Not of the blog, but of the Kess and I.  We are celebrating our 9th dating anniversary in fact which is pretty exciting.  I’d write more but we’re about to head out to the 112 Eatery for dinner.  It’s amazing and should be enjoyed if you’re ever in Minneapolis.

Here we are in NY a month ago.  We’ve never had actual pictures taken of us, so handheld on an airplane will have to do.

So I suffer from the same disease that all people who maintain websites suffer from: the fail-to-update disease. I start a site, work on it for a while, and then it becomes way too much effort to maintain it. This is where the blog interface steps in…

I’m in the process of converting the NU project to a blog site with an image gallery which I’m hoping will go a long way to making it easier to update so that there’s something new to view every week (I know this works because ya’ll keep coming back). It’s going to look a lot like this blog, and my wedding and portrait blog, but a different header and different menu items and people without clothes.

Here are a couple images that I shot last week in preparation of the new site launch. Thank you again to all the people who participate. It’d be pretty hard to keep shooting without you.

A political email.  And Kess and I had to come up with our own to counter.  You tell me which is more convincing…

THEIR EMAIL

FYI
Subject: Re:  Income Taxes - Very  Important

INTERESTING  DATA JUST  RECEIVED ON TAXES

This is something you should  be aware  of so you don’t get blind-sided.  This is really going  to catch  a lot of families off guard.  It should make you   worry.

Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General elect   ion:

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

MCCAIN
0% on   home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples) McCain does not propose   any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA
28% on   profit from ALL home sales

How does this affect you? If   you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain  on  taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to  down-  size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the  money  you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will  adversely  affect the elderly who are counting on the income from  their homes as  part of their retirement income.

DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN  15% (no change)
OBAMA  39.6%
How  will this affect you? If you have any  money invested in stock market,  IRA, mutual funds, college funds,  life insurance, retirement accounts,  or anything that pays or  reinvests dividends, you will now be paying  nearly 40% of the money  earned on taxes if Obama becomes  president.

The  experts predict that ‘higher tax rates  on dividends20and capital gains  would crash the stock market yet do  absolutely nothing to cut the  deficit.

INCOME TAX

MCCAIN (no changes)
Single  making 30K - tax  $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single  making 75K - tax  $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married  making 7 5 K  -tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax   $31,250
OBAMA  (reversion to pre-Bush tax  cuts)
Single making 30K - tax  $8,400
Single making 50K - tax  $14,000
Single making 75K - tax  $23,250
Married making 60K -  tax $16,800
Married making 75K -  tax $21,000
Married making  125K - tax  $38,750
Under  Obama your taxes will more than  double! How does this affect you? No  explanation needed. This is  pretty straight  forward.
INHERITANCE  TAX

MCCAIN 0% (No  change, Bush repealed this  tax)

OBAMA - Restore the  inheritance tax.

How  does this affect you?  Many families have lost businesses, farms and  ranches, and homes  that
have been in their families for  generations because they  could not afford the inheritance tax.   Those willing their  assets to loved ones will not only lose them to  these  taxes.

NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA

*  New  government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square   feet

* New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren’t hig h enough   already)

* New taxes on natural resources   consumption (heating gas, water,electricity)

* New taxes on   retirement accounts and last but not least….

* New taxes to   pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of   medical care as other third-world countries!!!

OUR EMAIL

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lord Rupert Everton
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:11:53 -0500
To: Matt Blum
Subject: Re: John McCain - Very Important

This was forwarded to me by someone who has always voted Republican, but even he says there is something “off” about McCain. That she even sent me this e-mail was a HUGE deal.

Apparently McCain has a few skeletons in his closet after all…

John McCain once ran 2 oil tankers into each other off of the Alaska shores just to see what would happen*.
John McCain doesn’t read books, he thinks they are for the weak.
John McCain doesn’t like facts he didn’t invent.
John McCain has 3 testicles.
John McCain eats babies.
John McCain is actually a cold sore (see below):

John McCain will make it illegal to listen to music except for the following:

1) We Didn’t Start the Fire (Or the war. He talked about having bombs. Then he let us in, and we didn’t find anything, but he said!)
2) Proud to be an American, Where at Least I Know I’m White
3) The Humpty Dance (that one always tickled him)
4) Any song by John Mellencamp
5) The Entire Trapped in the Closet Series (McCain understands what it means to be black in America)
6) Michael Buble

Especially illegal will be the following types of music:

1) Any lesbian music (Ani DiFranco, PJ Harvey, The 4 Non-Blondes)
2) Any gay music (Culture Club, The Village People, Anything else that gay people make love to)
3) Any music that riles the poor people (rap, Bob Marley, Snoopy Dog)
4) Any music with no flute part (his oldest not-gay son plays the flute)
5) Any music without words

We rest our case.

Things never stay the same. Change is good. Change means progress. Progress is good. But certain things were perfectly good and comfortable just the way they were*: Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Grandma’s cooking, Grandpa’s horribly unsafe three-wheeler. These things don’t need to change. And yet, they do.

I wish I had made more photographs along the way. Maybe it’s time to start, anyway.

* I also offer these images as proof that I was once in shape. The funny thing is that I remember looking at that shot of me on the merry-go-round and thinking “I should lose weight.” Idiot.

Here’s the story…  When I was a kid, some other kid at the cabin gave me a tape by a rap group call Apache.  I’ve been searching for this music for like 12 years, and I finally found it.  I found an image of Kessler to insert into the post while you listen to one of my favorite songs of all time.  If you like old school rap, especially the vulgar kind, please buy this CD.

If you are at work, if you are my mother, if you are Kessler’s grandmother, please do not listen to this song.  Just move along.  Nothing to see here.