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On the way to church:
Violet Williams: Where are the school buses?
Michael Williams: There's no school today, it's Sunday.
V: I go to Sunday School.
M: True, but school buses go to school, not church.
V: Church school bus.
M: Yes, some churches have buses that pick people up.
V: There's one! I found it! Church school bus.
M: Yes, ok, you win. That's a church bus.
V: Church school bus.
I'm training for the Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon and everything is going pretty well. I've been doing my weekly long runs, and 10 miles was a snap. Last week, though, my 11-mile run was hellish. Blah! What did I learn?
1. If I'm going to do a long run in the evening I shouldn't stand on my feet all day. At work I use a standing desk, but I should sit down as much as possible to prepare for my run, otherwise my feet really hurt.
2. Rest the day before. When I did 10 miles I hadn't run the day before, but when I did 11 miles I had run five miles on each of the previous two days.
I'm going a shorter long run tomorrow -- probably nine miles -- so I'm going to work from home to make sure my body is fresh.
I've driven my Barcelona Red RAV4 V6 4x4 more than 2000 miles since I received it, so it's time for a review! Here are RAV4 specs, but note that mine is the Base model and not the Limited, so it was a lot cheaper, has fewer gizmos, but has basically identical performance.
I'm not an experienced car reviewer -- these are just my impressions as a new RAV4 owner. My previous car was a 2000 Honda Civic EX, so keep that in mind.
Performance
The V6 is extremely fun to drive! Love it. When you hit the gas, the RAV4 leaps forward. There's plenty of power for passing even at high speeds, and you can get it over 90 MPH without even trying. Be careful!
The RAV4 handles well and corners tightly. Its turning radius isn't much worse than my Civic. The ride feels solid, and there are no vibrations or rattles of any kind. Even at high speed there is little road noise.
Interior
I like the interior, and it was very comfortable as both passenger and driver for a 1000-mile road trip. The controls are all intuitive. The front seats are comfortable and roomy. The back seat was huge for my two-year-old daughter in her car seat. I also had a chance to carry two adults in the back along with the car seat and they said that there was plenty of room.
The cargo area is gigantic. I recently had to buy a new dishwasher and it was easy to fit. If I had folded the back seats down I could have carried two dishwashers without any trouble. For the road trip, it was easy to carry suitcases for two adults and a child, along with a large stroller, a pack-and-play, and various other gear. It would be easy to fit luggage for five adults in the back without ever touching the roof rack.
Exterior
Barcelona Red looks awesome, in my humble opinion. It wasn't my first color choice, but now I'm very glad I got it.
After the 1000-mile road trip there aren't any noticeable dings or dents in the hood or front area. There were a zillion bugs, but they cleaned off easily.
I have noticed that the rear end of the RAV4 gets much dirtier than the rest of the vehicle, probably because the flat surface creates some sort of dust vortex. When I got home from my trip, the front of the car was covered with bugs and the back of the car was covered with dirt.
Safety and Reliability
No problems at all, which shouldn't be a surprise for a new car.
Mileage
I'm getting about 19.5 MPG during my daily commuting, which is a 50/50 mix of streets and highway. I could do better if I drove like a granny.
For the road trip, which was mostly highway driving, I got about 26 MPG and drove 80 MPH most of the time.
While experimenting, I was able to achieve a best of 33 MPG at 58 MPH, but who wants to drive that slow? You can also get similar mileage at around 40 MPH if you can keep the transmission in its top gear.
Note: The trip computer's reported mileage is consistently about 1.5 MPG higher than what I calculate with the odometer and gas station receipts.
Overall
I love my RAV4! When I drive it I feel like a superhero. I love the way it handles, I love the cargo space, and I love the comfort. I highly recommend the vehicle to anyone considering a small SUV.
Just bought a OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge for under $45, and it's supposed to work with Google Voice to give you VOIP with no monthly fees. I'll report back once I cancel Vonage.
