Minneapolis-Boat-Show

Diary Entry For January 25, 2009

On Thursday night, we had the awards ceremony for Steve “Cuds” Cuddihy’s fantasy football league.  All the guys really love it when I ask them to pose for pictures like this as you can tell by their smiling faces.  Well, I guess Steve and I are both smiling, but I think that’s because Steve had his hand on my butt while this was being taken.

My team, The Crippled Monkeys, won it’s division with a 10-3 record.  We then won the first two playoff games which set up a Super Bowl match with former Minnesota Gophers Tight End Chad Redmann’s team called Buckwheat.  Sadly, the Crippled Monkeys were no match for Buckwheat and lost the match, so Chad gets to hoist this year’s championship trophy.  But the Monkeys will be coming back strong in 2010! 

On Saturday morning, we went to cheer on Avery’s basketball team.  We were excited to witness Avery’s first basket of the season, but the thrill was bitter sweet as his team went on to lose the game 18-12.  I took a lot of fun photos like this one which looks like Avery has an electric shock go through his system as he realizes the ball is about to go out of bounds.

On Saturday night, we went to the boy’s school to attend Family Fun Night!  There were neat activities like a dance, silly hair colorings, bouncers, bingo, and all sorts of games.  I ditched the wife and kids as quickly as I could so I could hang out with The Reptile Guy and play with his snake.  That’s my idea of a Family Fun Night!

Before we went in to the school, I had a serious discussion with the boys.  I said “Listen, please do me a favor and don’t get your nails painted like you did last year.  It’s embarrassing.”  So naturally the nail painting room was the first one they visited!

My old friend, Jimmy Gilbertson, wasn’t embarrassed to participate in the night’s activities.  He and his son had matching blue and white Mohawks which I thought were very flattering.  Jimmy said he’s been trying to get on my website for 5 years so I had to take this picture.  Next time I’m going to wait until he shaves his head to put him on here!

On Sunday, we went to the Minneapolis Boat Show to remind ourselves exactly how much money we don’t have.

We saw our good friends, Karl and Aaron, at the show.  The boys had fun going through the cabins of the various boats and getting away with as much trouble as they could before the sales people shooed them away.  It actually worked out great because while the boys were making distractions, Karl and I were in different boats creating even more trouble!   

Luke and Avery came up with the idea for us to sell our house and all of our possessions so we could buy one of the big boats.  When we asked them where we’d live, they said we’d live on the boat.  When we asked them about school, they said they’d love to be home schooled on the boat.  When we realized they had good answers to all of our questions we decided to take them up on their proposal and will be putting our house on the market soon.  Then we’re going boating!

Nice Emails of the Week

You are fabulous and would like to put your website link up in our blogroll and if you wouldn’t mind putting ours up, we’d appreciate it!

You kick ass!!!

Rusty

PinkLatexBlog.com

 

Nice Facebook Message of the Week

OK so I confess, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and it’s pretty great. you seem to have a charmed life, truly, and it is obvious you love your job and your family and live life to the fullest, to be clichéd. It’s also apparent that you & your family are very active and I have to ask, HOW do you do it all? I have two children but man, you all do more in one weekend than we manage in a month.

Hope you are well. (PS we went to high school together).

 

Laurine

Shortarmguy’s Favorite Videos

Click on the Pictures to View!

Shortarmguy’s Favorite Videos for January 25, 2009

How to freak out a taxi driver…

Get out of my bed!

Why to buy a WII!

What really brought the plane down into the Hudson River…

For some reason, CNN.com took this page down right away…

Obama already has his picture on some official US currency!

What dick did this to my car?

Kids write the cutest things!

How Tequila Works

Headlines 4 Years Ago:

 “Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops Die in unarmored Humvees

 “Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times”

 “Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, Ordinary Americans get the shaft”

 

Headlines Today:

“Historic Obama Inauguration will cost only $120 million”

“Obama Spends $120 million on inauguration; America Needs A Big Party”

“Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate”

“Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama Inauguration”

Nothing like fair & unbiased coverage of the news !!!

 

Quote of the Week

    “I think Congressmen should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers
    so we could identify their Corporate sponsors.”

—Author Unknown

Joke of the Week

Cold Weather Behavior…

60 above zero:

Floridians turn on the heat. Minnesotans plant gardens.

50 above zero:

Californians shiver uncontrollably. People are sunbathing in Duluth.

40 above zero:

Import cars won’t start. Minnesotans drive with the sunroof open.

32 above zero:

Distilled water freezes. The water in Bemidji gets thicker.

20 above zero:

New Mexicans don long johns, parkas and wool hats & mittens. Minnesotans throw on a flannel shirt.

15 above zero:

New York landlords finally turn on the heat. People in Minnesota have one last cookout before it gets cold.

Zero:

People in Miami all die. Minnesotans close the windows.

10 below zero:

Californians fly away to Mexico. Minnesotans dig their winter coats out of storage.

25 below zero:

Hollywood disintegrates. Girl Scouts in Minnesota still selling cookies door to door.

40 below zero:

Washington, D.C. finally runs out of hot air. People in Minnesota let their dogs sleep indoors.

100 below zero:

Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Minnesotans get upset because the Mini-Van won’t start.

460 below zero:

ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale). People in Minnesota can be heard to say, “Cold ’nuff fer ya?”

500 below zero:

Hell freezes over. Minnesota public schools open 2 hours late.

Shortarmguy’s Favorite Websites

January 25, 2009

Microsoft’s focus on features and functions specific to notebooks shows the company no longer treats them as portable desktops, and that’s a prime example of Microsoft listening to its partners, says Todd Swank, director of marketing at system builder Nor-Tech.

“People are going to look back at Windows 7 as an example of how the time and expense that Microsoft commits to usability can pay major dividends,” Swank said.

Microsoft Says Windows 7 Fixes Notebook Issues,  CRN, January 20, 2009

 

In fact, the specter of Linux gaining ground on netbooks may force Microsoft to lower Windows pricing in the channel, a move that Microsoft partners say is long overdue, and would put even more pressure on Windows client revenue. “Microsoft needs to come up with a new pricing strategy across the board,” said Todd Swank, vice president of marketing at system builder Nor-Tech.

“Pricing seems to have become so out of whack, and Microsoft hasn’t had a price drop for a standard version of Windows for as long as I can remember. If they want to keep channel partners healthy and alive, that’d be a good move,” Swank added.

Letterman’s Top 10 George Bush moments

Mascarita Dorada: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Shortarmguy’s Emails To Make You Think

Email Shortarmguy at Shortarmguy@aol.com

January 25, 2009


This is quite interesting.  I didn’t try to verify any of the numbers but it’s the proposal I like

 “The  Proposal”

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers.  The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well.  Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of “tough decision”, and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks. 

Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%.
 
Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)

$97,175,000 for elimination of the above people’s staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies.  It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country?

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well.  It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established.  (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note:
Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems.  Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay.  These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.

$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff. 

$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff. 

$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members. 

$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members. 

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. (that’s 8-BILLION just to start!)

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save. Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.