Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way
To say "Merry Christmas to you."

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way
To say "Merry Christmas to you."


Rusty has been wanting a GPS navigation device for months, which I find strange because he does not drive very often when we are at home. Either way I got it for him because I knew he would use it every time we travel. Needless to say we have used it everyday here!


Rusty gave me the most wonderful earrings ever! They are three sets of pearls - white, pink, and black. I really wanted something I could wear everyday and these are just perfect. He is so thoughtful and wonderful and I am so lucky to have him in my life.


We are so grateful for our wonderful families! We love you all and wish you a great 2009!

Ghost of Christmas Present

Rusty surprised me with tickets to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Portland Center Stage. He said we needed some Christmas spirit here. I love all holidays equally, but I really enjoy the hustle and bustle of this time of year. Although, this year has not been the same. I think the combination of finals, Adam and Terese's visit, and preparation for Kauai have thrown me into a holiday funk. Also, the weather has been pretty good this fall.



The play seemed to do the trick and all I want to do is go Christmas shopping now! It was a really great performance and a perfect date! I thought I would include a picture of our tree. It has a few presents underneath it now. I am still like a child and once I see a present I want to open it immediately. Luckily I have Rusty to keep me in line!

Go Cavemen!

One of the many reasons I love Rusty is because he always expresses himself. He writes letters to his congressman when he deems necessary. He fills out comment cards and surveys every chance he gets. He even sends emails to ESPN about his fantasy football team.

He listens to ESPN's podcasts while working and last night decided to email the Fantasy Focus guys Matthew Berry, Nate Ravitz, and the producer PodVader. Today they responded to his email in ESPN's Fantasy Focus podcast. Click here to listen.

You can fast forward to 24:30 - 30:11 they refer to Rusty quite a few times in a little over five minutes. It is really funny and I know it made his day.

Flat Stanley

We had a visitor for the weekend, Flat Stanley. He traveled to Portland in an envelope all the way from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He came from my cousin's daughter, Jordyn. Flat Stanley had a fun trip out west, but I think he is ready to get back to Jordyn. Here are the things we did with Flat Stanley.



Stanley went to school with Rusty and got to go to an outdoor lab. Portland State University is Oregon's largest university with over 26,000 students. Since it has been rainy here, we had to get a poncho for Flat Stanley. It may look like a plastic bag, but that is really his poncho.


They went to Tryon State Park to identify soil. Tryon State Park is Oregon's only state park in a metropolitan area. It is also an old landslide, so it is very interesting to geologists. While at the park, Flat Stanley climbed a tree.


On Saturday, Flat Stanley went to check out the goods at the Portland Farmer's Market. The Portland Farmer's Market runs from April through December. The sellers at the market have deep roots is Oregon and Washington, including farms, nurseries, bakeries, meat and seafood providers, cheese makers, specialty foods producers. We were going to the market to pick up some apples.




On Sunday, we took a trip to Multnomah Falls. Multnomah Falls is the second largest year-round waterfall in the United States. There are two levels to the waterfall that total 620 feet. While at the waterfall we even saw salmon in the stream.








After our morning trip, it was time for us to put to use the apples we purchased at the Portland Farmer's Market. We went to visit a friend in Vancouver, Washington to make carmel apples. Vancouver, Washington is less than 10 miles from Portland. The two states are separated by the Columbia River, which is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest.





Flat Stanley enjoyed a busy weekend here, but is happy to be returning to Jordyn in South Milwaukee!

More information on Flat Stanley: http://www.flatstanley.com/

The Death of Capitalism

Capitalism in this country is dead. We are all socialists. The billion dollar bail outs have nationalized the banks. In a purely capitalist society there would have been no bail out and in no way would the government step in to avoid a recession, or even a depression. The banks and financial institutions would have just been allowed to fail and let the market sort things out. As I am sure all of you know the federal government has approved an 800 billion dollar bail out and they are looking for more bail out dough. Normally I would be excited about a move towards socialism but this bail out move has no benefits for the American people. This cowardly move somehow socializes our credit, but gives the tax payers supporting these subsidies nothing in return. Why do we get stuck with the bills of socialism but none of the social programs? In other countries utilizing a socialist government paying more money gets you more stuff. When I say stuff I mean insurance, education and public transportation. It is time to admit that capitalism has failed. When we as taxpayers are stepping in and propping up corporations, it's time to admit defeat and adopt a truly socialist agenda and give us the social programs that we are paying for.

