Homecoming '08 - Part 2

There are a few ways of dealing with parking on game day. My favorite is to go to the game on a motorcycle, which is quite easy to park at the stadium. That's what Alex and I did last year, since Ramon's bike was being kept in Jarue's garage while he was deployed. But this year that wasn't available.

Another option is to use the park-and-ride. You park your car at the Oaks Mall, pay $8 per person, and take a special bus to the stadium. After the game, you take another bus back to your car. I'm a cheapskate, so $16 was too expensive. Plus, I didn't want to be locked into catching a bus after the game. That puts a crimp on autograph-seeking.

You can pay for a parking spot near the stadium, but that's even more expensive than the park-and-ride, and often your car is blocked in for a while after the game.

We could have had Jarue drop us off and pick us up, but then she'd have to deal with game traffic. So I opted for a variant of this option, which I call the "car plant." Basically, we plant a car in a decent (free) spot several hours before the game, and then get a ride to the stadium closer to game time. Then after the game, we just walk to our car and go home. We did this for Gator Growl the night before, and it worked great.

Unfortunately, we didn't get going quickly enough Saturday morning, and by the time we got to the place where we had parked for Gator Growl, there were no more spots. We drove around for a while (Jarue following us in another car) and then finally settled on a spot probably a mile from the stadium. Oh well. A nice post-game walk would be good for us, though I was pretty sure I'd be carrying Bella for most of it.

After we parked the car, Jarue drove us up to the stadium and dropped us off. The first thing we did was get a picture with the Albert and Alberta statues in front of Emerson Hall.

Our next goal was to be a part of the Gator Walk. This is a thing where fans line up from the corner of North-South Drive to the stadium entrance and when the team busses pull up, the players and coaches walk through this tunnel of screaming fans into the stadium. We meant to be a part of it last year, but we got to the stadium a bit too late.

The fans were already lining up, so we found a spot. Within 15 minutes, the busses arrived and the players and coaches passed by. I couldn't see very well, but I had Bella on my shoulders and Alex was at the front where he could see better. I held my camera up over my head to snap a few pictures and got this one of Mr. Tebow:

We didn't realize it until it was too late, but if we had been on the other side, there was a group of kids that Tebow gave high-five to. Here's the only picture I have of Tebow and Alex. That's Alex in the khaki hat below center.

Luckily, Alex is very cool about everything. He takes what comes and doesn't pitch a fit. There was another little kid, about Alex's age, who wanted to see better, but his massive father couldn't squeeze up there with him. I told the father that my son was up in front and I was sure his son could just squeeze up there with him. I even introduced the two boys real quick. But the kid was just whiny and scared, and stayed in the back with his parents, unable to see much at all. I'm glad Alex is brave and willing to get up there in the thick of things.

Okay, about 2 hours till kickoff. Next order of business: procure some tickets!

Last year I bought two tickets on StubHub for (gulp) $100 each. At least they were pretty good seats. The biggest fear that led me to buy them ahead of time was not getting tickets at the stadium early enough to enjoy the pre-game stuff inside the stadium. Since we were coming all the way to Florida just for the game, I opted for the expense of security. But this year, since we had just experienced a game the previous year, I was more comfortable with buying tickets right before the game.

For those who have never bought tickets outside a stadium, let me give you a quick tutorial. Before the game, you walk around outside of the stadium and hold up the number of fingers for tickets that you need. When someone who has tickets to sell sees you, they approach you. You talk price, you look at where the seats are (carrying a small map of the stadium is helpful) you haggle a little bit, and then you either buy or you move on. Some people selling tickets walk around holding the tickets up in the air. So if you need tickets, it's easy to see who has tickets to sell. Selling tickets for more than their face value is called scalping, and used to be illegal in Florida. People still did it, but you had to be discrete. But a few years ago they made it legal. At any rate, buying tickets at face value or below face value is not scalping. It's just getting a good deal, I suppose. And that was my goal. Face value on most tickets is $40. I was aiming to get 3 tickets for $20 each.

