4 Gallons

I gave my 32nd pint to Bonfils Blood Center yesterday.

So, I know how to bleed... what do I want ... a medal? Well, actually I did get a medal. Well, not a medal exactly, but a nice pin that looks exactly like three others I've gotten over the years (except this one says 4 gallons instead of 1 2 or 3 gallons).

My wife asked me if eventually I get something bigger and fancier than a pin. I do not know. I guess I need to keep bleeding to find out.

Happy Beer Day

Today is the anniversary of the day that Germany passed its Beer Purity Law.

In Germany it is illegal to brew a beer with any ingredient other than malted grain, water, yeast, and hops. Apparently, April 23 is the day the law was enacted.

I do not know much about the law. Do you go to jail if you add honey to your wort? Does this law apply to home brewers or just commercial brewers? I do not know.

I do know that none of my home-brews pass muster with German Purity Law. All of my beers so far have a little something extra added for flavor or a boost in alcohol.

I will make sure my next beer is pure so that if any German guys come over I'll have something to serve them.

Happy Beer Day.

SUTA

Last night, I paid my quarterly State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) for all my employees. For those of you who are employees, unemployment tax (both state and federal) is one of those taxes that employers pay for you without you generally knowing it is being paid. Isn't that nice of us?

Considering I am the only employee of my S-Corp, I hate paying SUTA and FUTA (like I love paying the rest of my taxes ... right?) because I sort of suspect that it would be hard for me to ever actually collect unemployment back from the government. I am the owner of my company, so technically I always have a job unless I close down my S-Corp even if I cannot pay myself. I do not know if I am correct about how hard it will be for me to collect. God willing I will never find out. But, even though SUTA and FUTA are not big expenses (in comparison to the other taxes I pay), I get angry paying them. As the company bookkeeper / accountant / owner / etc... I have plenty of opportunity to pay lots of taxes and plenty of opportunity to get angry at the IRS.

Last night, I got a surprise. My SUTA payment was about 1/3 as much as it was last year. Of course, I was sure that I had made a calculation mistake, but I did verify that, yes, my SUTA rate went down this year. I'm sure I have Mr. Obama to thank, and I am a little embarrassed that it took me by surprise. If I had 1000 employees instead of just one, that would be quite a savings. I thought Obama hated rich jerks like me.

Today, it hit me. Most likely the fact that I pay significantly less on State Unemployment Tax might just mean the Feds are going to get me (I do not usually pay FUTA until the end of the year). But, I just looked it up and the FUTA rate is going down too (although not necessarily for me ... FUTA has weird rules around who pays what based partially on what you pay to your State).

It seems odd that at record levels of unemployment, I have to pay less into the unemployment pot, but I guess I'm not going to complain. Its just one more thing I'll just let Tyler's and Connor's grandchildren pay for as our nation's debt continues to rise.

T.V.

According to an article that came up on my iGoogle portal, the average American is watching 35 hours of T.V. a week. (here is the article). I do not know how the average American has so much time on their hands. Unless it is hockey playoffs or football season, getting in more than a couple hours of T.V. a week just does not happen at my house. And, even if it is one of those critical times of the year, I just do not have 5 extra hours a day. Basically to get in that much T.V. time, I would have to have the T.V. on from the time I get home until about an hour or two after I go to bed. The article does mention that the stats come from neilson, and that if someone has the T.V. on but is not watching, it would not be able to track that. It is a pet-peeve of mine people who have the T.V. on all the time even when they are not watching (and I know people like that).

I mentioned the article to a couple of guys I work with who both sort of mentally took stock of the shows they watch a week, and even though they both apparently have a lot more time to watch T.V. than I do, even so, they did not come close to 35 hours. So, that being the case, if 35 hours is an average, some people must be watching 40, 50, 60 hours of T.V. a week ... right?

I am shocked. Apparently, I need to talk to the average american to ask for tips on how to get so much free time.

Tax Day

Due to a somewhat complex situation with company K1s, I had to file an extension with the IRS this year. Of course, I still had to do all the tax prep work because even if you delay your filing, the government still wants its money. And since my goal is always to delay giving my money until I have to, I do not come close to getting a refund. So, I wrote a large check to the IRS to send in with the extension.