Get over the American dream people. We have an aristocracy in this country that hordes all the wealth, steals from the middle class and is have widened the gap between rich and poor to the largest differential in the history of this country. Karl Marx said that workers in different countries have more in common than the class that rules above them. We have been brainwashed with nationalism that is somehow intertwined with capitalism and we are clinging to it as it destroys us. Let go of the greed and share the wealth. When discussing this with a myriad of people Americans don't like the idea of paying for other people. What they don't understand is that we are not the people paying, we are the ones receiving. We are the ones getting free health insurance and education. We are the beneficiaries of public transportation and medication. Why doesn't everyone see this? I guarantee that if you know me and are reading this post you are in the same shoes I am in and my parents are in and my grandparents are in. Middle class. Who is the last person you know who rose out of this middle class that you know? And I am talking about trust fund babies who donate buildings to large universities, not someone with a nice house and a Mercedes. Bill Gates and a few others made it, you will not. So please before its too late let go of your greedy dreams of wealth and embrace a new dream of a stronger more educated and even middle class.

$250,000 Insanity

So, I was reading my future brother-in-law's blog and it got me all fired up. The nonsense of "Joe the Plumber", "Joe Six-Pack" and I don't want to forget the original, "Joe Blow", is driving me insane.

People are confused and this is leading them to miss a very important word, INCOME. Owning a business is NOT equal to earning an income of $250,000. One is an individual's income and the other is a business's profits. They are different! People need to realize that you can own a business that earns a profit and still not have an income over $250,0000. In my profession, I have had access to payroll records for 10 years. Here is what I have actually witnessed. The multi-million dollar companies have 1 position that made over $250,000 this was the owner/President/CEO. The small businesses are fighting to earn a profit and the owner/President/CEO did not make more than $250,000. In fact, one owner's income was $125,000. He was living in downtown Chicago and putting two kids through private school and living just fine! These businesses are all larger than Joe's "hypothetical" plumbing business!

Great example, the restaurant company I worked for that was sold last year for $100 million dollars had 2 employees over $250,000 (both were owners) the 50 person management team made between $100,000 and $200,000. The remaining 2448 employees made under $100,000. For those of you that need percentages that breaks out to:
Employees over $250,000: .08% (No, not 8%, but less than 1%)
Employees over $100,000 but under $250,000: 2%
Employees under $100,000: 97.92%

My last point is one the first $250,000 they would be taxed the same. The tax only increases on the $250,001 dollar. So if you make $255,000, you would only be paying extra tax on $5,000, which is less than 2% of your total income! End rant.

Does this mean I need to change my blog to Letty Rants Rusty Loves? It just doesn't have the same ring to it!

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

Here it is folks an actual picture of my ballot.



For the third election in a row a vote for Nader is cast. Over the past 12 years I have received quite a bit of criticism for my Nader votes, so I thought I would take this opportunity to explain myself to my reading audience.

First of all, I know that Nader will not win. Others need not point this out to me. I do not have any crazy ideas that Nader will be sworn in as President. That being said, I feel like I need to vote for the candidate that resembles my views on politics. That candidate is Nader. More people need to vote for candidates that actually stand for their views. Not the candidate that resembles most of your views, but the one that represents your actual views. This is nearly impossible in this country. Each election pits two idiots against each other and no other candidates are considered. Nader himself does not think he is going to win. He tells people in swing states to vote Democratic. His plan is that states whose outcomes are already decided (which are all the states I have ever voted in namely Utah and Oregon) left minded voters should choose Nader. The idea being that in one of these elections Nader can get 3% of the popular vote and thus earn the green party or whatever ticket he is running on a chance to be part of a presidential debate. This would begin to bring about the end of the two party system allowing more views to be represented in the presidential election, and perhaps more importantly, reduce corporate influence on the White House. So please, before you criticize me or vote for Obama in Utah or McCain in Oregon, think about the big picture and vote for the future, which is a voting for Nader.


