So, I take Carson to the Vet today to get his bath. (Why the vet?  They do a great job and I nearly kill myself trying to get him in the bath tub and trying to dry his big thick fur.  The vet is really the best way to go.) Now as you know from previous posts, I have a stubborn dog who has very strict rules about when and how he gets in the car.  The problem is, I cannot for the life of me figure out his rules..other than he doesn’t do crap if it’s raining.  So every since the last Mexican Standoff with Carson  I have been a bit selective about taking him places in public.  It used to be anytime I was going somewhere I would load him the car.  But I think because he has gotten older and is sick (did I tell you Carson has cancer) he doesn’t get in and out of the car so well. 

Because I would do anything for my dog I went out and invested a small fortune on a fancy sturdy folding ramp to help him get in and out of the vehicle.  Well he has successfully used it three times…each time I had to use dog treats to lure him in the car.   This weekend we went to the dog park and he walked right up the ramp into the back of the SUV. I was very excited. I was convinced that he was now comfortable with the ramp and we would have no more problems. Then, two days later when I wanted to take him to my cousins, he flat out refused to use the dog ramp.  He just sat down in the road, looked at the ramp and then looked at me like I was crazy. I am pretty sure he was saying, “why don’t you use the ramp if your that excited about it.”  So, we opted for the old fashioned method where he puts his front two paws on the tail of the vehicle and I use every muscle in my body to heave his 90 lbs back end into the car.  Because this must look ridiculous (and probably rather incredible that I can even lift this wide load) I try to do it quickly to not draw excessive attention to myself.  (I think I told you that I have had people stop in a parking lot and actually say, “Oh Man I got to see this!” as they watched me put Carson in the car.) You know how I hate to be the center of attention…especially with a difficult dog.

So back to today.  I took Carson to the vet and I DID NOT take the ramp.  As I said, he has been refusing to use it, why take it.  So in order to get to the vet this morning (it was a clear blue sky morning, no rain) I just heaved his back end into the car.  We get to the vet, he hops out and all is fine.  So, I show up at 6 p.m., closing time, to pick him up.  The parking lot was packed, I got the last spot.  I go in, get Carson, and he is very excited to be going home.  We go out to the car, I open the back of the SUV, he hops up and puts his front two paws on the back of the car and I bend down to lift his back half up in the car.  Well as I am lifting his back end, he lets his front paws go back down to the ground. So his front half is standing in the parking lot and I am dying with his back half in the air trying to lift him in the car.  He did this to me no less than 5 times!  It took 5 minutes to get him the darn car.  Of course the whole time I am having a conversation with him. “Honestly Carson, do you want to get in the car and go home?  Then put your paws up here and don’t drop them.”  “Carson, get in the fricken car.”  “Carson I didn’t bring the dang ramp because you won’t use it and I honestly don’t know how you expect to get your butt home if you won’t keep your paws on the back of the car.”   “Carson, I am not going to do this again, don’t move your paws!”   Yes, I got lots of strange looks from people whose dogs would just hop right in their car.  One guy offered to help. I couldn’t do it to him, I didn’t want to be sued for any back pain Carson might inflict on the poor guy (he didn’t look too strong).

Finally I ended up opening one of the back doors and Carson BARELY Squeezed his voluptuous hips into the back seat between the seats.  He eventually hopped up on the freshly cleaned leather seats where he ended up sliding around the whole way home.  Of course every time he would slide across the seat I would say, “I told you to get in the far back but NOOOO, you had to be difficult tonight.” 

Yeah, I got great parenting skills…

(It was a rough day at the Vet getting a Bath..he has been like this since he got home.)

 

On Monday I sent an email to my members to provide them an update on one of our active issues.  Somehow, this email got sent to a reporter who decided to do an entire story based on my email WITHOUT EVER CALLING ME!  Seriously, in the article it actually says, “XXX wrote in an e-mail message to members today.”

 

Now, this email was relatively harmless, however it did provide information on what the Government “intended” to do.  So, it was not something I wanted in the press.  Thisreporter does an entire story on it, and it gets picked up by a bunch of other reporters.  It even got carried as BREAKING NEWS by one publication.  Who does an ENTIRE story based on an email?  How lazy is that?  No other sources?  No leg work?  No PHONE CALL TO ME??????????

 

So here we sit, 3 days later and I am getting hounded by reporters asking me if this is going to happen.  It stinks, because now I am not so sure I am going to be privy to advance information in the future. 

The whole thing hacks me off. How do you do a story without calling the source?  Isn’t that sub par journalism?  Where are the ethics?   All I can tell you is that reporter won’t get crap from me in the future!

 

(As you can tell, this really hacked me off…I am blogging about this several days after it happened…imagine my reaction on Monday!).

