Today the DanzFamily.com blog is 5 years old! Over the past five years I've written 719 posts, received 2105 comments and 70 trakcbacks (anyone still do these?), and put up about 1900 pictures. Over a thousand visitors stop by here each day and well over a million have dropped in since inception. (None of the public counters have been in place the whole time.)

It all started shortly after my first son was born and my father died. Since then, my mom and Mary's last grandparent passed away and two more sons were born as well as three cousins. Friends too have passed away, while new ones have been made. During this time, we traveled as a family from San Francisco to Washington D.C., from Chicago to Dallas and many, many points in between.

Because of this blog, I've gotten to hold the flag that Rick Monday saved from being burned, had an image I created pirated by the Drudge Report and later used with permission by Dennis Miller and I've gotten to meet, in person and online, some truly wonderful people.

Most importantly, I've gotten to document the thing most important to me...no, not that. I hope the next five years are as fun and rewarding.

P.S. According to Google, "blogiversary" appears on the web 143,000 times while "blogoversary" appears 848,000. While the later is more closely related to the accepted term blogosphere, I prefer the former.

Drew and Will after soccer practice yesterday at Soccer City.

Today marks the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, during WWII. It remains the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time involving 195,700 Allied personnel, of which 160,000 were troops, in over 5,000 ships.

From the National D-Day Memorial Foundation:

"On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied soldiers clambered aboard heaving landing craft and braved six-foot swells, waves of machine gun fire, and more than 6 million mines to claim a stretch of sand at a place called Normandy. Their mission was to carve out an Allied foothold on the edge of Nazi-occupied Europe for the army of more than one million that would follow them in the summer of 1944. This army would burst forth from the beachhead, rolling across Europe into the heart of Germany, liberating millions, toppling a genocidal regime, and ending a nightmare along the way. But it all began on this beach in France, with an army of teenagers on a day called D-Day."

"The 65th anniversary of D-Day will find our youngest D-Day and WWII veterans turning 82 years of age. The years to come will find ever fewer of them among us, and fewer still able to travel and share their stories. Because that day will arrive all too soon, the National D-Day Memorial will present "Overlord Echoes" June 4-7, 2009 to allow veterans and the public to share information and perspectives on D-Day with the larger purpose of preserving the lessons and legacy of that decisive moment in history."

"In its historical and human consequences, D-Day is epic. A turning point in the course of the war, D-Day signaled the beginning of the end of the age of fascism and the return of hope to millions in occupied nations globally. Moreover, as the largest land, air, and sea invasion in history, D-Day drew upon human and military resources on an unprecedented scale, one consequence of which was the creation of an unprecedented number of veterans of a single battle. There are more veterans of D-Day than any other engagement in the Second World War, derived from every sector of our population and reflecting a wide variety of backgrounds, each one with a distinct and unique story of D-Day to share - the story of ordinary men and women living in extraordinary times."

From the American Battle Monuments Commission:

"The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names."

Finally, from the British Portsmouth's D-Day Museum:

"In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day."

"The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. However recent painstaking research by the US National D-Day Memorial Foundation has achieved a more accurate - and much higher - figure for the Allied personnel who were killed on D-Day. They have recorded the names of individual Allied personnel killed on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, and so far they have verified 2499 American D-Day fatalities and 1915 from the other Allied nations, a total of 4414 dead (much higher than the traditional figure of 2500 dead). Further research may mean that these numbers will increase slightly in future."

"The [previous] breakdown of US casualties was 1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2499 casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths). The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60 missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2000 casualties at Omaha Beach."

"Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners."

"Today, twenty-seven war cemeteries hold the remains of over 110,000 dead from both sides: 77,866 German, 9386 American, 17,769 British, 5002 Canadian and 650 Poles."

"Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly as a result of Allied bombing."

Previous coverage of anniversaries of D-Day in 2005 and 2008.

With today being the 20th anniversary of the the Chinese government's massacre of innocent protesters at Tiananmen Square, I was curious how President Obama would respond. What words of wisdom would he read from his teleprompters?

*crickets chirping*

Nothing. President Obama is too busy on his second Sorry-Muslims-America-Sucks tour to take notice of the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Even if he wasn't busy bad-mouthing American abroad, Obama still wouldn't have said anything. He's too dependent on the Chinese communists to purchase his never ending billions of dollars of dept.

This year alone Obama will rack up a budget deficit -- for just this year -- of $1.8 trillion. That's four times greater than any other year...not 40% greater, which would be outrageous...but, rather, more than 400% greater! Of course he's not going to tweak the Chinese about their abysmal human rights record. He can't, he (we) have sold ourselves to the Chinese.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy-the-Tax-Cheat-Geithner was in China speaking at Peking University. With China being the largest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds they are, understandably, concerned that the United State's mushrooming budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will undermine the value of their investment. Not to mention that our Commander-in-Chief doesn't exactly think a "bond" means what it's supposed to mean as has been evidenced by his screwing of auto industry bond holders in favor of unsecured creditors. Geithner assured the crowd: "Chinese financial assets are very safe." His comment drew laughter from the audience.

