I'm Back...Sort of

This time of year gets crazy for me. Usually there is a work trip or two and then throw in a golf tournament that I am the team lead for at work and my time gets consumed. I think I've managed to take a photo everyday although I am fudging on a day or two and using other people's pics to show what the day was like.

I'm interrupting my busy schedule and my Pic Of The Day series to ask you to do one thing. And that one thing, if you live in Houston is to vote and to pay special attention to these three things:

For Mayor of Houston, please for vote for Steve Costello. I have known Steve for several years and he is the best candidate for the job. Even though he has served on the Houston City Council for 6 years, he is not a professional politician, he's an engineer! And with that engineering background and with his experience on City Council, he is the person to keep moving Houston forward.

Next on my list is Ramiro Fonseca. Ramiro is running for Houston ISD Board of Trustees. I don't live in his district so I can vote for him. If you DO live in his district, please vote for him. This Board will be selecting the new superintendent and will help determine the future of our students.

You may recall that in May of 2014, I took a day off from work and spoke to Houston City Council in favor of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance.

Without going into all of the legal battles, the ordinance is on the ballot and it needs to pass. Houston is not a city of haters BUT if someone is discrminated against, there is no local recourse and they will have to file suit in federal court and how many people have the money for THAT?

Houston Unites just released a new ad that shows who the ordinance protects. And again, please VOTE in favor of Prop. 1.

Hillary Clinton Wins New Hampshire

With 95% of the precint votes in, Hillary Clinton was declared the winner of the New Hampshire Democrat Primary. This was unexpected. Everyone (i.e. pundits, pollsters, her own camp) got it wrong. Her camp was going to be happy if they lost to Obama in the single digits.

What turned the tide? Right now they're doing the analytics on it. Could it have been the fact that she showed her softer side the other day? Could it be due to the fact that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, took on the media the other day and wondered why they were not asking Obama the tough questions? Or could it be that the people in New Hampshire decided that they weren't going to follow the lead of the residents of Iowa and that they would vote the way they wanted.

I have read several news reports and it seems that people under the age of 30 showed up to vote. This is a good example that your vote DOES count.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few primaries. Could John Edwards win in South Carolina?

I haven't checked in with Fitness Nerd today but I bet he is peeing in his pants because is a big Hillary supporter.

This is the kind of stuff that makes elections exciting. This is the kind of stuff that should get people to the polls.

Ramblings Of A Caffeinated Mind 7.1

Sorry for not putting much out here the past few days. I'm still up to my eyeballs in something + everything else that I had planned.

Feel like there is quite a bit to say and not much time to say it. So here goes. In no particular order...

VOTE

If you live in the Houston area, you SHOULD know that there are some run-off elections happening today. You have until 700p to cast your vote.

(On My Soapbox) If you don't vote, you don't have the right to criticize and/or complain about elected officials and policies/ordinances, laws, etc. that get implemented.

My grandparents (maternal & paternal) were immigrants. My paternal grandfather took great pride in his right to vote. And I guess that is where I sorta get my civic duty attitude from. My parents also set the example for my and my siblings. Yes, at the age of 12 they had me walking the streets (double entendre intended) and knocking on doors working on a city council campaign.

You may think your vote doesn't count. Yes it does. Several elections have been decided by the narrowest of margins.

If the people of Venezuela had not exercised their right to vote, Hugo Chavez would have been able to be president as long as he wanted (not that he won't try something else to get his way).

So please, go vote. (Off Of My Soapbox)

Dalton DeHart & Montrose Counseling Center

The event on Thursday night was F-U-N! A good representation of the community all came out to honor Dalton.

What was even more enjoyable was looking through photo albums from a long time ago. He has been taking photos since BD (before digital). All I have to say is that the camera doesn't lie (unless you use PhotoShop).

Project Runway

Well Nina Garcia Fashion Director at Elle Magazine disappointed me and didnt' say "Hola!" :-( Ricky, Ricky, Ricky. Oh my. Once again, your outfit sucked. Good thing for you Chris's outfit was worse. And once again, there were some awful outfits.

Twice in the past week, I have run into Dentist Robert who is also a PR aficionado. We chatted again last night about PR. Knowing how things get edited we were trying to figure out what the real drama is in next week's episode.

Joe & Robert

I actually have a concept for a PR party. Just can't quite figure out how to pull it off and would anyone participate?

Top Chef Holiday Special
Did anybody catch Top Chef this week? It was good to see some of my favorite contestants and some of my not so favorites. Some of the dishes that were prepared were not aesthetically pleasing to my eye so I can imagine that they didn't taste too good.


Ugly Betty
I had to tape Ugly Betty on Thursday and watched it yesterday. I L-O-V-E-D it! The Betty White storyline was flawless! And Daniel was looking kinda hot in his paintball warrior outfit. As much as I like Henry, I think Gio would be good for Betty.

Running
Can't remember when I last posted anything about running. I will tell you that I got out there this morning and did 10 miles. I had to take a few walking breaks but I completed the 10 miles.

I can't believe it was 72 degrees Fahrenheit when I started. I thought it was December 8 and not May 8! OY! And the humidity was high too.

Saw Triathlete Lee. Once again, we complained about our aches and pains. It's hell getting old.

Holiday Parties
Parties are in full swing this time of year. (I'm not bragging) I'm actually losing track of some of the festivities. I have another one to go to tonight. Made two of them last night.

I'm very much a people person and enjoy seeing people and catching up. Many familiar faces but also many new faces.

Titanic
The last communique that I had from the Titanic is "MAN OVERBOARD!" and the deck chairs are being rearranged. The ship is still floating. It was a bit difficult to understand the communique because it sounded like the person was drowning.


Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde
Has anybody been keeping up with the Jocelyn Kirsh & Edward Anderton story? These are the folks who through identity theft traveled the world. CUTE couple! but oh dear. They'll be going away to the pokey for a long time. They look nice in their red swimsuits but I wonder how they look in black & white horizontal stripes?


A Charlie Brown Christmas
One of my all time favorite Christmas specials was on the other night: A Charlie Brown Christmas. This cartoon premiered in 1965.

From what I have read, it was said that it wasn't a viable show. The night it premiered, 50% of the available television sets in the U.S. were tuned in. It was also said that it would never fly because it was too religious (remember Linus quotes from Luke?). Uh...hmmm...isn't the word Christmas?


OK. That's about it for right now. Waiting for somebody to come and look at my old car.

tim mARTinez CARDS

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