Of course, the reason I had to extend is because I do not have final numbers on one of my companies, so I have to make a guess. If I do not pay the government enough, I have to pay a fee and interest. But, if I overpay, is the IRS going to give me interest on my overpayment? No. Does not seem fair, does it?

Then, of course, being the small-business owner that I am, I need to pay estimated taxes for the first quarter of 2009 on top of my "final" payment of 2008.

And now, I am not even done. I still need to finish up the last of the return once I get my last K1.

I hate tax day.

At least I am not one of those suckers who lent the government significant interest free money to the IRS this year. (anyone who gets a refund)

They don't need blood?

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably know that I give blood about as often as I am allowed. My church runs a blood drive basically every 8 weeks, and I almost always go.

Today I got a voice mail message saying that my next appointment has been canceled, and if I would like to be scheduled for Abiding Hope's next drive in June, I could call back and they would gladly schedule me. I just went online to schedule the appointment for June. But then, I thought, "Well, I could probably go somewhere else ... I wonder if they can schedule me on the 25th for a different location."

So, I called the Bonfils Blood center and asked the nice lady if I could give elsewhere on the 25th. She asked me where I live and once she looked something up, told me, sure, I could come to the Bonfils facility in Highlands Ranch. Cool, I have to drive about 20 minutes instead of 10, but that is not bad at all. She scheduled me. I'm all set. Just have to remember to drink plenty of water ... blah blah blah etc...

I asked her if she knew why the church drive had been canceled, but she told me she is just in the call center and does not know.

I think that Bonfils is canceling blood drives because they do not need as much blood. The reason I think that is because CHFA (my current client) has periodic blood drives and canceled their last one. CHFA told their people that Bonfils asked to cancel because the blood supply is up and the demand is down. This is due to a reduction in elective surgeries. Can you guess why there are less elective surgeries? There are less elective sugeries because of the crappy economy. So, I guess besides gas prices being down, another plus to no one feeling confident to spend money is that the blood supply is up.

If you give blood or really pay attention at all, you know that blood centers are ALWAYs asking for people to give blood. The blood supply is always lower than they would like. But not now. At least, not now in the Denver Metro Area.

"So, if they don't need your blood", you may ask, "why are you giving blood?"

Well, my somewhat odd feelings (bordering on an obsession really) on giving blood are pretty well documented in this blog, so if you want details, you can search on "blood" and maybe get a pretty good idea. Really, it comes down to the fact that I like giving blood. Obviously, if Bonfils did not want my blood at all, they would not have accepted my "walk-in" appointment, so I do not think it is a matter of they won't be able to use my blood. I figure they have calculated their walk-in traffic is enough for now and they probably still want some people to come in. CHFA did explain that certain types were still needed and that was why some of the CHFA employees were getting phone calls. My O+ blood type is pretty common (I think it is the most common), so they do not care about me so much I'm sure, but like I said, if they decide they don't want my blood they can give me a call and tell me.

Anyway... it is just interesting to me that for the first time I can remember, a blood center is actually trying to reduce their donations.

I'm Sorry

If I see you as a parent with your child on a leash, I am automatically going to consider you a worse parent than me. I'm sorry. I know I am basing a harsh conclusion on a very limited set of data. I do not care how crowded it is or how many children you have. As soon as I see the kid on the leash, I smirk. I feel sorry for the kid and I mentally judge the adult holding the leash as cruel or incompetent or both. Yes, I know it is condescending and somewhat prejudiced emotional reaction. It is pretty arrogant for me to make that conclusion, but I cannot help it. The conclusion to which I will jump is that you are somewhat inferior as a parent.

So, I was in the library tonight picking up a book for my wife when a family of 4 walked in. A boy who was probably not quite 3, a girl who looked to be about 5, a dad and a mom. The boy was on a leash held by his mom. And as soon as they came in, the boy started screaming. Screaming may be a little of an exaggeration, but we were in a library and he was loudly expressing displeasure.

