Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope this entry finds everyone well, full, and blessed after a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Before Thursday I had three full days of work - usually this part of the year a lot of people take vacation, and many did last week, but there were still a lot of people at work, and a lot of meetings for me to attend. Combined with handbells on Monday, salsa band on Tuesday, and house preparation Wednesday I was glad to get to Thursday!

(see the complete Thanksgiving photo album here)

Thanksgiving 2008

Thursday morning friend Shelley came over around 10 (really it was about 10:25, but that's 10 for Shelley :) and became Erin's cooking assistant. I ran around the house and finished picking up (really Erin did the majority of the cleaning work the day before so there wasn't much to do) and waited for everyone else to arrive - mom, sister Erin & brother-in-law Chris and the two nieces, plus Shelley's Ryan. After some french press coffee (a first for Shelley), Shelley and I decided 11:46am was an acceptable time to start into the wine, and we had wine and goldfish while Erin finished with the cooking (the goldfish were a kid-friendly topping to the brocoli bake, but in all honesty, I think the adults enjoyed it more).

By 1:00 everything was either done, in the oven, or otherwise ready to go, and everyone started arriving then. Keagann was SO excited to see the cats, and knew them by name already - we had to hunt for Madame Sparkles and it took awhile before she'd come out and see everyone. Laynie was cautious but finally gave the kitties some "loves".

At 3:00 (the time we had actually originally picked!) we all sat down to eat. What a meal! Apricot-glazed turkey, cornbread stuffing, quartered boiled red potatoes, broccoli-cheese bake, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole (really almost a dessert, topped with candied pecans), and apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. We had to wait quite awhile to even eat dessert because everyone was so full. We finally did have a slice of pie around 7:30 before Shelley and Ryan had to go home. By then it was getting close to bedtime, so we watched some movies and the kids were off to bed (Keagann insisted on sleeping with grandma). Erin and I got in a game of Warcraft before going to bed.

Friday morning Erin got up early and made orange-glazed french toast for everyone, and bluerries for Laynie. Chris had to get home to get an estimate for his pickup as it had been in an accident recently, but everyone else stayed around for the day. After breakfast and a little "snack" lunch, we headed up to the park - Keagann was SO excited to get up there, and it actually was an ok day, a little windy but nice and sunny and not too cold. We coaxed Keagann back home with the promise of hot cocoa, and by then it was getting time for the big Nebraska vs. Colorado game - a Thanksgiving Friday tradition in the Bye household going back forever (I used to host everyone over at our house growing up). Nebraska won the game in an exciting finish with a 57-yard field goal by Alex Henery, making Bo Pelini's first season 8-4, after last year's horrible 5-7 record (they're actually technically co-champions of the Big 12 north although they lose the tiebreaker to Missouri). They will be off to the Gator Bowl on January 1st.

Erin was meeting friend Caryn for dinner that night, and everyone else was planning on leaving around 7, so after a Papa John's dinner for the girls, we packed up their car and sent them off to home. Caryn and Erin came over after dinner and we chatted and played Mario Kart before I went to bed (they stayed up quite awhile longer).

Saturday - no houseguests and nothing scheduled - it was almost too easy! We went and grabbed coffee and went to Home Depot to look at a couple more things we are looking at doing in the house (a few more shelves, some cabinets for the laundry room, and I want to replace the kitchen sink with a long-neck pull-out sprayer). We intentionally avoided shopping this weekend, and after reading about the guy that was killed as people in a Wal-Mart trampled him Friday morning when the store opened, I think I've decided never to participate in that ugly day of the year ever again. Saturday night Erin went to see friend Dan home for the weekend, and I went about redoing all of the samba shares on my server so that we could more easily share music and pictures across our computers (exciting I know). I also watched the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game, which turned out to be not much of a game. I officially now hate the BCS, as Oklahoma ended up #2, and Texas #3, despite the fact that Texas beat them on a neutral field and they have the same record. I'm hoping Missouri wins the Big 12 championship so that Texas will possibly be in the national title game.