And that was one slight glitch: there were three of us this time. It's pretty easy to find 2 tickets. And it's often even easier to buy just 1 ticket at a low price, because often someone couldn't come at the last minute, so someone has an extra ticket to sell. But 3 can be tricky. Usually tickets are sold in pairs. If someone is selling 4 tickets, for example, they are reluctant to sell 3, because then they're left with a single that may be harder to get a good price for. So my plan was to find 2 together, and then a single. And with Bella being so small, we would just squeeze into the two seats.

I read something in the paper that morning that said selling tickets on campus was illegal. But I knew I'd probably get the best deals right outside the stadium. So I discretely tried to solicit some tickets at the stadium. No sellers. We went back across the street to Emerson Hall (technically not campus) and approached someone selling 2 tickets. End zone seats. Not the best, but not bad. He wanted face value. I offered him $40 for both. He took it. Two tickets down, one to go. Another guy was holding one ticket up. I asked him how much. He said $40. I said I'd give him $20. He said okay. Mission accomplished!

And the beauty of it was we had tickets an hour and a half before kickoff. We were some of the first ones inside the stadium when they opened the gates. We went down close to the field and watched the players warming up.



Here's the view from our seats. Bella was diggin' the popcorn:

The game went great. Alex was totally engaged. Bella got a little restless during the second quarter, but was better after we got pizza and nachos at halftime. I wanted to get video of a touchdown in our end zone. It took me several tries (you never really know exactly when they'll score) but I finally got one:



After the game, we bought a Gator football from the gift shop and got a few player autographs on it. I was going to buy a scorecard for autographs like last year, but couldn't find any. We didn't get any big time autographs, but it was still cool. Bella was really ready to go, so we finally made the long trek to the car. I only had to carry her about halfway.

After dinner, I got the kids to bed and then called one of my former students, Skyler. He and another former student, Colin, work downtown. We agreed to meet at a downtown bar called Lux. I never had Colin's girlfriend, Ashley, as a student, but I did have her older sister Kim.

We chatted for a couple of hours and then we walked down to their work place, an internet company called Grooveshark. It was cool to hang out with them, but the time was heading towards 3 am and it had been a long day. So I headed home and hit the sack.

The next day we went to a big book sale and got several bags of used books. I got about 30 books for my classroom. We spent the rest of the evening packing.

Bella had found a huge leaf on the way back to the car after the game. She said it was the biggest leaf she had ever seen:

Bella and Alex throwing the football we bought at the game.

Monday morning, after a brief stop at GHS to try to see my friend Jim (he wasn't there), we headed to Jacksonville. Here's the kids with our plane:


The flight home was long but uneventful (apart from some especially bumpy turbulance that woke Bella up). Overall, it was a great weekend, and a nice introduction to Gator craziness for Bella. Hopefully we can do it again next year.

Homecoming '08 - Part 1

I finally figured out why we always stay up late packing the night before a trip. It's because a) we know, based on precedent, that we can get it all done in one night, and b) we plan too carefully and try to consider everything we might possibly need. Sure it would be quicker to just throw some stuff in a bag, but then we'd more than likely find that we left something. So which inconvenience do we prefer: not having something we need, or staying up late packing?

One trip that I did the "just throw everything in a bag" technique, I got to our destination (I think it was Florida in December) with no long-sleeved shirts. So there you go.

With that said, I got to bed last Wednesday a little after midnight. Not too bad!

We had to get up at about 4:45 am (not cool). We said our goodbyes to a sleepy Sofia still in bed and Cristina drove us to the airport. No problems on the flight.


We switched planes in Atlanta. I was prepared to volunteer for "bumpage" if the opportunity arose, but it didn't. Alex even had an empty seat beside him on the way from Atlanta to Jacksonville.

"We're going past you, Papi!"

