Amazing Rockets. First Place After 21 Straight Wins!

Amazing. 21 consecutive wins. First place in the Western Conference. Wow.

The Rockets rallied from a first-half deficit and beat the Charlotte Bobcats 89-80 and take their winning streak to 21 games and become only the second NBA team with a streak of 21 or more.

The 1971-72 Lakers won 33 in a row. The Rockets host this year's Lakers on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday's game is going to be fun to watch!

Mission Control

1, 2, 3, ... 5, 6 BLASTOFF!

Blastoff! from fordee on Vimeo.

Accidents Happen...

Ooops! Aidan topples off a chair. from fordee on Vimeo.

Everyone survived. But Mom and Dad were probably shaken up mentally. Luckily he avoided the concrete and landed on his butt in the grass. Whew.

Spring has sprung...

Spring break is at the end of this week. Norma and I desperately need it. We have had a rough weekend of sickness. Neither of us has much voice at all to speak of (literally). But, we got Aidan out for a little while this afternoon. It was around 67 degrees, sunny and breezy. A beautiful Sunday.

3 AM Girl is Obama Girl

It is probably my favorite story from the campaign: ABC NEWS: 3 A.M. Girl Wants Obama To Answer the Call

Casey Knowles of Bonney Lake, Wash., was recently watching Jon Stewart lampoon Hillary Clinton's well-known "3 a.m." ads on "The Daily Show" when her brother noticed something.

"They were parodying this ad, kind of poking fun at it. They were replaying it. We paused it. My brother was like, 'Is that Casey?' And we just erupted," Knowles said on "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" today. "Sure enough, it's me."

An image of an eight-year-old Knowles appears in the ad, shown sleeping soundly in bed. The Clinton campaign legally purchased the file footage of Knowles from Getty Images.

Clinton's ad aimed to emphasize her experience and say she'd be a strong national security candidate. The ad was a play on a 1980s-era advertisement with a similar theme: if there was a middle-of-the-night national security emergency, who would you want to have answer the phone and deal with it?

Ironically, though, the now-17-year-old Knowles would want Clinton rival Barack Obama to answer any important 3 a.m. calls coming into the White House.

Knowles' image originally was shot for a railroad company advertisement, but the teen said she harbors no resentment toward the Clinton campaign for using her image.

"I'm just enjoying the irony. I'm an Obama supporter," said the high school senior, who will turn 18 next month, well before the election in November.

Still, Knowles made it clear she disliked Clinton's ad.

"What I don't like about the ad is it's fear-mongering. I think it's a cheap hit to take. I really prefer Obama's message of looking forward to a bright future," Knowles said. "I think that's a much stronger message."

Knowles was actually a precinct captain for the caucus in Washington State for Obama. This one just cracks me up.

Iceman - Amazing

This is amazing:
Iceman on Everest: 'It Was Easy'
Wim Hof's Amazing Abilities to Withstand Freezing Temperatures


This story just is amazing. Makes me think of
the NBC show Heroes. I have been watching those reruns from season 1 on DVD.

Hof began a lifelong quest to see just how far his abilities would take him. In January of 1999 he traveled 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle to run a half-marathon in his bare feet. Three years later, dressed only in a swimsuit, he dove under the ice at the North Pole and earned a Guinness World Record for the longest amount of time swimming under the ice: 80 meters, almost twice the length of an Olympic-sized pool.

When he didn't experience frostbite or hypothermia, the body's usual reactions to extreme cold, his extraordinary ability started to get the attention of doctors who specialize in extreme medicine.

Dr. Ken Kamler, author of "Surviving the Extremes," has treated dozens of people who tried to climb Mount Everest, and instead nearly died from the frigid temperatures. He couldn't believe it when he got word of a Dutchman making the ascent with no protection other than a pair of shorts.

It is almost too much to believe!

Bush takes office - Oil $31 a barrell... now?

"The results of having no plan has caught up with America."

Looking at those gas prices makes me long for the "good ole days."

"Alergic to life succubus side-kick." -- that was funny.

Bumper to Bumper

Texans drive like idiots when it rains. Today was no exception. Every grandma 15 miles per hour in the rain driver was out in force. What a long ride home. What would they do on the hills and in the snow of Pennsylvania?

We have been proudly sporting our Obama '08 sticker on our car:


I love it. In the middle of Bush Country, it's nice to REPRESENT.