Is the global economic system poised for collapse? Are interest rates and inflation about to annihilate your income and savings? Less dramatically, are new fuel-efficiency standards going to reshape the American vehicle fleet?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) intend to announce the new regulations by the end of September, and the four scenarios currently being discussed range from yearly increases in mandated fuel economy of between 3 and 6 percent. This past weekend, the government told automakers that it is leaning towards a 5 percent increase, which would mean 56 miles per gallon by 2025. But the feds could choose to be even more aggressive; the 6 percent increase translates to a fuel economy standard of 62 mpg.According to a new study issued by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), adopting the most stringent fuel economy standard of 62 mpg by 2025 could increase the price of a car by $9790 and cause the loss of 1.7 million jobs. CAR says that the only way to meet such a standard would be to have 64 percent of the U.S. fleet be plug-in electric hybrids (like the Chevy Volt), the most expensive technology. According to the study, today's low-hanging fruit--less expensive high-efficiency gasoline engines and conventional hybrids--would not be sufficient to meet the standard, and the range limits of pure-electric vehicles prevented their inclusion. "There's no other distribution of vehicles that would be practical in the market," CAR president Jay Baron says.
If any of those scenarios seem plausible to you, then you should be borrowing money to buy a new-ish reliable gasoline vehicle. That's what I'm doing.
Update June 17th, 2011! The Bank returned my $375! Yay!
I need to refinance my house and began working with Southern Missouri Bank at the beginning of April. As a part of the process they had my house appraised. Over the next two weeks I sent them a ton of paperwork and acted in complete good faith, but nothing moved forward on my refi because of delays with one of their "investors".
April passed.
May passed.
At the very end of May the representative working with me said that it would take another three to four weeks to satisfy the "investor". The representative told me that if I needed to move faster I should consider going with another lender, and I agreed. A house refinance shouldn't take three months to process.
At the beginning of June I received a receipt for $375 from David Lurvey, a vice president at SoMoBank, charging my credit card for the appraisal from the beginning of April. I emailed the refi representative and David Lurvey asking about the charge and was told that since I "chose" not to refinance with them I had to pay for the appraisal.
I wrote back and included Ben Morgan, the president of SoMoBank. I told them that the reason I didn't stay with them is because they were dragging their feet and not processing my refinance in a timely manner. Their problems with their "investor" were not my fault, and it was the representative herself who suggested that I try working with someone else. I got no response, to that or any other attempts I've made to contact the decision-makers at Southern Missouri Bank.
The purpose of this blog post is to name and shame David Lurvey and Ben Morgan of Southern Missouri Bank, the two men who screwed me out of $375. I worked with them in good faith, and they not only took my money but are also so arrogant that they won't even respond to my emails.
Don't trust David Lurvey, Ben Morgan, or Southern Missouri Bank.
Update June 17th, 2011! The Bank returned my $375! Yay!
To say that 2010 hasn't been the best year of my life would be an understatement. It's hard not to get introretrospective during the holiday season, but I'm glad that Christmas comes before New Year. Every life has setbacks and the occasional soul-crushing disappointment, but these difficulties do not define me or hold me prisoner. God's grace and provision are sufficient for me.
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Conversation at the airport this morning:
TSA Guy: Stop! You need a boarding pass to go through.Me: I don't think we do. We fly all the time.
TSA Guy: Ok, go ahead.
So I've finally jumped on the console bandwagon and ordered an Xbox 360 from Amazon, mostly for the downloadable content and streaming video. I recently bought an HDTV, so I need some way to take advantage of it. Here's the plan.
I've got Netflix already, so I'll be able to watch lots of streaming content on the Xbox via Netflix.
I'm getting PlayOn so I can watch internet video through my computer and the Xbox with that.
I've got an HD tuner USB dongle for my computer and some DVR software, so if I hook that up to my antenna I should be able to record over-the-air HD content to my computer and then view that through the Xbox.
If all this goes as planned, I'll be able to cancel my satellite service and all this will pay for itself in a year or so. Only possible hitch: I may need to upgrade my DSL service for more bandwidth.
