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| What to write...hmmm...it's been so long. We'll start with the boy. Koen. He's full of the dickens. He sustains himself solely on blueberries. That's it. I've taken to calling him Violet Beauregarde . He also has some type of foot related self-perception problem. He wears everyone else's shoes over his own shoes around the house. Yesterday he had one of my old running shoes on his right foot and a bowling shoe on the other. What is he cross training? Perhaps having mastered walking he needs more of a challenge. I just think of the adult equivalent of what he's doing--I'd have to walk around the house with kayaks on my feet. Or walk a marathon on stilts. He's quite the athlete. Maybe it's all the blueberries. He takes to calling everyone Daddy. Daddy of course is Daddy. Mommy is Daddy. Gramma is Daddy. Grampa is Daddy. Kitty, well, kitty has a special place in his heart. Kitty is always Kitty. No exceptions. If Koen had to rename Daddy, then Daddy would be Kitty. In review: Daddy is Daddy unless Daddy is Kitty. It leads to some confusion for this Daddy. At least I know my own shoe size kid! He enjoys the piano we just got. He likes to bang his fists and feet on it. The feet banging I attempt to curb because, who knows, does he think this is a huge wooden shoe? He is Dutch. Perhaps it's a magical musical shoe for giants? My mom (aka Daddy) suggested strapping him in his highchair and pulling him up to the piano to discourage the fancy foot playing. I like this idea except the part that he's restrained in a four point harness in front of the piano. Seems a touch punitive. Plus we don't want blueberry juice all over the keys do we Violet? | | |
| I posted this on Facebook but I thought I'd put a shout here too. Founder's Harvest Festival
When: 10/13/07 begins at 4pm
Where: 648 Monroe Ave. NW Grand Rapids, MI 49503 Why: If you're a hophead this is your event. Founder's brews a special beer made with fresh-off-the-vine hops (called "wet hopping") that will contort your taste buds. And if you're not a hophead they have all their other beers plus a few special ones (like cask conditioned ales, aged Imperial Stouts and triple IPA's). Check it out. They also do up some brats cooked in their beer which I got excited about last year but realized I could cook a better brat for cheaper at home, i.e. eat first. Cover I think is $5, but last year that cover included your first pint of Harvest Ale and a commemorative pint glass. Cheers!
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| Is there anybody out there? Has Facebook killed the Xanga? Have I not posted since April? | | |
| Joanna just prodded me to update the Xanga and here I am. Life's
update. A bit of current history. I think it'd be best to
categorize things or I'll get all wonky with thoughts here there and
akimbo.
Family
My immediate family borders on ecstatically fantastic. Since the
transition of Joanna going back to work after the new year we've found
a Zen garden like equilibrium to managing caring for Koen. He makes it
easy. Our biggest hiccups were when I went to Massachusetts for a
week in February. But Joanna, in true Joanna fashion, rocked. Working
and doing the temporary single parent thing stupefies me. Lest there be
any cynics, she's the bombzilla yo.
Only other road bump was when all three of us got sick at the same time
two weeks ago. But it's funny how you get by when your body
decides to, excuse the term, briefly crap out on you. God made us
resilient machines for certain.
And, my extended family is mostly great and moderately kooky. But I've
come to find that there's no such thing as a dysfunctional family, just
families that actually deal with their shit and those that bog down in
the weight of denial.
Work
Moving along. Work is chaotic now. I got a new job assignment
that I volunteered for in September and it's still in the development
phase and will continue slog in that direction for an indeterminate
amount of time. Which is good. Get it right (or close) the first time.
Or second. Basically I'll do my same job but with additional
duties and be relocated to a city school. All my clients will come from
families that have kids attending the school. It's a great
opportunity to break out of the sometimes awkward and cumbersome mold
my bureaucratic duties can gravitate towards.
