Last week, I had the opportunity to meet a "celebrity".  For those of you that have not been around or don't follow the latest hot topics, the TV show American Idol recently had a contestant from Milwaukee that made it to the finals.  His name was Danny Gokey.  Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to meet his dad Chuck and actually have a nice conversation with him.

He couldn't have been a nicer person.  We talked about Danny's experience on American Idol and about how his dad was able to experience it along with him.  He gave me his views on several of the contestants and said that Paula Abdul was a very nice woman.  Personally, I'm glad to see her leaving the show, but am not thrilled with Ellen taking her place.  Anyway, Danny's dad asked me questions about what I do and seemed genuinely interested in me.  I felt kind of bad afterward that I asked so many questions about the show, etc that he's probably answered over and over again.  But he never let on that he had or that he was tired of answering them.

They had some autographed pictures of Danny along with them and allowed our daughter to pick one out for herself - she was on cloud nine!  I found out that when the AI contestants were here on tour, they had a BBQ at the Gokey's home with many of them.  It made for an interesting picture in my head about them all sitting around in a Milwaukee backyard just having a good time like anyone else that afternoon.

Thanks again "Danny's dad" for taking the time to talk.  I wish Danny all the best in the future!

Should the Brewer's make a trade?  That seems to be the question every Brewer's fan is asking these days.  Of course, the easy answer is yes.  But, when you sit back and look at the whole picture, the answer isn't so clear.  I've heard that they should trade away Cory Hart and others to get Roy Holliday.  But then who's is going to play right field?  Maybe they should trade away Hardy and Bill Hall.  But then who's going to play short and third?

We don't even know if Holliday would want to come play for the Brewer's.  And he has a no trade clause in his contract so all this trade talk could be a moot point if he doesn't even want to come here.  And do we really want to give up more of our best minor league prospects?  Just for a chance to get to the playoffs this year. 

I think many Brewer's fans are saying we need to get Holliday but they are looking through rose-colored glasses and think that we're going to get another CC Sabathia.  I'm sorry, but lightening only strikes once!  That was a once in a lifetime trade - and now he's gone too.  To the money rich Yankees.

I'm glad that I'm not in Doug Melvin's shoes right now.  No matter what happens, someone isn't going to be happy with it.  There will be those that will be unhappy and blame him if he doesn't make a trade and they don't make the playoffs.  There will be others that will be unhappy if he does make a trade and we lose a lot of prospects.

For now, the baseball fans in Milwaukee should just sit back and let Melvin and 'crew' do their jobs and let the chips fall where they may.  We'll know over the next several months if he made the right short-term decisions and over the next few years we'll know if he made the right long-term ones. 

My family and I just got back from a short visit to the Mall of America in the Twin Cities.  We flew into the Minneapolis airport and did not rent a car.  Before heading out we looked into how we would be able to get to the Mall of America and our hotel without renting a car.  We found out we would be able to use the light rail system.

What an easy thing to do!  We got on the train right at the airport and got off right at the mall.  When we were ready to go to our hotel, we got back on the train at the mall and took it up to the stop the hotel told us to and they picked us up from there.  We could have gone another 2 stops and gotten off at the Metrodome to see a Twins game but our loyalties are with the Brewers.  As tourists, we couldn't have been happier with our experience!

Anyway, we were thinking how easy it was to get around and how convenient it was for going to the airport, etc...  Milwaukee needs to get with the program and join cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Washington DC and put in light rail.  Even if it's just from the airport to downtown, past Potawotami, to Miller Park and out to the zoo and Children's hospital.  There are so many people that work at the airport, downtown, etc that would be able to take advantage of it.  Not only is it easy, but you'd never have to worry about bad weather or traffic jams, etc...

Going to Bucks/Admirals games could be easier by taking the light rail downtown and not have to worry about parking.  Think of all the jobs created too - both building and maintaining/running it!  Sure, it's a lot of money to build.  But if Milwaukee wants to continue to bring people into the city, they are going to need to step up to the plate and do something about it.

I must be getting old.  Well, at least from the standpoint of what I find ok in the media - especially TV.  Our family likes to watch TV together at night but it's getting harder and harder to find programs that are suitable for our kids to watch other than Disney Channel.  For example, American Idol.  You'd think that would be ok.  But no, you have two judges (both female) pretending to kiss each other passionately during the tryouts.  There's other innuendo during the show that is starting to get a bit out of hand as well.  Other shows like Survivor and Dancing with the Stars are shows that we like to watch but some of the language on them we don't want our kids hearing.  It makes me uncomfortable every sime someone uses bad language.  We used to be able to turn down the sound and put the words on (subtitles).  But now both our kids can read so that isn't an option.