One last shameless self-promotion before I go - this Saturday, December 6th, my salsa band "Fuego" will be playing at the Blue Moon Ballroom, sponsored by the Rochester Salsa Community's "Diego Sanchez" weekend. Admission is $10 for the dance (8:30-11:30) and $15 if you come at 7:30-8:30 for the dance lesson given by Diego Sanchez. Unlike most Blue Moon nights, this event is for 18 and older, and will have a cash bar, so this is your opportunity to come and have a dance lesson by a salsa dance champion, hear my band, and have some drinks!

GO BIG RED

More on the weekend later....but I have to give it up to my Huskers today, down 30-31 to Colorado with about 2 minutes left in the game, 4th and 25 at the 40, Alex Henery kicks a school record 57-yard field goal to go up 33-31 and win the game. Woohoo! 8-4 and headed to the Gator Bowl.

GO BIG RED....GO BIG RED...

Home Improvement

This weekend has been dedicated to catching up on household projects and getting the house ready for having company this weekend (Mom, Erin, Chris, Keagann, and Laynie coming for Thanksgiving along with friends Shelley & Ryan joining for the big meal). Erin is keeping 4 to-do lists, one is for household projects. Although I helped out with all these projects, I have to give him most of the credit for organizing and getting the work done!

(see the following slide show for the complete set of pictures)

2008-11-22

Saturday, we did some planning and measuring and then off to Home Depot to get supplies. Sadly, they did not have a lot of the shelving supplies we needed in stock, and the person helping us said the ordering system is automated and so things don't get re-ordered until they are all gone - seems strange to me that you'd not re-order when you were down to just a few. We took everything home, made sure it would work, and then headed back out to see if any other places sold the same brand of shelving (unfortunately neither Menards, Lowe's, or Fleet Farm did - and the brands they had, even they wouldn't have had all we needed). We did pick up a nice bathroom mirror at Lowe's. After stopping for lunch at Famous Dave's which Erin was craving, we went back to Home Depot and decided getting all the same color of the shelf backing wasn't necessary, as it is hardly visible, and it's the utility room so who cares. So with that, we had enough to get at least one full wall done.

Got home around 5, first thing we did was put up the mirror - this mirror project has been hanging over my head for like 2 years - I originally bought a mirror, but bought kind of crappy clips to hang it up with, and never got it done, and then on top of that, broke one corner of the mirror moving it around. So getting this done was a big relief to me - it took all of 15 minutes. We then put up a decorative plate holder that is also functional as we have a set of plates that were given to us that we haven't had a good place to put (they've been sitting on the counter). Oddly, someone also recently gave us a wine rack they no longer needed, and it happened to match perfectly with this plate holder - which I had gotten like 4 years ago. This project took a little more doing, including putting in 6 wall clamps to hold up the rack with the dishes. But when it was done, it looked great!

At that point, I wanted to watch the "big" game of the day, Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma (which turned out to be a huge blowout), so Erin started in on a project he had been planning for awhile, to build greenhouse shelves to grow seedlings in (complete with grow lights). He spent a good 3 hours that evening before calling it a night.

Sunday morning, we tried out the new french press (it makes nice strong coffee, which I love, not sure if Erin did or not), and hung out with the kitties and had some breakfast. After getting showers and dressed and ready for the day, it was back to Home Depot to get the actual shelving (Saturday we just got the wall mounts and brackets). Erin also picked up some lag bolts for the greenhouse shelves. We got home, ate some lunch and watched an interesting show on Discovery Health "I'm My Own Twin" which talked about people who are born with two complete sets of DNA - kind of interesting (and demonstrates how using DNA for legal reasons is not completely fool-proof). Erin went back to work on the greenhouse shelves, and after a bit I started working on sorting through some of the boxes in the utility room. Erin got to a stopping point on the greenhouse shelves and we pulled all the boxes out of the corner and pulled out the table in the corner so we could put up the wall shelves. After a couple hours of moving, sorting, and vacuuming, we finally had all the shelves up, boxes on the shelves, some stuff thrown out (or recycled), and the room was clean! All the while the cats were down there "helping" (really just being in the way and nearly being stepped on but it was cute and hard to get mad at :)

By then it was 5:00 and we were ready to be done for the day. Apparently so were the kitties (see the picture below). Three days to get ready for the big dinner.

Catch-up

Here it is Saturday and I haven't really written anything for over a week - looking at my last few posts, they've either been political commentary or re-postings. So the (somewhat) short summary of what's going on with me.

