Like Christmas in August

I don't know how the junk I put up here can possibly compare to Brian's or Lori's. I don't travel to foreign countries to hit on married women and I don't get my e-mails forwarded to national organizations (I do believe I once wrote a letter to Tony the Tiger, though.) Anyway, since I haven't done anything worth mentioning lately, I guess I'll mention what I plan to do this weekend, which is have a great freakin' time.

Once a year, an arts and crafts festival called Park Ave Fest comes to my neighborhood. Now, the arts and crafts are neither here nor there, I don't know why people go shopping in case they see something they like but didn't know they wanted, its expensive enough to buy the things you already knew you wanted. But I digress. The main reason for Park Ave Fest is for jerks like us to throw huge parties, exceed the maximum occupancy set by the fire department for driveways and cook out some great food.

Last year, I woke up a little late (around 6am). I anxiously awaited anyone else to wake up, then finally resorted to playing music at my computer loud enough to wake people on both sides of the house. They weren't happy at first, and they didn't get any happier. But I did. Now I had people to hang out with. Here's a picture of me from exactly 9:49 am that day.

I realize that's a little early to be cracking my first beer, but this really is a special occasion. I'm like a little kid that day, bouncing my knees and running around like an idiot waiting for the good times to start. And if you look closely at the profile in this image, you can see what I used to look like when I was thin.

As you can see, more people started to show up after that, and I wasn't the only once excited. Here's a few more people getting started with a little drinking game around 11:42... still not noon but close enough. We call this game 'Baseball'. It's a combination of flip cup and beer pong. Leave it to Wikipedia to make just about anything worthy of a page in an online encyclopedia.

It's still early at this party, though, as you can tell from this picture of Jason Groat. His eyes are still open, and it looks like he could still probably form some kind of sentence. Plus, it's really not living up to much more than a barbecue at this point (although I didn't take any pictures of food either).

At around 12:47 the party hits a major milestone. Jaimie Beecher, the world class bartender at the Sports Page officially becomes the first woman at the party (at least as well as I can remember). It should be easy to tell from this picture why I spend so much time at the Sports Page.

The party really gets going around then, and random people who are walking around the neighborhood during the festival realize they just spent $42 for a blanket, or $19 for a birdhouse, or $4 for an ashtray made by someone's child. They see the party and remember that having a free beer can make up for the stupid mistake they just made, and more people show up when they see so many people having a good time. Works every year.

By 2:27 there's a good amount of people hanging out, enjoying the food, fun, and drinks. The kid in the center (Jason George) holding his arm in the air isn't legally retarded, but I am appealing the court's decision. And on the right you'll see me at 2:29 still going strong. For some reason, I don't have any pictures between 2:29 and 8:47... and nobody wants to see the pictures from 8:47, especially not me.

I'm already forgetting the point of this whole article, which may or may not have something to do with parties like this. This year I'll try to take more pictures... because I'm told we had around 100 people at the house at one point, and I don't have pictures of that here.

This is going to be the last year that I'll be living near Park Ave, which means I have to say goodbye to these parties. In a way, it's like I don't believe in Santa anymore. At least it wasn't Mom that spoiled this one for me.

Rocking the House

I went to the National NOW convention in Bethesda from 7/18-7/20.
While we hoped we'd get a chance to wander around the mall or the Smithsonian, never did! It was really hot and muggy! My travel log may not be as amusing as Brian's (after all I am sober), but I thought I would share it anyhow.
I had been annoyed with the leaderships lack of willingness to discuss the sexism in the Presdential Primary and how women would respond to it. They blocked our resolution (that would have brought this discussion to floor on Sunday's Plenary). In the wee hours of Sunday morning, I came up with a new plan. I rose early and wrote out a statement.
My plan was to make a motion to reorder the resolutions and place those resolutions that are not germaine to women's rights at the end. Marcia seconded for me. That afforded me the opportunity to read my statement.
It went over great. Marcia received several comments from other State Presidents who wanted a copy of my statement. Marj--who Cindy and I met in Ohio on the Hillary trail--- sent my statement on to her Virginia people with this email that she titled: "Polar Bear in the White House".

Hello, All -The national NOW conference last weekend was interesting and lively as usual. At the concluding plenary Sunday afternoon, where two and half hours were allotted for about 11 resolutions, there was a discussion about whether we wanted to consider resolutions on animal rights and global warming when there was so little time (the other resolutions dealt with health care, reproductive rights, pay equity, etc). Lori Gardner, President of Tompkins County NOW in NY and Executive VP of NOW New York State, rocked the house with her remarks. I thought you'd enjoy them (see below).

