With the Democrats soon to be running the House, Senate and Presidency, is this the future of America?

What a whirlwind trip it was last week…actually, it started the Thursday before last week as we made the long trip back to Miami. Unfortunately, a 2 year old is not as conducive to a long flight as a 1 year old, so it was rough, but Kyle would make up for it later. Actually, I don’t blame Kyle, as he fell asleep at takeoff, and probably would’ve slept for a couple hours, but he got woken up by the kid behind him who kept kicking his chair, so he was probably cranky b/c of lack of sleep rather than being on the plane itself. Anyways, the reason we went at this time of year instead of during Thanksgiving or Christmas is b/c my cousin was getting married on Saturday, so we had to be there. Barbie came up with a great idea for the rest of the week though as she decided Kyle was old enough to go see Disney World, so that Sunday we all headed up to Orlando for the inaugural Disney trip for Kyle. Barbie’s parents actually flew over for the occasion also, and my parents were there also, so it was all scheduled to be a great trip. Unfortunately, Kyle didn’t really understand the whole waiting in line thing, so the first morning at Disney (Monday) he was not too happy, and pretty much let everyone know how he felt. However, once he was on the ride (Small World), he was mesmerized. He loved all the singing and dancing kids, and basically didn’t say a word the entire ride. Once we got off, he was antsy again and didn’t calm down until we got on another ride (Peter Pan). Then, we decided he needed to expend some energy, so we took him to the Winnie the Pooh park, where he found his favorite thing…WATER! Check out the pictures and see how absolutely soaked he got. Luckily, we had a change of clothes, so all was good.

That afternoon he was much better after his nap and playing in the water. We went on some other rides, and Small World at least 2 more times, but the finale was the light parade that night. Alan and Jeanne reserved us some front row seats on the street, and Kyle had an absolute blast. He was say Goofy, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc…all things I didn’t know he actually knew. It was fantastic.

The next day was Animal Kingdom, and although most people don’t really care for it, I thought it was great. Once we got in the park, we headed straight for the Safari ride. Kyle sat b/t Barbie and I, and he was loving the bumpy ride. Then, once we got to the area with the first animals, he looked over at them and just said ‘WOW!’ It was coolest thing ever. From that moment on he was enthralled by the animals and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the park.

Wednesday thru Friday were pretty much a blur of Golf and Family for us, as I got to play golf 3 times and Barbie’s parents came down to Miami, so they got to visit and see a bunch of my family. All in all, it was a great time, but the best was yet to come. As I mentioned, Kyle was determined to make up for the flight out, and he did all that and more on the flight home. The flight home is 6.5 hours, compared to about 5-5.5 hours to Miami, but it went by oh so much quicker. Kyle fell asleep again at takeoff, but this time didn’t have a kid kicking his chair, so he got his full nap, then he watched the movie Cars, then Barbie pretty much played and/or read with him the rest of the way. There were people all up and down the plane saying how great a kid he was after the flight. I think he was the only kid on this flight, yet hardly anyone knew he was there since he was absolutely perfect.

Here’s the link to our Disney World 2008 pictures.

This past Monday I took the day off for some much needed and well deserved R&R…however, it ended up being anything but that, but it was still fun. Technically a day starts at 12am, and sure enough I was up at that time playing poker with the fellas. The bad part was that I was up til 3am that morning playing cards, and didn’t get to bed until 4am. Around 6am Kyle gets up, so I kind of started to get up, but then Barbie came to the rescue. About 7:45am I finally get out of bed for a 8am call. Luckily, Barbie was willing to take Kyle in this morning, so I didn’t have to worry about trying to watch out for him while on the call.

The meeting ends around 9am and it’s off to the golf course for our 10am tee time. I arrived about 20-30 minutes before teeing off, so I was able to get a few putts and chips in, but it didn’t seem to help as I shot a double bogey on the first four holes. Then, that is when it got good, b/c I somehow managed to get a par, birdie, and 3 bogeys the rest of the way and end up 1 over (bogey golf is my par) :-). On the back side, it was more of the same though, as I got a couple early double bogeys, but then settled down and got a few pars and another eagle to shoot 44 on the backside for a total of 90. It’s been a long time since I shot bogey golf, so I was quite excited.

After golf, I went and picked up Kyle and we went to a park by our house to play for an hour or so. He had a blast going down the slides and swinging on the swings. What’s funny is that after I would push him on the swing, he would want me to go to the other swing and swing. He likes to do stuff, then watch you do it also. After the park, we went home and played with the neighbours kids while we waited for the babysitter to show up.

Once the sitter was there, Barbie and I went to dinner at the Citrus in the Hotel Valencia down at Santana Row. Unfortunately the food wasn’t that great given the price, but it was nice to go out to dinner with just Barbie and myself. Once we got back home, I headed out again to meet some friends out for some drinks to finish the day off. All in all, I was basically up for 21 of 24 hours during the day, and needless to say, I paid the price the next morning, but it was a great day.

