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Today I turn 31.  As I look back at the last year of my life, I have a lot to be thankful for.  I also have a lot of goals for the future.  I wanted to capture some of my thoughts about the last year and the coming year below – feel free to comment.

Family:

Zander turned four, Lexi turned one, and we hope to be pregnant with number three in the next few months.  We were forced to move when our landlord put the house we were in up for sale, however I thank God that we were blessed enough to be able to make the move to a larger home in another great neighborhood closer to my job and the freeway.

Work:

I still have a great job despite the tough economic times around us. My job in IT has always been somewhat recession proof.  I’ve seen pay raises when others were being laid off, and I’ve gotten bonuses when businesses were filing for bankruptcy.  I don’t take such blessings for granted, I thank God daily for them.

Business:

I would rather own a struggling business and be self employed, than to have a great job!

Stephanie and I have continued to invest in A Baby Connection and the business is strong.  We are currently facing Diseconomy of Scale issues meaning that we have to put more money in the business before we can benefit from lower operating cost, lower per unit (per diaper) costs, and increased sales, increased profits.  But gross sales continue to increase and I believe the business has great potential.

I’ve also partnered with Brandon to start a new company called Kinetic Market, for IT services including website presence (websites, myspace sites, blog sites, electronic advertising), SOHO (small office, home office) services, IT consulting (helping companies to map out their current IT situation and design a blue print for how to get the most from IT for the direction the company is going), and image consulting (translating the vision of small businesses and non profits into electronic media, logo design, printing services, advertisements, etc).  We are just getting started, but I believe there is a great deal of untapped market in this niche.

School:

I’m in school (wgu.edu) and I believe I can finish in the next year and a half.  I actually took a science test yesterday but don’t yet know if I passed.  I would love to finish my four year degree in the next year and start work on my masters from sagu.edu, but even if it takes a little longer than that, I will continue to march forward.

Health:

I’ve not make large gains in the area of my health.  I’ve put on weight, then lost some, then put some on again.  Right now I weight about 300lbs.  My blood sugar has been high over the last few months because I have neglected my bike riding and discarded any real dieting.  In more recent times (the last month), I have started working out again and begun the process of adjusting my diet.

The Future:

I have started school and look to finish.  I have started working out and look to continue to make it part of my regular life.  I have started new businesses and will work to make them successful.  My goals here match the ones I made at the beginning of the year – lose weight, decrease debt, increase reading, increase business, and continue school.  I’m still working those goals – some have made better progress than others but none have left my mind or my path.

Its hard to believe its already been 7 years since 9/11.  It was less than an hour after I got to work that I noticed a crowd of my co-workers gathered around my boss’s office.  I walked over and asked what was going on.  Jeff, a co-worker said “some idiot flew his plan into the trade tower”.  I watched the TV in the office as the news anchor commented about the plane, and I can’t remember if it was my co-workers or the news anchor that said it was a Cessna plane.  Then as I watched the live news feed at 9:03 am, the second plan buried itself into the south tower and everything changed.

I wish I had gone home from work that day early.  I wish I had spent that day with my wife.  I worked for Safelite Autoglass in Columbus Ohio and I will never forget my boss walking through the office slapping his hands together with one big clap to brake the somber mood in the room and saying “Let’s keep working, the world still needs windshields!”  I’m sure it was his way of dealing with the crisis, I just wish I hadn’t let it be mine.

I will never forget my wife calling me in tears hysterically sobbing because she had just watched people jumping from the towers.  All I could do was whisper “I know baby, I know” in an effort to comfort her.  I should have gone home.  I remember walking into our call center, normally a loud room full of CSRs on the phones reading scripts about windshields and chatting with each other between calls; silenced by events over 500 miles away.  And I remember waiting to hear if Charley, my co-worker and friend, had heard from his parents, who had been traveling in New York.  They were ok… well, they weren’t near the towers, but none of us were OK.

I remember that day.  I remember those events.  My children won’t.  Much like the events surrounding the attack on Pear Harbor, time will heal and erase those events from our collective minds.  In the weeks that followed, American flags hung from every window or in every yard in the USA and even in much of the world – but as we reflect on the last 7 years, most of those flags are down, most of us have moved on with our lives.  History has recorded the events and our children’s children will learn of 9/11 in a history book… but I remember.

I found this picture in a news article this morning on the Google News page.  This is great for the McCain gang – but really bad for the Obama crowd.  Apparently, Obama made a comment saying “You can put lipstick on a pig… its still a pig” regarding McCain’s position that the republican ticket is the best for change.  The comment came a week after Governor Palin’s stated at the RNC that the difference between a hockey mom (which she is) and a pitbull is lipstick.  Did Obama mean to imply Palin was a pig?  The answer is Who cares… The damage is done!

