The finished product after only 4 years

This has been a project that we started when we lived in Springfield MO quite a few years ago.
It is nice to finally have it done.

Poor Butch

Last week, while I was out traveling, Landon had to take Butch with him to his gigs. While out there, Butch sprained the tendon that goes in front of his knee. It I guess keeps going in and out of the position which it is supposed to stay in, and looks to be painful. Landon took him to the Vet on Monday to have it looked at, and he gave him a steroid shot in his leg, as well as gave us some pills to help the pain, and swelling. I had been giving him these pills since Monday, and thought to myself only yesterday, I wonder what is in these pills. So I look them up on line. They are Rimadyl. Apperantly they have had mixed reviews. It said when they were doing the clinical trials that 39% of the dogs had reaction that caused medical care or death. Yet they still approved it.
I know that there are people out there that don’t understand how I feel about my dog, but I love him like he is my child, and to be having him take a medication that 39% of dogs either had to go to the vet because of liver and or kidney failure or died was very upsetting.
With those of you with children, think about finding out these odds on a medication that you were giving to your child. You would freak out!
Now. What is the difference between pills for animals and pills for humans? A 39% bad reaction rate was low enough to pass this drug. Here is what they have to say in an Update about the drug.

“Of all the ADE reports CVM received in 1998, thirty-nine percent (39%) or 3626 involved Rimadyl®. The number of ADE reports received by CVM for Rimadyl® is considerably more than that received for other animal drugs. For any one ADE report, there is no absolute certainty that the suspected drug caused the effect. The adverse effects in these reports are consistent with those expected for NSAIDs. They typically involve the gastrointestinal system, renal/urinary system, hematopoietic (blood) system, neurological system, and the liver. Approximately 13% of the 1998 Rimadyl® ADE reports for dogs involved death of the dog, either on their own or by means of euthanasia.”
Here is the link:
http://www.srdogs.com/Pages/rimadylfr.html


13% died. Nice. Anyways, I have not seen any adverse reaction to the drug yet, and I do not know what to do. It is helping his pain, and it is Saturday. All the vets are closed. Do I keep giving it to him, or do I stop, and let him suffer? I think I would rather him suffer than die. But so far he has been fine. Ah dilemmas

Weekend

It is ready to be stained. (this dresser used to be the same color as the bed in the first picture)














Stained


















This weekend I am going to having to be productive. I have stained a dresser that we sanded all the paint off of, and will varnish it tomorrow.

I have also gone through all my books and cataloged them online so that I have that, as well as making a pile of ones that we need to get rid of. That was actually quite a chore since I have 3 five shelf bookshelves completely full of books. I have just finished this, and have freed up 4 shelves to put the wood carvings that my parents brought home from FSM. The trick was, the shelves you can see on top there are actually 3 books deep! I just fit 3 times as much on one shelf!

Northern California, and Southern Oregon

This last trip that I went on was to a few stores in Oregon, and a few in Northern California.
Past the town of Weed and all



I was only there for 3 days, but hit the ground running, and did not stop until I was back in the airport on my way home.
There is not a direct flight from Dallas to Medford, so on the way out, I connected in Los Angeles. After that experience, I have told myself to remember to NEVER connect out of LAX again. It was very time consuming, and odd. I had to wait for a bus to take me from terminal C to Terminal B, then wait on another bus to take me to terminal A. Not to mention, there are really no signs that say what needs to be done. You have to ask, unless you are lucky enough to see the one sign that has an arrow and says gates 30-40 here. You follow that sign to an empty room thinking “ok now what? I don’t see any gates. Then a bus pulls up outside of the terminal (where all the planes are driving around and taking off) and you figure that must be your ride.
It was odd. Oh well, I am a seasoned air traveler, so I was pretty calm. I was just looking at those first timers, and feeling bad for them.
I luckily connected out of Salt Lake on the way back.
Going to the west coast always seems to take so long, then you think about it, and it does take a long time. I left on Tuesday morning from Dallas at 6:00. I landed in Medford at 11:00. With the loss of two hours, that is 7 hours of travel. It seems like Oregon is not that far from Texas! But it is!
While was there, I was in awe almost the whole time. It is so beautiful up there. Each time I went through Grants Pass, It was raining, and foggy but you could still see the splendor through all of that. I am sure glad I took this trip in the fall, and was blessed to not have to drive Grants Pass in the snow!
I sure do miss mountains.
I am now complete with my travels for this year. We are now going to let the stores focus on the Holiday Season, and hope for the best! I am a little relieved that I am done with travel now, because the Region that I am over is not a fun Region to traverse in the winter! Plus I am a little wore out from the travel! So no I can get ready for all the holidays myself!

