Christmas Day 2008

Here are some photo highlights from Christmas morning here at the house. Melinda and I already bought ourselves a big gift earlier with the keyboard in our living room (and the 2 kitties). We still had things to open. John got Mel a nice set of earrings and he shocked me totally by giving me a Squier Strat electric guitar that he bought with his own money! I was shocked to say the least... Everyone had a great time opening presents before and after Mamaw and Papaw came over. There was wrapping paper all over the place and the cats saw to it that they explored every inch of it. Another blessed Christmas. Now it's time to get ready for 2009.
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Christmas Eve 2008

We spent Christmas Eve once again this year at my mom's. It was not the same however since my step-dad John was not there. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months already since he passed away... We did have a good time however. There was lots of food, drink, and of course, presents!

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Kids Christmas presentation

The kids in our church sang several songs this weekend for the congregation and to residents of a local nursing home. John played bongos and Katie Grace got to sing a solo ("Happy Birthday Jesus"). Melinda led the kids along on a song for which they used sign language. They did a wonderful job and blessed us all. In between church and the trip to the nursing home was a feast fit for a King.
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Apple Slice anyone?

Does anyone here remember Apple Slice soda that was marketed in the late 80s? It was so good!!! I remember me and Melinda stopping by the UDF at Clough and 8-mile to get a can each after spending the day at Julif's North Park. It had a very refreshing, almost fermented taste to it. Apple Slice didn't last too long and has not been seen since.

Jim pranks Dwight...again.

Pastor Brian's 50th b-day party

We were part of a surprise birthday party for our Pastor who just turned 50 this weekend. We had a blast. Melinda took some great shots of the event. We eventually got around to singing Christmas carols and worship songs after a huge feaste! Katie Grace even took a turn singing the song she is learning ("Happy Birthday Jesus") for the church's Christmas presentation. There were people there from all around the tri-state including some from as far as Lexington! Many thanks to Viki and Mick for opening up their beautiful house to host the event!
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Meteorology 101

I am officially sick and tired of TV meteorologists. Since when do we heap 6-figure salaries on supposed scientists who claim to be able to predict the future??? Case in point; we hear all day yesterday from the weather guessers about how the sky is going to fall (well, at least 2-3 inches of the sky) and cause mass chaos in the city the next morning. They pound the drum all day long and we all fall in line. People are rushing the stores for the milk and bread they will need to "survive" the catastrophe. Schools begin going on 2-hour delays even though a single flake has yet to fall. The TV news crews do their typical and hokey remote story in front of the local salt pile. It's so hilarious to see people rush around like this. And for what? I wake up and see not even a dusting of the white death has fallen. I am tired of half of the local news broadcast being gobbled up by palm-readers. Give me news; REAL news. Save the weather for the end of the broadcast. The worst is local channel 9's Steve Raleigh. He sounds like he's trying to sell us a used car in his phony "superhero" voice. and his plastic surgery profile complete with artificial cleft chin and painted-on eyebrows. It's embarrassing just to watch (which is why I don't). Give me Horstmeyer or Hedrick because at least they seem sincere in their speech. They all seem to suffer from the 'despite my lousy record, I know what's going to happen' syndrome. So my advice to all reading this is to simply stick your head out the window and take your best guess at the weather yourself; it's gotta be better than theirs.

Bella and Riley settling in

Our two new kitties are settling in now a week and a half after we got them from the animal rescue agency. Bella (the mostly white cat) is such a sweetie especially in the morning when she greets Melinda & I with a bunch of purring and loving. Riley, the gray one, he's the younger and more mischievous cat. He really seems to enjoy being carried around by Katie Grace. His favorite pastime is seeing what he can get into like climbing up the Christmas tree! They play well with each other and that is a ton of fun to watch. Who needs TV?
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Scandals and how we deal with them

Well, we're not even to the inaugural yet and there's already a scandal brewing with President-elect Obama. People say that the White House can't be bought and while that is up for debate, one thing is not debatable, and that is the fact that the Illinois vacated senate seat IS for sale...or at least was. I hope critics of Obama keep in mind that they need to be "fair and balanced" when looking at this situation. I know, I know; they will say that they didn't see much restraint the last 8 years when people would blindly jump on every innuendo about Bush & Cheney (ie. 9/11, Haliburton, WMD) without examining the facts (and I don't mean the 'facts' on the hate-blogger sites). They have a point but if we have learned anything over the past 8 years I would hope it would be how disgusting it is to see people spew hatred and accusations without knowing the facts (and in a lot of cases, not wanting to know the facts). As a nation, we need to rise above that. If President-elect Obama knew of the situation then he should be held accountable. If no evidence exists that he did, then Obama needs to be dropped from the discussion. Focus on the Governor of Illinois and hold him accountable. Stooping to the level of the 2nd grade behavior we've been subjected to the past decade is not going to advance this country past the intolerance that was on display against President Bush. Be fair and balanced to all people and situations even if you don't agree with them or their views. Selective tolerance is not tolerance at all.

Christmas lights - remix

OK, here's what happened: I was getting frustrated trying to take a photo of the Christmas lights on the house the other evening because the image kept blurring due to lack of light...so I try to see what I can do to use that blur to my advantage. The results were pretty cool I thought. A couple of photos of the exterior lights later and it was off to the conforts of the indoors to try a few similar shots of the Christmas tree and some Christmas lights in the hall. Kinda looks like a cool Christmas CD cover don't you think?
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Flashback of the week: Dec. 1986

It was 22 years ago this week that Melinda and I participated in the 9th annual 'Ye Olde Traditional Feaste' put on by the Glen Este High School Chorus. We were seniors in high school and by then the Feaste had become a part of the community. The event was set in 17th century England and was modelled after the Boar's Head Feaste that takes place annually in Cincinnati. As choir members, we had spent a couple of months preparing the songs, building the sets and decorations, and assigning food and clean-up duties. The Feaste was quite an undertaking for a bunch of high school students but it was a venture well worth the effort. Teamwork building was taking place right under our noses. The hours of sweat equity made us all better students and, I feel, more prepared for the life that awaited us after school. The friendships that were strengthened and the memories made will never be forgotten.