Now, ok we all understand that I just admitted a prejudice against parents who have their children on leashes. But in a jeffco public library? Really? And lets just forget the leash. Two parents two kids. One of the kids is crying. TAKE THE KID OUT OF THE LIBRARY. I don't like leashes but, I have an absolute PET PEEVE when it comes to parents who let their kids be disruptive in public places. I would not allow either of my kids to be one tenth as disruptive in a restaurant or a grocery store let alone a library. If something similar happened to me, the quiet child would go with Tracy and the disruptive child would be outside standing with his nose against a tree or a wall until he calmed down. He would then apologize to me and then we would go back in and apologize to his mom and the librarian or he would return to his timeout.

These parents handled things a bit differently. The dad went to a computer and told his wife to take the boy back to look at Thomas things. I did not stick around much longer so I do not know if that worked.

I do understand that in certain circumstances it can be difficult to keep a child civilized in public. But quite frankly, this situation should have been very easily controlled.

Beer Tasting

We visited Henderson, NV for Tyler's spring break this year. I brought four of my Sheppy Brews along with me and the night before we left, Tracy's cousin and his wife joined us at Grammy and Papa Lou's house. I broke out the 4 beers and gave everyone a little taste of each of the four beers:

• Classic American Blonde Ale
• 1776 Ale
• Eric's Red
• Maple Brown

Overall, I was pleased with the reception of the beer. Everyone was very nice with their praise without over-doing it so that it felt pretty sincere.

As it is the lightest, we tasted Classic American Blonde Ale first. It was the favorite of the group. Grammy and Lisa are not really beer drinkers and Jerry and Papa Lou prefer light beers, so it is not a surprise that they would prefer my lightest beer. But, I do have to admit that it is a good beer, and based on this response and positive comments from my sister-in-law before, I am going to make sure I brew this again and that I keep this beer in stock. Unfortunately, this was my last bottle, so I will have to make more soonish.

The second beer we tried was the second lightest, 1776 Ale. 1776 Ale is a very hoppy amber ale. The liberty hops give the beer an almost pine like taste and I think is very similar to New Belgium's Mighty Arrow. 1776 was not as well-liked, but did not seem to be disliked. This was simply a case of the style not being what the group was used to. To be honest, I also have to be in the right mood to drink this beer.

The third beer was my Eric's Red, which is my favorite brew so far. This is a deep amber / almost (but not quite) red beer. You can taste hops on this one, but they are not nearly as strong as 1776. This is a more malty beer. The 2-week conditioning period was not done yet, but it was close enough that I figured it was ready to taste. So, it should be even better when I try it next. I think I will try to keep this beer in stock. My tasting group liked this one very much as well.

Maple Brown is my darkest beer so far, and the last one we tasted. It was a major disappointment to me and clearly the least favorite of the group. Unfortunately, there is a definite alcohol taste to this beer, which overpowers the malt. I was unable to taste the maple at all. I am surprised I disliked it so much because I thought it tasted pretty good when I bottled it. I will let it condition a bit more and continue to try it, but I do not think I will brew another maple beer again for a long time.

It was fun having this little tasting party. Everyone was very kind with their comments. Jerry said he would be my sales guy when I was ready to go commercial with my micro-brewery. Of course, I do not really have any plans to go commercial, but it is fun to think about it.

I am glad people beside me seem to like my beer.

Valley of Fire

On Tuesday, we loaded ourselves in Grammy's and Papa Lou's Durango and headed out to the Valley of Fire Nevada State Park. I have to say it was really cool. There were lots of red rock formations, some of which we were allowed to climb on. We saw 4000 year old petroglyphs. It was pretty awesome. We even got to do a geocache on the way to the park and drop off a travel bug we picked up on our last geocache in Colorado. This one is an alligator that comes all the way from Florida. I do not know if this poor guy will like the Nevada desert!

This is a picture of some of the 4000 year old petroglyphs.

This is a picture of the CO Shepards among the Nevada Red Rocks.

Connor taking care of Grammy while the rest of us go on a hike.

The rest of the hikers (Papa Lou is the one behind the camera)

In Vegas

It is Tyler's spring break.

He got an extended break when we got a snow storm Thursday which closed school two days. Thursday was Tyler's first snow day ever. Friday was his second. That is sort of amazing considering we live in a place like Denver as opposed to a place like Nevada (for example).