Another Post from Landon about Pres elect

Last night, President Elect Obama gave one of the all time great speaches. As most of you know, I've been fairly vocal in my support of John McCain as President. I believe Obama demonstrated to us last night what makes him so appealing to so many...he inspires a belief that tomorrow will be a better day than today.

It's time for all of us to embrace our new President and look towards the future. I'm on the record as being skeptical of Obama because of his lack of a track record. If he continues the path he's demonstrated over the last 60 days, he will be a solid President for everyone.

As he said in his speach last night, "for those of you who didn't vote for me...I'm going to be your President too." If he truly means that, and will govern like that...I believe our country will again be headed in a good direction.

As much as I like John McCain, I believe Barack Obama offers the very best possible chance to really inspire Americans and will challenge many Americans to look within themselves and realize status quo has changed.

There are many reason why I believe that the best decision was not made. Hopefully, (and I truly mean this) I will be proven wrong. But don't expect me to be easy on him. :-) There are many serious problems that need attention NOW! I hope he can come through with the promises that he made so many people believe. What a salesman. Now I just hope he comes through with the guarantee!

God Bless America. I hope and pray President Elect Obama is the man he wants America to believe he is. If he is...Americans made the right choice tonight.

Side note post from Melanie:
Isn't my husband wise? He and I are on the same page here.

Post From Landon

Well, I guess it's time for me to chime in with my two cents worth on what's going on with our current financial crisis. Let me prefice this by saying it's just my opinion! Hopefully this will bring some insight to you as I explain my position on this interesting situation.

Point 1 - Politicians are incapable of making these decisions.

I've come to the conclusion that most of the politicians trying to work this entire deal out on our behalf don't have the skills to really do what needs to be done. Seriously, I've come to the conculsion that most of them are incapable idiots. For instance, take a guy like Joe Biden. For the record, I'm not using him as an example because he's a Democrat. I'm using him because he's the first person that happened to come to mind. I'm sure there are Republicans just like this example.

Joe Biden has really done nothing in his life except be a politician. That's it. He's lived in the fantasy world of Washington DC for the last 30 years. He's never built a business, ran a company, led an organization, or made a decision that he directly had to be accountable for. He gets to "vote". He's one of 100 votes. He might be totally inept at making good decisions, but because he's never really "flying without a parachute", we have no idea if he's truly an excellent and informed decision maker. The only skill we know Biden and others like him posses is an ability to get elected to a job that I doubt the sharpest people in America would ever take.

Point 2 - Why the people we elect aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Who the hell would really want to be a politician? Think about this for a minute. The best, brightest, and most capable people would never consider running for senate or congress. To get elected, you go out and beg for money making promises to people along the way you may or may not keep. Then if you're lucky and make it far enough to get on the ballot, you get to spend a few months hearing how crappy of a person you are on television and radio ads. Oh, but you get the satisfaction of saying crappy things about the other person vying for your job. Then, if elected, your job is in Washington DC. Most likely far away from where you call "home". But don't worry, before you know it you have to start the process all over again to keep this job.

All for 160k a year. Let's be honest...that's not much money. I believe there are a small portion of politicians that get in to it for the right reasons, but I believe there's a larger number of them that do it to fuel their need for self importance. I think most of them would fail miserably in the real world. Seriously, when's the last time you saw a help wanted ad that said -

"Wanted: A kiss ass glad hander that is capable of talking out both sides of their mouth. Must be loyal to one way of thinking (insinuating Republican or Democrat here) whether it's right or not. Must feel free to criticize their coworkers when things do not work out, but be willing to take all the credit with success. Company will never ask the successful applicant to make a decision and be held accountable; because all decisions in the company are done by a vote."

