Grandparents?

We are to become Grand parents in August/September. Eliza is having a baby and we are excited to begin spoiling it.

Vacation 2011 - Florida

Best vacation to date. We flew out of Fargo directly to Orlando. Picked up our car and drove to Fort Lauderdale. After a few days of lounging around, we borded the Ruby Princess, and headed out to sea.

This was our first cruise. The staff were excellent, and the ship a wonder. We ate too much, and had lots of fun. There was a performing troup onboard and they gave some great shows. Also were a couple of comedians performing. We had a couple of dancing lessons and saw a couple of movies under the stars. We had signed up for assigned dinner seating, so we ate at 5:30 every night with the same two couples and the same wait team.

Both the other couples were great people around our age and we had fun meeting with them and discussing our day's adventures. Jimmy, our waiter, is Phillipino, and has been working there for 21 years. This was to be his last cruise. He was attentive and friendly and at one point seemed almost hurt at the refusal of the famed White (desert) Menu. Just a great fellow. His assitant waiter, Vladimir, was from the Ukraine, and a sweet young man. He was lots of fun and both of them served us well and made us feel at home.

We had fun exploring the ship, and even took the galley tour. The biggest kitchen I have ever seen! There is a place in the middle of the ship called the Piazza. It opens through thre decks and has continual shows of music and such. We watched the Checkerboard Guy perform his juggling and comedy. Very fun. We had a balcony and loved to stand or sit out and enjoy the night air and warm temps.

Four stops. Princess Cays. This is a beach area on the southern end of Eleuthera, Bahamas. It is owned by Princess. We went kayaking in the surf and walked the tide pools and swan amoung tiny fish.

St. Martin or Sint Maarten is a Dutch island. We went helmet diving and had a great time. Had fish eat out of our hands and held a sea-urchin and sea-spider.

St. Thomas is an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, so our cell phones worked for a while. We went on a pirate schooner (Bones) to Turtle Cove for snorkling. Had a fun time there. The rocks around the port were covered with iguanas. We got rained on. a short strong storm, we just walked around while others ran for covered. We'd been in minus degree blizzards before, a nearly windless 85 degree rainstorm was refreshing.

Last stop was at Grand Turk. The main island of the Turks and Caicos islands. We just sat on the beach and swam in the surf. Very relaxing.

We had a wonderful time there. When we got back to Florida, we went to the Ft. Lauderdale beach and walked it. Then we drove to Orlando.

We spent one day at Disney World. It was disappointing compared to Disneyland. It didn't seem as well run, but it was okay.

The next three days we spent at Universal Studios and had a great time. This guy hates roller coasters. Well, I did. Awesome! we rode every one they had except for this one that just drops you straight down over and over. Saw lots of cool things and got really, really wet.

Well, that's about it, had a great time but missed everybody. It's good to be home.

Easter - He has risen!

(pretend it's last week. I've been busy, okay?)

Easter 2011. Just got home from vacation yesterday. To my surprise, all the animals are alive and the Easter lake in my north field didn't materialize.

Attended worship service provided by Bethel EFC, at Lake Region State College. Always a huge event. Great peformances by the music and performers. Good testamonies and another superb sermon by Pastor Bruce Dick. A glorius time.

Consider Isaiah 53. Written 700 years before the birth of Christ, yet details his sacrificial work at the cross in minute detail. This continually blows me away.

Isaiah 53:5-6
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on himthe iniquity of us all.

Thank you, merciful Father, may we always remember what your Son has done for us. It is finished.

There is something wrong here

I was just thinking. Back in the days before electricity, everyone knew the basic problems and dangers of kerosene. lamps on buggys, house lights, street lights, etc. They all knew that a lamp could get broken and the whole house could go up. So, did the government step in and say that the dangers were too great? Danger of fire, people breathing kerosene fumes and such? Did they outlaw it without something to replace it first? They did not. The world continued to use it until some private citizens invented, under their own motivations, something better. Then the world, seeing a better solution, willingly converted everything to the new technology. It used to be "Build a better mousetrap...", now it doesn't matter, the government decides the mouse trap is innefiecient, and outlaws it. then tries to fund the creating of a new device to fill the gap. Meantime, we are being over run by mice. There is something wrong here.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Well, 3 nouns and 1 adjective. 2 nouns are just wrong. I'm back I don't know for how long. Life continues. This is where I am. First, I have fallen once again madly in love with my wife. We are going away for a bit and will begin a new segment of our lives when we get back. She wants to travel more, I'm looking at schooling. We are going to be Grandparents! My daughter has grown up. Not completely, but a fine young lady. Alex is persuing his dreams and going to be attending a 4-year college soon. Just love my kids. The family will be going to Washington DC for T.A.P.S. this year. It's spring and the worst of winter is over, here comes the floods. North Easter Lake is forming. That is where my north hay field floods until the drain channel thaws enough to drain it. I keep hearing the first line of Cream's song, Tales of Brave Ulyses. "You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever, so you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun." Bring on the violence, can't wait. Last January, LM laid off 165 employees. I am out-of-work but looking. It's hard to find $16.00 an hour, even though the ND economy is the best in the nation. My favorite Governer is in Washington now in the Senate. We replaced two of the three Dems from our state and the third won't be running again. What else? Who knows. It's a new year and I might have more hope. God is still in control.

