County Convention

Yesterday was the convention for the county of Olmsted County where the precinct delegates go to elect delegates for the State and Congressional District conventions. Those people will then send delegates to the national convention in Florida.

It was a very long day...10hrs. The convention uses Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Proceedings which can make things quite confusing and we had a Parliamentarian there to settle disputes. We were warned before hand that the establishment would try to bypass certain aspects of the convention in order to prevent others from participating. I was prepared for an entire day of corruption!

In the beginning we adopt the rules, which are rules that the convention must then abide by for the rest of the proceedings. This was the important part to watch as changing the rules could mean the rest of us (outsiders) were then just observers. The committee had selected a slate of names as delegates to elect for the next conventions prior to the meeting and put these forward as those that had "served the party" in the past. The rules stated that nominations from the floor would be allowed and someone tried to strike that rule and adopt the preprinted slate. Fortunately that got shot down. The next attempt was on trying to make all floor nominated folks declare their candidate. Also shady practice as it nullifies the secret ballot...and I though Democrats were the only ones for card check! hahaha

All the precincts and townships were grouped into House Districts of which there are 4. Each HD sends people to the next conventions and ours was the biggest sending 20 people. I had received a slate from the Paul people of those who they knew (as it turns out...thought) were supporters to try and get to the next round. My name was not on that list. It turned out that the list was put together haphazardly and some didn't show up and 1 supported another candidate. We broke for lunch before voting on my HD and I was sitting with one of the campaign people and said, "I think I'll just nominate myself in case the others don't show up and at worst I can dilute the vote a little." He thought that was a good idea.

When they took nominations from the floor I got in early (#4 I think) as I remember hearing that the first ones on the list have the best chance. Most people who nominated themselves didn't say anything but their names. Those that did say more usually gave a fairly extensive political resume. I don't have one of those so I gave a short speech about living in Europe, government takeover of healthcare, and the socialization of industry. I tried to keep it short and on track with the main complaints of the party faithful. I finished with a bit of emotion on watching the outcome of the 2008 election and hope for 2012. Much to my surprise, it worked. I am now a delegate for the State and CD conventions.

How people view my job

I'm not sure who put this together, but it's funny!

The Revolution continues...

Last night Dana and I participated in our first ever caucus. Had I not received a short video from the RP2012 campaign I would have been completely confused. We gathered with people from our precinct (basically our zip code) and all together there were about 50 people, which according to our precinct chair, was more than double the number of people since 1996 when he began caucusing. We went through a number of formalities such as electing precinct chair, co-chair, secretary, etc. to start the meeting and then took the presidential straw poll. Dr. Paul won our precinct with 19 votes to Santorum with 15 votes. The other 2 were in single digits. After still more formalities we finally got to the point of electing delegates which was the most important part of the evening for us. Dana nominated me and there were at least 3 other overt Ron Paul people who were also nominated. We were each given a few minutes to speak prior to the election. I was the only one who prepared a speech (which was a bit surprising) and there were only 10 people vying for 8 delegate positions. Fortunately all 4 Paul supporters were elected as delegates to move on to the county caucus in a couple of weeks. We will hopefully be successful there as well!

Here's my speech. I prepared it about an hour before the caucus...still pretty good I think!

In 1770 Alexander Tyler said this about the cycle of democracy:

We move from bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage

I ask you friends, in what phase are we? With welfare rolls exploding, foreign owned debt crushing our economy, the legislator knocking down our doors telling us what we are allowed to do under the law instead of how the law will offer us freedom, when patriotism means we can’t question our leaders and liberty is the choice between a body scanner and a pat down. I ask you again my friends, how have we come this far?

We are all here tonight because we believe that America can break free from the bondage of debt, class warfare and dependency offered to us by this administration. Our hope isn’t in the next bailout, but the free market. We believe social justice is about tearing down the walls that separate us, not lifting some over at the expense of others; that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem!; and that the Constitution cannot be interpreted to mean just anything, for it would then have no meaning at all.

