More Charlie Pics

Congratulations to Jim Koch!!

Congratulations to brewer Jim Koch and the Boston Beer Company (maker of Samuel Adams) for apparently just becoming the largest American-owned brewery by default. Not bad for only 24 years of brewing. Since Anheuser-Busch just accepted Belgian brewing giant InBev's offer of $50B, I think that leaves Sam Adams as the largest. Coors is now managed out of Canada (by Molson), and Miller is now managed out of South America.

I've always said that Sam Adams is the best mass-produced American beer out there. Sam Adams Light is probably the closest tasting light beer to the original. Sam Adams' line of 20 beers are phenomenal - one of my fall favorites being Cherry Wheat. There is simply not a beer they produce that is bad.

Bottoms up!

Survival Tip on July 10th

To get you prepared for the X-Files movie coming out shortly...

Amy bought me this Survival Tips desk calendar that I've referenced before (see my blog from March 9th). This one is from July 10th.

How to foil an alien abduction.

1. Control your thoughts. Do not think of anything violent or upsetting - the extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) may have the ability to read your mind.

2. Resist verbally. Firmly tell the EBE to leave you alone.

3. Resist mentally. Picture yourself enveloped in a protective shield of white light, or in a safe place. Telepathic EBEs may get the message.

4. As a last resort, go for the EBE's eyes - you will not know what its other more sensitive areas are.

1776 and America

1776 was when the American declared her independence from England. Independence was not gained until a couple of years later until after the Revolution was won by an army who came very close to losing many times. A friend loaned me the unabridged audiobook version of David McCullough's 1776, which was phenomenal. Even though I'm a history buff, there are many things that I just didn't know about that happened at that time. I highly recommend either reading or listening to the unabridged version, which is narrated in the author's own voice.

So amidst the fireworks, hotdogs, BBQs, and parades, stop and think what it is that you love about America. Yes, we have our problems - we are a nation at war, but all that is in the news is what products give off more carbon dioxide, high gas prices, and the cost of corn (even though none of this is rationed like in other war times). There are plenty other problems to talk about and work through, but I don't have the next week to sit here and write about it. I can sit here and write virtually whatever I want in this blog. I can accidentally throw a green glass bottle into a white glass recycling bin without getting fined thousands of dollars. I can own a firearm. I have the right to vote. I have the right to criticize the President without fear for my life. I have the opportunity to succeed in my business. There are many rights and freedoms that we have, but many are taken for granted.

There is no other nation that I'd rather be from.

Charles Davidson Kratz

Amy and I are pleased to announce the arrival of Charles Davidson Kratz, born on Wednesday, June 18 around 1:45 AM! He is 22.5 inches long and weighed in at 8 lbs, 4 oz.

He is named after my father Charles, and Davidson is a last name that was in Amy's family going back a very long time. We are going to call him Charlie.

Click on www.kneka.com/CKratz061808.exe and save for a slideshow of pictures that our photographer friend Kneka took. Turn your sound on for music. This will only work on a PC, not a Mac. To exit the slideshow, hit escape.

There will be more details later, and more pictures later!

June 6, 1944

From "On This Day" on the BBC's website (the link is in the list to the right).

1944: D-Day marks start of Europe invasion

Thousands of Allied troops have begun landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France at the start of a major offensive against the Germans.

Thousands of paratroops and glider-borne troops have also been dropped behind enemy lines and the Allies are already said to have penetrated several miles inland.

The landings were preceded by air attacks along the French coast.

About 1,300 RAF planes were involved in the first wave of assaults then 1,000 American bombers took up the attack dropping bombs on targets in northern France.

---

"Dawn revealed the astonishing sight of serried ranks of ships heaving over the horizon and passing in wave after wave, packed to capacity with soldiers and weaponry"

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People's War memories »

The Prime Minister Winston Churchill has told MPs that Operation Neptune - the codename for the Normandy landings - is proceeding "in a thoroughly satisfactory manner".

He said the landing of airborne troops was "on a scale far larger than anything there has been so far in the world" and had taken place with extremely little loss.

The assault began shortly after midnight under the command of General Bernard Montgomery.

Timing of the Normandy landings was crucial. They were originally scheduled to take place in May - then postponed until June and put off again at the last minute for 24 hours by bad weather.

Upwards of 4,000 ships and several thousand smaller craft crossed the Channel to the northern coast of France.

