, and poor quality, and lousy design from our own car companies for decades. Does anyone remember the Pontiac Aztek? Who in their right mind in the engineering and design dept at GM, dreamed this thing up and then thought - "Wow, what a beautiful car!!" Who signed off on the paper, allowing this behemoth of ugliness go into production? Sorry - no offense to those of you who actually bought one of these....but really??

The sad part of it is, surely the greatest, most prosperous nation in the world is capable of so much better. I work for a large American engine manufacturer where I can honestly say that quality is the most important aspect of everything we do. I am proud to represent an organization that sells a well engineered, quality product. Our very name is synonymous with quality. And we are constantly, driven, and pushed towards this on an internal level. Thousands, upon thousands of hours of product research and development are completed before any new engine is ever released.

So we are faced with a dilemma? Do we bail out mediocrity? Do we simply accept poor products and poor management and poor quality with a nice check from the federal government? Keep in mind, that is your taxpayer money - you know, the stuff the government takes from you before you even get it. When was the last time you heard someone say - "Gee, I really want a nice new Buick in the driveway!"

I expect some good response from this one....

So go for it.

S.

Hunting

It is quite difficult to visit customers at this time of the year. Why? Because nearly all of them are out in the woods shooting at deer.
I find this fascination, and utter devotion to blowing away Bambi quite interesting. As soon as it even starts to get a little chilly, I start to hear passing mentions from all sorts of guys that "deer huntin' season is coming soon." They all talk about this with a sort of wild glazed look in their eyes. I can see dreams of the smell of gunpowder, and orange vests turning in their minds.

Of course, being born in Africa I am not at all unfamiliar to the concept of hunting. I often used to relish stories my Uncle Doug told about the days he would spend on the African savannah, tracking, and playing lethal games with big african wildlife. In his case you carried a large rifle not only as a tool to kill your prey, but also as a means of defense against animals who were faster and had bigger teeth than you did. Truly, the word "hunt" applied to these situations.

Here in PA, not so much.

I don't think it is "hunting" as much as it is "going into the woods with a gun." Maybe it should be called "deer ambushing." Is this wrong? Maybe I don't know enough about the sport, but usually when you hide in one place for hours on end waiting for an unlucky deer to walk by, and then unleash heavy firepower - that is an ambush. Not that this isn't effective - it just seems sort of unfair?

Don't get me wrong, I like eating deer meat, but perhaps it would be more sporting if all the deer had guns as well.


Sean.

Shopping

We need to go shopping for Christmas. This is a task that I am not looking forward to. Not because I don't love giving people presents, truthfully, I loathe the traffic I have to get through to purchase all the presents. I went to the mall to day for a haircut (at the instruction of my wife) and if the parking lot was any indication of the state of our economy, we are going to be just fine.

Parking lots are a source of human weirdness for sure. I am amazed at how some people just switch off their brain when entering a mall parking lot. From the old guy in the Buick LeSabre who is driving at 1.7 mph, to the visually impaired person who manages to consume 2 parking spaces for a Honda civic.

Anyway, so now my hair is cut and I am sitting here blogging because there are 4 ladies in our living room who are laughing out loud, and opening presents at the same time. This means I have no access to my beautiful tv. Marci's gal pals are over here for their annual Christmas gift giving. This is a tradition that has been going on for years. It always amazes me how much fun, and words women can have at these events. It's kinda cool. Most guys would never call each other and say "Hey man lets all get together, just us guys and watch each other open our presents, Hooray!!" Could you possibly even imagine this? Now if the call that went out went like this "Hey, you jacka$$'s come over to my place for Xmas so that we can insult each other, tell dirty jokes, drink beer, fart out loud and laugh about it" you can bet that all of my guy friends would be here.

That's the difference between guys and girls. Marci still has problems understanding this. Part of being a man, is knowing how to insult your fellow man in a way that actually says - "hey I like you well enough to make fun of you." Women just don't communicate this way. Guys like to insult each other, we think its funny, ladies don't. You would never see a girl pointing at another woman's belly saying, "what happened here?, maybe you should cut back on the beer - HAHAHA" That would not go down well. A guy can say that to another guy, and both have a good laugh. Hey, in our world a beer belly is a medal of honor.

Anyway, I digress. I am going to go into the living room now, into the fray of words and laughter.
On the other hand, it's kinda nice to come home to a house full of 4 lovely ladies!


Sean.

Fall is here

I love the fall.

The cool crisp air in the morning, the leaves changing on the trees, the days of sweltering heat finally behind us.

Soon it will be time to put the mower away, and watch the grass go back to sleep.

