Just wanted to leave you a quick note wishing you all the best over Christmas and into the New Year. Andrea and I are looking forward to a few days where the computer usage will be minimal

Last night I was reading a Letter from Kamp Krusty (HT: Carrie). The post prompted me to try to remember what was the most expensive Christmas gift I had ever bought. I didn’t think of it until today. 10 years ago, I bought Andrea our current dining room set. Except for the pellet stoves, it is probably the most expensive thing we have in our house. At the time we were doing very well financially and I paid cash for it.

My main comment on the letter from Krusty is, “well said”. Excepting the dining set above, we’ve never been heavy spenders at Christmas. Starting at age 2, we took the children out and let them pick out gifts for each other and us.

A funny example of that was when Sarah was 3 or 4 she wanted to get Mom a potato masher. Mom had broken hers a few months before and had been using a whisk to mash potatoes instead. When I had Sarah at the kitchen utensils section, I gently pointed out a potato masher. However, she grabbed a whisk which she insisted was a potato masher. Now most people I know would have corrected her, but I didn’t. What was important in Sarah giving a gift was Sarah choosing the gift. I was the person paying for it. The only part of it that was a gift from her was the choice of what to buy. A very very short explanation when the gift was opened resulted in Mom giving Sarah the biggest hug. A real potato masher was purchased in the next grocery run.

What has been the focus of gift giving on our house throughout the years has been choosing good gifts. (Our children learned the skill by choosing gifts, not by watching others choose them and not by looking at the price tag.) Not good in the sense of how much they cost or how popular they are. But in the sense of how the receiver will feel when they open it. A good gift is priceless. Good gifts require paying attention to what the person you are getting it for likes and does not like. The best gifts are rarely expensive.

I saw this somewhere yesterday. I was also sick and cannot remember where I saw it. Thankfully, JoVE posted an entry about it today. The other thing that happened today was that I bought gas. The price has been dropping here over the last few months. It’s price is now less than half of what it was earlier this year.

About 44% of what I paid for the gas today was various taxes. At the high price I paid a few months ago, only 27% was taxes. Removing the taxes from both prices means that the price today was approx 27% of the high price I paid only a few months ago.

A few years ago I read an article which said that one of the big 3 was making an average of $11-12,000 on its top of the line gas guzzling SUV. So, IMO, the place the big 3 need to look for their lost profits & potentially assistance is big oil because once that gas guzzler was driven off the lot, the folks who have been making out like bandits from it have been big oil.

Again, just my opinion, but if the government is interested in bailing out the economy long term then the place where they should be investing is in green technologies. Investing in green technologies would reduce oil demand & consumption. An ongoing investment in that area would stabilize the prices of oil based products. What that should do for the big 3 is increase their sales enough to give them an opportunity to retool themselves to produce economically viable products.

I picked this link up from a comment left on Andrea’s blog. The Queen’s English version is hilarious. But the overall point that Jim made was quite valid, nonetheless: in a community people have your back.

Based on a few offhand comments, Andrea is planning a post in which she will take a walk memory lane I’m not going to duplicate that here. Today is the 20th anniversary of Andrea & I starting down the road that lead to today.

One of the things we do sometimes is sing together. She’s a much better singer than I am but we have done a couple public performances together. One if the duets we like to sing just for our own enjoyment is this one:

Take a minute or two if you can spare it and sing along

Unforgettable, that’s what you are

Unforgettable, thought near or far

Like a song of love that climbs to me

is the thought of you that stings to me

Never before

has someone been more

Unforgettable, in every way

And forever more, that’s how you stay

That’s why, darling, it’s incredible

that someone so unforgettable

thinks that I am

unforgettable too

(piano & sax)

No, never before

has someone been more

Unforgettable, in every way

And forever more, that’s how you stay

That’s why, darling, it’s incredible

that someone so unforgettable

thinks that I am

unforgettable too

Site “move” successful I’m getting a bit of practice at it ;D

Yes, the site is back on WP, sort of. It’s actually running on the WPMU 2.7 beta. I skipped from WP 2.0 to 2.7 (which has a new admin interface). I’ll have more news & explanation on the switch over the next few weeks.