America the best place for employment

I have finally figured out why the rest of the world thinks America is the greatest. It's not because we are a democracy or that we are a very friendly country, or that we have more food than any other place.

No, it's because only in American can you get fired from your job and still walk away with a
$160 million dollar package. This is what happened today to Merrill Lynch Chairman, Stan O'Neal. While he was in charge of Merrill Lynch, the company lost $8 billion dollars and the board decided to fire him. So how does one fire a chief under whose watch the company lost so much money? Of course you punish him by giving him an exit package including unwarranted bonuses, stock, perks and whatever else you can find probably including free coffee for life, and I am willing to bet he still can use the company jet whenever he wants. All told, Stan's exit package totals $160 million dollars.

How monoric is this??? When the average person is relieved of their job, all they get is a boot in the butt but if you are an executive, you get this great package. Even the chairmen and presidents of other companies who have been found guilty of stealing company money and go to jail, still somehow end up with a ton of money so that after they get out of jail, they can live exactly the way they did before they were incarcerated.

This is wrong!!! I don't know who can get this corrected, but something has to be done pretty soon. Am I the only person who is irked by this legal thievery?

Holy Moose, I won at the Halloween party

I am going to try and post a picture. Just as I promised Michele, I wore one of my Canadian shirts which is much too large for me and since I can't wear it any more, I spilled coffee on it to make it look more authentic. I won for the most original costume.

The party was absolutely fantastic. Lots of prizes for ticket drawings, games, pumpkin carving and of course lots of food. It was probably one of the most successful parties we have ever had, and I had the best time. Of course winning was an absolute bonus.

Now, we move on to the November and december holidays topping the year off with our grand New Year's eve party. Gosh, it's great to be a Moose member!!!

HOT TIME IN THE GOLDEN STATE

I know all of you have been reading and watching California's fire woes all week. It's the worst fire week in the State's history. Needless to say the fire officers have gone above and beyond their call of duty, completely ignorning their own safety to save people, pets, houses etc. It's been absolutely amazing what these people have accomplished. Considering we have 14 separate fires in just southern California, only 1500 houses have been lost. Almost 500000 people have been displaced, most of them hanging out in the Stadium where the San Diego Chargers play. California learned quite a bit from the flood disaster in New Orleans where the people stayed in their stadium and suffered. The people staying at the San Diego stadium are not complaining at all. Rather they are giving thanks to the supermarkets and giant supply stores who have provided tents, food, water, clothes and anything else everyone needs, all without charge.

There was a famous castle owned by an Iranian princess on top of the Malibu hills. It burned to the ground. Fortunately the castle was highly insured. Unfortunately, the owner also had the largest collection of Elvis memoriabilia including costumes, one of his cars, movie scripts with notes hand written by Elvis himself and many of his old 45 records. Unfortunately, the only thing she was able to save was Elvis' army uniform. No insurance can possibly cover the lost legacy of all her Elvis treasures.

I live 15 miles from the Malibu fire. My town is not threatened but I wanted you to see what the sky has looked like all week over us. You can see the sky in the distance. The dark part over the sky is smoke from the Malibu fire and it has been with us all week along with soot. It's not pretty but it also not as dangerous as the actual fire has been.

Today the wind has died and the humidity has gone from 3 up to 20. It will give the fire officers a chance to work their miracles and, hopefully, by the weekend all the fires will be out and California can again become the Shangrila we are supposed to be.

We Californians thank everyone for your kind thoughts. It's been a very tough week but thank God the mortality rate has been exceptionally low (5 lives lost). Most will rebuilt their houses exactly where they were before the fire knowing that this can happen again at any time. These are the chances we take to live in the "Golden State".

this and that

First, I would like to thank Ralph for bestowing on me the "Christmas Spirit Award" which of course I have no idea how to post. I have mastered pictures but obviously not awards and have asked my cousin Joan to post it for me when she has time. Anyway I thank you very much Ralph. It's very kind of you to think of me.

Second, as many of you know, I spent a few Saturday nights last summer celebrating parties in Hawaiian shirts, gritting my teeth each time and hoping it was the last for a very long time. Did I say hoping??? Praying is more like it. Unfortunately one of the Moose Family Centers in our district is celebrating their 50th anniversary on November 3rd, and I am sure you can already guess what kind of party they are having and you would be right. I get to wear one of my 2 Hawaiian shirts again. Hopefully this will really be the last one for a very long time. How can one wear a Hawaiian shirt so close to the winter season??

Now that I have my Halloween bag lady outfit ready to go, I was thinking I could have gone as a Hawaiian bag lady. Outside of the shirt, I am wondering what they wear over there (do they even have bag ladies?). They cannot wear the infamous plaid flannel jackets, scarves and boots. Do they wear flip flops and shorts and flowered leis?? Just curious!!

Nothing to blog about

I have been getting E-mails from my friends asking why I haven't blogged for a while. Truth is nothing has been happening worth blogging about.

I figure to report on the Moose Family Center Kid's Halloween party which is on Saturday, Oct 20. We expect about 70 kids and it should be a blast.

