Happy Anniversary

Dear Jorge and Shelia,

Just wanted to wish you a Happy 1 year anniversary!! We wish you many more happy years to come.

Love,
The Rios Family

Mr Zookster

Seeing Zook leave on his players' shoulders was a very nice thing to see.

What a game, what a game.

It's Great to be a Florida Gator living in Tallahassee

I live a few blocks from the stadium-they turned off the scoreboard in shame. The silence coming from Bobby Bowden field (aside from the light sobbing) at the end was quite hilarious. Earlier in the day while milling about, the were drunken bands of FSU rednecks were all worked up into a frenzy. Out front now there is a long line of their big-wheeled pickup trucks; they're retreating back into the woods. Tee-hee.

We´re Here!

Well, we all arrived without any problems. Mark´s plane was a little bit delayed, but he arrived just fine. I´m in Bogota posting this at an Internet cafe´. I´ll try to post more the next time I get a chance to connect to the ´Net. Well, we´re off to seek more adventures.

Trip to Colombia

Only a few more days and Sheila and I are on our way to Colombia. We're really looking forward to the big trip. On Thursday, we fly into Bogota and will be in the country for 11 days and 10 nights. We will also be joined by Sheila's brother Juan, her sister Carmen, and my good friend Mark. Everyone is really excited. We'll be sure to post pictures when we get back. I still have to put up pictures of the wedding one of these days.

Birthday/Homecoming Bash at Jose's

It's set! We're going to have a party on this Saturday (November 13) night at my place. The Florida game is at 7 PM and it's on ESPN so we're going to watch it on the tube. I have a couple of tickets for the people who really want to go to the game. I will be parking cars, but won't park many cars here to accomodate my guests. Both roomates Jay and Erin have invited friends so we're going to have a blast! I'm going to purchase a couple of kegs, otherwise bring your own liquor. I want to extend the invitation to all on the BLOGPOST. If you'd like to make the trip into town I can find a place for you to stay. I've got tons of friends with houses and apartments with extra rooms.

CCCP

Matius Calvosky!!! He who is from the motherland of Siberia! My comrade, how long has it been?

Actually, I can go further back on the memories. Remember playing Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo at Mike Gomez's house? Seattle Seahawks vs. Tampa Bay Buccanners? Dave Krieg vs. Vinny Testaverde? Wow... now those are memories!

I think America just BLOGGED itself...

4 more years? As my boss says, "Oy vey".

The New Florida Amendments

Well, all the amendments regarding health care passed. It will be interesting to see what sort of affects they have on the cost of insurance premiums for medical malpractice and health care. I think that amendments 7 and 8 are good for consumer protection. Amendment 7 will allow people to review a doctor's record of adverse incidents. Amendment 8 imposes a "three strikes you're out" rule for doctors involved in malpractice. I believe that 8 in particular may actually help to lower malpractice insurance premiums for doctors since it could potentially reduce the number of claims that companies will have to pay.

I am uncertain what effects amendment 3 may have, but I do have my concerns. I foresee two possible effects:

1. On one hand, it almost provides an incentive for individuals to attempt pursuing malpractice suits since they would receive a larger payout. This would increase the number of malpractice suits and in turn could make the situation worse. If the number of malpractice claims rises, it would in turn raise malpractice insurance premiums for doctors.
2. Fewer lawyers will take malpractice suits due to their reduced profit margins. This would certainly make things difficult for individuals who have legitimate malpractice claims and require legal services to receive what they are entitled. This could potentially reduce insurance malpractice premiums, but many consumers would lose their day in court.

I do know that amendment 3 will not lower the demand for medical malpractice legal services. If anything it may actually stimulate demand. The fact remains that we have an aging population, and especially Florida where millions of people go to retire. I am concerned that this legislation has passed, as I think it may cause more problems than it solves. Perhaps the other legislation that has passed may help to reduce the adverse effects of amendment 3. Only time will tell what will happen...

I think I just BLOGGED in my shorts!

