I promise this is the last post of gushing all over my son, but I wanted to put a special thanks out to my Mom for coming out as quickly as she did and helping out with our new baby, Jackson. This site is going to contain some really cool and useful information about stuff (most of all Las Vegas living and traveling to). If you want to check out the Las Vegas real estate market information just go to the other site maintain.

Now, when my Mom came out, we were brand spanking new parents. Adoptive parents at that! Which essentially means we had NO freaking clue what to do or how to do it. Worse yet, as adoptive parents, we had really no lead time to prepare physically or mentally for this crying baby in the house. My Mom always said she would come out to Vegas immediately upon having a new grandson or granddaughter. She did not let us down and we were VERY happy to have her around.

I have some pictures from her visit. Some she would want on the site and some maybe not. Well, I am putting what I want on here as we all know that the owner can do whatever he wants…

OK, so Mom (Cheryl) comes to Vegas and she immediately shows the new parents how to do it.

Grandma is feeding baby Jackson for the first time. Not sure if this is really the first time or not, but the sake of capturing the moment…here it is…

Grandma enjoying the little guy as much as she can . Grandma slept pretty good while here since Gail and I wanted to get up all night with the little guy. We were learning and didn’t want to miss a moment.

Mom doesn’t like to have her picture taken very much, so we didn’t get too many action shots with her and JD, but more to come at some point.

Enough already with the pics!!!!! But it is precious….check out the tat. Mom got wild at some point and put fresh ink on her arm.

Here is a photo that will be just timeless. This is a great shot and I am really glad I got a snapshot of this absolute great moment.

Another great shot of Grandma Bushbaker taking it all in. This is her third grandson. My brother, Scott, has two boys and you will see much more of them in future posts.

And finally, here is a great little story. You will see on a different post our favorite place in all of Las Vegas is Gordon Biersch at Flamingo and Paradise. This is a picture of the best bartender in town. Does he have the throwing and goofy skills you see for the tourists…I don’t think so, but maybe since I never asked. But he gives the best service in town for the locals and he is absolutely TOP-NOTCH. His partner in crime on Wed and Thurs nights is Billy (not shown). Both of these guys are the best in town and I encourage if you are in Vegas and want to hang with great local people (and some tourists) go see these guys. They are friends and this was a great picture. My Mom was very gracious to allow Gail and I a date night very early in this process. We went and visited our good friends at the bar and stayed for dinner while Grandma watched the little guy. I will never forget it…thanks Mom!

Tags: Adoption, Las Vegas

as very surprised that people are starting to find this blog. Really, I did not expect folks to be TOO interested in hearing about my family and what is happening in my life here in Vegas, but I think there is some fascination with the Vegas life that people like to hear about.

In any event, I was contacted by Larry M. Bushbaker recently. Don’t know who Larry is and when Pete pulled together the family tree, I did not pay attention to learn my family history as well as I should. I feel ashamed by this and will try MUCH harder in the future.

I have not spent as much time on this blog as my other blog, Las Vegas Real Estate Guy. At that site, I have a lot more to write about and say, at least I thought. I will most certainly spend more time creating content and information on this blog in the future. If for no other reason than my Mom has told some of her friends about it and they are paying attention….now I have a reputation to uphold. If they only knew…

I am going to work especially hard in the future to put pictures of my newborn boy here, Jackson. He is a great boy and we are having a lot of fun with him. I promise to put more of him up here….matter of fact, here are some of the prodigy right now. BTW, I am almost certain he said “daddy” the other day. I know at only 8 weeks old, he can’t really talk, but I think he has been watching Stewie on Family Guy. I am pretty sure he said it…

Here are a few recent pics from the little guy:

This is the JD simply saying “I am not sure if this finger is used for Similac dispensing or just for sucking or just…I am not sure…”

This is a great pic of the little man. His skin is glistening…not sure why…since he is a darker skinned young man, he dries out much more than pasty white Mommy and Daddy, so we have to lather him up quite often with lotion…he likes lotion…

His face is all goofy here, but the picture is to die for….LOVE IT!!!!!