Jarue picked us up at the Jacksonville airport. On the drive back to Gainesville, I missed the exit for the 301 (in all fairness to myself, Jarue was talking to me and she missed the exit too). So we took the scenic route, through Lake Butler. The result was we got to Gainesville a little later than we could have. We had some dinner, baths and went to bed. I tried to get some former students together at Maude's after the kids were in bed, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone.

The next morning, we had breakfast and headed to the Homecoming parade. This was Bella's first, and we staked out our spot very early. Too early, actually. I thought the parade started at 11 am, but it didn't actually start till closer to 12:30. In the meantime, we bought chicken sandwiches from a big Chick-fil-a cow, and tried to stay dry. It rained off and on throughout the whole parade. We had ponchos, but we left the umbrellas in the car (I didn't want to keep up with them). I wished we had brought chairs. Sitting on the curb was okay, but for the amount of time we were there, chairs would have been better.

We sat right across the street from the stadium, and also right across from the Channel 5 TV cameras. We had Elena tape it at home so that we could maybe see ourselves on TV later.

I forgot the camera at home, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the parade. We did meet an old friend, Sandra Pak, who took a few pictures of us with her phone. She said she wasn't sure if she could figure out how to email them, though, so until I hear from her, no parade pictures!

Back at home, I picked up Elena and went to Wal-Mart for a couple of things. Then, we picked up her friend Leigh from work and went home for a dinner of North Carolina barbecue. Elena's boyfriend Brendan came over also, as the three of them were going to Gator Growl (as were Alex and I).

Like last year, I did not buy Gator Growl tickets ahead of time. It's quite easy to buy them outside of the stadium. Last year, I paid face value ($20 each) and then as I walked into the stadium, I overheard someone else buying some for $10 a piece. So my goal this year was to pay no more than $10 a piece for tickets. After walking around for about 3 minutes with 2 fingers held up, I got two tickets for $10 each.

The seats were up high, on the sky box side. Alex liked the seats, but I didn't like the angle we had of the big screens beside the stage. Elena and friends were down at field level. Via cell phone, she told us that there were a bunch of empty seats. We waited about 15 minutes after the show started and then came down and joined them. The view was much better.


Unfortunately, because of all the rain, they couldn't do much stuff on the field. So no parachutists swooping in or band stuff on the field. Last year one of the highlights was a flaming baton that accidentally caught a trash can on fire, but there were no flaming batons this time.


Overall, the show didn't seem quite as funny as last year. There was a little bit of political stuff, with taped messages by both candidates. The comedian was the guy that won Last Comic Standing (also of the "that thing got a hemi?" commercials). He was pretty funny.

My camera's auto-focus is crappy when it's in camcorder mode. But it's better than nothing.

I enjoyed the Steve Miller Band, even more than last year's Lynyrd Skynyrd, although they were great too. Steve Miller played a longer set than Skynyrd did. I think he played about 8 songs. Alex recognized "The Joker," which was the final song they did. Steve Miller was wearing a Tim Tebow jersey and seemed in fine form. I was impressed that he played lead guitar on all the songs. A lot of times these aging rockers let a younger guitar stud take the licks on stage, but Steve Miller nailed it.



Gator Growl concluded with some fireworks, which are always fun.

Stay tuned for Part 2...the game.

Wee Scottish Gator

I just got back from Gainesville last night and I'm still in a bit of a fog. Cristina is in Tucson for a couple more days completing a 5-day JSJ training, so life doesn't seem back to normal yet. But until I'm ready to blog about the weekend, I'll just post this picture of Steve's little girl, who is finally old enough to wear the little Gator onesie we sent her when she was born.

Seren Skye...Gator

My Movie History - Part 1: The Boone Years

I'm taking a film class right now at Rio Salado College and it's making me think about my love of movies. Almost everyone loves movies. I'm certainly not unique. But I got to thinking about how my tastes have been shaped by the movies I've seen, especially in my formative years. As my own children are growing, and we try to limit their media exposure as much as possible, I sometimes think back to stuff I watched at a very young age. Tons of memories come flooding in and out of my noggin, so I've been thinking about writing a huge "history of my film experience" blog to get it all down for posterity (and so I can stop thinking about it).

