Ace Wisdom

Grandson Mitchell shared some of his favorite music downloaded from the internet onto his laptop computer and projected with a sound bar. It centered around “working out” to get into shape. His favorite song has a bouncy beat with “rap style” lyrics. It goes “I’m sexy and I know it and I’m not afraid to show it. I work out. I work out. I work out.” Some of the remaining lyrics get kind of racey. Mitchell developed some dancing moves to accentuate the music. Silly. Silly. How do kids find this stuff?
The Green Bay Packers have sold $43 million of worthless stock certificates in 2 days. They are 75% of their way to their goal. I thought we were in a recession. I’m sure the stock is not being bought by big corporations. What have the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd got to say now? The stock probably was bought by our government who is used to making investments for a loss.
While talking recession, I notice the UW Badgers sold out their allotment to the Rose Bowl within minutes. Where is all the money coming from?
Our Christmas tree goes up today.
Tomorrow we attend the traditional Christmas program sponsored by Xavier High School. The program began years ago through the efforts of one of Mom’s friends. It now has 10 performances over a week’s time and each performance is “packed”. It is a reminder that Christmas is not about spending money. It is about the birth of the Christ child and the meaning that has for mankind. Do something “Christmas-y”.
Packers Sunday. Lambeau. 30 degrees at game time. Their perfect record is on the line.
Pull your “long-johns” out of the drawer.
Love,
Dad

The Packers put their stock on sale this morning. The investment is lousy but the intangible things like pride of ownership, a certificate hanging on the wall or an invite to the annual stockholders meetings could be priceless. I don’t know if this investment merits protests by the “Occupy Wall Steet” types. You know! Rich people wasting money. How about poor people wasting money?
My 4 year warranty on the BMW ran out in May. Up until that time, all service was free. All warranty and replacements were “no-charge”. A little white light on my instrument panel came on last week indicating that I needed to service the engine soon. Two days later the light went out never to appear again. I scheduled anyway. Normal service. Things like oil, filter and lube. I also indicated that a light had come on indicating “service required” but subsequently went off. I figured the bill should come to $25-30 but being BMW, I doubled my expectations to $50. Two hours after dropping it off, I got my invoice. $150. What did they do? They ran diagnostics on my instrument panel to check the pre-mature “engine service” light. The diagnostics were $48. I found out the BMW requires 8 quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic oil at $7.00 per quart. Anther $56. Throw in filter, an element and labor and you have $150. But there are some things that go beyond outrageous service charges. They washed my car before I got it back and it was housed in a warm garage until I picked it up. It is those “intangible things” that make the whole thing okay.
For the first time in seven years I got “spammed”. One of my blog entries was targeted and I’ve dumped close to 300 duplicate, nuisance hits to this site. Grasshopper No.5 must have changed the filter criteria letting more comments through. But hey, 300 spams are just a nuisance. It is the knowledge that important information is being imparted to interested readers. It is the intangible things that will keep me “blogging”. Sh–!
Our Christmas tree is in the living room.
The Packers are 12-0. They are North Division Champs and headed for the playoffs.
The Badgers are Big Ten Champions and headed for the Rose Bowl. I’ve got my tickets.
Stay Warm!
Love,
Dad

