Dancing Fools

Not quite of Frank Zappa fame, but Smelliot and Maggot are somewhere lost in this crowd.  They're participating in this Dance Marathon to raise money for the Kids Cancer Fund (or something like that).  Collectively, this entire group will raise more than $1MM for the cause.  It's pretty cool to see the girls put for such charitable efforts, although I suspect the social aspects might be the greater of the two when it comes to motivation.   Still we are proud of these dancing fools.

Walking home from work the other day, the Iowa River, seen above was smooth as glass.  This reflective image caught my eye and lens.  In the upper right hand corner, you can see the Old Capitol dome.  The seasonably warm weather has been kind to us runners and moments like this.

I've begun the slow build up and training to tackle the Superior Trail 100 this Fall.  Telling people forces me to commit.  So this is my confession.   I hope to be in Marathon-ready shape by March.  Once April smiles upon us, I intent to start signing up for marathons in training for the big one in September. 

For those who may remember, I attempted ST100 a few  years ago.  Toughest 50 miles I've ever run.  Dropped at mile 50 due to the fact that my warmer gear/night-time gear was still 10 miles away, and I was already suffering early signs of hypothermia.  Temps dropped to 27 degrees that evening.  So it's a DNF (Did Not Finish), that I'm not in the least bit ashamed of taking.  I will live to run another day... This fall will be my vengeance. 

For those familiar with the Superior Trail, you know the technical challenges of the course.  Lots of rocks, hill climbs, roots, water falls, water crossings, board/bog crossings (particularly difficult at night), and challenging terrain.  100 miles of it from Gooseberry Falls (I believe) all the way up to Lutsen.  Uf Da.

Big Dawg won at Soccer.  Smelliot and I drop down to Lawrence, KS a week from Monday for her learn more about the seriousness of attending University of Kansas.   Go Jay Hawks!   We'll see.  

Peanut... announced last night she wants to go to the Gallapagos instead of Spain for class. Cha-Ching.  We'll figure it out.  We always do.

Meanwhile, all the animals in the Zoo are well.  And so it goes....

How'd Did This Happen?

While in Des Moines this weekend, I stopped by Jett & Monkey (a Woofable's customer).  One of the owners (Jennifer) is a "Fluffy Butts" rescue pet representative.  She currently has nine small dogs seeking adoption.  The second I saw this one... it had to happen.  I talked myself out of him.... for about a minute or so, and the next thing I knew, I was swearing like a sailor as I was signing the paper.

And so we welcome Vermont (Monty) Carlo Taylor to the Family.  He's a two month old Beagle, Pug, Chihuahua mix (Chipugle?).

And if that chaos is not enough... Pork Chop, our Blue Parakeet, now has cage-mate:  Apple Sauce, a yellow Parakeet.  A full house indeed.

And last but not least... a quick shout-out to my sister (Emily) and Nephew (Bone Head).  I lost a bet with Emily and she requested Kettle Corn and Dog Treats.  So, we sent her a small kettle, a can of corn, dog biscuits and a bag of Pupcorn.  She text me to acknowledge the Kettle, and Corn (hardee har har), and inform me that she and Bone Head were eating the treats.

And so I asked if treats included the kettle, corn, biscuits or Pupcorn.  As it turns out, it was the Pupcorn.  I then explained that Pupcorn is normal popcorn drizzled with Chocolate and Peanut Butter carob (sounds good, right?), AND a healthy dose (1/4 cup) of liver powder!   Yep, proof positive that Woofable's Gourmet Dog Treats are not just enjoyed by dogs, but the owners will eat them (enjoy them?) as well.

My sister now claims she "Hates Me".  To think, it took me 50 years to pull off an accidental prank that was better than anything I ever planned.  By the way, they are both fine.  My nephew may be cautious about anything I send, and my sister is a bit less anemic (someday she'll thank me for that).

That's the news for now.  And so it goes.....

As Things Go

Well, another nutty week has passed, and things will begin to settle into a more regular routine. Four EMBA programs have launched, students have returned - classes begin tomorrow, and a certain amount of predictibility (if there is such a thing) will be the order of the day.

