Our Family Blog

Arrested Development Cancelled

2005-11-11T16:35:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, but the recent announcement by Fox that it was canceling Arrested Development is very distressing to me. This is one of the funniest shows on television today. With all the "same ole, same ole" we see on network TV these days it amazes me that a witty show such as this is getting the ax. If anyone knows of a write in campaign or something like that, please drop me a line, I will love the folks at Fox to hear from me on this topic.

Do you know about Rendering Plants?

2005-06-02T17:30:00.000-04:00

Shocking as this article may be, it's necessary for you to read it! Are we still the naive nation we once were? I think not! Until recent years, we meekly developed the custom of being followers and did not question the integrity of our leaders and especially those who have set themselves up as protectors of our health.

Has the pendulum now swung the other way? Have we now become a nation of suspicion? I think so, and with good reason. Not necessarily because we enjoy being watchdogs, but because of self-preservation!

One case in point in which millions are directly involved on a daily basis are rendering plants. Not many have ever heard of a rendering plant, let alone known what products gain their origin from these plants! Have you ever noticed a dead dog, cat, skunk or opossum that has been killed on the highway? Well, a rendering plant is a collection center for all kinds of dead animals. Carcasses of every variety are hauled to the plant daily. Huge supplies of the decaying bodies come from everywhere, including farms where disease has decimated herds of swine, cattle and other domestic animals.

Sickening Thought

At the plant, the bodies an: all dump together into a huge cooking pot which generates intense heat. After a certain period of cooking, the bodies are subjected to a process of extreme pressure in order to extract the fat from bones, skins, etc. Old cooking grease picked up from restaurants is also added in the pot. It is the rendered fat that constitutes the final product of the plant.

One can imagine the horrible stench of the diseased and decaying conglomeration of cooking carcasses. But the thing that astonishes me the most is the way in which the extracted grease is utilized. The great majority of the product is sold for women's makeup, especially to manufacturers of lipstick and eye makeup. Some of the most prestigious cosmetic companies in the country are the chief customers of rendering plants. Anyone looking at the elegant ads portraying glamorous models wearing beautiful "makeup" would never suspect even a hint of the refined, colored and properly perfumed oil being derived from skunk, opossum or pig! How much of this abominable blend do you suppose has been ingested into the body from the lips and the pores of the skin? Should we not be aware of the content not only of what enters the mouth but also what soaks in through the pores of the skin?

After reading this article you can now understand that the skin is an open sponge and whatever you put on it, you put IN IT!!!!!!!!! Once you get this most crucial point, you will never again buy skin care products, make up or soaps without first reading labels. You may say that you even if you read the labels, you would not understand them. You can buy a small book or pamphlet that tells all cosmetic ingredients. If you are not so inclined, then buy all organic products like Aveda. They are wonderful and you can be sure of their integrity. Because these are professional salon products, they work wonderfully. And you can go to their salons for help... There are other organic lines like Aubrey Organics that you can buy in a health food store. The main thing you need though is a system that works together. Not bits and pieces from a lot of lines. It will not work...

Most department store lines such as La Prairie, Clinique, Estee Lauder and Erno Lazlo are very expensive and contain so many un natural ingredients such as discarded animal waste, urea(horse urine), sweat from sheep, heavy oils, alcohol, perfumes, steriods, petroleum derivatives e.t.c. The marketing hype is SHOCKING!!!!! If you only knew how you are abused by the marketing you would be angry. You cannot believe that all these products are good for your skin. When I was a practicing esthetician (skin care specialist), I went to the large shows in England often with all the skin care experts from dermotogists to plastic surgeons. I always left disappointed at all the lies and hype.

Eventually, I had to quit doing business in that way for it had no integrity. I then pursued the truth, which led me to natural, organic products that are good for you, are much less costly and actually help to keep your skin from aging. For twenty five years now pursing the natural route, I have observed all my clients and friends on the natural systems and they look years younger. Most people always guess me at least ten years younger than I am, and I am convinced that the healthy route leads to longevity.

I heard horror stories about the doctor that invented Retin-a. I heard his wife is a total invalid form the sun now and can never go outside because of all her treatments in this most un-natural product. Yes, it has vitamin A, but you must know it contains other ingredients. I could always tell when a client would come to me that had used this product. Their skin was excessively damaged, dry, red and flaky.

Source

Our Weekend Away

2005-05-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

What a great time! Danielle and I left the kids at my folks for the weekend and headed up to Bar Harbor. Check out our site for all the photos from the trip. We had a very relaxing time and enjoyed all there was to see on the island of Mt. Desert.

When we got back I then headed off to Mohegan Sun with Steve. I will provide a whole separate post on that trip later.