Here he is simply saying “call me”. I am sure the next thing out of his mouth will be what Daddy would say as well, “let’s do lunch….you’re buying…” This is true…

Here is our very good friend from California (originally from Detroit). She is a natural, but not sure if children are in her future. Only she can answer that question….

I call this one Happy Alien Baby. Looks kind of like an alien with his big eyes. You know the old question for single guys looking at potentials…bug, mouse or horse? (you need to ask Nathan about it if you don’t know…)

He will be an athlete for certain, but is it too early? I didn’t think so. No objections from Mommy? Then it is settled.

One of my favorite pics of JD. He is sitting there looking at his Daddy definitely saying one of two things “Really daddy?” or “dude, when you gonna lose that shed around your waist?” Time to lose the weight and make sure I am setting the right example.

Another very cool pic. He is still pretty small in this picture, but Mommy loves Jackson…

I am not sure if Auntie Judy would want this pic on the site, but it is here. Auntie Judy was his first visitor from Detroit (except for my Mom of course). Jackson loves his Auntie Judy.

The family cat, Little P, simply says “whatever” to all this baby stuff. He is not amused and since losing Mr. Hobbs, he was #1 in the house. He knows he has been demoted, but still…can’t he care just a little bit???

And finally, my wife pulled together a neat little collage of our photos and put them in this 6 weeks PDF. Pretty cool…check it out…

OK…enough of the kid and other goofy pics. I promise to make this site as informative and interesting as possible. More cool Jackson pics coming though first…

Tags: Adoption, bushbaker, Personal

I found this article by Norma Love at the AP on the web today concerning a new alternative of dealing with bodies of our loved ones. The following description was offered up in the article:

“The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed in this country 16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300-degree heat and 60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers.”

They are claming this revolutionary technology, developed 16 years ago used on animals, is a game changer for the industry.

Since Gail and I are relatively young, we have not talked very much about what we done with our bodies after we die, but this certainly has peaked my interest in the subject and I will tell you why.

The alternatives have always been either bury or burn. I hate getting burned and I think that option doesn’t work for me just because of my hatred for the feeling of getting burned. Will I feel it when I die, I don’t think so, but why take the chance? Then, what do J.D. and Gail (I am certain she will outlive me) do with the ashes. I mean, I thought it silly to have ashes buried, put out sea, or placed in some remote place on the Earth, “because he always loved that…” How messed up is that thinking? Nope, that option stinks.

The other option is to bury me. Not much better than the first option. What if I wake up and find out that I am 6 feet under. I know that there is a very remote chance of that happening, that’s why they call it death, but still, what if? How horrible the thought. Who would hear me and I simply don’t have the time to learn the amazing put my fingers through wood trick that Uma Thurman’s character “The Bride” was forced to learn in Kill Bill. So, if I am buried and not quite dead yet, I would be very upset.

Finally, and this is not really an option (at least for me), dedicate my body to science. What the heck does that mean? In my mind, there would be a bunch of punks looking over my torn apart liver from all the beer I drink at my favorite watering holes. Not to mention the years of sipping cocktails with friends on the weekends. Those same punks might then decide to use me in some weird experiment to see what happens to the human body when put under severe duress or something like that. Ouch…again, what if I can actually feel that on the other side…not a good thing.

This new alternative means that I have face the music with the whole burn thing, but they know for certain that I am gone and there is no coming back. The best of all it is “green” for the environment. No worm food jokes or sprinkling the Bush-man over Lake Michigan while everyone toasts…”remember when” or “he always liked the Chicago skyline and now he will get to see it forever.” Just fry me up, turn me into some powder that can simply go down the drain and move on. I am liking this alternative already…

Tags: burial alternatives, death

Last week, Gail had one of her best friends in from Detroit to visit with us.  Her name is Judy and she is truly a great friend of ours.  How good of a friend?  Well, she decided to come into Vegas for 4 days on her own dime to do nothing but come and help out with the new baby and spell Gail and me for some time away from the new guy.

Judy and Gail go way back.  Judy went to school with Gail at Wayne State University and was part of the same fraternity. They became close friends then and never have been anything else.  Her coming into town and staying with us for those 4 days was amazing. 

