AA Again

(That's American Adventures)

E&A rode Crazy Bus (not pictured) five times- in a row! The girl running the ride thought they were cute- how each time they told her (again) that they had just ridden the bus. The thing is, they were just about the only people riding it, so they were hard to miss!

Angels Over Atlanta

The Blue Angels are visiting Atlanta this weekend. We parked at the Walmart diagonally across from Dobbins Air Reserve base, and it was a great location. We might not have seen every move, but they flew RIGHT OVER US multiple times. It was great- and loud!

Homestar Runner
Have I mentioned this before? Some really goofy videos about some very odd characters. Don't forget to stop in and see Strong Bad answer user emails.

Free Comic Book Day 2006
Check the website for a store near you that is giving away comics from a list of 28 special editions. The comics range from Archie to Star Wars to Donald Duck and beyond to the "not so recognizable" names.

FairTax on Wikipedia
It's crazy but true - I never even thought of checking Wikipedia for information on the Fair Tax Act!

MMFA Artworks

In Montgomery

We're in AL today visiting Amanda's mom, who's not feeling well. I've taken the kids (well, E&A) to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, where they have a section just for kids. It has numerous "interactive exhibits", some computers, and an area with books, pillows, and a puppet theater. The kids are enjoying it, but I believe Alex was hoping for something more on the scale of the Georgia Aquarium. Too bad for him. :-)

BOOK TV.ORG
More Fair Tax Discussion, this time on Book TV. Neal Boortz debates Michael Graetz. It's long (1-1/2 hours) but if you have the time and want to hear both sides of the argument, this is a great way to get educated.

American Chronicle: The 'Fair Tax'
Congressman Linder makes a mistake in referring to the tax as 23% (it is only 23% when viewed "tax-inclusive"; the sales tax amount is 30%), but overall a good article.

With regards to "tax-inclusive" vs. "tax-exclusive": if the amount is considered as part of a whole, we say it is "inclusive". For instance, if you make $10,000 and pay the government $2,300, you have a 23% "tax-inclusive" rate (since the 2,300 is 23% of the "whole" 10,000). If you thought of it as $7,700 take home + $2,300 tax, then the $2,300 is ~30% (2300/7700) from a "tax-exclusive" point of view. You can see how this translates to sales tax- the latter would be the price ($7,700) + 30% sales tax ($2,300).

BTW, "$10K" was used in the example so I didn't have to pick up a calculator. There is also the matter of the prebate, which lowers the effective taxable base, but you should investigate that at the Fair Tax website.

Understand now?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Who Wouldn't Be Happy?

And the Fun Begins

This year I purchased season passes to American Adventures. After all, we live about three miles from the place- and I had never even been there! So far we've only been to the Foam Factory, but I imagine that we will easily get our money's worth.

Where Is Everybody...Really?
Good summary of some answers to the question of "are there intelligent species outside our own planet?"

Claire is Almost 4 Months Old

Hai!

Today is the birthday party of Jack, one of Alex's friends. Jack takes Karate, so his birthday party is at the dojo. Alex is having a great time! He got to play with some Karate equipment at Jack's house and loved it. He's already asked to start taking lessons, which he probably will in the Fall.

Emily's "Other" Birthday

"Granddad and Nana" came to bring Emily (not pictured) her birthday presents, to play with the kids, and to take us all out to lunch. And a good time was had by all...

Alex's Field Trip

Alex's class went to Fernbank today to visit the planetarium. The show was "The Friendly Stars" and was _definitely_ aimed at small children. It was a great experience for us all (I was the only person in the group who had visited a planetarium before!)

Love is amazing. It causes us to act in the strangest ways, to feel the most wonderful sensations, to experience life's greatest moments. And yet we have such a hard time capturing it.

Wikipedia defines it as "acting intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote overall well-being". The Greeks couldn't put their finger on it; they have five words for love. And of course English has but one word, but we love to put adjectives in front of it to describe how it feels - "endless love", "brotherly love", "tainted love", "forbidden love", "unrequited love".

One thing is certain - I may not know how to describe the feeling, but I know it when I see it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Emily Knows Walt!

Today was Emily's day to present her "Famous American" project (she's the one standing up front). She chose Walt Disney, who as we know created Cantelope- er, I mean, the Disney company. We found lots of great stuff about him on the Net. My favorite website was www.disneydreamer.com because it had lots of info the Disney Co. omitted.

Green Cars Today Weblog
NewDream.org is a great resource for finding out how we can reduce our ill effects on the environment. They can get a bit extreme at times; use your intelligence to filter out what you don't want. In the end, they have a lot of good information buried in there.

Oh, and they now have a "Green Cars Today" weblog promoting the use of hybrids and alternative fuels.