Another savings deal for military!

Homes for Heroes found this generous discount on Microsoft Office for military personnel. You can save up to 87% — that’s $349 off! Check it out.

Homes for Heroes captures Realtor in bank!!

Picture this. You are walking down the streets in Bryan-College Station TX. There is not a cloud in the sky and the temperature is just cool enough as to keep the perspiration at bay. As you walk into your bank to turn in your change jar for the families vacation fund you happen to notice a young lady with her two small girls talking to a Police Officer.

The Police Officer is describing something to the young woman. The animated hand gestures and the attentiveness of the young woman gives you pause. What is going on, you think. Is it a warning about a crime spree or something more nefarious? You steer your way closer in hopes to catch a snippet of what is being discussed. If what you hear is alarming you can step in and find out more. As you near the group you hear something about Homes for Heroes and witness the Police Officer accepting a business card from the young woman and her two small girls. Puzzled but not alarmed you continue to the counter and ask the teller to please deposit your change into your vacation account.

The teller takes your jar and heads to the back of the bank and dumps the jar into the change sorting machine. A couple of minutes later she returns the jar and several pesos from your last vacation that were rejected by the machine. You look at the amount and start to wonder if it is worth lugging 10 pound jars around for 10 bucks of change. You give no other thought to the Police Officer and the young woman. You head out to the street and start thinking about what should be placed upon the barbecue for dinner.

What this person failed to see, was that Homes for Heroes had just captured another Realtor. Let us introduce you to Dawn Thompson of Bryan-College Station, Texas.

Dawn Thompson

Dawn Thompson did what any good Realtor would do, she overheard the Police Officer talking about finding a home and promptly handed over her business card. Little did she know that by the days end she would be part of the Homes for Heroes team.

Speaking to Dawn about that day, she told us. “As I was walking out the door, the Police Officer called to me and asked me if I would help her and if I had heard of Homes for Heroes.  I got her number and told her I would check into it.  By the end of the day,  we were searching for her home.  The more I found out about Homes for Heroes, the more I wanted to be a part of it!  Wow!  What a great way to say “thank you” to those who, many times, lay their life on the line to serve & protect our communities, our cities, our states, and our country!   It is not a widely known program here, but I want all of the police officers, fire fighters, teachers, etc. to know of this program and it’s benefits.  After several years of real estate, I still had not decided on a niche market..  My heart was not set any where particular.  But Homes for Heroes has captured me, and I look forward to giving something back to those who dedicate their lives to help, serve, and protect us.”

Dawn has been a Realtor for over 5 years now and has lived in the Bryan-College Station area for the last 15 years. The two young assistants that were with her on that fateful day at the bank are also her daughters, Miranda (10) and Kyla (2). They assist her quite often and many of her clients have become great friends with them. Dawn is a web savvy Realtor that maximizes technology to make your real estate transaction not only simple but very rewarding.

So if you live in the Bryan-College Station area and want a Realtor that will get to know you and what kind of home you are looking for, then deliver. Dawn Thompson is who you are looking for. You can reach Dawn at the Homes for Heroes website.

Good Luck and happy home hunting!

Why is it always the ninja’s fault?

3 shattered coffee cups, 3 messily dismantled ink cartridges, one worn out electric pencil sharpener, 721 pencil stubs (that is how many pencils it takes to wear out an electric pencil sharpener), and one semi-melted microwave oven. That’s it. That is the only damage that has occurred at the Homes for Heroes office in the last two weeks. I think I have been on my best behavior.

Apparently not well behaved enough. My boss just walked in this morning and dropped a newspaper on my desk. Reaching for the paper, my boss put her hand on it inhibiting my retrieval. She looked at me and asked if I had left the country this weekend. I took a quick look at my shoes, just to make sure before I answered her. Nope, they were not my traveling out of country shoes, I looked back at her and answered, “I don’t think so.”

Then it hit me. When trained as a ninja, keen observation was drilled daily and was a required skill. I am a natural at observation and it only took me a few seconds to realize my boss was not only holding the paper in place on my desk, but she was also pointing at an article on top of the fold. With a knowing smile, I nod my head in understanding of what she was doing. She is lucky to have someone with my skills in her office. I can tell she knows that too. Her sighs and head-shaking can only mean she is trying to shake those goose bumps after she talks with me.

Australian wrestles kangaroo from family home, read the title. What could she be talking about I thought as I started to read the article. Somewhere around the second paragraph my eyes widened in disbelief. “My initial thought when I was half awake was, ‘It’s a lunatic ninja coming through the window,‘” Beat Ettlin (yes his real name) said.

