Really?

Really?  Your company is dying.  Your industry is in a tailspin.  Your customers are fleeing, your products are behind the times, and your company moves at a glacial pace.  “Change” is not in your corporate forecast.  You say you need $25 billion to stay afloat and prevent an economic catastrophe.  And you show up in a private jet with your hand in the taxpayers’ cookie jar?

Really?  WTF?

On The Market

Our house is now officially on the market.  We want to move to Virginia.  We like the idea of being closer to the water.  We like the choices of restaurants in NoVa.  We like the communitiy feel of places like Del Rey and Rosemount and Beverely Hills.  We like the shorter commutes.  We like the change of scenery.  We like the new house idea.  We’re freaked out about the economy, the cost of selling, the cost of buying, the loan process,  packing up, the moving process, change of address cards, mortgage rates, and higher mortgage payments.

I’m half tempted to take what we get from the house (if anything!) and chuck most of our stuff and just head out somewhere for a while.  Drift.  Roam.  Explore.  Escape.  Is that wrong?

President Clinton at the Convention

Remember when we had a president who could put two sentences together and make you want to listen to him?  President Clinton reminded me again of what a smart, articulate, inspiring speaker can do.  He made a great speech last night.  I hope there is a place for him in the Obama administration.

CPR

I am now officially re-certified in CPR/AED.  Feel free to have a cardiac incident when I am around.

U2 on the Horizon

The new U2 album, rumored to be called “No Line On the Horizon” is due out in November.  According to this Sunday Mirror story I saw on @U2, the band is very pleased with this work.  And we all know that when Bono, Edge, Larry, and Adam all are pleased about their music, it is magic for all of us.

“…among the songs to be released on what many music insiders are calling the band’s best work to date are Moment Of Surrender, For Your Love, Love Is All We Have Left and One Bird.
Others include If I Could Live My Life Again, The Cedars Of Lebanon and No Line On The Horizon. “

Happy July 2nd!

An interesting article in the WPost today about the Founding Fathers and some of their human characteristics, such as making mistakes.

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

– John Adams

H-O-T

Today is HOT. It’s been hot for the last several days, which is fine because I sit in an air conditioned office all day. But Saturdays I like to get out and do something. It’s even too hot to mow the lawn! Welcome, summer. We did have a pleasant, albeit wet, Spring last month. Summer has come a knockin’.

Huzzah! War is Over!

From the Writer’s Almanac:

Today is the anniversary of the surrender that ended the American Revolutionary War, in Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. George Washington had had a difficult spring. His troops were low on supplies and food, their clothing was in shreds, and there had been a steady stream of desertions from his ranks.

By summer, Washington had only a few thousand troops camped at West Point, New York. The British expected Washington to attack New York City, which he had been planning to do for most of the spring. But when he learned that the British forces under the control of Lord Cornwallis were building a naval base on the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia, he decided impulsively to march his army from New York to Virginia, in the hopes of trapping Cornwallis and capturing his army.

Washington’s plan was one of his boldest moves of the entire war—moving his army 400 miles in order to catch his enemy by surprise. He had to march his troops toward New York City first, to scare the British into hunkering down for an attack. Then he quickly moved south.

Washington’s men and their French allies marched every day from 2:00 a.m. until it grew too hot to continue. It was a hot summer, and on one day, more than 400 men passed out from the heat. Few armies in history had ever moved so far so fast. Lord Cornwallis learned of Washington’s approach before he arrived, but Cornwallis chose not to flee, because he thought his troops would be evacuated by the British navy. He didn’t realize that the British ships had already been routed by a French fleet from the south. So in the early weeks of October, he watched as Washington’s troops surrounded the city and began a siege. After several days of bombarding the city with gun and cannon fire, Washington received word that Cornwallis would surrender. Washington requested that the British march out of the city to give up their arms, and the surrender began at 2:00 A.M on this day in 1781. The one soldier who didn’t surrender was Cornwallis himself. Instead, he sent his sword with his second in command to be offered to the French general, signifying that the British had been defeated by the French, not the Americans.

In didn’t matter though. England didn’t have enough money to raise another army, and they appealed to America for peace. Two years later, the Treaty of Paris was signed, and the war was officially over.

10 x 10

This is cool!  It gives you 100 snapshots of the top 100 stories in the world news.  You get a quick, visual display of what’s being reported in the world press and can see who/what is making headlines.

This too!

And This!