This is the best time of the year to be out on the road, visiting customers. I can drive with the windows down, I don' have to get back into a steaming hot car, and for some reason people just seem more relaxed. I like to take my camera out with me, the air is nice and clear and I never know when I can quickly snap a picture of the leaves turning.

I drove past this little tree a few days ago, and it looked like it was on fire, so I pulled over, grabbed my SLR and took a few shots. (Click Here)

What is your favorite part about the fall? Carving pumpkins? Pulling on your favorite sweater?

Warm cookies from the oven, with a nice cup of hot chocolate on standby?

Sean.

Bomb

Real quick blog...
Image the sound of a World War 2 bomb falling out of the sky....
Now imagine that is the stock market.

BOOM. :(

Oh, well, see you later 401k. It was nice to watch you do quite well the past 5 years.
Now, its just sad to watch you vaporize away....bye bye.

TIME TO BUY BABY!!! STOCKS ON SALE!! :)

S.

Mad

Ok, I need a quick rant to get this out of my system before I head out today.

I am furious over the $800 billion dollars it is going to take to bail Wall Street out of the hole THEY have put themselves in. FURIOUS!!

These are the same people that drove the price of oil up to $147.00 a barrel, raking in huge profits while we were paying $4 bucks at the pump. The same people, who had CEO's making in some cases, over 1 billion dollars a years in annual bonus. The same people that made completely irresponsible, unsound financial decisions based purely on nothing but greed and frankly a lust for money.

I realize that the alternative of a completely collapsed financial market would not have been a good path to take - but while the fat cats at wall street now look to the government with that guilty child look on their faces, let us not forget who put them there, and how this all happened.

My opinon? The CEO's of Bear Stearns, the now broke Lehman Bros, Merril Lynch, and Goldman Sachs need to appear on national TV and explain to the American people how they allowed this to happen - since we are now the ones who now have to pay for their sins.

Every dime of their annual bonuses from the past 4 years needs to be returned and placed in a fund for inner city schools. Could you imagine what we could do for a few poor communities with 1 Billion dollars?

Ridiculous.

Please feel free to post your comments. I am anxious to know how you feel about this!

Sean.

Fixing Things

About 10 minutes ago I heard some noises coming from the garage. I opened the back door to find Sean, just having returned from the car wash with my car, putting on the finishing touches. Then I noticed that our year old, smooth driveway now has a gouge taken out of it. Hmm? So I ask, "Sean, why is there a hole in our driveway?" Sheepishly he looks at me and says, "Oh, I tried to jack up the car in the driveway. It's not bad, is it?" I remarked on Sean's tendency to not think things through before acting, shook my head in wonderment and came back inside. About 5 minutes ago, I went outside to see this . . .


This would be Sean fixing the hole. A hammer, aim 'n flame, and a little bit of stone and tar should do the trick, don't you think?

There's no such thing as a free lunch

My Dad told me that one day, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
In essence, what he was trying to teach me is that every action in life has its consequences.
No action is performed without a re-action. This theory came home to roost today, as one of Wall Street's oldest and most respected financial firms collapsed under a cloud of bad debt.
In a matter of months, the value of Lehman Brother's stock crashed over 95 percent.
To put that in perspective, in January 2008 a single share was valued at a little over $60. Today, it was valued at 21 cents. Yes, you read that correctly.
Why did this happen? Billions of dollars invested in mortgage debt. As the value of assets owned through debt by Lehman plummeted, all their invested fortunes simply vanished into thin air. Gone. Money on paper simply erased. The years of lending gobs of cheap money to people who could not afford it in the first place had finally caught up. As the whole mortgage industry, stitched up with yards of ARM's and bad debt has tumbled, Lehman Brothers was dragged along into the pit.
Its total outstanding debts are a total of $786 Billion, and the value of its assets are: $639 billion.
That is a gap of $147 Billion.
The math is quite simple. They now owe a lot more money than they are worth. Usually when one finds yourself in this situation, you get a loan to make up the difference until you can put yourself into positive territory. Herein lies the problem. No one is willing to fork out $147 billion dollars in loans. Not any banks, and this time not the government.

So do I feel sorry for them? No.
Wall Street has been treated like a casino the past few years. You can only engage in risky, unsound, business practice for so long until it catches up to you. When may I ask did someone in upper managment raise the red flag? This is a company that has been in existence for over 100 years. Would the founders Emanuel and Mayer Lehman have approved of this? Thankfully, the american taxpayer will not have to pay in to bail them out. Enough is enough. Enough of the greed. Enough of the credit card mentality.

As I read online today from one financial advisor - "goodbye Lehman, it was nice knowing you"

Looks like lunch time is over.

Sean.