Last weekend, we were fortunate enough to have friends Trevor & Karli from Nebraska visit again (twice in 3 weeks!). After a leisurely morning, we had lunch at McMurphy's with all the college football games on, and then headed over to the new Best Buy south to look around. We decided the afternoon was a good time to go see the new Bond movie (T&K being big fans) so we went to Cinemagic and caught the matinee (they have reduced their prices back to $5 matinees and $7 evenings, nice to see). Afterwards Erin made the chicken & dumplings in the shape of the state of Nebraska that I love so much (see my earlier posts) and we played Rock Band on Trevor's Xbox 360, lots of fun! I had to get up early and do handbells for church the next day, which turned out great - the handbell group this year is really good. Got back home in time to go to lunch at Famous Dave's, and hang out for a bit before they had to start the 5 hour drive home to Omaha. We had a relaxing rest of the day, catching up on household chores and playing with the kittens.

(for an account of how the kittens are doing, see:)

Kitties helping with household chores

This week has been very busy for me - music practices every night Monday - Thursday, in addition to a very busy work schedule going on. Monday handbells, Tuesday and Thursday salsa band (which, after being on the brink of death, is sounding REALLY good!) and Wednesday jazz band. Some shameless self-promotion - my salsa band "Fuego" will be playing at the Blue Moon Ballroom on Saturday, Dec. 6th, from 8:30pm-11:30pm, sponsored by the Rochester Salsa Community "Diego Sanchez" weekend. Since this event is sponsored by the Salsa Community, it is for 18 and older, AND will have a cash bar. Admission is $10 for the entire evening, for anyone who has wanted to come and see the band this will be a great time to do it.

In addition to all the evening music practices, Monday was also the second inter-company GLBT group reception between IBM and Mayo - IBM hosted one in October and Mayo returned the favor Monday. We had a great turnout, and the Mayo people were gracious enough to give us tours, including getting to go up and see the Carillons at the top of the Plummer building - something I had seen once before and is just a neat thing to see (there are only 20 Carillons in the country). I'm looking forward to more interaction between the IBM and Mayo groups next year.

With no scheduled activities on Friday, I had time to go visit friend Michael's work open house at lunch - Michael works for Cardinal of Minnesota and they just opened a fantastic new facility out on the NE side of town and had an open house Friday afternoon. Michael gave me a tour and we chatted for a bit before I had to get back to work. Friday after work, all the people who weren't out sick from the department decided to have Happy Hour at Tilly's, so I stopped over there for a bit. Then off to friends Shelley & Ryan's for dinner with Anne & LP. By 8:30 we were all really tired and when we got home at 9 ready for bed.

Since I no longer seem to have the ability to sleep in, I was up at 6:00am Saturday, but that gave me the opportunity to have coffee with friend Bill, something we both like to do on occasion. Looking forward to a weekend of relaxing and preparation for Thanksgiving, which we are hosting - mom, sister & family are coming down, in addition to S&R joining us for the big meal on Thursday.

Other News

The coffee maker saga is, at least for now, settled - Bed, Bath & Beyond actually took back the one we didn't like (from June) for store credit toward a different one - so Monday Erin picked up a new Mr. Coffee, nothing fancy, but it does have a brew strength setting, and so far it is good. In addition, since this one was cheaper, also got a French Press, and have tried that once and it is good (STRONG!)

50th Avenue construction update - well, I have no confidence now that anything will happen until the spring. I really don't understand why they just sort of wasted all this time between August and now doing nothing - I'm sure they were doing something but it sure didn't seem like it. I've pretty much already worked around the road being closed into my daily routine so I guess a few more months isn't going to kill me.

Gas prices - well at least one good thing has come out of this economic crash - $1.71 this morning, I'm sure this is helping out some people during the holiday season.

All for now - wishing everyone a great and blessed holiday week next week, safe travels for all who are going places.

WAY COOL

Star Wars, technology, and a capella...brought to you by the internet. Truly one of the most creative things I've ever seen.

Erin's Cooking Debut

Erin is featured in Monday's edition of my friend Shelley's cooking blog:

http://shelleybakes.blogspot.com/2008/11/monday-madness-meet-erin-mcintosh_17.html

Shelley is now a paid blogger (another blog she writes about debt management) and is a former newspaper editor so being featured in one of her blogs is pretty cool :)

I pledge allegiance too...

