"Talk about not getting the hint."

This is from a letter to Congress by Michael Moore. Titled Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do ... I can be found at www.michaelmoore.com

Exhausting- Black Friday

So I was one of the crazy people that was up all night and in line at the store right after Thanksgiving but this time I got someone crazy enough to stay up with me and freeze all night. It was much better with someone to talk to this time! It's almost like I sport for some of these people. It just gets crazier every year but we keep doing it. I can't believe some of the stories of violence that I've read this year! And to see the people that bring babies and kids out here all night is just awful!

I know that no one is polite that day and everyone is in competition to get the stuff before it sells out but it's just gotten way out of control!

Apparently Devon is as crazy as me since she came over and stayed up all night on Thanksgiving with me. We spent hours making and organizing lists and then mapping out what route would be best. We were in line by 3 am (hats, goves and all). Apparently people have started camping in line outside these stores days in advance. This is a pic of customers sleeping in line at Best Buy. It was below freezing that night. There were tents set up in the lots before we even had dinner at 5! People are sleeping in line!

Why do I do this every year? I can't believe how violent Black Friday has become. Some of the incidents below are just scary!!

"The holiday shopping season began early today with a 73-year-old Josephine Hoffman being knocked down as a crowd at BrandsMart USA in Sunrise, Florida pushed their way under a metal security gate to get inside, forcing dozens of people against the walls and trampling the woman."

"A bargain notebook computer was the catalyst for trouble at a Wal-Mart in Orlando, Florida, where a man was wrestled to the ground by plain-clothed security guards after cutting in line to buy one. Many customers simply carted their stuff out of the store and passed right by the man in handcuffs, without any reaction."

"A woman was stepped on by several people after she fell when dozens of frenzied shoppers stampeded into a Grand Rapids, Michigan area Wal-Mart store around 5 o'clock this morning. When the rush ended, the woman and a 13-year-old girl suffered minor injuries."

"Extra officers were called to a Renton, Washington Wal-Mart to help control crowds of shoppers who pushed their way into the electronics department shortly after the doors opened. The shoppers even knocked counters out of position as they fought over a limited supply of notebook computers."

Violence mars PlayStation 3 launch
By PETER SVENSSON, Associated Press Writer Sat Nov 18, 6:19 AM ET

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new PlayStation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot one man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

In Sullivan, Ind., a man was in critical condition after emergency surgery for a stab wound after he and a friend tried to rob two men of consoles they waited 36 hours in line to buy, police said.

Nationwide, short supplies of the PS3 and strong demand led to long lines of buyers, some waiting for days outside stores. Once the doors opened Friday, they pushed and shoved their way to the shelves in several cities to get at the limited supply.

Two people were arrested in Fresno, Calif., after a crowd trampled people in a parking lot.
It was about 3 a.m. when the two gunmen in Putnam, a town of about 9,000 residents in northeast Connecticut, confronted 15 to 20 people standing outside a Wal-Mart store and demanded money, said State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
"One of the patrons resisted. That patron was shot," Vance said.
Vance said the gunmen fled after shooting Michael Penkala, 21, of Webster, Mass., in the chest and shoulder. Penkala was in stable condition at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Vance said.
Police were searching for the suspects, both believed to be in their teens, Vance said. He said one was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun, and the other had what appeared to be a shotgun.

About 30 miles away, another shopper was beaten and robbed of his new PlayStation 3 just minutes after he bought it at a store in Manchester, police said.
The shopper told police five men surrounded and beat him as he left the Shoppes at Buckland Hills.
Police Sgt. Chris Davis said the attackers pushed one of their cohorts out of the car as they drove away. That man, a 17-year-old from Windsor, was charged with robbery, larceny, assault and breach of peace.
Four other teenagers were arrested, and more arrests were expected, police told WTNH-TV late Friday.

Andrew Templeton, 20, and David Wiggins, 28, of Sullivan, Ind., were assaulted by two teens after waiting for 36 hours at a Super Wal-Mart, police said.
They were unloading their PlayStation 3s from their car when two teens approached them carrying a chain and a tire iron and demanding their consoles, said Sullivan Police Chief David Story.
A fight broke out. Wiggins' nose was broken, and he stabbed one of the attackers, Dylan Moss, 19, police said. Moss was in critical condition after surgery, officials said.
Sullivan County Prosecutor Bob Springer said he plans to charge Moss and accomplice Dustin Fagg, 19, with felony robbery.

Elsewhere, two men wearing black ski masks and sunglasses made off with five consoles after holding two employees at gunpoint at an Englewood, Ohio, video game store Thursday night, police said.