So be warned...this will be a long post! I'll probably break it up into segments of my life to make it less cumbersome. Alright. Here goes.

The Boone years

One of my earliest movie memories is actually from TV. In the Spring of 1976, when I was 3 years old, I saw a commercial on TV for a movie called Rattlers. One image showed a snake coming out of the bathtub faucet while a woman was bathing. This was pretty terrifying, and I was afraid of the bathtub for a while, even though I never actually saw the movie.


A website review describes Rattlers as "overall forgettable drive-in trash" but to me, not even the commercial was forgettable. Part of me wants to rent the movie now just to see how ridiculous the movie is. But another part of me wants to keep that childhood fear intact. I know that sounds kind of strange...

I was 3 when we moved to Boone, North Carolina and it was there that my love of going to the cinema was forever seated in my psyche. There was a little theater in downtown Boone that I frequented, sometimes with my parents, sometimes with my sisters. The theater was called the Appalachian Twin, and unfortunately I just found out that it closed November 2007. It was a classy cinema with a long history, first opening in 1938. I'm saddened to hear that it's closed now.

I have two especially vivid memories of that theater. One was eating Fun Dip. In case you don't know what Fun Dip is, it's powdery sugar dust that you lick off of an edible stick of chalk-like candy. The other memory is the anticipation of waiting for the movie to start. I would stare at the lights in the theater, waiting for them to start to dim. Of course, these were the days when the screen was covered by a curtain instead of showing commercials, so you had nothing to do but listen to the Muzak and wait for the lights to dim. I was so excited that my eyes would play tricks on me and I would think the lights were starting to dim when they really weren't. I try to remember that feeling when I see my kids eagerly waiting for something. We lose that eagerness as we get older.

I don't remember every movie I saw in Boone at the age of 4 or 5, but I remember 4 particular films very well. This little theater in Boone showed, on more than one occasion, Godzilla movies. One I remember seeing there was called Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, where Godzilla fought a big robot version of himself. I'm assuming the films were dubbed in English, because I wouldn't have been able to read the subtitles. I don't think subtitles would have curbed my enthusiasm though. Let's see, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla came out in March 1977. I was 4 years old. I can't imagine taking Bella, my current 4 year old, to a Godzilla movie! But I'm glad my parents took me or let me go. Because part of my taste in movies I attribute to early exposure...to Godzilla. And in all fairness to their parental judgment, it was rated G. This was the 14th Godzilla movie, and it has quite a cult following even today. From imdb.com: "The movie has become popular among fans in recent years for its strange music, colorful special effects and entertaining monster fights. The film's robust themes and fairly complex plot stand out against a time when the Godzilla franchise was being fueled by increasingly lower production values." So it was a good one! (The original title in America was Godzilla vs. Bionic Monster, but the producers of The Six-Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman threatened to sue! Mechagodzilla sounds better anyway. It was reissued later with the title Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster. Lame!

When I think of my early moviegoing experiences, I think of two names: Knotts and Disney. The Don Knotts Disney flick No Deposit, No Return was from this same era of my childhood. I can't say that I remember a whole lot from the actual movie, but Disney had a run in the 70's of these kinds of movies and I loved 'em all. I saw Knotts's Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo at this same Boone theater. Don Knotts and Tim Conway made several movies together (The Apple Dumpling Gang, Hot Lead and Cold Feet) and I was a big fan. I recently rented The Apple Dumpling Gang for my kids. They really liked it, which is proof, I guess, that the appeal of these films is timeless. Score one for Disney (even though he'd been dead for 10 years).