I am part of your community, your neighbor, and I’m asking you to allow me to be a part of the biggest turn around in our country’s great history.

My name is **********. Thank you.

Revolution!

Yesterday afternoon Dana was visiting the Ron Paul website to see what was new and found, much to her delight, that ahead of Tuesday's primary Dr. Paul would be making a visit to Rochester. Thankfully it was in the morning allowing both of us to attend.

We got an early start and arrived at the high school he was speaking at about 1.5 hrs early and were able to secure front row seats, which was important not only for visibility reasons but also because following his speech he came down and Dana was able to get his signature on our placard!

The speech and the atmosphere were awesome. Not only is the message true but watching him speak and only need to glance at his (what I assume anyway) bullet notes 3 or 4 times in a 40 min speech speaks to the consistency of the message.

The audience was diverse but had a large number of 30 somethings and under as well as families. It warms the heart to see the pre-teens holding their Ron Paul placards high. It also provides comfort to see the next generation ready to take up the cause of liberty as Dr. Paul it preparing to hand it off.

First snow

A month ago we bought a used snow blower in anticipation of the coming winter. Last night, winter arrived. We received about 4 inches of snow overnight and awoke to what Dana describes as Narnia-esc. As we had to leave for church I put off the snow blowing until the afternoon which I then realized was not a good idea. As the day warmed the snow became wet and heavy and much more difficult to remove. After receiving some advice from Grandpa Joe we commenced the blowing! It left a thin layer which then melted and refroze as ice. I lowered the scraper bar which should help with that, as will snow blowing fresh snow, not slush! I'm hoping to avoid any lawsuits from people slipping on our sidewalk. That will be my measure of success.

Mail treats

About 2 months ago Dana got her first job in the last 4 years. We were both interested to see how it would work since we enjoy the benefits of domestic engineering but with my long hours it was a good opportunity to get out of the house and do something that she enjoyed. The idea of a wine store was pretty exciting. The benefits of working in a wine store haven't been quite what we hoped, but the extra money that is being designated to non-budgeted "fun" items has immediately paid off in my humidor. Dana designated her first check to buying me cigars and for me, cigar gifts can only come from one place...Habana, Cuba. This week I received 15 Montecristo #2 and 10 Partagas Serie P #2. Now if winter would just end so I can smoke them...

Mayo Foundation House

Last night Dana and I attended a dinner at the Foundation house. This was the residence of Dr. William Mayo and was donated to the Mayo Clinic by he and his wife. The house is basically a stone castle which is not open to the public. I was told during my orientation that if I ever get a chance to visit the house, it was an opportunity not to be missed.

The dinner is an annual event held by the cardiac surgery department and this year they invited the perfusionists. The house was 5 stories tall and had a number of rooms including Dr. Mayo's office and a gentleman's game room with a snooker table on the top floor.

The evening was very enjoyable and the multi-course meal was outstanding. We had fillet mignon that was served with a butter knife...not to mention, I had the best looking date in the house!

New projects

Here is another of our recent projects. We (Dana) found this head board at a thrift store in St. Paul. We had a bit of an idea that finally came together.










It has started to get fall-like here. The temp has dropped into the 50's and 60's over the last week. It is nice not to be sweating because of the humidity (sick!) but I'm not really ready to start thinking about winter. Prior to that we had been trying to cook on our new fire bowl. Here we are making a little pizza. We made a Gorgonzola and fig pizza and a salami/pepperoni/gorgonzola with some of our home grown habaneros. Delicious!

The Fair, eh...

On Sunday we visited the famous Minnesota State Fair. If attendance is an indication of anything than it is clearly worth writing home about. I'm pretty sure we saw about 20% of it and even that was somewhat over-whelming. I think I would prefer a Tuesday morning if I were to go again. One of the more exciting things we saw was the Ron Paul booth. We wanted to buy a T-shirt but evidently a permit is required to sell T-shirts. Figures. Otherwise there was an abundance of fried food on a stick, farm animals and random booths selling...eh, stuff.

