Busy end of the summer

Its a been a little while as things got real busy the past couple of weeks. All the good content (pics and stuff) is over at Bailey's Corner. But the short of it is:

- Cira (Patty and Vin's daughter) had her first birthday at the end of July
- We made it to the cottage for about 4 days
- I am wrapping up my internship and getting ready for my third year of grad school
- Robin made it to a few wedding related events in Chicago for Nicole and Christina, I was sorry to miss the couples shower but more pissed I did not get invited to Nicole's bachelorette party.

We are looking forward to the fall, U of M football (now that the Tigers have all but broke our hearts), and all the upcoming events with work, school, friends and family.

I know its been a bit...

but that's not the point. And I know you want more Bailey material. I will get it there but until then, I love Einstein:

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand."

U of M v. Notre Dame 2031

Which is of course fun for all sports fans, but I couldn't help but smile when reading the blurb on SI.com. I particularly enjoyed the following statement of who taught who the game of football...

"The rivalry dates back to 1877, when some Michigan students taught the game to Notre Dame students."

See you all in Ann Arbor '31 for no doubt another lesson on the gridiron for the Irish...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/07/30/bc.fbc.michigan.notreda.ap/index.html

Individuals can do their part

Often folks say and feel like they play no part in changing how the U.S. deals with energy and climate change. I liked this response from Amory Levins in an interview on Grist.

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2007/07/26/lovins/index.html?source=daily

Do you think that individual changes in behavior can or will have substantial effect on the energy situation?

Yes, of course. People will vote with their wallets as well as their ballots, in a way that will affect the political system and even more the private sector, which is quite good at selling what you want and not selling what you don't buy. The interplay between business and civil society is even more important than between business and government, and that is where I want to continue to focus most of my effort. I admire those who try to reform public policy, but I don't spend much time doing that myself. In a tripolar world of business, civil society, and government, why would you want to focus on the least effective of that triad?

Good times and good friends

Robin and I had a chance to spend some QT with some good friends the past week. Starting with going to the Tim&Faith concert with Christina and Mark. Even though they are crazy busy with moving into their new home and in the final months of planning for their wedding, last Wednesday night the four of us headed out to the Palace of Auburn Hills for what turned out to be a good showing from the country power duo. Stage was a little tough to get a pic of but here is my best attempt (that's actually Taylor Swift, the opening act).

Following a brief recovery day, we headed down to Pittsburgh, PA to visit our good friends Rob and Becky Beltz. The Beltz's moved down to Venetia, PA, a beautiful little suburb south of town, earlier this year. This was our first chance to get down and see them. We stayed in Friday night to give Rob a chance to gingerly place a beer can in the backside of a chicken and then grill it for about an hour and a half. It was very tasty.

Saturday we spent a couple of hours biking the trails of the Great Allegheny Passage (http://www.atatrail.org/). We were traversing the brutal stretch between Hendersonville and McMurray. To reward ourselves along the way we stopped for gyros and icecream with our good friend who preferred to ride on a peeled banana.

Saturday evening was spent walking around the shops and bars of the Southside Works. Including dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and after dinner drinks at Tusca.



We wrapped up the weekend in PA with a home cooked breakfast, Beltz style and Robin and I were on the road home to see little B-Han. Who spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Bailey (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for watching the little man).

After 4 hours and 35 minutes of easy driving we were home again and got to spend the rest of the afternoon at home with Bailey, Cira, Patty, and Vin. Here are a few pics of the cousins playing on the stairs:



All in all a great weekend and great memories!

A must see...

Ranvir has found a must see YouTube contribution:

http://www.gujralonline.tumblr.com/

Day 2: Why does the blog have a black background?

The short answer: Mike is a bit of a treehugger.

The longer answer, Mike believes the rationale that a screen with a black background requires less energy (in the form of electricity) to operate than a screen with a white background. Same idea as the screen saver. Though I took the idea from the developers of:

http://www.blackle.com/about/

Its a google supported search engine but with a black background, instead of white.

Since the M.H.Edison blog will be visited by millions a day, I really felt the need to do my part to reduce the footprint of our digital existence. Every Watt reduced is a bit of carbon not going into the atmosphere and I am all about that! Sure, once the U.S. establishes and achieves a meaningful RPS (renewable portfolio standard) I will switch to a white background and suck those renewable energy units up (okay, just kidding, energy efficiency is much more important... so I will stick with black).

To my non-greenish friends and family members, worry not, this blog is not going to be all about sustainable living issues, but they will likely pop up from time to time as its part of RD, B-han and I's day to day.

For everybody, maybe you will see something you like, maybe something you disagree with... either way, comment away and let me know how we are over reacting, not doing enough or just flat out doing it wrong!


see you soon!

Welcome!

Hello Family & Friends,

Welcome to what may become the most visited blog in the entire blogosphere. Or are least the most visited blog by me. If things go according to plan we will post updates and fun happenings of the M.H. Edison family.

Okay so you might not care too much about that but check out the list on the right, Bailey has his own corner. Go there for pics and movies of the main attraction to this blog.

Thanks for coming!

Robin, Mike and Bailey