Another actor overdosed. Ok, I’m being mean about it, but I prefer to think of it as natural selection. Still, according to the real news, I’m supposed to be all interested and everything.

At what point to we tell those news establishments that they are feeding us the wrong stories? We need the option to push a button and let them know when a story is just too ridiculous to be included. (Same for one being read for the 10th time in an hour!)

I don’t understand America a whole lot of the time. Why this fascination with actors and athletes? I’m just never going to fit in when it comes to that kind of adoration.

All done. It took a while, but I’m tickled with the way things lined up.

We fly into Madrid and head to Toledo for one night. (Boring choice of hotels, I know, but it’s the #1 rated hotel from Trip Advisor and it’s free! Yea points.)

Then it’s three nights in Granada. We’ll tour Alhambra. The last night we’ll do a quick load of laundry. (Oooooh. Washing machine.)

Next is two nights in Sevilla. We’ll turn in the car when we get there and later take the high-speed train to Madrid.

Three nights in Madrid. Then a train to Barcelona.

Three nights in Barcelona. Two here (I think), and one close to the airport for an early morning flight. (Points again!)

Airfare is courtesy Midwest Miles via KLM. It will be the spouse’s job to select a car for the first part of the trip.

I want to thank you all again for the advice you’ve e-mailed. I’ve a much more clear understanding of where to go and what to do thanks to your help.

Bob Reddin, district 2 alderman, in a new article that just came up:

A four-year member of the Finance Committee, Reddin said he is proud the committee has made only modest increases in the city portion of the tax rate. The average tax rate increase over the last four years has been about 1.5 percent, compared to average increases of 3 to 4 percent that were common five to 10 years ago.

Voters, understand that taxes are down because growth is down. City Hall is still taxing to the maximum allowed under state law even though “the last four years has been about 1.5 percent.”

See through this rhetoric Brookfield. You’re smarter than that!

A couple of prefaces:

1) I was going to do a multi-part well-researched bit with links and quotes, and then I decided not to bother. What’s written here can be easily discovered as truth, I’m just too lazy to document it right now. After all, I don’t really blog anymore.

2) With only one or two exceptions, every educator with which I have had contact – those my children have had as well as others from extra curricular activities – is spectacular. (One had an unfortunate incident with a Web cam, so he doesn’t get to be in that category; another looked me in the eye and called my kid lazy. I’ve mentally blocked his name, but whoever you are, you aren’t in here either.) The rest of you, and you will surely know who you are, well, I’d walk across a stretch of Oklahoma asphalt in the heat of summer barefoot for you guys. And that’s saying something.

It has been my experience that indeed, those educators working for the Elmbrook school district have a passion for their profession. All three kids have been at one time or another significantly inspired by you. I am eternally grateful. I was fortunate early on to have a teacher (I’m old – that’s what we used to call them) inspire me. It matters so very much.

I sincerely thank you for your really great work.

—

Now that’s said, I have some harsh words for this district.

You – and by you I mean board and administration – are beating a path in the wrong direction. My years in this district have watched you fuss over bricks and mortar when you should have been supporting your employees. You have built palaces and then complained because you can’t afford to air condition them. You have lied to stakeholders claiming you are at budget crisis only to have significant budget excesses at the end of the year.

If I were your employer, and I claim I actually am, I’d call you incompetent. I have no faith in your ability. None. Nada. Zip. Sadly, this situation is deteriorating instead of improving, and what’s worse, you seem content to drag the students into the mix.

Next, you are failing to keep students safe.

I want to know just exactly how you’ve managed to keep the guns – as in real weapons – showing up at Pilgrim Park Middle School out of the news. Combine those weapons with more press than any other district’s received in a decade for educators caught with their pants down or kiddie porn, and you’ve blown it. Honestly, in the real world you would have been fired ages ago for such gross neglect.

Instead you run for re-election or ask for a raise or, and this is my favorite, resign early to run for mayor.

I am holding you accountable. And just as soon as I find ten people who actually give a whip, the group of us will hold you accountable, and hopefully that group will grow until you finally understand that you can no longer behave in the irresponsible manner your lackluster reputation was built.

Because you see, while I’m gleefully having my last child leave this district before you run it into the ground, I still pay your salaries. You work for me. If you don’t like it, I can help arrange for your replacement.

—

Last weekend someone called asking my opinion about the budget crisis. I explained I don’t take you seriously as I’ve lived this roller coaster year after year.

I reiterated my concern that this district is overbuilt as to facilities and that two grade schools need to be closed. I suggested that if the district would quit recruiting students from outside our boundaries, more parents might feel comfortable enrolling children in their home district.

I said I was absolutely a bigot when it came to a student bringing a gun to school.

Decision makers, you really only have a few months to turn this mess around. You have two choices: work your backsides off to make the right decisions and get it done, or wear the label you will have earned as the ones who pushed Elmbrook to the bottom.

I could do it. Are you that brave?

Lucky me. I’m back on gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker’s e-mail list. I must have been very good.