Doesn’t he understand? Ninja’s do not, nor have any need to break through a window at night just to jump on the bed. I have many times snuck into homes, find the sleeping victims and jump on their bed without them even knowing. That is how good us ninja’s are. This injustice must be corrected. We are always getting a bum rap.

It occurred to me that my boss suspects that I may have something to do with this. She knows I am a ninja and I am thankful that she keeps that piece of information from the other office workers. But if she thinks I would bungle something as easy as jumping on a bed she is sadly mistaken.

I grab the paper and head to her office. I close the door and ask her why she thinks that this home intrusion had anything to do with me. I think she spots something on the ceiling because her eyes seem to be rolling in that direction. “Paris,” she responds.

“Ahhh” My only bungled ninja assignment. I was contracted to carry out some ninja business in Paris last year. Very top secret ninja stuff. I had planned being invisible by being very visible. (A very ancient ninja trick) Needless to say the “business” trip did not end well and I was forced to hide in my own luggage to get back home. I can’t really explain what happened but watch the video below as I try to blend into Paris with my modified ninja camoflauge.

That was a fluke and in no way was of true ninja. I was about to protest that point and then everything went to straight to “H”, “E”, double tooth pick.

The super looking office babe sticks her head in the office and says, “Boss, you gotta see this right away.” The stress in her voice told me that this was serious. My boss and I head out to her desk. She was sitting at her desk going all “Chloe” (24 fan reference)on the computer. “Someone is messing with us,” she says. “Why,” my boss asks. “We just got about 700 hits on our website in the last 30 seconds and the phones are ringing off the hook.”

Sure enough, my ninja observation skills picked up that every phone in the office was ringing and people were scrambling back to their desks. “Don’t panic everyone,” I shouted. “Line up in an orderly fashion and I will lead you out to the parking lot,” I said trying to bring calm to everyone. My boss puts a hand on my shoulder and suggests to me that ringing phones are not a problem and that I should probably stop the phone on my desk from ringing. I nod in agreement and bolt for my desk, grabbing the phone and smashing it to the floor.

With completing my task I sit down and observe that all the others that still have ringing phones on their desk. “They’ll never be ninja’s,” I mutter to myself and start working at my computer. I read one of the comments on our website that mentioned they had heard us mentioned on TV and was interested in our program. They did not mention when, what channel or what show they heard about us so I went to the Google and asked it what tv show were we on. Surprisingly enough it did not provide me with an answer. I spent the next half an hour trying to figure this out when the good looking office worker announces, “We were mentioned on the CBS “Early Show”. Here is the video. The response to that mention has kept us quite busy for the last few days.

I must admit that some of this blog has been exagerated. I can’t say which part, you will have to understand the way of the ninja to figure that out. However, the Homes for Heroes program is not exagerated. It is a great savings program for our Heroes. Check us out at Home for Heroes and see for yourself.

See you tomorrow.

Semper Fi

Shepherd pie, rabbits and female drivers.

Did you ever have one of those mornings where when you got up your left hip seems to be out of socket, your right arm is so sore and stiff you can’t move it and your neck is so twisted and sore that you finally get to see how hairy your back is? Well I had that morning this morning. I barely made it into the office at Homes for Heroes. I am not sure why I had to pop my hip into place in order to get down the stairs. Nor did I understand why I could not get the tooth brush in my arm up to my mouth or even move my head enough to meet the arm.

The wife gave a knowing giggle when she heard the loud pop coming from the top of the stairs. I mentioned I don’t understand what happened, how could I sleep so fitfully and yet not be able to get parts moving in the morning. She said it was all part of getting old! Ninjas don’t get old I replied. Then it must have been the Shepherd Pie. Ahhh!!! She’s right.

We had Shepherd pie for the first time last night. I had heard of it before and always thought it something exotic. So I was a little disappointed to find it was not that much different than pot pie and for the money I think you can make a pot pie a little cheaper. Remember, frugality will be with us for awhile.

Speaking of being frugal. Has anyone seen in the produce department lettuce that is sold with the roots still attached? It usually comes in a plastic container similar to the one in the picture and is sold on the premise that it is so fresh it is still growing in your fridge.

It is packages like this and has roots.

Well we get a couple of those in the spring then plant them in the garden. We eat salads 2 to 3 times a week in the warmer season, so we figure we beat the system by purchasing these heads of lettuce and having them in the garden. That way we don’t have to buy lettuce every week at the grocery store. Just make sure to keep the rabbits away. They love the stuff. But I suspect this summer might not be a problem. We will talk about traps and rabbit recipes another time. I have been practicing making my dead weight trap this winter in the office. You would be surprised at how many people try to trip it and come away with sore fingers!