Enemy reports say the landings took place between the port of Le Havre and the naval base at Cherbourg.

King George VI broadcast a message last night warning of the "supreme test" the Allies faced and he called on the nation to pray for the liberation of Europe.

The Allied naval commander, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, said the landings had taken the Germans completely by surprise. There were no enemy reconnaissance planes out and the opposition of coastal batteries was much less than expected.

He added: "There was a slight loss in ships but so slight that it did not affect putting armies ashore.

"We have got all the first wave of men through the defended beach zone and set for the land battle."

A statement broadcast from Berlin at midday said the German troops were "nowhere taken by surprise". It said many parachute units were wiped out on landing or taken prisoner.

Hits were also scored on battleships and on landing craft from the "guns of the Atlantic Wall" - the German defensive positions.

President Franklin D Roosevelt told a news conference the invasion did not mean the war was over.

He said: "You don't just walk to Berlin, and the sooner this country realises that the better."

In Context
The Normandy landings were the beginning of Operation Overlord - or the invasion of German-occupied Europe.

Originally planned to take place on 1 May 1944, the operation was postponed a month to allow time to gather more troops and equipment. The timing was important to allow for the right weather, a full moon, and tidal conditions.

To keep the destination of the landings secret, a deception plan Operation Fortitude was mounted which led the Germans to believe the main target was the Pas de Calais, much farther east.

When the landings finally began there were only 14 of the 58 German divisions in France facing the Allies. While there was stiff resistance at other beaches, Omaha was the only one where the success of the Allied mission was in serious doubt.

The invasion of Normandy was the largest amphibious assault ever launched. It involved five army divisions in the initial assault and over 7,000 ships. In addition there were 11,000 aircraft.

In total 75,215 British and Canadian troops and 57,500 US troops were landed by sea on D-Day. Another 23,400 were landed by air.

By 11 June the Allies had secured the Cotentin Peninsula beyond Cherbourg but progress continued slowly as the Germans put up fierce resistance. The end of the Normandy campaign came with the destruction of the German 7th Army in the Falaise pocket in August.

Although the Allies had reached the German frontier by September they decided to re-group during the winter, because of the failure of Market-Garden and the setback in the battle of the Bulge, and the invasion of Germany only began in January 1945.

Memorial Day

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - Arlington National Cemetery, VA


Arlington National Cemetery, VA



WWII Memorial, National Mall, Washington DC



Memorial to E Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division, near the Bois-Jacques, Foy, Belgium. (the outfit featured in "Band of Brothers")
Memorial at Bastogne, Belgium in honor of those in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944

The American Cemetery of the Ardenne, Belgium

Don't complain about the baseball season...

Some things to ponder...

Periodically I hear someone say that the reason they don't like baseball is because the season is so long. Let's put this in perspective. Compare the 2008 Presidential election cycle. The first primaries in the nation were about two months before spring training even started. A World Series champion will be crowned a couple of weeks before the November election. And that's just the "official" election season. By the time November rolls around, candidates will have been campaigning for nearly a year and a half. Are you weary of the obsession with the election? I am, and I am even a recovering political junkie. Do you think the American public is weary of election coverage? Go to cnn.com and foxnews.com and click on the "Most Read" articles and see how many articles are listed there that are about the election. So, I'm tired of the election already, and my cynicism of politicians grows by the second.

I simply shudder at the possibility of a McCain/Romney ticket. I honestly wouldn't know who to vote for in that situation.

I find it insulting that I get requests for campaign donations from multi-millionaires. It's especially insulting to me since I already pay a portion of their salary (around $170k), and they're currently not working, and haven't been working since who knows when. If you saw your company CEO panhandling outside your office, would you give him any money?

It's idiotic to me that a Congressional panel would question big oil about their profits considering the high gas prices. The federal government rakes in something like 65 cents per gallon, while big oil profits about 8 cents a gallon. Maybe U.S. citizens should form a panel to question Congress about not working for their own money.

If Obama wins the Dem ticket, this will be the first time since 1976 that a Clinton or a Bush has NOT been on a Presidential ticket in some capacity.

Obama, Clinton, and McCain come from a legislative body that boasts a 18.7% approval rating with a 80% disapproval rating (as of yesterday, 5/21). Think we're going to get a good President?

