I can't believe this is just the second post I've made all month. Sorry. I wish I could use the excuse that I've been too busy but I've actually been on vacation (from my main job) for the past nine days, and I don't go back until January 2nd. I've been catching up on a backlog of house fix-ups most of the time.

Belated Happy Chanukah. Belated Merry Christmas. And an early Happy New Year.

This was Darah's first Christmas. It was her first Chanukah too but that's no big deal. Darah and Maegan made out like bandits as usual with lots of toys and clothing. Even though it's not my holiday, Santa brought me The Simpson's Movie. And speaking of Santa, Maegan (age 9 1/2) now knows... you know who isn't you know what. Before I leave the subject of Christmas, my sister Amy sent me this "ElfYourself". Darah is hilarious to watch.

And speaking of Darah, she cut her first tooth (barely) last week.

My brother-in-law John returned to Charlotte just days before Christmas after more than a year working in Hawaii. And my father-in-law Ed returned to Charlotte the very same day from his job as a contractor in Afghanistan. John is back for good but Ed is most likely returning to the war zone after New Year's.

We're about to give away our Pug, Hobo. He's cute and loving and great with children (seriously, Darah can grab a hold of his face and pull hard and he just sits there and takes it), but after a year and a half he still can't be left alone or else he chews Darah's pacifiers and toys, empties trash baskets, and sometimes still marks his territory indoors. Maegan is very sad about this but we just can't keep having this go on with Darah about to crawl and then walking soon thereafter. :-( Boomer isn't going anywhere but I'm sure he'll be sad to lose his long-time play-fighting buddy.

I know I should have even more to write about since my last post but I can't think of anything else worth mentioning right now. I promise to post more regularly after New Year's - not as a resolution, but because that's more the norm than compared to just two posts this entire month. Again, Happy New Year.

Labels: Darah, family, holidays

Every year it's been tradition for the entire Sussman family to travel to Charlotte for Thanksgiving.

My mother usually comes in from Florida a few days early but this year she came in on Saturday, five days early. She came in early to get a better price on airline tickets and to avoid the travel rush. Her initial flight was canceled and she had to wait around the airport for an extra 4 hours, but everything is fine now.

My sister Amy on the other hand always comes in last minute... literally. Her fight from Washington DC is scheduled to arrive at 3pm on Thanksgiving day, and then we'll eat as soon as she walks in the door. So far it's always worked out but so far we haven't experienced flight delays on Thanksgiving.

I still work Monday through Wednesday this week and I can't take a vacation day during sweeps, so she'll be at home for a few days with Patty (who's still home everyday, still looking for employment). For next weekend when all of us are together, I did take off from my Saturday job, and with the Saints playing the Panthers here in Charlotte, I'll be missing my first home game since I got the regular Instant Replay gig (not just as the backup) in 2005.

Labels: family, holidays

Belated Happy Halloween, or belated happy night-that-makes-dogs-crazy.

Maegan went as Cleopatra. Darah went as a baby in a mei tai attached to a mommy.

Our house had mostly the same set up as last year except we carved a couple of pumpkins. I carved a ghost (Maegan's choice) and Maegan carved Harry Potter.

Trick or Treating went well. Maegan got her usual stash, and I tried to introduce her to the concept of candy taxes. When Patty wouldn't allow for a taxation lesson, I taught Maegan about tipping your escort.

We must have had 100 kids come by and my assessment of Halloween is similar to past years, that 80% of kids over 7 don't bother saying "Trick or Treat" and 95% don't even say "Thank you."

Labels: holidays

Happy Independence Day, 2007. Once again, not "Happy 4th of July". I have off from work today and right before I wrote this post I walked out into the street in front of my house and counted how many American flags I could see around the neighborhood. I could see 21 houses and only one besides mine was displaying an American flag. WTF? (I have four flags out, one main flag on the house and three small ones.)

I'll also take this opportunity to blog about something I wanted to mention a few weeks ago but never got around to it. Without going into much detail, I think the number one problem with politics is... politics itself. The two party system forces politicians to represent their party more often then their own constituents. If a candidate has an opinion on one single issue that differs from the party line, that candidate is shunned by the establishment. But more importantly, their party must always take the opposite view point of the other party because the right viewpoint is whatever is the polar opposite from their opponents' views. Middle ground and compromise is seen as weak, if not traitorous.