The other thing we just started this winter was growing our own green onions. It was fluke actually. The wife and I have a pet name for our refrigerator, it is called the pre-compost bin. We let all our vegetable matter get really soft and smooshy in the fridge before bringing it out to the compost pile.

These guys grow like crazy.

Can’t seem to eat those darn veggies fast enough. Well we had some green onions sitting in there all wilted and slimy. We hadn’t eaten a one, and I was in a frugal mood and was not going to let a little spoilage wreck my grocery budget. So I cut the wilted tops off leaving about an inch or so of the bottom. I got some potting soil out of the garage and planted those suckers. Put them in the window and now have a constant supply of green onions. I just cut what I need and they keep growing. So it has been about 3 months now and I have not had to dole out the fifty cents it costs to buy them at the store. Huge savings, something like $25 over the course of the a year if you buy them weekly. Okay it might not be huge but I envision my future grand kids having a blast picking lettuce and cutting onions for dinner.

Oh, don’t worry, I will have more of these neat little frugal ideas for your home and office. Tomorrow we will discuss home and office lighting techniques that will save money and look really cool too!

We had an incident the other day in the Homes for Heroes office. No, I was not involved! Even though I kept getting looks from my colleagues while we were watching the event unfold. I tell ya, once you get a reputation…… We heard tires screeching in the parking lot and all of us ran over to the window to see what was happening. A female was backing her car out of the parking spot and a young driver of the bull headed gender was traveling through the parking lot at a rate of speed similar to that of the local freeway. Well these two things by themselves was not really the issue. These two things happening at the same time was the issue. As the lady was backing out the kid saw her with just enough time to skid about 30 feet through the parking lot. No vehicular contact was made and all seemed fine. I let out a sigh and muttered, “Women drivers.” That’s when I noticed the first look.

We waited to see if anything else would happen. It was either that or get back to work. For three full minutes, neither car moved. I think they were both waiting for the other to move first. One would expect the lady to pull back in to the spot and another would expect the young kid to let her go now that he is stopped. Neither was taking place. The young kid honks his horn first and that is immediately followed by the women honking back. This could get good I thought, but the women pulled into the spot and as the kids starts to pass her she puts her car into reverse and starts backing out again! She doesn’t hit him but I think he learned his lesson.

As we all headed back to our desks some one asked me what I meant about women drivers. I said nothing but sent them this video by email. I thought it was funny, but my boss didn’t. How one can get into trouble for stating fact I’ll never know. You watch the video and tell me if I am wrong.

See? It is not me, women can make some bad decisions. Now I am in trouble again. Gotta go talk to my boss about this blog. Talk to you tomorrow.

Semper Fi.

Tomatoes and tubs aren’t just for skunk sprays.

If you are a person that has a hard time living for short periods with out TV, pay attention. In this blog I will show you the technology to use house hold products to keep your TV running during a power outage. I tried it at the Homes for Heroes office, it worked, but I have been forbidden to ever do it again. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is my only defense. Read on to see why they had such a hard time with my project.

Most of this weeks blogs has been dealing with space saving and recycling. I am going to continue with this topic today and perhaps some more next week. I must confess, I started this tongue and cheek and that will continue, but there is a whole world of simple things that can be done that I find myself amazed at. Easy things we can all do that does not take a lot of skill. I know my wife has had her fill of this stuff. Especially when I start rummaging through the kitchen looking for stuff to make our next table lamp with. I got the idea from GreenProphet

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Don't throw that doll away sweety, daddy is making a lamp!

Don’t you think one of these would look neat in the living room? So far I have a couple pieces tupperware, an old rolling pin and a rusty flour sifter. My wife is glad I have “reduced” clutter in the kitchen but as I sit at the kitchen table stacking this stuff she gives me the look that says there will be no “recycling” of that crap in her house.

This next item falls into the “reduce” category. Take a look and guess what it is. If you think you walk with it, you are on the right track. Is it an artsy pedometer? Nope. Is it road line painter? Nope. I will give you a hint. Music. Is it an MP3 player? Nope, but close. Tired of hearing me guess for you? Okay. It is a portable battery charger for your iPod. As you stroll down the office hall you never have to worry about your iPod losing power. Would it work for a cell phone? Good question, not sure. Do you want me to find out? Yeah I’m not that interested either. I am not going to walk god knows how far to charge my iPod or cell phone. But if you are seriously into the carbon foot print thing, this is a must have item.

15 songs to the mile is pretty good mileage.

Need extra storage in your basement? This next idea is something that when I saw it I said “duh!” Why didn’t I think of that? This is a great idea and I have implemented it down in my work shop.

Those wine boxes work perfect for this. Not that I drink that much wine.