 

 

We had a great long weekend.  My cousin Jack turned 8 on Sunday so he got to invite a friend to go to Hershey Park with him. It is a great amusement park and we all went for the day. It is only a 2 hours drive. It is a fantastic amusement park because it has something like 11 or 12 rollercoaster’s.  It was a “no “no’s” day…i.e. the kids could have anything they wanted.  And they sure took advantage of that. I thought I was going to get sick just watching them eat ice cream, cotton candy, chocolate candy, sugar drinks, chips, etc.  It was truly a kids dream (and I had a lot of fun as a big kid).

 

At lunch time (hotdogs, French fries, chicken nuggets, soda) one of the kids said, “Man this is the life.”  It made me smile.  Can you remember back to when you had the best day in the world because you spent it at the amusement park…if only I could get back to something that simple making me feel so good.  It was a great day…especially for a kid. 

 

I have to say, I feel pretty lucky that both the little cousins have no fear in them. They will ride the scariest ride possible if they were allowed.  Unfortunately height restrictions prevented them from riding some of them. A big smile would come across my face whenever I saw some parent trying to convince their kid that the ride wasn’t “that scary.” 

 

We spent 8 1/2 hours at the park and right as we decided to leave it started pouring rain. We had to ride home soaking wet.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

 

Here are a few pictures:

Birthday Boy after some blue Cotton Candy.  Wish it showed up better in the picture but it was pretty funny looking…he was covered in blue sugar.

 

Kate with the animal she won while battling Aunt Jen in a water shooting game.

 

Dude, I can do this rollercoaster with my arms up…let me on the bigger rides…this is for babies.  (And it was a good rollercoaster, not one I would have gone on as a child.)

Dad was relaxing, Kate was tying his shoes together.  A little birdy (Aunt Jen) suggested she tie them together. 

Mom & Kate with her winnings..nearing the end of the day.

 

Kate was asleep within 10 minutes of getting in the car.

Jack waited until the VERY end of the 2 hour roadtrip to fall asleep.

So it appears my new home phone number used to be the number for the Virginia Driving School.  I get at least 7 calls a day asking about driving school. So, I have changed my voicemail to say, “THIS IS NOT A DRIVING SCHOOL.  Believe me, you do not want me to teach your kids to drive.  If you are calling for any other reason, please leave a message.”

 

So why do I come home today and have two voicemails that say, “Umm yes I am trying to find out how much driving school is.”  “Hi, is this Northern Virginia Driving School?”

 

I had to double check my message to make sure it was still on there.  There is a whole world of geniuses out there…why are they calling me?

Is it really the end of the Newspaper?  Below is an email detailing the drastic measures being taken at one the print publications in my area.  If you read this you can clearly see it is the beginning of the end.

 

• 20% pay cuts across all XXX employees as well as Friday furloughs to all.
• No additional PTO(paid time off)  through the 2nd half of 2009
   All cell phone payments covered by XXX will be cut in half
• The company is no longer covering sales reps home phone or dsl
   The companies explanation was that they needed the capital to comply with their bank and investors

 

It is sad. One of my favorite things when I was in college was to go and get a New York Times, L.A. Times, Houston Chronicle, and Boston Globe newspaper on a Sunday.  Then I would spend the day reading all the papers and comparing the different “slants” on essentially the same story.  This was before it was so prevalent to have one Associated Press reporter write an article for every major paper. 

 

I used to love to buy the Houston Post and the Houston Chronicle and compare their views on the same subject.   (Now do you see why I say I am a news junkie.)

 

Will our kids grow up and not even know about print newspapers? 

 

Although I will say the rise of online journalism and blogs has been very interesting.  A few months ago I found myself (and several officemates) spending an entire day trying to respond to a Blog report.  One lone guy had developed a story that could adversely affect us and he was about to post it on his blog…and we spent an entire day trying to figure out how to respond.  The power of the press…

They always say He works in mysterious ways, but sometimes I think HE just comes right out and tells you what he wants you to know.  I heard of two things this past week that showed me the power of God and those watching us from the other side.

As you know Julie’s signal to Brendan that she is here is “3”.   You would be amazed at all the places “3” pops up.  While at Mass yesterday (Mother’s Day) Brendan was thinking about Julie and looked over at the Drummer in the band.  He had a “3” pendant hanging from his neck. 

Last week one of my cousin Bear’s good friend dropped by his cross on the anniversary of Bear’s accident. He pulled over and got out of his Jeep.  He wanted to say a few words to Bear and drop off some things at his cross.  As he walked to Bear’s cross his headlights blinked on and off a couple of times. He has not been able to make that happen again and he has never had a problem with his headlights.   But if you know Bear, you know he was blinking those headlights.

Have a good week and keep the faith!  Our loved ones are all around.