General Motors declared bankruptcy today, which would have been a good thing if it has simply been allowed to fail, gone into bankruptcy, followed the law, unshackled itself of its unmanageable burdens, and emerged a leaner, meaner, more competitive company. But, oh no, this is Amerika in the 21st century, and now the hand of Marx and Lenin rise from the grave and guide our government loving President to take control of GM and pay back his political cronies.

The U.S. government already threw $19.4 billion at GM under the guise of keeping it out of bankruptcy when the real purpose, all along, was to use the funding as an excuse to take control of the company. Now the plan is to give GM another $30 billion of your and my money in exchange for which the U.S. government will own 72.5% of the company. The United Automobile Workers ("UAW") union will be given 17.5% of the company despite the fact that the debt owed to them was unsecured, meaning they should have received nothing. It sure pays to have the President in your back pocket. Meanwhile, the secured creditors get 10% of the company which works out to mere pennies on the dollar for their secured debt. All of this is in gross violation of all of our nation's bankruptcy laws as well as the United States Constitution.

It's like if Peter took out a $100,000 mortgage and offered his home as security for the loan. Then Peter went to his friend Paul and said, "Hey, I'm a trustworthy guy, why don't you loan me $100,000 based solely on my good word." Paul loans Peter the money hoping, but with absolutely no guarantee, that he will get repaid. Peter then goes bankrupt but instead of going through good old regular bankruptcy, the government steps in and, contrary to all laws, dictates how everything is going to work out prior to filing and declares that unsecured Paul will get the house while the secured bank will get the dog house out back.

Contrary to popular belief lies, GM was not too big to fail. It is only the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. America would have survived just fine, but it was just too good of an an opportunity for the Obama administration to pass up to have the government take control and ownership of a major corporation.

socialism: (soh-shuh-liz-uhm)

1. Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

2. The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.

When it comes to war, liberals are always crying about "exit strategy" even though the only exit strategy a war should have is total victory. So, you'd think liberals would have an exit strategy with regard to government ownership of a private corporation...that is, unless they never really intend the government to give up ownership. So, what is the government's exist strategy for its ownership stake in GM? There is no current plan. You decide why, incompetence or no intention to give up control.

I swear to God that I will never buy an automobile from a state and union owned company. I will not participate in the march toward socialism and the destruction our capitalist free market system which, until government intervention, was the greatest economic engine the world had ever seen.

Source and source.

We've been experimenting with using my old Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Lens manufactured in 1987 with our new Canon EOS Rebel T1i/500D. The lens with a 1.8 f-number/focal ratio has a much larger aperture which creates a shallower depth of field than the kit lens which came with the Rebel T1i. Sometimes it creates problems in automatic modes by blurring portions of the picture you want sharp, but when it works, it works great!

Landon being held by Mama outside in the shade. You can see the very shallow depth of field as Landon's eyes are sharp but, just an inch or two farther away from the camera lens, his ears are blurred.

Landon inside, much more relaxed, getting some supplementing formula from Mama.

Will a/k/a Mr. Uncooperative, doesn't always like to play the part of a willing subject.

This is a classic "Will" expression.

I love this picture of Drew! Taken outside in the direct sunlight without a fill-in-flash. His expression is perfectly natural. A lot of times pictures don't really capture precisely what a person ordinarily looks like but this picture really does.

Joey, unfazed by my late night camera settings experimentation.

I believe he's thinking, "Enough with the pictures already."

Back in my school days I longed for a quality SLR camera but none of the, then, available cameras much appealed to me. Then Canon introduced its much anticipated EOS line in early 1987 which combined fully automatic autofocus and metering with integrated lenses. That Christmas I was fortunate enough to get a Canon EOS 650 camera. There after my system grew to include the following components, along with their place and date of manufacture determined from their respective date codes:

Canon EOS 650 Camera, FB0713, Fukushima, Japan, July 1987
EF 50mm f/1.8 Lens, UB0400, Utsunomiya, Japan, April 1987
420EX Speedlite, SB0802, ???, August 1987
EF 70-210mm f/4 Lens, UB1101, Utsunomiya, Japan, Nov. 1987
EF 28mm f/2.8, UC0703, Utsunomiya, Japan, July 1988
Electronic Date Back, FE0909, Fukushima, Japan, Sept. 1990

Anyone who knew me in college and grad school knows I was never far from my EOS 650 (left). I've been wanting a digital SLR for a few years now, but much like my initial acquisition of a film SLR, all the features I wanted in a digital SLR weren't available...until now. After traipsing around these past years with a point-and-shoot, I'm back to an SLR with my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i a/k/a 500D (right).

