Leisure Engagement Passion

Minor Family Christmas 2008

My family has never been on vacation together since we all became adults with our own families.  So a year ago we made it a goal to be together for Christmas 2008.  We had a great time in Rocky Point Mexico ~ Puerto Penasco.  We had the entire beach to ourselves.

Our original plans were to go on a Mexican cruise, but due to the horrible economy no one wanted to start 2009 with more debt hanging over their heads than they had to. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we all lived in Southern California and could just drive on over to San Pedro to board the cruise ship, but our family is spread around.  I’ve got a brother in Chandler Arizona and another in Wichita Kansas.  Mom, Dad, my family and youngest brother live in California.

I being the only daughter without children have no problem traveling at a whim (I also work for an Airline) but when you have 3,4 or 5 to make travel arrangements for things get a little expensive.

Sure there’s been times where a couple of us have enjoyed time together but as Mom put it, she and Dad aren’t getting any younger and since everyone’s health is good, let’s not let this time together pass.  Using our Money Merge Account to check on the true cost of our trip allowed us to know that we weren’t spending too much and boy was that a good feeling going and coming.  Mele Kalikimaka

I just had to write about this perk that JetBlue Airlines just announced.  That’s right, you now get bonus frequent flyer miles when you travel with your pet or pets.  You don’t have a pet carrier, don’t worry they can help you with that too.  Read the full post in the LA Times I only wish pets could travel in the cabin to Hawaii on Hawaiian airlines without being a service animal…some day…

Is your business on the Map?  It’s FREE! I just joined Mlmlocal to create another means of advertising my United First Financial business.  Along with other United First Financial Agents we are able to map the locations of all of our home based businesses.  I’ve been reviewing some new blogs and websites on web 2.0 and all the new ways to get yourself and business out to market. I have been learning about ‘branding’, blogging and using social media like twitter to join other like minded individuals.  Let me tell you it is very time consuming, but I know all the work I’m doing now to try and keep pace is all worth it.  Which brings me to putting United First Financial on the Map.  Take a look at mlmlocal.com and put your business on the map.  Like I said “It’s FREE”

The Real Estate Market is in bad shape and according to this 60 Minute segment it is only going to get worse in the next 2 years. As a loan officer, I tried to keep clients out of interest only loans and pay option arms, but for some of them that’s what they wanted. They were not subprime borrowers, they just wanted lower payments. Some of my clients even refinanced out of the 30yr loans I afforded them with other lenders and are now in trouble. California’s Real Estate is going to be hit hard.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Once we saw all those little schipperke puppies trying to run around, we were hooked.  Our Schipperke Dogs are family and they know it.

I’ve written about quite a few things since I started this blog and didn’t even realize I had not mentioned the babies of our Nadamoto family.

Schipperke dogs are difficult to photo

Aja and Nali are Schipperke Dogs.  Aja is almost 9 years old and we got her from a breeder in Stevenson Ranch here in California.  I never thought I wanted a pet considering I worked in the airline industry and was always traveling for work and it wasn’t that I didn’t like pets, but it was because I didn’t want to neglect them by never being around.  But my husband on the other hand worked our business out of our home and as soon as we enclosed the courtyard he, we, went ahead and researched what breed of dogs would be good for us.

I think he already new he wanted a Schipperke.  Schipperkes according to him had very long lives, no real health problems and are great watchdogs.  And since he would be home to care for her, I went along in the decision.  We were lucky that when we were ready to bring a dog into the family the breeder we found had just had a litter.  We weren’t allowed to go over until they were 8 weeks old.  As soon as that day came we went right over to pick out the one we wanted.  The Schipperke puppies were all sooo cute.  They had different colored ribbons around their necks to tell them apart.  They weren’t given any names so that their new owners could name them.  My husband didn’t want a boy, he said boys like to “mark” their spot all over the place.  So we had our eyes on “Pink” and “Red”.  We decided on “Red”, she had alot more personality than “Pink” did and so we signed all the documents and we were on our way home.  That was in April of 2000. Her champion name is Nautica Somewhere Over China or Aja.

Then one day we thought “what if we had a companion for Aja?” I’ll post about Nali soon. (He’s the one with the tongue sticking out)

An email I received from the CAGW.

With the likelihood of a $1 trillion deficit in the current fiscal year and massive new taxes and spending on the way, I want to urge you in the strongest terms possible to please take a few minutes now to complete our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  CAGW needs to hear your views today.

Here’s why your survey answers are so important right now.
While we hope that President-elect Barack Obama’s vision of “change” includes changing Washington’s carefree attitude toward wasting tax dollars, many members of Congress, by their own admission, have “pent-up demand” for new spending and taxes.  Some of the proposed tax and spending increases are staggering.

Let me share with you just a few of the most dangerous proposals under serious consideration in Washington right now.