Bad Keith - Weekend Update

2005-05-09T10:03:00.000-04:00

I have been so bad about keeping this site updated. It is hard to do it all I guess so this is the first thing I let go. Oh well, not that most people care anyway.

So, this weekend it rained, last weekend it rained, it seems to rain every weekend. It is getting old. . . Hopefully next weekend will be nice for our trip to Bar Harbor. . .

So what is new? Hmmm. . . Well last nights Desperate Housewives was good and I now think I have a theory. Zach might be Mike's son. Yes it is a bit far fetched but if Paul killed Deidra because she came looking for Dana. Is it possible that Deidra was the drug addict that Paul and Mary Alice took Dana from? That means that Dana/Zach is either Mike's son or the illegitimate child of the cop that she was being forced to have sex with. Just my thoughts. . .

Well, that is it for now. Check out Danielle's Arbonne site and contact her for more information. Keith Out!

My Arbonne Story

2005-05-07T19:45:00.000-04:00

First let me say I am skeptical, actually those who know me would say cynical. I don't believe anything anyone tells me unless I see it for myself. If I asked you if you turned off the stove, I would still go check even if you said yes. With that said, I can tell you that when Danielle and our neighbors first started talking about Arbonne my eyes could not have rolled further back in my head. "Oh great, another product to end up sitting on the shelf in the bathroom," I thought.
Now I have battled hair and scalp issues my whole life. When I was a kid I was tested for allergies and besides being allergic to lamb (go figure) the only other thing they could say was I was allergic to my own perspiration.

There were times that my scalp would get so dry and flaky that it would crack and bleed down my neck and ears (sorry if that is too graphic). As I got older it got better but I still had to use medicated shampoo to keep things under control. If I went a day without washing my hair it would itch like mad. Recently I have started having issues again. This is when I first heard about Arbonne.

Our neighbor was trying to get Danielle onboard with being a consultant and I wasn't being very supportive with either of them. She convinced us to try the shampoo and conditioner for a couple days. Wanting to prove her wrong I agreed to give it a shot. The first thing I noticed was how soft my hair felt. So we used it for 3-4 days and I was amazed that my scalp didn't itch at all. If anything it really felt good. Well of course I snuffed this off to coincidence (I was just going through a good hair phase). So we gave the products back and I went back to my medicated shampoo. The very next day my scalp started to get itchy again. "Come on," I thought, "this can't be for real." By this point Danielle was totally into the products and the company and using the RE9 line herself (and I will say her skin was really looking good). So she went ahead and put in an order for the same shampoo and conditioner we tried and she got a scalp treatment. I couldn't wait for the products to come in just to be sure that it really was the product that made the difference. As soon as they got here I started using them and have continued ever since. My hair is soft, manageable and doesn't itch at all.

I can honestly say I doubt I will ever use anything else.

So, there you have it for a skeptic's (cynics) mouth! If you don't believe me, just try the product for yourself. It truly is an amazing product and company.

Weekend Update

2005-03-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

All I can say is Easter!

I got a chance to finish the kids rooms (all the painting and trim is complete), now we will be moving on to the closet in the middle room and the hallway to Alex's room. This should be a fun project.

The kids had a blast finding the eggs the Easter Bunny left for them and eating LOTS of candy. Easter service was nice (the Portsmouth Brassworks played at the York chuch again). Then we had dinner at my folks with Danielle's dad and the whole gang. It was all wrapped up with a new episode of Desperate Housewives (we LOVE that show).

Weekend Update

2005-03-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

WOW! What a busy weekend. Friday night Danielle and I had a date. We went to the Barn for dinner and had a great meal, then we went to a little community theatre (Garrison Players) to see Pirates of Penzance. It was a really nice night. Saturday I did some work on the kids room, Danielle's friends Maureen, Bruce and Renee came for a visit and then we went to Danielle's sisters for a birthday party for her son. Sunday I got to sand and prime the walls in the kids room and then the neighbors came over for a birthday dinner for John. This week is devoted to getting ready for Easter.

Weekend Update

2005-03-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yes it is Monday again and the weekend was filled with lots of interesting things to do. Well, it was filled with SNOW anyway. We had a major storm that started Friday and ended early Sunday morning. It was that heavy wet March snow that is a pain to deal with. Fortunately the snow blower came in handy again. I remember when we bought it at the "end of year" price that I said, "and it probably won't snow again this year." Man was I wrong!