This past week we hit a deer (the day after we installed a new radiator, ugh).  The furnace is acting sketchy, and sometimes doesn't work.  The toilet has been leaking, and the garage door is also acting sketchy. Mamacita dropped her phone into her ice water (don't ask). It never really stops does it?

In more exciting news,  Ellie has been accepted into the University of Kansas.  She's leaning in this direction, and we'll be leaning on financial aid - Gulp!

No travel this week.  So it should be a good week for getting caught up, and taking a few runs.

And so it goes...

Chester... Meet Pork Chop

[As the camera zooms out slowly]

Chester:  "Pork Chop, I think this is the beginning of beautiful friendship."

Peanut is grabbing a few Zzzz's while Chester, our newest family member, dozes in and out at her feet.  Pappa T was resoundingly over-ruled by the tribe and hens (the lady's a Woofables).  Sigh, so now we have Chester, Pork Chop (bird) and Tootsie, as well as a smattering of fish.  Where is this chapter in the book of parenting? 

New Year Continued

On Christmas Eve we put Max down.  He was too unpedictable and dangerous, especially with kids coming and going all day.  It was a sad day, especially for Peanut.

Since then we picked up a bird, Pork Chop, and now a cat, Charley (formerly know as Shakespeare).  We've had a small parade of relatives pass through over the holidays.  Great to see Gumpa, Delma, Brian, Joe and Gretchen.

The story from the holidays involves a toilet seat (of course).  Santa brought Peanut a Duckie laced/decorated toilet seat.  Of course, it's round and didn't fit our oval bowl.  So Uncle Brinz suggested he dismantle his round toilet in his basement (in Cedar Falls, IA), and replace it with our oval throne.  And this trade commenced over the couse of the holiday.  All's well that ends well with a flush.

So the guests have left (today), decorations returned to their home in the garage, kids back at school, and Buzz back at work.  New normal, just a year older in a new year.

So I'm resolved to work less, play more;
spend more time with my family;
Eat more and gain 7-10 lbs;
drink less and read more;
re-energize my blogging efforts;
train for and toe the start line at the Superior Trail 100 (September).

Happy New Year one and all.  And so it goes...

New Year's Resolution

I will resolve to update the blog at least once a week.  I further resolve to toe the start line in the Superior Trail 100.  Let the writing and training begin!

Fall 2011

This is the view outside our back door.  The fall colors are in full display and as far as Fall Seasons go, it's been a good one.  The Dog Biscuit business is good and reaching a pre-holiday fevered pitch.  Woofables will the featured business in next Month's Chamber of Commerce materials.  Should be good PR.  All of this is keeping Mamacita busy along with her consulting and keeping our household moderately sane.

I've been traveling a great deal so not home enough to cause problems or make a difference. My travels are both work related and Leadership related.  I was selected for Leadership Iowa which is a statewide Leadership program to develop business and political leaders throughout the State.  So far so good, but busy.

Kids have all but wrapped up Fall sports.  Batty is done with Cross Country, and Ick just finished Fall Ball.  Ick and Maggot still have threads of soccer, but that too is winding down. 

Next week Mamacita celebrates her birthday.  And my little sister Julia just celebrated hers.  In fact, Maggot got an opportunity to play with a band at The Mill Restaurant and dedicated the song to Crazy Aunt Julia (about a minute into the attached Video).  It's all good. 


That's about it for now.  And so it goes.  

Boycott Wells Fargo Bank!!!!

Last October, we finally sold our house in Mankato, MN after 2.5 years on the market, but we are still dealing with the fall-out.  If you recall, we sold it to a difficult lady. But right before the sale, she found hail damage on the roof, so we agreed to work with our insurance to take care of the roof as a condition of sale, but she would take care of the deductible.

The new owner proceeded to rack up window treatments and siding and put in on our insurance.  After drawn-out exchanges with insurance and contractors, our Realtor, and the difficult lady, we finally reach an agreement and checks were issued.  [side note... we didn't finally settle all this crap until Sept. 2011! - another story for another time]

Enter Wells Fargo. . .  because they held the mortgage at the time of the damage, counter checks were issued to Laura, myself and Wells.  We wrote a personal check for $17K, to cover the costs for the contractor so they could take care of everything.  WELLS FARGO refused to counter sign a cashiers check because they were no longer owners of the Mortgage on record.  Our check bounced and our lives became a unsuspecting financial mess for a few months.