I know that we can't protect and isolate our kids forever, but ours are only 9 and 6 years old right now.  Our son is still at the stage where he doesn't understand all the sexual comments and innuendo but our daughter just recently learned about the changes coming in her life and what sex is.  We have tried to explain to her the specialness of sex between a husband and wife and what it means, but it makes our "job" tougher when there is so attention to sex on TV and it doesn't match up with what we taught her.  It really hit me hard the other day when we were watching some show and an ad for "How I Met Your Mother" came on.  In the ad, the main character was bragging that he had just had sex with his 200th woman.  Of course, it generated a question from our daughter and we had to explain that that wasn't what sex is all about - how many partners can you have.  It's frustrating as a parent that we try to teach our kids good morals and to do the right thing and the media goes and promotes the opposite.

And don't even get me started about the internet!  So far, we've been lucky and haven't had to deal with that with our kids yet.  Remember parents, you are the biggest influence on your kids - whether you like it our not.  Set a good example for your kids and use situations like TV shows or movies or whatever as opportunites to teach them right from wrong.

There's been so much negative press lately from the economy to drunken drivers to unemployment it's nice to hear about something positive.  Back on February 7th, at a basketball game between Milwaukee Madison and DeKalb, two players (one from each team) helped define the word sportsmanship and gave us something positive to talk about.  You've probably read or heard about the story....one play from Madison showed up at the game just hours after his mother passed away.  His team was assess.essed a technical and DeKalb got two free throws.  The player from DeKalb, Darius McNeal was chosen to shoot the free throws.  Instead of trying to make them, he purposefully missed them.  The two teams were honored last Saturday night at a Bucks' game as the KAPCO Home Court Heroes.

I could not believe this story when I first heard about it.  There are many adults that can learn from this that sports are not always about winning - especially at a high school or grade school level.  Not enough credit has been given to the parents of these two kids along with their coaches and anyone else that has had a part in instilling good sportsmanship in them.  I have the opportunity to watch a lot of grade school sports and it is really frustrating hearing comments from the athletes, coaches and parents about bad calls, substituting, etc....  This is one story that can't get enough press.  Thanks Darius and Johntell for a feel good story in this tough time.

Where do I begin?  It sure sounds to me like the government isn't really thinking through this "stimulus" package.  And I don't mean just the Democrats.  I heard a comment by one of the politicians (I believe it was a Republican) sometime over the last several days that the American public wants them to cross aisles and work together so they need to get this done.  What??!!  I thought the idea was to help stimulate the economy and not show how the two parties can work together.  It sounds to me like someone has their priorities wrong. Don't get me wrong, something needs to be done to help get the economy going.  But does "new uniforms for TSA" or "polar icebreakers" get it done?  I don't think so!  How about building "nature trails"?  Nope.  Providing help to states for unemployment insurance?  Nope.  High speed internet access to rural and underserved areas?  Don't think so.

I recently heard an idea by a good friend of mine suggest the government give every tax payer like $100,000.  Let them spend it the way they want.  I ran the idea past a number of other friends and co-workers and it was very well-received unlike the government ideas.  One co-worker said he'd take a couple of vacations that he hadn't taken in years (stimulate the travel industry).  Another said they'd buy a car (stimulate the auto industry).  Another one said they'd pay off their credit cards (stimulate the banking industry).  Think of all the other things that it could do....sure, some people would save the money, but others might pay for college or invest in the stock market or purchase real estate.  Almost every last one of these ideas helps the economy.  And all without government oversight (who's going to oversee the government programs?).  The only oversight needed is to make sure all the taxpayers get their money.

Why does the government always have to make things so difficult?  Many times the easiest solution is the best. 

I know that this is a little dated, but I just had to say something.  The Associated Press last week decided not to publish a photo of President Obama reciting the oath of the President the "second" time.  They wanted to use their own photographer but the White House said no and provided the media with a photo from the event.  How childish of the Associated Press!  What difference does it make if it's your photographer or the White House's?  To me they sounded just like our kids when they don't get their way. Whine, whine, whine! 

 We'll also have a chance to witness media overkill this coming Sunday when the Super Bowl is played.  Take  alook at the sidelines and see all the photographers there.  I guess we need to have photos about 1 foot apart (the press usually kneels shoulder to shoulder) just so we don't miss anything.  My thought is they could easily cut the number of press credentials in half and we still would get the most coverage of any sporting event in the world.  Imagine the uproar in the media if the NFL did that!  Whine, whine, whine.

