That banner is a gift from Ankhaa and Dembee two little 16 year old boys who stayed in our home while they were performing at Middfest International, an annual festivity celebrating various countries in the world. Ankhaa and Dembee are from Mongolia and their talent was the Horsehead Fiddle.

I’ve taken some amazing bike trips such as my trip to Skagway, Alaska where I biked down White Pass Summit!

Our trip started with a two hour train ride on the White Pass – Yukon Route into the Yukon Territory in Canada. We boarded in Skagway and traveled north to a summit elevation of 2865 feet at the White Pass summit.

There we got our bikes and started down on our 15 mile bike trip.

or Visit “Politics“, My YouTube Channel on Monroe Politics

My company Rentacomputer.com has started a YouTube channel.

33 second sketch commercial for Rentacomputer.com, your Tech Travel Agent.

It’s good to know I share the experience of being adopted by so many great people. It’s also good to know that abortion wasn’t always used so frequently as now. Adoption kept many important hearts beating. And I might add… to the benefit of society.

Here is a partial list of people who share a common adoption thread with me:

Art Linkletter – Linkletter was born Gordon Arthur Kelly in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. In his autobiography, Confessions of a Happy Man (1960), he revealed that he had no contact with his natural parents or his sister or two brothers since he was abandoned when only a few weeks old. He was adopted by Mary (née Metzler) and Fulton John Linkletter, an evangelical preacher.

Dave Thomas – Dave Thomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at 6 weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and as an adult would become a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Debbie Harry – Harry was born in Miami, Florida and adopted by Catherine Harry and Richard Smith, gift shop proprietors in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

Faith Hill – Hill was born in Ridgeland, Mississippi, north of Jackson, Mississippi. She was adopted as an infant, and named Audrey Faith Perry. She was raised in the nearby town of Star, 25 miles outside of Jackson, Mississippi. Her adoptive parents raised their two biological sons along with Hill in a devout Christian environment.

George Washington Carver – Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Newton County, near Crystal Place, now known as Diamond, Missouri, possibly in 1864 or 1865, though the exact date is not known. His master, Moses Carver, was a German American immigrant who had purchased George’s parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for $700.

Jesus – Adopted by Joseph the carpenter, Jesus was miraculously conceived in his mother’s womb by the Holy Spirit, when his mother Mary was still a virgin.

Michael Reagan – He was born in Los Angeles, California, to Irene Flaugher, an unwed woman from Kentucky who became pregnant through an affair with an army corporal named John Bourgholtzer. He was adopted by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman shortly after his birth.

Moses – in the Exodus account, the birth of Moses occurred at a time when an unnamed Egyptian Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born be killed by drowning in the river Nile. Jochebed, the wife of the Levite Amram, bore a son and kept him concealed for three months. When she could keep him hidden no longer, rather than deliver him to be killed, she set him adrift on the Nile River in a small craft of bulrushes coated in pitch. Moses’ sister Miriam observed the progress of the tiny boat until it reached a place where Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing with her handmaidens. It is said that she spotted the baby in the basket and had her handmaiden fetch it for her. Miriam came forward and asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she would like a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Thereafter, Jochebed was employed as the child’s nurse. He grew up and was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter and became her son and a younger brother to the future Pharaoh of Egypt.

Nancy Reagan – Anne Frances Robbins was born on July 6, 1921 as the only child of car salesman Kenneth Seymour Robbins and his actress wife, Edith Luckett. In 1929, her mother married Loyal Davis, a prominent, politically conservative neurosurgeon who moved the family to Chicago. Nancy and her stepfather got along very well; she would later write that he was “a man of great integrity who exemplified old-fashioned values”. He formally adopted her in 1935, and she would always refer to him as her father.

President Gerald Ford – Dorothy married Grand Rapids businessman Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1917. They then called her first son Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr., although he was not formally adopted by Ford. Gerald Ford, Jr. formally changed his name in 1935, in honor of his stepfather, the only father he really had. Ford’s mother and stepfather did not tell him of his biological father until shortly before he turned fifteen in 1928. Ford described his biological father as “a carefree, well-to-do man who didn’t really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son”.