A Pennsylvania teenager was also robbed of his new PlayStation by a man who tapped on his car window with a handgun in Allentown, police said.

In Lexington, Ky., someone fired BB pellets from a passing vehicle at people waiting outside a Best Buy store, according to WKYT, whose own reporter said she was among four people grazed while she interviewed buyers in line.

Police fired a talcum powder ball at the ground outside a Target store in Henrico, Va., to get the attention of an unruly crowd of about 350 people who were waiting to buy one of the shop's eight consoles, police said.

In McLean, Va., police fired pepper pellets Friday morning to subdue a rowdy crowd of about 200 people outside a Circuit City store at Tysons Corner Center mall. One person complained of shortness of breath after the pellets were fired and was taken to the hospital, authorities said.
A Best Buy store in Boston, aware it had only 140 of the consoles, got smart about the big sale — its employees gave out tickets to the first 140 people in line so everyone could go home until the store opened.

The Big Game

"Hello, Columbus
You're afraid. You're afraid of us, you're afraid of
change...I don't know the future...I didn't come here to
tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you
how this is going to begin. Now, I'm going to show these
people what you don't want them to see...That the illusion
of Buckeye invincibility is just that- an illusion. And
where we go from there is up to you..."

Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality. I think the Buckeys are full of doubt when it comes to Saturday's game. I think the intimidation factor will play the biggest part here.

Q: How do you keep an Ohio State player out of the endzone?

A: Put a classroom there

Q: What does a tornado and an Ohio State Grad have in common?

A: They both end up in trailer parks.

Q: How many Ohio State players does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: One, but he gets three credits for it.

A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work.The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and smile, gave him a broom and said, "Your first job will be to sweep the store.""But, I'm an Ohio State graduate," the young man replied indignantly, "I even played football there!""Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that," said the manager. "Here, give me the broom, I better show you how."

Personal Update

Okay,....I've had a few people email me to let me know that I haven't updated my blog.."since the summer". That's not quite true but I guess it kinda is. I feel like I've been really busy but I'm not sure what it is that I've been busy with...When I try to think about it I'm not coming up with much but work.

This pic is from our annual Halloween party at Harrison Lake. Mikayla dressed up as an iPod but is missing most of her costume here so I had to add the pic below. Her and I made the costume the night before the party.

I'm still working at T-Mobile in Toledo. When I left Sprint and took this job I swore to myself that it would only be very temporary. I figured maybe 6 months to give the real estate market time to turn around and get us a guaranteed paycheck and insurance for a while. Well, the real estate market hasn't improved much and now it's over a year later and I'm still at T-Mobile.

One of the benefits at T-Mobile is college tuition reimbersement so I'm finally taking advantage of that and studying business at the University of Toledo. I transferred all my credits over from the University of Michigan and Waubonsee in Chicago and I'm going to finish my Bachelors degree.

Funny how many of the credits at U of M aren't going to count since I got C-'s or worse in the classes so UT won't accept them. A couple classes on the transcripts from U of M had "E" as a grade. The UT advisor asked "what is an E?" I said "I don't know" even though I did. So she contacted U of M for them to tell her an "E" at U of M is the same as an "F" everywhere else. I wonder how I could have possibly gotten some of these grades while I was in Ann Arbor! ;) Seems like it should be somebody else's transcripts (must have gotten mixed up in the Registrar's office or something) Yes, GO BLUE!

I think we start college too young before we really know enough about life and I think a lot of students, like myself, were just too young to appreciate being there. I would love to be able to go back and do it over. A lot of what would have been considered mistakes that I have made I would never change. However I would change my priorities around and spend more time studying and make that time and all that money count toward something. I appreciate all the friends that I made, especially the ones that would stay up all night bringing me coffee and making sure I stayed awake and helping me cram for exams the next day that I wasn't never ready for and sometimes slept through! I guess that happened a few too many times since I didn't know how to prioritize or budget my time. Lets just say, I would put in a lot more effort this time.

So once all my credits were transferred they made me a sophmore at UT. After 3 yrs at U of M and a couple semesters at Waubonsee. Thats a lot of time and money for not a lot of credit! So I'm just finishing my "Managing in a Global Economy" class and starting in January I'm taking Financial Accounting, Business Principals and Technical Report Writing. So we'll see how well I can handle 3 classes while still working full time! When I told Tom what I was taking he said "good luck with that". I don't think he thinks I can handle it. I think I'll be okay, that is until I have to fill the Calculus requirements. I don't think I can pass the basic Algebra test so I'll be taking a couple years of elementary Algebra before I can even get into the classes I need.