In the court of public opinion, its like OJ and murder – did he do it?  You may convince me that there are people out there that don’t believe he did (in fact a Judge right now is trying to find 12 people to sit on a jury that don’t have an opinion on that old trial) but if you ask on the street that same question – some will say yes and some will say no – and both believe he did it.  The same is true here.  But that’s not the damage.  The damage is the picture above.  Shortly after this picture hit the internet, it quickly came down and dozens of similar pictures with Obama and McCain head to head began to show up (based on a page refresh of the google news page).  Why?  In my opinion its because there are a lot of Obama supporters out there that quickly realized that for Obama to win, he has to appear presidential, and pitting himself against the vp defeats that purpose.

The next article I read this morning was Obama’s reaction to the “lipstick” media coverage, in which he called the controversy “phony” saying, “I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage”.  I remember once as a child I went into our pantry and grabbed a hand full of sugar cerial (which we rarely had in the house) and ate it in my room knowing I wasn’t allowed to.  My brother caught me eating it and I quickly denied it.  He wouldn’t let me get away with lying about it.  I was so intent on denying the charge that I went to my mother outraged that he would accuse me of lying.  I didn’t fool her for a second – I was busted!  Obama’s outrage on the matter reminds me of my reaction after getting caught – phony outrage.  So, I find it ironic that he uses those words to describe the media coverage and McCain reaction to the comment.

To accuse McCain of lies and phony outrage while demanding that we get back to the “issues” is like a throwing a punch while demanding civility.

I’m watching the Palin speech right now… WOW! This chick is rockin’. Palin hit Obama again and again with her wit, sharp tongue, and best of all – substance. When I first heard of Sarah Palin – it was when McCain annouced her as his VP pick. My reaction was the same as most of you – Sarah who? The news media frenzy that ensued was staggering! I found out that she has a pregnant daughter out of wed lock! AND that her husband got a DUI twenty years ago! I learned about how she is accused of firing the Public Safety Commissioner because he wouldn’t fire her ex-brother-in-law.  I was most concerned when I heard she was cited with “Fishing without a license“!  Amazing!

Well, if you can forgive her of the wanton disregard for the laws of fishing… you might find this was a great move by John McCain.  Until last Friday, the media continued to tell us that we had the chance to make history with our vote in November.  Obama was “the fullfillment of Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech” according to the media and a vote for him was a historic vote.  A vote for McCain was not only voting for another four years of old white guys running things – it was border-line racist.

BUT… after the Palin Pick, it’s no longer a historic vote – its an historic election.  Either way you vote, you are a part of history!  Now, we can stop focusing on the color of skin, and start to focus on the actual canidates!

Mrs Palin was charismatic, energetic, and enjoyable.  Her ability to give a speech that kept the audience involved matched or surpased that of Obama, not to mention that she is easy on the eyes as we used to say back home in North Carolina.  My favorite quote from the night – “Here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country“.

Ok – there are many many stories behind most of these pictures, but I don’t know what I will have time to blog them all – but hey, they say a picture is worth a thousand words… Just click on any of the pictures to see the larger album of photos.

I have a lot more pics to post when we get home – but this one is sooooo cute I had to stop long enough to post it…

I’m here on vacation, waiting on my wife and kids to get up and I came across this article that has me concerned.  Its a political piece written by Pat Buchanan that asks the question “And if Obama Loses?”  Do you remember the LA Riots?  If you are over the age of twenty, I’m sure you do.  The post I read this morning didn’t go so far as to connect the two events in any way, but I wonder if we could be in for a dangerous November Tuesday.

If Obama wins, I worry for the country.  I like that he is concerned for many of the same issues I am concerned with, but I disagree with him on every single action plan he has suggested to solve those issues.  He also lacks the experience.  I know there are many that argue that experience is not an issue, however if you were inventing your money in a major cooperation, and they were voting on a new CEO that lacked the experience to do that job, you might consider selling… The nation is much more important that my stocks and I want a President with the life experiences to help guild him through the job.  The real danger, however, in Obama isn’t that he lacks the experience needed to be president but, in my opinion, that he lacks the wisdom to know it

But back to Buchana’s question, what if Obama loses?  Will there be riots?  I seems like a rediculous question to ask – but I couldn’t believe the riots in LA back in 1992, and I’ve seen riots in Ohio over a football game – “we lost the game, that means I can get with a few hundred of my friends, turn over cars and set houses on fire!”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28277

Today was awesome!  Ok, we started toward San Francisco Tuesday night knowing that there was only one ferry that you can take to get to Alcatraz Island and that it was sold out.  I knew we would be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge (I didn’t know that a heavy fog regularly rolled in so thick that you wouldn’t be able to see the bridge!).

I knew we would be able to see a trolly cable car.  And I knew we would be able to see the rolling hills that San Francisco is famous for (although I wasn’t aware of exactly how steep they truly were!).  But I must be honest – I wanted to tour the Rock!  I kept hope that we would be able to get on that sold out ferry.

