Friday 10/29 - The Bill

$800,000.00

That would buy over 400,00 gallons of gasoline. At 25 miles per gallon, that would be a million miles. Or about 40 trips around the earth at the equator.

It would buy 1.1 million tacos from Taco Bell.

It would buy 3.2 million cans of Diet Coke.

It would also buy a fixer-upper in Ladue Missouri. Servant quarters extra.

It did buy Kathleen 2 months at St. John's Mercy Medical Center plus numerous doctors, technicians, labs reports and equipment.

I just wrote the last check (unless someone ELSE decides to bill me) to pay them what the insurance company would not.

But it didn't buy any of us any real happiness.

Sunday 10/24 - Electoral Vote

As most of you know, Kathy was hard to figure our sometimes. When she was in her "work" mode, she became very neutral on most political issues. You'd never know if she was a Democrat or a Republican.

But at home, she and I would have some spirited discussions. She hated Rush, tolerated O'Reilly but loved Tony Snow. She loved Streisand as a singer but did not like her political opinions. We at least agreed about that!

Her humble childhood had left a great impact upon her. She usually fell into the Republican camp on most issues, but always with a little "r". She was truly a compassionate conservative. She was always mindful of those less fortunate. But she had pulled herself up and moved onto to a bigger life.

So here we are again with a divide nation about to decide the fate of the federal government for four years. But 50/50 doesn't mean much.

The game we play called "Elect a president" is not who gets the most popular votes but rather who gets the electoral college votes.

Here's a site that takes the opinion polls by state and calculates the college votes for a national total. Check it out. It's updated frequently.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Saturday 10/23 - Old Times

This past weekend, Steve came out from California. Steve and I have known each other since early high school. But most importantly, he was my best man at our wedding.

When Kathy died, he offered to come out, but we wanted to have more time. So we picked October. Just like when he was here 13 years ago.

So the skies were clear. The sun was shining. And the air was brisk and sharp.

We went to the City Museum and Union Station. Imos and Thies Farms (for pumpkins). And we made it to the brewery in downtown St. Charles.

He went back to LA last Sunday. Hard to believe it was 13 years ago.

Last night the boys and I watched some old videos of us in better times. Celebrating life. Enjoying Jon's 4th bday party. Alex's 1st. Reliving Kathy and my honeymoon to San Francisco.

The old and the new mixing together.

Saturday 10/16 - Jib Jab

In this overly critical presidential election. Sometimes it's just time to have some fun. If you have't seen them, visit JibJab for two very funny cartoons.

DC Land

This Land

Friday 10/15 - Google Desktop

Have you used Google for searching the web? It's probaly the best knowm and most often used search engine on the web. Out of millions of web pages, your search words can find the pages that you are looking for.

But how come you can't search your PC as quickly? The short answer is that Microsoft never developed really good search technologies inside Windows.

But Google has fixed that. Go to http://desktop.google.com and download their new desktop search tool.



After you install the software, Desktop Google will index most documents on your hard drive (for example, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook emails) and create an index.

The next time you do a Google search, a new link appears which will show results from your hard drive. And it is fast.

Don't worry, the results are not shared with other users or added to Google's web directory.

October 12 - Anniversary

Today was our anniversary. This is the worse day so far. Should have taken it off. But there are lots of things to do. So we will just push through it.

Kathy and I met ona blind date arranged by Cheri Adelstein and Dan Davison. It was a cold night February 10 1990 up at Case Gallardo's in West Port. We started dating after that and married in 1991.

Our weekend had beautiful weather. We were married at St. Joseph Church in Cottleville MO. We held our reception at the Montelle Winery in Agusta MO.

That afternoon, we flew off to San Francisco. Spent several days around the city. Kathy and I really enjoyed the time there. She had never seen San Francisco and enjoyed such a beautiful city. We did all the great things, the bridge, Chinatown, the wharf and of course, Lombardo street. We then headed north to the wine country. Went to every winery that would let us in. We then headed south. Kathy didn't want to go to Hearst Castle. Thought it was too much money (at the time it was $25 per person). But once she saw it, she wanted to do it again.

Later in the week, we met up with my frinds and family in Los Angeles for another reception.

Seems like yesterday.

Thursday 9/30 - Lunch

Today we held our very first Foundation lunch. Marti Thomas called me a month ago and said she wanted to help raise the funds for the paperwork filing fees. She runs a charitable organization and it was a big expense to get things going.

So we made some flyers and invited enough people to meet our goal----50 people and at least $500.00. Nancy O'Laughlin decorated the room. Dawn helped to keep things trunning. Pat helped set up. Food was served on time. Brian Stockman tooks some great phtoos. Denise Ritcher collected the monies. My speech was kept short (by popular demand).

I'm please to report that we raised nearly $800 and had a great lunch too.

Kathy would have been very pleased. Check out the photos: Online Photos - Click HERE