Still spending time Geocaching www.geocaching.com. I have over 200 finds now and can't wait to make it to 1000. It's very addicting. Makes me wish we lived out west like some of you lucky people. I think the caches there are much more challenging from what I've read, due to the terrain. Maybe someday we can afford to take a vacation out west and find some caches in the mountains. It would be nice to log some with a terrain rating higher than 3! Halloween was our 6th anniversary (Tom and I), not married yet but 6 years together. I got him 11 gifts/cards and set up a geocaching type hunt. He had to start with coordinates in the 1st card and use the GPSr find each one in turn and they were scattered all over Toledo all the way down to Maumee. It was an interesting way to spend the day. I think we might do it for the kids birthdays in the future.

The kids are doing well. Joe did cross country and Mikayla is still in gymnastics. They actually clean up pretty well. This is them making chocolate truffles one night. They tasted a lot better than they looked! ;) Well, this has already gotten to be a lot longer than I anticipated so I will continue another day.

Coke Machine

A man and his young wife were in divorce court, but the custody of their children posed a problem.

The mother leaped to her feet and protested to the judge that since she brought the children into this world, she should retain custody of them.

The man also wanted custody of his children, so the judge asked for his justification.

After a long silence, the man slowly rose from his chair and replied..."Your Honor, when I put a dollar in a vending machine and a Coke comes out, does the Coke belong to me or the machine?"

Movie Night

Not really appropriate for all ages but I couldn't resist, couldn't stop laughing either!-Magickal

5 Good Reasons to Vote by Michael Moore

Voting day!! Hope the nasty cold rainy weather doesn't keep people from going out to vote. Below is a letter from Michael Moore that I got in my email today. Time to go sweep out all the old criminals to make room for the new criminals!


"November, 7th, 2006

5 Good Reasons to Vote Today

1. IT'S A NATIONAL REFERENDUM. Although candidates' names will be on the ballot today, this election is NOT about this candidate or that candidate. Make no mistake about it: This election is nothing less than a National Referendum on George W. Bush and his War. Don't waste your time trying to learn about who the schlump is that's running for office. You know they're all pretty much the same, a few are better than others, but... please. They is who they is. THIS election is not about them. It's a simple up or down vote on staying the course.
To vote in favor of the war, vote for the Republican. To vote against the war, vote for the Democrat. As crazy as it sounds, even if the Republican is against the war, or the Democrat is for it, it doesn't matter. All that will matter by midnight tonight is the math on the big tote board. Did America say YES to Bush or NO to Bush? The ONLY way they're going to add it up is by counting the number of votes under the big D and the big R. The only way to take a stand against Bush today is to vote for the Dems on the ballot.

2. IN ORDER TO CATCH THE REPUBLICANS STEALING YOUR VOTE, YOU FIRST HAVE TO VOTE. There are huge and valid concerns about the new electronic voting machines that must be addressed. It is far too easy to use new technology to rig the vote. But if your fear of that leads you to decide that you shouldn't bother voting, well, then, I guess they've succeeded in snuffing out your voice without having to rig the machine. Make them break the law if they want to win. Vote. We'll catch them if they do. I promise.

3. WITH THE DEMOCRATS IN POWER IN THE HOUSE AND/OR SENATE, WE CAN GO AFTER THEM! These spineless Democrats who enabled Bush to start this war and funded it ever since are due for a shellacking from all of us. For nearly 6 years, they've hidden behind the cop-out of, "Hey, we're the minority, we have no power." As of tomorrow, hopefully, they will have no mask to hide behind. And it will be up to us to go after them.

4. I'LL PUT YOU ON MY WEBSITE. That's right. You can appear on my home page and be seen by millions later today. All you need to do is bring a broom when you go to vote. The broom is our mascot today because we're going to sweep the crooks and the warmongers outta office. Take a picture of yourself holding a broom outside your polling place, e-mail it to me, and I'll put as many of you as I can up on the home page of my website. People all around the world will see you! Government files with your name on them will be initiated! What better way to celebrate this historic day?!
And the final reason to vote today...

5. 2,836 + 655,000. Each one of them, American and Iraqi, are no longer with us because of the decision by one man to start a war. Each one of them represented a precious, God-given life that no man had the right to take away. Each one of them had a mother and father, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, friends and loved ones, little boys and little girls. It's mad, my friends, utterly mad, this senseless loss of human life.
So, do it for them. Call up whoever you know and tell them to meet you at the polls. And tell them to bring a broom, real or imaginary, with a big D on it. It's the only true American thing to do.

See ya at the victory party tonight!

Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Forward this to all your friends. Today is the day."