Are the feds going to use our tax dollars to bail out the airline industry again? U.S. Airways is predicted to go bankrupt very soon - mostly due to the legendary and stunning leadership of CEO Doug Parker.

Why does the war in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be a "non-issue" in this election?

How much does increasing gas prices actually affect you? Figure out how many miles you drive on average in a year. Divide that figure by your average gas mileage. That result gives you the total gallons per year you consume. Now, if you want to figure out how much a 25 cent increase in the price of gas affects you on a monthly basis, multiply your total yearly gallons consumed by .25, then divide that number by 12. For example, for every one dollar gas goes up, I pay $55.56 per month more. If we're pinched because of an extra $55 per month, gas probably isn't our biggest problem. (not that I like paying $3.62/gallon, don't get me wrong)

The IRS has sent some stimulus checks to the wrong addresses. If the IRS came to audit those same people, do you think they would be able to find the correct address on the first try?

Arizona governor Janet Napolitano re-named a Phoenix landmark to commemorate a fallen Iraq war veteran on the basis that she was Native American. Why is the only "official" tribute (that I know of) to the Navajo Code Talkers in all of Arizona is in a Burger King in Kayenta? And why is there no significant monument in Arizona (that I know of) that commemorates Ira Hayes - a Native American who was in Joe Rosenthal's famous flag raising photo on Iwo Jima? Hayes eventually died of his emotional wounds from Iwo - face down in a mud puddle south of Phoenix late one night after a drunken card game. I have the utmost respect for our veterans, but you don't do things like that simply for political expediency.

Since the conspiracy theorists claim that W didn't win the last election, does that mean he can run again?

I said in a prior posting in February that I would abstain from a political posting until mid-November. Well, I lied. I followed the example of politicians (sorry, I digress). So, this is (was) the "mid-November" political posting. My prediction - either way we get a useless chump for President, no need for another posting about the election...

Baby Update

Here is a picture of Amy and baby in front of baby stuff. Everything is going well, which we are thankful for. Only 4 more weeks! At least until the "official" due date (June 13). So needless to say, the packed overnight bags will be sitting beside the door by the end of this week. Yes, we're probably jumping the gun, after all, this is our first time!

On This Day...

Article from BBC - on this day in 1945.

1945: Germany signs unconditional surrender

Germany has signed an unconditional surrender bringing to an end six years of war in Europe, according to reports from France.

This evening the Ministry of Information has confirmed that an official statement declaring the end of the war, will be made simultaneously in London, Washington and Moscow tomorrow.

The day has been declared a national holiday to mark Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). The following day (9 May) will also be a national holiday.

The BBC's Thomas Cadett watched the official signing at a schoolhouse in Reims, northeastern France, which serves as the advance headquarters of the supreme commander in Europe, General Dwight D Eisenhower.

He said the signing, which took place in the early hours of this morning, was carried out "on a cold and businesslike basis."

Afterwards, he said General Gustav Jodl, of Germany, spoke briefly, saying the Germans had given themselves up "for better or worse into the victors' hands".

The document was signed by General Bedell Smith for the Allied commander, General Ivan Susloparov for Russia and General Francois Sevez for France.

It seems General Eisenhower tried to delay the release of the details of the surrender because of the difficulty of arranging a simultaneous declaration in London, Washington and Moscow.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Soviet leader Marshal Joseph Stalin and United States President Harry S Truman have now agreed to make the official announcement of the end of the war at 1500 BST tomorrow.

Mr Churchill will broadcast his announcement from the Cabinet room at 10 Downing Street.

It was from this same room that previous Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced Britain was at war with Germany on 3 September 1939.

Until today the German surrender has been piecemeal.

The German 1st and 19th Armies have capitulated in the south. The 25th Army has surrendered in the western Netherlands and Denmark has been celebrating its first day of freedom from occupation.

Earlier today, German forces in Norway also surrendered.

The final capitulation has been delayed by the new Fuehrer, Grand Admiral Doenitz. After the death of Adolf Hitler last week, he announced his intention to continue the fight against the British and Americans as long as they hampered his battle with the Russians.

It appears it did not take him long to realise further resistance was useless.

This evening the King sent a telegram to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower congratulating the troops for carrying out their duties with "valour and distinction".

His message continued: "How unbounded is our admiration for the courage and determination which, under wise leadership, have brought them to their goal of complete and crushing victory."