We went to Las Vegas for Tyler's spring break. Well, Henderson, NV actually, but we can see the strip from the place that we are staying. My wife's mom and dad live here in the desert. I cannot imagine living here. I hate the summer in the desert and don't really like the fact that you don't really have a winter here. Actually, I think I am one of the few people in the world who probably would not visit Vegas (unless I had relatives living here and/or my wife made me come). It just is not someplace that excites me that much.

But the kids really like visiting their grandparents. And the weather this time of year is ok.

We drove this year. Utah has some interesting scenery and we have not taken our mini-van on a long road trip yet. Plus, I was sort of hoping we would get one of our huge snow storm and not have to go. We got a huge snow storm, but not big enough to stop the trip. Oh well.

On the ride out, we stopped at one of those Utah viewing areas and Tyler found this little lizard running around across the rocks. Tyler did a good job picking the guy out considering how well he was camouflaged.

Anyway, we are having fun in Nevada. Today, we are going to Valley of Fire State Park. It looks pretty interesting. Maybe I'll post some more pictures after we go.

Poor Irish

Lodo bars are packed with green clothed people today.

It being Tuesday and the fact that there is no way that many companies give St. Pat's day as a holiday leads me to believe that all these Irish people are unemployed.

Poor Irish forced to sit around all day drinking beers.

March

Here it is March already. I am not sure what happened to the winter. It seems we have had many more 50+ days than not this year. Hopefully we will get some snow in March and April.

Tyler's birthday is coming up. His party is this Saturday and the actual birthday is on the 10th. He is getting so big! His last basketball game for the season was this past Saturday. He is a head taller than most of the kids. He is at least 3 inches taller than the second tallest kid in the 5-6 year old basketball program. My baby is growing up.

I think I am obsessed with home brewing. I wake up thinking about beer. I spend hours reading about brewing on the Internet or books from the library. I bottled my Maple beer on Saturday and started some raspberry beer Sunday morning before anyone was up. I do not even like raspberry beer! Last Friday I made a trip to my Local Home Brew Shop and bought some DME. I am now looking at refrigerators everywhere I go because I need more storage space for conditioning my brews. I think about buying more equipment all the time. Where does this all stop?

Yesterday, I went on a bike ride with a facebook friend whom I knew in high school and whom I have not seen in over 20 years. He is in a wheelchair now and he took me hand cycling. Downhill was a blast. Uphill was torture. All in all, I had fun. It was a great workout and I hope to get out with him some more. Hopefully he doesn't get sick of me slowing him down! If I get to the point where I am respectable, my arms and shoulders will probably be just huge.

Anyway, that maple beer I bottled was really good when I sampled it before bottling. I might taste it along with my 1776 ale on St. Pattrick's day. This coming weekend I will bottle Eric's Red. I think I may even give it a try on the 17th, even though that will be a real short conditioning period. I need to decide what to brew next. My plan for the raspberry beer is to try it with Tracy on Mother's Day. That is such a long time to wait, so we might have to break down before then. I really hope Tracy likes it because I do not know if I would be able to finish 2 gallons of fruit beer.

I need that bigger refrigerator!

Thanks for the obsession, Tera.

Recovery

My dear friend, Dianna Degette, "D" as I affectionately call her, sent me an email today. Not only is she my dear friend, but my also my representative in the House of Representatives. I like her much better than my senators because she emails me once and awhile to let me know how she is doing and (more importantly?) what she is doing .

Today's email was more about Mr. Obama's address to Congress a few days ago. She is "inspired by his wisdom and confidence that he has for the future of our nation". I did not watch the address. She probably knows that and just wanted to fill me in.

D also invited me to check out recovery.gov so that I am able to monitor where the money is going to be spent for the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Isn't that sweet of her? She knew I was a little skeptical as to how that money would be spent, and looking out for me, she passed along a web address for me. This is why she is my dear friend; she is always looking out for my interests.

Honestly, one of the things I like about what Mr. Obama says is that he is going to add some transparency and accountability to the executive branch of the government. I really like the idea behind http://www.recovery.gov . I think it is a great idea, and I will probably look at it a lot. It is a good step towards his goal. It is a tiny step, and I have doubts as to just how much Mr. Obama will be able to restore confidence in the integrity of any politian, but at least he is taking steps toward that end. Yes, I did not vote for Mr. Obama and do not agree with lots of what he stands for, but I do like the idea behind the website. I have not had time to look through it, so at this point, it is just the idea I am excited about. I do not know how usful the content will be, but I am optimistic.