Imagine coming into Las Vegas, Sin City where there is more to do than there is time, and doing nothing but hang out and help out with our new baby.  As new parents, I can honestly say that the first one is very amazing, but incredibly tiring.  You are constantly wondering if you are doing things right.  If that little grunt he makes just after he eats is only a grunt or there is something wrong.  What if he has gas and we did not burp him correctly or enough?  What if he has a temperature and we just missed it?  What if he did not eat enough?  What if? 

I can not tell you how many sleepless nights I have had since Jackson has come into our lives, but for a few short days, we had some incredible help.  Judy is a great friend and I hope all new parents have this type of friend in their lives. 

Since moving to Vegas, Gail and I don’t really have a lot of close friends and family.  We live in a community that is mostly older folks that don’t want to have anything to do with little ones.  Because of this, we have not gone out much since Jackson’s arrival.  We also don’t have anyone to help with watching him or giving us some time-out. 

The selflessness that comes along with flying in just to be with your friend who has her first child in the house is special – very special indeed. 

Just when Judy left, though, another great friend arrives.  Tarina from Los Angeles came in last night.  Tarina is originally from Detroit as well and she is one of Gail’s other great friends.  Again, she came into town simply to say hello and help out where needed. 

Tarina and Judy are great friends.  I know that if either of these great people ever need anything from me in the future, I will be there.  I got their back, because I know they had mine in time of need. 

Tags: friends, Las Vegas

This is one of my favorite posts from the other site. I am in the never-ending quest to save money, lower the household expenses and become financially free at some point. This is just one of the wonderful ways to save money. It had some good banter between Gail and I as she loves that lamp in the corner of our living room. I, on the other hand, am planning a very unfortunate “incident” for our little energy hog lamp friend…

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Try to calculate the Return on Investment (or Internal Rate of Return) of doing this…good luck. Today, I spent several hours doing household chores. My wife went back to Detroit for a business trip and left me a little honey-do list. So today, like the good robot husband I am sometimes, I did my thing and went through that list. I spent every agonizing, errr enlightening, moment on checking off every task and achieved the whole thing - save some last minute cleaning she wanted done right before she comes home on Tuesday.

One thing that wasn’t on her list but was on mine, was replace every dinosaur light bulb we have in the house with those new fandangled bulbs that look like a bowl of spaghetti. Since I am all about saving money and doing my own financial analysis to justify my actions, I had to look at this based on my return on my investment (or Internal Rate of Return). It took the idea of saving money bigtime for me to actually do the right thing - what kind of person am I???

I thought this process would have taken me about 20 minutes, but after spending roughly 2 full hours on this little project, I was felling pretty good about myself. I replaced nearly 40 light bulbs and did a variety of equivalent 60 watts, 75 watts and 100 watts.

What is cool about this is the learning process. What I learned was the following:

• the old 60 watt version uses only 14 watts in the new version
• the old 75 watt version uses only 18 watts in the new version
• the old 100 watt version uses only 23 watts in the new version

These new light bulbs use 1/5 of the electricity as the old version. HUGE savings when it comes to paying my those really nice folks at the utility company. The package says I can save, under normal uses, the following:

• the 14 watt version saves $46/year
• the 18 watt version saves $56/year
• the 23 watt version saves $77/year

Since I replaced nearly 40 light bulbs today, I know the savings could very well be huge. If the average savings per yer is $50 per bulb (on average since most of them were the small kind) and I replaced 40 of them (I need my calculator), but I think that is roughly $2,000 per year in energy savings. I am not that optimistic and I know that it simply can’t be true, but lets say I was off by 50% and it only saves me a cool grand each year.

Time to crack out one of my best friends (Microsoft Excel) and do a little investment return. The total investment in light bulbs was $33. My time is free since I was working around the house and my wife gets a special discount - for barter of course… The internal rate of return on this investment is silly to discuss. It is off the charts, so let’s not even discuss it.

