Super Trouper in Hollywood

At the end of June, the Thomas girls went for an amazing girls night out at the Hollywood Bowl to see the world's greatest ABBA tribute band from Sweden: ABBA The Music and the well know Neil Diamond tribute band: Super Diamond. It was the first time for all of us being at this venue, so it made the experience all the more exciting.
Pre-concert
We carpooled to our designated pick up point for the Park and Ride shuttle. This is an amazing and affordable service (only $5 if you pre-purchase your tickets). The shuttle bus takes the hassle out of driving in traffic and finding parking, and we highly recommend it. Once we arrived we found a grassy area and enjoyed a delicious picnic dinner. Then we headed to our seats for the show. The stadium was sold out over 17,000 in attendance. Super Diamond opened the evening followed by ABBA The Music.
Check out the famous Hollywood Bowl sign directly above the third tower between the two hills (click on the image to enlarge view).
Here's us rockin out!
JoAnne swaying with Julie's cell phone flame gadget.

think outside the box

In graduate school in our policy classes, we were constantly encouraged to "think outside the box" in order to construct or reform policies. Now, normally I don't post things about politics, but I had to mention this article I heard over the radio one morning a while back. I'm not admitting to agreeing with the author's political views (I don't know what they are) or his idea, but I felt he deserved credit for his creativity. For when I heard this "American Thinker" I immediately thought to myself "man this guy, REALLY thought outside the box!" Enjoy the article below.


May 22, 2009

Time to Legalize Counterfeiting

By Harold Witkov

Many Americans today believe certain illegal vices in our society should be decriminalized, taxed, and regulated. The most popular of these vices include marijuana smoking, prostitution, and all forms of gambling. The proponents for decriminalization believe that the new tax revenues produced would help support schools, healthcare, and the impoverished, ease the pain of taxpayers, and reduce the deficit. They also believe that transgressions such as these will take place no matter, but, if properly regulated, would be safer for society in general. It would be a win, win situation.

Unfortunately, when it comes to lowering taxes and helping the downtrodden, the best-laid government plans seem to fall short of expectations. However, there is one vice, one small illegal indiscretion, that, if decriminalized would solve all our problems. The United States needs to legalize the victimless crime known as counterfeiting.

Once legalized, counterfeiting would be for everyone. This could be accomplished by making Federal Reserve Note paper (complete with silk threads, watermarks, etc.) available to the public. With the correct paper, most computers with the right software would have no trouble replicating U.S. currency. If a household did not have a computer, special over- the-counter counterfeit kits could be made available, with instructions in both English and Spanish.

Once in place, universal counterfeiting would prove to be the ultimate stimulus package for the economy. Employees would always have enough money and never have to go on strike. Citizens would have no trouble paying their mortgages and never face foreclosure. Everyone would gladly pay his or her taxes and there would be no need to have an IRS.

Free market consumerism would return with a flourish. People would purchase whatever they wanted and stores would only have to worry about having enough merchandise on hand. Stores could charge the consumer whatever they wanted and the consumer could still afford. Every shopping day would be like the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas.

Once legalized, counterfeiting would still have to be regulated. Parity and fairness would dictate that families earning over $250,000 would only be allowed to print $1, $2, $5 and $10 denominations. Families with combined incomes of less than $250,000 could print $20 and $50 bills. The unemployed could print $100 bills, and ACORN workers and UAW members would be entitled to counterfeit a new denomination, something even larger than the $100 bill (with President Obama on the front).

Universal counterfeiting could be the entitlement program that ends all other entitlement programs and sets us free. It is time to stand up and tell our legislators we want universal counterfeiting. If they protest, "You cannot just print money," then promptly respond in kind, "Why not? It works for you."

a divine appointment

This last Tuesday was my first kickoff to a summer book club series my mom and I are in; and what an awesome start it was! Our review of the first 7 chapters of The Hiding Place were rich with fellowship and discussion, and most importantly, God was present! Huddled at several tables inside Starbucks served to be a great witness when a customer overheard our discussions and asked to join in. Little did we know how divine this appointment was; for God brought a child born in a refugee camp in Germany to our meeting. Our guest brought so much added depth and history to our discussion as she shared about her loss of family in the Holocaust and how they learned to cope and survive in the aftermath of tragedy. We talked about our favorite chapters, favorite characters, and favorite parts in the book thus far. We also expressed the many "life lessons" that Corrie and her family learned in their youth to prepare them for what lay ahead. These observations we founds still applicable today. We compared and contrasted society then and today. We also exchanged thoughts about a person's value. The hot topic it seemed of the evening was dialogue around the question "How should a Christian act when evil is in power?" I'm not sure our further discussions will top this meeting, but at least we're off to a good start. It was unfortunate my mom was out of town; I couldn't resist calling her to brag the following day.