This next idea I love but my spouse is not sold on it yet. All those old and out dated suit cases that are sitting up in the attic are potential medicine cabinets or kitchen cabinets. I don’t think it will work with the newer canvas type bags. Maybe in a teens room. Heck, if you do it right, it could double as both cabinet and suitcase. I will let you know how my endeavors work out.

From the bathroom to the plane with no packing!

How many out there have young kids? Do you hate coming up with ways to keep them busy for more than 10 minutes. Well, I think you will like this next “reuse” project. Just give the kids the instructions and materials and tell them not to come back in until after lunch is finished. Be sure not to give them any snacks before hand. Hunger is a mighty motivator. Yes I am talking about having your kids make a solar oven to cook lunch in. All they need is an old pizza box, aluminum foil, black construction paper, plastic wrap and something to cook. I tried this with the Homes for Heroes staff. I told them lunch was on me and they were all excited, but when a couple of hours had past and the hot dogs were still not quite done. Like I said, it will keep the kids busy for a long time. Time enough to sneak in a bath…. For full instructions check out the step by step instructions here.

Cook eggs faster than the sidewalk with this nifty oven.

Now is the time you have all been waiting for, how to keep your TV running when there the power is out. I had to segue to it. What segue you ask? Ready?

Speaking of baths, if you have an old bath tub, wiring, some metal plates and about 30 gallons of tomato soup, you have everything you need to keep your TV running during power outages. Hats off to the inventor. Try to put yourself in this inventors mind as he/she was thinking this up. “Mmmmmm, what can I do to “reuse” this bathtub and how do I get rid of these cases of tomato soup?” It actually works and now you can see why my comrades did not appreciate me lugging an old bath tub into the office and filling it up with tomato soup. Though, one person did pick up the game controller and play pac man. To see more of this fine piece of work visit this site.

Just think, you can play games and never have to leave the room for a snack.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if you are sprayed with a skunk you can shut the TV off for just a little while. I think that is enough and Monday I should have some more interesting stories and stuff for you to look at.

Semper fi.

There will be a day when you thank me. More tips on recycling.

My colleagues from Homes for Heroes are starting to see my arrival at the office with disdain. With the good response I got on my previous blog about recycling I have been doing a lot of research. Yesterday I spent some time looking for more ideas to share with you readers. Some of those you saw yesterday and I will have some more for you soon. But what you don’t realize is that the staff at Homes for Heroes is getting a little tired of me taking their mouse pads, cutting them up and making them new cup coasters, or cutting up latex gloves and using them as large rubber bands to hold plastic bags in place on garbage cans. I do want to be accurate in what I write about. I have some photo’s of stuff I did a staffers computer. They do not appreciate being green. But I will keep working on them.

Now keep in mind, the following photos were not destruction of my colleagues computer, it was reuse of a computer. He was scheduled for a new one this month and he was on vacation. Our office pet now has a new home thanks to Jerry’s old monitor. I don’t think Jerry or the office realizes that in Minneapolis you can no longer just throw out your old CRT monitor, you have to recycle it. Well I saved some land fill space and “Opie” has a new radical looking home

Opie loves his new digs.

What to do with the computer itself, well, we had a barbecue. The case held the coals quite nicely. I think it will be around for many company picnics in the future.

I just borrowed the grill from the old bbq for the burgers.

This is something I saw also, but using bicycle inter tubes. The neat thing about using the ribbon cable is that you can adjust the wire down to fit that belt buckle you have lying in the junk drawer.

For some reason my wife thinks I look like a fool with this on.

The toughest part of this whole reuse deal, was trying to figure out what to do with the keyboard. At first I thought it would be a good toy for the youngsters, till I found out it is one of the dirtiest objects in the world. So I started to take the thing apart. Still nothing. Last resort, do the Google. I was inspired by the next photo. I was going to make a tribute to the world of reuse.

You have to admit, it is a nice piece.

This is what I came up with.

For some reason, no one wanted this on their desk.

After asking everyone twice if they wanted this nice sculpture and being politely declined twice, I figured that it wasn’t that magnificent after all. I broke it down and after some rummaging around the office I found an old bottle of rubber cement. Sitting at my desk making fake boogers with the cement an idea started to form in my mind. I grabbed my bosses purse (She was off “powdering her nose.”) and let my idea take form. I thought it was cool, but I am now at the department store trying to find her a replacement. How do women pick one, too many styles. One big bag or one with a lot of pockets>

The idea was not appreciated.

As you can see, a little imagination, a little bit of time and little bit of rubber cement can turn something you were going to throw away into a whole bunch of useful objects to use around the house. I think tomorrow I will look into what you can do with old blenders or some other household appliance. If you have any ideas or something you have reused, get it to me. The office does not respond to my questions anymore.

