I have officially commenced the month-long holiday celebration....

At noon today, I shall leave work and not return until Monday morning, at which time I will undoubtedly wish there were at least one or two extra days in the weekend. It's just as well - today will be a day that a majority of people take off, and I just wanted to be there in the morning to get myself squared away for the week, as there are always a few that seem to believe that you're at that desk 24/7.

Tonight, it will be just me and the kids again. Melissa worked last night while I had my abbreviated class, from which I arrived home at 7:45 PM or so. Actually, I beat my mother-in-law to the house, so I had about 15 minutes to set up everything for the kids, only to discover that I would only need to worry about Mac since Astrid was asleep when they brought her back, and fortunately, she stayed asleep until almost 5 AM, long after "mommy" came home.

Nothing will be happening on the actual Thanksgiving holiday here except rather a lot of cleaning in preparation for Saturday. Same thing with Friday, although there might be a little shopping mixed in there if I can convince Melissa that I need to go to Best Buy. Saturday will be the big day here, with everyone coming for a great big turkey dinner cooked by yours truly, and then Sunday will probably be the day to engage in an extra punishing workout to do penance for the turkey.

Well, there was no truly exciting news to eminate from Mac's hearing test today, other than the fact that, through an administrative error at the Tuabman Center, he was scheduled for a normal hearing test, something which he has obviously had before, and not the sedated one as we had believed he would experience.

Things began to unravel when we found ourselves sitting in the test booth with Mac, complete with speakers and toys and the normal things you might see during a pediatric hearing test. For a brief moment, the optimist in me thought maybe the University was doing its own evaluation because, well, they are like that, but when we asked about the sedated test, the clinician knew nothing about it. However, at this point, we were going to sit through as we were here. They did do a tympanogram of his ears, which confirmed that he has a prodigious amount of fluid in each of them. That makes him a candidate for the tubes - we apparently will be contacted by a pediatric otolaryngologist to set up an appointment for that evaluation.

So while we have a direction to go in, the trip was largely a waste of time by virtue of the fact that he was scheduled for the wrong sort of appointment, and even if he had been, we found out later that we would have been in a totally different area of the hospital if the sedated test were set up - we actually would have gone to the pediatric OR for that, even though it isn't a surgery per se.

Anyhow, today is busy enough that I should be able to forget it, although I did enjoy having the afternoon off all the same.

My schedule for the week looks like this - today, I am leaving work at noon so that we can take Mac to an appointment, and then tomorrow, I will be at work the whole day but in various meetings, and finally on Wednesday, I am leaving at noon to prepare for the holiday, even though the dinner will not be until Saturday. So, like so many shortened holiday weeks, I do not expect that I will have the chance to be terribly productive, particularly as the weeks before holidays tend to be laden with the administrative aspects of my job.

Of course, it will not be such a laid back week in other respects. For example, I still have class on Tuesday night, albeit a shortened one as the professor will not be here - we are to use the time to research our Globalization Report on a company chosen from a list. I managed to get my second choice, which was Xerox. I have to start that thing this week at some point. Further, there is the question of preparing the house for guests on Saturday, and preparing the food, and all that. Trying to do that around the kids will be exciting, to say the least.

I keep telling myself that there is only this semester, next semester and whenever I am able to take MGMT 696, as it is not offered every semester, and then I have the Masters degree that I started earning six long years ago. Before I had kids, I managed to get halfway through the program, and the last three years have been spent working on the other half, not counting the numerous breaks I took for family reasons.

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The Free Press broached the notion that tomorrow's game against Ohio State in Ann Arbor could very well be a Waterloo of sorts for the tenure of Rich Rodriguez, and I suppose that I can understand the feelings of many of my fellow alumni (and alumnae) that last year's debacle of a season and this year's potential to be bowl-free as well creates a major embarrassment for the program. It does really, for a program as storied as that at the University Of Michigan.

Once again, here is where I part ways with a fair number of people in saying that, to be absolutely fair to the man, Rodriguez gets a pass on this year as well, but next year is when there should be Michigan-like results. There are several motivators for wanting him out of his position, most notably Michigan's lack of immediate success, but also the potential for the ongoing NCAA investigation to end in a manner damaging to the University's reputation. Integrity has been an important value at Michigan, and if there are major violations of rules, then I know my alma mater and Rodriguez would be canned in a cold minute.

I guess the major issue for me is this - suppose he was let go, and you did start over with another coach, then what is the guarantee that you wouldn't sit through another year or two of comparative mediocrity? Would you, as a fan, be willing to do this if Rodriguez was NOT at the helm? I think that it would be prudent for the fanbase to be a little introspective at this point, rather than reactionary and frantic about their team. Obviously, the fact that the athletic department is a fractured department hurts the program, and some sort of understanding needs to be reached between the various camps if you really want Michigan football as you were used to it.