Any suggestions?
My wife loves dogs so we've watched a lot of Cesar Millan, and one of our favorite episodes of South Park is the episode "Tsst", in which:
When Cartman's mom realizes she can't control her son anymore, she gets help from an expert. The "Dog Whisperer" may have what it takes but Eric Cartman's not going down without a fight.
And now, three years later, life imitates South Park.
It’s little wonder, then, that some parents, and even a few child therapists, have found themselves taking mental notes from a television personality known for inspiring discipline, order and devotion: Cesar Millan, otherwise known as the Dog Whisperer.The suggestion that the Dog Whisperer is also a Child Whisperer of sorts has popped up — sometimes couched as a joke, but, well, not really — in parents’ forums like blogs, online discussion boards, magazines, Twitter feeds and podcasts. Some parents are starting to take notice.
“When we started watching his shows, we had intended to apply his advice toward our dogs,” said Amy Twomey, a blogger on parenthood for The Dallas Morning News who is raising three children under 10 with her husband, Matt. “But we realized a lot of ideas can be used on our kids.”
Yep! Our thoughts were on that same track way before we had an almost-one-year-old. Thanks to Cesar's techniques, Violet quickly learned not to touch the television or video equipment that's right at her head level in the living room.
(HT: James Taranto.)
My family goes to the Saint Louis Zoo about once a month and really enjoy it, so we were excited to go to Boo at the Zoo last night with some friends. The park was well-decorated, but we were all very disappointed with the distinct lack of animals. Most of the zoo was closed off with barriers, and the few animals in the open areas were all put away for the night. We spent almost two hours at the zoo and saw exactly two animals: a peacock wandering around, and a bear who was climbing a tree and then put away shortly after. The rest of the exhibits were either closed or vacant.
My laptop keyboard has no "I" key, which makes it rather difficult (but not impossible, obviously) to input the letter. Also, a parable of humility.
Some great tips for maintaining a strong marriage despite your kids. As the father of a six-month-old I really appreciate these tips.
One of my favorite times of day is when my wife and I (and the baby) go for a walk together. Our daughter is along for the ride, but she's quiet enough in her stroller that we adults can talk and spend time together without distraction.
Also, I always make it a point to tell my daughter that I love her very much, second only to her mom.
Jessica and I were extremely excited to visit the recently re-opened National Museum of American History -- it had always been one of my favorites, but it had been closed the last two times we visited Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I have to say that I'm not a fan of the way the museum has been reorganized. It's clear that a lot of the construction was needed to accommodate the vast crowds we saw on the Friday we went, but the shrunken exhibits themselves were sadly lacking. From the floorplans, however, it appears that there will someday be additional exhibit space opened to the public. I can't wait!
The most obvious example of shrinkage was the World War I exhibit which measured about 50 square feet. Frankly, the online version of the exhibit is more engaging and impressive than the room itself! I couldn't even get a picture of the room because it was too small to maneuver my camera with all the people crammed in.
In contrast, here are some pictures I too of the recently christened Obama Wing.
I can't say I was displeased that the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd didn't seem too interested in the 5,000 square feet dedicated to our current President. I visited the museum in 2001 and 2005 and don't remember President Bush being so prominently featured.
I need the help of an artist who can do fun cartoony drawings and lettering. There may eventually be a bit of money involved if any of my ideas are successful. If you're interested, email me with some samples of your work or a URL where I can see what you can do.
When I read this essay two weeks ago that begins with a discussion of Obama's mis-steps I intended to write a post myself about how much I enjoy reading Camille Paglia. But I didn't, because I didn't have much more to say than that. But now I see that hers is the first name mentioned by Rush Limbaugh when he is asked who he admires.
VAN SUSTEREN: Who do you admire and why?[... a bunch of stuff where he doesn't name any names ]
LIMBAUGH: Well, now, you're getting into politics. If you want to talk about things that -- I admire a lot of people that nobody even knows, and they're, you know, hard-working people who are trying to struggle against all of this, just trying to be the best they can be, fighting against the odds, working harder than they ever have to overcome the obstacles in their way. And those are people that, you know, you really to take inspiration from. And I admire people who are not afraid to speak out -- you know (INAUDIBLE) and people in the arts.