My name is Rusty Griffin and I approve this message.

The best thing about Portland

The best thing about Portland is the farmer's market. This takes place every Saturday on the South Park Blocks at PSU. It runs every Saturday from April to December and it is the best thing about Portland. Although we have walked through it en route to other destinations, last weekend was the first time we walked completely through it (thank you Griff for that request). I had some fantastic organic oatmeal with walnuts and raisins for breakfast and the boys had Italian sausage sandwiches. This has become my new must see destination for any future visitors, as long as it is running. The picture above shows today's finds, which include the lovely fall bouquet, an eggplant, a zucchini, two onions, and red and white peaches.

Engagement Photos

A local Portland photographer and a friend of ours through our ex-neighbor Kelly, Andrea Lorimor shot our engagement photos. Here are a few.









This one is in honor of our upcoming wedding at Gardiner's Tennis Resort

My Gram

I recently had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with my Grandma. She was in Montana for the summer so we caught up with her on our trip there and then she accompanied Rusty and I to Madison. She was there to keep me company while Rusty worked all day. We got to do fun things like lunch, shop, and just hang out together.

There are so many things that I adore about her. She is nearing 84 (or 48 as she may tell you) and she is on her third ipod. The first one was not large enough to hold all of her music. It is so fun to hear her signing along and see her dancing around the room. She has such a passion for music and dancing. I think that along with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren really gives her a zest for life.

There are too many great memories to share them all, but here are a few good ones.
*Going to visit them in Florida most spring breaks and Gram would always make chicken wings and tasty baked goods.
*Sleeping in a twin bed next to her and jabbering away, sometimes past 2 a.m., but I love hearing stories about her life from childhood until now.
*Taking her shopping for winter clothes when she moved back to Wisconsin. She thought she was six sizes larger than she is so we had some good laughs when she tried on her first outfit.
*When she met Rusty for the first time she gave him a shot of Polish vodka(she is 100% Polish). It was 10 a.m. and he had just flown in on a red-eye flight to meet my family and had not even had the chance to shower yet. I think that was the beginning of the beautiful bond between Rusty and Gram.
*Watching her and Rusty pick out songs on the computer to put on her ipod. She adores him and he is so patient with her lack of computer skills.

I truly cherish the times I spend with her.

School's over, so why are we so busy??

I have spent the last 8 weeks in school, with the last four being especially intense. I was counting the days down until August 14th the last day of Summer school. I could not wait to be done and just relax.


Well, I guess I did not realize how much I had already planned. We leave tomorrow 8.20 for a 5 day trip to Montana to visit my Grandma who is spending the summer with my Aunt & Uncle. We will be going to a MASH-themed hospital fund raiser and hopefully hiking through Glacier National Park. We have visited Glacier one other time, but it was March and there was a lot of snow still, so not much to see. It will be nice to spend some more time with Grandma, so Rusty and I can fight over who she loves more. He thinks it is him and I know it is me!



We get back to Portland on Monday and get to work all week, but then Saturday morning we leave for Utah. It will just be a short trip to Utah to get Rick and Amanda and bring them back to Portland. It sure will be nice to have some more friends here, since the departure of Erica and Landon and our neighbor Kelly. We miss you guys much here! We will leave Utah Sunday morning in the caravan so we can get back to Portland with minimal Labor Day Weekend traffic. If anyone has ever been in car with Rusty during traffic they know it is not pleasant! He is such a passionate person and I love that about him, but baby it is traffic and sometimes you just have to deal with it. No one likes sitting in traffic, trust me!



We will again be home for enough days to complete a full week of work and we are off to Chicago on 9.05. Rusty has to go to Madison, Wisconsin for work and we are flying in a day early to see my family. It should be fun to spend a few days in Madison. Portland reminds me of Madison, so we will have to see if what I remember is true. We return to Portland on 9.11, which gives us two and a half weeks until school starts!




