The other day I was at the Grand Canyon. It is funny how this big hole in the ground has played in my family over the years. My grandfather was in love with the canyon and the southwest desert. To the point he painted many landscapes of the area and the Indian culture from Arizona.

Over this past weekend, my mom planned a surprise birthday party for my dad. And to her and my sister’s credit they pulled it off. He was completely surprised, least that is what he tells us. It is no doubt he was surprised by all that family that was there. To be honest, so was I. Many that I had not seen in years that live locally in Arizona to those from all over the country. The look on his face when he was figuring out who all was there was priceless.

The party was attended not only by us, but our parent’s extended family of friends. More than eighty people were there and it was simply just a really cool time together. Now my dad walked into a room thinking he was attending someone else’s birthday party, and quickly the rest of his day and the following two days were fully booked for him, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We went to my sister’s house and just got to relax and spend time together as a family. With all those grand (and great grand) kids running around I was amazed at how awesome they all are. Seriously, they are just amazing little people and it is good to know our family is deep and wide with good people coming up.

We didn’t stay up too late since mom had planned for a day trip to the Grand Canyon for the next day. Dad got to do all the driving! Now I know those vans are supposed to hold 15 people, but they must be very small people. They are about as comfortable as a Korean cab! Most certainly not designed for trips longer than 14 minutes, HAHA. But, we made it up to the canyon and back no worse for wear. If anything, it was fun because I got to know everyone better just listening to them.

Overall it was a pretty awesome experience for me.

Recently, I have had to move much of my business work to PC. In the world of real estate everyone and everything is done on PC. It has been a battle to stay on a Mac, but I am just tired of it. And now that I have a partner in business it just makes sense to go ahead and move to PC.

One program I have always loved from MS is their “One Note” It is such a cool program, and I have much of it figured out now. Still working on the shared notebook thing but I hope I am onto the solution. Once I have that down, working between us will be so much easier! Hoping that it can be fixed with dropbox, if it is then all will be good!

One thing I am learning to like is blogging from Word. Seems pretty slick so far and I am finding it enjoyable to research again for posts. Not to mention putting pics and links in as well. This is a short posting because I want to see how this works, more soon.

Ford Unveils New Car For Cash-Strapped Buyers: The 1993 Taurus

I know this woman is one of those train wreaks you just can not stop watching. Everything about Carrie Prejean just shows how worthless this person is. Her family and friends must be embarrassed by her. She has done nothing but lie and misrepresent herself since Perez Hilton asked her that question.

Carrie Prejean personifies the term, skank.

Apple tablet should cost $600 to reach Windows users: “Apple’s often-rumored tablet may need to come in well below the rumored $800 price if it hopes to attract Windows users, a study shows today. While Retrevo believes 68 percent of Mac users are willing to opt for the large multi-touch device if it costs over $600, only 36 percent of Windows users asked would agree to the same terms. The difference is similarly wide at $800 where 41 percent of Mac users would pay $800 or more while just 20 percent of Windows users would agree to the same terms….

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I agree, that at some point Apple is going to have to deal with this issue. The tablet is going to be a game changer, but will only really be an impact if they can get the price down. Exciting stuff though, watch out “Nook” and Mr. Kindle, a new player is stepping into the game!

Congress is broken, our government and our leaders are incapable of fulfilling their responsibilities. While they sit in their cozy warm offices, people out here are dying and they could careless. Billions have been sent to Wall Street, in time for them to cook the books again and pass out MILLIONS in bonuses. They enact a first time home buyer program that is blowing up in our faces with loop holes that are allowing four year olds to get get benefits.

All these cash for votes, opps…. clunkers programs continue to lead us down the road of disaster. The road of ignoring the elephant in the room, that of a out of control debit load and unemployment that is forcing the foreclosure rate to climb beyond the point of no return.

Reality is, healthcare and cash for clunkers are not feeding people or keeping the roof over their heads. Unemployment is our number one problem, as it directly effects when the real issues that need to be corrected are addressed. Without people working, debit can not be paid down, taxes can not be paid, hello it isn’t that difficult to understand.

Now this poor woman, trying to do the right thing gets smacked for working, doing anything she can. The powers to be basically penalize her by cutting her benefits nearly in half. Let’s not even get into the unemployment extension that is being held up because these freaks can’t agree on what account to use. WHAT DO YOU CARE, ITS NOT YOUR MONEY ANYWAY!

Hello…HELLO….ANYONE UP THERE ON THAT HILL…..HELLO???

Unemployment benefit extension criteria unfortunate :

This is a must see!  HAHAHA!

Seems Rush Limbaugh is not at all too happy with losing his chance at being allowed into the big room for NFL owners.  And he isn’t standing for it either!  It is someone else fault, and their name is Rev. Al Sharpton. 

Course, all of this comes with the threat of a lawsuit between Rev., Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh.  Rush Limbaugh made claims that Rev. Al Sharpton had “a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot” and the “1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot.”

Now, the Rev., Al Sharpton of course had to come out in his own defense and for the most part called Rush Limbaugh a liar, since he was not even there for either incident.  Not that he didn’t show up after the fact and added a little fuel to the fire. 

Seems the healthcare industry cares A LOT! To the tune of $263 million (that is a quarter of a billion folks) bucks this year. Between the cost of them going to congress, greasing congress, and info commercials.

Don’t worry though, fear factoring is in full force. Recent TV ad targeting seniors and playing on their concerns and fears is making its impact. Seems fear mongering among seniors is still one of the best forms of lobbying.

Rep. Jim Cooper D-Tennessee likens it all to a football game saying, “It is sort of a Super Bowl of lobbying for health care reform.” Going on to say that the lobbyist are winning “so far, but the game’s not over yet.” Glad my health and the care I need still has a chance in the big game.

PricewatherhouseCooper released a study saying basically that if healthcare as proposed, would increase premiums upwards of $4000 for a family. Course this has people freaking out and running scared. Hold the phone Gracie, they also admit they did not take into account some of the subsidies that are proposed. Including but not limited to low-income families. Even they said that these provisions would offset this $4000 per family impact. In other words, we ran a study, and didn’t take everything into account so this huge number we are using to scare you is not real. Now, the Republicans are running up and down the halls of the Capital buildings screaming, “the sky is falling, and PricewaterhouseCooper says so.” How stupid do these people think we are? Pretty stupid it seems, and historically we are proving them right.

Deals are being made right and left, industries that we think stand for one thing are making and benefitting from the deals at the cost of? Everyone from coal miners, clinical labs, and hospitals are the special interest groups winning exemptions from taxes and other cost-cutting measures from the plan that the Senate Finance committee has come up with. Confused? Good, your suppose to be, that is how all of this works.

The United States of America, this great land and society, ranks 37th in the world with its Healthcare system. Which gives us a world ranking of 42nd in life expectancy.

So, what is important? Maybe 50 million Americans without healthcare is acceptable. It is only 18 thousand people that die every year because of complications of being uninsured. I am one of those 18 thousand.

Now, I am against anyone taking advantage of others. But, the FTC & the Federal Government is way over stepping their area of responsibility. This is just another attack on free speech and civil rights. This is the Patriot Act of the internet. Yes, this sounds like a nice thing they are doing to protect people but it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and nothing more. The federal government can’t do the job it is already charged to perform and now they want to go out and start controlling the internet. What is happening here folks? This is crazy!

FTC to Regulate Blogging – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News – FOXNews.com: “”