MN Budget Deficit

Keeping up on MN politics and taxes, the latest coming out of the state is a billion dollar projected deficit fresh off the heals of a veto override of a 6.6 billion transportation bill. Now I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of our legislatures but I hope they'd take note to what's happening in CA. California is one of the most gorgeous states and most desirable places to live in the country. However, because of the higher tax rate, the wealthy citizens are moving out and the wealthy contribute a larger percentage of the tax revenue. Now CA faces a 14 billion dollar deficit this year.

The source article states:

"When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole."

Raising taxes seems like a logical solution to fixing the budget, but like CA, many of the wealthier citizens might take their tax money an move out.

Jumpcut

Sven sent me a video he made on Jumpcut. I've never heard of it until now. Basically it's an online movie maker.

This is video created with Jumpcut just after I figured out how not to fall and before the weather got to bad.

Lake Tahoe - Kirkwood

Yet another item to check off since I got to CA. A group of us from Lockheed and a Yahooligan went to Lake Tahoe skiing. It was a blast. The morning started out with 4 of us meeting at Chad's to drive to the Sports Basement and catch the Bay Area Ski Bus there. We got there and went to check in and the guy said I had the wrong pick up location. Chad and Paul signed up a few days before I did so that location filled up before I signed up. So while I was wondering what the heck to do Sven noticed he was at the wrong location as well. Chad was nice enough to let us take his car to the right location and thankfully our bus left a half hour later. But we got there 30 minutes earlier since our driver didn't take a wrong turn

I haven't skied since 1993 and I found out quick that skiing a few times at Powder Ridge doesn't prepare one for skiing Tahoe. My skiing abilities were basically ski down hill until I was going to fast and then hit the snow plow to slow down with no ability to turn. Well these abilities don't bode so well on a real mountain. We hit an easy first run to get the snow plow feel back. Under normal circumstances I would've taken a few more runs down the hill to maybe figure out how to ski for real, but I was with Sven who is pretty awesome at snowboarding so I didn't want him to get board so we hit a few runs that led us to the other side of the mountain for some much longer and steeper runs. Every run we hit was a little steeper and longer but the snow plow was working just fine and there weren't a lot of big turns so I was fine. Then we hit one of the longest runs on the mountain, not to mention it was really steep. As we were riding up the lift I started getting nervous as this lift just kept going up and up and it got real windy and at the top our faces were getting pelted with snow/ice. It was at this point I wish I would've ponied up $40 for a pair of goggles. The Oakley's weren't cutting it. We hit the end of the lift and I stood up to get off and the chair hit the back of my knees and I sat back down. Now I'm 5 feet in the air starting to head back down the mountain so I jump off and lost a ski.

So I get my composure back and I'm ready to start down the hill. At this point it's learn to ski or ride down on my arse. I spent more time on my in the snow then I did on top of it. I was fortunate Sven was with me and every time I'd lose my ski's after a fall he'd get them and jump back up the hill to give them to me. He wasn't much of a skier but he was trying to give me tips and he noticed a skier shifting his weight to the outside leg on turns. I had been putting all my weight on my inside leg and i couldn't get my other ski around so this was a huge tip. A couple tries and falls later I had it down. Sven said it was really impressive how I improved by the minute. The rest of the day was awesome until the last run which I tried a black diamond. I think I would've been fine but I couldn't see a thing, it was a friggen blizzard and total whiteout conditions. After falling about 6 times I rode on my arse until we got far enough down that the trees blocked a lot of the wind and snow so I could see. After the run we called it a day.

Click here for some pics of from the day.

Race Day

You're thinking the Daytona 500 right? Unfortunately I couldn't watch it since I had lab time at work. Which bummed me out since I wanted to see how Junior would do on Gordon's team. I arrived to work to find the usual parking lot I park in blocked off and full of cones. WTF there's friggen race track set up and screaming rice burners hitting the track. How safe is that I wondered. These cars are racing 10-15 feet from light pulls. Then I thought about asking if I could take my rental out on the track. But I'm probably one of the worst drivers ever so I decided against it. Most of the cars were 90's looking, the Fast and the Furious wannabes, but there was a newer looking Corvette, Mazda RX8, and I think a Lotus. I was late for my lab time so I couldn't watch that long but it was cool from what I saw. It looked like each car got two laps and they they had to get back in line. They had a dude taking times and all.

So does your employer let you turn their parking lot into a race track on Sundays?

9-1-1 is busy

Friday Jen and I were heading to Blockbuster to get some movies. I was in the second lane from the right on a four lane expressway. There was an Explorer a couple car lengths in front of me one lane over and I noticed it starting to drift into the far left lane and BAM it nails the car waiting for a left turn signal and veers sideways into my lane. I slammed on the breaks and maneuvered away from the car and the debris left from the accident. For a second I thought the driver was going to just drive away but he/she eventually turned into a parking lot. I'm not sure why they just didn't pull over to the shoulder but whatever. By this time I'm past the accident and there are a lot of cars behind me so I didn't stop. I called 911 and got a recording asking if it was an emergency to which I replied yes. Then I got another recording saying that all lines were busy and to wait until the next available operator. I waited for a bit and by this time I figured someone else had gotten through or something so I hung up. I couldn't believe that 911 was busy. I wonder how often that happens and if anyone has died because of it.

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound today. All is great. The twins are 3.3 and 3.4 pounds. Jen checked what the weight is supposed to be and they're supposed to be 2.5lbs so they're growing really good. The babies are getting big enough that it's really hard to see them in the ultra sound. I thought as they got bigger one would be able to see the features better but it's opposite. The scan only covers a small portion of the baby.

Now we need names. I'm thinking Eric and Al after my brothers but Jen isn't going for it. All the names we pick are taken by the family or they're pets of the family.

Super Awesome

With Jen pregnant and not feeling the best we ended up just hanging out at the apartment to watch the Super Bowl. At half time I paused the game with our Comcast DVR and we went to Target grocery shopping. When we got back I started the game again and during the fourth quarter with the Patriots driving the DRV skipped to the post game celebration. I was so mad that I missed the last two drives but on the other hand I was happy the Giants won. I was a Patriots fan until last year when Belichick wouldn't acknowledge Payton Manning when he tried to shack his hand. All year I wanted the Pats to lose at least one game. I figured they'd win the Super Bowl but as long as they didn't go undefeated I wouldn't care that much. To stomach having to hear about them year in and year out would suck. But now that they've lost it moves the Vikings '98 season as the 2nd best team to not win a Super Bowl.