See my point here?

Let's throw a bunch of men and women in a room that probably are incapable of running even a simple business and allow them to figure this mess out. Have you ever sat around and watched CSPAN and listened to some of these politicians talk? It bothers me.

Point 3 - The truth about the "bailouts"

There are very few people that either...

1. Are describing what is going on accurately. Or...

2. Actually understand what these bail outs entail.

First, let me say. Our country should never be in the position it's in right now. Period. I beleive there is only 3 things that truly motivate people in our world. Sex, Greed, and Fear. I think if you stop and think about that for a minute you'll find that's true. Greed has caused the problem we are facing. Why it happened is an entirely different blog. Let me just say it shouldn't have happened, but the reality is it has happened. This blog is about what's going on now.

I'm sick of hearing the media and politicians talk about this bailout as a "burden to the taxpayers". That's the media playing the fear card to get more ratings.

As for why the politicians are saying it's a burden - I'm not sure if it's because they don't understand business well enough to know what is really going on, OR if they are just playing politics.

Folks, the government got a great deal on AIG. For the record we taxpayers BOUGHT an equity stake in the company. We now own 80% of it. Purchased at a depressed price. The time to be a buyer in business is when everyone else is selling. Ask Warren Buffet. He's rich because of that philosophy.

The reason for the bailout is simple. A tremendous amount of money is tied to real estate backed loans. Let me explain how this process works...

You go and borrow money from a bank to purchase a home. The loan is backed by real estate that's considered to be worth a certain amount of money. You agree to pay the bank a certain interest rate over an agreed to amount of time. Because of all of this, your mortgage has a certain "value" to an investor. Your loan is then packaged up with lots of other loans and sold on Wall Street to other institutional investors. AIG for instance, would be a company that might by notes like this. This process is called "securitization".

This process works because actuarians (smart math people that calculate risk) know what these notes are worth based on many calculations. There is an accepted value to these bundles of mortages. This value is as real to the investor as the money you have in your wallet.

What's happening is because of past greed corrupting the process, everyone is now unsure of what these bundles of mortgages are really worth. This was caused by overly optimistic real estate appraisals, lending policies that weren't based on common sense, and other factors. Oh, and by the way...before we start crucifying these banks for making these loans let me say that they were all hailed as heros for making affordable loans available to the masses.

That's another thing that really pisses me off and makes me shake my head. These banks were criticized for being "predatory", but now it's looking like the banks should have charged A LOT higher interest rates doesn't it? Higher interest rates help the bank offset risk. These loans obviously held more risk than people realized.

To finish the above thought - A person I respect a great deal and is much smarter than I am about economics and fiance said something recently that I believe to be true. He said, "Some people are just not cut out to be homeowners. They simply don't posess the life skills to be responsible enough to own a home." The fact is folks, nobody twisted people's arms in to accepting the loans these banks are being blamed for. Just like nobody twisted the banks arms in to extending the loan offer.

Anyway, back to my explanation. The situation we are now faced with is we need someone to come in and say - hey, we believe these notes are worth "xyz". When the notes were sold, they were sold for 100% of their face value. (They weren't exactly sold for that...but for the sake of this explanation they were), but now we need to establish a "corrected value" of these notes. The problem is, there isn't a single investor out there large enough to help establish that amount....except for the government.

I've talked to trusted people in the industry that are telling me that some banks are selling off these notes for as little as 25% of the face value. This is why the system is failing. Nobody knows what they are worth and it has caused an over reaction. I can tell you this, they are certainly worth more than 25 cents on the dollar.

The governments "bailout" isn't a gift of money to these companies. It's creating a buyer for these bundles of mortgages. They are helping to create a new value so the notes can be traded with confidence again.

As taxpayers, we'll own these mortgages or a portion of the companies that have own these mortgages. Let me ask you a question. Go outside and look around at the houses in your neighborhood. Almost all of the houses probably have a mortgage. If you had enough money, wouldn't you like to own all of the houses for say....50% of the amount owed on the current mortgage?

