Sportster in Appomattox.

So I just got my bike on the road after doing some pretty extensive work. I took it for a ride on Appomattox, VA - that's right, where the Civil War ended. Don't tell the locals as I am not sure they know! It is a nice place with rolling hills and winding roads. I ended up getting lost but it didn't really matter as I was not that far from home. It was a blast riding the bike.

Jesse is 30!

Jesse turned 30 this May 15th. Buying gifts for Jesse is always difficult because, even if he tells you what he wants, he usually ends up exchanging it for something else. I've learned to just let him pick out his own gifts, but this year I couldn't do that. Not for his 30th birthday! It had to be special... So, I decided on a gift that couldn't be exchanged or returned - a surprise. Planned a couple months in advance, I decided to take Jesse to Falls Church, VA to see Mason Jennings in concert. I didn't tell him what we were doing, only that we were heading towards DC because he drove part of the time. : )

"Where are we going?"

We made a stop at this really neat antique shop on our way there where Jesse got a cool oil painting.

Jesse and his 1968 oil painting of sailboats.

Jesse finally 'figured out' where we were going when we pulled up to the venue. His only prior guess was that I was taking him to a Capitals game, but he wasn't disappointed.

Jesse in front of The State Theatre

The concert was great and Jesse told me it was his best birthday ever.... success!

Notice the couple posing for our picture behind us

Jesse is 30! Continued....

But the birthday festivities didn't end there!  No!  We had to do something special on his actual birthday too.  This time I let Jesse pick....  Friday it was gourmet hamburgers on the grill, for which I made a modified version of this recipe.  They were amazing!

Followed by dessert of mint chip ice-cream and Sprite floats (yum!) and watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I cried... a lot. 

And that still wasn't it!  We carried this celebration on over to Sunday and we had some friends over for fish tacos and birthday cake.  I'm proud to say the food turned out really good and everyone left full and happy.  Thanks to Paul, Deb, and Heika for their assistance in the kitchen and Jordan for his help at the grill.

Zion and Isaiah watching Shrek before lunch

Getting the fish ready!

Heika and Isaiah enjoying the fish tacos 

The man of the hour with his German Chocolate Cake 

(I forgot to get candles)

Harley Sportster - In-depth!

So I have been working on the bike for about a month now. What started as replacing leaky oil lines has grown into a much more in-depth project. I had no plans to replace the cams with Andrews V2 cams, or replace the ignition with a single fire programmable unit. But here I am in the process of doing those things. I hope to have it back on the road in the next week or so.

First Growth!

It's been one week since our garden was planted and already we are seeing some new growth. It's so exciting. I didn't mark where I planted things, so I can't remember what a lot of these will be.... I think this is the corn.
Tomatoes:
Green Beans:
Squash
Broccoli... or a weed?:

Garden 2009

Today I planted our vegetable garden. First stop was Lowe's to get the supplies:

A few weeks ago Jesse and Todd tilled the soil. Thanks Tim Geisland for the tiller. Thanks Todd Thurston for your back.

I had to prepare the soil by raking out all the grass, and mixing in some bone meal as an organic fertilizer. By noon it was 90-something out, so I took a 6 or 7 hour break until the sun went down. :) Here is the prepared plot for our garden:

Finally time to plant the seeds and put up a fence so the dogs won't run through it!


This year we have tomatoes, pole beans, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, carrots, sweet pepper, corn and lettuce. I hope they all produce.
We'll post updates as things start to grow!

Somethings I enjoy...

The people that live across the street from me have lived on my block since 1955. They know the history of our street. In late Spring through the end of Summer they sit on their porch for about 3 hours per night. They watch the younger people moving about, doing things that are "important"... I can remember thinking when i first moved in that it must get boring to sit on the porch for hours on end. However, now I wonder if Buck (guy across the street) has figured out what life is about. In fact, now that I think about it I can think of numerous occasions where elderly people spent hours sitting on a porch or in their yard. It appears to me that these people have figured out that life is worth enjoying with sustained sessions of sitting and enjoying the moment - living in the moment. It also occurs to me that it often takes getting older and realizing that what was once important doesn't really matter all that much. Life is better spent in community with people, enjoying conversation, and building memories that will last a lifetime. Buck has inspired me, as difficult as it is, to take time out to sit and enjoy the moment. Often times I realize after the fact that the things that are so important to me takes away from my time with Carrie. I'm not saying that I must get rid of anything that does not include Carrie, just that I need to have a more time for Carrie and other people in my life and a healthy amount of time for what I consider important. If I am not careful I will spend all my free time doing things that are typically fairly solitaire. Some of the photos below are things that I get enjoyment from... first and foremost is my beautiful bride, friend, wonderful life mate. Carrie is amazing!

Thinking about life...