Where was I with the wedding story. I remember, I had just witnessed the slaughter of a goat at my friends soon to be father-in-laws house. Why the goat was slaughtered I did not have a clue. I walked up to my friend and asked, “is this some sort of sacrifice ritual that I am witnessing?” His reply, “No dummy, it is dinner time.” So barbecued goat was on the menu for dinner. Now, I am a big meat eater and have dressed out many a deer, but for some reason that day I was not in the mood to eat goat. I think it was because it was slaughtered in the bathroom. How gross, all those germs and everything. I would just munch my way through the dinner on the lumpia and fruits and stay away from the goat.

As the goat was cooking on the grill I noticed that the women started to take away the other food on the table. I did not know why, it was perfectly good food and it wasn’t of the goat family. I went over to the mother-in-law and asked why they were removing the food. I think she could see the panic in my face. She patted my hand as only mom’s can and told me that I would not have to eat the goat, they would have other meats available. I calmed and resumed my second profession. Beer drinker.

A couple of hours later dinner was ready. I will admit the goat smelled delicious but I could not get the bathtub out of my mind. So as we sat down I noticed a couple of other carcasses sitting at the table and waited till they were passed my way. The first was a nice big bird. What kind? I assumed chicken and grabbed a leg and wing. The goat came by and I just passed it along. The next plate was something I had never seen but a lot of people were taking chunks of it and making a lot of yummy noises. I grabbed a chunk not wanting to miss out on what I thought was some sort of delicacy. We all ate and had a great time. As the evening ran down and people were just picking at the last remaining animal carcasses I asked some one, “What was that?” Pointing to the carcass I had consumed earlier. “Did you like it?” The person asked. “Yes, it was very good and I would like to purchase some for our party next week.” The other person looked at me, smiled and said “Cat.”

He must have seen my face because he started to laugh and walked away. I didn’t think I was that upset. After all it was good. On the way back to the base I asked my friends if they knew what the third meat was. They all knew and was surprised that I did not know. They said the way I kept eating it they thought for sure I knew it was cat.

The following week I did go to market and bought 4 cat carcasses. It is really cheap meat. Money wise that is. Four cats were cheaper than the two chickens I also purchased. I know some of you are appalled, but hear me out. Don’t knock it till you tried it. It is good. Especially with a spicy rub.

What happened to my friend and his bride to be? He took a trip with the family to Manila to visit more of her family. While there, the wedding ring was stolen as well as his wallet was emptied one night. Mom, Dad and the whole family played dumb. He cut his losses and headed back. A lonely, heartbroken man is a terrible thing for Marines to deal with. What did we do to get him over his lost love? Don’t ask, there may be children reading this. But it had the right affect and he was back to normal in no time.

I hope you enjoyed my endearing tale of love and animals. See you tomorrow.

Semper fi

Goats, cats and weddings. More recycling tips.

Going through todays feeds there was an article on how the Air Force wanted to cut their dependence on oil. My first thought was “how are aircraft going to fly without oil?” I don’t think it can happen. Even if we made nuclear power plants small enough to put in a fighter jet you still will need oil and grease to keep the thing in the air. Do they think hydraulic fluid is made from corn? So I wrote it off as a PR piece and moved on. Then while at the Homes for Heroes office some one was complaining about cold feet and how they needed new boots. I told them they should go to a Army Surplus store and get a pair of Mickey Mouse Boots. Heading over to my desk it hit me like a ton of bricks. “I need recycled tire sandals!” I had a pair as a kid and loved them. I would run around in the sand and mud making that unmistakable rrrrrRRRRRRRRR uh rrrrrrRRRRRRRR uh rrrrrRRRRRRR sound of a car going through gears. With those sandals I was Bobby Issacs racing around the track. I did get some odd looks while I was racing around my desk going rrrrrRRRRRR uh rrrrrrRRRR uh SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!! (Taking corners really fast.)

Keep in mind you will need two buckles. What color straps should I get?

Google did not let me down. A quick search got me what I needed and a bonus too. My family will have the finest home made tire sandals this side of the Mississippi this summer. I will walk through the Mall of America with my shiny new sandals past those expensive Tevas stores. Heck a pair of tire sandals will last 40,000 miles on a car and indefinitely on a persons foot. Think of it. Not only will we be doing our part in keeping the planet from melting, we will save hundreds of dollars in foot wear. Here is the site that will give you step by step instructions. I will post a photo of the family once I get them done. I am too excited to continue. But I am a professional and will maintain. rrrrRRRRR uh rrrrRRRR uh rrrrRRRRRRR……..

All psyched up now thinking of recycling. Since I was looking at tire sandals I took a peek at what else we could do with tires. The outdoor furniture I have now is all rusted and needs repainting. How about if I get an old tractor tire or two I can replace that old wrought iron table. Look at how cool this set is.