For the second night in a row, nobody in this house went to bed untilalmost 11:30 PM, which means that for the entire nearly three hours that I was cooking in preparation for today's Holiday Luncheon at work, Astrid and Mac were right there to witness it and to occasionally run into the living room to watch cartoons. Now, mind you, by 9 PM or so, even Nickelodeon stops showing cartoons and shows geared toward people who were born during the time I was an undergraduate at the University Of Michigan (or later than that), so we're dependent on DVDs at that point. Really, though, I cannot figure why suddenly bedtime shifted dramatically. Even better, I cannot figure out why my son, who went to bed a mere seven hours ago as did his father, is awake and listening to the morning news with me right now. That will make for an ugly morning for Melissa, I am sure.

At the very least, Astrid had the sense to remain asleep, right? Not that either of my kids get enough really, and by their own choice at that, but lately, it seems like it is even less than normal. Now, some of that could be attributed to late naps, which are usually the downfall of a reasonable bedtime, and they have taken a fair number of these lately.

So, now, I will gather my things for the Luncheon - I made Gratin Dauphinois and Spaetzle. I did a version of Spaetzle that you'd find in southern Germany and parts of Switzerland, and for the first time trying out a recipe, it turned out well.

Between work and school, there is much to do in the days running up to Thanksgiving, and because I will have a very short week next week, leaving work at noon on Monday and then again on Wednesday, it seems like even more to do. I suppose the one upside is that next Tuesday is a "study time" for my class, which I take to mean that, although we get free reign of the business library to work on a paper, our professor intends to take his holiday break a little early. Indeed, when I was at UMich, most professors cancelled classes altogether that week of Thanksgiving, mainly because the campus was a ghost town after the Monday evening of that week.

Anyway, tomorrow is the Holiday Luncheon at work, so I shall be busy cooking tonight - for now, I need to be busy getting myself in a state where I can go to work, as they probably would not appreciate pajamas in a "business casual" environment.

As some of you might be aware, the details of an internal University Of Michigan audit were released yesterday, and they stated that the football coaching staff failed to submit the forms which show what are called "countable athletic-related activities", which they must submit per NCAA regulations. Essentially, it would tell you how many hours per week a given player spent practicing or otherwise preparing for games.

Now, on the upside, the report stated that it found no NCAA violations, but this of course applies to those areas for which they had data, and to add spice to the growing discontent surrounding the program, the area which has been the most scrutinized in the press was not part of that audit as it was the one for which no data was submitted. Yeah, some upside, I know.

It seems clear to me at this point that there is a growing movement from within the university community to find something -anything - which would serve as a trigger for some clause which would immediately negate Rich Rodriguez's contract. You know someone is serious actually when replacement names are already floating about in the press and people are actively discussing the University's football program post-Rodriguez.

Now, if it is up to me, you need to give a football coach three - maybe four years. If they cannot do it inone complete cycle, or rather, with a freshman recruiting class that they have coached for their entire college career, then you can make an effective argument that whatever they are doing, it doesn't work here. This would be a bad, bad time to start over with a new coach, even though some people seem bent on doing so.

In a little more than a month or so, bowl season begins, and at this rate, it stands a good chance of beginning without the Michigan Wolverines, barring an upset of Ohio State, and as much as it hurts me to say this, something of that Earth-shattering magnitude seems highly unlikely unless the boys from Columbus just don't show up for some reason. I know, take away my University of Michigan Alumni Association card for expressing such doubt, right?

Expanding on an idea which was broached on Facebook, there is always the possibility that someone could invent a bowl and then allow us to play in it. It would have to be locally-inspired, because I don't think we'll get a national sponsor to put their name on a bowl for teams which may end up with 5-7 records on the season. We might even have to go with an Ann Arbor area institution, such as, oh, the Middle Earth Bowl or the Pizza House Bowl. We could play Eastern in the Ann Arbor Transit Authority Bowl, since they would provide a substantial amount of the transportation.

Yes, I am being a little a facetious. OK, a lot facetious. It would simply be embarrassing to sit out the bowls for two straight years, failing to even make one of the BS ones played around Christmas as opposed to the major ones which are around New Year's.

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One of the nice things about doing my yoga in the morning is that I typically get the time to myself as no one else is up yet, at least on weekdays when I am sometimes still the only person out of bed at 7:15 AM when I leave for work.

Today, the distractions began not even one-quarter of the way into my workout. Not even a few exercises in really. First, I hear my son's signature stomping on the wood floor, so I knew he had run into his sister's room,so there was a minute or two there attempting to fish him out. I started again, did two or three more exercises, then he did it again, and I gave him a drink and shuffled him back into his room. I started again, then not even thirty seconds later, he's standing on my legs as I do the Cobra pose - nice feeling indeed...not.

