Archive for November, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
After a nice long nap and a play at the park, we headed to some friends here in town for dessert and leftovers! Our friends have their own big family and it was a joy to see all the children branch out to different tables to play various card and board games.
Door by door, Wasinger listens to voters
This is a great article on Rob’s race. I cut and pasted it below as well.
Door by door, Wasinger listens to voters
By Kathy Hanks – The Hutchinson News.com – khanks@hutchnews.com
If Rob Wasinger has it his way, he’ll knock on every door in Hutchinson before the November 2010 election.
A daunting task, but it’s the very reason the Republican congressional candidate from Cottonwood Falls has started early, walking through local neighborhoods with his campaign staff in the past two weeks.
At most of the doors, he’s hearing that people are frustrated, Wasinger said during a stop at The News on Friday. While he feels it’s important to listen to what the people have to say, he also offers campaign promises for ways in which he can help.
Working toward fostering economic development, he specifically noted a bill in the Senate known as the New Homestead Act, as having that potential.
The bipartisan legislation provides new tools to rural areas seeking to halt chronic out-migration, and to revitalize rural communities. One of the original co-sponsors of the legislation was Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Wasinger’s former boss.
If elected, Wasinger said he’d advocate to build a stronger coalition between both parties to help the legislation pass – something he said takes a special temperament to accomplish.
Ways to help foster the necessary growth in rural towns that are experiencing out-migration would be through venture capital and loan forgiveness on student loans, he said. While it’s typical to forgive the student loans of doctors who return to an underserved rural area, he suggested removing that burden for those who return to rural communities to start businesses.
Wasinger was at the tail end of a busy week that included being endorsed by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as well as launching a Hutchinson campaign ad on his Web site/YouTube.com.
“Sen. McCain has been a role model to me for 12 years,” Wasinger said. “He has offered so much to his country. He’s a genuine public servant.”
While opponents question Wasinger’s connection to Kansas, arguing he has spent much of his career working in Washington, D.C., he noted he was a fourth-generation Kansan, born and raised in Hays, where his parents still live.
“I’m a product of the public school system,” he said. In his sophomore year, however, he received a full scholarship to attend Deerfield Academy, a prestigious preparatory school in Deerfield, Mass. Through grants and scholarships, he was able to attend Harvard University, where he earned a degree in economics.
After graduation he returned to Kansas and went to work on Gov. Bill Graves’ staff, then left in 1995 to work for Jerry Moran, who was state Senate majority leader at the time. A year later he joined Brownback’s staff where he rose to the position of chief of staff.
“I have always wanted to work in public service,” Wasinger said.
Wasinger said he is discovering that people feel Washington has forgotten about them.
By walking the streets, knocking on doors, “the old-fashioned way,” Wasinger said, he hopes to let people know he is listening.
Veteran’s Day in Beloit
We had a terrific Veteran day in Beloit yesterday. Highlights if the day were
1. Sebastian and Carolina rollerblading , while holding the banner down the parade route. They did not drop it once but their “need for speed” kept the rest of us running to keep up!
2. Visiting the Vets at the VFW. One Vet gave all the children a dollar and another showed the children magic tricks!
3. Visiting with wonderful families at The Perfect Pair, 100 S. Mill. 785.738.3000. It is run by a mother-daughter, who are so hospitable, you feel like you are at your girlfriend’s house. Every detail was gorgeous from the circa 1950’s turquoise booths to the marble counters to the yummy floats and shakes! Francesca even got to help wash dishes and when it was done, the owner said”okay now you can help make yourself a milkshake!” Francesca proceeded to take Carolina’s order and they chatted the whole way home about how much fun they had. They have loads of high quality toys for sale and I plan to go back before Christmas to stock up on some presents.
4. Hanging out with our new friend, Polly, who is so enthusiastic and cheerful that you can’t help smiling when you are around her!
Halloween bowhahaha
As you can tell, I had a lot of fun getting costumes this year. Even Lucy, our silly long eared dog, got to play “pretty princess” in her costume. It was really funny because our friend, Mike, who is the epitome of “Mr.Tough Guy,” was somehow stuck holding the leash of this ultra feminine and kind of goofy dog. People he knew would drive up and ask if that was his dog. He hammed it up though and told some guys that if they didn’t watch out he would get his dog after them. Lucy had a little wardrobe malfunction when her Velcro came undone. Her belly was just a tad too fat ( too many late night garbage can raids will do that to you.)
The other children had fun and Paddy thought he was the scariest Transformer ever to walk the planet. Since he has never seen the show, he would walk up to other children and shout “ROARRR” hoping that they would get scared. I could be wrong but aren’t they they the good guys?
After the big night, I woke up to hear that the bartering of candy had already begun. First they sort their candy out into neat little piles. That is usually followed by the trade. ”I will trade you two Sweetarts for one Snickers,” that is shortly followed by “Make it two Sweetarts and a dum dum and its a deal.” The game could go on indefinitely and would have had I not announced that we needed to get dressed and go to Church.
