Winter 2005 Vacation - Day 6

Grandpa and Grandma Myers flew in today and they took the kids for a while to see the various things at Circus Circus. I took Megan to China Town, which I admit was pretty cool. When you start seeing restaurants like Tofu Hut, you are getting close.


My favorite shop had some great geodes, jade/bronze sculptures, and swords, oh yeah. Of course there was San Rio junk everywhere which had Megan cooing. Also, we just had to get the Hello Kitty silk kimono for our daughter.



Here is a photo of the Myers family gathering at the nearly perfect Claim Jumper restaurant in Henderson Nevada, on the evening before our departure home.

UK Trip day 1

I'm in the UK for a bit, and won't bore you with the boring work details. I arrived today at 8:30am.

Crashed for a few hours and then set about walking around St Helens, Mersyside, UK, which is where the global headquarters for Pilkington (LOF) is currently located. Speculators may say we will soon be owned by the Japanese company NSG.

Here is a picture of a middle to lower class nieghborhood, as if driving on the wrong side of the street isn't bad enough, they also park however they feel.


Eventually the sun set and I went back to the Hilton. Icaru arrived from Brazil around 9:00pm and we chatted for a while, then off to bed. I laid in bed for 3 hours before falling asleep after 1am...ugh

Birthday madness

My son turned 6 today. We went for dinner at HJ's Prime cut on Heatherdowns. A good friend of mine, Andrew, was in town this week from Orlando so he joined us. After dinner half of us wanted ice cream and the other half warm beverages, so we ventured down to Levis to please everyone between Maggie Moo's and Starbucks.

Here is a picture from the official birthday party on Saturday:

It was crazy in my 1900ft^2 house on Saturday. I think most enjoyed it but the elder folk nursed headaches afterward. By the way, not all the kids decided to join the photo...I think there were 15 in all.

Yes there is red eye in the photo and the room we partied in is unfinished, both signs of how busy I've been lately.

Downtown Toledo pics

As many have commented, we've been spoiled by warm weather this January. The geese don't seem to mind.

weekend log

On friday evening we went over to the new Smokey Bones restaurant on Talmage. Its easy to see the staff is mostly inexperienced, but they were trying pretty hard. My son loves working the audio controls for the televisions. Its funny that we don't allow eating in front of the TV at home, and eating at this restaurant reminds me why. The kids were like zombies, eating their food with glazed over expressions while staring at the cartoons.

On Saturday I drove the boy out to my dad's house for an overnighter. This gave us some much needed time to spend working around the house. It also gave him some much needed attention.

More of the same on Sunday. The remodeled down stairs room is ready for a last coat of paint and then the carpet. I hung a nice netting around my daughter's bed using 2 50lb drywall hangers. I gave the kids strict instructions not to pull on it. As the experienced parents would guess, that lasted under 24 hours. Megan called me to me that it has been pulled off the wall with a healthy chunk of drywall still clinging to the hangers. ugh...

At least I still have the drywall tools out from the work downstairs.

Downtown Toledo pics

I think this is a cool view of Toledo, from the park lands near OC headquarters.

Nice correspondence from Senator Dewine

I wrote both Senators Voinovich and Dewine with my feelings on the ANWR Defense bill rider. I've gotten responses to all of my messages to Dewine, and never a response from Voinovich. The messages are the same, wether they be electronic or snail mail, regardless of the political topic.


January 10, 2006


Dear Aaron:

Over the past several months, a healthy debate has occurred in our country about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I appreciated knowing your views on this important issue.

As you know, after a great deal of thought, I voted against drilling in the ANWR. I thought the risks outweighed the potential benefits. The United States will never be petroleum independent-we simply do not have the oil. Department of Energy (DOE) figures show that we are currently 56 percent dependent on foreign oil. The DOE estimates that the ANWR would reach full production by the year 2020, and even then, it would only decrease our dependence on foreign oil by about 2%.

We desperately need a comprehensive energy policy, and the Administration should get a lot of credit for putting a comprehensive package together. The energy bill that the Senate passed this Congress addressed important issues, such as electricity reform, nuclear and hydroelectric plant regulations, energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, new gasoline content standards and many others. These, in particular, are more important to the energy needs of Ohioans than drilling in Alaska.

While I oppose drilling in the ANWR, I do not believe drilling should be restricted on all federal land. The federal government is the caretaker of millions of acres, which undoubtedly contain oil and gas reservoirs, and I support the President's efforts to identify potential energy sources on our federal lands. In less fragile ecosystems, oil and gas exploration can coexist with the natural environment. I believe that it is our duty to find these sources and then carefully assess the costs versus the benefits in each case.

Again, thank you for sharing your concerns. If you have any further questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Very respectfully yours,

MIKE DEWINE
United States Senator