Happy Halloween October 31, 2008
Posted by emuleman in Family.Tags: costume, Family, Halloween
add a comment
Happy Halloween to everybody. This is Kyle’s first Halloween, and of course he went to a couple of Halloween parties with his playgroup and at Monica’s work. Monica had fun dressing Kyle up in his very first costume.
He looks so cute in his costume, and enjoyed playing with other children at the parties.
Since my video camera broke around a month ago I haven’t been able to take any movies of Kyle to put on the website. Then I realized that I could use my web cam to take a small movie. I had to move Kyle in his highchair close to the computer near the web cam, but it worked. So below is my first web cam movie of Kyle having some fun waving a biscuit cookie around, when he should be trying to eat it.
Both Monica and I cannot believe how fast Kyle is growing. In a couple of weeks he will be 10 months old already. It is hard to imagine Kyle walking around soon, and we already can see that he is trying to talk to us. He is pretty good at waving and saying hi. He also loves waving bye at me when I leave for work in the morning. We are sad to see him grow up so quickly, as we enjoy him at this young age. We were just talking the other day about how pretty soon Kyle will be talking back and arguing with us, so we better enjoy this time now while it lasts.
Kyle and Finn’s Playdate October 14, 2008
Posted by emuleman in Family.2 comments
Saturday Monica and Kyle went over to Aunt Gail’s house to meet Tara and Finn. Tara is a mutual friend who has a 7 month old baby boy named Finn. This was the first time that Kyle and Finn had met, and they both enjoyed playing together.
Gail’s dog Lucy also enjoyed playing with Kyle and Finn. Kyle got lots of kisses from Lucy.
Overall Kyle and Finn had a wonderful time playing together, and hopefully will have more play dates in the future.
Here are a few photos for you all to enjoy. Special thanks to Aunt Gail for the nice pictures, they turned out great!
The World in Financial Crisis October 12, 2008
Posted by emuleman in Thoughts.Tags: business, economy, recession, stock market, Wall Street
add a comment
Now I do not pretend to know a lot about our economy, or how the stock market exactly works. I of course know how the average middle class person is affected with this daily flow of bad news about our current financial situation. It is becoming difficult hearing daily stories about our economy and the markets worst losses since the great depression. I myself like most average people don’t buy and sell stocks on Wall Street, or speculate on how much oil will go up or down to make a living. I work hard to provide for myself and my family. Lately I am becoming increasingly nervous of seeing our economy slip further and further into a recession.
I am lucky that I get a daily opportunity to directly talk to different people about a wide variety of things who come into my work . Lately the only topic that is discussed is the economy.
It is hard not to talk about the economy since we are constantly being feed more bad news about it by the media. You cannot escape it. It is on the radio, the television and the Internet. I am convinced that this constant bad news is now finally beginning to take hold in most peoples minds, and is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.
The average person is beginning to become more careful with their money. When people begin to re-evaluate their spending habits they become more responsible and spend less. They begin to tighten the belt, and eliminate all unnecessary spending. This in turn stops the flow of cash into millions of small businesses across this county and the world. Businesses start making less revenue and also are forced to reduce their spending by laying people off and in the worse case closing their doors for good.
It is depressing for me to see companies that have been in business for decades to be hurting and on the verge of bankruptcy or closing. All the US auto makers are really hurting, and another huge Government bail-out rescue is already being discussed to save them.
Some people are lucky and not directly effected by this downturn in the economy. They are paid a salary that has not changed. They do not necessarily feel the squeeze like many of us who rely on commissions for their income. We have seen a decrease in our pay because we are selling less. They have not felt the decrease, but are now beginning to get the impression that things are getting bad with our economy with this constant flow of bad news. This cause them to also stop spending, and the whole situation now becomes much worse. The more people who stop spending, the worse our economy gets.
The only way to fix it is to have more money being spent by everyone, and to increase the flow of cash. At the moment this just isn’t happening. Banks are afraid to lend, and most people just aren’t spending like they use too. It becomes a vicious circle.
Now I hear that this recession is spreading to Europe and Asia. It seems we all are tied together closer than we use to be, because we are now a world economy. We all rely on each other, and when one economy is suffering it is felt across the world.
I have always considered myself an optimist, and tend to look at things positively. I just hate to hear this constant flow of bad news. Don’t get me wrong, I believe our economy is definitely suffering right now. Mostly because of banks giving loans to unqualified people, and corporate greed on Wall Street. But I also believe things are not as bad as you hear on a daily basis. We are fortunate to have the technology to get news 24 hours a day, but at a price. This constant flow of negative news just compounds the problem and makes it worse.