A Father's Day

It's been awhile since our last post, for that I'm sorry. Life just has been busy lately. I'm 7 weeks post-op today. I can do most things now, except lay out at our pool on my stomach, do crunches, or lift weights above my head. It was refreshing to return to my fitness class and have the strength and energy to return to normal activities. Thank you all for your continued concern and prayers. We're thankful that my surgery wasn't this week with all the hype from MJ's death; we might not have made it through the crowds into the hospital! As I write this post, Jay and I are getting "high" off the marijuana fumes, that a neighbor must be smoking; no I haven't resorted to medicinal usage to further my "healing" process, so please don't start any rumors!

Last Sunday we celebrated "Father's Day" most the entire day. Bryan & I took dad to a little cafe on Balboa Island for breakfast (while Jay was drumming). It was a gorgeous day (better then the drizzle and June gloom the day before) and we enjoyed walking the island and looking out at the boats. When we returned, dad opened his gifts.

Here's him sporting his new shirt and hat. I must mention the shirt is a picture of a tent and reads "Time Share."

As I mentioned my mother as a heroine in my Mother's Day post, I feel my father is equally a hero. He has strength, integrity, endurance (not just in cycling), a strong work ethic, and dedication, just to name a few. He's made many sacrifices as well, and for those I am grateful. Just like I can't imagine my life without my mother, I too can't imagine my life without my father. There were two scary times when it almost became a possibility, but he endured. And even in his illness, he still provided for the family, attended to his children, and cared for his ill daughter. Some of my favorite "father" moments are camping both in the back yard and out in nature, him running down the sidewalk to tell me I had a "baby brother," snorkeling through seaweed while at family summer camps on Catalina Island, making homemade ice cream on 4th of July, teaching me to ride a bike and drive a car (stick), Greek dancing, cheering on the Broncos, and of course, walking me down the isle for my wedding. So... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!! I LOVE YOU!!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US!

After Jay returned from church, we met up with his side of the family for a wonderful Mexican dinner. The food was delicious and we were treated to music and singing. We spent most of the evening "hanging out" as a family. Ron enjoyed his gifts: a case of beer and a bi-plane ride.

And to all you other father's out there reading this, a Happy Father's Day to you too!

Good Find Good Read

Many of you know or realized from my last post, that I'm an avid reader. I've been keeping a list for a few years on the books I've read. Since many of you have asked what I read or have recommendations of your own to share, I did some research on applications for blogs. Thanks to my friend Justin's blog, I came across this great website, sort of like a Facebook or Myspace for book lovers. Goodreads is a social library that allows members to catalog books and share them with others. This website has many wonderful features which you can read more about by clicking on the link I've made: how Goodreads works. I will keep an updated list on our blog of what I'm "currently reading" as well as what I've read for the "current year" which you will find on the right side of our blog. Know that it might take me some time to input books as well as my ratings and reviews from previous years to have a completely updated profile. I hope that you too will enjoy this "good find."

Energized

I'm sorry that I haven't kept up with the blog and hope that this hasn't caused for worry in regards to my recovery. Please consider it good news as I have been busy returning to life and normalcy. Since my last post, I returned to bible study and working for my friends, enjoyed many lunch dates which included a few belated birthday celebrations, cooking dinner, attending my nephews playoff baseball games, began to make plans for our Hawaii vacation, returned to church, and read 5 books in the month of May! And just to add, my brother turned 21 the beginning of this month! I'll be sure to post celebration pictures as soon as we celebrate; we had to postpone it. I have been sure to not "overdue it" by doing an outing or a few errands a day and then allowing myself to rest at home for the remainder of the day. My energy has returned and I look forward to easing back into exercising next week. I still am unable to lift anything or swim for another week according to discharge orders, but I also don't want to push myself either. I mean, discharge orders said I'd be back to normal activities by post-op day four, but that never happened! Since my last post I also had a pacemaker phone check which the technician said looked great! I have an in clinic pacemaker check scheduled for August. I've also removed all the rest of the steri strips that were over my incision. Things are healing nicely. Its strange, but you can see a few of the internal stitches. I still have some swelling around the incision, but things look good. I have a few more weeks before I can begin to put anything on the incision to help the scar heal. I'm hoping, as many of you have joked, that this pacemaker will make me out to be the "Energizer Bunny."