After many years here at Cisco, I now have a new job title. They have even released a video announcement about it. Just go to the following link to see the video.

http://cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns669/public_telepresence.html

UPDATE:

Here is another video with me in it.

One of the main differences between Obama and McCain’s tax plans is that Obama will reduce taxes for people making under $250K. McCain wants to reduce taxes across the board. Obama basically is under the theory that the rich can afford it, even though the top 10% of income earners already pay 70% of the taxes. As an FYI, the bottom 50% of income earners pay less than just 3% of the US Taxes. Anyways, the other theory of Obama is that regulation is key and with additional tax revenue, they can pay for other programs such as his health plan, whereas McCain believes that reducing taxes will help the economy by spurring investors to create new businesses, which creates new jobs, etc. So, many Obama supporters claim that McCain’s plan will cost the country billions, which it definitely will, but if you take into account all of Obama’s projects that he plans on spending that additional revenue on, the net result is worse than McCain. According to US Budget Watch’s New Report: A Fiscal Voter Guide to the 2008 Election, McCain’s plan will cause the gov’t to go more into the red by about $180 billion, whereas Obama’s plans will cost the gov’t $286 billion. So, with the $700 billion bailout plan, wouldn’t it be nice to have an additional $100+ billion?

FYI…when you hear Obama complaining about how bad Bush has been for the economy, just take into account the budget deficit ratio as compared to GDP. It is currently less than it ever was in the 90’s during the Clinton administration. Here is a great article about that: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg2178.cfm

We’ve all heard the stories about CEOs and athletes getting paid for nothing, but checkout #4 from this article. Somehow I think he is not alone, only he is the only one who is admitting to it.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/01/mf.easy.money/index.html

4. Edward McSweegan

While he may not be as high profile or as well-paid as the other names on this list, McSweegan may have found the sweetest deal an average guy could find. In a coup ripped directly from one of George Costanza’s daydreams, McSweegan claimed that he did nothing for seven years while employed as a scientist at the National Institutes of Health.

In 2003 McSweegan told the Washington Post that he hadn’t really been given any job responsibilities since 1996.

Prior to that, he had been a researcher and program officer on Lyme disease, but he was removed from that position in 1995 for arguing with a sufferers’ support group.

Although he had a title as director of the U.S.-Indo Vaccine Action Program and a list of nominal duties associated with that role, McSweegan claimed that he only carried out the tiniest of tasks like ordering coffee. In exchange, he received a salary in the neighborhood of $100,000.

When the NIH vehemently disputed McSweegan’s story that he simply went to work and did nothing all day, he maintained that he never received any assignments. McSweegan would show up, sit in his office, and read to kill time.

He took up fiction writing to fill his workdays and published a pair of novels he allegedly wrote while at the office. He told CBS in an interview that he also joined a health club near work “just to sort of break up the day.”

The most amazing part of McSweegan’s story isn’t that he managed to stay employed through this seven-year period, but that he received positive performance reviews from his superiors. He wryly explained to CBS, “I guess I’m good at doing nothing.”

For the past 3 weekends, either Barbie or myself has been out of town. The first weekend I spent in North Carolina playing golf with my dad and cousin. It was supposed to be 4 of us, but my uncle couldn’t make it. Either way, we had a blast playing all these courses in the mountains. Unfortunately, my dad and cousin had to catch an early flight out on Monday morning as Hurricane Ike had the potential of hitting Miami. So, despite staying at the Grove Park Inn, we never got the chance to play it. Here are a bunch of pictures from our golf trip.

The 2nd weekend was our annual Decashathon weekend, which we spent down in Pismo Beach. Heading into it I had hopes of our team winning, but alas, the gods did not agree and we ended up in 2nd place. A few minor mistakes on our part cost us the title, so another year of waiting before getting to bring home the trophy.

Finally, this last weekend was Barbie’s turn to head out of town, so her and a bunch of her girl friends headed to the beach house. Of the 7 girls there though, 4 of them happened to be pregnant, including Barbie. So, for those of you that didn’t know, Barbie is pregnant and due in April. My gut is that it will be a girl, but either way we’ll be happy.

So, what you thought was going to be a little post by me ended up having some big news. Until next time, which should be sooner than the last time.

I wish more celebrities had the same view on politics as Kid Rock, who said the following:

“I truly believe that people like myself, who are in a position of entertainers in the limelight, should keep their mouth shut on politics, Because at the end of the day, I’m good at writing songs and singing. What I’m not educated in is the field of political science. And so for me to be sharing my views and influencing people of who I think they should be voting for … I think would be very irresponsible on my part.”

Barbara Streisand and Eddie Vedder should take note. Vedder even went so far to say in 2000 the following:

“With three Supreme Court positions opening in the next administration, I’m frightened to think of a Republican in office, especially one raised by a father who was in the CIA. I’m moving to a different country if little Damien II gets elected.”

His Spokesman came back and issued the following statement:

“He won’t be leaving the US but he is extremely disappointed,” says Matt Reynolds of Epic Records