Some WWII pics from the National Archives

Occasionally, I will post WWII pictures that I found at the National Archives II in Maryland (the Archives I building is in Washington DC). I highly recommend any person interested in any kind of history visit the Archives. It is simply fascinating. There are hundreds of thousands of photos in the Still Pictures Room, and the staff in there is wonderful to work with.




The above color picture is of Merode Castle after the Battle of the Bulge. This castle is literally across the road from my friend Albert's home in Merode, Germany. Shock waves from the bombing of this castle damaged some of Albert's barn and also put a few shrapnel dings in the brick of his home (see below picture). The barn has at least 2 diagonal cracks in it currently. I was excited to find the color photo of Merode Castle at the Archives. I sent a copy of it to Albert. Ironically, the photo is mis-labeled as a "chateau somewhere in Belgium" at the Archives. Many photos are mis-labeled, as you could imagine. This castle still stands, and if you look at the satellite imagery in google earth at Merode, Germany, the moat is greenish in color, and is fairly simple to find as Merode is not that large of a village.



The picture below is of a couple of men that were in charge of getting Coca-Cola to the men in the front. Behind them is a stack of thousands of Coca-Cola bottles. Photo taken in Brussels, Belgium. This is why Coca-Cola beats Pepsi badly in the world-wide market as cold Coke was offered for 5 cents a bottle anywhere in the world for the US servicemen in the 1940's.


The official Signal Corp explanation on the back of the photo below is as follows: "28 NOV 44. German nurse and officer, both prisoners, in their POW cages, await shipment to the rear. They are married. Epinal Area, France." (my comment: November 28, 1944 is slightly before the massive German offensive in the Ardenne)

Jingle Mail, Jingle Mail, Jingle all the Way...

More homeowners mailing keys to lenders

Owing more than home is worth, recent buyers walk away

by Catherine Reagor - Apr. 21, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Instead of mailing in their monthly mortgage payment, a growing number of homeowners are sending lenders their keys.
As housing prices fall and rates on some mortgage loans rise, more homeowners are walking away from their homes, according to housing-market watchers.
These typically are people who can afford their mortgage but don't want to pay on a loan that is more than their house is worth. They'll live with the stigma or credit ding from a foreclosure just to get out from under their loan. The growing trend, called "jingle mail," is pushing up foreclosures and alarming market watchers, particularly in metropolitan Phoenix, where home prices have dropped 18 percent in the past year.
Foreclosures across metropolitan Phoenix climbed to a record 2,365 in March, according to the real-estate data firm Information Market. That is more than quadruple the number from a year ago.
Joan Shaffer is turning in the keys of the north Phoenix Tatum Ranch home she bought with her daughter in late 2005. They put nothing down on the home, took out a loan that let them pay less than they owed each month and now their loan is $200,000 more than the house is worth.
"We paid $585,000. It was the peak of the market, but no one told us," said Shaffer, a real-estate agent from Colorado. "We would probably have to spend the next 20 years trying to get right on the mortgage. That's crazy."

Assessing trend
The mortgage industry is struggling to estimate how many homes are going into foreclosure because of people who don't want to pay, rather than because of people who can't afford to pay.
Industry estimates and anecdotes suggest the figure is climbing in the Valley because so many people who bought during the peak are now upside down in their mortgages.
Real-estate agents are hearing it more often from people who can't sell. Mortgage lenders are reporting getting more jingle mail, and now there are businesses advising homeowners how to walk away.
"Even if someone put 5 to 10 percent down but bought in the Valley during '05 or '06, they are likely upside down now," said Brett Barry of the north Phoenix office of Realty Executives. "I don't advise people to walk away, but how do you convince someone to keep paying when they owe so much more than their home is worth? They can't sell, and their lender isn't going to forgive $100,000 in principal. It's not good."
Investors started the walk-away trend, but it has spread to the typical homeowner.
Housing analyst RL Brown said he is hearing about young families who bought during the peak and are now walking away from houses as the interest rates on their loans reset and payments increase.
"Instead of calling it a foreclosure, these couples are saying, 'We're giving it back to the bank,' and then moving a couple of blocks away and renting a home for half their mortgage payment," he said. "These people are finding it easier to walk away."
Businesses are popping up that guide homeowners on the best way to walk away from their mortgage. One firm, Youwalkaway.com, tells unhappy homeowners to ask themselves these questions: Are you stressed out about your mortgage payments? Do you have little or no equity in your home? What if you could live payment-free for up to eight months and walk away without owing a penny?