And speaking of Disney, movie #3 on my Boone memory list is The Rescuers. This movie had the fate of being released a month after Star Wars, but I think it did okay. I liked it, but when I think about it, it was a pretty dark film. The theme of the orphan girl is quite somber, and some of the music was melancholic as well. The Fox and the Hound had this same kind of vibe. Not sure why Disney animated films were kind of tear-jerky in the 70's. I remember the art itself was very dark and gloomy, like the swamp scenes and the big run down steamboat. The scene where the girl has to lower down into the cave to get the jewel was pretty scary. My mom took Mary and me to see The Rescuers. According to Mary, whose memory is better than mine on this detail, we ate PBJs that we smuggled in.

#4 was Star Wars. I really don't feel like writing a ton about this, because it's a story that just about everyone who was a kid in the 70's shares. I was 4 years old when Star Wars was released (2 months before my 5th birthday). A family friend named Glenn took me to see it the first time. It was mesmerizing. I was hooked. Over the next few years, when Star Wars was re-released (now there's an antiquated concept) I saw it several more times (including at a drive-in). I know I saw it at least 5 times in the movie theaters, which doesn't sound that impressive now in the home video age. By far, Star Wars was the most influential film of my childhood. It affected the way I played, the things I drew and wrote in school, my imagination in general. It also got me paying attention to movie credits. I couldn't tell you anything about the directors or the composers of the first 3 movies on my list, but even at the age of 5, I knew George Lucas and I knew John Williams.


Star Wars is a nice segue into the second phase of my childhood, which spans five cities and three states. The period of 1977 to 1983 I'll just call...the Star Wars Years.

Colin Powell

Wow. Never thought Colin Powell could almost bring a tear to my eye. Special times...

Getting older

The thought recently occurred to me that I have T-shirts older than my students.

That fact makes me feel slightly old.

1 Year Blog Anniversary...100 Posts!

I made it! This is the 100th post on my blog which is officially 1 year old today.

Who wants ice cream with their cake?

My Classroom

I brought the camera to school today so that I could post some pictures on the pumpkin festival post during my free time at work. So I thought I'd shoot a few photos of my classroom, in case anyone was ever curious about what it looked like.

This is the view from my desk. I must admit, there's nothing very attractive about the classroom. I'm not very good at decorating like some teachers are. Note the Poang chairs donated by IKEA. I use PowerPoint every day, so the projector and screen are key components of my classroom.

Here's the view from the opposite corner, with my desk in back. On the right side of the picture, you can see a little bit of the bookshelf I built for my classroom library. Those two big metal cabinet things are carts of laptops. Note the bunker-like windows, a reminder that my school is not in the best of neighborhoods. But my last school, Trevor Browne, had no windows at all!

My desk. I obviously did not tidy up for the picture. The wooden apple, which I keep filled with paper clips, is from Costa Rica.










And here's my classroom filled with reading students.

Pumpkin Festival

Ahh...what feels more like Fall than cool, crisp weather and pumpkin festivals? Well, the cool, crisp weather has finally arrived in Phoenix. The A/C is off, the windows are open, and it's even been getting a little cold at night (or a lot cold if you ask Cristina, but she's a temp-wimp). I'm not quite ready to get out the down quilts, but it's close.

Anyway, last Sunday we went to a pumpkin festival in Gilbert (every time I think of the city of Gilbert, I can't help but hear Leonardo DiCaprio saying "Gilbert!" from What's Eating Gilbert Grape). It was fun, although I got a little hot in my flannel shirt. The high was 72 (22 C), which in the shade feels really cool, but in the sun is still a bit too warm for what I wore. We're in that weird, confusing phase of Phoenix weather where some people are wearing jackets and others are still in shorts and t-shirts.

The Phoenix Herpetological Society was there, so we got to visit our favorite alligator, Tuesday. Alex and Cristina held a black-headed python, but Sofia and Bella declined. We decorated mini-pumpkins with stickers, went through a maze made out of hay bales, and went on a hay ride (which Sofia complained lacked enough hay to truly be considered a hay ride). Before we left, the kids picked out pumpkins to carve at home.

