The Keckeroo’s Weblog

The Cleveland Indians beat the New York Spankees today and last night. We went to the game last night and go to sit in the loge! The loge we were in was right next Curt Jaccob’s and two down from Mark Shapiro’s! We saw Mark and his two adorable children. We had a great time at the game. Every Friday night is fireworks. They did a really good job! The Indians hit two homers right in a row. Then today, they beat the Spankees in the bottom of the 9th, with bases loaded and one out. Martinez hit a solid hit and Sizemore scored the winning run. Hearing Hamilton go nuts on the radio is awesome. Hearing his voice lets you know that summer is right around the corner. Go Tribe!!

So Barack did not win Pennsylvania like he did in my dreams. However, he did get delegates and that is what matters. Billary is still behind him by more than 100 and I do not think she’ll be able to catch up to him. North Carolina and Indiana are coming up. Indiana, from what I have read, is locked up for Barack. Northa Carolina might be difficult. They have a lot of delegates as well. I think 111. However, Virginia and South Carolina are like Ohio, from, again, what I have read. So, hopefully North Carolina, which is sandwiched in between Virginia and South Carolina, will vote like its neighbors. Again, I think Barack has Indiana locked up. The bad thing is that people are starting to question his electability since he can’t seem to win the big states. This worries me. This worries me because the superdelegates might listen to this and nominate Billary even though Barack has the majority of the delegates. He has to win this nomination. Gas is $3.59 in Parma. Oranges are $1 a piece.  Our electric bills seems to keep going up (or that is do to the Hair Meatball trimming his goatee). It was interesting, today on cnn.com it said that there was an emergency meeting in regards to the gas prices. However, there is no followup articles. Cnn.com does not say one thing about this supposed meeting. Why? Because Big Oil does not care about us little peoples!!!! Barack needs to win so that he can turn this country around. We won’t be able to afford to drive or live soon. Bush could care less. He is the true essence of a “lame duck president.” And if Barack doe not win, he and I will always have that almost moment where we almost met at Valley Forge High School in Parma in the auditorium. I drive by that high school on my way to school and always think about that day…..

If you all have not heard yet, National City Bank is staying put, right here in Cleveland. Equity investors from New York City are providing NCB with $6-7 billion dollars to help it out of its hole. That means Becca still has a job!! Well, for right now. The new investors will own quit a bit of NCB after all is said and done so job cuts could be down the road. But for right now, NCB will stay put and as is. Go to www.cleveland.com and see the whole story.

Go to www.wecansolveit.org and “sign the petition for a global treaty on climate change.” When you get to the page, go to “Take Action.” It is free. No obligation. We need to help save this planet. This is the only one we have. We need to take care of Mother Earth. Remember: We are HER guests.

Here is another way to help Mother Earth’s guests. It’s a great idea for Mother’s Day, or anytime of the year. Go to www.wwf.org and adopt an animal. Or browse the website and see if there are other ways you can help the animals and Mother Earth.

Remember to get your reuseable grocery bags at Giant Eagle, Wal-Mart, and any other participating retail store. Or, reuse your plastic bags you get from the grocery stores. Any little bit can help!!

Here is the latest info from cnn.com (Politics Tab). It used to be Obama had 46% and Clinton had 42%. We are on our way!!!!

Here are the lyrics to Bucky Covington’s “A Different World.” These lyrcis are so true in so many ways!!

We were born to mothers who smoked and drank
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
Had three TV channels you got up to change
No video games and no satellite
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside

It was a different life
When we were boys and girls
Not just a different time
It was a different world

School always started the same every day
The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray
Not every kid made the team when they tried
We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right

 
No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose
And every Sunday, all the stores were closed

It was a different world

Has anyone read anything about this yet? I just heard about it recently. This Bill would require parents to volunteer no less than 13 hours per school year.  If they do not volunteer they will be fined $100. If they do not pay the fine, the money will be taken out of their state tax return.

Are you serious? What a great idea – let’s FORCE parents to volunteer when they mostly have no desire to. Yes, parents not wanting to be involved with their children’s school activities is sad. However, forcing people to do something that they might otherwise have no desire to do will only bring negativity into the classrooms and thus will make the volunteering counterproductive. You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to do and expect good results.