Avoiding bankruptcy
For the first time, homeowners seem to be more willing to let their houses go into foreclosure to stave off bankruptcy.
In the past, homeowners would file for bankruptcy to keep their houses. Now, mortgage delinquencies have climbed faster and higher than late payments on credit-card and car loans. Economists say that is a sign people are more concerned about their credit than their home.
"Homes have gone from being a place to live to a disposable investment for some," said Jay Butler, director of realty studies at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus. "It used to be that paying the mortgage was the top priority. Now, it's keeping the credit cards."
He said one reason is some homeowners think that with all the foreclosures, there will be programs to help them when they buy again.
It usually takes three years of perfect credit payments after a bankruptcy before someone's credit score is high enough to buy a home. Recently, people could buy a home again two years after a foreclosure.
Also, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 took some of the penalty away from a homeowner filing for foreclosure. Before the act, if a bank sold a foreclosed home for less than the mortgage and forgave the rest of the debt, the borrower had to pay tax on the difference. Now, the Internal Revenue Service is forgiving the difference.

Lenders push back
But now as the number of people walking away is climbing, lenders are working on ways to punish those homeowners.
Earlier this week, mortgage giant Fannie Mae said homeowners who stop making payments and then send their keys back to lenders months later will not be able to get another mortgage through that firm for five years. Freddie Mac also is going after walk-away borrowers, mortgage lenders say.
Neighbors of the people who walk way are already being punished by lower home values due to the foreclosure.
"People should hang in there as long as they can, ask for help and try to work with their lender," said Margie O'Campo De Castillo of Arizona Dream Realty. "Foreclosures are dragging down our housing market, and unnecessary foreclosures are selfish and unfair to the homeowners struggling to pay."

**** END OF ARTICLE ****

“It was the peak of the market, and nobody told us”. Ma’am, you’re a real estate agent. I have no sympathy for you.

Things that can go up, can come down.

I don’t follow that many topics in the news anymore, but the foreclosure issue is one that I do follow considering Maricopa County is getting hit fairly bad. Many play the blame game - “Why doesn’t the government prevent these lenders from offering these kinds of mortgages?”; “It’s the borrowers’ fault, they should’ve known better”; “It’s the lenders’ fault, they shouldn’t be scamming people with these mortgages”.

There are many people out there that are in foreclosure status due to unforeseen circumstances, but most of the other people in foreclosure probably aren’t willing to “stoop” to getting a job delivering pizzas to pay their contractual agreements. It would tarnish their “good name” to work for Domino’s (as opposed to tarnishing their good name when they don’t keep their word).

So I ask myself, who is to blame for this mess? After spending 5 years in the mortgage business, both on the underwriting and funding side as well as the broker side, I would say both the banks and the borrowers. Yes, I’m sure some borrowers were duped into signing their names on bad loans. I’m not talking about them here. It’s the banks’ fault because it’s bad business to extend a no down payment adjustable rate mortgage (ARM). The bank has every right to do this, as every business has the “right” to make bad business decisions. It’s the borrowers’ fault, because they signed their names to a note that contractually obligates them to pay an amount to the lender every month until the loan is paid in full. No one is holding an AK-47 to their head at the closing table.

I do not believe that there is anything inherently wrong with “alternative paper loans”, ARMs, B and C paper loans, negative amortization loans, etc... Like I said before, the banks have every right to extend those loans and the borrower has every right to sign their name to something stupid. When I was in the mortgage business, we did not do many ARMs. We tried to steer the borrower clear of those loans if they were uncertain as to how many years they would actually be spending in the house. ARMs are not “predatory” as the media often says. I realize that there is a ream of paperwork to sign at the closing table, but in an ARM closing package, there is a document that CLEARLY states what can happen to the rate. And it does not take a lawyer to figure it out like some of the other paperwork. The document basically states that the rate can go up or down, when it can adjust, how much it can adjust at one time, and how low and how high it can be over the course of the loan. One of the reasons we’re seeing a foreclosure “crisis” is due to the rate adjusting up. What part of the term “adjustable” don’t you understand, people?