Extracurricular
My running/training is actually taking off after a slow start in
January due to a minor foot issue. The short of it is I overtrained and
was hobbling around on a bum heel for a couple of weeks. All's well now
and I've learned my lesson that I can't just pile up mileage like it
ain't no thing. Because I'm not 18 any more. I just act like I'm
18. River Bank Run here I come. I'm hoping to meet the same goal I
had last year. Raise some funds for MarsBros and come in under 2 hours
for the 25K.
And I've been brewing up a storm. I made Scrumpy nigh on two months ago.
Scrumpy is a old school hard cider traditionally made by orchard hands
while they harvested fruit. The basic scrumpy recipe is: take the wind
fallen but not rotten apples, cut them up, put them in a bucket with
water and stash it away someplace warm. In several months you have a
cloudy, and depending on the varieties of apples, a sweet or sour or
somewhere betwixt, hard cider drink. I did a modified version. Three
types of apples, apple cider, apple, grape and cranberry concentrate,
rum soaked raisins with Champagne yeast. Should be a sweet and tart dry
cider in a few months.
More recently, like in the past two weeks I brewed up an American Pale
Ale. This was a twofer night while Kevin brewed up his first batch of
homebrew...a dry Irish stout. So proud of his efforts. And Sunday
I started a HefeWeizen that is blubbing away in the primary fermenter as I
type. Good times. Thanks again to Joanna for letting me stink up the
house.
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| So I'm reading this article and it's going on and on about how Michigan
(in usual fashion) is behind in the State budget and there's going to
be cuts etc. This happens every year. Which is strange because every
year the Governor's office gets all full of pride when they announce
they've yet again balanced the budget (which I believe is a
constitutional mandate). Anyway. Skip most of it and read the BOLD section to see what got me in a tizzy.
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POTENTIAL BUDGET FIXES WILL BE PAINFUL, SENATE APPROPS TOLD
Senate Appropriations Committee members will start to see how difficult
the
problem of fixing the current budget is on Thursday when the Senate
Fiscal
Agency is to issue a memo outlining potential spending cuts, revenue
increases
and one-time fixes that could be used to correct the deficit in the
2006-07
budget. That memo will project what a 10 percent general fund across
the
board cut in each department would mean beginning on April 1, including
the
number of state workers who would have to be laid off.
Committee Chair Sen. Ron Jelinek (R-Three Oaks) and Sen. Michael
Switalski
(D-Roseville), the Democratic vice chair, will receive the memo.
In testimony before the full committee, Senate Fiscal Agency Director
Gary
Olson said he had directed the agency to develop a series of potential
general
fund cuts in each department that could total more than $900 million.
The SFA is projecting a general fund deficit of $441.9 million for the
current
year, but Mr. Olson told committee members the projected cuts could be
enough
to help cover the $377.4 million deficit in the School Aid Fund.
The memo will also include how much potential tax increases could net
the
state.
If, for example, the income tax was raised from its current 3.9 percent
rate
to 4 percent, that would raise an estimated $124.4 million through the
remainder of the current fiscal year.
If the current sales tax were raised from 6 percent to 7 percent, which
would
require a vote of the people, it would raise $690.3 million for the
rest of
the year.
If a 6 percent sales tax on services was created and placed on most
services
such a tax would have the potential of raising $4.4 billion during the
rest of
the fiscal year. But Mr. Olson said many policy decisions would need
to be
made on such a tax and what it would apply to.
If, for example, health care services were exempted the tax would raise
$1.3
billion less.
And most discussion about a sales tax on services has centered around
applying
a reduced sales tax rate.
Other taxes would raise far less, although if the state education
property tax
were raised by 1 mill that could raise $349 million for the remainder
of the
fiscal year, and a boost in the cigarette tax from the current $2 a
pack to $3
a pack were enacted that would raise $220 million.
Suggestions that the beer tax be raised for the first time in more than
40
years has drawn some howls from the public, but if the tax were raised
from
the current $6.30 a barrel to $7.30 a barrel it would only raise an
additional
$3.5 million.
***************
Me again. Oh no you didn't Lansing!
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