August update

I figure it is time for my monthly blog. I've been really behind in updating because, and I know most of you won't believe this, I've been really busy! First, work has been long and draining. It probably wouldn't feel that way if I'd been working more than I had been at my last 2 jobs and hadn't taken a 4 month "sabbatical" last year but 50+ hours/week is gettin' me down! I do feel like I'm learning a lot in different professional aspects. We do just about every type of procedure here that can be done so I won't be deficient in my experience as a perfusionist and with such a large and "diverse" group of people in the department I am learning what it is like to handle, or at least listen to, the difficulties in managing people. The opportunity in Dublin to run the department meant that I had 1 employee and quite a bit of latitude in running things. Not so here.

Enough with work! On Friday night we attended a lecture at L'Abri. The house is less than 2 miles from downtown but feels like it is completely isolated as it sits on a hill surrounded by dense forestry. It kind of makes me wish I was a student again so I could take a month or even a semester to spend in an environment where you can work on life. The lecture was on Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion which was presented in true Schaeffer fashion, from the author's perspective, then dissected and rebutted. There was a pretty good crowd of people and from what I could tell about 8 students currently living in the house. It is part of a series that includes a talk by the Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale on "How to think morally about healthcare." That should be interesting!

Finally at home. Dana is the "idea" person in our family. She sees things and comes up with all sorts of possibilities for making it awesome. I just see junk! Take for example this bottom section of a hutch that she found at Savers thrift store.

I see a veneer piece of junk. Dana sees this...

After humming and hawing I make it happen, and I must say...I'm impressed with myself! We converted the drawer to a shelf, replaced the "wood" inserts with copper on the doors, added some talavera knobs and painted. Viola!

Here are our hanging chili peppers. Dana tells me what she wants, I make it happen. That seems to work alright for us. We have a couple of other projects that are in the works. I'll post those photos when they're done.

Casa

Although we had claimed to have purchased a house several weeks ago, it was not until today that the loan approval final went through. Wells Fargo was extremely difficult and nit-picky through the approval process and we ended up having to switch from an FHA to a Conventional loan. All in all I think that will serve us better. The down payment is slightly more but our monthly payment will be lower and I can feel good about not participating in a federal program.

There are several cosmetic items that we plan to address in our effort to make it into a successful rental property in the future. Unfortunately I left most of my tools (all of my power tools) in AZ so we have to decide what is worth re-investing in so that we can do these projects. Maybe Ryan and Yunuen want to take a road trip....

We're open for visitors as of July 15th. Pack your bags!

Birthday Treasure

Last week was my 33rd birthday. Completely unremarkable as far as ages go but still good enough to get some sweet treasure! My Mom bought us a new gas grill which we have used probably 7 or 8 times in the past 10 days. Dana bought me a bottle of Remy Martin VSOP Cognac. My Dad and my beloved extended family (Dana's kin) bought me cigar gift certificates, the true value of which I just received today!

Thanks again to everyone!!

El Dentista

This week we went to the dentist for the first time in over 4 YEARS! It was a frightening prospect to say the least. Fortunately I am somewhat religious about brushing and my overall oral hygiene was quite good. Nevertheless, it did not prevent me from getting my first cavity. I am very disappointed to say the least. I go back this week for my filling.

In other news, I got a bicycle this week. Cycling will likely be my main mode of transportation once we move to Rochester (until winter) so I thought I'd get a head start. I ordered it on Amazon and had to assemble it this morning. We just took our first ride and the wheels didn't fall off so I'd say that's a success. It should also help me shed some weight which would be a welcome side effect.

Moving South

Over the past 2 months I've been involved in exploring another job opportunity here in Minnesota. That may sound strange as I've only been in Minnesota for 5 months, but I can say with a clear conscience that I wasn't out looking to ditch my current employer.