This situation on top of additional fees and lack of support from the WELLS Branch in Iowa City... last June, we decided to move our many accounts (10) to another institution.  In August, Laura went in to see why we still had open accounts, which Wells assured us would be closed.  The personal banker discovered a regular monthly Wells Software fee being charged to our account.... she had no idea what this was. So, while Laura sat there, she clicked away on her computer to research this item.  After 5-6 minutes or so, her eyes got big and she said out loud, "SHIT!".

Our personal banker explained that this was actually a Quicken fee.  To everyone's dismay, we never signed up for this or have used quicken.  Because of the label on our monthly statement, we had no reason to believe this was not just another banking fee, "Wells Software fee".  And then she proceeds to tell us that we've been charged $9.99 a month since....      2005!!!!!!  

So our personal banker spoke to the Manager... and they agreed there should be some accommodation for our "inconvenience".  Not to mention lost  time sitting and waiting for these people to get their act together.  [side note:  we calculated about seven hours or so, for all of our banking issues].   Anyway, the Bank Manager told us that he would send our problem to the resolution committee.   [YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!].  Meanwhile they asked ME to call Quicken to have this fee stopped. [YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME AGAIN!!! -- What happened to customer service????]]

Three weeks passed and we finally got a call from our personal banker to inform us that Wells' Corporate HQ will reimburse us $80.  But the rest is still under review.  That was almost two months ago, and no word.

We paid more than $800 in fees without any explanation or resolution. We spent more at least seven hours trying (politely) to resolve this problem.  NOW we are officially fed up.  I'm sending this post to a few of my newspaper contacts (Gazette, Daily Iowan, Press Citizen, and to our state representatives/senators (Masher, Jacoby, Dvorsky, Johnson, Hogg, etc...) and to our congressman Loebsack, as well as Senators Harkiin and Grassley.  And last, but not least, the Better Business Bureau.


To say that we are supremely disappointed is an understatement. Poor leadership begets poor management, begets poor customer service... the people who pay your salaries, knowingly or not (as this case may be).  Absolutely appalling!!!

Lastly.... I will tell everyone I know... not to bank at Wells Fargo if they can avoid it.  This experience could have been a good opportunity to demonstrate quality and responsive service to otherwise loyal customers, instead, it has been nothing short of a train wreck with WELLS Iowa City at the wheel.

Looking Back Over 10 Years, After 9-11

Shaken and sobering.  That's what I remember feeling as we huddled around the T.V. and watched the unfolding of the tragedy in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  Today, I am mystified; not necessarily by the events of the terrible day ten years ago, which irrational and insane as they were.  These atrocious acts can be directly tied to extreme fundamentalists with a set of misplaced beliefs and leadership.  Angry yes, mystified about them... no.

I'm mystified by how we, as a "United" States have lost our collective resolve to work together, solve problems and do the heavy lifting at "home" to help maintain our National identity and global leadership. Many of our citizens, and nearly all of our politicians have taken almost belligerent sides causing a noticeable deterioration of our government because of partisan politics steeped in vitriol, and border-line fundamentalist beliefs that seem intent to win at all costs for their respective political parties and unyielding institutional positioning.  Winning for the sake of beating the other political party must have some almost intoxicating, narcissistic "feel good" elements that blind our representatives to the crippling and deleterious effect on our nation.  Both parties are to blame.

How is it, that we were able to have a unified front (albeit short-lived) after September 11, 2001, but now have nearly unbreakable lines in the sand between politics and progress?  The professionals (politicians, parties, and special interests) that have supported and encouraged these behaviors and policies have put self-interest above statesmanship.  The situation is discouraging and embarrassing.