I also took the time this weekend to trim out the door between Justin and Alex's room. I got a coat of paint on everything and hung the door. I also put the first coat of sheetrock mud on the wall. Now I just need to sand things and do a second coat before painting the wall. I am really happy with the progress so far even though I have been complaining about the project all along the way. I don't quite know why I think I need a project when all I do is complain throughout the project. I guess I feel like I need something creative to do, but I don't really like the different phases. For example I hate hanging, taping and mudding sheetrock. I don't do it very well, but in the end it comes out looking pretty good. Maybe the complaining is just part of the process, who knows.

On another note, Justin is making real progress on doing his business in the right place. Twice this weekend he used the toilet to pee-pee. Now I am sure only other parents know how huge this is, but it was a major thing in our house. I can only hope that the interest continues and it just becomes common place, time will tell. Alex is getting her 5th tooth and everyone is still battling the cold. Someone needs to walk through our house with a huge can of Lisol or something to kill whatever bugs are living there. It seems we have all been sick for the past couple months.

That was the weekend!

And at the House

2005-03-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

So I was able to get the wall built between Justin and Alex's rooms. It went fairly well all in all. Dad came up on Sunday to help hang the door, but because I didn't have any hinges (kind of a critical piece for hanging a door) that didn't get done. Instead we finished hanging the sheetrock and figured out the issue with the lights in the basement. Isn't it strange how things happen? I am working on the upstairs and 2 floors below a wire comes loose in a junction box and I loose all the lights in the family room. The kicker was that I buried the junction box in the ceiling which meant I had to cut a hole in the sheetrock to get to the box. So now I have a ceiling in the basement with a hole, the ceiling in the basement bathroom was pulled down (so we could trace the wire), and I have a bedroom 1/2 finished upstairs. Wow! Anyway, I hope to get this all wrapped up this coming weekend. We will see how that works out. . .

Web Site Failure

2005-03-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

As many of you might have seen our web server was offline from Friday until Tuesday. I had a hard drive that failed at the office which brought down most of my web sites. Although I was able to get the critical sites up and running by the end of the day Friday, ours was not so lucky. On Tuesday I got the rest of the sites functioning but we managed to loose about 2 dozen photo galleries. That kind of sucks but it could have been a whole lot worse. So I am just counting my blessing and moving on.

Weekend Update

2005-02-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yes everyone is sick. We did nothing this weekend other then try to get healthy. Now we are waiting for a huge snow storm that is looking to dump up to 12" of snow on us. Yippee!

We're All Sick

2005-02-24T08:07:00.000-05:00

Yup, the whole family is sick! Justin and Alex did the puking thing earlier this week. Keith has a cold and Danielle is not sure why she feels so crappy. We have canceled all our plans and are taking time to recover. Hopefully this will all blow over by the weekend so that we can start working on the kids rooms.

Weekend Update

2005-02-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend this week! I took the day off Friday to prepare for Alex's birthday party on Sunday. Sheila, John and Trevor came over for dinner Friday night, a little Chinese food, yummy! Sheila is getting ready to pop out that little thing in her belly. We did some shopping and even bought a snowblower on Saturday. I got an 8 hp Yard Master (or whatever WalMart sells). We saved $224 on it because they were selling off the inventory for the end of the year. Kevin, Andrea and Morgan came up for a visit and stayed Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday night we put the kids to bed and watched Garden State. It was an interesting movie, a bit arts, which was a tough sell given it starred the guy from Scrubs. Alex's birthday went very well on Sunday! She had a great time and got a lot of great gifts, thanks to everyone! Interestingly we were so caught up in our own lives that we didn't see the snow storm coming, otherwise Kevin and Andrea would have left Sunday night, but once we realized we were going to get some snow it was too late for them to head out. So, we hung in Sunday night, watched Desperate Housewives and then all went to bed. We awoke to about 8-10 inches of snow, of course thanks to WalMart, I had a nice new snowblower to clean it all out. I spent a couple hours outside doing everyone's driveways (Dan, Mike, John, Dan's Mom, mine). That probably won't happen every storm but I needed to break in my new toy. Well, I guess that was the weekend in a nut shell.

NHL Season Cancelled, Anyone Care?

2005-02-15T09:27:00.000-05:00

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were talking about the NHL season being cancelled. My only thought was, "hasn't it already been cancelled?" I guess it just isn't an important thing in my life. Then again, does anyone really care? The NHL has been on a downward spiral for many years, much like the NBA. The major difference is that it seems basketball players are a bit smarter. They know that they shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them. Given the end of the NHL season, and the fact that the players still don't seem to have a contract, will anyone go to see a game next year? If there even is a season next year. Just some food for thought.

Weekend Update

2005-02-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

Here we are, Valentines Day (thank you Hallmark). Danielle and I spent the weekend planning the kids room. We spent some time taping out how things will look and where the different walls will go. I think we have a good plan for this and I will get started after Alex's birthday.