This all brings me to the announcement a few weeks ago that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg denounced his Rebublican party membership and has become an Independent. The media has been speculating that Mr. Bloomberg is setting himself up for a run for President in 2008 as an Independent, despite the fact that Bloomberg has adamantly denied those intentions. This is all very interesting but could he possibly have any chance at all of winning? The last 3rd party candidate to win even one state's electoral votes was Strom Thurman in 1948 (running on a pro-segregation platform). In 1992, Ross Perot managed to make it on to the ballot in all 50 states and managed an impressive 18.9% of the popular vote, but still garnered zero electoral votes. Again, would Bloomberg stand any chance of becoming President if he decided to run as an Independent? Chances are microscopic at best, but I read this fascinating article a month ago, "Michael Bloomberg vs. the 12th Amendment". Of course it's extremely improbable but author Jay Cost explains in painfully bureaucratic detail how it is indeed possible, so long as Bloomberg can win just one single state and neither of the other two candidates get the 50% needed to win. Very interesting reading.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution accounts for such a situation, all I could think about while reading this article was how the media would paint it as a chaotic anarchy and that the court system would most likely intercede unnecessarily and partisan politics would end up supercede the Constitution in the end anyway. Well on that down note, Happy Independence Day anyway.

Labels: holidays, politics, rant

Happy New Year, everybody. I don't have much else to say today. Tomorrow I go back to work again.

Labels: holidays

It's so nice to be remembered during the holidays with a card. We've received more than normal this year. My mom sent us a card featuring a Christmas tree with a menorah on top, my Aunt sent one, and we got Christmas cards from several of Patty's relatives in New York. We received many cards from old friends too. Janet (Patty's old college roommate) always remembers us. This year we got a Christmas card from another of Patty's old college roommates, Sujana, whom we haven't seen since 1998. And my former boss Jeff sent two cards.

All of these kind thoughts during the holiday season... and yet we feel so bad because we didn't send out any cards. It's not that we don't want to send out holiday greetings but year after year we simply forget to send out cards until it's too late, and this year is no different. So our sincerest apologies again this year, as we blog a Happy Holidays, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, and/or possibly even a joyous FSM Holiday to all of our family and friends.

Click here for our "Last-Possible-Moment Digital Holiday Card".

Labels: family, friends, holidays

We decked out our home for Halloween this year.

• Five grave stones on the lawn
• Dark red lighting gels on our porch lights
• Color-strobe-lit fog-like misting machine
• Spooky Halloween sound effects
• Giant evil eyes in upstairs windows a la "Monster House"
• Glowing jack-o-lantern
• spider webs with giant spider

It looked really cool. We had a lot of different people say we had the best Halloween decorations. Oh, and Maegan was a witch.

Labels: holidays

Happy Independence Day to everybody. Please note I'm wishing you a happy "Independence Day" and not a happy "4th of July". Despite what you've become accustomed to, the holiday is not officially called "The 4th of July". Sure it happens to falls on the 4th day of July but on New Years' Day do you wish everybody "Happy January 1st", or "Happy December 25th" on Christmas? Of course not. Unlike Memorial Day and Labor Day which have been dumbed down to the point where most American's don't even know why they have off from work, I do believe that most people understand that "The 4th of July" is to celebrate our independence from England and establishing a new country. It's just always bugged me how the most important holiday to our nation is better known by it's coincidental calendar marking than for the reason we celebrate it.

Trivia: Technically the 4th of July isn't even America's birthday anyway. The Declaration of Independence was written on July 3rd, approved on July 4th, but was not officially signed until August 2, 1776. All the more reason to celebrate the act and not the date on the calendar.

Labels: holidays, rant

Attention everyone in my neighborhood: Stop with the fireworks already! I like fireworks too, but ten straight days is way too much! Being that Independence Day fell on a Wednesday, people started on Friday June 29th and they are still keeping Maegan awake at 10pm on Sunday July 8th.

Labels: holidays, rant