We did an ARM loan one time for a guy who was in Phoenix for 2 years on business and was leaving afterwards. He received a stipend from his company for housing. So we did a 2/1 ARM, the market was going up at the time, and he probably made out fine as opposed to renting. He obviously did his homework.

One interesting thing to note is the shift in terminology. Three years ago, when it was apparent that the housing market was going gangbusters, it was mentioned in the media that most people considered purchasing a house an “investment” - some used it for retirement with the assumption that it would increase dramatically in value while some used it to just fulfill their greedy desires (I will insert here that the term “investment“ is subjective, a house is an investment due to the fact that you assume that there will be some kind of return, whether it‘s tangible or intangible). Now, people are losing their homes, their places to live, rear children and their place to host barbeques.

I heard some strange things during the housing market boom. One was, “I’m going to sell my house to tap into all of this equity and go buy another way larger house”. Good one. Sell an overpriced house and buy another (larger) overpriced house in the same area. The only way your equity is worth anything is if you sell, rent, possibly buy something less, and wait for the market to come back down to reasonable levels and buy again (a friend of mine did that - you know who you are and kudos to you). Another was, “That house isn’t worth that much”. The term “worth” is interesting. Think about it for a second. The housing market is not driven by set prices, it is essentially an auction. If there is one buyer in this world that is willing to pay $100,000 for this laptop that I’m typing on, theoretically, it is “worth” that much because there is someone that will pay that much for it. Another one was “I need to buy now”. Why is it when it comes to gas prices and house prices, that a lot of people buy high? Remember the pipeline bursting near Tucson a few years ago - gas prices rose to over $6 per gallon in the Phoenix area and it looked like the gas crisis in the 1970‘s. In a book about Warren Buffet named, “The Making of an American Capitalist”, there are graphs that depict when Buffet bought and when he sold. He didn’t make his billions buying high and selling low.

The reason I stress that the borrower needs to do their own homework is because there’s a lot of bad information out there, and the borrower needs to discern the difference between bad and good advice. Even Suze Orman is guilty of mistakes. I saw an article by her a couple of years ago where she compared and contrasted a 15 year fixed rate loan to a 30 year fixed rate loan and deduced that the 30 year was the best financial decision. She analyzed tax savings among other things. The problem was, she started off on the wrong foot because she assumed the interest rate for the 15 year was the same as the 30 year. This is never the case (at least I’ve never seen otherwise). A 15 year is typically an eighth to a half a point lower than a 30 year - this is assuming one is comparing rates with the same lender. What I would suggest to the borrower is get a real estate calculator (one that does amortization calculations), a homebuyer guide (free) from Fannie Mae, and possibly a real estate dictionary (Barron’s has a good one). And figure it out for yourself. There are many mortgage brokers and lenders out there that don’t educate the borrower on their options. However, with the advent of the information superhighway, ie the internet, there is no excuse for a potential borrower to not educate themselves concerning the largest purchase of their lives (for most people, anyways).

The government is in the midst of a bailout (remember how well the airline bailout worked?). It is our money they’re playing with, the taxpayers’ money. Your money. It’s delaying the inevitable - it will keep paying bank CEOs inflated salaries for a few more years rather than just a couple more years. If someone walked away from their house because they didn’t feel like paying, and their lender asked me to help bail them out, I wouldn’t give them a red cent. Would you? Not my problem. People that are foreclosed on should take a bigger hit on their credit to the extent that it’s not impossible for them to get another mortgage, but make it so getting another mortgage within a certain timeframe would not be a financially prudent decision on their part. Let the banks take the hit, the foreclosed homes are rightfully their property, let them short sell their inventory and take their loss (and their tax deduction) and let the free market economy work itself out. Everyone takes a hit with this foreclosure mess, the responsible get dinged with a decreased house value. It might be painful, but America has seen worse.

Family Room Pictures

The family room is about 98% done. There's just a few odds and ends to do - like a little bit of trim. Never mind the extra fridge, range, and tool chest! Soon we'll fill it with new furnishings! Oh, and if you know anybody that needs a fridge or a range, they're for sale.

The Book I'm Reading Currently

Remodel Progress Pics and Other Things...