Women Must Put Women's Rights First I think that NOW needs to be more focused on sexism and actual women's issues.Personally I am a staunch environmentalist. I belong to several environmental organizations. I hang my wash out on the line, I recycle, reuse, and compost to the extent that I bring my used egg cartons back to farmers for reuse. I save the whales, seals, wolves, polar bears, (and numerous more mammalian and non mammalian species.)But I strongly believe that we should not be diverting NOW's focus. NOW should be saving women! Sexism is the last truly acceptable ism.Did you hear the boys at Sierra Club speaking up against the sexism in the primary?Did you hear the boys at PETA speaking up against the sexism in the primary?Did you hear the boys at the National Wildlife Federation speaking up against the sexism in the primary?NO-- they stick to their message.While the Democratic Party should encompass all these issues and women's rights-Did you hear the Democratic Party speaking up against the sexism in the primary?Did you hear its presumptive male nominee speaking up against the sexism in the primary?Did you hear its Chair speaking up against the sexism in the primary (I mean before women stopped sending in money and the woman candidate had suspended her campaign)?The final straw though is when the National Organization for Women (the one organization who has this mission) can't discuss the sexism in the primary and how we should respond to it, because we need more time to discuss global warming and animal rights.If women don't learn to put themselves first-we will forever be last!It is OK for us to say that everyone and everything doesn't always come before women. Women need to focus and make our rights a priority for us-no one else will.If we can't focus we'll have a male polar bear in the White House before we have a woman.
I have this and numerous other commentaries on the TCNOW blog--so far I am the sole author. Marcia also used my He must Come Bearing Gifts article as a press release.
Lori

Japan

Hi everybody!!! I just thought that I would post some pictures from Japan on this really cool blog Mom created.

Last night Sunstar Japan had a welcome party for Richard and myself. It came with a lot of beer some Saki and even a nice Japanese girl...I know what you are thinking and no there was not a happy ending. Don't think I didn't ask.

We went to a bar in Kusatsu and I'll be damned if I could pronounce the name let alone remember what it was called. That is neither here nor there.

The first picture is of Me and Richard Ohigashi, he is my boss at Sunnex and is very drunk in this picture...and so am I.

The next picture is of Kenji Akiyama (R&D for Sunnex & chick magnet), Shinsuki Otaka (Sales Engineer for Sunstar and alcohol consumption champion), and me. Anytime Otaka san took a picture with me he gave a thumbs up. Otaka san made me feel very welcome. He would cheers my glass and say things like "Welcome to Sunstar, Cheers, Kumpai and Salute" After the 25th time of doing this I realized that he was trying to get me drunk. Mission accomplished

The next picture is of Richard and Bie Fukui (Sunstar Engineer) she is filling up Richards Saki for the umpteenth time. It came as a surprise to me that she is 32 years old, I would have guessed she was 25. Then it came as a disappointment that she was married. She had a very good sense of humor being the only girl and having 4 Japanese men and 1 American hit on her all night...of course we hit on her she's married not dead.

This last picture is of Richard and Yoshinobu san. Yoshinobu san was the previous General Manager of Sunnex. He was also the previous owner of my green furniture.
I caught him sleeping like 10 times during our meeting with Harley. To be fair he wasn't the only Japanese person sleeping during the meeting, they all sleep in meetings. They try to pass it off as meditation, but I know what they're up to.

I didn't take pictures of the food so I will try to describe it to you. It was raw and slimy with a side of soy sauce. I'm gonna pat myself on the back for that vivid description. I'm sure you can almost see the food right in front of you...I'm gonna have to take pictures of the food next time.

Well that has been the highlight of my trip so far. Stay tuned for tales of Tokyo.

Your shamelessly hung over family member,
Brian

Somphane's visit

Most of you know the 1st student I had as a Literacy Volunteer tutor, Somphane, was coming to visit last week. She came to me at age 20 from Laos, staying with her aunt and uncle in Canandaigua. She was always so appreciative and open it was very easy to bond with her. When she moved to Boston about a year and a half ago to stay with another aunt and uncle, she was devastated. She really loved her Uncle Suki and she said, me. It was very hard for her, but she got a job in a factory, continued with her ESL classes, got a driving permit and helped pay her way. She has stayed in touch with me and her Uncle Suki, and now he is relocating to Mobile, Alabama for business reasons and she is going with him. So this visit is "on her way" to Alabama.

I've been able to spend some time with her this past week, we went down to the lake for a walk, did some local shopping and grilled some chicken at my house, went to Eastview where she bought some "Alabama" clothes, and went to the fireworks on the lake. I'm not sure when she'll be off, but she's a very sweet and unassuming person who I have really enjoyed seeing again.

I've got a few pictures, she's much more photogenic than I, but she was really impressed with my tomato plant!

Busily working round the house

Mom, Dad and Cindy went down to Lori's on 7/28.
OK - It probably looks like we're not working hard. We needed a break! Between cutting, splitting, loading, stacking wood; picking up stones and rocks from the garden and then trying to drive the wheelbarrow full of stones, WE WORKED HARD... and needed that break. Mom painted the wood box and we all did our share of weed-eating - so no need to stop for lunch.

I am on the blog. Mom and Dad have come up today and we have been working hard to get rid of those pounds. Dad has been spliting wood and Mom and I were toting rocks and painting. You should know though that I am now at 37 pounds.
Lori