Last fall I had applied with Mayo during our time in Tucson, but they didn't have a position open so when the job in Minneapolis came up I gladly took it. In March I was contacted by the chief perfusionist at the Mayo Clinic. He is one of the most published and progressive perfusionists in the world and so when he asked if I would be interested in coming to work for him I was very surprised. The problem was that I had just started this job and the thought of uprooting again was very unappealing, so with gratitude, I declined. Two weeks later I received a phone call from him again, asking if I would be willing to have coffee if he came up to Minneapolis. He had just won the Gibbon Award (the most prestigious award a perfusionist can be awarded) and the thought of sitting down with him was too good to pass up. That was my first mistake. Evidently he is not only very good at his job as a perfusionist but he is quite persuasive as well.

To bring a tidy end to this long story, I submitted my application and was informed today that I am being offered the job. Not to seem too eager I said I would call Monday with my answer but that it would likely be YES! I'm being hired to "spearhead" the pediatric side of the practice, incorporating teaching and research with the clinical practice. To be completely honest I am humbled and a bit overwhelmed by the expectations. My tentative start date is July 11th.

God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes his hand is too heavy to miss.

Working the land.

Today we broke down and purchased a gas powered lawn mower. We have a fairly small yard but it is mostly grass and it grows like nobody's business! Dana and I will probably take turns tending to the lawn as it will likely require biweekly mowing.


Now I'd go roll around in it if I wasn't afraid of wood ticks!

Wine and Ice Cream

Today was like a celebration. Maybe we were just excited that it was Friday and I am not on call. Whatever the occasion, we made a trip to Stillwater for some delicious Chinese cuisine and much needed retail therapy. Haskell's is the closest thing we've found to a Total Wine or BevMO. It has an excellent selection of wines but is much smaller than the wine superstores we would frequent in Tucson. Twice a year Haskell's has a mega wine sale one of which happens to be going on right now.

Normally in a wine store I quickly become overwhelmed by all the glory of the wine (I want a taste of the glory...) and inevitably buy something I'm familiar with. Well this Christmas Dana got me the book Wine Trials 2011 which is a gold mine for inexpensive wines that rate really well with professional tasters. So I opened the book and compared it with the listing of sale wines from Haskell's catalog and off we went! We ended up with 5 wines off the list + 1 Portuguese wine that we wanted to try (since we love wine from the Douro region). We came home with: B&G Cabernet Sauvignon, El Coto Rioja, Gato Negro Malbec, Concannon Petit Syrah, Monte Antico Super Tuscan, and Vale do Bomfim Douro. Brilliant!



As an additional treat we went to an ice cream shop that Dana grew up with called Nelson's which provides extraordinary amounts of ice cream at wickedly low prices. We got 2 quarts to bring home and I got a child's size (around 4 scoops!) for the road.

Speaking of the road...I had my first experience with a suicidal deer. That was fun, especially since I was so focused on my ice cream and driving with my knee. Fortunately for me and the deer there was no contact...this time.

Griffin House

On Sunday night Dana and I went to see Griffin House play at the Varsity Theater in downtown Minneapolis. I first heard Griffin House when he opened for Mat Kearney at the Rialto in Tucson about 6 years ago. He is a little folk with some rock mixed in. I really like his song writing as he is a good story teller, much like Bob Dylan of old. He played for about an hour and a half and seemed to be making up his set list as he went. We really enjoyed listening to him as he played and interacted with the crowd. A number of his songs seem to have overt Christian themes but in a real life sort of way. I'd encourage anyone who enjoys music to check him out.

And if you ever have a chance to see a concert at the Varsity Theater it is well worth it. It was a great atmosphere and had evidently been recently remodeled.

Here are a few of his songs.

Oh yeah...

I received a long awaited purchase today. This was long awaited because I've wanted to purchase this set for several years now and because of a 30% slash to the price I could finally justify such a decadent purchase. This is a robusto (5 x 50) pack of the 5 most well known Cuban brands. The Hoyo is the Epicure #2, the Montecristo and R&J are not normally offered in this size and then add a Partagas and the famed Cohiba and you can see why my mouth is watering. They will be smoked on grand occasions.