I would strongly recommend reading the book by Al Gore called The Assault on Reason.   The book provides valuable incite into our society’s modes of communication and how communication in our world has changed over time for good and bad.  Since open communication and unfettered access to information are cornerstones of our Democracy, it is important to realize what is changing to affect these and why.  In the same way that the effects of global warming slowly accumulate over time to endanger and kill animal and plant species, the cumulative effects of consolidated news sources, more and increasingly effective propaganda by special interest groups, and the declining use of reason and logic to solve our nation’s problems work to undermine our Democracy.   All for now.

Well, I’m laying on my bed with my broken foot elevated above my heart for what will be a very long time.   My foot surgery went smoothly this morning and I’m feeling NO pain with the narcotics they gave me.   It’s not all that bad; I get to lay in bed, read books, watch tv, and get meals brought to me in bed.   Jennifer’s mom was able to take a few days off work to come and help with the kids and chores.  I went to the library last night and stocked up on books and movies; I watched Syriana today and started reading Tom Clancy’s The Teeth of the Tiger.  I don’t recommend watching Syriana while heavily doped up since it has a rather detailed and fast-paced storyline.   Oh well, I’ve got plenty of time to watch it over again (and again if needed) to pick up the parts of the storyline that I missed.

Later, Kris

Hi all, I had a frustrating and painful weekend this past Saturday and Sunday with the Tour of St. Louis.  Saturday was frustrating in that the morning criterium came down to a sprint finish despite my best efforts to break off the front several times.  Then, for the evening time trial, my chain kept jumping and so I ended up bagging it and going home.  Sunday was the painful part.  You’ll be able to see why if you look at some photos of me in the Forest Park Crit set# 2 photos section posted on www.ficksphoto.com.  I crashed about mid-way through the 60 minute race; but I did get back in and finish the race.  If I can take anything positive from the whole weekend, I can say that I’ve got better fitness than about 85% of the cat 3’s I’m racing against.  Oh, the other positive thing is that I didn’t break any bones.  My bike was surprisingly undamaged too.  That aside, my shoulder and hip are badly bruised and reeeeally sore at the moment! 

I have been asked by more and more people now to post pictures from the new house up online. I have posted the pictures that B and I took last night as part of our home inspection.

I will leave B to make comments on individual photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kugreg/PrescottHouse

Hope everyone enjoys!

Congratulations to Dr. Becky… the first Dr. Henkhaus of our family!!

I think I can say this for all of us:  We are very proud and happy for you!!!  You did it!

Good luck and best wished to Becky and Greg as there lives continue to change drastically this year… for the better, of course

Well as most of you know, Kurt is back in West Lafayette, yay! (as of Sunday, March 16th @ ~6:30pm)

But you didn’t know that he’s been sick… with a temperature and “stomach issues.” I came home from work on Tuesday (~7:30pm), saw his car in our parking lot, but when I entered the apartment, I couldn’t find him for a few minutes. I found him laying on the couch under several blanket, with symptoms of being cold and achy (which we all know that Kurt is never cold normally). Took his temp. = 100.6. Kurt no longer has a temperature, but hasn’t eaten much (a total of 2 apples and 1 banana) since lunch on Tuesday. Anyway,……. I hear Steven was sick this past weekend when Kurt saw the Fam in St. Louis. Hope he’s feeling better And I’m hoping I don’t get sick!

Other stuff: A few minutes ago, I payed the last bill for the no-interest-for-one-year loan I got to pay off the hospital bill from the docs removing my appendix, yay! … which happened in early October 2006.

Everyone ready for the maddness that is March Maddness!!! Kurt and I are taking a late lunch today and watching the KU game at Buffalo Wild Wings GO JAYHAWKS!!

Hope all of you are doing well!

You can click on the becky-greg blog for the full story, but in short…I got the post-doc position that I interviewed for at KU! I am just terribly excited about it and immensely relieved. I am so looking forward to being back in the midwest, although the ice storm today give me pause…

On June 28th, 2006 Obama made a huge speech in Washington, DC on atheists and faith. It may be the most important pronouncement by a Democrat on faith and politics since John F. Kennedy’s Houston speech in 1960 declaring his independence from the Vatican. Obama offers the first faith testimony I have heard from any politician that speaks honestly about the uncertainties of belief.

I think its important that he points out that “if we don’t reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for, then the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons and Alan Keyeses will continue to hold sway.”

He speaks about his religious experience not to make atheists uncomfortable, but rather to tap into the language of morality of a nation of christians.

Just a warning, this is not a campaign video full of sound bites. This is a long Obama speech where he goes into real detail on some of his social and “moral” agenda. Its very interesting.

My personal favorite quote, “Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.”

Click Here for the Video of the Speech

Click Here for the Text of the Speech

It appears that there are some stark differences in the weather that we are all experiencing today, and given that MY weather is clearly the best, I thought I’d be nice enough to highlight these differences for everyone’s mutual amusement.  At Noon-ish Tucson Time (that’d be 1pm Midwest time or 2pm for Rach), the current temps are:

• For Greg in Lawrence:  19F, feels like 9F — burr, that’s chilly!!
• For Mom and Dad, Kris and Jennifer:  21F, feels like 8F — burr, still chilly!!
• For Rachel in West Lafayette:  10F, feels like -10F — damn, I hope Rach and Bucky are snuggling somewhere warm together!
• For Kurt in the Frozen Tundra, I mean Minneapolis:  -9F, feels like -31F — Holy Mother.  How is that temperature even possible.  Wow.
• And For ME!!! In sunny Tucson:  73F, feels like (drumroll please) 73F!!!!!  –  OK, I know you all hate me, but listen, I have it hard too.  I need to get going on my run before it hits the heat of the day, 76 is a bit warm to be jogging outside, right??

OK, so lets sum up:  Tucson, 73 – Minneapolis -31F.  That’s a “feels like” difference of 104 degrees.  And by the way, I am eating it up now because this is the one time of year that Tucson weather rules over the rest of the country and I recall receiving more than a few phone calls from Kurt when he lived in Chicago and it was 75 in July and it was 153 in Tucson.  So there!  Have a nice Sunday everyone, and stay warm!!!

Just letting everyone know that we had some photographs taken of us a few weeks ago to celebrate our engagement and get something we could use for announcements etc.

So here they are, I would be interested in knowing what everyone’s favorite photographs are.

Engagement Photos

Enjoy!