I hesitated whether or not to write an entry for this, because I see and hear so much "stuff" every day on the internet, email forwards, etc. that I usually try not get too excited about any of it and try and pick and choose what's really important. But as I was sitting in church listening to the wonderful sermon (we have fantastic, caring pastors at Zumbro Lutheran), it made me start to think of a whole bunch of stuff related to this one.

The email forward I got yesterday was from a friend of mine, and it was basically a "new" version of the pledge of allegiance, and a "new" version of a school prayer. The basic idea was that it's so unfair that we can't say the pledge with "God" in it anymore, and we can't pray in school anymore because it's "politically incorrect". Basically the same anger and annoyance I hear from so many Christians - that they're taking God out from everything.

I have so many things I want to say about this, but I'm going to try and keep it to a couple of things. First of all - it is very simple to look at history (as well as the current world) and see how completely bad a theocracy is - a government-chosen or government-enforced set of religions or religious beliefs. Horrible horrible things all over history and all over the world have been done "in the name of" fill-in-your-deity - the crusades, slavery, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. All you should ever have to think about when you start to get upset about why our government tries so hard not to mandate one set of religious beliefs over another, is "what if they did, it wasn't the one you believed in?" You see Christians persecuted all over the world in other countries for their beliefs. Just because the majority of our country probably falls under the "Christian" category, that doesn't mean you have the right to push it on the rest of the people who have other beliefs.

So this leads me to my second point - if you call yourself a Christian, shouldn't the way you demonstrate this be to demonstrate the qualities Jesus demonstrated all throughout His life? Love, patience, kindness, respect, compassion, understanding, etc.? Love your neighbor as yourself? No government, no ACLU lawyer, no school principle, no court can or would even try to take away your ability to do that. No one needs a pledge of allegiance with the word "God" in it to do that. No one needs a mandated out-loud school prayer to do that. No one has told you you have to stop praying - last time I checked, I can pray ANY time I want, anywhere I want! So what if it's not out loud? The only reason I can see for praying out loud in a public place is to make sure other people are seeing you do it - that's certainly not the reason I pray.

I am a Christian, I believe God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our salvation. I also believe that I best honor this belief by living my life as the best human being I can be toward my fellow human beings. Actions speak louder than words....rather than arguing about it or fighting about it in court, why not try living it for a change?

Keith Olbermann

I used to love watching Keith Olbermann as an ESPN news anchor, but have not really seen much of him since he left that job. I watched this clip of him on MSNBC this morning and WOW, I have a whole new respect for him...I was almost in tears. It is 5 1/2 minutes long, take the time to watch it - it's the same question about prop 8 I've been asking in my head since the election.

Election Reflection

(catchy title huh :)

This week has been interesting - besides the election, I'm now really excited about the bands I'm in, and our salsa band is coming back together (another drummer and excellent new piano player). The weather for November has been odd, but what else is new. I also have to give a shout out to my wonderful cat Mr. Fluffy Face - I accidentally shut him in our office room the other night all night (didn't realize he was still in there) and he did not make a mess or get into stuff he wasn't supposed to when I found him in the morning. I promptly gave him lots of pets and treats. GOOD KITTY!

On to the election - I decided to wait a few days to let things sink in - my last post was at 12:30am the night of, and a little emotional.

No No Drama - it was over by 10:30? Where is the waiting until 3am, calling and then "un"-calling states like Florida, hanging chad, Supreme Court ruling dramas? OK I'm really glad none of that happened :) But what news are they going to report on now?

Barack Obama - I really believe he's going to be a good president. Certainly he'll make mistakes, and he certainly has a very large job ahead of him. But he genuinely seems honest, cares about what's going on in this country, and seems to truly love his wife and children. I loved his comment in the acceptance speech "no government can solve every problem" - it's true. This is a joint effort. We all have to work on solutions.

John McCain - I have to give him credit for being a class act. While I don't agree on how he was going to go about solving our nation's problems, I believe he truly does believe in this country and wants to make things better. His concession speech was given with dignity and grace, and I hope he decides to become a "maverick" again and work with Obama and the administration to get things done. We need people like him working and leading. I do question the people he had surrounded himself with on this campaign, his choice of VP, and seemingly changing his personality overnight to try and pander his "base". I hope the McCain of 2000 is back now.