Challenge for March

This is pointless because no on reads this blog anyway.

Challenge: Watch Glenn Beck next week. Listen (no, really, I mean listen, leave your preconcieved notions elsewhere) to a week of Mark Levin or Rush Limbaugh.

Get back to me.

They are at it again!!!

I'm watching Hannity and a couple of other news/opinions programs and I can't believe that the game isn't changing. The issue is brought up about how Obama has now invited Republicans into the health care debate. The libs complain that the Republicans are being obstructionists and have no ideas and just don't want to help. It's like reading a book and every other chapter is a completely different story. The Democrats and the President specifically have left the Republicans out of the debate. The discussions have not been put on C-Span as promised there is no transparency. When the Dems talk about bi-partanship, they mean do it our way. There are plenty of ideas being offered by Conservatives to address the problems within the health care system. That is the main idea coming from the right. Let's do what will fix the problems. The Left just wants to scrap the entire thing and bring in an overweight unfundable Government control system. They don't want to fix what needs to be fixed they just want their system, instead. It goes around and around. The left keeps saying the right doesn't want to participate while not letting them in the door and then whine that the Republicans are obstructing when the Dems can't even pass the measures with a fillibuster proof majority. Now that they no longer have it, they point at the right and say it's their fault. I get so tired of the same old games from Washington and yes, I believe it's worse on the left. 3

I started out as not a fan of Glen Beck. There was a lot about his show I didn't like, including the format. He has won me over on some points. For the most part, I don't think ha says anything that isn't being said by others, but he has a style that presents the arguments in a very simple format. Like a school teacher, his presentation is straight-forward. Starting a couple of months ago, he has shifted direction and has grown a lot. He is, as I am, I conservative rather than a Republican. A constitutionalist. The federal government currently has power that it was never intended to have. The framers and founders would be agast at what has been down to the system of goverment. There is a movement within Washington that is known as the Progressive movement. This movement goes back to the end of the 19th century. It is founded in the writings of Neitszche and Marx. It says that most of the little people are not smart enough to run the world so the elites and intellectuals need to do it for them. Ultimately this leads to socialism as the government becomes larger and larger and controls more and more of th lives of the people. I want the government out of my life. Now, am I talking about Democrats? am I talking about Obama and the current administration, or who? The truth is the the prograssive movement is throughout the system. Bush is a progressive. So is Obama. McCain, Pelosi, Reid, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt. This got a big start when a college man began writing about how the elite should take control. This man started wriying in the 1880s and later became President Woodrow Wilson. My studies have only begun on this, but what I've found so far scares the heck out of me.

Presently, though, the problem is that Govenment is too big and controls too much of our lives. Government does little well and is too cumbersome to affect anything quickly. Politics was never meant to be a career in itself. Too many on both sides of the Aisle do just that. They pass laws which will affect regular life that they will never have to return to live. The system of cronyism and lobbyists is an outrage and the founders such as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison would never have wanted it to happen.

Go ahead, say, well, Obama's spending too much, but so did Bush. Right, they both did and they were both wrong. Bush shored up National Security but left the border wide open. He wanted to improve education, but never took on the Teachers unions. Obama is totally committed to Seiu and gives them more power daily. JFK said "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." He was talking about personal service, not paying taxes. He stood up to the Communists and the Unions. He started a war in Asia because there was oppression, that was a real can of worms. I support the idea of Vietnam, the problem was that Johnson poured too much money and troops into it without an understanding of how to win or real drive to solve it. Nixon followed into it and was powerless to end it after the Democrat congress got the blame shifted to the right and stopped funding it.

I have a person list of real leaders in the White House and will someday know enough to know when it is complete up to date. Let's just list some of my heroes. Washington, Lincoln, Reagan.

What I heard recently was that yes, Reagan did growth the debt, but had also grown GDP to pay for it. What happened after that was Carter, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama. Progressives all.