I hope these next few weeks do not fly by too fast, because I have lots of wedding details to work out. I figure as long as we are out of school we can get some of the vendors booked. We will be making a trip to Carmel in December to finalize a few more things for the wedding and then we are off to HAWAII for Christmas! That is courtesy of Rusty's work! I swear he has the best job. We get to see my family and go to Hawaii for the cost of my airfare. I hope they have palm trees decorated with Christmas lights! I used to think I needed snow for it to feel like Christmas, but somehow I think palm trees will compensate just fine! I will post some pictures when we get back.

Farewell to Favre

Brett Favre is trading the gold for the white and is on way to the Jets! Currently, Brett Favre has not signed off on the trade, so it is not official. Also, the Jets need to make some moves to fit Favre's $12 million contract within their salary cap. It seems for all intensive purposes that these things are just formalities at this point.

While many people are sick of the daily Favre updates, you can hardly put the blame on him. Yes, he changed his mind. Get over it, people do it all the time. The media totally blew it out of proportion. Maybe the folks at ESPN took a vacation this summer and it is all Stuart Scott could come up with on his own. The Packers management did not help the situation either. Maybe if they would have kept their mouths shut when the questions rolled in, the media would not have been like parasites on their every word. The management obviously feels like they have something to prove with Aaron Rodgers. It is like Ted Thompson has a man-crush on Rodgers since he was his first. It seems odd because the management should be about winning and to do that you want the best players at each position. Well, for my love of the Packers, I hope that the irrational thinking of the Thompson/McCarthy duo pans out for the team.

Maybe this is something others do not understand because the Packers do not have an owner. The team has always been portrayed to us cheeseheads as "our" team. Well, there are not many of "us" that would have ran Favre out of town. From the time I was old enough to watch TV, we watched the Packers every Sunday, even in the Majkowski years. It is just what my family did, it is what everyone I know did for as long as I can remember. The last time I cheered for the Packers without Favre at quarterback I was fresh out of grade school. I will be 30 in a few months, so to me that is a long time.

Well as an era in Green Bay ends, hopefully a new one begins for Brett Favre with the Jets. It is funny, for the last year, I have been telling Rusty that I want to be a Jets fan and now I have a reason. I happen to enjoy the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets cheer! I hope that Favre fits into Mangenius' plan to dethrone the Patriots in quest for world domination.

California

We finally set a date! August 8, 2009 is only 389 days away and I will be Collette Griffin. My mom, her best friend, Mary, and I took a 2 day getaway to Monterey and Carmel Valley. Just a little girls weekend away that was so much fun! Although the trip started off on a sour note, with two and a half hour delayed flights, it was very worth every minute I waited in the airport. We did some wine tasting, lunched at a quaint cafe, spent five and a half hours at the wedding venue, had an excellent dinner on the Pacific Ocean and most importantly enjoyed each other's company. I vote for a girls weekend every year!

Here is a picture of the smoke from one of the Californian wildfires rising above the clouds as visible from the airplane!


The venue! The gazebo in the right corner will be where the ceremony takes place with a dinner and reception poolside.


Just us girls!


Mom and Mary with Monterey's Cannery Row in the background. This picture was actually taken in the dark, so my apologies for the clarity.


I love wildlife in the wild. Notice there are two starfish the orange one and a purple one.


I wanted to take that sea lion home because he was so darling.



One last item that is not related to the trip to California, I had ordered two of the dresses that were pictured below and they were horrible. Neither had cap sleeves or any other sleeves of any kind. One did not have the pleats on the upper half of the dress as clearly pictured below. So I am back to searching. If anyone happens to come across a dress similar to the one's posted below, please let me know. Here is the only thing I have found recently and would love some opinions!

Pink or Red?

So, apparently Collette wants a pink wedding. This would be fine if she was a 16 year old on an MTV reality show. I feel that when a young woman passes the age of 19 they graduate from pink to red. Not "holy crap that dress is red!", but Boston Red Sox red or American Fork Caveman red. Of course, Collette tried to convince me that pink can be classy, so I am asking you all who read this blog which should be the wedding color? Please vote knowing that I am against pink and Collette is against red. So compromise is not an option because the dresses happen to come in two colors only, pink and red.