A New Beginning

The "Official" Inauguration store.

Sinus, Sinus, Sinus

Or Phlegm, Phlegm, Phlegm or


Well you get the idea. That's what I'm having. I'm post nasal drip all over the place. I coughed most of Monday night.

My cold-sinus has now dripped into my chest thus the reason for coughing so much.

And all sorts of fun colored stuff is coming out of my sinus passages and up from my chest.

Who knew there could be sooooo much stuff up there. They should invent something that you can put up your nose and suck all that stuff out of there. Something like the suction thing the dentist uses only one that actually works. (Have you ever gone to the dentist and had one of those things work the way it is supposed to?)

I hope by the new year to be completely drained. I also hoping to have some good weather so maybe I could ride my bike some. But most of all I hope my head stops feeling it is the size of my living room.

Video from the game

Here's a little video from the game.

The Second Extra Day

Well a second extra day and a really great one. We all went to see Missouri State play Illinois State at the new arena at Missouri State. A very exciting game. Illinois State was 11-0 coming into this game. We all felt like it would be a blow out but it wasn't at all. With 1.6 seconds left in regulation Missouri State in bounded the ball. They were down by 3 points. It was passed in. There was a little scuffle over who would control the ball. A Missouri State played finally got it and launched it from three point range. It went in as the buzzer sounded. Fantastic!!

Unfortunately in overtime things did not go Missouri States way. But they did not go quietly. They ended up loosing 72-69. But they had the final shot and it bounced off the rim. Just a great game.

Flight Delayed Again

I'm at dinner with my family and my cell phone rings. Seems my flight for tomorrow at 7 am has been cancelled. Now I'm going out on a 6:25 am flight on Monday. Once again the reason is weather. Hopefully I'll get out on Monday.

An Extra Day!

I got an extra day. Not by choice but because the weather here in Springfield was so bad. An incredible line of thunderstorms went through the area. They started as far south as Dallas and extended all the way up past St. Louis. It was around 64 this morning. Now it is in the 30s. A big change in the weather. There was thunder and lightening.

I was all packed up. We put everything in my dad's car and headed over to Ed and Jennifer's to say goodbye before heading to the airport. Around 10:30 I got a call on my cell phone. It was an automated message from American Airlines saying my flight had been cancelled. It said I was booked on a 7 am flight (again!!) from Springfield to St. Louis. I'd arrive around 8 am and have almost 4 hours to wait until the flight into DC. I'm hoping if things go as planned to be home around 3:30 tomorrow afternoon.

So I got an extra day out of it. We went and saw a movie this afternoon. We saw Marley and Me. It was pretty good. Ed and I thought it was a little too long. Tonight we are going to go out to dinner and look at some Christmas lights.

Hopefully all will be calm and bright tomorrow.

These are a few pictures of the sculptures at the Springfield art gallery. We went there yesterday afternoon. It has a very nice collection but you couldn't take any pictures inside.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I know mine has been wonderful. It is great to be in Springfield with my family.

I know the weather outside, to many, was very frightful. I hope everyone was able to reach their final destination in time for Christmas.

I'm thankful I went through Dallas instead of Chicago.

Once again:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I gave everyone an Obama t-shirt so they would be ready come inauguration day.

Here are some of the strawberries we dipped in chocolate. They were really good.

It's COLD

I woke up this morning and it was a balmy 2 degrees above zero. I feel like I'm in Chicago instead of Springfield, MO. It is supposed to slowly moderate over the course of the week. By tomorrow things should be back to a more normal temperature.

I'm all confused as to what day of the week. Saturday seemed to last forever. Oh yeah that's right that's because it did last for forever. I got up at three and didn't get to sleep until after 11 eastern time. So yesterday, Sunday, seemed like Monday. But today is really Monday. This is making my head hurt.

Anyway . . . Had a very nice day yesterday, Sunday. My dad and I got up early and did a little shopping. I only brought three pairs of socks. I'd done a wash right before I started packing. So I was putting clothes away while I was packing. I counted out the necessary number of socks I would need for the trip and put them in a pile. I was doing other things as well to get ready to go. I had to go downstairs for something. When I came back up, I put the pile of socks that were supposed to be packed into a dresser drawer. Thankfully I did pack a couple of pairs of socks. My dasd and I tried a couple of places but no luck. They were a drug store and a super market. But more importantly we picked up the necessary ingredients for me to make chocolate chip cookies. We were unsure if my dad had any vanilla so we bought some. My dad now has enough vanilla to last until something into the next century. We got home and I made cookies.

After that we went to a local restaurant called Aunt Martha's. I had pancakes. They were great! Then it was an afternoon of football. At the half time of one of the games Ed and I dashed back to my dad's and got the cookies. Later in the evening we had a fantastic spaghetti dinner that Ed and Jennifer made. Then it was more football. It was a nice relaxing day after that very long travel day.

In a little while we are off to go gambling. Somehow this had become a new family tradition helping to support Native Americans by going gambling. This all started when we went on a trip out to Washington state and my dad and I stopped at a casino. We had a blast. So on most trips we stop by for a spin of the slot machine and see how we do. Our best win was when we went to West Virginia a couple of years ago.