I mean, I'm sure there are some -- I admire Camille Paglia. I admire her brilliance. I admire Krauthammer and Victor Davis Hanson and Justice Scalia. I mean, if I wished -- if I didn't have my own brain, I wish I had theirs. Satisfied with mine. But there's a tremendous -- Clarence Thomas.
I don't think Paglia would be the first name on my list, but still.
I just got home from the Saint Louis Tax Day Tea Party... what a blast! It was the first protest I've been to where I wasn't counter-protesting!
I heard that the park rangers estimated attendance at 8,000 to 10,000 people, and based on my own naive counting I believe it. The atmosphere was incredible, the people were nice and enthusiastic, and everything went off without a hitch. Bill Hennessy, Dana Loesch, the other organizers, and Gateway Pundit (did he help organize?) all deserve a lot of credit.
My impression of the rally:
- It's a learning process. Many of the people there didn't seem to know exactly what to do, probably because this was the first rally they'd been to. The organizers didn't seem to lack for anything: they had free signs and took names and email addresses.
- Getting people out the first time is always the hardest. Now that these 10,000 people have been to one protest, it'll be much easier to get them to come to the next one, and to bring their friends.
- Elected Republicans should be worried. This crowd was their natural constituency, but no one hesitated to boo the officials who didn't show up because they weren't allowed to speak. The speakers went out of their way to highlight the failures of the Republican party over the past nine years, and the crowd was pleased to hear it.
- Representative Todd Aiken was a class act. He stood on stage and watched everything, even though he wasn't allowed/asked to speak. He stood there and took it, even while the crowd chanted "vote them out!".
- People were fired up and wanted to know "now what?". The main advice I'd give to the organizers is that they should have told us what to do next. Every attendee should have been given a flier with contact information for local officials, a URL to a website, and some hint of the next rally or activity that's going to happen. Hopefully the email addresses that were collected will be used for this kind of follow-up, but it would have been nice to have something in-hand when I left.
Here's a few seconds of video from the west side of Keiner Plaza. Keep in mind that there are at least as many people on the east side of the plaza on the opposite side of the speakers' platform.
Click the extended entry for pictures.
Last night I received a letter from the Franchise Tax Board of California -- basically the state's IRS. They've decided to investigate my 2007 taxes too! I guess it could be yet another coincidence, but at some point you've got to wonder....
Of course, the fact that I haven't lived in California since 2006 should make it pretty easy to respond. I didn't pay California taxes in 2007 because I lived in Missouri for the entire year. But still, it's yet more forms to fill out under penalty of imprisonment and impoverishment.
I wonder if I'll be hearing from Missouri next?
I just went for a very short, very slow run, and I miss it so much. I hurt my knee several years ago and I quit running to save my joints... now I just use an elliptical machine. It's ok, but boy, nothing beats a good run.
I'm extremely grateful for the outpouring of support I've received over the past few days from other Americans who are as fed up as I am with the incestuous orgy of corruption in Washington DC. The point of TaxCheatStamps.com (buy a stamp) is to make a public spectacle of that corruption, and the IRS audit has sure helped the cause! My wife and I have drawn a measure of comfort from the ferocious response of the American people, and we're confident now that the federal bureaucratic machine won't be able roll over us with complete impunity.
I especially want to thank Neil Cavuto, who was gracious enough to have me on his program yesterday to bring attention to this situation. Like I told Neil, there's no proof that I'm being persecuted for political reasons but the timing of the audit is very "curious". I will be extremely happy if the whole issue goes away when I send in my paperwork this week, but if it doesn't I promise that you'll hear more about it.
Here's the video of my segment last night on "Your World":
Thanks also to Glenn Reynolds, Dana Loesch, and Gateway Pundit for drawing early attention to my plight.