Sara Palin - well, she did make things more interesting :) And I'm sure Saturday Night Live was happy to have her along for the ride.

The Election Process - it does seem like we're making progress back towards transparency and credibility in the election process. We've still got a ways to go, but it's looking a lot better. I think the whole country should take after Minnesota personally - consistently the best voter turnout, the wait times were not bad (~ 20 minutes total for me), scantron ballots where you just have to fill in an oval, they get electronically counted but you have a paper backup. Oh, and pretty easy to pass out more pencils and put up a few more tables and chairs when it gets busy. Try doing that with electronic voting machines.

Ted Stevens (AK senator) and Michelle Bachman (MN rep) - The Stevens election completely baffles me. Yes Alaska is largely republican, but HOLY COW the guy was convicted of a FELONY a month ago! Even people who barely watch the news or read a paper couldn't have missed that. Yet he still gets elected. He is going to get ejected from the senate shortly because of his felony conviction anyway, but GEEZ, how ignorant can voters be? Michelle Bachman didn't get convicted of anything, but after the statements she made I'm amazed she won again. I guess a lot of our country DOES just vote a party line regardless.

CA Proposition 8 (ban on same-sex marriage) - I'm still amazed that this passed. I kinda figured it would pass in Florida and Arizona, but not in California. There's now a question as to whether the marriages that happened in California between June and November will be invalidated. If they are, I feel for those couples who are going to get their marriage taken away. Several of my wise friends have reminded me that equality is a long process that takes time, and is not won in an election booth or a legislature or in a court - it's won one person, one attitude at a time. It's won by being open about yourself, living your life as yourself, and living as a good example of a human being. I'm not going to worry about stuff I can't control like elections and courts. I know in my own life that I'm making a positive difference - that's all I can do, and I will continue to do it. I may not have the right to get married in my lifetime. It will happen in someone's lifetime though.

Franken/Coleman - I guess it's fitting that this election ended up almost dead even. Quite honestly I wasn't a huge fan of either one. Seems like so many elections anymore are choosing between two people you don't want. Last time that happened in Minnesota, I voted for Jesse Ventura for governor over the dem and repub candidates, and I think that's what a lot people did because he won. So for me this was a voting for the better of the bad. I will say I have never believed Norm Coleman deserved to be in office in the first place - he switched parties to attempt to get elected years ago (since he knew he couldn't run against Paul Wellstone on the dem side), lost the governor race to Jesse Ventura, and got elected almost by default after Paul Wellstone tragically died so close to the last election. I just wish there had been better choices on this ticket.

Local Offices - anyone else feel guilty voting for people they don't know? Fortunately most of them run unopposed, but it would suck to be a judge running against someone and more/less leave it up to random choice that you will win. I used to vote against all the incumbents, now I wonder if that is a good idea....I suppose in the grand scheme I shouldn't worry :)

OK...time to move on from the election...at least until the next campaign starts...oh wait that will be in like 2 weeks :)

Election Day

Like many of you I stayed up and watched a piece of history this evening. First and foremost, the historic level of participation - it was so wonderful to see a renewed enthusiasm in the democratic process after the past several elections. No matter who you were voting for I'm glad to see people got out and voted and participated. That in itself is a win.

I am happy that Barack Obama won. I listened to his speech, and have listened to a lot of his speeches and debates the past few months. If he's even half as good as he seems to be, I think our country has a lot to look forward to - there is so much to do and it's going to take all of us to get it done. I truly hope that unity for this country, and to the rest of the world, will be the #1 goal of the next 4 years.

I am a little sad and disappointed in the election. Four years ago, 16 states had "defense of marriage" amendments on their ballots - amendments targeting the banning the right of same-sex couples to get married - and they all won. It was about 4 years ago that I came out. In four years I have yet to have one bad experience, one lost friend, one negative thing happen to me because I am gay. And I have had many very positive things happen, including finding out that I am truly blessed with wonderul family and friends who love and support me unconditionally. For that I am forever thankful. I have participated in gay pride events, done presentations at work to many of the departments in my area on being gay and the importance of understanding the diversity in our country, and am going to be the GLBT representative on the IBM diversity council next year. I continue to direct and play handbells at church, work with the youth peer ministry group, and play in my bands. They all know I'm gay. Nothing bad has happened. So I guess maybe I have gotten to think that we really are getting past all the discrimination once and for all.

