A Mystery with Few Clues

Catch this site in a day or two for some exciting news.

Hear the story here first!

Read about an important event here.

I can reveal little now.

See you in a day or two.

Hickory Canyon Take Two

Last winter Steve and I took a day trip to Hickory Canyon. We had heard about some pretty frozen waterfalls, but we arrived too late in the season and they were all gone. So, we thought we'd give it another try this year. This year we had success!

Here is Steve giving us the old, I'm standing under a massive icicle pose.

We ran into a pair of hillbilly's on the way. They were lost and had been sharing a mint for nourishment, hoping someone would come and lead them out of the wilderness.

I just got a look at what I was wearing.

Now, they want me to cross this water and try not to fall in!

Even though it's winter, spring can't be far away. We saw some beautiful moss along the path.


Can you see me? I'm trying to hide!

Even though it was raining on and off, we had a good time. How can you not have a good time when you're hiking with your husband and best friends?

Follow the Money

The focus on global warming has been championed by NBC (and CNBC and MSNBC) more than any other news outlet. One MSNBC program decried that it was "unpatriotic" to question global warming and man's role in it.

Why the intensity of belief from an organization supposedly committed to considering all possibilities in a neutral fashion? The answer now, as in the days of Watergate, is "follow the money".

NBC is owned by GE.

And, simply put, GE profits from global warming.

You can visit the GE web site to confirm these facts. For example, the corporate giant is a prome mover in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, and the web site touts the following:

Through our partnership with USCAP, we're urging the U.S. government to enact strong legislation to reduce greenhouse gases. Learn about USCAP and how GE is addressing the challenge of climate change.

Why? Look at GE's business lines while you're on the web site: environmental products, wind turbines, coal systems, energy, metering, photovoltaic modules, etc.

These products are critical. That's not the issue.

The issue is leveraging your own news networks to hype your products. That's what I call vertical integration!

How Dinosaurs Became Extinct

Born to Run

Last time we were in Cape Cod, Mike recommended a couple of books.

One, The Ten Books Which Screwed Up the World, was as highly entertaining as expected. It's amazing the mayhem that can result when individuals advance selfish theories which deny basic God-given rules. The books, written by the likes of Marx, Lenin, and Hitler, have resulted in over 100 million deaths.

The other book Michael recommended, Born to Run, was a very nice surprise. I don't consider myself an avid runner or a training afficinado (although I'm an accomplished spectator!), but Born to Run was a book I found hard to put down.

It was spiced with some great real-world characters, some eye-opening theories regarding how to run properly, how the science of running has regressed as gear has "improved", the story of the delightful Tarahumara tribe (the world's best runners) which lives happily in the deep canyons of western Mexico, and a world-class race which few people witnessed.

The world of ultramarathoners who run long distances on mountain trails is an interesting and little-known perspective on man's natural inclination to run from Point A to Point B.

Mike's recommendation skills were in first-rate order when he nudged me toward these two books.

The Six-Word Novel

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged in a bar to write a novel in only six words. He wrote out the following: "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

Over the years, people have attempted to write their own six-word novels.

Some examples follow:

Irvine Welsh: "Eyeballed me, killed him. Slight exaggeration."

Robert Olen Butler: "Saigon hotel. Decades later. He weeps."

Tobias Wolff: "She gave. He took. He forgot."

Augusten Burroughs: "Oh, that? It's nothing. Not contagious."

Anyone want to try their hand at writing a novel?

Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Imagine our delight when we found a Hu Hot in St. Louis.

Steve had a good time picking out his food and loading up his plate.

This young man cooked up our food just right!

And a good time was had by all!

Then we came home and had some rich chocolaty goodness. I made chocolate cupcakes with a ganache icing top.

One Vote

It's amazing the effect one Senate seat can have on Washington politics.

The 2008 Democratic presidential campaign prominently featured "bipartisonship" as an objective. However, when the Republicans stumbled badly, and the Democrats found themselves in firm control of both legislative branches, the thought of teamwork flew out the window. Closed door sessions became the rule of the day, and the party-in-power happily plotted the implementation of their world view, unimpeded by unpleasant thoughts of consensus.

The people spoke, however. It seems almost 80% were opposed to the idea of a new federal "Department of Medical Care" amid mounting levels of debt, and when their legislators returned home, they got an earful.

The people's revolt was capped by the Massachusuetts Senate results in which a Republican won who had virtually no chance.

So, after months of attempting to force unwanted change on the public behind closed doors, what's the new buzzword from the White House?

Bipartisonship.

What a difference one vote makes!

Grande Carmel Macchiato

Ahhh, happiness!



Hmmm, directions!



Ohhh, directions!




Wow, carmel frothy goodness!



Ummm, deliciousness!



Oh, yeah!

A Walk on Bangert Island

A new trail recently opened in St. Charles, right by the Missouri River and I-70. It's a wilderness hike in suburbia!

Here's the trailhead:

... and here's Vince walking in front of me:

Eventually, the trail hits the Missouri River ..

... and comes near the unsuspecting travelers on Blanchette Bridge:

The trail is a 3-mile loop, with a second attached loop which can push the hike to 4.5 miles. The Bangert Island Trail is great for a quick workout and an almost certain chance to see deer.

A Modern-Day Confession

I have a confession to offer: for the duration of this blog's life, I have indulged in the use of performance-enhancing blog steroids (PEBS).