This would look perfect in my back yard.

Never wears out, you can spill on it and it won’t rust. You can kick it and it won’t dent or bend. Perfect. I just need to keep the wife out of the garage for a couple of weeks.

If you need some bar stools for either the house or outdoors I think these would do. Get the neighborhood over for a barbecue and when it is time for them to leave just roll the chairs at them. Dual purpose furniture. I am liking this whole recycle thing.

Honey they can even double as a kids playground set.

And doesn’t this next chair seem like an easy build? A sheet of plywood, some dowels, glue, screws and a drill. Voila! Modern furniture for the living room. What? You think it would take craftsman skills to do this?

Just keep this in mind the next time you replace your tires.

But the coolest outdoor furniture is about to be divulged. And if my wife reads this she will know I am dead serious. Making a couch out of your lawn.

I'm thinking dandelions for a nice head rest.

A couple of years ago we had a new neighbor move in across the street. He is a nice guy and is doing his best to get the neighbors all talking to one another. God bless him. One of the things he does is sit out on his new front yard patio and wave and talk to all that walk by. It was catching so I also put in a front yard patio. We are both in the middle of the block so we catch everyone coming and going. But I think I will top him this year with my own dirt/grass couch. For all you others that find this just as exciting I will also provide you with the directions. These are courtesy of Inhabit.com

If yer tryin to figure out what to do with that pile o' dirt by the garage.

Is there more? You bet, but I can’t cover it all in one day. I have to test the shoes and table with the wife first. I love the stuff but sometimes my wife is not so understanding. Something about picking up old tires at the local garage and then having them sit around in the yard doing nothing except making nice mosquito condos. Like I have never finished a project before. I figure I will need about 16 car tires and two tractor tires to get done what I have planned and the Gas station is eager to deliver old used tires for free!!

What? Oh yeah, thanks for getting me back on track. How does goats, cats and a wedding tie in together? It just so happens that this story takes place in the Philippines. Just after Christmas (search the archives for that story) and the whole squadron is there now. A friend of mine, a young Lance Corporal that was about to be promoted had decided to marry one of the locals. Now keep in mind that we had only been there about 3 weeks but he said it was love at first site. He was so set on this he went to his girls parents house and asked their permission.

Needless to say they didn’t help by accepting his offer. So the date was set and we were invited to a party. We had tried to get him to give it some time, but he would not listen. He took her shopping to buy a ring and they were planning two weddings. One for her parents in the Philippines and one for his parents somewhere in Oregon. To here more of this tale you must read tomorrows spot.

Just keep in mind, if you need a bigger place to put all this cool material get a hold of your Homes for Heroes affiliate a let them save you money. I know I keep repeating this but it really is a free and good program. So give us a visit and see if we can’t save you some money.

See you tomorrow

Semper Fi

Heights are bad, women are wrong, justice is served.

My wife was not impressed with yesterdays motivational picture.  She claimed she did not understand the whole aviation thing.

Come on, you know this would freak you out if you had to do it!

I at first became defensive, thinking that this is the ultimate scenario in the sense that everything you thought and dreamed about became second fiddler to the situation at hand.  Here you are at 3000 feet in a single seat aircraft,  enjoying the solitude, then your only source of survival sputters and quits.  Does this photo not explain being between a rock and a hard place?  If you are frightened by heights and in a plane and the engine quits and you have to go out and reposition the propeller and you have 20 seconds, what do you do? (I am sorry Keanu, it was too easy)

My wife experiences vertigo when driving over high bridges.  So I thought this photo would give her that same sensation.  I thought she (and everyone else) would sympathize with the pilots predicament.  So let’s use a more feet-on-the-ground approach of what I am trying to point out.   When watching this film, and you don’t have to watch all of it, pay attention to the girl walking.  I get the eebie-jeebies when I watch it, especially when they have to pass people.  This will give the sensation I am looking to induce (I hope), but it does not convey the urgency I want to add.  Unless you consider the urgency to get the heck off of there as fast as possible and make it all go away.  Basically, heights are scary when flying in an aircraft and you have to exit the aircraft in order to save your life, because this includes the fear of heights with the addition of  stress and anxiety that comes with needing to go against nature and fix something in 1 second or less.

I suppose I could have saved a lot of time and effort if I had just thrown this baby out there and kept it simple.  But that was from a long time ago and I think today we live a little bit more complicated lives.

This started it all. Sorry.