President William Jefferson Clinton – Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III. His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born. His mother Virginia Dell Cassidy traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after he was born. She left Bill in Hope with grandparents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. In 1950, Bill’s mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton, Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas with his brother.

Steve Jobs – Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on 24 February 1955, to two university students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian born Abdulfattah “John” Jandali (Arabic: عبدالفتاح جندلي‎), who were both unmarried at the time. He was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs and Clara Jobs. When asked about his “adoptive parents,” Jobs replied emphatically that Paul and Clara Jobs “were my parents.” He later stated in his authorized biography that they “were my parents 1,000%.

As most of the nation is cold today, especially those in Alaska, its nice to take a bike ride on the beach on a nice warm day, wearing only your bathing suit. It’s too early to get ‘boardwalk food’ such as Thrashers Fries. (I don’t know why they taste so good. I think its the time, place and the salt air that makes Thrashers taste so good).

So take a ride with me, down the Ocean City Boardwalk early on a warm July morning, before all the people, trams and traffic. It’s a peaceful ride on a quiet morning in Ocean City, Maryland.  The Boardwalk, officially known as Atlantic Avenue, dates back to 1902, when several oceanfront hotel owners got together and constructed a wooden walkway for the convenience of their guests. At high tide, it was rolled up and stored on hotel porches. Around 1910, a permanent promenade was built. It ran about five blocks and was expanded to 15th Street in the 1920’s. After being leveled by a storm in March of 1962, it was rebuilt to its present 2.5 mile length, ending at 27th Street. – Source: Chamber of Commerce

There are 274 photos in the slideshow. I took these pictures on July 13, 2008 with my Canon PowerShot A560

I made my way to the holy land last weekend. The trip to Notre Dame  included a pep rally, prayer, a tailgate party, hailstorm and a football game against Navy.

My friend Steve calls the journey “The Trip to the Holy land.” And I might agree after all we did, felt and saw. It was truly and inspirational venture with three of the best guys in the world.

Touchdown Jesus
We started out Friday with a trip to the Notre Dame campus where we saw the famous mosaic of Jesus. Touchdown Jesus as Steve calls it. From the photo you can see why.

Notre Dame Dome
Regarding the dome, Rev. J. W. Cavanaugh in 1925 had this to say, “Whoever looks at the beautiful campus now and considers how different the whole thing would appear without the dome will not hesitate to entertain any other suggestion. The truth is that the dome upon the Administration Building assembles all the other buildings on the campus around it and contributes to each a dignity which, otherwise, it would not possess.”

The Gipper Steps
In 1920, returning late to campus and having been locked out of his dorm, George Gipp, Notre Dame’s legendary gridiron All-American, allegedly slept on the front steps of Washington Hall, contracting the pneumonia that would take his life on December 14, 1920. On his death bed, he made this famous plea to Coach Knute Rockne: “Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.”

Concert On the Steps
We were at the “Concert On the Steps’ as the band marched to the Stadium, parading in front of 20,000 Irish fans. In the Stadium tunnel, they say you can hear the echoes of Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Holtz, and the Four Horsemen.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart
We visited the Sacred Heart Church. The history of the Basilica dates to the last quarter of the 17th century when the French were attempting to establish both a colonial and a Catholic presence in the St. Joseph River Valley in northern Indiana.

The Grotto
Immediately behind the basilica sits the famous, yet intimate Grotto – a Marian place of prayer and reflection. It is a replica of the grotto at Lourdes, France where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858. I lit a candle in remembrance of my Mom and Dad who passed in 1985 and 1993. Dad raised us as Catholics. I miss them both. This trip was a nice reminder of them.

The TailGate
We were very close to the stadium. Surrounded by throngs of Notre Dame football fans, tailgating has taken on a life of its own on game day. We sure had a great time with people we just met. Notre Dame fans were allot of fun.

The Hail Story
Like a scene from God’s playbook, the bible, a hail storm appeared from nowhere and was gone just as quickly. It was an amazing storm but the tailgaters didn’t seem to mind. Everyone just huddled under tents and continued God’s work of making new friends and building old friendships.

The Notre Dame Navy Game
Probably the biggest reason we visited Notre Dame was the football game. Navy got sunk 56-14, on what was left of a beautiful sunny day. Here is a view from our seats.