This is nothing to be proud of, but frankly, writing three posts a week without the benefit of cute kids around to provide fresh daily material is stressful. The blog steroids (BS) seem to improve my recovery time in support of the hectic pace.

I do not believe the steroids provide an unfair advantage, however. After all, one must possess certain natural linguistic skills to author these postings, and it's hard to believe such talent can be artificially manufactured by a needle and a few chemicals, isn't it?

To prove my point, the following represents an effort to write this blog posting without the benefit of the performance-enhancing substances:

Gotta 'fess up to sumpin' here ... I be stickin' my own self with needles. it doan hurts 2 bad. An' it doan seam 2 hep much. 'pose i got chops wit or witout the drugs.

So while I don't see much wrong with what I did, I prefer to focus on the future and not dwell on the past. Don't you? After all, cheating is such a harsh word.

Top 100 Places to Work

Fortune's annual ranking of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" was released this week. I have a strong, often anti-corporate, belief that profitable companies excel in the area of human resources. They hire the right people, treat them well, and organize them to common and worthy objectives. Yes, they do so to earn a profit for their owners (as they should), but they feel people management is a large part of their success.

This year's list supported my hypothesis ...

"The List", which by definition is a Main-Street view of life, was tilted toward companies that are also Wall Street successes. Many companies which have languished in profits recently and possess an old-school mentality toward employees were not to be seen on this list. Perhaps these companies are not so much "tough and decisive" as they believe, but simply poor managers. They need to revisit the old maxim that "management is getting things done through others"; it's not about the productivity in the executive suite, but how well they leverage and motivate others.

The correlation between Main Street success and Wall Street success is borne out by some of the brands on this list: SAS (#1), Edward Jones (#2), Google (#4), Dreamworks (#6), Boston Consulting Group (#8), Qualcomm (#8), Zappos (#15), Cisco (#16), Genentech (#19), ScottTrade (#27), Chesapeake Energy (#34), Aflac (#37), Quiktrip (#41), Ernst and Young (#44), and so on. These are not companies conducting touchy-feely social experiments. They are smart, successful, and leverage the human asset with great skill.

What sets these companies apart?

They invest in perks such as on-site (and free) health clinics (SAS, #1), family-oriented services such as child care (offered by several companies), they rarely lay off, they offer freedom (Google allows employees 20% of their time to work on their own projects, SAS doesn't monitor hours), they hire the best people in the first place (receiving 100s of applicants for every opening), executives relate to employees well (Whole Foods, #18, caps executive pay at 19X the average hourly rate), pay and benefits are top-notch, they offer free lunches (Google), and they promote from within.

The Checklist

Although the 50s are supposedly a man's peak working years, it's also the time when we lay plans for a successful retirement.

In my case, the following needs to be accomplished before casting the workplace aside:

(1) New siding/driveway (DONE!)

(2) Pay off the mortgage.

(3) Pay off all other debt.

(4) Buy an RV!

(5) Get all sons married off.

(6) Accomplish what I want to at work.

(7) Have a going-forward plan (important!).

The Bull-A-Rina

The following pictures are of the "Bull-a-rina" doing a few twirls.

And of her unwilling sidekick!

Picture Perfect

This is a picture I snapped of Kim photographing the dog. Now if I could only teach Bailey to handle a camera, we'd be getting somewhere, eh?

Keeping Busy

I had a lot of things planned to do with the girls this week, but due to them not feeling well, we spent the first 3 days here inside. On Monday we did manage to go out for a pancake lunch. Cranberry pancakes are the best! Catherine has spent a lot of time with her paints. Grandpa tried to convince her that she was wearing a paint smock like Uncle Brian, but she was not to be fooled. She knew it was a bib.

Mary spent some time walking around with her hat and mittens on. She was tired of being inside.

On Tuesday, things improved. I took the girls shopping, then to Old McDonald's, as Catherine calls it and then to the bowling alley. Apparently, Tuesdays are the day that retired men on the Cape have their bowling leagues. The men had a great time watching the girls, talking to them and telling their friends, "Hey, did you see these girls"? Catherine prefers the underhanded between the legs throwing motion.

Mary on the other hand prefers to hold the ball about chest high and throw it like a forward pass. It makes a loud sound as it lands, but has quite a bit of speed. Then she runs back to sit down and watch the balls progress.

After a game of bowling we wandered over to the video games. We won a few tickets and exchanged them for miniature candy bars. Grandma said, "don't eat these until we get home". Catherine spent the trip home dreaming of her chocolate bars. See them in her hands?

Someone else didn't make it out of the parking lot before she started eating hers. See the chocolate on her face?

Catherine's Birthday

We celebrated Catherine's birthday on Sunday. It was supposed to be a party with a few of her friends, but she and Mary had been sick all week and it was decided it was better not to infect all of them! Amber had prepared a game for the kids to play, so Mary and Catherine went ahead and enjoyed it. They went fishing and each fish they caught had a prize that went with it.

I'm sure you noticed Catherine's new ballerina outfit. She received it from a

neighbor for her birthday.

Amber made cake pops in the shape of stars (at Catherine's request).

She received paints and paper from her aunt and uncle. She was never far from a box of kleenex. I think this box was empty by evening.

By evening she was feeling pretty bad, so she skipped supper and slept the rest of the night.