So I am sitting on my deck listening to James Taylor's greatest hits and watching my dogs wander around the yard. The dogs just walk around sniffing things and taking the occasional break, i.e. lay down and look at nothing specifically. I get a sense of enjoyment watching my little friends enjoying themselves in the warm sun and cool grass. It makes me wonder if God watches me enjoy things simple. Does He find the same sense of enjoyment when I go hiking and enjoy His wonderful creation? Lately, I have felt stressing trying to focus on so many things at once without seeking guidance. What will I do for the rest of my life? So frequently I fill my time up with things that really don't matter at the expense of pursuits that have meaningful value... like spending time with Carrie and seeking God fully. Sometimes I feel like I spend 80% of my time on things of no consequence and 20% on things that mean the most to me. I am working to reverse that ratio - it is so hard to take myself out of the moment and see what is really important. "The secret of life is enjoying passing time." James Taylor - Funny, that line was just in a song that is playing in the background. I desire to have deeper relationships with fewer people as opposed to many surface deep relationships. Anyways...

Urban farming in Detroit.

BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • April 2, 2009

Detroit could become a center of locally grown food and put large swaths of vacant land back on tax rolls under a proposal to create the city's first large commercial farm.

Businessman John Hantz of Detroit, in an exclusive interview with the Free Press, unveiled his plans for Hantz Farms -- a concept that would convert hundreds, even thousands, of vacant parcels in the city into urban agriculture.

Offering jobs and an ability to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, Hantz Farms could help Detroit "become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement," Hantz said.

Detroit already is home to hundreds of smaller community gardens. But Hantz's proposal is the first to envision large-scale commercial farming.

He said he could grow everything from Christmas trees to fruits and vegetables, with amenities such as a cider mill or horseback riding available.

With an estimated 40 square miles of vacant parcels, Detroit offers many sites where, in theory, a big farm operation might work. Hantz, a resident of Detroit's Indian Village district, is tentatively looking at a blighted area near Eastern Market, but exact boundaries would depend on whether he wins the city's cooperation.

A look at the plan

George Jackson, the city's chief development officer and president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said he is evaluating Hantz's proposal.

"I'm going to look at this as I would any development deal," Jackson said.

Land assemblage remains a key question. Hantz owns several parcels in the city, but the vast majority of the acreage he needs for his project is

still either owned by private parties or is tax-foreclosed land owned by the city, county and state.

Hantz envisions the city, county and state donating the land to his project or selling it at a nominal cost. The payback would come in increase

d tax revenues once the farm is up and running.

Hantz is chief executive of Hantz Group, a network of financial services firms based in Southfield. He also owns the Detroit Ignition of the Xtreme Soccer League.

Vacant land solution?

Matt Allen, onetime press secretary to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, manages the project as senior vice president of Hantz Farms.

Allen said Hantz Farms is a good solution for vacant land.

"What is it worth to the city just sitting there? Nothing," he said. "Part of the approach to this is that, the larger this becomes, the benefit gets greater and greater faster."

Even as a concept, the idea is controversial.

Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, called Hantz Farms "a challenging and exciting opportunity."

But Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the nonprofit Greening of Detroit, said small community plots do more good for Detroiters, helping knit communities together.

"Folks are hoping for, wishing for, looking for a silver bullet to the vast expanses of vacant space that we see in the city," Witt said. "And because of that, they want to say, 'Great, we'll just plunk a couple-of-hundred-acre growing operations here a

nd there.' "

Allen responded that there ought to be a place for both community gardens and commercial farms in Detroit.

"There's more than enough land to go around," he said.

Strawberry Blonde?

For the past few months I have been thinking of coloring my hair strawberry blonde. It is naturally starting to turn reddish, so I thought I'd help it along. So today I went to Target and bought a box of L'oreal Superior Preference in Light Strawberry Blonde. I didn't quite get the results I was hoping for- it's not as strawberry as the girl on the box, but it is definitely warmer. At least it was only $10.00!

Before:After:

Rethink the simplistic moral outrage over AIG

Interesting article -

I remember the television series "West Wing" fondly. In addition to great performances and fun and compelling story lines, the show occasionally hit upon some fundamental truths about American politics. None truer than this - politicians win with 10 word answers. The American public, for whatever reason, seems to accept 10 word answers to complex problems as if their simplicity is a hallmark of truth.

As the situation with AIG demonstrates, they could not be more wrong. In recent days, as we search for people to point fingers at to mask our own complicity in the greed and deception of the past 20 years (yes, I think we should bail out the guy making $35,000 a year who bought a $600,000 house), I am amazed at how such complex matters are reduced to short, simple "truths" that are neither simple, nor are they truth. They are politics at their worst - playing to fear and the need of every person in
trouble to have someone else to blame.

Let's take a look:

Moral Outrage #1 - AIG took taxpayer money and paid out $160 million
in bonuses.

Complex Truth - Compensation structures in that industry call "bonuses" what most of us would call deferred compensation. As one commentator pointed out, "Jenny" gets hired for $300,000 - $100,000 in salary and $200,000 in a "bonus" if she meets certain personal performance standards that have nothing to do with company performance.

She is, for all intent and purpose, a $300,000 a year employee. She has a mortgage, credit card debt, and other obligations all consistent with being a $300,000 employee.

