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January 24 Free Money!Well - looks like the government is going to give us back some of our hard earned money!
So - let's see - Couples filing jointly - that's me/wife - $1,200
Kid #1 - $300
Kid #2 - $300
Kid #3 - $300
$2,100 back from the government - priceless.
At least those kids are worth something!
Here's to hoping the guys/gals on the hill can get this "economic stimulus package" approved! Glad we live here - at least one reasonI really struggle to find reasons why I live in this sun-forsaken land of the North during the winter months, but at least here is one (in addition to my awesome job at Microsoft):
The King County home prices are still going up (by 7.1% in the last year) while the rest of the nation has been seeing declines in home values - on average losing 1.8%. Ouch! It's the first time tha home prices have fallen since the Great Depression (that's the early 1930s for all you history buffs).
We'll be staying here and waiting for the sun for now!! It will eventually come back here; we don't need to go chasing it around.
January 22 Hillary Clinton's ResumeHere's a gem my mom forwarded to me. I don't know how much of all this is truth and how much is spin but I imagine all of it has some degree of truth and most of it is probably dead on. I looked up some of this stuff and it seems pretty legit, but definately take it with a grain of salt. But even then, Yikes! We do not want her and her liar of a husband in the White House again. ------------------------------ We need to think about the logic of those who would consider, even for a moment, bringing anyone associated with the Clintons back into the White House-----especially Hillary.
Here is a reminder of what that record includes:
LOLDogsJust when I thought there would never be anything funny on the Internet again, I came across LOLDogs. They are LOLCats (see previous post) but without the obnoxious cats! :) A few favorites... January 21 A woman, a black man, and a Mormon were front runners in a presidential campaign...It sounds like the beginning of a less than tasteful joke with a punchline that you know is going to make you grown, but it's not a joke. This presidential campaign is shaping up to be historic no matter how you look at it, well unless McCain wins and that would be anti-climactic or Giulianni wins and that would be typical (another slimeball in the White House). I love keeping track of the allocation of the delegates on the CNN Election Tracker site: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/ It is so crazy analyzing all these numbers and tracking the candidates progress. With all the different victories had by the different candidates, it's anyone's guess who is going to win this thing. It's like watching sports. Really. Thrilling. The only thing I am ticked off about is that Super Tuesday is going to ruin the whole thing. It's going to be all exciting up until then and just like Christmas morning they are going to tally up all the votes and know for sure who is going to win and the next few months leading up to the national conventions will be boring in comparison. They should spread out the primaries more to keep things interesting for longer. Well - its no secret that I can't stand the Clintons. Heaven help us if Hillary gets elected. Obama is interesting. His charisma is electric. Reminds me of the old school politicians like JFK that people just adored. If I had to choose between Giulliani and Obama I must just go crazy and vote Democrat for once. No surprise I'm a Republican. Should I vote for Romney because he is Mormon like me - OK, makes sense, but there has got to be more to it than that. It would be cool to see someone from our church in such a prominent position - not so much because he could somehow leverage his position of authority to align things with our beliefs, but because he could do a lot to communicate what the church is really all about and dispel a lot f myths. But on the other hand, if his presidency doesn't go well and there are some moral snafus (like another Monica) that could reflect badly on the church. Seems worth the risk though. You have to believe the guy has some character - he has been a Bishop and a Stake President before and he did save the SLC Olympics. I gotta admire and like some of the crazy ideas that Ron Paul has. That kind of radical thinking could be really good for our government to shake things up a bit. As you gathered from above, I'm not a Giuliani fan - seems like a sleazball to me and his values don't line up with mine at all well. So - would I vote for Huckabee - maybe. Seems like a decent fellow. Would I vote for McCain - well, maybe. Seems like a safe bet and in general I'm cool with the status quo. And then there is Romney. Lines up with my values on the issues the best and it sure would be exciting to see a Mormon in the White House. Go Romney!! Let's keep it interesting people. Politics is so drab without some characters. <punch line> .... and the Mormon won the election and became President of the United States of America! My bro is a missionary nowLance went into the Missionary Training Center to be, well, you guessed it trained to be a missionary for the church. For all of you gentiles out there, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka LDS or Mormon church), young men about 19 years old are asked to spend two years out preaching the gospel. Young women have the option of going at 21, but it is not expected like it is for the young men. This always involves leaving your home, oftentimes going abroad and learning a foreign language. You live with a "companion" (another missionary of the same gender as you) - and by "live" here I mean you go everywhere with this person except to the bathroom together. The idea with traveling in twos is to keep each other out of trouble. Missionaries live extraordinarily strict lives so they are completely focused on the work of teaching the gospel - no TV, no radio, no music, no movies, get up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30 every day, read the scriptures and study language for 1.5 -3 hours/day, etc. Missionaries where suits, ties, and little black name tags to identify themselves. I went to Moscow, Russia on my mission from 1996-1998. What a life changing experience. It was so great at that time in my life to spend two years thinking about other people besides myself and really build some character by doing hard things like learning Russian, being rejected, working harder than I ever had in my life, communicating with people, being a leader, etc. Every young man could use an experience like this be it Peace Corp or whatever. The people I met there and the exposure I got to another part of the world and culture was amazing. It was certainly worth setting aside my personal ambitions for a couple of years. I'm proud of my bro for making the right choice to go on a mission. He is going to do great. He is going to be speaking Spanish in the Tallahassee, FL mission. Good luck bro! I just have to reuse this picture since it is soooo appropriate:
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