Thanksgiving Holiday Pictures

We are greeted upon our arrival by the Land Puma - terrorist of the neighborhood

Mr. 2.3 is a lover of Tommy the Train. Few are allowed to play with him. He allowed me to set up his train. I was then imperiously told to "leave".

2.1 has now gotten a computer. I think she's found www.beatupongrandpa.com!!!

No! Even 2.2 has found the site!

Niece blogger SRM and husband joined us

Turkey 2.0 - we actually made two of them.

Venerable Pu at work. She was so proud that she didn't melt down once during the preparations.

The day after Mr. 2B was immediately out getting a Christmas tree
Here 2B and Venerable Pu get it set up.

The entire family to work on the decorating

A de-I creation. 2B was unhappy with the way his dressing turned out (too dry) so I fried slices of it in butter and used it as the bread for a turkey sandwich.

Wife doing Grandma cuddling duty. Not hardship duty at all :)

2.1 and I have developed a love of playing very physical games in the pool. Here she shows off some of the damage done to poor old de-I.

Give Thanks

Gratitude - giving thanks for what we have.

Not what we might have had.

Not what we have lost.

Not what others might have.

Looking at what we have and understanding what we've been given that is outside of any merit on our own part.

When you have that, you have contentment and you feed the world and your ability to go out in the world and achieve your true goals.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thanksgiving Traditions Revised

I dedicate this post to my friend John the Grain. John is a peer, a business compatriot, and a fellow New Englander now ensconced in New Mexico. When I told him we were on our way to Tampa for Thanksgiving he accused me of betrayal of the traditional Puritan New England traditions which called for a holiday with cold weather, dangerous driving, discomfort, etc. So John I would like to suggest these new traditions.

• Taking early morning walks on the beach
• Playing with the grandkids in the heated pool
• Cooking the turkey on the grill in your shorts.

Enjoy John.

Quick GPS Check

Last week was Monterey, CA and Dallas, TX. In airport to Tampa to see the #2 family for the holiday. Next tow weeks will be Artesia NM (flying private corporate plane), Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Hope to have time to write in Tampa.

Next Stop

Monterey California for two days then on to Dallas.

In the meantime it has gotten cold here. Had to wear my winter jacket when I took my walk this morning. We've had freezes the last few nights so the final end of tomatoes is here. (STOP LAUGHING TERRI! It's cold enough for us!)

After this trip, I'm half way through the this spell of travel. And I finished one of the big jobs I had to do. One more to polish off.

Ex-Hooker Finds Happiness on the Internet

Yes, I am an ex-hooker. Not mind you the high style ones in Beverly Hills or Las Vegas' high roller pits nor the ones strolling the worse parts of town but....WAIT, WAIT WAIT!!!! NOT THAT TYPE OF HOOKER.

Oh. I mean a rugby hooker. The hooker on a rugby team is the equivalent of the center in American football. I played rugby for 6+ years after I got out of college and loved it. Alas, once I got out of school there was little if any opportunity for an American boy to indulge in watching his sport.

I eventually got involved in soccer coaching, coached girls soccer for 20 years, and really transferred my love to it.

Comes the World Cup this year and I was traveling or working for lots of the games. I discovered ESPN3, their streaming internet service. I'm hardly an early adopter but I'm no Luddite either. So I was trolling the other sports when to my shock and amazement they're showing rugby!

So now I'm following the French Top 14 league. Totally cool...in a sort of international geeky kind of way.

GO TOULOUSE!

Wagering

A lot of the editorials and commentaries that I have been reading over the last few weeks have dealt with the influence of the tea party. How there success in getting elected is going to effect the political agenda. There are two basic theories.

1. They are going to have a big influence and force the agenda to move toward cutting taxes and spending. Or
2. They are going to be co-opted by the traditional Republican establishment which will favor tax cuts and corporate welfare for the industries and interest groups that are their traditional supporters and which (by the way) are policies that have never reduced spending or the deficit.

The Democrats did not sweep in in 2008 because of a wave of liberal populist fever. They won because the centrist arm of the party activated the vote and took the middle ground from the Republicans. Once they won however, all the cards were with the party leadership in Congress. Party leadership is all about seniority not the forces that caused the electoral success. So the liberal, Pelosi-Reid wing came into power because of their seniority and proclaimed the vote a referendum on their uber-liberal agenda.

The result? Two years later the middle/centrist voters move en mass to the Republicans. Who are the senior Republicans in Congress who will get the leadership posts and set the agenda? Not tea party candidates. They're traditional Republicans.

My bets are on option #2

Flash Backs

Not from my sordid drugged youth mind you. On Monday, I had a colonoscopy. No big deal really. Just standard preventative maintenance. I go in early in the morning and they're prepping me and putting the IV in. All of a sudden I have this flood of memories and emotions of the kidney donation experience of a couple of years ago. Not just the operation part but the whole years of the experience. The nurse who was wheeling me in gives me this look and asks if I'm OK and I try to explain but there really isn't enough time. Very weird. I'm still having the feelings.

In the meantime, I'm in Chicago for work. Lakeview and lovely girlfriend LL took me out to dinner at one of their favorite neighborhood Italian places. Joe even let me pick out the wine. Sweet.