It’s a family tradition, eating Maryland Chesapeake Bay Blue Point Crabs cooked with lots of Old Bay Seasoning. Old Bay is a staple ingredient for steamed Chesapeake Bay crabs, crab cakes, and other seafood recipes.

Blue Point Crab is the Maryland State Crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery.

How to Pick a Blue Crab

Flip the crab over
Flip open the apron
Flip off the top shell
Pull out the gills and innards that are hanging out.
The yellow stuff is called the “mustard.” It’s actually the crab’s fat and many people enjoy eating it.
Break the body in half, leaving the legs and claws on.
Squish down the flipper end (backfin) and twist it to produce a big piece of backfin meat.
Pull off the swimming legs and claws one by one. Suck out the little piece of meat at the end of each. Save the claws.
Take a paring knife and split each half of the crab through horizontally, exposing chambers of crabmeat. Use the knife to pick out the meat.
Take a claw and break it apart at the joint. Break the claw with a mallet and pick out the crabmeat.

If you like to drink, eat and be merry, the Duval Crawl is something you ought to try. Great for groups of friends.

Bars line the entire length of Duval Street, Key West, Florida, 33040. As you crawl from one bar to the next, you hear so much live music coming from just about everywhere. On the street, there were street musicians, in the bars there was an excellent variety of mostly late 60s to late 80s music. However the Irish bars still played their traditional folk music.

Here is the Duval Crawl List

Bull & Whistle
801 Bourbon Bar (had the drag queens out front)
Bourbon Street Pub (had the shirtless bartender)
Green Parrot (live music, funny signs)
Virgilio’s (stuffy, can’t eat in the window seats)
Rum Barrel (where we had great onion soup)
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Café (foofoo drink land, packed all the time)
The Top (roof of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, see slideshow for photos from the roof)
Hard Rock Café (ok place, but nothing that special)
Fat Tuesday (wall o frozen drink machines, many flavors ready to go)
La-Te-Da (where we had shrimp cocktail, shrimp good coctail sauces, not so good)
Rick’s Key West (live music, draft beer, long bar next to Durty Harry’s)
Captain Tony’s Saloon (suprise entertainer at Hemingway’s place)
Sloppy Joe’s Bar (loud, crowded, young and fun)
Hog’s Breath Saloon (folk music, older crowd, nice place)
Pier House Resort (really nice hotel at the end of the street)

Here are a few of the bars on the Duval Crawl List:

No snivelling, excess in moderation, hippies use side door, enforcing the two-tooth minimum at the Green Parrot. Come inside and see the invisible men the signs all said. We went inside, I had a Newcastle. This bar is NOT on Duval, but its on our list. This place has live bands.

We had frozen drinks at Fat Tuesday. They had a whole wall of frozen drink mixers. I had a Rum Runner – 151 Rum, Banana, Blackberry and Tropical Punch with Pineapple Juice. Got a brain freeze.

If you like drag queens, then you need to go to the show. Don’t look now but that one wants to talk to me. I said hi, then we went inside the bar portion of the place, we didn’t make the show. There were two bartenders who were serving a full bar like it was a walk in the park. They were fantastic as they waisted no moves mixing complex blender drinks. It was as if they were in a ballad and we were watching them dance around and make drinks. Oh, did I mention that this was a gay/transvestite bar?

These guys were great at the Hogs Breath Saloon. They played 60s folk music such as Simon and Garfunkel.

The Bull and Whistle bar are two bars in one. The Bull had nice live entertainment and a good variety of draft beer. This was our first stop, I ordered a Key West Pilsner, it was ok.

These guys were great, one played a 12 string guitar, the other, a 6 string.

Sloppy Joe’s was a young crowd with very loud music. The place was packed, yet the service was good. But this was not the Sloppy Joe’s that Ernest Hemingway frequented when he lived in Key West. If you want to have a drink at Hemingway’s favorite watering hole, you have to go to Captain Tony’s.

The live entertainment was just ok. But when this patron asked if he could play a few songs, and then did, the place came alive with appause. I guess he was better than most.
Here is the unknown entertainer’s photo take at Captain Tony’s.

