Puppy and Her Toy Basket

Ginger got so many toys for Christmas that Susan decided she needed a basket to keep them in. Ginger loves her basket of toys. The first thing she does every morning is get all of her toys out of the basket (giving each one of them a little play time). Then she gets into the basket. Here's a picture:

Ginger's First Haircut

You might have noticed in the previous post that Ginger was getting pretty woolly. She got to looking like some furry worm running across the floor instead of a puppy. We decided to get her a trim. We wanted to avoid having a foo-foo looking dog, so we insisted on just a general over all trim. We are very pleased with the results. There is one mystery, however. Why do dog grooming places feel compelled to put perfume and some kind of decoration on the poor little critters after they've already been subjected to the trauma of a haircut?

Any way, here are some before





and after pictures.





Although it's not as obvious in the photos, we think she is getting a little lighter in color, especially her legs and face. Her ears are staying darker. We think she is the ideal puppy.

Ginger and our Granddaughter

We had the privilege of looking after our Texas granddaughter last weekend while her mom and dad entertained a visiting friend. This is always a pleasure because she is such a well behaved child (as are all our grandchildren when they visit). This visit she got in some serious playtime with our puppy. Our granddaughter lives in a house with two dogs, but they are much bigger than she and interaction is difficult. Our granddaughter and Ginger are much the same size, so they can play much better. They also have a common interest--our granddaughter's toys. Most of these toys are almost a decade old because they date from the birth of our first grandchild. As a side note, it's interesting to see that some things never change--all of our grandkids have had the same favorites.

Here are some pictures:

Ginger giving her friend a kiss.



Joint examination of an interesting toy.



Ginger about to sneak off with one of her faves.



And for an added treat, a short movie of our granddaughter and Ginger. Our granddaughter is practicing her cheer for when Mizzou's BCS championship game opponent takes the field in 2009.

2008 Cotton Bowl Pictures

Here's a photo of Susan and me in our Mizzou regalia.



I was trying to take a picture of Truman the Tiger when these girls got in the way. I don't know who they are.



Marching Mizzou--the best marching band in the world. Too little of them at half time. However, the Missouri Waltz will look better if the band goes back to white spats. The Arkansas band was really bad--they looked dopey (they apparently thought the circus was in town) and didn't sound very good either.



The final word.

Mizzou 38--Arkansas 7

Chris, Tim, Susan and I went to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on New Years Day. We met up with some friends of theirs from vet school, who drove down from North Wichita. All of us Mizzou fans were a little disappointed that Mizzou didn't get a BCS bowl bid given the quality of their season. However, it has been 37 years since Mizzou played in a New Years Day bowl game (Susan and I were at that one, too, and it didn't have nearly as good an outcome. We sat in the rain and watched Mizzou lose 10-3). This game was great and the Cotton Bowl is a quality event. A lot of Missouri's players come from Texas and it's prime recruiting ground. Turns out that Dallas is also home to the largest concentration of alums outside Missouri. It had the added benefit of being only three hours drive from Austin.

Missouri was a only a 3.5 point favorite, but dominated the game almost from the beginning. Arkansas had beaten LSU, who is playing for the national championship, so everyone expected the SEC team to give Mizzou fits, especially because Arkansas' running back had won the Doak Walker Award as the best running back in the country. He turned out to be the second best running back on the field yesterday. Tony Temple, Missouri's tailback, set Cotton Bowl records for rushing yardage (281) and touchdowns (4) and was the game's most valuable player. The day was cold and we were in the shade of the scoreboard for much of the game, but it was worth it to see Missouri just overpower a good team.

This has been a weird football season. Missouri lost only two games--both to Oklahoma, who lost two games to teams that Missouri destroyed. Missouri beat teams that beat both of the BCS championship teams (Illinois, who beat Ohio State and Arkansas, who beat LSU). Aside from the two losses to Oklahoma, it was a good season. Mizzou beat Kansas (when Kansas was ranked #1) and won the Big 12 North. Most of the team is back for next year, so I am optimistic.

I have some pictures, but I took them with Chris's camera because I left mine in the car. As soon as she sends them to me, I'll post them here.

Update on Retirement--Christmas 2007

Christmas week is now over. We had a great time. My mom and sister came to visit and our cousins Ron and Jo Ann were here along with their son Bryan, who flew in from SF. Added to that was the first Christmas for Chris, Tim and Maya together. Tim cooked a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner for all of us and then we regrouped for Christmas dinner at our place. We have to figure out something different next year--too much food over too short a time. The only disappointment was that our son and his family were in Chicago rather than here. It's the first time in nine years we haven't celebrated Christmas with them.

We looked at options for my mom when she moves here next year. We found some good choices here in Sun City. We are going to continue scouting things with a view towards making a final decision in February. We are so happy that she has decided to join us in Texas.

I'm still enjoying retirement, probably more each day. Here are a couple of pictures showing how I spend my time--napping with my granddaughter and my puppy.

More Changes

We decided that our cars (which each of us individually liked a lot) didn't fit our needs. We need an SUV for traveling, so Susan's sedan wasn't suitable. However, Susan has always found Craig's Subaru uncomfortable to ride in and it might not be quite big enough anyway. Lastly, neither of them is a golf cart. So we have moved from being a two car family to a one-and-a-half car family. We traded both our cars in and purchased a 2008 Acura MDX. Susan likes the ride and Craig likes the tech (navigation, real time traffic, iPod adapter, XM radio and more). So far (one week) we are very happy with it. We also purchased an EZ-Go golf cart for travel within Sun City and for golf. It has a built in ball washer and an enclosure for the (thankfully infrequent) inclement weather and a few other features.