I am not sure if yesterday I had just said, “Hang in there baby for 2009,” it would have conveyed a positive attitude.  I think it would have conveyed a sense of resignation.  This is not proper when looking forward to a bright and prosperous year.  We all know there will be bumps  in the road (or should I say holes?), but if you keep your mind sharp and you’re aware of what is happening  and you think on your toes, then those holes will be easily sidestepped in life.

Here is a good example of being aware and thinking on your feet.  A man in Florida tried to evade getting a ticket.  He saw the cop following him and he was sure he was going to be pulled over.  He did not want to be pulled over.  The reason was quite simple.  He was a felon and sitting on the seat next to him was a handgun.  Now you people in law enforcement know that is a no-no.

So how is this an example of thinking on your feet?  The felon knew he had to get rid of the cops without bringing any attention to himself.  He knew he had only seconds before the lights would go off on the following police car and that would be that.

He looks around in his car desperately looking for something, anything that would divert the police attention.  He sees the gun.  No, that would not work, that would bring unwanted attention.  He had some coins in the ash tray, but it was barely a dollar.  Not enough to throw out the window and have a hundred kids clamoring in the streets diving for shiny objects.  There was was the fuzzy dice hanging in the windshield.  No, not heavy nor big enough to stop a pursuing cop car.  How about the air fresheners?  They were new, but were they strong enough for the cop to smell and stop to see where the smell was coming from?  How about the empty pop cans and bottles sitting in the passenger seat floor pan?  No, if he bent over to grab some that would again draw unwanted attention to a situation in which he wanted none.  Cellphone?  Yeah, cellphone.

He grabs the phone, calls 911 and reports an armed robbery only a few blocks away.  He hangs up the phone and looks into his rear view mirror.  Nothing yet.  Crap, do I panic now and run?  Just give it a few more seconds he thinks to himself.  He wipes the sweat off his brow and looks up again.  His heart sinks.  The lights come on.  $%@#!!, he yells.  Now he is in a deep state of panic.  He is reaching for the gun when he glances in the rear view mirror and sees the cop turning off the road in the direction of  the armed robbery.  “Victory is mine!” He says with a smug confidence.

See?  This man was thinking on his feet.  He fought the flight or fight instinct, kept his cool and got away clean. .  or so he thought.  One thing this man did not anticipate was that another police unit in the vicinity picked up his tail and followed him to a parking lot where they arrested him for, yes, you guessed right.  A felon with a hand gun. You can read the article here.

The other part of the story that I failed to mention was that this felon was out looking for a home to purchase.  His demonstrated ability to think on his feet had also told him that now is a good time to buy.  Homes for Heroes will not be providing any assistance to him, but they will to the fine officers that made this guy go away.  So pick up the phone and get a hold of your local Homes for Heroes affiliate and find out how much you will save in addition to the great deal you will find in your new home.  I can’t repeat enough how good this program is.  Get moving now.

See you again tomorrow.

Semper Fi

WARNINGS, DEALS, TWITS, DOGS AND MORE!

WARNING all face book users! The virus called Koobface is the latest in an attempt to get your private data through face book. This article explains it in more detail, but the biggest thing to look out for is someone sending you a video, then you are asked to download a version of Flash Player. That download harbors the pill popping virus aimed at making your life more miserable than it needs to be. I have always maintained that it should be a capital crime for those putting software on your computer that you do not agree to. (malware and adware) So in this case if you agree to down load their software there will be no hanging!! Be aware out there.

Blogging the blogs. This new twitter phenomenon, is it useful? Homes for Heroes Foundation has started experimenting with it as another avenue to spread the word. I have read plenty on it and it seems to be the next big trend in trying to add as much info into your day as possible. I seem to remember there was a lot of pontificating on whether or not all the political ad campaigns in 30 second sound bites was a good idea. Apparently not because now we are shooting that down to 140 character text bits. My guess is that in about 5 years we will be down to 5 second audio sounds, something like R2D2 whistles that will say it all! Or will the blipverts become a reality? (Max Headroom fan here) The first part of this video shows a blipvert. I know I sound cynical, but I am not. Just throwing out an observation. I am now on the twitter roles as HFHF. It is a very useful and effective tool. We all use the RSS feeds and this is a more convenient variation. As I learn more on it I will share what works and does not work. If there are those “twits” out there, and by twits I mean experts in twitting…….. Ahhhh, see I was right about the 5 second audio. Twit and tweet are not too far apart. Oh sorry for the A.D.D. moment. So you twits please throw out tidbits of info that can me be a twit too. Follow me, as they say in twitter land.

We have a Hero in training. A family friend has her son enrolled at the police academy here in Minneapolis. There is a video of him after he volunteered to be the bad guy on K9 day. The quality of the video was in the crap category so I went looking on line. What I found was pretty amazing. This is a video of some French police dogs. Pretty intense. Here is another video on a day in the life of Marine Devil Dogs of war. If you watched both videos, did you notice a difference? Not so much in the dogs but how the French instructors kept wailing and screaming. It sounded pretty real to me. The French seem to always live up to their stereotypes.

