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THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news. You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Shortest Job Search Ever

Now that George is here for a few months (before he can register for classes at the U of Md), he needs a job to occupy him. He made a call to an attorney in DC for whom he had worked a few years ago as an unpaid intern. In 5 minutes he had a job for 3 months as a paid intern.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:46 PM

G back from School

G returned from Yeshiva today. He had a conversation with a dean. It went something like this:

Dean - I see that your grades here at Yeshiva are much lower than they were at Maryland.

G - Yes

Dean - Were the classes harder here.

G- No

Dean - Well were you unhappy at Maryland and now happy at Yeshiva

G - No

Dean - Well maybe you should re-enroll at Maryland.

G - Maybe I should.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:43 AM

Monday, August 29, 2005

Some Minor Miracles

Today, Ann and I went to the Spy Museum after dropping G off at the Greyhound station (see previous entry). Nice exhibits but a little pricy ($14 each). A small miracle occurred. We got a free parking place right across the street from the museum. This was the second small miracle of the previous week or so. The previous time I went grocery shopping, medium eggs were on sale for .44 cents a dozen.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:25 AM

Sunday, August 28, 2005

G back to School

George left today for NY on Greyhound. Greyhound had lowered one of their fares to compete with the Orient Express so he has a one way for $20. Greyhound also has more leg room which G needs.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:24 PM

Friday, August 26, 2005

Nats Lose Another with M in Attendance

The most interesting thing about this 5-3 loss was that in the 2nd inning, with 2 outs, #2 (the catcher, Brian Schneider who also is pictured on the left field wall) was up and eventually worked the count to 2-2. The next most interesting thing was that in the 9th, losing 5-1, Wilkerson had a HR and a lot of fans still wear t-shirts with his number (7) on it. Those fans were jumping around quite a bit. The game took over 3.5 hours. Paid attendance was over 40,000 but by the end of the game only about 10,000 were still in the stands. There were 3 balks and 2 HitbythePitch. The Nats starter walked the bases full in the top of the first and was lucky to only give up one run. Ken Griffey, Jr. had 3 hits including a line drive HR to right.

posted by Martin Weiss # 3:03 PM

Thursday, August 25, 2005

George Solves a Financial Problem
We prevent another

George noticed that several $25 charges had been posted to his bank account through a direct payment method called paycom (simliar to paypal but apparently less secure). After a call to paycom, they agreed to refund the charges. They told him the charges were from someone named "Kim" and someone named "LaShawn". Paycom asked if there was anything else they could do. George said, "Permantly block your service from my account."

George asked me, "if the people had my bank account number and SSN, why didn't they just pass a phony check?"

I responded, "maybe they didn't want to risk being asked for an ID given that they might not look like a George Weiss."

Ann and I received an inquiry from a refinance company. The notice said that a 4.3% mortgage was available. We asked a friend of ours, in the mortgage biz, to look into it. When she asked the company if the 4.3% mortgage was fixed for 30 years, the company said, "depends on your credit". Well a few more minutes into the conversation the company indicated that in our case the mortgage would be 5.5% and the financing fees would total to $3k. Yes, a slamdunk bait and switch.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:09 AM

Friday, August 19, 2005

Interesting Food Events

1. Today a street repair crew was around the neighborhood almost all day doing work. Several people took an apple from our front yard apple tree (mostly our 'customers' are little kids).

2. I had food at 3 different Shiva (mouring) houses today. All three had a parent who died in their 90s. All three had the usual dairy and fish trays.

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:04 AM

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Tigers get a 10th inning Grand Slam but lose anyway.

I don't recall this having happened before. Craig Monroe (the LF) hit a 2 out grand slam HR in the bottom of the 10th. Unfortunately, the Red Sox had scored 7 runs in the top of the 10th (the most runs in an extra inning game they had scored since June 4, 1982 against Calif when they scored 7 in the 11th inning). Boston had only 10 hits in the game but 4 were HRs and 1 was a double.

In other MLB News,

as of Aug 17, KC has lost 18 in a row.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:30 AM

Monday, August 15, 2005

Free Coffee and Newspaper

I drove to the Grosvenor metrorail station today instead of taking the bus to the White Flint metrorail station. There was a stand near the parking garage. They had free coffee (both hot and iced) and a free Washington Post unabridged (the Express and the Examiner are free every day). The iced coffee was dispensed from someone with a back pack full of liquid with a moveable spigot.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:26 AM

Two runs 22 hits

The Nationals swept a series at Colorado over the past 3 days. In the game on 8/13, the Rockies had 13 hits and no runs (15 LOB). The next day, they had 2 runs on 9 hits. A Nationals pitcher (John Patterson) has had an ERA of about 1.3 since the All Star break and is now #3 in the league at 2.40.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:22 AM

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

They remember my email

I was speaking with someone today who said, "You know I have saved the email you sent out on stewardship." This has happened about a dozen times to me in the past few years; evidently people liked what I said. Here is the email in its entirety (I'm not including the report I was responding to since it is rather long).
------------------------
From: Martin Weiss
To: BURBANK, CINDY
Date: 11/9/00 8:49AM
Subject: Re: Update on Stewardship Task Force ‑ Comments by COB 11/09

I've never liked the concept of stewardship. In the middle ages the steward made sure the serf's best cattle were available for the lord and that the lord could have first use of newly engaged women serfs.

In the 90s, I saw the stewardshp concept used by FHWA to empower some of us to attend grandstanding philosophy seminars, busybody conferences, and produce endlessless long and only marginally comprehensible strategic plans and reports. This also involved making ignorant and/or self serving statements about what States and transit agencies were doing implying that such agencies were doing poorly and we (in FHWA) were on the side of good and would soon set them straight. We had also had policy statements about customer service and inclusion and public involvement and various other things that raised expectations that could not be realized.

On a practical scale, we've seen poorly rated funding proposals (e.g., discretionary programs) earmarked by higher management within DOT and we've taken measures, in our reports to Congress about why they were funded, to be less than candid about why such proposals were selected for funding. Similarly, we've applied our own regulations with extreme leniency by order of higher management (e.g., approving financial constraint statements that were near fantasy), and we've managed to take credit for actions done with virtually no impact by FHWA (e.g., lower pollution emissions from autos).

Thus, whatever we said about stewardship in the 90s was basically a deception and/or a waste of time.

In addition, the definition in the Jacoby memo is,

The efficient and effective management of the public resources which have been entrusted to the Federal Highway Administration.

one, might ask what resources are entrusted to the FHWA? How many miles of pavement does FHWA maintain or operate? How many traffic lights, directional/informational signs, toll bridges, scenic roads, ports of entry, etc.?

Who says any physical resources are 'entrusted' to FHWA other than our desks, telephones and such.

>>> CINDY BURBANK 11/07 11:07 AM >>>
For the past several months, an FHWA Task Force has been reviewing our oversight and stewardship policies and repsonsibilities. Below is a summary of recommendations by the Task Force Leader, Carol Jacoby of HIF. Feel free to share your reactions and comments with me.

CC: HEPALL

posted by Martin Weiss # 4:19 PM

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Recovery from Surgery

Ann had surgery back in early June. She developed an infection near the surgical cut and for several weeks was on intraveneous antibiotic solution; two 2 hour infusions a day, done at home with M's assistance. As of today, the cut is no longer infected and the low grade fever she had for the past two months is gone also.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:48 PM

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