As of Friday, we now have a functioning kitchen. The kitchen is nearly complete - all that's left to do is trim (crown, base, door casing) and decorate. Amy and future baby are both happy. This project I'm proud of. I gutted the majority of the kitchen, fixed and changed wiring, changed the lighting, hung the new drywall, and matched texture to the existing texture. Our contractor Joe replaced the large window with a single French door and new window. My friend Bram laid out the cabinets, I made the doors, drawers, and face frames while he made the boxes, and I helped him with the install. Amy and I installed the granite tile countertop ourselves (never again) and laid the tile floor ourselves (first time).

The picture above that shows the floor partially finished floor (my camera ran out of battery before I could take the picture just now) was taken earlier this week. It shows out 5 ft wide pantry with huge drawers at the bottom. The empty space is obviously for our fridge.

On to the floor in our new family room and dining area... No rest for the wicked, er, I mean weary.

Our contractor also finished up our patio cover a couple of weeks ago. Below are pictures of that. Now, we are trying to salvage enough brick pavers to do the floor. So, if you know of anybody that has any they want to give away, let me know! We're looking for the ones that are about 2" thick, and are about 3x7 (roughly).

As far as everything on the baby front, things are looking normal. Still due around mid-June.

Oh, the cats have been bothering me to put up pictures of them on the blog. So here's a couple. Maverick trying to eat the camera and Annabelle (named after the characters in the movie Maverick) wishing she were in a tangle of briars.

What To Read...

The reason I am writing about this subject in this posting is because sometimes, in the midst of this media frenzy about the election, we need to be reminded of how we're still a democracy to begin with.

Sometimes I get asked, "I want to read a book on World War II, what should I read?". Here is my answer to that question. Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers. Ambrose is (was) a magician with the delicate balance of the big picture combined with the personal accounts, and this book is no exception. It's very readable for people who might not know anything about more "technical" aspects of World War II, such as weaponry caliber or specifics on strategy.

There are a number of other war history books that I highly recommend as well. Following are some of them and my reasons why (I'm sure I'm missing a whole bunch).

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. A classic. Enough said.

Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. While this book is considered a Civil War historical novel, it is primarily based on Robert E. Lee's diaries, as well as Stonewall Jackson's diaries. The movie Gettysburg was inspired by it. Anything by Michael Shaara is worth the read, Jeff Shaara's books are good also.

James McPherson's The Battle Cry Of Freedom. A book about the Civil War that is divided into chapters on different subjects. A good book to read for the occasional reader, you can put this one down and come back to it due to its format.

Ernie's War. This book is the "best of" fellow beloved Hoosier Ernie Pyle's World War II dispatches. Another book that you could put down for a bit (but I dare you to). Ernie's rapport with the common soldier was uncanny, and that is evidenced in his writing.

Stephen Ambrose's D-Day. This book covers the planning on the operation in depth, but yet again, not highly technical. The logistics of a landing like this were planned for months and months, but all went to pot within the first couple of hours. It was up to the American GI to improvise and problem solve, and this is his story. Also covers some of the strange anomalies that inherently come with combat.

Charles Whiting's Bloody Aachen. Describes in detail the siege that was laid on Aachen, Germany by the U.S., and the basic strategic futility surrounding the entire battle.

Hans Von Luck's Panzer Commander. A view from the German side from a man who commanded a group of German tanks, the best tanks in the war. Became a good friend of Stephen Ambrose's later on.

Franz Kurowski's Panzer Aces. A book following a select few German tankers during the invasion of Poland and into Russia. Deals quite a bit with the battle of Kursk. Makes me wonder why a Hollywood producer has not made a movie about Kursk.

James Bradley's Flags of our Fathers. Inspired the movie with the same name. The Pacific Theatre is often overlooked by more "mainstream" historians - they tend to focus more on the European Theatre (I have my own theories on that). Iwo Jima was just a different type of battle. Many veterans say that they never saw a live Japanese during the entire battle.

There are obviously many, many good books out there. If you already have read World War II books, I would steer you towards books on the battles in North Africa, Monte Cassino, Sicily, Saipan, and Corregidor, just to name a few. There are also very gritty first hand accounts of war, a couple of them that I have read are the accounts by Donald Burgett of the 101st Airborne ("The Battered Bastards of Bastogne"), David Kenyon Webster of the 506th's Easy Company in the same division, and Gerald Astor's A Blood Dimmed Tide, which is basically a collection of first hand accounts during the battle in the Ardenne. Anything by Ambrose is highly recommended, even though I haven't read all of his books. Pegasus Bridge is a great short read, it deals with one of the most daring commando raids in all of World War II.