First, as Congress and the new Administration try to decide who is going to qualify for their “share the wealth” tax increases very early next year (those making $250,000 or $200,000 or $150,000 or even $125,000 or less), the general consensus is that the tax hike on this group will total 25 percent, including higher tax rates and phasing out exemptions and itemized deductions.  The fact that history has shown that you can’t tax your way out of a recession may not stop this misguided proposal from going forward.

But I must warn you it is not just the so-called “rich” that the new Congress and Administration will be coming after.

What will be particularly difficult for many retirees is that the big spenders are working toward a 33 percent increase in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains.  They’re also advocating reinstatement of the death tax at a whopping 45 percent rate, and a new payroll tax on employers that is estimated at 7 percent to help pay for the Obama government-run healthcare plan.

And if reducing Americans’ income at a time when many are struggling to make ends meet is not enough to push the economy into a deep and prolonged recession, the big spenders are proposing to increase corporate taxes by 25 percent even though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rate in the industrialized world.  All Americans will pay dearly for these corporate taxes through higher prices, more lost jobs, and an even more stagnant economy.

To make matters worse, President-elect Obama and his allies in Congress have promised $1.3 trillion in “tax cuts” over the next 10 years to lower- and middle-income Americans, many of whom don’t pay federal income taxes at all!  Some 47 million filers, or 33 percent, don’t pay taxes today.  That number would rise by 16 million, to 44 percent, under the Obama plan.

Mark my words, if this unprecedented giveaway goes forward, it will push America toward bankruptcy!

These proposals are made more dangerous when you add them to the fact that we are facing a deepening economic recession and a budget deficit in 2009 that very likely will reach an all-time record of $1 trillion.  And this deficit may very quickly get $300 billion, $500 billion, or even $700 billion higher as Congress considers an ill-conceived, quick-fix, giveaway stimulus program.  This stimulus package will simply increase the deficit and, in all likelihood, will be as much of a waste as the $100 billion in stimulus checks that President Bush sent out.

To help fight the massive taxes and record amounts of deficit-producing, wasteful spending being proposed and, at the same time, help CAGW pick our battles over the coming weeks and months, I urgently need you to participate in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  Your survey answers will arm us with the evidence of public opposition we need to derail many of the worst tax and spending plans.

Completing our survey is the most powerful way you can show your anger over the skyrocketing deficit while delivering an urgent demand to stop the most reckless and radical spending and tax proposals.

In addition, your survey answers will help set CAGW’s agenda and direct our most critical efforts in the months ahead.  This is your opportunity to help decide which upcoming battles CAGW should wage.

As I have said before, I may be CAGW’s president, but CAGW is your organization.  CAGW’s success or failure rests in your hands, so please give us your survey answers today.

The results of our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY will be publicized to the news media and key opinion leaders here in Washington and across the country and included in an upcoming edition of “E-News.”  What’s more, we will use your survey answers to focus a media spotlight on the financial dangers posed by a $1 trillion deficit and demonstrate that there is growing public opposition to the proposed massive expansion of failed big-government policies.

I assure you, the #1 way CAGW can help stop wasteful, deficit spending and economy-stagnating tax increases is by producing solid evidence of overwhelming public support for spending cuts, deficit reduction, and preserving the Bush tax cuts.

If you want to see Congress stop the wasteful spending, halt the drive for higher taxes, reject the pork-barrel projects that are hollowing out our nation’s defenses and other vital programs, and revise the proposal for government-run healthcare so that it is focused on the needy and won’t bankrupt America, I urge you to take part in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY today.

And when you do, I also need to ask you to make a year-end donation today to help CAGW act on the recommendations you have made.

MUMBAI TERRORIST ATTACK

I thought I would share with you what Airline crew members are having to deal with these days.

Gone is the “Glamour”.

Related Story:

NWA has since said ALL NWA and DAL crew members have been evacuated from Mumbai.

I just got back from Amsterdam and brought several NWA crew members with me who were at the Oberi Hotel hotel when the terrorists attacked.  Here is an account from one of our NWA Captains:

Scott D_________________________________________________________________

Dateline Mumbai;

I was lucky.  Just two hours separated me from a life altering event.

Yes I was there.  My flight was on approach to BOM when the first terrorist attacks took place.  Our ETA to the Oberi/Trident hotel was about 90mins later.  The outbound crew was scheduled to be in the lobby about 20mins after the first attack at the hotel (10:30pm).

My crew spent 6hrs on the aircraft before being relocated to one of the airport hotels.  In retrospect, NWA should have gotten us there immediately.  We were the crew who would fly out of BOM.  Being off duty on the aircraft is not resting, and I correctly guestimated how most of the decision process was going to play out over the next 12hrs.  We were eating into what would be a 48hr period with (in my case) just 4hrs of sleep.  I thought my day couldn?t get much worse.