We left early from the hotel and crossed the Bay Bridge that we had crossed the day before, took at least one wrong turn in town, headed to Pier 33, hunted for close parking, all while Stephanie continually reminded me of the prior day’s event (see A Great Adventure) and respectfully asked that I not turn up any steep hills.  We finally found a public lot for a mere $20 a day…  What a deal… for the parking lot company!

Despite the large signs reading, “there is no attendant on duty, pay only the machine” and “This guy (picture of a guy) is an imposter, DO NOT GIVE HIM MONEY, pay only the machine” and “DO NOT PAY AN ATTENDANT, HANDWRITTEN PARKING SLIPS WILL NOT BE VALID!”, there was a short asian man in a parking-lot-looking attendant shirt, taking cash from cars that pulled into the lot.

I hesitated, but pulled out my credit card and said to the impostor who was blocking the machine, “excuse me – I need to get to that machine”.  This sly guy – grabbed my card out of my hand, turned around and swipped it into the machine, then handed it back to me – took the ticket that printed out and walked over to my car.  I followed him after checking the machine to make sure it didn’t have any strange looking devices covering the card reader.  He wrote down part of my license plate on the parking slip and handed it to me – asking that I put it on my dash.  I couldn’t believe I let this guy take the credit card out of my hand!  I called the number on the signs and reported this strange behavior.  The lady that answered assured me that there was no attendant on duty and that she would send a manager out.  I figure, as long as I max my card out before this guy gets to try it, I’m good… 😮

Anyway, We walk to pier 33 and ask the question I already know the answer to because I had just confirmed it online that morning –

“Are there any tickets for Alcatraz today?”

“Yes, 10:30am.”

“Are you sure, we would really love to go to …. uh?  oh… umm… ok – I’ll take two adults please!”

That’s right – we got on the ferry!  Apparently there are several hotels that are granted several tickets and ‘sell’ them back if they cannot fill the seats.  If you get there early enough, you can get on a sold out boat!  We took several pictures on the way over, several while we were on the Rock, and several on the way back.  I stood in a prison cell, walked the corridors, listened to the self paced audio tour, and loved every minute of it!  I enjoyed listening to former inmates talk about how bad it was.  One of the prisoners stated that he was there for four years and it “straighten [him] up”.  Later on the tour it talks about when they closed down the prison because the correctional system changed from punishment to rehabilitation.

That struck me as odd since I had just heard  an old prisoner say how it straighten him up.

My favorite part of the tour was rule number 5.  Its in every inmate’s hand book and it goes like this:

You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Anything else is privilege.

I almost purchased a copy to give my children as they grow older…

Stephanie and I have been married for nine years, yesterday.  I took several days off work to celebrate the occasion, even though we had not made any formal plans.  Back when Stephanie and I got married, we used to take day trips on a regular basis, even some weekend driving trips on a whim – trips to near by cities a few hours away, trips to the beach or to Washington DC over 8 hours away, and even longer trips to see family in Maine or Charlotte NC weren’t uncommon.  But as we got more busy, added children to the mix, and moved across the country, those driving mini-vacations all but vanished.

We both miss them despite all the ups and downs of being in a car for several hours at a time, so when I suggested we hit the road and head to San Francisco – Stephanie said yes with enthusiasm!  Wednesday night we headed out and got as far as Blithe, CA.  We stayed in a cheap (in every sense of the word) hotel.  The next morning, we hit the road with a San Francisco or bust mentality.  Zander and Lexi have been been great for being trapped in a car most of the day, but we did stop to let Zander climb a tree or two at rest areas and we took a few pictures along the way.  We got into San Francisco last night at about 9pm.

After paying $4 to cross the bridge from Oakland to San Francisco, calling several area hotels, attempting to drive around to look for a descent place to stay that wasn’t $200 bucks a night, and climbing the scariest hill of my life in a stick shift four cylinder, please never do that again to me car – we left San Francisco and headed back to Oakland for the night.  Let me pause here to say, if you ever drive to San Francisco and get there after dark and you are in a Hyundai Elantra – don’t climb the hills!  It was difficult enough just driving up them, but when we got the red light, and my wife started yelling for me to run it, then panicing that I stopped, then screaming when I rev’ed the engine to over 5 thousand RPM with the emergency break on, dropped the break, came off the clutch, in first gear, only to still travel backwards, I must say I was beginning to doubt turning up a street that looked like it went straight to up to heaven.  It was only after I rev’ed it to 7 thousand RPM and quite possibly damaged the transmision that we started to move forward at a pace of about 1 mile per day.  The entire time, my son was saying, “Its OK Mommie, I’m not afraid.” and my wife was trying to remember the number for 911.  We are on a great Adventure!

For those of you that have asked, here are the latest pictures we had taken at Target for Lexi.  If you want to order prints – you have to order from Target BEFORE 11/07/08 – click the link below and the guest name is STEPHANIE SACKRIDER.  The images on this page are low quality and should not be printed.

https://www.thesmilestation.com/home.asp?AC=LTTT0862103671TARSHR