Stuck

Remember that Winnie the Pooh story where Pooh ate too much honey and got stuck in Rabbit's hole? He had to stay there overnight and endure a starvation diet until they could pluck him out.

Well, there once was a time when our friendly little French bulldog was of a slim girth that allowed her to fit through the cat door. That time passed over 6 months ago when her girth matured into a more normal bulldog stockiness. But on Saturday, that didn't stop her from trying.

Some neighbors came by with a stray dog they had found running around with a broken chain around its neck. Vivien was so eager to play with the dog that we had to put her inside (she's not fixed yet and she might be going into heat). A little while later, when I came around the corner to the garage, this is what I saw.


She wasn't making any sounds, but she was stuck alright. It took me some effort to squeeze her through. No overnight starvation diet necessary, although she did have to endure the indignity long enough for me to snap some pictures.

Appeal of Life

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

I think I hate that expression.

I hate it because it's so true, but that truth makes me feel bad for not better appreciating what I have, and for having those inevitable moments of envy.

Just half an hour ago, I was walking across campus after checking my mailbox. I walked past one of those John Deere Gator things that security uses to zip around campus. The thought hit me that I wish I had one of those. I wish my day consisted of riding around on my farm, mending a fence here, checking on a sheep there. The simple life. Living off the land. No freeways, no driving through heavy traffic to buy more stuff. Just raising my own food and enjoying the simple pleasures. A good cup of coffee in the morning. Playing board games with the kids in the evenings. Going into town once a week for supplies.

Then I thought about how even though this fantasy is appealing, I know that I would miss the advantages of city life. Part of me wants a simple life, say, on a farm. And part of me wants a life where going to artsy movies and unique restaurants is the norm. I know, after a while, I would probably feel isolated and bored on a farm. The grass is always greener, right?

And fantasies of a simple life are just that. Fantasies. Most farmers would be the first to tell you that their life is not simple. I don't consider my current life simple because we juggle 5 people's schedules, there's a ever-flowing river of dirty dishes and clothes, we have 3 pets that add their own issues to the complexities of life. We have two extended families to consider for breaks and vacations. We need to nurture our friendships. Email is time-consuming enough, but the mountain of paper mail that grows every day is always waiting to be dealt with. And in the middle of all that, we have to cook our meals and clean up enough to at least be comfortable, and try to better ourselves spiritually and physically. And in the 3 minutes left over, try to make time for some hobbies.

But that's life. It doesn't matter if I'm living on a coffee farm in Costa Rica, a neighborhood in metro Phoenix, or an oil-company compound in Saudi Arabia. When you have a family of 5, life gets full and complex. No matter what. If the alternative to a crazy, hectic life is to have no kids, no wife, no family, then I don't want a simple life.

Who would have thought that such life-affirming introspection would come from looking at a John Deere Gator?

A limerick from Alex

Once I met a mummy
Who was sure a dummy
I found her in the ground
And she was safe and sound
But she was sure funny

By Alex Eury

Experience

When I was at Maloney's Tavern yesterday watching the Gator game, I overheard two guys talking about the election. One was saying "I'm really not sure about Obama. He just doesn't have enough experience. The Republican ticket has lots of experience at the top of the ticket, and little at the bottom, and the Democratic ticket is the other way around. I sure hope McCain wins." You hear this a lot right now...especially in Arizona (McCain's home state). The experience factor.

Let's look at this. McCain has been a Senator for 22 years. Obama has been a Senator for 4 years. What kind of experience does one gain from being in the Senate for 22 years versus 4 years? To me, and many others disenchanted with the way Washington works, when you're a senator for decades, you know better how to work the system. You're a "good old boy." Yes, you're experienced in various committees and votes, but you're also experienced in crony-ism and lobbyists. And this is not a Republican thing, it's a Washington thing. Democrats are guilty too. The fact that most of McCain's campaign advisers are lobbyists or former lobbyists reinforces this notion.