I am less optimistic about our ability to pay off this huge amount of money we are spending, but what the heck do I care? There is a new website out there. I do not know how much of the bill goes for creating and upkeep of the site. I figure that is in "other". I hope it is not all of other. 8 billion is a lot for a website.

In case you care (and don't want to look yourself) here is a breakdown:

Category	Amount ($ Billions)
*Tax Relief	$288
*State and Local Fiscal Relief	$144
Infrastructure and science	$111
Protecting the Vulnerable	$81
Health Care	$59
Education and Training	$53
Energy	$43
Other	$8

* Tax Relief - includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.

*State and Local Fiscal Relief - Prevents state and local cuts to health and education programs and state and local tax increases.

By the way, D also invited me to add her as a friend on Facebook. Isn't that cool?

And... Colorado also has a recovery page: http://www.colorado.gov/recovery/

Lent

I took the boys to the church last night for a Fat Tuesday pancake dinner so, I guess that means Lent starts today.

Sometimes I give something up for Lent. Sometimes I don't. I do not ever remember it being something Lutherans necessarily did as I was growing up. It was one of those catholic things. It is very possible that it just was not something we did as a family or maybe it was just not something I did. But, nonetheless, I never really gave anything up for Lent until I was an adult, and then it was never that big of a deal.

In fact until just yesterday, I never heard that the Sundays during Lent are not part of the time that you have to give something up. Apparently, Sundays are "mini-Easters" and you can do whatever you want on those Sundays.... as long as it does not violate the keeping the Sabbath Holy and other pesky commandments like not murdering or coveting etc... To me, that makes things infinitely easier. I'm not sure it is really that much of a sacrifice if you can indulge once a week. I guess it depends on what you are giving up.

I may be giving up coffee, since I am already not drinking coffee this week (because I am giving blood Saturday) and I might as well just continue. I guess.

I could give up drinking beer. I am in the middle of brewing a few batches, so it would be inconvenient to have to wait the extra time to sample them, but I could do it. It might even be better ... one more reason to wait for the conditioning to be done.

I may try to fast for Lent. After all, it is not like I will starve to death if I can eat on Sundays. On second thought, though, maybe that one is a bad idea.

My sister is giving up the internet for Lent. That will not work for me. I literally need the internet to do my jobs. I cannot work just on Sundays. I did consider giving up facebook for Lent, and I have been on facebook today, so I could do that. But something that trivial would be pointless.

Anyway, chances are, I will not give up anything for Lent. If I do, it will be something trivial like coffee or beer. Probably not beer. I need to give my 1776 ale a taste pretty soon.

No School

Tyler did not have school today (Tuesday). Some sort of teacher-in-service day. He got off Friday and Monday (Presidents Day) too.

Monday and Fridays are easy because Tracy works part time, three day weeks and has Fridays and Mondays off. Tuesdays are another story, though. We could put Tyler in La Petite (Connor's preschool and Tyler's before / after school care) for the day. But, I hate doing that. It just does not seem fair to have a day off and have to spend it in "school".

So, I try to not work on days when Tyler is off school and Tracy has to work.

Today, I figured I would have to at least be available for my client, though. So, I gave the boys the choice to stay home with me or going to La Petite. I told them that I would have to work most of the day and that if they chose to stay at home I expected them to play nicely together and be able to let me work.

I was extremely pleased with their ability to work together to come up with activities to keep themselves busy. They did every one of their puzzles together. They also played a lot with their Marble Run game. They made a real good one.

It is not true

I don't get "brain freezes". I never have. Personally, I do not think they actually exist. The whole concept of a "brain freeze" is just one big conspiracy. Apparently people decided to claim that if they eat something cold too fast, it causes a quick, sharp pain to the head. It does not happen to me, so the only thing I can conclude is that brain freezes don't actually exist and for some reason hundreds if not thousands of people are lying to me when they describe the phenomenon. Why would the world "at large" go to such a huge extent to perpetrate such a myth aimed primarily (as far as I can tell) at me? I do not know. If you claim to get brain freezes, why do you do it? NOTE: I have been told that only 1 in 3 people actually get "brain freezes" and that I am not that unusual for never having one. I swear I have never actually had someone say "me neither" when I mention that I do not get brain freezes. My sample size is not HUGE, but it is big enough that if 1 in 3 were actually the number, I would have come across a few people who have never gotten them. More proof that the whole thing is a big hoax.