The current administration in Washington D.C has promoted the Chevrolet Volt as the centerpiece of clean energy. The “Volt” is primarily battery powered and gets 70-100 miles to a single electrical charge. There have been several engine fires related to the lithium batteries that power the car. Cars that have been in a collision have a propensity to break into flames. General Motors is working feverishly to solve the “electrical fire” problem. Presently GM has offered to buy back any Volt until the problems are solved. That sounds like a “charged” situation to me. So now the government has supported a “start-up” solar panel company with $500 million and it went bankrupt and it has backed a battery designed car program that burns up the car. Hmmm!
Monday Dec.5 is Grandson Mitchell’s birthday. It marks No.14. He is playing basketball for the Middleton Basketball Club (not associated with his middle school). At 6 foot tall and still growing, the future lies ahead. I know when Grasshopper No.1 got her last collie pup, she knew that the puppy was going to be big because of her paws. I know comparing Mitchell to the collie probably isn’t appropriate but I have noticed Mitchell has huge hands. That doesn’t come from my side of the family. Happy Birthday Mitchell. May dunking a basketball be in your future.
Finally a reminder that the Green Bay Packers have 250,000 shares of stock going on sale next week. The price per share is $250. The price is fixed and will not change. Of course, it is almost impossible to sell to someone else to get your money back. It is a purely frivolous investment that gets you and invitation to the annual stockholders meeting at Lambeau once a year and you get an annual tour of the gift shop and other facilities. It sounds like a Christmas stocking stuffer to me. I understand that one person is limited to 200 shares of Packer stock limiting the total purchase to $50,000. Yeah, right. My check is in the mail.
UW Badgers play Saturday night for the Big 10 Football Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. It should be exciting.
Packers fly to New York to play the Giants Sunday in the Meadowlands. The Giants are sneaky tough. A 12-0 record is at stake.
Stay warm!
Love,
Dad

Saturday was the great “bake-off”. Grasshoppers No.1 and No.2 joined your Mom in an afternoon to bake Christmas cookies. They were armed with spatulas, spoons, and measuring cups. It was a glorious, nostalgic return to yester-year. There were sweet smells everywhere. Flour. Sugar. Butter. Chocolate.
The idea was to bake enough cookies to satisfy the Christmas demand. Each of the bakers was going to take cookies home and ration them out through the holidays.
I kept checking on the baking effort throughout the afternoon. The cookies kept disappearing. I think the idea was to hide them from me as quick as they baked them. Damn!
These cookies were different. There were no calories or carbohydrates. They are baked with love and are guaranteed to be good for you.
And then it was over. The baking was done. The kitchen was cleaned up. The cookie jars were full.
But wait. I went to our cookie jar and it was empty. It seems the “bakers” made a pact to hide the cookies and ration them out slowly over the holidays. So one third of the cookies went home with No.1 and one third with No.2. The remaining cookies stay here but in a hidden location.
I think they call it a “buzz-kill” or anti-climatic”. I was anticipating a week-end of over indulgence of great treats and all I got was a few nostalgic smells.
Trust me, I don’t give up easily. I have a “nose” for hidden treasures. If those cookies are any where near by, I will find them.
I’m told there was one mistake. It happened to a “gooey-mushy” sampling of chocolate cookies. The recipe called for a measure of butterscotch. The baker (who remains nameless) read the butter part but the word scotch was on the next page. So the cookies got lots of butter and the scotch part was missed. Afterward the baker drank scotch to make up for the error.
The effort was valiant. The chefs were tired. Cookies were plentiful. There will be a lot of happy faces as family and friends indulge over the holidays. Enjoy.
Stay warm.
Love,
Dad

The Packers are 11-0. It is the most consecutive wins to start a season for the Pack, ever! Savor the moment. My one share of stock must be increasing in value.
Grandson Tommy turns 11 Sunday. He got his birthday present early because his birthday blends into Thanksgiving and his Mom and Dad try to separate the two occasions. I found out that an Apple iPod makes birthday boys smile. The cost of an iPod? Don’t ask. The smile on a kids face! Priceless. Happy birthday Tommy.
Grandson Grant has stretched to 6 ft.4 inches in height. His brother Mitchell has got to be around 6 foot tall. Their Mom is like a Munchkin among tall trees.
I understand that Grant now has his drivers license. The good news is that he can save is Mom a lot time on short trips to basketball practice and the store. The bad news is that Mom’s insurance costs are going to go up.
Thanksgiving interrupts my daily exercise routine. My exercise club is closed on turkey day. It turns out the following “black Friday” brings a record number of crazy shoppers to the club. I refuse to fight the crowds. I had to resort to outside exercise for a couple of days. Actually the weather has been very cooperative.
Turkey day came and went. I hope you and yours enjoyed the special day. There are so many food choices. The only thing I need is dressing and gravy. All the rest of the foods are diversions to fill you up. Of course, home baked cherry pie with ice cream isn’t bad either.
Here we go. The Christmas season begins.
Love,
Dad

