I heard George Shultz on the Commonwealth Club concerning medicare and healthcare. (See, there are conservatives with brains out there). He's got a new book on the subject, and I'd like to read it.

But it's frickin' awesome that he makes a big point about how any healthcare plan that doesn't address the issue of cost should simply be a non-starter (totally agree with him), but then every solution he proposed magically solves our problems without any need for raising taxes.

Uh-huh.

So we've got more debt than any point in the last 50 years, a roughly 100T unfunded liability for SS and Medicare, and your solutions will fix all these problems without raising taxes.

Riiiiiight. Good luck with that, George. You are part of the problem.

"Uh-Oh"

This morning she got up and was copying her mother and repeated Uh-Oh about 50 times. We weren't going to count this as a word, since we figured she had no idea what it meant, and was just copying us.

But this evening she was actually using it correctly, playing with Zoe and Dad and when she would drop somthing, or something fell on the floor, we got "Uh-Oh!".

Done. Written down. Blogged.

(Coincidently, her sister's first "word" was "Hi Dog", also two syllables)

New pics from December and January...

That is a common blog entry for me, huh? Well, I had a big disk failure and decided to upgrade. Then I forgot to install php5-mysql. I know, WTF is php5-mysql? It makes this thing work.

We'll have Dec/Holiday pics up soon.

Taking a break from children and going to Vegas is not the smartest idea. I got less sleep there than I usually do at home! The good news is that Josie didn't start walking while I was away, but she did learn how to pull herself up to standing by using the dog to stabilize her. Jed found her standing up with one hand on the dog in the middle of the room, so we have to assume that she pulled up on Kai to get there. She also clapped her hands for me this morning! AND she tried to stand up by herself this morning. She climbed up on my leg and then let go to stand up, but I spooked her because I got too excited about it and she wouldn't try again. Maybe she will be walking by Thanksgiving!

Anyway, I'm home. Very tired, and so is poor Jed who did great with the kids (although he spent most of the weekend with our neighbors, but whatever it takes to get through was ok with me).

Quick summary of Vegas: I love my Mother-in-Law, thanks so much to Gail for the trip!!! My sisters-in-law are pretty cool too, so sorry Monica couldn't make it. Hotel was great, didn't lose too much money gambling, saw Elton John's show (incredible), didn't sleep enough, ate too much.

Advice to all: DO NOT GO TO VEGAS IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS! They've closed one runway at the airport, I had an hour delay flying out and a 2 hour delay flying home, and we were lucky, they were projecting 3+ hour delays! Drive or stay home until they finish the airport construction!

OK, back to work!

...while discussing the election, I told some friends that in spite of how much integrity I thought he had, in spite of how he approached issues with thoughtfulness and intelligence, I didn't think the US would elect a black man or a woman president.

I am very, very proud that my country has proved me wrong. And I am proud that my daughters will never see a black president on a TV show and give it a second thought.

I was stringing some holiday lights in the back yard, and I had them on since it was getting dark and I wanted to see how they looked as I strung them up.

In the middle of the last string of them, I felt pain on my stomach, the lights started blinking and I realized that I was getting shocked. Painfully so.

So there goes the bad word. Loud.

One of the bulbs had broken and the raw leads were rubbing on my stomach as I lifted the string over my head. Ow.

So I was off by a pound. I've thrown out diapers that weigh more than a pound in the last couple weeks.

By the way, next time anyone sees Zoe, say to her "Hey Zoe! Float Like a Butterfly..."

Applied Materials keeps resubmitting the patents I was a part of in 1997-2000. There are now NINE patents on 4 inventions!

From notalwaysright.com...

(I’m working in an electronics retail store, and see a man in his late 40’s with a kid no older then 10.)

Me: “Welcome sir, did you get…”

(I look in his cart and see that it’s mostly filled with identical Spongebob DVDs.)

Me: “… everything?”

Man: “I guess so.”

Boy: “MORE SPONGEBOB! SPONGEBOB! SPONGEBOB!”

Man: “Alright, let’s go get some more.”

(About 5 minutes later he comes back, with more Spongebob DVDs… the same ones, to be exact.)

Man: “Alright, I think this is enough.”

(I ring him up, and the total comes to about $550.00 USD.)

Me: *whispering* “Uhh, sir… these are mostly the same thing.”

Man: “Oh, don’t worry about it. I hate my life anyway.”