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School days

I remember back in the late 70's when I was going to Brantner Elementary and how excited I would be to get my school stuff at Becker Drugs in Mt. Carmel. I would be on the prowl for the coolest pencil box and lunch box. Then I would go hunting down the latest in subject organization. When the Trapper Keeper came out it was like having a complete filing system in my hands. I also remember having a little thumb-indexed dictionary much like the Thesaurus shown here. Lasted for many years. We used to also get jazzed up for when we'd get our backpack to carry it all in. I remember one year my sister and I, as well as our neighbor Mike, got this sling-over-your-shoulder bag with nylon ropes. Very cool looking but very hard to carry as we soon found out. Nevertheless, those days still come back to me every Fall when I catch a whiff of the school supply aisle. Those were the days...school days that is.

Flashback of the week: 15 years at the planning commission!

Hard to believe (at least for me) that tomorrow will mark the 15th anniversary of being hired here at the Boone County Planning Commission. It was late 1993 and I was only 9 months into my job as zoning administrator for Batavia Township in Clermont County when I was hired on at Boone County. I started here on Dec. 6, 1993 and since then I have seen and experienced quite a lot personally and professionally. Personally I have seen my 2 kids enter the world and grow in the Lord. I have also lost my father and father-in-law. Melinda and I moved from Clermont County to Boone County in 1994. Professionally it's been quite the wild ride. I've been to San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, and all over the state of Kentucky. I've been to a bazillion public meetings. Been hollered at by the public at a few of these meetings. I've been praised at some of them too. I nearly sunk myself in mud on site checks. I cut a ribbon with the Judge Executive once. I busted a window with a stray tee shot at one of the county employee golf outings. I've also had some brushes with fame. I bumped into Ringo Starr poolside at a hotel; ate breakfast at a table next to singer Michael McDonald; sat next to Venus Williams on a plane; I've even been on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. It's true that in some ways it seems like a lifetime and at times like I just started here. Let's hope that in this hard economic time that I will be here for quite a while still.

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Changes

This is my latest column from the upcoming issue of Kentucky Planner.

Change is all around us. The leaves have turned and are now lying on the ground exposing the skeletons of what were beautiful, green, lush trees. The temperature has changed and forced us to adjust our wardrobe to acclimate to the cold. The economy has forced us to search out change...spare change that is. And if that were not enough for you, we have change happening at the pinnacle of our country’s leadership. A word of caution however in this time of change; Edward T. McMahon of The Conservation Fund once said, “The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question is how.” Urban planners like ourselves seem prone to believing that change in and of itself can solve our problems but change simply for the sake of change will most likely lead to chaos. We must have a solid plan in place for how we are to change things and to what ends. Take suburban sprawl for example. I remember in 1992 when most in our profession were singing the praises of change that was occurring in the White House. The Clinton-Gore administration was going to help us end suburban sprawl and send us rocketing into the world of sustainability. What we saw, however, was the continuation, and in fact, an acceleration of sprawl throughout the 1990s. Were we guilty of thinking that change at the top would fix everything? Where was our profession's follow-up? Did we let our guard down and rest on our laurels? The real change needed to occur at the grass roots level where locally elected officials were approving any and all developments that came their way no matter how many cul-de-sacs it included. We saw change at the top again in 2000 but the sprawl continued as if unfazed by the election of W. Bush. In fact, the only thing that seems to have been effective in slowing down the uncontrolled growth we’ve seen over the past 15 years has been the current housing lending and economic crisis. But even that could be a problem for planners as local communities become more desperate to approve something...anything, just to get their town back on its feet again. I will repeat a familiar refrain: we’ve got to educate the local officials and start making change from the bottom up or it will all be in vain. If not, the only change our profession will see is local politicians turning to other professionals for solutions. And that is change we simply can’t afford.

A cool Christmas song & video

Recently Melinda heard this great Christmas song on WAKW (93.3) that mixed classical instruments and contemporary electric guitars effectively. The song is basically "The Carol of the Bells" but the group who performs it, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, titles it "Christmas Eve/Sarejevo 12/24" and it's very cool! I tracked down the video for it and it's pretty cool too. Hope you enjoy the mix of music styles.

New cat no. 2 - Riley

John picked out a companion cat for Bella today. His name was Blue but John is calling him Riley after his favorite character in the National Treasure movies. Now it's going to be a waiting game to see if Bella and Riley will get along. Bella hardly came out from hiding all evening and day today but when Riley came home she came right out...and began whacking him with her claws! Yikes! Riley is a lot younger (almost 4 months) than Bella and she's not too amused by him wanting to play all the time. She's pretty stressed about it. Hopefully it works out. Right now, just before bed, John is wondering if it would be a good idea to take down all the interior Christmas lights he worked so hard at putting up. Seems Riley likes to go after them and John is afraid he'll get tangled up somewhere. Welcome to the world of having a kitten! Here's Blue's story from the website we first discovered both cats on (http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/wr.html):

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Born August 16, 2008. Blue is an adorable, sweet lovely little baby kitten. He follows you around and loves to be held and petted. He's very social and doesn't run and hide from you. He loves to run and play, but loves kisses and belly rubs too. Blue loves his humans. He follows you around the house and meows at you to pick him up. He jumps up on the couch with you as soon as you sit down. He loves to play, but would much rather hang out on the couch with foster mom....he's definitely a couch potato.

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