So, when I saw that there were three major "defense of marriage" amendment initatives in 3 states this election (Florida, Arizona - which defeated its amendment in 2006, and California, whose supreme court legalized same-sex marriage in June), and one amendment which I think is just absolutely hateful in Arkansas, which SPECIFICALLY bans same-sex couples from adopting children (not any unmarried couples, SPECIFICALLY same-sex couples), I was confident these things would fail. I knew we had to be past this. I was wrong. Florida and Arizona passed their amendments. Arkansas passed its amendment by a wide margin. California, the most liberal state in the country with the highest gay population in the country, is too close to call at this point. I feel like these are personal judgments on me. For over half the people in this country to go out of their way to say "you're a second class citizen because of who you want to marry, because of who you love", and to say "you are a worse parent than a child being an orphan". Those people voted yes on something that does not affect them one bit. Same-sex marriage isn't going to raise their taxes, cause the economy to fail, and is certainly not going to make their marriage worse or cause the destruction of society. And taking away good loving parents who would provide a good home to children who don't have one? Yes, that is a judgment on me.

I'm sure I will put this all in perspective tomorrow and in the coming days...for tonight though my faith in my country and humanity dropped a notch.

Election Jargon

I'm sure you're all sick of election stuff already...so what's one more? :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl129

a little "fluffy" but a quick read.

VOTE

I'm sure all the bloggers in the country are reminding you all of this, but GO VOTE TODAY. In Minnesota the polls are open at 7am-8pm. For Minnesota voters the poll finder is:

http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/

Google also has one for everybody:

http://maps.google.com/vote

This is going to be the largest voter turnout in history. Be a part of it.

Tune your Brain

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/12-simple-ways-to-supercharge-your-brain-293892/

Usually these yahoo articles are fluff, but this one wasn't too bad.

All Saints Day

So many people don't know that Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is followed by All Saints Day, November 1st. So, besides being cool to have two "holidays" in a row, these particular ones have roots in many different religious and spiritual traditions. I'm not sure why I felt the need to point this out, other than I didn't have a better blog title and topic :)

Specifically for me, yesterday's Halloween was fun, if uneventful. Friends Paul, Anne, and son LP stopped over to chat and so I could see LP's costume - last year it was a cow, this year a puppy dog. Anne said next year he's Nemo :) Given the later daylight savings time this year, and the wonderful weather, kids didn't start showing up until about 6:00pm, but they sure came in droves after that - I was out of candy by 6:50! I stopped by Chipotle to see Erin - I guess it was one of the "dress up like a burrito and get a free burrito" days so they were actually really busy. Erin was dressed up as a vampire, a great costume.

I headed over to friends Shelley & Ryan's to hang out while they were handing out the rest of their candy - they were watching "The DaVinci Code", which I decided wasn't really as good of a movie as I remember - the book was so much better - and the book "Angels and Demons" was REALLY better - I hope they do a good job on the movie. By 9:00 I was really tired out and headed home and after playing with the kittens for awhile, went to bed. Erin didn't make it home until about 1:30am from work, and had to go in at 6:30 again this morning :(

Today has been a nice, relaxing morning. I'm deliberately avoiding the news and political stuff and trying to just enjoy the beautiful weather and the quiet morning here. The kittens are even being quiet and napping (oh wait they do that all the time). I'm also preparing the house for friends Trevor and Karli who are right now driving up and are going to stay over tonight - they are going to the "Rock The Vote" concert in the Cities this evening. I'm also getting motivated to get some house projects done - must be the nice weather! Also tonight is Nebraska vs. Oklahoma on ESPN, even though Oklahoma is probably a lot better than Nebraska this year, the Oklahoma game is always a big game because of the great tradition.

I know the election is still 4 days away, but I would encourage everyone to go vote. This is probably going to be one of the biggest, most attended elections in history, and I am so excited to see so many people involved in the process, regardless of which candidates you are supporting.