It was about this time that he decided to climb into the stroller - backwards - and of course, it fell over, so he starts crying. Melissa wakes up and tried to get him to sleep, but now, as I start up AGAIN, Astrid gets in on the action and wakes up demanding her drink, which I gave her, and then she went to lay down with everyone else. I finally managed to finish about twenty minutes after that, having only had to break one more time to get coffee because I like to sip coffee everyso often in the workout.

As I may have mentioned, due to previous renovation mistakes by past owners of this house, my family room and dining area have no venting, so as you may imagine, at this time of the year these are the coldest areas in the house. I don't need to look out the family room window at my car to see frost and know this - I need only wander into the family room after I wake up and discover that, even with a housecoat, the place is pretty damn cold, being heated only by the PC tower as it hums quietly in sleep mode.

Oh, there is a solution to the problem, of course - we've gotten several estimates for it over the years, but there is one common thread among the estimates which make the necessary fix a little inconvenient. We would need to essentially sacrifice the front closet to get the necessary venting into the family room, and even then, the way they converted the garage, most places claim they can only put the vents on one wall - the wall which used to divide the house and garage.

So, for about $3000 on average, I can heat exactly half of the family room and about one third of the dining area, which is partially heated by a vent on the edge of the old kitchen area (you can tell because whoever owned this house before simply carpeted over the old tile). Needless to say, no matter how many times we seriously considered having the work done, we ultimately reject the idea in the end. We have a space heater that does a better job than that and it is fairly small and fortunately doesn't use much in the way of electricity.

Today is Veterans Day, or Armistice Day, or the anniversary of the end of the First World War, or however you want to term it. Today is the day set aside to honor those who fought for their nation and/or gave their lives for their nation.

Admittedly, I always had complex feelings about making this a holiday. First and foremost, I don't get it off, which always bummed me out a little bit, especially now being in a masters program and needing the time to work on classwork. Second, I don't get any mail, which has become a particularly lonely experience as I've switched more and more things to e-billing. There are days where it is actually nice to get a piece of junk mail which I can destroy and then toss the remnants into the recycling. Third, it has a strangely sour taste recently because we're honoring people fighting in conflicts which my government supports and I personally find objectionable. I don't wish harm to anyone, of course, but lately, it seems we send people to fight for a strange agenda rather than for any noble cause, or worse, we send people to fight and miss the point.

Anyhow, thank someone who fought for, or at least believed they were fighting for freedom and all those buzzwords. War is a complex issue in my mind - sometimes it is hard to know who really deserves praise and who does not.

The vote in the House Of Representatives was close - 220-215 - which means that there isn't much of a chance of the Health Care Reform Act passing through the Senate as is, or at least that's what it means historically. Actually, I think there will be many revisions and/or omissions in the Senate version, and I don't see a version coming out of the Senate before the holidays.

One of the sticking points is the use of federal dollars for abortions, and I suppose I don't understand why this is controversial. Really, it is a medical procedure, and it is done for medical reasons, and even in cases where it is the mere psychological relief of the mother who does not want to have a child at that moment in time, there is again no reason to punish people in this manner. Your insurance carrier - public or private - should not be making tacit moral judgments by what it covers or does not.

There is also the notion of the "public option", which some people seem to forget would be an option - the federal government is not trying to sabotage and then monopolize your care, especially if you've already got insurance. I am not sure how many times someone has to say that before the dittoheads understand that. Were this to pass, the chances of my fights with Blue Cross ending in favor of fights with the government are exceedingly remote.

Another concern is that about 30% of the bill is funded by cuts to Medicare, which would be transmorgrified by this bill into a federal plan which is available for all. I mean, I hate to sound cynical, but considering how much people complain about Medicare and Medicaid, would it really burn you to see them replaced by a different federal plan with potentially better coverage that you could still complain about? I mean, in this case, this crowd would see no change. LOL

Maybe more later. I need to get ready for work.

The trip to the Toledo Zoo yesterday was driven by a few things:

First, my daughter would probably list this as one of her favorite places to go if she could write down a list yet. Even a few months ago in the latter half of the summer, we took her and it was more about our own passing interest in zoology whereas for both kids it was an opportunity to roam relatively free on one of the common areas in front of the food stand. Suddenly, as Astrid arrived at age three, these academic interests - like animals - have come into being, so yesterday, she was darting from display to display shouting out what she saw. It was pretty cute really.

Second, it was pretty warm outside - a vast improvement from lows in the upper 20s which we had experienced just days before. By the time we arrived at the zoo parking lot, in fact, it was already about 60 degrees, so no jacket required really, although we dressed the kids warmly all the same. Not sure why parents overcompensate like that - my kids seem to have this innate sense which lets them know when they are overdressed, which explains why they much prefer hanging out in their underwear and would do so at public events if we would let them.

Third, wearing them out makes my evening smoother. The only reason I was worried about my evening, of course, is that Melissa worked last night, and on the days when the kids don't do much of note and then she works, those evenings tend to not be so memorable because Astrid and Mac are wound then. It worked - both of them were out by 9:30 PM.

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