I am sure Hemingway sat right where I sat at the bar. It was a lovely bar and the people were all nice and friendly. Many of the people at Captain Tony’s appeared to be local.

From Captain Tony’s to Jimmy Buffet’s Margarettaville Cafe to The Bull, even drinks in the 3 gay bars on the list, the walk along Duval and its side streets gave us three nights of fun bar hopping. And yes, we conquered the entire Duval Crawl list, having a drink at each one, but it took us 3 nights to do it.

The best thing was really the food. There were so many restaurants, great seafood, steaks, salads and more. I think we might just do this again.

On Monday, January 3rd, the State of Ohio had its Senate Confirmation of new and existing senators in the Ohio Capital Building. Ten Democrat and 22 Republican Senators were present, with one senator seat currently unfilled. (There are 33 Senate Seats and 99 Representatives for Ohio).

Family and friends gathered in Senator Bill’s office. Later that morning, Bill was officially sworn-in by Judge Robert R. Cupp during a private session held in the Finan Hearing Room.  Later that afternoon, Bill was ceremoniously and unanimously confirmed in a full senate session.

At lunch we had a Cincinnati fare including Montgomery Inn Pulled Pork and Skyline Chili. Governor John Kasich and Senator Rob Portman (on slide show below) were on hand to shake hands and to speak to anyone and everyone. I spoke briefly with Governor Kasich about his budget cutting plans and the de-railing of the High-Speed Rail program. The governor assured me that he was serious about budget cuts and that his administration would not make the same mistakes as previous administrations.

The Senate Chambers, fully restored in the early 1990’s, gave the ceremony an historic air. The capital building was started in 1839,  and was restored 1989- 1993. Within those historic walls, Senator Bill Beagle, from the 5th district of Ohio, was unanimously confirmed as the next senator of his district.

Afterwards we took a tour of the Capital Building. Tours are available every day the building is open, and are provided at no cost. Tours for casual visitors, tourists or small groups are given on the hour seven days a week, and groups larger than ten persons can schedule through out the day between the hours of 9:30 am and 3:15 pm weekdays.

As a conservative, I am glad to see the 129th General Assembly on a mission to cut government waste and assist Ohio businesses. My brother and Senator Bill Beagle, will be another voice for the small business person in an important elected position. As Senate President Niehaus has said, this senate is dedicated to representing the best interests of ALL Ohioians, including those Ohioans owning businesses. As a small business owner for over 24 years, I feel that finally we have a voice at the statehouse.

Best of luck to my Senator Brother, all those elected to the Ohio General Assembly and Governor Kasich in dealing with the $8 Billion budget shortfall by March 15th.

Beagle Supercomputer

The University of Chicago Computation Institute (UC-CI), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are pleased to announce the introduction of Beagle, a 150 teraflop Cray XE6 supercomputer that will support computation, simulation and data analysis for the biomedical research community. Beagle will be managed by the iBi. -Source:iBi

“A supercomputer is a way of answering questions that you couldn’t otherwise answer,” said Ian Foster, director of the Computation Institute and principal project investigator. “It’s like an accelerator of human ingenuity.”

The system is named after the HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous scientific voyage in 1831. While Darwin’s Beagle enabled discoveries that established a unifying theory for all life sciences, the unique capabilities of UChicago’s Beagle will enable transformative innovation in basic, translational and clinical research leading to improved diagnostic strategies and life-sustaining medical treatment.

Beagle is anticipated to place among the top 50 fastest supercomputers in the world and will be one of the fastest systems fully devoted to life sciences. Planned availability for early users is targeted for the first quarter of 2011.

More info: The Beagle has landed in Chicago!

When turkey’s on the table,

And good things I can scan,
I’m thankful that I wasn’t made
A v-e-g-e-t-a-r-i-a-n.
Heavenly Father, bless us,
And keep us all alive;
There’s ten of us for dinner
And not enough for five.

Now for the Serious Prayer

Our Father in Heaven,
We give thanks for this food
Prepared and shared by family and friends
We give thanks for our lives, for being together today
We are thankful for the freedom we share

As we eat this food,
We pray for health and strength
To carry on and try to live as You would have us.
This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ,
Our Heavenly Father.
Amen