Plus, this will only bring burdens upon the schools. They will have to take time and money that they don’t have to calculate hours, figure out which parents have volunteered, report parents who haven’t, and so on. That is time and money that schools don’t have. They don’t have the money to pay their teachers. Why waste money on making sure someone volunteers who doesn’t want to?

Last point is that some parents might not have the time. Yes, 13 hours is nothing large. But there are single parents who are working 3 jobs or more just to put food on the table. Maybe they can’t afford to not work those 13 hours. Plus, are the employers of the parents going to allow the parents time away and not dock them for it? Jobs are a necessity in this ever changing world and with gas and grocery prices rising some parents just might not be able to afford to lose those precious 13 hours.

By Teresa Dixon Murray (Plain Dealer) 

How do you think the future of Ohio’s biggest bank, National City Corp., will play out? Shareholders are pulling for one thing. Community leaders and the bank’s 32,000 employees are rooting for another. As Northeast Ohio awaits word on which “strategic alternative” the bank pursues, The Plain Dealer’s Teresa Dixon Murray takes a look at what various groups of people who care about National City want to happen.

COMMUNITY

A private-equity deal involving domestic or foreign investors would be the best choice because it would keep the bank whole and based here. Otherwise, a sale to a foreign bank with no U.S. operations would probably preserve Cleveland as U.S. headquarters. The community would breathe a big sigh of relief as long as neither put a squeeze on the bank’s civic involvement.

CUSTOMERS

A private-equity deal would keep the bank intact, making the change virtually unnoticeable to consumers. The other options would affect customer accounts, reduce local competition or cause discomfort among some people if their account and personal information was now halfway across the world.

EMPLOYEES

Private-equity investors, or a purchase by a foreign bank or one that has no local presence (like Wells Fargo), would be likely to preserve the most jobs. If National City is sold, the closer the buyer is to Cleveland, the more job cuts it could mean.

MANAGEMENT

If selling assets or cutting the dividend produced enough capital to buy time, that would be best. If not, management might want private-equity investors who would put in several billion and leave them alone. A sale to a foreign bank also could be good because it would need someone to run the company as seamlessly as possible.

SHAREHOLDERS

Investors would fare best if National City were bought out by KeyCorp or a foreign bank. The highest premium per share would come from someone willing to overpay. Key could get some money back from a relatively high price by consolidating operations and reducing expenses. Foreign banks might be willing to overpay just to get their foot into the U.S.

We came home yesterday and noticed that something was different about the house. We looked and then realized that low and behold our Barack Obama yard sign was GONE. Yes, gone. Now, we had really bad storms the other night which brought really heavy winds, but that yard was stuck deep in the ground. There is no way that the wind picked it up and swept it away. I am convinced that the WT in Parma did not like the fact that we had an Obama sign in our yard. There are 3 houses on our street with Crazy McCain yard signs.

This situation really angers me. Don’t we live in a free country? Isn’t this MY property and anything on MY property is MINE and no one is allowed to touch it? This situation just shows how ignorant this country is. This situation proves that the people of this state do not want change and they want to see this country continue to crash and burn.

Let us believe what we want to believe. Let us put what we want to put in our yard. We do not care what others believe. We have no plans to take the McCain signs out of the yards of our neighbors. We simply curse under our breath when we drive past their houses. But, leave us alone. Let us want change. Let us believe that there is some who wants to see this country get turned around. Let us hope.

We ate at Hyde Park in downtown Cleveland. The atmosphere was nice, however, the food is nothing to write home about. It was not exciting. It was just blah. Nick had steak and I had filet. Could’ve made it better at home. Plus, the outfits the waiting staff was wearing was horrid!!! It looked like they should’ve been in the back of the house cleaning dishes. Don’t waste your money.

On the other hand, we ate at Lola, which is owned by Michael Symon (the newest addition to the Iron Chef gang). IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!! We highly recommend it. It is worth the money. The service was impeccable. The food was the same. The amostphere was gorgeous. Totallly worth it. Enjoy!!