Yum!

Amy got me this 365 Days Of How To Survive The Worst Case Scenarios day calendar for my desk. Some of the day's entries are merely bizarre stories, some of them are rather humorous, but Monday, March 3 took the cake. Following is the entry for the day...

"On this day in 1876, a shower of meat chunks, one to four square inches in size, rained down on Bath County in Kentucky. No one was injured by the falling meat, which had the appearance of beef (but tasted more like venison or lamb, according to sources). Numerous studies were done on the meat to ascertain what it was. Though early opinion was that it was no more than some sort of vegetable matter, it was determined that the samples studied were cartilage, lung tissue, and muscle. The final conclusion was that the meat had fallen from buzzards or vultures who vomited their meals while flying overhead."

I thought this through. Can't say I'd invite the friends over and BBQ something that fell out of the sky to try and taste it to figure out what it was. But I'd better be careful about commenting further on this - as nasty as this story sounds, it's probably a delicacy now that I don't know about, and some of you probably love it.

It Does Snow In Arizona.

These two pictures were taken on the way up to Flagstaff on Friday. It was snowing pretty good on the I-17 between the Schnebly Hill Road exit and Munds Park. I don't typically take pictures of snow in Arizona, but since I field questions about whether or not it snows in Arizona, here you go. This is about an hour and half north of Phoenix. Around 6000' elevation or so.

New Terminology?

Many people use their blogs for political reasons all the time. I choose to only use it for that once in a great while. The media obsesses a lot over the '08 election, they apparently think that their success or demise depends on who's in office. You and I? We know better than that.

Let's start out with a term and a definition. Conservatese. It's a language that apparently everybody can speak if they're running for office, or are elected. One doesn't have to be an actual conservative in order to speak conservatese. Yes, yes, I know what you're all thinking - you think that I'm going to talk about our senior Arizona senator. Not this time. I'm talking about Mitt Romney.

I realize that Romney is now out of the running, but I heard something on the radio 2 days ago that just set me off. Analysts are saying that since Romney had a poor Super Tuesday, conservatives must have stayed home. I don't know of a single conservative who voted in the primary who voted for him. Certain talk show hosts are basically treating the people who voted against Romney like a bunch of idiots. Who in the heck dubbed this guy the conservative golden boy? He must have really talked a good talk, but I must have missed that talk. Every time I heard that guy speak, I didn't trust him at all. At all, I can't emphasize that enough. I do not believe for one second that he had the country's best interest in mind when running. You know when you fall asleep in front of the t.v. only to wake up at 3 a.m. to some sleazy accident lawyer telling you how fast he goes in his Corvette chasing ambulances? That's Mitt Romney to me. He's not "polished", he's slick. He's not "confident", he's arrogant. The guy wouldn't know the truth if it punched him in the face. I heard that he was dubbed a "true Reagan conservative". Does that mean that he would enthusiastically sign off on an amnesty bill if he were president? How is state subsidized health care conservative? How is raising taxes (or in Romney-speak, "fees") conservative? How does a "conservative" get elected in a state that has sent Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to the floor of the U.S. Senate time and time again get elected? I'm just curious to know a straight answer to any of those questions. That is impossible for politicians. But, as we all know, we don't get straight answers to problems in politics, just a general ambiguous "answer" followed up by a mangled "solution" to a simple problem. How hard is it? Build a fence in the north and the south (hire Disneyland and Las Vegas casino security forces to police the border - nothing would get through illegally). Keep taxes low. Stay out of education. Be the first president in nearly 50 years to NOT sign off on a version of NCLB. Enforce the laws that are in effect. So, to my questions for Romney, I'll never get the answers.

If Romney was the litmus test for being a true conservative, apparently my pH is way out of whack. I'll come up with a new term for myself which I'll share in my next political blog posting in mid-November (if I even care by then). The term "conservative" is apparently meaningless now. There is no litmus test for being conservative anymore. If Romney passed it, then that test is garbage.

Citizen Romney, I hate to break the news to you. You didn't lose because "conservatives stayed home", you lost because conservatives did show up at the voting booth, and told you they didn't want you around politics anymore. Take our advice.

Yes, I have approval to post these pictures!

See Aly and Amy. See Aly and Amy's bellies. Aly is 6 months along. Amy is 5 months along.