It's Been A While....

It's been a while since my last post. I honestly don't like that fact that it has been such a long time, but sometimes life gets in the way and laziness over takes ambition. A lot has happened over the past month that I need to share and give updates on.

My last post was about Tobiah's first Twins game and how special that was. Unfortunately, not much has gone well from them since that day. They are in a stretch of losing 35 out of their past 44. Not only are they playing terrible baseball (situational hitting, fielding, baserunning & pitching....to think about they aren't doing any one thing well....UGH!), but they aren't even putting a MLB team on the field each night. The Twins would be fined by MLB if they had this lineup playing in Spring Training games. At the end of the game tonight, only Michael Cuddyer was the true major league hitter and to think I  (and 39,000 other people) have paid for these games and are receiving such a poor product in return. The only thing that can be said is it's embarrassing. I hope Mr. Pohlad and the Dave St. Peter have the guts to fire Bill Smith, the training staff and potentially Joe Vavra. Paul Molitor needs to be some where in Ron Gardenhire's coaching staff, preferably as hitting coach. To say the least, the Twins have many offseason moves ahead of them and it will be interesting to see what they do. A slow start next April (and a difficult schedule they have) could lead to a lot of open seats in Target Field throughout the rest of the summer.

Also since my last post the political environment has heated up. President Obama gave his Jobs Bill Act Speech (which should be passed, Right Away. Right Away Congress should pass this bill) last week and even though it was delivered OK (he's a great orator, anything he says will sound good), he knows that it will never pass because of the tax increase that are attached to it. I would bet that most House Republicans would  support the bill if instead of income tax increases for the top 2% wage earners, he cut spending somewhere to pay for this bill. If you look at the proposed Act from a very high level, it is government spending and taking money from one group and redistributing to another group. Raising taxes is never a good idea in the midst of a slowed/stalled economy. Capital and cash needs to remain flowing in order for the free enterprise system to fully function.

As far as a Republican Presidential candidate for 2012, the field doesn't look quite as weak as it did just a few short months ago. I watched parts of the first two debates and even though the field is missing a few key names such as Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush, the current candidates are getting the attention of the American people. In my mind the party has two legitimate candidates, one that I fully support (Rick Perry) and the other I don't want to see get the nomination (Mitt Romney). Below is a list of the top 5 candidates and a quick summary of how I see each of them:

• Michele Bachmann - Tea Party Republican. Outspoken, adds tons of energy to the party and I agree with most things she believes, she is unelectable. She's too polarizing and has too many gaffes, the media would destroy her just like they did Sarah Palin in 2008.
• Newt Gingrich - Former Speaker of the House. Great leader, good speaker and has outstanding insight and experience. Unfortunately for him he has marriage issues (mainly he can't stay married) and a large majority of his close campaign staff left him this spring. Newt could be a good VP candidate or even a good cabinet member, but not President.
• Ron Paul - Libertarian. Has good grass roots support and not all of his ideas are bad. Let's be honest, he's too extreme, polarizing and isn't likeable. The longer he stays in the race the more he hurts the party.
• Mitt Romney - Moderate Republican. Successful businessman and in a time when the country faces its most difficult financial challenges. He's become a career politician and plays the game well. Unfortunately for him he's known as a flip flopper (John Kerry) and for me way too moderate and doesn't have the conviction and leadership that this country needs.
• Rick Perry - Conservative Republican. He's added a lot of energy to the party since he announced he was running. Has stolen a lot of Bachmann's support and has catapulted to the top of the polls. There are a lot of unknowns about him and what he would do as President, but initial thoughts are he is the best candidate and has a really good chance of defeating President Obama in the 2012 election. 

Also, in the last month has been the rise (and fall) of Target.com. As mention earlier, Target has taken their website back from Amazon who supported the website for the last several years. The transition from Amazon to Target hasn't gone that smoothly. There has been several issues with getting the Amazon system and orders history to sync and transfer to the new Target platform. In addition to that, there have been the expected system issues that come with launching a brand new website. Finally, Missoni (right, I didn't know what that was a week ago either), has been successful beyond Target's wildest imagination. The craze was not only like a Black Friday day at the stores, but the traffic overloaded the website. All this means is that I've had to work more hours than initially anticipated. While it has been fun and exciting, it has come at a time when I long to be at home. This has put a lot more pressure on Steph to take care of Tobiah while I tend to matters at work. Thank goodness Dana (Steph's dad) has decided to move in and be an extra set of hands around the house. The important this is that Target.com has learned a lot and should be in great position come the Christmas season and beyond. The growing pains should end shortly as well as the long hours.

Finally, my new favorite subject, Tobiah! He's such a good little guy. He's starting to smile more and more. He's not nearly as fussy as he was two weeks ago. He truly is a happy baby and it is so much fun watching him and wondering what he's thinking. When he's sitting in his bouncer he will usually be looking around at what's happening and then he'll just start talking. I've added "The Great Communicator" as one of his new nicknames because he'll just start talking and he uses voice influctions like he is actually speaking! It really is amazing! It's fun taking him out when we run errands or when we go on family walks. He'll just be chatting away. Between him and Steph there won't be room for me to say anything. I continue to make progress on being a dad, for example, the other day I was holding Tobiah and he spit up on me. Previous Darek would of freaked out and gotten a new shirt, but not that day, I embraced the spit up and continued to burp him and clean him off before changing out my shirt.


That's all for today, I know it was a ton, but I really wanted to give an update on how things are going. Stay tuned for more posts and adventures of Tobiah!