Of course you would. That's all we are doing with these "bailouts" that the media and the politicians keep howling about. It also illustrates why these people shouldn't be trusted with this decision.

I think that's the biggest injustice being played out in this whole "bailout". The average person thinks this money is just being pissed away. The truth is quite the opposite. If it's not screwed up by the politicians, this will be one helluva real estate investment. I swear on Waylon's grave to that statement. Hopefully we can take the profits from this and pay something down on our national debt.

Point 4 - What I would do

If it were soley up to me, I wouldn't let the politicians sort this out. I would create an executive board of real world business people with experience in these areas. I would also make sure the executive board's number one criteria for admission would be character. People like Warren Buffet. Let them hammer out a couple of different solutions and then demand the politiicans approve one or the other. That's it...no changing. You get one of two choices...now take your pick because we know you'll screw it up with politics if you go changing it.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days with all of this. I hope as you watch it unfold, you'll think about some of what I've said in this blog. I hope it helps you keep it all in perspective as the politicians over complicate it and grand stand for their own puffery. It's a serious problem no doubt, but one that can be simplified and managed if we remove politics and would just allow honest business minds to make the decisions.

NASCAR

We were really debating on whether or not to go to the races this year, because of our budget constraints.



We had still not bought any tickets a week before the race, when at one of Landon’s Gigs, one of his friends that lives in Kansas won a couple of tickets to the Nationwide race. She gave them to Landon, saying that she was not interested in racing and would especially not be driving down to Texas to watch it! So we were very lucky to have such friends, and went to the Nationwide race. Which our boy won!
It was a great time. Landon and I always have such a good time at the races. The fans are some of the best that we have ever encountered in all of our tailgating at sporting events.

So while we were parking and getting ready to go in, Landon gets a phone call from a guy that he has worked with here in Texas saying that he has a car pass to get into the infield (the center of the circle where all the cars go around) and if we want it that it is ours, because he is not interested in going. So we took him up on this as well.

We got to experience the infield of a NASCAR race. It was a great experience. The NASCAR race is about 4 hours, and a little long for me, but I still had a good time, and Landon had an excellent time. We met a few more fans that we made friends with while we were standing on the top of the RV watching the cars go around.

Great fun! I feel we are so lucky to have such friends and co-workers that we got to go to two races for free. This was great since we probably would not have gone. Thank you friends!

Halloween

I know it is a little late, but I decided that I could still catch up with past new.
For Halloween, Landon and I decided to try something new, and went to another couples house to celebrate the evening there, so we turned off our porch light, and left.
We grilled, ate, and watched scary movies all while giving candy out at their house to the trick or treaters.
We had a great time, and now have done many different types of things on Halloween.
It also came to light that I have been gone for most of the Halloweens that we have not gone out, and Landon has done the treats. Crazy!

Hail to the chief elect

How about that election. I guess we have a new president elect. I hope that he can keep up with all of his promises (as I do every election).
I am glad that we made history in a few ways yesterday, and I always hope for the best to come in the next 4 years.
Here is to change, and hope.

I've fallen and I cant get up!

It seems like sometimes we get behind due to a nature of things, and sometimes like for me for the past few weeks, we cant dig ourselves out from under it.
I went to Utah and Idaho for a week a few weeks ago for work, and was lucky enough to work it out that I could see many of my family.
I made it to my parents homecoming which I was very glad I was able to do that, since I missed their farewell. I also met my brothers fiancée for the first time.
It was a little sad to go there, just because none of my nieces or nephews know who I am. (my own fault.) I need to find ways to visit home more often.
When I got back from Utah, I was not doing so hot! All this traveling get to me. I spent that weekend sleeping as much as I could, which turns out that I slept almost the whole weekend.
Then I could not catch up.
My house has not been dusted, or vacuumed, my dishes get done only to the minimum. I finally had to go grocery shopping yesterday, because we had nothing to eat.
I am going to get out from under this though I know it.
This past weekend we went to the race, and I will have highlights on that later once I have time to get the pictures from the camera set up.