Lexi Elizabeth Phipps

Stacey delivered a beautiful baby girl yesterday by Caesarean surgery.  She was born at 8:29 in the morning weighing 9 pounds and 9 ounces, and she was 21 inches long.  Teressa says she has dark hair (at least for now) and it appears she has blue eyes.  Mother and daughter are still in the hospital (not sure which one), where they are resting nicely.

C0ngratulations all around to David and Stacey and Kyle.  A brand new little baby girl!

"Bad news in the chocolate factory."

If you can guess that quote... I will put you on my "coolest people ever" list.

So I have some horrible news peeps. So listen up because this will effect the plummeting economy as it will seriously effect/damage all the creative arts community's businesses. The Senate passed their version of the Orphan Works legislation by hotline yesterday (meaning by phone... the bums). While both bills would devastatethe creative arts communities, the Senate version of the bill (S 2913) is much worse for our cause than the House bill (H.R. 5889). We are deeply concerned that the House Judiciary Committee might now abandon their version of the bill and adopt the Senate version before adjournment. We are desperately trying to reach members of Congress to implore them NOT to adopt the Senate version of the bill. Given the financial crisis our country is facing, surely this is not the time to risk our nation's intellectual property as well.

What to do?

1. First, decide to TAKE ACTION NOW...

2. If you haven't already clicked on the link to send a letter to
your representative, please do that now. USE THIS LINK

3. CALL members of the Judiciary Committee (see list below) and tell them the following:

a. You oppose this controversial bill
b. This is a VOTE DECIDING ISSUE for you
c. We do not need to have a copyright crisis on top of an economic crisis
d. Ask them NOT to adopt the Senate's version of the bill
e. Ask them not to pass the House's version of the bill without a full and open hearing

4. SPREAD THE WORD- if you belong to an arts organization, please share this information with them. If you haven't yet imposed on your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues to contact their representatives, NOW is the time to ask for their help. (If you have already asked, please do it again.)

5. STAY ALERT-- Check out the Illustrators Partnership website

6. And for those of you who believe in the power of prayer... praying
couldn't hurt.

Thanks guys for all your efforts... together we can-and must-make a difference.

~Meridth

I work too much. by Ryan Gimbel

so this is a really unimportant post, but since that's what this is for, here it goes. mom/dad, how many hours was it that dad worked that really crazy overtime year (last year?)? i'm just wondering/looking for a goal to surpass. my check stub is accumulated in dollars not hours, but if my numbers crunching serves me correctly, starting at the beginning of this week, i should be able to take the rest of the year off. as of September 19th i was at 2040 hours.

i catch some crap at work (jokingly of course) about being an overtime hog or "greedy". this is really not the case. i just have this illness that if they ask or need me to work i can't say no. maybe it's some ego driven thing where i like to feel wanted, or maybe its just that i don't want to be the bad guy. either way, it is what it is and i yam what i yam (toot toot). i just wanted to vent for a little bit. have a good weekend and i love you all.

ryan

Public Policy In Action...Poor Nora.

About the Bush Administration's bailout plan, from Forbes.com:

"In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure [the] Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"'It's not based on any particular data point,' a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.  'We just wanted to choose a really large number.'"   

Coming Soon to a Home Near You........maybe

Okay, so I know Dad will probably be mad at me for giving you the heads up, but those of you who have households with young children will soon be receiving a specially-packed-just-for-you number-ten can filled with September surprises to celebrate the advent of the autumnal equinox.  These cans were packed and sealed on Friday night and sent via USPS Priority Mail today.  Watch out for bulging sides that may be due to "toxic" candy apples that were sealed in plastic baggies before being canned.  Ed said the cans sat in the hot car until he mailed them today at 2:30, so we're not just sure what shape they'll be in when they arrive at your respective homes.

Our intentions were noble--more fun for the kiddies, but we probably should have put stuffed animals in there instead of taffy apples.  Anyway, have fun, next time we'll have to send cans stuffed with dollar bills or something that will be more the children's (and parents) liking.

Love, Claudia and Ed

Post

I like the rash of posts, so here is one of my own.  I recently attended my friend Nick Ruble's bachelor party.  Preston created some sports cards from the event.  Don't worry I didn't include Ginger's card... I'm teasing Mom, it was actually a very tame party.  Enjoy.

A Week of Claudia and Ed

This week is the anniversary week of Ed and Claudia.  Yeah for 35 years of wedded bliss!  