I also doubt that such a thing as "heart burn" exists. Well, actually, let me qualify that. My wife described a sensation she called heart burn when she was pregnant and I do not think she was making that up. I do think a pregnant woman can get an unpleasant feeling due to large creatures growing and moving around in a space usually taken up mostly by internal organs. Something has to give in that sort of situation, and I can see moving digestive organs causing burning sensations all over the place. I do believe that pregnant woman feel all kinds of unpleasant things, and I do believe one of those feelings can be heart burn. But, I myself have never had heart burn, so I think that it is a myth that it can occur without some sort of major anomaly going on in the body such as a growing and kicking child or a pig swallowed whole or perhaps an alien parasite getting ready to burst out (like in Alien). Anyone who does not have something extraordinary going on inside must be lying when they claim heart burn.

I do not believe people can trip over untied shoelaces. Again, it has never happened to me, so it must be impossible. Do, however, always make sure your shoelaces stay tied when riding a bike. They can get tangled in the peddles, and that can get dangerous.

I do not believe people can get addicted to coffee or any form of caffeine.

Cutting onions never makes me cry, so obviously they don't have that power like people say.

I do not think cigarettes are as impossible to give up as people say. Of course, having never even tried a cigarette, I have no basis for that disbelief. Forget I said that.

The saying "lefty-loosey, righty-tighty" is a complete myth. When you turn something in a circle you are turning left, right, up, down and in all 360 degrees at once depending on what point on the outside of the circle you are talking about.

I do not think anyone out there actually likes Survivor or American Idol or any other of these "reality T.V." shows that have shown up on the airwaves over the past several years. I would not be surprised if a huge part of the problem with the economy is that networks play more and more of these shows despite the fact that no one actually likes them. Because no one likes them, no one pays attention to the advertisements and so they buy nothing. Thus, companies do not sell their products. People get laid off. People without jobs have extra time on their hands and have to watch the reality shows (it seems like very little else is on) and so, the downward spiral self-perpetuates.

I have a similar feeling for Soap Operas. At least the soaps do not come on in prime time.

If Obama wants to make a difference based on television, I do not think he should extend the digital T.V. conversion. Instead, I think he should ban reality shows and soap operas. I wonder if T.V. executives would be able to fill the time with something worthwhile or if they are going to have to come up with something even worse. Doesn't matter. Obama should make them shut off programming if they cannot come up with something worthwhile.

Anyway.... if you are indeed someone who perpetuates these myths. Please stop. Especially the "lefty-loosey, righty-tighty" myth. I hate that one.

Happy Birthday

It is my birthday today. I played hooky from work.

After I dropped the boys off at school, I stopped at a car wash and gave the mini-van a badly needed cleaning.

Then, I went back home and signed onto my computer to check things at CHFA (my current client). Nothing needed my attention, so I let them know I would be out for the day. I worded it "I'm going to save you some money today" rather than saying "I'm going to blow off work today." I think my way goes over a little better.

After sending the email, I headed out to the health club. Wednesday night is my night to go to Bally, and I knew that with gifts and cake and stuff chances were high that I would not get to go tonight. I worked out for about two hours, burning over 2,000 calories on a couple different cardio machines and lifted weights for about half an hour. It is hard to get in good workouts like this now-a-days, and it was a great feeling to get one in today.

After the workout, I went home again. I checked things at CHFA again. And loaded GPS coordinates into my GPS unit and headed off to Mt. Falcon park. It was such a beautiful day for a hike. I got to a couple of geo-caches, but just getting out was wonderful. I spent a little over 4 hours in the park. I hiked about 8 hours and spend a decent amount of time just sitting and looking at the wonderful views from the top of Mt. Falcon and listening to nature.

Now, I am home. The kids and their mom just arrived. They are wrapping gifts I think. I even get some cake tonight. I'm such a lucky guy.