Homes for Heroes is a real estate program that puts money back into the pockets of our Heroes when they buy or sell a home. I have mentioned earlier that now is the time to start buying. Inventory is up, thus prices will reflect that by moving downwards. Interest rates also are impacted by this trend. This presentation by Majestic Consulting explains it quite well. Take a look and if you are thinking that now might be time, contact your Homes for Heroes affiliate.

Side note here, anyone looking to buy a Dell computer this holiday season? I have a $350 coupon for both laptops and desktops. That is a good chunk of change. We are computered out here so I will be throwing it out unless someone out there wants it. It expires December 17 so act now. Leave a comment on this post with your email and I will put it in the mail to you. Get moving, you know there is a loved one just hoping that a new computer is under the tree.

Well we survived the storm here in Minneapolis. No dings or ditch visits in the HFH family. But that is because my wife and I have taught out children how to drive in the snow. Take a peek at this video to see what type of training keeps our kids safe on the snow covered highways and streets of Minneapolis.

See you tomorrow.

Semper Fi

Wet Marines, Bremer Bank and a police high speed chase!

I woke up this morning to check this blog and our web site, certain there would be a flurry of activity. I figured this new activity would be everyone scrambling to read my story. Well we got a little bit, not as much as I hoped. Homes for Heroes Foundation has been blogging now for about 10 days so I am not too disappointed. I do know though that the stories are great and will continue to draw people to the site. Now if I can just get some of you uniformed heroes to start leaving a few stories relating to the lighter side of uniformed life. But in the interim, my wife sent the following video along. This video should be part of all Police training. It is critical to any cop that may find themselves in a high speed chase. Its short about 35 seconds, but all need to see.

Hey, I had mentioned yesterday that another foundation was meeting with Homes for Heroes Foundation. The meeting was with our local Bremer Bank. They are a bank that is owned by the Otto Bremer Foundation. We learned that the foundation puts more money into the community on an annual basis than the big name banks. (a stagecoach comes to mind) The meeting was to go over our new Homes for Heroes Foundation and if there was anything Bremer Bank could do for us to get us rolling. Very productive meeting and we had learned a lot.

Yesterday was a busy day for Homes for Heroes, we had received a huge amount of calls, from all over the states in the morning. Some from Texas, some from Oklahoma and a couple of locals here in Minneapolis. For our small staff it was quite a day trying to get these Heroes hooked up with our affiliates so they can get into homes. Something we are learning here is that there are some unique accents out there in this great country.

Well, where were we last…. Oh yeah, me and my buds were standing on a foot wide ledge about 100 feet up on a vertical face of Mount Washington.

Mount Washington

And there just happened to be a thunderstorm in full swing. Winds gusting up to 50 or 60 mph with sustained winds of about 30 mph. Not the best place to be hanging out with a bunch of first time climbers. Okay if you need to get caught up you can read yesterdays beginning. Now remember, we are trying to find out how two Marines ended up naked in the same sleeping bag.

So after we had decided it would be better to go up than down in the storm, we had to sell the idea to the rest of the team. Well there was some arguing, but mother nature in the end made the decision for us. A couple of lightning flashes and some really loud thunder, got us moving up to where the shelter was. This was a very interesting climb. It wasn’t the stuff you see on TV, but when you have to climb with wind, rain and a 45 pound pack on your back, things at times can get a little nerve racking. We spent about another 2 to 3 hours climbing. At times we had to climb, then stop, drop a rope and bring the packs up. Then more climbing. The whole time the weather never let up. Some had attempted to put on rain gear, but soon found out that the Marine issue rain poncho is not the best thing to be wearing while trying to climb in a thunderstorm. It tends to want to blow up in your face when the wind blows. Also you tend to step on it a lot.

But finally we got to the top!!! No major injuries, a few cramps, and some chapped hands, and all of us were shivering.. We were in pretty good shape, so we made our way to the observatory visitors center. There we had an opportunity to get some warm food in our bellies and dry clothes on. Well most of us. One fellow decided that putting your spare clothes in plastic bags was a waste of time because his pack was supposed to be water proof. So after 11 of us were in dry clothes, tummies full of hot chocolate and chicken soup we started to get ready for the decent to the other side of the mountain to our planned camp ground. The wet guy still was shivering, so we sat down inside and let him warm up a bit. And there ladies and gentlemen, we will have to wait for the next installment of how two Marines ended up naked in the same sleeping bag.

Until then, semper fi.