We also celebrated Mimi's (my Mom) birthday. It was a week late, but then again she did share her special day with the World Champion Patriots. I am getting over a cold, so I didn't do a whole lot of anything else. Good thing I was sick this weekend and not next. It would be a bummer to be sniffling at my little girl's first birthday.

The Kids Rooms

2005-02-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

We finally got a plumber to stop by (see previous post in the December Archive about service "professionals") to look at the heat in the kids room. He didn't think it was necessary to split the radiator. He thought that given the small size of the proposed rooms and how warm their current room gets that we wouldn't have an issue with heating up there. So, it looks like Danielle and I will be working this week to design the floor plan for splitting their bedroom into two rooms. Hopefully we will be able to get the wall built in the next couple weeks. Then I can get started on the closet in the middle room and the small hall to Alex's room. Check our web site (http://www.keithanddani.com/Justinsroom.htm) for photos of the project.

Welcome to the Blog

2005-02-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

Well it is time to keep up with the Johnsons, so I have moved some of my old "Rantings" into this new Blog format. Feel free to post any information you want here and to respond to some of these messages. I will try to get Danielle to use this area also. Enjoy!

World Champion New England Patriots

2005-02-06T10:51:00.000-05:00

Well, the Patriots have done it again. They have won their 3rd Superbowl in 4 years. What is kind of cool about this is that the 1st two wins were in the same year that our kids were born. For now, we will just enjoy the success and look forward to next year.

Tick Tock

2004-02-18T10:50:00.000-05:00

We are fast approaching the big day. I think everyone is a bit anxious, even Justin. We are scheduled for a 9am proceedure on the 20th. Keep looking at the site for the photos and the announcement!

The Basement is Done

2004-02-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

Well 98% done. We have moved the home theater to the basement and all we need to do is finish the tile around the toilet (and paint the stairs if I ever get to it). We are fairly happy with how things turned out. Danielle will miss having a TV in the living room, so we will move the TV from the bedroom down. Basically as she said, we will beg and steal from around the house to make things comfortable. For now, we will just get used to the new space and see what happens when the new baby arrives.

Basement is Getting Close

2004-01-18T10:48:00.000-05:00

Well I had to take time out today to watch the Patriots win the AFC Championship so I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I still have a laundry list of things to do, but it is getting much closer to be complete. We love the way the wall treatment came out. We did a ragging technique that at first we thought, "UGH"! But once all the walls were done and the trim started going in we really liked it.

Basement is Getting Close

2004-01-09T10:47:00.001-05:00

We are getting close to finishing the basement project. It will be a nice family room for watching TV and playing games on the XBox. Plus it puts away from the sleeping area so we can turn the movies up a bit more. Check out the photo gallery to see all the progress. We will be priming the walls this weekend and will be sure to post some photos.

The Day Is Set

2004-01-09T10:47:00.000-05:00

So we have set the day for new baby Holt. We will be doing this on February 20th provided Danielle doesn't go early. It will be nice because the 20th is a Friday which means we will be coming home on Monday and then I have 3 weeks off. I know I will be dealing with Justin a lot as Danielle won't be able to pick up anything heavy. I only hope he doesn't get all "Mommmy" on me and cops attitude when he can't crawl all over her. Anyway, we are really looking forward to this new addition.

Things to come. . .

2004-01-09T10:46:00.000-05:00

I am going to start using the area as a web log (blog) of sort. So keep watching to see what I have to say.

The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

2003-12-31T10:13:00.000-05:00

The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

Ties on the Toys

2003-12-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

Who decided that every toy needed 4-6 twisty ties to keep the toys in the box? Poor Justin had to wait until Mom and Dad could get all the ties off the toys before he could play with them. What a pain in the a**. Someone needs to write to these companies and tell them to stop tieing everything up so tight!

Being On-Time

2003-12-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I am tired of people being late for everything. I spend more of my time waiting on other people then is necessary. This is especially true at work. Why can't people make it into the office on-time?

Well I was doing some research on the subject and found this article that I thought was interesting. So I am sharing it on my site. Something to think about. . .
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Are you always late? Harold Taylor, expert time management columnist, shares six secrets on how to be on time. Visit his web site at www.TaylorOnTime.com.

Dear Harold:
I am a generally disorganized person, late for appointments, late on bills, late, late, late for everything. Do you have any suggestions on how I can stop being late and get organized? I have a tough time dealing with 'time' in my life--there never seems to be enough of it.