Happy Birthday to Me.

Snow Sculptures

Happy Belated Groundhog's Day. Hope you got all your shopping done ahead of time and were not too stressed out with all the last-minute things that had to be done.

This past Sunday (Superbowl Sunday), we headed up to Breckenridge, CO to look at the 2009 Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships. It has been a long time since we have gone and in fact Connor has never been. The snow sculptures are always really cool and did not disappoint this year. It is amazing what people are able to created out of these huge blocks of snow.

And the weather was just perfect. We got a little "I'm cold" chants from the wipper-snappers, but considering how spoiled they are, not nearly as bad as I expected. We got lots of great pictures, and we all had fun, and we even got to go to Breckenridge Brewery where I got to try their Vanilla Porter, which I really enjoyed. If you ever get a chance to go up and see the snow sculptures, I highly recommend it.

We hit traffic on the way home and pretty much arrived for the Super Bowl. If you have been following my blog, (and chose to remember this bit of information) you know that I have been targeting Super Bowl Sunday as the day to taste my first home-brewed beer. It is amazing that I made it so long.

My first beer was a bit lighter than I would generally prefer, but I think it was a good first brew. Plus, it is the style Tracy prefers. It turned out really well. Tracy claimed she liked it too. It was a success! We still have some if you would like to come visit and try some.

And, yes, as I am just a huge geek, let me share with you a website I put together: http://beer.ericshepard.com . It is nothing real special, but if you would like to see what is going on with Sheppy Brews, you can come and see what I have brewing (literally and figuratively). There is even a handy-dandy calendar so you can see when you can taste the different styles of beer on a google calendar that I put together (http://beer.ericshepard.com/calendar.htm).

Anyway, it was a great Sunday for us. Hope yours was nice too.

Chi Cubs beat the odds

The Cubs have not won the world series in 100 years.

0 world series 100 years.

I believe that there are 30 teams in the league.

If you do a simple Binomial Distribution on 100 trials each with a 1/30 chance of success, you have a higher statistical chance of coming up with 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 successes over those 100 trials. Just by dumb, random luck, it would be easier for the Cubs to have won 6 world series (6.7%) championships than 0 (3.4%) in the past 100 years.

And, of course, there have not been 30 teams for most of that time. I do not want to go through the effort to calculate the actual odds, but winning 0 times in 100 years is even harder than my simple little calculation.

Don't worry, Cub Fans. By my calculation, it is nearly statistically impossible (odds are only about 1 in 1000) for the Cubs to make it to 2108 without winning one.

Of course, if any team can do it, it is the Cubs.

Stimulus?

Ok ... not to sound to "republican", but What the Hell? If the current administration wants to add honesty and integrity to government ... why not start by being honest with what the Stimulus bill actually is: an blatant attempt to fund a good chunk of the liberal agenda in one fell swoop.

How does any of this stimulate the economy???

• $335 million for education related to sexually transmitted diseases
• $650 million for coupons to help people make the switch to digital TV
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
• $150 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $50 million for the National Cemetery Administration's monument and memorial repairs
• $800 million for Amtrak, the country's railroad system
• $2 billion for child-care subsidies
• $400 million for global warming research
• $100 million for reducing the danger of lead paint in homes
• $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
• $200 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes
• $650 million for the U.S. Forest Service to remove fish passage barriers, forest improvement and watershed enhancement projects
• $1.5 million for a National Institute of Health/Institute of Medicine report to Congress
• $50.6 million for services for older blind individuals
• $400 million for the Social Security Administration's new National Computer Center
• $325 million for Academic Achievement Awards
• $70 million for programs to help people quit smoking
• $75 million for a super-computer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  

I am not saying some of this is not worthy of consideration (although I am against the government paying for MOST of what is in there), but shoving it all into a bill which is meant as a Stimulus Package is downright dishonest. Every Obama supporter kept talking about this wonderful change that would occur. But, this is clearly politics as usual. Unfortunately, politics as usual is even more dangerous because checks and balances don't really exist with the Legistrative and Executive branches pretty much on the same page.

If this is how things are going down with the new administration, we are in for a long 4-8 years!


see http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Business/story?id=6757733&page=1