Elser Family Blog

We went swimming again today. It’s a good thing to do in the southern summer sun.

Another neat thing about the south is the interesting plants that we didn’t have up north.

How about figs? Man are these things sweet! They look funny but they taste so good. I managed to photograph this one before R gobbled it down…

Here is a picture of M. Is she not the funniest thing you have ever seen? This girl has personality a mile high.

Here is R, I predict he is going to grow up to be a botanist! 🙂

Here are the girls having fun.

Today we ate dinner with Arthur. On the way home H was content to read a book… She REALLY likes to read. I am blessed with smart and interesting children.

OK, Blog Viewer input being requested.

It occurs to me that Broadcast (over the air) television will probably no longer exist in its current form in 15, perhaps 20 years maximum. I assume that it will be delivered over high speed internet lines (IP) to the home by then. Knowing that, I’m out of a job at the age of 55! yikes! 🙂

Question: How can we leverage this knowledge now? What would you invest in (or even short-sell?) now, if you had the funds to invest? What would you buy? 1500 Foot broadcast towers are out, as there will be a surplus of them in 20 years.

What will be in demand in 20 years because of this seachange?

And on the same vein- Telephone service will no longer exist as we know it in 10 to 15 years. It also will transfer to IP (See

Vonage for the IP based phone service) USAToday says that IP phones will be 50% of all phones by 2009. (see article here)

Knowing that, What would you invest in, (or divest yourself of) to make money when it all hits critical mass.

Please go to the family debate forum and let us know!

Well.

Everyone remember the Garden Question? (I am sure Tammy does, she has not gotten her prize yet… I know that because it is sitting next to me on my desk 🙂

Dale won two of them. I sent him a shoestring potatoe can AND a Moon Pie.

HE sent me a email back. Here it is:

One moon pie + 1 shoestring potatoe arrived today.

Light — in a nice sturdy box.Good moon pie =– ok potato.

69BZD DUTY!!The customs form had a value of 69 usd!!!!

That is because I must have put a value of it as 69 CENTS, and the duty guy interpreted it as 69 DOLLARS.

That sucks.

Now I owe Dale 34 dollars.

I hope that didn’t happen to the one that went to Switzerland…. I’ll go broke!!

I like sending things to Dale… why? Because of his address:

Dale Lindmark

Maya Beach

Placentia

Belieze

Central America

Write that on anything, and it always get there.

How old fashioned is that?

Who is this little cutey? Could it be H,M,R’s First cousin once removed AME? Its birthday season, I guess.

Did any of you see the opening night of the Democratic National Convention this evening? Clinton did a bang up job of stating what democrats believe. Good job Billy boy, you might have a good legacy yet!

The kids made “Ice cream cupcakes” this evening. They really are good… Not as messy as cupcakes and lots more frosting… What a bright idea…

My Nephew Greg mentioned that his daughter wanted to have a “princess” birthday party, with the outfit and castle cake, the whole 9 yards. Being that we both have Daughters, I sympathize with him 🙂 (don’t get me wrong, we both have a blast doing this stuff)

Anyway, it reminds me of a particular problem that I have…

As you might know, H was born in the land of Cows.

It just so happened that she was the first baby born in national dairy month, in the land of Cows. So the Dairy council christened her the “Dairy Princess” of 1998. She had her picture in the paper, and got all sorts of dairy related gifts.

Fast forward 6 years….

She knows she was the dairy princess. So, she considers herself a real princess! When it comes up, and kids say “your not a real princess..”, she says “yes, I AM a real princess…” And, I guess, its true! How do you argue with it? Do you think it might cause a problem somewhere down the line?

Lance Armstrong won his 6th Tour De France. It was quite a race. I will remember it for a long time.

I forgot to Show yall M’s Birthday cake! Better late than never, I suppose.

(click on the picture to see the happy b-day song)

And another one to get a better look at the “Barney” cake. She really wanted that Barney cake…

H did some stitching today.. K did not help her in any way after showing her what to do. Sorta’ neat!

R tried on shoes for the first time today. You should have seen him walk! It was hilarious. He kept on taking giant steps as if he was walking in mud or something.

On a completely different note… The girls just watched a cartoon that had lemmings in it, and of course, they had them jumping off a cliff…

Did you know that lemming cliff jumping is a Urban legend, brought to us by the commercial mouse himself? Its true! Lemmings don’t follow other lemmings off cliffs! In a 1958 Disney nature documentary called “White Wilderness“ the film crews forced the lemmings to jump, creating the urban legend of urban legends.

Just to back it up Here is a quote from Smithsonian Institute’s Arctic Studies Center

…Lemming populations shrink and swell depending on how many plants and berries are available. One type of lemming, the Scandinavian lemming, migrates in a huge group when food becomes scarce. They will run in one direction through meadows, woods and towns. If they come to a large body of water they will swim and swim looking for land. The stories about lemmings jumping off cliffs are a myth.

[beware- Ed’s opinion ahead]

What does any of this have to do with anything? Nature documentaries and parents that legitimize their kids watching cable teevee by saying “but they watch “nature” or “the history channel”…” are a pet peeve of mine. Let them read it in a book- that has a much higher chance of conveying reality. Or better yet, get them out in the woods (Or even zoo) to get closer to the real thing.

Cable teevee is child abuse.

I have been riveted by the Tour de France.

Did Lance, who has a superior team, get pulled to the front by them, or did he do it on his own?

Did Ivan Bosso, who beat Lance up the first mountain stage, and was the only real contender at a minute down, going to take the lead from Lance in the mountain time trial today?

 

It was all answered today on the L’Alpe d’Huez.

Lance kicked butt and took names! He PASSED Bosso (who left the gate two minutes earlier) in the time trial!! He was the ONLY rider to do the mountain under 40 minutes! On a mountain that is straight up, on a 7.9% AVERAGE grade!

The guy is not normal.

My sister In Law Terri is going to BE THERE tomorrow at stage 17. She is going to take some pictures for me, and post them on her blog at swisstales.com

I cant wait.

VERY cool.

Consider this fact:

Much of the military’s research on killing and battle stress began after World War II, when studies revealed that only a small number of troops — as few as 15% — fired at their adversaries on the battlefield.

Military studies suggested that troops were unexpectedly reluctant to kill. Military training methods changed, Grossman and others say, to make killing a more automatic behavior.

Bull’s-eye targets used in basic training were replaced with human-shaped objects. Battlefield conditions were reproduced more accurately, Burke says. The goal of these and other modifications was to help soldiers react more automatically.

The changes were effective. In the Vietnam War, 95% of combat troops shot at hostile fighters, according to military studies.

This version of warfare is new. In our lifetimes. Consider the post traumatic stress of those returning from Iraq.

I cant find a single good thing about us going into Iraq.

• Reduce terror?  No, Iraq made us forget the war on terror in Afghanistan.
• Democracy for Iraq? No, it was a secular country that we have helped turn into a Islamic one.
•  Huge debts for our future. The interest alone is sad.

I’m Pissed

Ok, I have a secret to reveal.

R is actually a twin.

Here is a picture of both of them together.