Why I need more than one type of business card

I had an experience yesterday that I want to write about, mostly because I am not sure why this should be so surprising and enjoyable to me during this hyper-polarized election cycle.

The kids started school this past week, and in their montessori program they start the pre-school children in with a slow, short-day session for the beginng of the school year. We parents stay near by, chatting amongst ourselves in the halls and on the playground (or wrangling up our even smaller children while the bigger ones are getting acclimated to their new class).

So I did an experiment. I wore a political t-shirt.

The front said 'The real GOP'
The back said 'Not only am I a republican, but I am a conservative, too. Therefore I am always RIGHT'

I wanted to see what responses I got with the shirt, given that I suspected that many teachers were liberal, and that many of the parents sending kids to montessori pre-school were as well. I expected to get disgusted looks, or even some verbal jibes or challenges.

But this is not California. This is northeastern Ohio, home to Cleveland, the #1 city for child poverty in the USA.

Instead of the expected complaints, I received comments like "nice shirt", "where'd you get that?", and "while I do not support your candidate, I approve of some of the things he supports". Wow!

At dinner that evening we took the kids to the Cheesecake Factory in Legacy Village. A nice man at a table behind me saw the shirt and came over to give me a "Bush Cheney '04" pin to wear with it. He said "If you're going to wear a shirt like that, you'll need one of these, too". We got into a discussion about how Bush really was not "conservative", but we both agreed we had no better choice at this point. It turns out he was up here from Akron, Ohio (I guess just to eat at the Cheesecake Factory) and was involved in party politics down there.

We visited the Apple Store after dinner, and a sales person saw the pin on my shirt, again prompting a civil discussion about how we can disagree on the issues but still be "Americans".

Finally, we shopped at the Joseph-Beth Booksellers. While watching the kids in the kids-area, I started a conversation with another conservative fellow who was watching his son. One thing lead to another, and we suggested getting together a "conservative play-group" for the kids... He didn't have a business card on him and I've not printed new ones since the move, but I jotted down his name and email in my Palm.

Now I have a need for a second set of business cards: ones that say "Jeff Hexter, Ginnie and Randi's Dad", instead of "Jeff Hexter, President, Always Keep Computing Inc."

(I think we'll try to set up the first meeting next week)
Link of the day: http://www.kerryoniraq.com

The move... it's what's for dinner

My family has moved.

On Tuesday, August 17th I alone returned from my parent's home in Shaker Heights to my house in Sylvania... It was a late night drive, and I'm not too keen on driving the turnpike in the dark, but I needed to be at the new house for when the movers arrived the next morning.

On the 18th and 19th, the movers packed the house, I ran errands and helped, and spent some time saying goodbye to friends.

On the 20th, the movers loaded not one but two trucks, I signed some paperwork about this, I spent more time saying goodbye to friends, and I returned to Cleveland.

Now the weekend is over. I've unpacked the items I needed to save from the movers (mostly computers and their necessary add-ons, and some clothes), and I now see the huge task before me of integrating my stuff with my parent's stuff for only the next few weeks. This is going to be an interesting, trying time for everyone.

One exciting event happened on Saturday though: while taking Ginnie and Randi for a walk around the block we discovered that one of Ginnie's classmates at school lives on the street behind my parents. Sierra's mom also happens to be one of the room-parents for the class, and we immediately set up a play-date for Sunday.

Sunday rolls around, and we get invited over to play at 4pm with the plan being to order Pizza for dinner.

Camille and Robert (Sierra's parents) have set up a large, carnival style air-bounce in their back yard (their replacement for a jungle-gym) and Sierra, Virginia, Miranda, the next-door neighbor's son, and the two kids of another friend of the neighbor all play on it! Water tables were set up, and everyone (including many of the adults) end up getting splashed (with water), and after the Pizza dinner, the neighbor (Dan) sets up a slip-n-slide. It was an amazing, messy, muddy, and wet afternoon and evening. I also got to talk to Dan's father, a former econmics and history professor, who runs an interesting website advocating land tax alone with no income or sales taxes. And it turns out Dan is a honco in the local Republicans... We've got a lot to talk about.

More interior pictures of the new house

updated to correct spelling and a misunderstanding about the meaning of "splashed" on August 27.

Blog. Because it's either that or sleep.

Site I recommend:

dealmac.com
The best news source for
hard drive prices.

This post is dedicated to Ross.

We're moving. Soon. To Cleveland. My wife got a new job there.

I've wanted to do this for YEARS. In fact, I didn't really want to leave (and have done my best to not actually leave... I commuted weekly). Cleveland is my favorite city; I love it for it being such an underdog, for trying to fix her problems even though she fails so often. I think it is that striving to return to her former greatness that is one of her most attractive traits. Cleveland could be so much more than she is, and I hope some day she will be.

I also have many friends still living there, and just about all of my clients are in the Cleveland area... but the real reason I want to move back is so my kids can be near some grandparents and I can use them as cheap baby sitters.

---

While our house is finished, we're moving into my parents home. It'll be tight, but it should only be for a couple of months, and then we'll move back out again.

Here are some pix of the new home and here are some pictures of the interior (not yet completed)

The house if being built by Morningstar Homes, and we've been very impressed with their work so far. After looking at something like 30 homes we found a smaller one that was still in construction. We asked our realtor what he knew about the builder (since he had previously warned us against another new-build by a builder with a less-than-sterling reputation) and he said this was the company that built his home. It was also (when we selected it) at the lower end of the price spectrum of homes we were considering (another plus).

It's not at the lower end any more. So far we've upgraded nearly EVERYTHING from the original specs:
Tile floors in foyer, kitchen/eating area, laundry room, mud room, girls bathroom, guest bathroom, powder room.
hickory hard-wood floors in the dining room and living room, plus same in the girls bedrooms.
nicer carpets in office, family room, stairs/hallway, master bedroom, guest room.
finished basement with "exercise room", kids play room, full bathroom, and office for me (with lots of storage, and lots of network wiring).
wainscoting and chandelier in dining room.
huge chandelier in 2-story foyer.
fancy ceiling fan in master bedroom.
built-in entertainment center in family room.
custom cabinetry in kitchen with commercial-grade appliances.
quartz countertops.
and more that I am forgetting.

When it is done, we'll have room for visitors...