It is hard to believe it has been a year since Bear passed away.  I would say we have all adjusted, but it doesn’t mean we don’t miss him everyday.  I re-read Rob’s eulogy and it brought tears to my eyes.  It was a great eulogy.  

The family and Matt (who is basically family by now)

 

We just had the annual crawfish boil and Bear was sorely missed. He was always the guy who helped cook the crawfish and stayed with Greg the entire time.  I wish we knew more about the people who received his organs.

 

I was home this weekend and drove by the accident site.  His cross was still there and he had fresh flowers.  It sort of took my breath away at first.  I just wasn’t expecting it to still be going strong.

 

I keep trying to figure out which is better; to lose someone suddenly or to know they are dying over a period of time.  I had both in a short 6 month period.  Neither case is easy but I was at such peace with having time to make everything right by Julie.  The good news is Bear knew I loved him, but I will always wish I could have told him.

 

Last week my friend Jill’s father died suddenly from a heart attack.  She was scheduled to visit him this week.  (He lived in North Carolina, she lived in Florida).  Unfortunately she found out at work and she was hysterical.  When I heard the news my heart just broke.  I could completely imagine being Jill and getting that news while I am 2000 miles away from home.  (I can tell you nothing stinks more than flying home for an emergency…I have done several continental flights at that crying-mess-girl).    In fact, it made me call home and tell my Dad I loved him.  I just wanted to make sure there was nothing left unsaid.  We have no idea where life will lead us next.  You have to live it to the fullest and never take anything for granted. 

 

So, if you are reading this I hope you know I cherish your friendship and love you dearly (I figure most of my readers are my friends and family…). ) :

Tags: Bear

Again, I love my CNN Breaking News…but in all fairness, I did not hear about it first via the email alert but rather the TV.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party, multiple sources tell CNN.

Fun Fun Fun!  It really doesn’t mean too much as he would often vote with the Democrats.  I don’t think they can count him to be the 60 vote filibuster proof decision maker on all issues.  I am interested to find out what they promised him to get him to switch.  It also makes sense because he has drawn a conservative Republican challenger  in his re-election campaign.

I am spending the afternoon in the Senate (we are testifying on the Hill) so it should be very interesting!  More later!   

I saw this earlier today and could not believe this video footage.  Some genius in the executive office wanted to get some photo op pictures of an Air Force 1 type plane flying above Manhattan and the Statute of Liberty.  However, they and the New York City officials decided not to alert the citizens of New York City.  As you can imagine, seeing a very large plane flanked by two fighter jets above the tall buildings in NYC can be quiet scary. 

The video is amazing because you can hear some people in the background scared out of their mind shouting, “Oh My God”.  They thought it was another terrorist attack. 

Not cool.  I wonder if we will ever get to see those photos.

For some reason the video link wasn’t working.  check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMoy8JprKI0

 

Yesterday, April 21 was Aggie Muster and each year at this time I post something about it. It is by far my favorite Aggie tradition, but it has become more special since Julie died.  Aggie Muster is where we honor those Aggies who have passed away.   At the ceremony we call the name of those who have died in the past year and we light a candle for them.  At the end of the ceremony Taps is played and there is not a dry eye in the house.

Last year, I traveled to Houston to be with friends & family for Aggie Muster because Julie’s name would be called.  Unfortunately, I ended up missing most of the guest speaker and the ceremony because Julie’s youngest daughter was rather talkative and fidgety.  So I ended up with an 18 month old running around in a room outside the main Muster room.   I was sad to miss it, but I also knew that Julie would have wanted me to take care of Kendall so the others could enjoy Muster.

This year’s Muster was very emotional for me.  I did not expect it at all but I think because I had not heard the ceremony last year I was not able to fully reflect on the service.   It was a fantastic event.  Our guest speaker was one of my fellow board members who happens to be a retired General who has served a tour in every war/conflict since Vietnam (and often he served more than one tour!).  He highlighted something in his speech that really struck me. 

·         A&M taught him the true meaning of selfless service…realizing that you are part of something bigger than yourself.  It was what has motivated him to service his country for the last 50 years.  I don’t know why, but I just loved the articulation about what “selfless service” is and I hope that I can keep that in perspective as I move forward.

Anyway, the best part of the evening came at the end.  I took two of the Interns from my Office (non-Aggies) to Muster last night.  One is going to school in Massachusetts and the other one in Oklahoma.   They thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I warned them that it can be rather cult like to those on the outside (What is that old saying on campus…From The Inside Looking Out You Can’t Explain It, From The Outside Looking In You Can’t Understand It.).  But the best part was at the end when one of the Interns turned to me and said, “If I had come to one of these before I picked my College I would have been an Aggie.”

Love it!