Here's a picture of them both.:

Smoking Crack

This morning I saw Tom Toles' daily cartoon, which pretty much sums up Republican fiscal policy over the past seven years. Here's the cartoon,



But it also made me think about some of the news stories I've read lately regarding the Bush presidential legacy. Apparently smoking crack has created severe short term memory loss on the part of some of the media. The assessment that shocked me the most was the idea that Bush's legacy might be written in a more positive vein if the current surge in Iraq yields positive results. After lying to get us into Iraq in the first place and squandering thousands of American lives, can any subsequent success rehabilitate the Bush presidency with respect to Iraq?

If a criminal, after a long and vicious crime spree, finally stops, should we hold him up as a paragon for ceasing his criminal acts? Or should he be remembered (and brought to justice, if only in the history books) as the criminal he actually was?

A Modest Proposal

Well, I promised more than just photos of my puppy. Today I was struck by a commentary by Robert Reich (part of which is excerpted below). This fueled my desire to make some comments about what we should really be debating with respect to the economy. The distribution of income and wealth has become so skewed in this country that one would think it would be front and center in the political debate. But that isn't so. Instead we waste time and words on less important issues like subprime mortgages. [This is an issue that really burns me. Bush's new proposal (rumored to be announced today) will actually reward all the greedos or criminals who lied about their incomes and took out mortgages that they couldn't afford. Sensible people who didn't place themselves in economic jeopardy will not be rewarded and may actually be punished in the long run by this piece of political expediency.]

Anyway, back to the point. Here is Reich's commentary(with some emphasis added):

It's the Economy, Stupid -- But Not Just the Current Slowdown.
Most Americans are still not prospering in the global economy -- addressing this means thinking bigger than tax cuts or spending increases.
Robert B. Reich | December 5, 2007 | web only

According to new polls, the economy is the number 1 issue for American voters. But that's not just because the economy is slowing and mortgages are harder to come by. The real reason is middle-class families have exhausted the coping mechanisms they've used for over three decades to get by on median wages that are barely higher than they were in 1970, adjusted for inflation. Male wages today are actually lower than they were then; the income of a young man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that of a man his age three decades ago.

The first coping mechanism was moving more women into paid work. The percent of working mothers with school-age children has almost doubled since 1970 -- from 38 percent to about 70 percent. Some parents are now even doing 24-hour shifts, one on child duty while the other works. I call these families DINS - double income, no sex.

When families couldn't paddle any harder, we started paddling longer. The typical American now works two weeks more each year than 30 years ago. Compared to any other advanced nation we're veritable workaholics, putting in 350 more hours a year than the average European, more even than the notoriously industrious Japanese.

As the tide of economic necessity continued to rise, we turned to the third coping mechanism. We began taking equity out of our homes, big time. But now that home prices are sinking for the first time in decades, this final coping mechanism no longer keeps us afloat. As Moody's reported last week, defaults on home equity loans have surged to the highest level this decade.

In short, it's the economy, stupid. But not just the current slowdown. The underlying problem began around 1970. And any presidential candidate seeking to address it will have to think bigger than stimulating the economy with tax cuts or spending increases. The fact is, most Americans are still not prospering in the high-tech, global economy that emerged three decades ago. Almost all the benefits of economic growth since then have gone to a relatively small number of people at the very top. The candidate who acknowledges this and comes up with ways to truly spread prosperity will have a good chance of winning over America's large and largely-anxious middle class.

This column is adapted from Reich's weekly commentary on American Public Radio's Marketplace.

This brings me to my "modest proposal" (and we aren't going to serve up any immigrant children for dinner). When people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates begin to notice that they aren't paying enough in taxes (and say so in front of Congress), it's probably time to listen. When hedge fund managers and financial engineers who create situations like the alleged "subprime crisis" make thousands of times what a kindergarten teacher makes, it's probably time to take action. We are willing to bail out stupid greedy people who assume mortgages they never should have qualified for in the first place and banks that lose billions investing in questionable (not any more!) securities, but are we willing to pay a living wage and find a decent place to live for a kindergarten teacher?

The first step would be to have a rational tax code that reflects our country's commitment to egalitarianism (and this is only a first step--it's a long way from solving the problems that Reich discusses in his commentary).

Craig's tax proposal: Find the median salary for public school teachers in the ten largest US cities. All income earned by any person below that figure would be exempt from taxes. Above that level, there would be two marginal rates: 20 percent and 50 percent. There would be no deductions for anything and any kind of income--wages, interest, capital gains--would be taxed. The levels at which the marginal rates apply would be set (for now at least) at points that would yield the same level of income to the government as it receives in 2007, except that all income over five million dollars would be taxed at the higher rate. There would be no corporate income tax, but there would be limits on the wealth a corporation could hoard--they would either have to reinvest it in the business or pay it out in dividends.

There are a lot of other things that need to be fixed, too--health care, Social Security, Medicare, etc., but the tax system would be the easiest if we only had the will.

Brunch with Friends from the Fed

This morning we had a nice brunch with some friends at the Fed. One of our sophisticated urban friends picked a restaurant called Sepia. The ambiance is very pleasant and the food is decent. Here's a picture of the restaurant.



The group included most of the people I worked with or for over the past couple of years. here's a group picture.



The level of celebration increased when Susan noticed a beautiful ring on our friend Kristin's hand. Turns out her boyfriend Bob had proposed to her when they were in Ireland a couple of weeks ago. She hadn't yet been back in town to tell everyone the good news. Bob designed the ring himself and it's beautiful--a solitaire diamond with two square emeralds on either side (they are of Irish descent). Here's a picture of Kristin and Bob.



This will be the last post from the frozen north. Tomorrow we're headed for warmer climes. It's been a good visit--we got to spend time with the things we miss most about Chicago--our family and friends.