After that Ed and I are going to a computer store. I'm trying to help him figure out the best way to upgrade his computer set up. I'm thinking he doesn't need a new computer just some ad ons to his current lap top. I think more memory and an external monitor. Also an external hard drive. Staples and Best Buy have a terabyte drive for like $129. You can't pass that up. I found one online that was even less. I have to decide if I want to wait until I got home to get one or buy it here.

Hopefully this afternoon the temperature will get into double digits. That's going to feel like a heat wave!!!!

Off to Springfield

3:00 am on Saturday morning came early. Of course 3 am on any day is early. That's when I was up. The Super Shuttle was scheduled to pick me up around 4:30. I could have slept a little more but I thought it would be better to be up early. The alarm went off. I was good I only hit the snooze button once. Sam gave me a dirty look as if to say what the hell are you doing up so early.

I got up and had breakfast. I did a few more things around the house. I went through and unplugged everything that didn't need to be plugged in. Then I waited for the Super Shuttle.

The shuttle arrived just before 4:30. I was the first person to be picked up. After I got all my luggage in, we were off. We went to pick someone up in North West DC. After getting this person, we did a curious thing. We drove back on the same road we took from my house to get the second person. We drove about 3/4 of the way back to my house. We then fetched person 3. And then what did we do, well we drove back on the same road back to the same neighborhood that person two was in. We must have wasted at least 15 minutes with this back and forth. I have to say I don't understand why there wasn't more logic applied to the order of picking people up. After all the guy had a GPS in the van.

Anyway got to the airport around 5:30 which was in plenty of time for my 7 am flight.

The flight to Dallas was completely full. Not much to report about. No problems. Watched some of the inflight movie Fred Claus. I listened to some music using my noise reducing head phones which are fantastic. I read some of the Washington Post. Got into Dallas on time. I had about 4 hours to kill.

Dallas is a big airport. There's s tram called the Skyway which is a tram that takes you from one terminal to another. I got something to eat and then just waited. There were all sorts of military guys at the airport. I learned later that they'd just finished basic training. This was the leave they had before getting their permanent assignments.

The flight to Springfield was completely full as well. No problems again. Always nice not to have any problems. It took a while for the luggage to show but what they hey.

Ed and my dad picked me up. We went and did some quick shopping for dinner. Then we headed over to Ed's where Jennifer was and talked for awhile. Over to my dad's house where I made dinner with help of course. Ended the rather long day watching some football.

I had a really good night sleep. This morning I woke up and it was 4 degrees out. Brrrr

In one other quick note this is post 1,000 to my blog!

Jon McLaughlin at Borders, Part I

Wednesday at Borders, Jon McLaughlin appeared. He was in town doing a show at the 9:30 Club. I didn't go but saw this advertises at Borders so I decided to go. He is such a great singer. I was only going to record a little bit of it but then decided I could do the whole thing.

I really enjoy his music. He is also a great performer. He really gets into the song. His feet twist and turn as he's playing. I tried (not very successfully I might add) to capture that. But I still think you can get a feel for it.

Jon McLaughlin at Borders, Part II

Here's the second half of the concert.

Jon McLaughlin at Borders, Part III

Here are some pictures of the signing at Borders. The first pictures looks a little strange but there was a photographer taking a picture of Jon's and the woman's shoes.

Here's a link to the Mix 107.3 interview with Jon.


























































































Here's Mix 107.3 coverage of the Border's event.

Hillwood Video

Here's some video from my Hillwood visit. I think something happened to the post so here it is again.

Christmas at Union Station

This is video I shot a couple of weeks ago when I wondered around DC looking at the Christmas decorations. This is Union Station.

GW Basketball Game

I had my video camera with me yesterday so I took some pictures at the George Washington Univesity basketball game I went to. The game was against American Univeristy. GW won 63-50.

Decorations in Washington

More great views of the decorations in Washington, DC this time of year.

Final Political Podcast for the Year

Arthur and I have our final political podcast for this year. We talk about a wide range of subjects. We start off with the mess in our old home state of Illinois. From there we segue into an extensive discussion about religion and politics, same-sex marriage, and we even talk about the divisive online rhetoric of the left and—especially—the right. Later, we talk about the bailouts and the twilight of the Bush years. Are Bush-Cheney guilty of treason? We end by talking about the optimism of the impending inauguration. Comments let us discuss a few more things, too.

Here's the link to the podcast.

Christmas Cat

Here's Sam being the Christmas cat. He really likes to hide underneath the tree and be right by the radiator.

If the Shoes Fit

Throw them at the president.

Here's the video:



Here's a link to a story in the Post.

There's not a great deal you can say about this except to laugh. Yet at the same time the upbeat talk from Bush about how it was all worth it makes you want to cry. He still does not get how angry people are about how he botched Iraq. I have a feeling he's going to be in for a rude awakening once he leaves office. I'll have some more thoughts on this latter.

Hillwood's Russian Festival, Part II

Some pictures of the dancers.




























































































Some of the spectacular orchids that are in the greenhouse at Hillwood.






















































































After Hillwood, it was a nice walk down to the zoo.