My Bag Lady Halloween costume is done and ready to wear on the 27th, and hopefully win a prize. That would be a very nice bonus.

There is really nothing else going on. Unlike Ellen Degenerous, I haven't adopted a dog or given one away. What I cannot believe is that anyone would issue death threats because of a dog to the two women who manage the pet adoption center. Maybe calmer heads should prevail in this. Ellen may be famous but mob thinking shouldn't set off anyone and I really hope everyone involved works it out logically to everyone's best interest (well mostly the dog's best interest).

Lousy Sport Weekend for Los Angeles

This has got to be the lowest for Los Angeles and for me. First my beloved USC Trojans were creamed by Stanford. We were pegged to be 40 point winners and obviously the Trojans might have let that go to their heads and played like a horrible high school team. The question now is whether they can overcome this terrible loss and forge on for the rest of the season. There are some very tough games coming which will tell what the team is made of.

UCLA were also beaten by Notre Dame. Granted Olsen, their quarterback was injured in the first quarter and having to depend on a freshman untried quarterback left them unprotected. Hopefully Olsen will be back very soon and UCLA can salvage part of their season too.

This leaves the Angels who were demolished by Boston in three straight games. This might be the time for the Angels to give that famous baseball cry "wait until next year". Barry Bonds has been dropped by San Francisco. I am hoping the Angels will pick him up and use him as their designated batter. Barry still wants a World Series Ring and the chance to hit 3000. The Angels could use a strong batter without sacrificing a spot in their outfield so it would seem to be a possible marriage.

Both our hockey teams were idle this weekend so there wasn't even something to cheer about.
Maybe it's a good thing we don't have a professional football team because losing across the sports board would have been really awful.

Hopefully next weekend will be better. There is no doubt, it can't be worse.

Marion Jones drug downfall

Marion Jones the Olympian today admitted what people in the sports business have been accusing her of doing the past 7 years. During all those years, she won every award available in track and field, which will probably all be taken away from her. She is also completely broke not only financially but I am guessing more important in spirit.

What breaks my heart most is the waste of it all. I knew her when she was a teen because for one year she went to high school with my daughter. She was a beautiful, sweet, extraordinary athletic child who celebrated her wins, along with the other kids in the school. She could not only run faster than any girl in the school but she could also beat every boy. Watching her the past 7 years, you would think she would have teased the other students, but the kid we knew is not the professional athlete who in hindsight was led down a very ugly path. The Marion we knew was still facinated by her own capabilities and shared her successes with us. She wasn't known in the outside world yet.
She was still enjoying the thrill of running.

You see this was before the media, managers, hangers on, lawyers and money grubbers and dope peddlers got ahold of her and convinced her to switch to another high school with more visibility. She moved on up to the big time to quote George Jefferson and with it lost everything she was.

The saddest thing is that I really believe she was good enough to win on her own. When competing with the kids, she was a blur as she ran past. It was so fast, one could barely tell the color of her school sports outfit. Her potential was unlimited, and maybe if she had stayed in our small town with the people who loved her giving her advice, it would have turned out better.

What I do hope for Marion Jones is an opportunity to fill her potential. Her sports career is obviously over but she is still an absolutely beautiful girl, she has admitted in tears in front of everyone how she messed up her life and I truly hope she has learned enough the past 7 years to understand that what made everyone love her in high school is still a part of her and if holds her head high and learns from her mistakes, she will always be welcomed home to become one of us again.

The Moose battle of the sexes continues

It's been a while since I reported on the goings on at our Moose Family Center because it's been a quiet month since the "keys" fiasco. I thought the battle was ended but apparently not.

Yesterday there was a pool tournament between our team and one from another lodge. It's customary to supply lunch to the participants and when it was time to serve lunch one of the players on our team, who also happens to be a past Senior Regent started to prepare lunch. When she went to use paper plates out of the pantry, she was told by the kitchen ChairMAN that the pool team should be supplying their own paper goods. This was the first time she was told this and it was a complete shock to her because the pool tournaments bring in quite a bit of money to the social quarters of the lodge. She tried to argue the point but the "man" became nit picky about it before he relented and allowed her to use the paper plates. Our past Regent was one very angry person.

This guy has no idea what a stupid mistake he made. Instead of trying to understand what was at stake, he angered one of the women who has for 14 years contributed food to EVERY lodge pot luck function. I am not talking a little food, I am talking potato salad, macaroni salad, cakes and much more. Now she is very upset with the attitude of the men and will probably discontinue bringing food to these functions.

So how stupid is that?? The battle of these new idiots continues and this time instead of keys to the freezer and fridge, it's about paper plates. Rather than learning how things have been done successfully for 18 years, these men are blindly going their own way. At some point, they will understand how much they are hurting the lodge by refusing to co-operate with the women because at some point, the women will start refusing to do what they have done for the lodge since the beginning, which is contributing food without charging the lodge. Unfortunately by then, these idiots will be long gone and our Moose Family Center will be the casualty. It makes me very sad to continue to watch without being able to help. As long as these men are officers, the decline will go on.