Anyway, the latest banter is over which candidate will create the most jobs. (See Walker and Barrett.)

News flash to you two numskulls. Politicians don’t create jobs, business owners do. People called entrepreneurs who actually take risks instead of living out of their campaign accounts are the ones who make jobs happen.

The best a good politician can do to support the business environment is to get the heck out of the way, to let business take place without obstruction. I will reiterate: Politicians do not make the jobs happen.

Please, please, please. Let there be one candidate out there with the brains and personality to let this bit of knowledge come through.

Please?

Update – Look!

Right now I’d say it’s 60/40 in favor of incumbent Jeff Speaker.

Challenger Steve Ponto has done nothing – still! – to show voters that he’d be any different. As such, I’m hearing a whole lot of “better the devil you know” discussion out there.

What’s worse, I’m also hearing from Ponto supporters who are questioning their decision to continue supporting Ponto.

Oops.

I will assume Steve Ponto is in this thing to win it. The election is four weeks away. If I don’t see something spectacular in two, then this race is going to Speaker.

That would be a shame. To me it would be the final confirmation that Brookfield is content in the role of a mediocre community. It will make moving away someday that much easier emotionally, but I was hoping for a good return on our 15+ years of home investment here. It doesn’t look like that will be happening.

—

I’m going to get brave and write about Elmbrook School District’s race to the bottom later today. We should have some lively discussion over that one.

At least that’s what the letter in my mailbox today explained. Do you have a plan for answering those questions?

Now let me say I’m really usually not considered an idiot, but after muddling through this census information, I sure feel like one. I want to know, and simply can not find out, how much information I have to give. One form seems rather straight forward, but the longer Community Survey? That’s stuff I probably don’t tell my neighbor, much less the U.S. government.

Here’s a link to the short form. It includes those items one might consider usual: names and ages of people living here; a little more intrusive and controversial question of race. In general, it’s the stuff I hope to find when I look through old census information for genealogy. I’m a little skittish about giving a birth date, but I plan to comply.

However.

If I get the longer American Community Survey form, all bets are off. For that form, I’ll only duplicate the information provided in the short form. It’s all I feel they need. There is no way the government needs to know my average electric bill or if I hold a mortgage and what’s that payment or what I feel the value of my home would be if I were to sell or anyone’s recent job activity or INCOME! (See page 11.)

The government can, in short, stuff it.

I can’t find the link right now, but I do remember researching this in the past and coming up with two things that stuck regarding the issue. First, the long form is someone’s dream list and not really that which the law enumerates, and next, even if they were to prosecute me for failing to fill it all out, the maximum penalty if convicted was about $500. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.

(Update: The penalty for no answer is $100. The penalty for false answers is $500. So I’m only risking $100.)

There is a lot of stuff floating around out there about the census. Do your own research and make your own decision. I just thought I’d share my plan.

(Update: Here’s another interesting article on the issue, including a 2000 quote from George Bush regarding the count.)

I’m so glad she won. I loved that movie. Anyway, here it is:

What a classy lady.

Once again mayoral candidate Steve Ponto has failed to differentiate his goals from those of Brookfield’s incumbent mayor Jeff Speaker.

The latest issue is merging with the town. Hello you two. If the town has artificially kept taxes low – Speaker’s assertion – then why the heck would we want to merge with them and pick up the costs of redoing those roads, etc., after years of “neglect.”

Dirty little Cindy secret – I dig the Town of Brookfield. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably still choose something in Elmbrook’s school district, but right now? A location in the town looks like a great idea. No one dies there from lack of services, and they sure don’t elect goofy spend-it-all-and-pretend-you’re-a-fiscal-conservative leadership.

Just sayin’.

Yesterday was a full day in the sun room laying out a couple of trips. I learned some things, so I thought I’d share.

1) Skype is an incredibly successful way to call Spain. I already had and account since I’d used my iPhone and Skype to communicate with the family from Italy.

There are a couple of things I had to do to use phone foreign landlines instead of simple computer to computer connections. One was buy credit. I popped for the whole $10. I will warn you this purchase triggered a fraud call from my Midwest Airlines Mastercard. (Kmart always does it, too. Why Kmart?)

The second issue was finding the magic sequence for dialing. I finally learned to drop the +1 and dial the country and area codes and then the number. No 011, etc., as one might do from a traditional landline.

The cost to call the hotel in Toleda and check on transportation? $0.08. Not bad. What’s more, I now have international calling capability any time I have my mobile phone with me.

2) There’s lots of English out there. Lots. Like everywhere. Every Web site came with an English option. Spain is a popular playground for the Brits, and no one wants to miss out on those travel dollars. The hotel I called switched to English without a hiccup.

3) Paypal is your friend. After resisting for several years I finally set up a Paypal account to make a deposit for the apartment we are renting in Granada. The process was easy, the exchange rate reasonable, and boom! within moments my payment had been received. Of course something could always change my mind, but it looks like a slick method to manage some of these payments.

That’s it. I’ll let you know if anything else pops up.