What is truly neat to look at is how these 10 C-notes are going to multiply over time, invested VERY mildly at 8% return. To see what this means to me in 30 years time - saving the $1000 every year; invested at 8% annual return - simply use the following formula in excel “=FV(.08,-1000,30)”.

(BTW, I am writing this with The Matrix on in the background…killer flick)

This silly little bulb replacement exercise just netted me an additional $113,283.21 for our retirement. If my adjustment down to $1000 per year is wrong and I actually save the $2000 per year, my take at the end of all of this (just replace the 1000 with 2000 in Excel) is an unbelievable $226,556. I am besides myself right now. Somebody needs to come on over my pad and punch me in the face a bunch of times for not doing this sooner. If not in the face, then at least a couple swift kicks in the beans. What the heck was I thinking?

Oh yeah, one more thing, I of course put all my dinosaur bulbs on craigslist to try to offset my $33 initial investment. For some reason, spending the initial scratch still gets to me. Those light bulbs seem perfectly fine, but in the in long run, those things were eating me out of house and home. Taking food off my table sort of speak. And the Financial Analysis Guy can never have that!

One more thing, the Financial Analysis Gal has this amazingly beautiful floor lamp in the corner of our living room. It is artwork - I will give it that. She loves it and we can’t craigslist it quite yet, but the time is coming. Why? That halogen lamp uses 300 watts (that’s 21 FREAKING times more energy than my little spaghetti style friend). That lamp is now officially put on notice!!!

Tags: Investing, Light bulbs, Money and Career

The Best of Las Vegas 2008…what a great tagline. I wrote this as soon as the list came out. It makes nice writing and nice press for the local Las Vegas newspaper, but it is really not all that important to us locals. Try to keep in mind my two favorite Las Vegas restaurants - Gordon Biersh and The Crown and Anchor. I need to add several others to this list, but since both of these are really close to my house…they are in this post.

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The local rag here in Las Vegas called The Las Vegas Review Journalis an “OK” paper. They are definitely right leaning and do a pretty good job on reporting the news - regardless of their political viewpoints.

Every year, like most local papers, they do an online poll for “The Best Of” in that metropolitan. The LVRJ does a descent job of this but sometimes they miss the mark completely. If you are local like me, you have your own hotspots you like to frequent. I strongly encourage anyone coming to visit Vegas or who has just moved here to read this Review Journal article.

They even do a Razzie-type thing of the Best of the Worst. This is actually really cool. In this town, the press is part of the show and when you see someones face over and over again for the same things, you know that this list was needed. Our good friend Oscar Goodman, Las Vegas’ Mayor, made the list once again, but I don’t fault him for it. He is so freaking good for this city it is amazing. I love what he has done and what he brings.

Now, on the list itself, they have some celebrity type folks that give their favorite places. This is OK, but take their information with a grain of salt. They are just one person’s opinion and some of these folks are transient in nature due to their jobs.

I was really bummed not to see my two favorite pubs in Vegas. One is a chain and you have all heard of it - Gordon Biersch. I have been to almost every GB in the nation and this one takes the cake. This one is not like any of the others. If you are a local, or a visitor, go see Kala and Billy “The A-Team” on Wednesday or Thursday nights. They are the absolute BEST in town. They have the most amazing Southwestern Egg Rolls. Enjoy a Heff with lemon or skip it and go straight for their flagship beer, Marzen. Can’t go wrong with any of em.

The other is a genuine British Pub that made the list some time ago - The Crown and Anchor. This place is rough around the edges - just like a British Pub ought to be. They have all the soccer (or football everywhere else) matches and have genuine English food. They make some of the best Yorkshire Pudding around. Enjoy your favorite beer (Guinness, Bass or Boddington’s for me), take in a football match, and maybe even try some of the famous Snake Bite. Great stuff. And yes, if you are Brit coming to town, you will feel right at home. Almost every British native in town ends up here at some point during the week.

On all of the other stuff on their list, you can’t go wrong with it. There is always something to do in Vegas. From world-class clubbing on The Strip, to outdoor activities, to top-notch shows for every genre - this place never sleeps and you can get pretty much anything you want here, literally.

Tags: Las Vegas Restaurants, Vegas travel