I will present to my students tomorrow who I voted for. I don't tell them or even give a hint through the whole process. But, on election day I usually tell them after we vote in class. It is always interesting to see how many kids are excited, disappointed, or apathetic.

When telling the students I present my three most important issues and then break down why I voted for the person that I chose. The rational for me is to give them an insight into how an adult should decide these kinds of things. My three issues are the same as in 2004: Economy, Education, & Environment. Actually I think all 3 are very well tied together. We can stimulate the economy by turning to new green technology and fuels. To do that we'll need to be the technology innovator in the world (I could argue we have been since WWII). To do so will mean investing in education.

I am looking forward to seeing their reaction. I would have told them on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I have been out sick all week. The flu has really got this house down and out. Each of us are sporting a pretty nasty sore throat. I was sacked out on the couch and in bed for almost two straight days. The weekend needs to be super low key. Maybe we'll get through Sunday and finally get some steam back in our stride.

Hillary's Math Problem

Jonathan Alter of Newsweek wrote an interesting piece today called: Hillary's Math Problem. In it he states that even if Hillary ran the table and won each and every state left, she still would be short of the pledged delegates needed for the lead over Obama.

Hillary Clinton may be poised for a big night tonight, with wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Clinton aides say this will be the beginning of her comeback against Barack Obama. There's only one problem with this analysis: they can't count.

I'm no good at math either, but with the help of Slate’s Delegate Calculator I've scoped out the rest of the primaries, and even if you assume huge Hillary wins from here on out, the numbers don't look good for Clinton. In order to show how deep a hole she's in, I've given her the benefit of the doubt every week for the rest of the primaries.

...
So at the end of regulation, Hillary's the nominee, right? Actually, this much-too-generous scenario (which doesn't even account for Texas's weird "pri-caucus" system, which favors Obama in delegate selection) still leaves the pledged-delegate score at 1,634 for Obama to 1,576 for Clinton. That's a 58-delegate lead.

This is really interesting. Yet everywhere this morning, all you hear is how Clinton won the night last night. She won the popular vote in three states, but her margins weren't big enough to net many delegates. In fact, Obama may win more delegates because he wins the populated cities, whereas she has been winning the less populated rural areas. The cities have more delegates, so the edge is to Obama there.

Hillary is claiming that she is winning the big states and that those are the states that Dems will have to win in November against John McCain. But, is that really true? Wouldn't Obama win California, New York, New Jersey easily anyway? And isn't Obama's 60-40 dominance in the cities much more important? Isn't it the urban areas that are really the Democrats strong zones? Obama is actually winning where the voters are. Those rural areas that voted for Hillary in Texas will vote for McCain in the general election - no doubt.

This thing is really complex. But, I like what MSNBC's Chuck Todd said when he broke it down: "Either Obama is going to have to win in one of Hillary's strong states, or Hillary will have to win in one of his." So, looking at the map and what is left, here are their states:

Obama - Wyoming, Mississippi, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota, North Carolina, Guam, and Puerto Rico
Clinton - Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky

It sure looks good for Obama. At the end of this process he should be able to make these claims: 1) Won more of the popular vote. 2) Won more pledged delegates. 3) Won more states. How can the Democratic party give it to Hillary if the people have voted in stronger numbers for Obama? No way.

Texas... it's time!

Can't sleep tonight. I am feeling really crummy. Staying home with Aidan tomorrow. He has an ear infection.

So I am sitting her contemplating the election. I will go tomorrow night to caucus for Obama at our local polling place. I am very interested to see how it works. Never been to one before.

All I can hope is that he is able to do well enough tomorrow night (probably means winning in Tx, Ohio, and at least Vermont) that Hillary will see the hand writing on the wall and drop out. That sure would be nice. As a Democrat, I don't like all the negative spin that the Clinton machine is unleashing. It is only hurting us in the general election.

The election in Texas has been a good one though. I loved this clip done by the Obama for Texas folks which recaps the Texas campaign:

Hawaii Lava Flowing

At the end of the month I am heading to Hawaii for a conference. Today I saw this video footage of lava flowing:
Hawaii Lava Flow on CNN

That's about as close as I need to be! I am not so interested in lava flows. But, I guess I am getting excited about going and enjoying Hawaii. It might just be a once in a lifetime chance for me to go.

This weekend Aidan has been feeling a little ill. Really all of us are a bit run down. Norma has been working really hard at school. I taught classes on Thursday night and Saturday morning for Alternative Certification for teachers.

Sunday has been a good chance to recharge the batteries.