Now what happens if she suddenly has to give back $200,000? Simple, she
defaults on her mortgage, defaults on her other debt, and probably declares bankruptcy. Few people who work for a living (sorry, Mr. Obama, Jenny is not "rich") could take a 66% pay cut and survive. Jenny will become part of the financial problem instead of part of the solution. I would note that many UAW employees just voted against concessions that include giving up a mere $600 Christmas bonus.
So, let's take away all AIG bonuses, and watch more individuals collapse financially.

Moral Outrage #2 - Banks paid $17.1 billion in bonuses for 2008.

Complex Truth - A great whipping post, only everyone forgot until the mayor and governor of New York spoke up that the city and state collected nearly $1 billion in tax revenue from these bonuses. Pull on the bonus thread and the city and state of New York suddenly cannot pay their bills. Oops. Suddenly we begin to see that every financial decision has ripples. You cannot cast stones without creating them.

Moral Outrage #3 - Citigroup Ordered a Corporate Jet.

Complex Truth - This one irked me too until I read about Gulfstream starting to lay off employees. When we hold up things to moral outrage, we often forget that someone builds those corporate jets. If we make buying them our 10-word moral outrage for the day, the workers who build them lose jobs.

Moral Outrage #4 - People Making Over $200,000 a Year Should Pay More Taxes.

Complex Truth - Being wealthy at $200,000 or $250,000 a year is a fallacy. If these incomes come from salaries and bonuses (see above) these people work for a living. Moreover, making $200,000 a year in Montana is very, very different than making that same amount in New York or San Francisco. But most important, the less net income these people have, the less they buy. Ask the sales associate at Best Buy who loses his job in the big screen television area if he wants "rich" people to bring home less money.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. We have Detroiters marching against the Cobo Hall deal because they simply do not understand it, and have been whipped in to a frenzy by an equally ignorant group of council members.

A female in this state is incompetent to consent to sex before the age of 16, but if she kills someone at 13 she can be tried as an adult. Soldiers can fight and die at 18, but can't be trusted with a beer until 21.

So, before people express moral outrage because CNN or Carl Levin tells them to, they might want to think about the next 10 words in their thought on a subject. Too often, moral outrage ignores the complexities of our world, the consequences of that outrage, and the real reason for it - the need to blame someone else for our
circumstances.

Gary Bazydlois the general counsel for real estate development company Schostak Bros. Write to him at TalstonMorior@yahoo.com.

So what is the big deal with AIG bonuses...

Frankly, I don't see the big deal with AIG handing out $165,000,000 in bonuses. 73 people received bonuses over $1,000,000. If we are going to bail out a company that obviously has issues with their products and not give them some type of stipulation as to what may or may not be done with that money then they are entitled to spend it however they want. The initial bailout payment to AIG was $85,000,000,000. So the $165,000,000 is a little less than 2% of the total initial bailout. I expect that starting with the next chunk of money AIG gets there will certainly be measures in place to prevent them from dispursing another huge sum of money to employees.

Developing leaders in my FSA small group...

On Sunday morning's Carrie and I go to Brentwood Church (http://www.brentwoodchurch.org) and volunteer to help with students. I am a 3rd to 5th grade boys small group leader. It is really incredible to see how each of these kids has their own distinct personality. Even at 10 years old the leaders are leading and the other boys fall in line. Each kid I have is unique and a blessing to spend time with. I can remember when I was in 5th grade at church and how wide open I was... I can only imagine the teacher, Mr. Bishop, was irritated with the class. Though he may have been iritated he never neglected or lost sight of his reason for working with 5th grade boys. He is the person that initiated my accepting Christ and choosing to get baptized as an outward expressions of my faith. When I get irritated with my guys I remember my 5th grade teacher and relax. My group consists of Colin, Austin, Kyle, Cole, Devon, and others that don't attend as regularly as these guys.

ADD, ADHD, or whatever it is called now.

When I was roughly 18, I went for Attention Deficit Disorder testing at a very well respected research facility in Michigan. I put puzzles together while men with gray beards watched and made guttural sounds. I talked to psychiatrists and psychologists. It was a very interested process and in the end I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. My first recollection of having trouble in school was third grade. Then in fourth grade it was really apparent in hindsight that something was wrong. I nearly failed 5th grade and then DID fail 6th grade. Fast-forward 15 years or so... school is still difficult for me. But I want to finish and even go onto advanced degrees. I have this worry that due to ADD it will be nearly impossible for me to finish without medication. Most of the medication for ADD that is effective are stimulants aka amphetamines. The more I think about it the more I am resolute to the fact that I will NOT take a stimulant everyday to help me deal with my so-called disorder. Sometimes it is tuff doing things and staying on track... in fact most of the time it is. One of the things that helps me deal with ADD is exercise... I exercise a lot! Another thing that can be effective is time management. I say can because it is difficult to be disciplined in this area. It helps if I keep a calender or something similar. I will succeed in my desire to complete my undergrad and beyond. I like my disorder and frankly wouldn't have my mind any other way.

1987 Harley Sportster 1200cc

I like it a lot!

Rummy.

My dog Rummy.