Maybe I'm just naive, but if someone wants things in Washington to change and not be run by old men using their power to favor special interests over constituents, then why would anyone want a 22-year veteran Senator over a Senator with enough experience to know how things work, but hopefully not enough to be corrupted by the Washington power machine?

To me, the question is not quantity of experience, but what that experience has consisted of. McCain does have military experience. I'll give him that. He was a soldier and an officer, and he has experience in that arena that Obama doesn't have. But to me, a good Commander-in-Chief should ultimately be a wise and diplomatic leader. Being a soldier, a captured and tortured one notwithstanding, is not a prerequisite.

Bella's Kilt

When my friend Steve and his partner Laura came to visit from Scotland 2 years ago, they brought Bella a kilt. For a while it was too big, and then we kind of forgot about it. About a week ago, Bella found it and wanted to wear it. I had to look up "kilt pins" online to know where to put the pin. I think I got it right. And even though it's labeled as "2 year," it fits just right (according to Wikipedia, the kilt should come to the middle of the knee cap, or as much as an inch above it...does that sound right, Steve?). She wore it for about 15 minutes and then complained that it was itchy (it's wool). But at least I got some pictures.

And yes, this was before her haircut.

A Rude Awakening

Bella usually wakes up around 5 am. She comes to our room and goes potty in our bathroom. Sometimes she's in there for a while, until she's done and needs a wipe. Then I crawl out of bed, help her out, and then crawl back into bed. She'll then either play until our alarm goes off (at 6 am) or she'll get in bed with us. She's been on a growth spurt lately, so to curb her insatiable appetite, I've kept a container of cereal on my headboard so that I don't have to crawl downstairs for food. It results in Cheerios in our sheets (I counted 14 yesterday!) but I'll take that if it allows me to sleep a little longer.

This morning, Bella was in the bathroom as usual. When the alarm went off, since she hadn't called me yet, I got up and checked my email (I'm a compulsive email checker, and it helps me wake up). While I was still at the computer, Bella came into the guest room (where we have the computer) and uttered those 4 little words that no parent ever wants to hear. "I cut my hair."

This has been a bone of contention lately. Bella has repeatedly asked for a haircut, but Cristina and I have refused because we love her long beautiful curls. She's never had a haircut in her life and we were in no rush to schedule one. And now here she was, standing in the semi-darkness, with ragged, self-inflicted bangs. I gasped and asked why she did it. "I wanted to," was her response, I think. My brief assessment revealed that in addition to the ragged bangs she also had cut the parts to the side of her face to about neck level. It was perplexing, because just a few days ago, she excitedly told me that she wanted to grow her hair down to her feet and Mommy had said okay.

I told her she was going to make Mommy cry (a guilt trip, I know, but also a preparation for the emotional reaction she might not be expecting). And Bella's response was "Don't tell Mommy." I went in the bedroom and woke Cristina up. "Bella cut her hair." "What?!" she cried out. "How bad?" she asked. "Pretty bad," I said. She threw the covers off and jumped out of bed. Bella was back in the bathroom by now and Cristina surveyed the damage. She didn't cry (although she said she felt like it). She gave Bella a good stern talking to, though, and I hid the scissors up high out of reach. Giving in to the inevitable, Cristina took the scissors and trimmed the bangs to make them more even. It's not horrible, and some might even think it looks good. I'll admit that it could have been worse. And hair is , after all, just hair. It will grow back. But still...if only the scissors had not been reachable...

See for yourself.

100 Post Goal

10/16/07. That was the date of my first post on this blog. Right now, I'm on my 91st post. For some OCD reason, I want to have 100 posts by the time I get to 10/16/08. So I have about 2 weeks to post 9 more times! Let's see, that's about every two days...I think I can do it!

Mike's Rescue Plan

Michael Moore. It seems that people either love him or hate him. I used to teach his first film "Roger & Me" in my film studies class, and I've been fond of his style ever since.