At this moment, I?m on a flight from BOM-AMS.  My crewmembers are all safe, and we have nine of eleven of the crew who were at the Oberi/Trident.  Sadly, a pilot and FA are still at the Oberi, holed up in their rooms.  NWA hired two different civilian extraction teams to get them out of the hotel safely … you know, expats - challenge/response passwords & all that James Bond stuff … That may have worked initially; but the hotel was locked down by the local military (to the exclusion of those rescue teams) and that simply provided the terrorists time to reorganize, take hostages, and prepare for a long standoff.

Flashback to Oberi hotel.  Some stories from that unfortunate crew follow:  (Apparently, a well built hotel muffles sound more than you might think …..  )

F/A exits the elevator in the lobby of the Trident.  The terrorists (probably) just gunned their way  through the lobby, into a connecting hallway to the Oberi (their primary target).  Bodies and pools of blood everywhere.  The two girls at the front desk, Bellman, and Doorman all killed in the initial attack.  All other people in the lobby were either shot/killed or helped the injured out of the hotel.  The FA returned to his room then followed a housecleaner out through a (sort of) hidden stairway into the relative safety of the street.  I later found out the hotel manager, who lives in the hotel with his wife and children, were all killed in the initial attack.  That may point to an ´insider¡ helping the terrorists.

Another F/A goes to the elevator to head down to the lobby.  Doors open and the interior of the car was splattered in blood..  She returned to her room and got a few other F/A?s and left that floor via the emergency exit.  Once out on the exposed outer stairway, the fire door locked behind them. If they ran into trouble down below, without another exit strategy, they?d be truly screwed.  Near the bottom, they heard a lot of commotion beyond a set of double doors.  They were potentially stuck in a real bad situation. They backed up a bit, laid down and played possum (wouldn?t have worked - no blood).  A few minutes later a police team came up to their position and escorted them to the relative safety of a nearby parking garage.

A male Chinese F/A was trying to escape the hotel following a hotel employee through a different pitch black service stairway.  He opened a door to a short hallway leading into the lobby.  Shell casings and damage littered the floor.  He started into the lobby and came face to face with one of the armed terrorists.  Fortunately, he was not in uniform, and wearing a European style black leather jacket..  He didn?t fit the victim ´profile.¡  He turned around, back through the hallway … got out alive.

That crew eventually spent about 9hrs on an ascending ramp at a concrete parking structure about two blocks from the hotel.  The F/O on the scene separated that crew from perhaps 300 other confused civilians.  Automatic weapon fire and hand grenade explosions permeated the restless night.  They were able to keep in touch with NWA security via an international cell phone.  They got on a charter bus about 9am, and were transported to the hotel where my crew was located.

I`m now in AMS.  I`ll be on a flight to civilization in another 3hrs.  The two crewmembers stuck in the BOM hotel are still OK, but … still waiting to be rescued … along with Lufthansa and Air France crews.

The above was a quick summary of what happened last night.  I could get into a Lot more detail.  But right now, there?s a shower with my name in it.

USC Notre Dame Rival 2008

When I asked my Godson Bryce what he wanted for his 14th Birthday and he said he would love to see his favorite College Team, Notre Dame play USC, I couldn’t say no.  I don’t have children of my own and he is my only Godson, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  First of all, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to ‘acquire’ tickets to this sold out game.  Yes, I live in Los Angeles County and I know how popular USC is but I wasn’t expecting the anxiety I would have locating tickets he and I would be happy with.  I’ve been to NFL games and have sat in the nose bleed sections and also in seats right behind the bench, neither I would recommend, but when they are free you take what you get.  Anyways, I wanted to make his first College game experience (and mine) his most memorable so I held out as long as possible to get the best seats for the amount of money I was willing to spend.  I searched  eBay, Craigslist and all other ticket outlets I could think of.  I even sorta begged some USC alumni and parents I met on my Hawaiian Air flights to see what they could do in my quest.  I lost a bid on eBay and was kicking myself for not going just a bit higher.  Then when I broadened my search to all of California on Craigslist, I found an ad that gave me hope.  I emailed the seller and probably gave too much info but I was getting desperate.  I had two weeks to find tickets.  Did I mention that my Godson lived in Kansas and that he was already booked on a flight to arrive the day before Thanksgiving?  I knew I could get nose bleed seats for a price I was willing to pay, but I didn’t want his first college game to be looking thru binoculars or always watching the big screen.  (We could have stayed home for that).  So I waited…

Then one day online, I get an email from the Craigslist seller.  First one to pay on paypal gets the tickets.  YES!  Right then, instantaneously, I submit payment to paypal, I email the seller and I get an immediate reponse that I was the first person to pay and therefore I get the tickets.  Luck, maybe, persistence probably, but most importantly, my Godson and I get great seats for our first College Game.

Teenagers Dream of Playing for Notre Dame