I know that recording history is important.  I understand that.  But we as the consumer/citizens/fans don't really care where the photos come from.  We just want to be able to see it.  Grow up media and just accept the fact that you aren't always going to get your way.

Well, I decided to go to the lakefront on New Year's Day with my inlaws and do the Polar Bear Plunge again (I did it back in 2007).  My wife and daughter were going shopping so I took my 6 year old son with me.  I had talked him into doing it as well (kids don't seem to have any kind of temperature guage on their skin so I thought he'd do fine).

Well, it was a little colder this year than it was 2 years ago but we went more prepared.  I had boots along for the walk back to the car, hot chocolate for waiting to go in and also the trip home, cookies for an energy boost, extra towels and even some plastic to put down on the sand so everything didn't get wet/sandy.

I had read in the paper that there was some ice you had to go across to get to the water but I never expected what we saw.  The ice was about 10 feet wide and 2 feet tall.  Then, you had to climb or jump down into the water which had floating chunks of ice in it.  Further out in the water were what we referred to a "icebergs".  After looking at all that, I told my son that he wasn't going in and neither was I. 

One brave (or crazy) sould jumped in and tried to make it to the iceberg but only got about 2/3 the way out to it and had to turn back.  Of course, at 12:00 noon, about 2,000 people worked their way over the ice and into the water.  Some just jumped in and got right back out.  Others jumped in, waded out a ways and then came back out.  And a select few dove completely under (they say you have to go in completely for it to "count").

I guess I'll try again next year.  Here's a link to the video I took of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyXzvIX2fCE

There was an interesting article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News cutting back on their delivery.  Instead of delivery 7 days a week, these two newspapers will only be delivered three days and two days respectively.  See the following article:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5giPpLLVIzF-IfWoe40J20FKsaNcQD953VHNO0

As a carrier for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel myself, I've seen the number of subscribers slowly decreasing over the last 5 years.  Five years ago, I had almost 240 Sunday subscribers and now I am down to just about 200-210 on Sunday.  As more and more news is available on the internet and technology evolves, I think that you will see additional newspapers doing what the two in Detroit have decided to do.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has already made a number of business decisions to help keep costs down including most recently the decision to only deliver the TV Cue section to customers that request it (there's no additional charge for it).

If you've looked at the paper recently, you'll also notice that the classified sections are getting smaller and smaller.  With all of the free websites available to consumers, why would they spend the money to put an ad in the paper?  This is likely to be a trend that continues.

As the print versions of the newspapers go away, I think you'll see, like in Detroit, an emphasis on internet news from the newspaper companies.  There is still a need for local news that the large companies (CNN, Fox News, etc) can't provide.  Business models for the newspaper companies will likely have income coming from on-line advertising as most people probably won't want to pay for a subscription.  The elimination of "hard copy" newspapers is probably a long ways away yet - I know my wife still looks forward to the print ads - but I think it's only a matter of time.

Well, here we are the 8th of December and we're getting more snow!  I've heard so many people over the last week or so comment about how they are tired of the snow already.  I guess I'd have to say that I'm probably in the minority and love the snow.  Yeah, last year I started to get a bit tired of the snow toward the end of the season, but I was hoping to break the snowfall record (we were so close, we might as well have broken it)!  Personally, I'd rather have the snow than super cold temperatures.  Hopefully, after this next storm the temps won't drop to sub-zero.  The teachers at our kids' school are hoping for a snow day tomorrow - one of them said she had a lot to get done at home.  I know my kids are hoping for one too.

Last year I had so much fun sledding with our kids and hope to do some more this year.  It seemed like last year was the first year in a long time that we actually had enough snow to sled/tube.  I commented to my wife that it was more like the winters I remembered as a kid.  It certainly seems like we used to get more snow than we have in recent years (last year notwithstanding).  I guess I just like to keep a positive outlook on things.  When I turned 40, I told my friends and family that you're only as old as you feel and I didn't feel 40 (at least what I thought 40 was supposed to feel like).  That's probably why I don't mind the snow.  It's a part of living in WI, you know it's going to happen, you can't do anything about it, so enjoy it.  Just remind me of that when I'm out shoveling the 13th foot of snow in January! 

With the snow coming, just remember to slow down, give the snow plows their space and be safe!  Also, take some time to enjoy the snow with your kids, they only stay young for so long and eventually they won't like the snow either.