Ten years ago our elected officials didn't seem to have a problem joining together arm-in-arm, hand-in-hand, vote-for-vote to enter wars, sacrifice lives, and spend hundreds of billions of dollars. Let me ask, were the results of this unified effort a fair return on our "investments"?   And this was a unilateral, bi-partisan decision.  

Now these same politicians and parties agree that the economy and jobs are our Nation's biggest challenge.  But failure of our elected officials to agree, compromise and sacrifice on seemingly lesser matters than 10 years ago seems an impossible task.  Today, the previously unified elected bodies are more crippling and in someways more damaging to our country than the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

Let's talk about sacrifice for a moment. How many of our elected officials signed up to go over seas and fight in Afghanistan or Iraq?  Yet these same politicians are more than willing, in a unified way, to send others over on their (our?)behalf.   How many of our elected officials have had to cut back on their FAT healthcare coverage, and their FAT retirement benefits when they ask the vast majority of the American population to do the same? I find it ironic that our elected officials (Left and Right) are unified in these matters of personal sacrifice (or lack thereof), while they have no problem saying "American's need to make big sacrifices".

After the horror of 9-11 receded, I was proud of how AMERICA rolled up her sleeves, dropped partisan politics and tackled the weighty issues of the day. But today, I'm embarrassed and ashamed at the lack of courage and self-sacrifice shown by our public officials.  There bills, votes, filibusters, and vetos pay homage to special interests and our increasingly convoluted party system.  Collectively our elected officials appear to have been victims of financial and political extortion. Many of these politicians seem to work ONLY at the will of their institutional political parties, special interests and group think for unwavering social, political and economic demagoguery.  Have they forgotten the AMERICA they supported in the days after September 11, 2001?

I remain mystified today, as well as shaken and sad when I look back over ten years and consider all the tragic loss and ultimate sacrifices across the entire spectrum of people and resources that helped make our country great. The few threads of hope and optimism I have for our collective future are eroding because our politicians have taken their eyes off our principled founding of our Nation: "Government of the people, by the people, for the people".

Our elected officials should regroup and start working together to make policy compromises, personal and political sacrifices, and no longer sell their political offices and votes for destructive and counter productive interests.

To honor the victims of 9-11, I ask our Congress, Senate, as well as the Executive and Judicial Branches of the United States Government to rediscover our Nation's pride and heritage; to work with one another for the greater good of our economic and social well being; and by doing so, help our Country reclaim global leadership as a people, united, free and proud.  I'm afraid if our Nation (people and elected officials) can't escape the vices of political extortion,  narrow-mindedness, special interests, and irrational partisanship then all that was lost on 9-11, and sacrificed since has may have been for naught.

School

Well, tomorrow the delinquents return to school. Three teen aged girls at West High, and the Big Dawg slides into Third Grade. Wow!

As the time passes along, what would have been my parent's 50th wedding anniversary has passed. Not sure what to think about that except a bit sad. Certainly it has given pause for thought and an opportunity to imagine what our 50th will be like. Yikes! We're creeping up on #23 in the next few weeks... hard to believe.

The Exec Students started this week, second years. The first year program was postponed until December which is on one hand unfortunate, but on the other the delay gives our department an opportunity to adjust to a new Director. It's all good.

Woofables is growing fast. Perhaps too fast. We're burning midnight oil to stay ahead of the curve, but I'm afraid in a few more weeks that may not cut it. Thanks to some elbow grease from Crazy Pete, we were able to build and install a drying closet which will speed up "curing" the biscuits for distribution and sale. And we are busy adding staff to our list of bakers.

We now have resellers in Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, California and Oregon. I might have missed a few States.

Oh, and back to students... the population of Iowa City will double between last week and this weekend as the students return to campus. I begin teaching this fall and Sidetrack will take the semester off. Next spring she may return to the classroom, while I'll simply wait to see if they ask me back.

On all other fronts... I hear great things from family and friends. A special shout out to Tim Johnston who is off to Washington to teach at GW University and wait for his next novel to get published. Also the Hydes and Thomas's... good friends all who recently reminded me about the important things in life.

Now, I need to find a bookkeeper for the shop, and someone to mow our lawn at home because my schedule is consumed until Mid December. And so it goes...