Harold's Answer: Punctuality is a problem for many people. For example, Dan Kennedy, author of "No B.S. Time Management For Entrepreneurs", indicates that more than 60% of employees in the U.S. frequently show up late for work. When you are late for appointments, meetings or work itself, you show a lack of respect for other people's time as well as your own. Being late in paying bills can be costly and being late socially can strain relationships. So you are justified in being frustrated with yourself.

You are also correct in assuming it is a sign of disorganization. But getting organized is primarily an exercise in self-discipline. Correcting your punctuality problem is an excellent place to start if you want to get organized. Once you have proven to yourself that you can succeed in this one area, it is then a matter of extending your efforts to gradually mastering other weaknesses such as procrastination, packrat tendencies, perfectionism and so on. Organization is a slow process but the rewards are well worth the effort.

How can you correct your lateness problem? Well here six steps you can take.

Make up your mind that you will be punctual from now on. In many cases lateness is caused by a lack of commitment to arrive on time. Have the right mind set.
Record the commitment in your planner and also record the time you must leave the house or office in order to arrive on time.
In carrying out step two, plan to arrive 5 to 10 minutes early.
If you have a fair distance to travel, always allow more time than you think it will take. This is the same as scheduling more time for a task than you think it will take.
Don't be trapped by the "one last thing" syndrome. If you're ready to leave and it's still early, leave anyway. Utilize the time at the other end rather than trying to finish one more task before you leave.
If you are not a morning person, but have early morning commitments, set the alarm a little earlier. Some of us may need to go to bed a little earlier to make this work.

When it comes right down to it, punctuality is a habit that can be developed. It takes great effort at first, but eventually "simply happens." Habits are formed by repetition. If you want to acquire the habit of punctuality, you must repeat this behavior again and again.

How long does it take to change your behavior from one of tardiness to punctuality? According to the late Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-cybernetics, it takes 21 days to form a habit. So you will have to muster all the willpower at your disposal, take advantage of the above list of suggestions, and persist until the habit is formed.

And as you know, the habit of arriving on time does have its rewards.
Once you mastered your lateness problem, getting organized will seem a lot easier.

About the Author: Harold Taylor, Time Consultants Inc.

Happy Holidays

2003-12-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays! It is nice to have the web site back up and running completely. Feel free to spout off about anything you want here or reply to any of my rantings if you agree or disagree. Have Fun!

Dover Christmas Parade - What an embarrassment!

2003-12-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

So this past Sunday I rushed home to spend some time with Danielle and Justin at the Dover Christmas parade. Well, I have to say it was awful! Putting a bunch of moving vans and fire trucks in a line and driving slowly down the road is not my idea of a parade. The floats were poor at best (with the exception of the Saint Thomas float which was nice). What does it take to put on a good parade? A little creative thinking? I am not sure who the folks are on the parade committee, but they need to be removed! How about a theme or something. And what does it take to get a band or two to march? The parade consisted of 3 bands and in the time we stood there in the cold, none of them played a single note. We didn't even hear them off in the distance coming or going. Well to wrap this rant up, I was cold, disappointed and angry that I spent the time rushing home from another performance to see firetrucks and moving vans. Maybe next year will be better, but I doubt it.

Baked Beans w Bacon & Molasses

2003-12-23T10:18:00.000-05:00

Here is Toni's Baked Beans Recipe. Of course she "fixes" it a bit so good luck matching hers.

1/2 lb bacon chopped
1 31 oz can pork & beans
1 lg onion chopped
3/4 c. ketchup
2/3 c. golden brown sugar
1/3 c. mild molasses
2 T. mustard
2 T. cider vinegar

Saute bacon until brown and crisp. Mix with remaining ingredients until thick, about 30 min.

Note: Toni also adds 1/4 lb hamburger and uses Bush beans. She cuts back on the "sweets" increases the mustard and adds some Hot Sauce for flavor.

How do they make a living?

2003-12-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

Can someone explain how tradespeople make a living? They are never on time, if they show up at all. . . It is very frustrating. Have you ever called a plumber? It takes 5-6 calls just to get them to commit to come by and "look" at the problem. Unless you are under 30 feet of water, you don't rate. The system needs to change! But how?

Tie Your Dogs Up!

2003-12-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

So why is that most people think they can just let their dogs run loose? I mean really people, does it take that much to put your dog on a leash, or even better yet, behind a fence. I get so tired of taking my dog (Katie) out for a walk and just as you are strolling down the street some weird dog comes bounding out of the yard towards you.

Now I know what most people say, "My dog is harmless." Well guess what people, Katie doesn't know that and she will, if given the chance, defend herself and her family. So, just because your dog is friendly doesn't mean the other dog will not feel threatened.