Wholly bloggings Batman! Was that Francisco Martinezzi I just read? Yes, it's Matius Calvosky (Throw-back names to the old SEGA hockey game for those who don't know). Where's Emre Emre? Ok, enough of the Sega stuff... well, maybe just one more for Jose: "YOOOOUUUUU were talked by MEEEEEEEEE!." And who can forget: "Neeeooonn.... sanders." Ah, the mamories... I mean memories. Wow. Glad Jorge FORCED me to get on this thing. Just kidding Yorgi. "Hey. It's HOR-HEY." Good times. Good times. Will be back with more soon, since I'm extremely busy at work right now. Ta-ta.

WHO WANTS TO GO CAMPING? and/or HOMECOMING HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSE, BASH?

Ok, boys and girls. It's set. I checked out the site and it's good to go. It's east of Lake City by about ten minutes, but I have some backroads from Gainesville that will get us there quicker. I plan on heading out Saturday morning/afternoon and setting up the site for use on Saturday evening/night.

The site is on Ocean Pond near the Olustee Battlefield in the Osceola National Forest. I need to know who's definitely going to come up for the camping trip. I have an eight man tent that we can use as the "communal tent." However, the campsite will support several tents on it so if you have one just bring that. I have a small Coleman double propane stove we'll take as well as a lantern and two extra sleeping bags. I have plenty of wood here at the house and we can lug that up so we don't have to chop anything up while there. I also have tons of coolers and a small portable grill if you want to use that instead of the fire. A bathroom is on the site, but it's only got a toilet. We are in the Osceola Forest so hot showers and sinks are on the other side of the lake and can be accessed by car if we need to go. I'm not taking a boat onto the lake at night to cross. I will be prepared to leave on Saturday morning. If some of the folks get up here on Friday night I don't mind taking the boat with me on Saturday morning so you can try fishing, but if we get a late start I don't want to take the boat.

So far the weather up here hasn't dipped below 55 degrees. As a matter of fact, it's only been below 60 a couple of times. This is perfect camping weather. The forest has tons of trails for hiking or bicycling so bring your bicycle if you like. (I'd love to have a go-kart to do this at night, but oh well... If you want to check out more information on the site check out the following... http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=080504&CU_ID=1 or do a search on Google for the Osceola National Forest or Hog Pen Landing (which is the specific area I plan to use for this trip.) Grownzi, if you want to go shooting at the range East of Lake City on Saturday morning we can do that before going out to the camp site. As a matter of fact if anyone wants to learn how to shoot a gun or rifle I have a couple of easy weapons you can try out Saturday morning at the rifle range. As far as Saturday morning/afternoon activities I'll do whatever the majority wants. I'm going to Lake City on Friday afternoon to prepare for whatever the majority has decided by Wednesday night. Please tell me if you have decided to come or not come by that night.

On another note, I have decided to throw myself a huge-ass birthday bash on the weekend of Homecoming and really hope everyone can make it up for that. The party will take place on Homecoming Saturday night. I'm taking a couple of my kids to the football game if it's in the afternoon (as of yet, the game is TBA). After I drop the kids off I'm heading to the bar, then going home to start the party around 11 PM. I am buying the first keg and am inviting tons of people from out of town and everyone I know here in town. I want to have a party similar to the one from last year where we got the dance floor out and danced even after the cops told us to quiet down. :) Tommy Seijo is coming down from Asheville if you know him you know we intend on having a blast!

If you can only make it up for one of the weekends I'd prefer you come up for the birthday bash, but I'd love to see you all up both weekends. Now that I'm not in the red I plan on making a trip to Miami in December. I'll probably take a day off work since I want to visit with my abuela. After that I want to PAR-TAY. I'm not going down there to sit around and relax this time since I do have money now. Please tell me when is a good weekend for me to come down. I might be taking a friend or two (I can only fit three people total in my truck for a trip like that).

Ok, that's enough said by me. I'm not going to try to convince anyone to do a damn thing. If you want to have fun with me get off your ass and get up with me. You only live once.

-SHIDOG
(still enjoying life, while trying to find Mrs. Right) haha