In honor of Ed and Claudia, let's celebrate by having a post a day highlighting the goodness of Ed and Claudia.  I'll take tomorrow!  

Ed and Claudia--celebrating happily since 1973!

Sarah Palin Action Figure?

Well...not quite. Check out the whole action packed story here.

Let's try this one more time.

So Ed heard this broadcast on NPR about how much money the Fed was pouring into the banking industry these days in order to salvage the economy, and he was bowled over by the enormity of the numbers.  We found that same source of information on Google.  Here's the article link.

www.tysknews.com/Depts/Takes/million.htm

What's the difference between a million, a billion, a trillion?

We Really Needed A New Post!

So, I thought I'd just take a minute to update you all on some matters of importance. Does everyone remember that Stacey's baby is due in less than a month? Stacey, you're going to have to post a blog (or at least comment on this one) to tell us your due date! We know it's a girl--have you and Dave selected names? Any cute little pregnant belly pictures to increase the anticipation? We are getting pretty excited out here for another new little baby girl. Betsey said she would call you about the possibility of sending along some gently used baby clothes.

Next item. Saturday morning Dad woke up at about 5:00 feeling really weird. His heart was fluttering and was out of rhythm, and it was beating at around 150 beats per minute. After taking a shower, and trying to calm his heart down, he decided he needed to head over to the hospital. I had gotten up with him, and we went over to the emergency room. It turns out that he had atrial fibrillation, and they treated him with a drug called cadizem. After two hours, his heart finally jumped back into the proper rhythm, and he did not have to be put into intensive care (which is what they were just about to do at that point!). He is meeting with the doctor tonight, so I will have him put comments in later. He has done really well since then. We'll see what the doctor says.

I wanted to call you all, and just didn't get to it, since Nora was at our house for most of the weekend (Yes, her mom and dad were here too, but hey.....it was Nora!) . Anyway, don't worry unduly; we are trying to make sure Ed does everything he's supposed to do--no caffeinated soda, no chocolate, etc, etc. Keep him in your prayers.

We love you all!
Mother

House Tour or The State of Military Housing

Welcome to our home, so nice of you to stop by. You're just in time for Club crackers and crab dip.

Oh! You've noticed our tastefully framed vintage Collier's cover art. Yes, funny story about that. I found a bunch of original newspaper and magazine art from 'round the turn of the century in the trash in the basement of the BYU museum of art a few years back. One man's trash and all that...









Here's the front room. It's big, but only because we don't have anything to put in it. >SHRUG< It's been nice having hard wood floors because our dog hasn't been 100% perfect in his potty training regime. (Although he's been near perfect over the last three weeks.) Let's see, what else...um...we bought a used couch and a pair of book cases. It's still not enough to hold our millions of books. Note the horizontal bits beveling. Yikes. We've enjoyed living here. Good times sitting on the couch curled up with the dog watching reruns of Freaks and Geeks. Really weekends here seem to come pretty quickly. I'm working pretty hard, but the time does roll by.

Here's the kitchen. I'm throwing together a batch of Fluffernutters and Tang here. Uh...it's basically just a kitchen. Why don't you stroll down the hall while I get the marshmallow cream off of my fingers.







What I like about the place are the sundry gnarly trees both in the back and the front.



Meridth likes the location because it is a mere three minutes walk away from what looks like a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested deadzone. Observe:

Note the grass growing out of the gutters on the roof. Cool.





So why are there a number of abandoned military houses surrounding our neighborhood? Well, we live, really, in a decommissioned military facility that is in the midst of great changes. There used to be a number of units that were stationed in the Fort Ord area and there were also facilities for basic training as well. At any rate, the military is moving away from the Monterey Peninsula save for the Presidio (where I go to school) and the Naval Postgraduate School, located just east of downtown Monterey. Meridth and I still can't fathom why there should be such an abundance of truly eerie trash and bric-a-brac among these abandoned houses, but it certainly would make a picture-esque setting for a low-budget Mad Max remake.


So RADAR is super-cute and we pretty much love the crap out of him. This is him riding in the Subaru on our way downtown. Since we don't have friends (too busy, too nerdy) he hasn't had the chance to socialize too much so we'll occasionally go downtown or by the Fisherman's Wharf just to get him used to buses and ladies who want to squeeze him.

Anyway, all is well. West-coast Gimbels out.

THANKS EVERYONE!!

Thanks so much to everyone who sent happy birthday wished & posted pics of little Chloe. We loved them.
Here are a few from today.