I believe the American people have dealt with much tougher and harder problems. We will come out of this recession like we have before. It might take a while, but we will have a strong and growing economy in the future. This I am sure of because the American people and determined and strong.
I suggest we all stop listening so closely to the media, and try not to believe that the worst is going to happen. We need to continue to live our lives without the fear. Don’t be afraid to spend some money if you have some to spend. If everyone would take this advice the economy would be well on its way to a full recovery.
Kidsfaire-America’s Family Expo October 6, 2008
Posted by emuleman in Family.Tags: Family, kidsfaire
add a comment
Monica and her Grandmother and Kyle all went to visit the Kidsfaire yesterday. It is like a regular county fair, but specific for kids of all ages. It was being held at the Orange County fairgrounds which is just a few miles away.
They all had such a fun time they will make sure to visit each year in October when it comes to town.
Here are a few photos for you all to enjoy!
Da Curse of the Billy Goat October 5, 2008
Posted by emuleman in Thoughts.Tags: baseball, chicago cubs, national league, sports, world series, wrigley field
add a comment
Normally I do not believe in superstition or urban legends, but this morning I am beginning to feel as if the Chicago Cubs are definitely still dealing with the Curse of the Billy Goat.
For those of you that are not Chicago Cubs fans, or might not have ever heard of this curse let me leave an explanation from Wikipedia:
William Sianis, better known as Billy Sianis, was a Chicago, Illinois tavern owner, who went on to become part of baseball lore because of the famed Curse of the Billy Goat he supposedly put on the Chicago Cubs after he and his goat were tossed out of game four of the 1945 World Series. Because of the alleged curse he is said to have imposed on the Cubs, people nicknamed him “Billy the Goat”.
Billy Sianis was born in Greece and some time in the early 1900s immigrated to the United States, where he became a prominent Chicago bar owner, opening the famous Billy Goat Tavern in 1934. His tavern was visited by many of Chicago’s personalities of the 1940s, and Sianis appears to have been a charismatic business man.
Sianis was a big Cubs fan, and he enjoyed going to Cubs games along with his beloved goat. On October 6, 1945, he bought two tickets worth $7.20. One of the tickets was for him; the other one was for his goat. He was allowed to parade with the goat on the baseball field before the game started, with the goat wearing a sign stating “We Got Detroit’s Goat”.
Sianis and his goat watched the game from their seats until the seventh inning. It was then that security personnel told Sianis that he and his goat had to leave, due to complaints about the goat’s objectionable odor.
Sianis, according to believers of the curse, was enraged that such action was taken against him and his goat, and he then cursed the team. The exact nature of the curse differs in various accounts of the incident. Some state that Sianis declared that no World Series games would ever again be played at Wrigley Field, while others believe that his ban was on the Cubs appearing in the World Series, making no mention of a specific venue. Sianis’s family maintains that he sent a telegram to Philip K. Wrigley, which read, “You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to win another World Series again. You are never going to win a World Series again because you insulted my goat.”
The curse was subsequently “lifted” in public on several occasions, first in 1969 by Sianis himself, and several times thereafter by his nephew Sam Sianis, the current owner of the Billy Goat Tavern. Nevertheless, many fans are convinced that some residual aspect of the curse persists.
The reason I am beginning to believe in this curse is because I just saw my favorite baseball team get swept in the National League Division Series. I have been following the Chicago Cubs this entire season, as well as many other baseball fans across the country. Why? Well for a couple of reasons.
First, the Chicago Cubs have gone exactly 100 years since they have won a World Series. There seems to be something magical about the 100 year mark, and many believed that this milestone would be the end of this losing streak.
Second, The Chicago Cubs have played extremely well this year. They had the best winning record in the National League. They also had the best winning record while they were playing at home at Wrigley Field then any other baseball team this year in the NL. For these reasons people began to talk about the curse finally being lifted. Everything seemed to be going very well for the Cubs, and fans around the world began to think and believe this could be the year. People started using words like Magical and Destiny. I was so excited when they finally became the Division Champs. It seemed that this was finally going to be the year.
Then the unspeakable happened. The Chicago Cubs got swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. It seemed like the championship team that played all year just didn’t show up at all. The Cubs just couldn’t get their game together for the series. They couldn’t pitch, they couldn’t hit, and they couldn’t field. The Cubs were outscored 20-6 in the series. How depressing.
So in the world of Cubs fans, we all hope that next year might be the year the Cubs finally win the World Series in our lifetimes. They play baseball in the most beautiful ball park in the world at Wrigley Field. With the ivy on the walls, the skyline beyond the outfield, and the large manually operated scoreboard above center field, there is no other with the aura or history behind it.
All I ask is that the Cubs can do it just once in my lifetime. Just once in my lifetime, is that too much to ask?