The Packers play on Thanksgiving. 11:30 AM.
They go to Detroit with a 10-0 record. They are the only unbeaten team in the National Football League. The Pack will attempt to extend the winning streak against a pretty good Lions team.
They have done this before. It was 1962. Grandpa George, Nana, your Mom and I watched the game on a new color TV at the Steger homestead. Lombardi was in his fourth year as a coach. His legend was just beginning. The Packers had won the NFL championship the previous year (there was no Super Bowl yet). They opened ’62 with a 10-0 record. It seemed like they were unbeatable. They headed for Detroit for a Thanksgiving day celebration. Detroit in ’62 had a really lousy team. The rest is history. The Packers got “smoked”. Quarterback Bart Starr got sacked 10 times. Detroit led 23-0 at half time. The Pack adjusted at half time but could not overcome the deficit. Final score? 26-14. The Packers left Detroit with a 10-1 record. They finished the regular season 13-1. Later that year, Lombardi guided them to a second straight NFL championship. Detroit tarnished what could have been a perfect season.
It is now 49 years later. The cast of players have changed. The similarities are erie. The current Packers are last year’s Super Bowl Champs! They have same 10-0 record! There is talk of an unbeaten season!
Will history repeat itself? You need to tune in Thursday to find out. Will Aaron Rodgers get sacked 10 times? Will Detroit score a lot of points in the first half of the game?
Relax. Even if the Packers lose, they will go on to complete a spectacular season and win their second straight Super Bowl. It is pre-ordained by history. I’ve lived through this scenerio before.
I hope your Turkey day is a winner. In the end, gathering with family and friends around the TV to cheer on Wisconsin’s favorite team is what it is all about. Hug the person next to you. And the next! and the next!
Love,
Dad

Your Mom and I went to see the play “Les Miserables” at the PAC last night. It is about the French in the early 1800’s. The citizens were oppressed and always fighting. They are still fighting. The story was told in operatic style. I didn’t know I was going to the Opera. An opera is akin to a root canal. It is steady pain. I made it through the whole play waiting for the “fat lady” to sing. An opera always ends with the fat lady singing. She never sang. Finally there was a break and we left the theater. I didn’t know if it was over or not. I wasn’t going to go back and find out. There was no traditional song. (note from mom: “we stayed until the end”).
There has been a strong wind blowing this morning. It is the result of 600,000 deer hunters headed north. The insanity has begun. For the first time in my life I wished (just for a moment) I was a deer hunter. Then I would have had an excuse to miss Les Miserables.
I have found out what “Les Miserables” means in french. It means “make the audience miserable”.
I usually don’t pay attention to obituaries. In fact, years ago I swore I would never read obituaries. Alas, I do peak. I noticed that a lady named Miss Julie, 92 had passed away. It happened to be the matriarch of the family who owned the dance school Grasshopper No.5 attended from second grade through high school. There were times that I thought No. 5 might have been adopted into their personal family. Next in line is “Miss Julie’s” daughter, Marcia (hence the name Marcia’s School of Dance). And then there is Marcia’s daughter, always called “Miss Juliana”. Grasshopper No. 5 did a smashing dance routine with her at their annual dance recital 2 years in a row. Also, Grasshopper No. 5 won 1st place in Chicago for several years at a dance competition sponsored by the Nat’l Assoc. of Dance Masters she attended with her teachers, Marcia and Juliana. So, you see, they were very instrumental in a small way to No. 5’s development. I personally witnessed No. 5 grow as her confidence in dancing grew. Most people don’t know No. 5 is a really good dancer. I mean really good. So,to the family of Miss Julie, my deepest sympathy.
Stay warm,
Love,
Dad