Anyway, I just got this email from him outlining his plan to get our country out of this financial mess. If you don't like Michael Moore, you probably won't read anyway, so never mind. But if you're curious about another way of approaching the problem that doesn't involve giving lots of taxpayer money to the banks and firms who dropped the ball (which is a weird "fix" when you really think about it), then it's worth a read. Some critics think he's just a bleeding-heart socialist liberal. Okay. If you have to put a label on him, so be it. If you find a better plan, feel free to post it on your blog and I'd love to take a look.

(Now if only Obama had a little more Michael Moore in him...)

Mike's Rescue Plan

The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There... is... no... free... lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a "bailout" bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

It is clear, though, that we cannot simply keep protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think Congress should do. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here is my proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are:

1. APPOINT A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money is expended, Congress must commit, by resolution, to criminally prosecute anyone who had anything to do with the attempted sacking of our economy. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse must go to jail. This Congress must call for a Special Prosecutor who will vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in the future.

2. THE RICH MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT. They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class are going to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.

If they truly need the $700 billion they say they need, well, here is an easy way they can raise it:

a) Every couple who makes over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year will pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich will still be paying less income tax than when Carter was president. This will raise a total of $300 billion.

b) Like nearly every other democracy, charge a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This will raise more than $200 billion in a year.

c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders will forgo receiving a dividend check for one quarter and instead this money will go the treasury to help pay for the bailout.

d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raise the corporate income tax back to the level of the 1950s, that gives us an extra $500 billion.

All of this combined should be enough to end the calamity. The rich will get to keep their mansions and their servants, and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") will have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools.

3. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME. There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, pay down each of these mortgages by $100,000. Force the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner can pay on its current value. To insure that this help does no go to speculators and those who have tried to make money by flipping houses, this bailout is only for people's primary residence. And in return for the $100K paydown on the existing mortgage, the government gets to share in the holding of the mortgage so that it can get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $700 billion.

And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want and most of us still get: a home to call their own. But during the Bush years, millions of them lost the decent paying jobs they had. Six million fell into poverty. Seven million lost their health insurance. And every one of them saw their real wages go down by $2,000. Those who dare to look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ashamed. We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home that they own.

4. IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GETS ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but we will own you. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.

5. ALL REGULATIONS MUST BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD. This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the henhouse. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:

"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.

"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.

"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."

This bill must be repealed. Bill Clinton can help by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they're done with that, they can restore the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" must have enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.

6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST. Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No one or two companies should have this kind of power. The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When you have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we don't face a national disaster. If you have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a strong and free press!). Laws must be enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the giant falls and dies. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that no one can understand. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money.

7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How this can happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an outrage. We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. This has to stop. Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be fired before the company receives any help.

8. STRENGTHEN THE FDIC AND MAKE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct yesterday to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But this same sort of government insurance must be given to our nation's pension funds. People should never have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This will mean strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means that the companies will have to turn over those funds and their management to the government. People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market. Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about ending up destitute.

9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off the TV! We are not in the Second Great Depression. The sky is not falling. Pundits and politicians are lying to us so fast and furious it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I, yesterday, wrote to you and repeated what I heard on the news, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that's true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into the Jacuzzi.

As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan this week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. Life has gone on. Not a single person has lost any of their money if it's in a bank or a treasury note or a CD. And the most amazing thing is that the American public hasn't bought the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, and instead told Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has da bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shite. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer.

10. CREATE A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." If we really are itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't we give it to ourselves? Now that we own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a people's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And now that we own AIG, the country's largest insurance company, let's take the next step and provide health insurance for everyone. Medicare for all. It will save us so much money in the long run. And we won't be 12th on the life expectancy list. We'll be able to have a longer life, enjoying our government-protected pension, and living to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused so much misery are let out of prison so that we can help reacclimate them to civilian life -- a life with one nice home and a gas-free car that was invented with help from the People's Bank.