My love affair with my film camera began to fade with the advent of digital cameras, you just can't beet the instant feedback of a digital imagery. From right to left, a Kodak DC3200 which, much like crack from a digital camera dealer, came free with our first PC computer purchase in 2001. Since then the addiction to digital has required stronger and stronger "fixes," continuing on: Canon PowerShot A80, Canon PowerShot A610 and Canon PowerShot A650 IS.

While just having the camera a few days, we are already impressed with the quality of the pictures delivered by the camera. (And, yes, I'm well aware of people who can get amazing photographs from crappy cameras...I hate them, and this guy too.) Anyway, for me at least, the camera does make a difference and below are just a few shots taken with our new Canon EOS T1i which are of a better quality than I could have taken (with my limited abilities) with our old digital cameras. Look for improved photography from us in the future!

Mama took this photo of Landon one evening in the lousy florescent light of a bathroom.

Landon again, both photos taken without a flash. The best thing about the new camera is how it doesn't need a flash most of the time.

After dinner tonight, the boys ran around outside playing lawnmower tag (don't ask!). I keep calling them over to take pictures and try out different camera settings. Will is is such a hoot, he's always got a comical expression ready to show off.

Here's a spontaneous pucker for the camera from Will.

Drew was quite sweaty after running around. Could those dimples be any deeper?

One of the first pictures I took with the new camera: flash off, some natural light, a handsome model, point, shoot...whoa!

Even Joey looks better with the new camera. This was just a test shot late the first night I had the camera with the only light in the room behind Joey. All I did was turn the flash off and the camera exposed everything just right!

You just can't beet a subject exposed by natural light. I love this photo! Much, much more to come, I'm sure.

[I also updated the post about Drew's pre-k field trip to the Tulsa Zoo.]

Last Friday, Mary was admitted to the hospital directly from her doctor's office where she went to see if anything could be done about her high fever which she still had since prior to her ER visit Sunday. While in the hospital, Mary was unresponsive to the intravenous antibiotics they gave her including a powerful new one (which really burned when it was put in her IV) developed just a few years ago in response to the growing problem of drug resistant bacteria. Mary's white blood cell count continued to rise to alarming levels and if it hadn't finally started trending down Wednesday morning the doctors were going to take drastic action. Fortunately, despite none of the antibiotics working, Mary's infection seemed to have finally worked its course. She hadn't had a fever since Tuesday, her white cell count finally came down Wednesday and further today, and she was able to tolerate her new oral antibiotic.

Mary's still not feeling 100% but her four boys are all very glad that she is finally back home after her twelve days of fever and seven day spa hospital stay.

No time to post anything of substance. Mary is still sick and celebrating a miserable 40th. I just wanted to show my love by reminding all of our friends that Mary was now, "in her 40s."

Mary's had a 102/103 degree fever since Friday along with an unrelenting and excruciating headache. Her OB/GYN, over the phone, thought it might be mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic on Friday. By Sunday, the antibiotic, along with Tylenol, had done nothing for either her fever or headache. With Mary's fever at 103 Sunday evening, her doctor told her to go to the emergency room. We dropped Drew and Will off at Ma and Pa's and Mary, Landon and I trekked off to St. John.

The emergency room physician was stumped by Mary's condition which we now learned included a super fast heart rate. Mary had a couple of symptoms of several ailments but, at the same time, was missing key symptoms for each possible diagnosis. The primary concern was encephalitis, swelling of the brain. So, it was time for tests: CAT scan for her head, chest x-ray, full blood work up, urine analysis, flu test and a lumbar puncture. The results came back negative for encephalitis but showed positive for a massive infection the origin of which was unknown.

During all this Mary and her uncooperative veins were being, as usual, uncooperative. The nurse couldn't get a line in and even the IV specialist they called in couldn't get one going. Finally, the doctor himself had to put a line in Mary's neck...but, of course, not until after unsuccessfully trying on one side before putting it in the other side. So, in addition to everything else, Mary was stuck twice in each arm and both sides of her neck...fun!

Mary was given an intravenous antibiotic, a steroid and a strong pain reliever which was finally able to knock down the headache she had had for three days. Sometime after 3:00 am, we were finally able to go home with a prescription for a different oral antibiotic. As of tonight, Mary's a little better, but still not well. Her headache is controllable with Tylenol but her fever and other symptoms are still present.

Needless to say, yesterday was not a Mother's Day to be remembered.

Despite there being one more week left of school, Drew's Pre-K class had its graduation ceremony yesterday. It was a wonderful ceremony filled with all kinds of songs and demonstrations of the things his class had learned. Most impressive was how each child, even the shyest and most quiet, took their turn to speak, alone, in front of all the assembled family and friends.

Drew was very insistent that Will be in included in his photo.

(Maybe another one for kindergarten, do grade school and middle school have their own too, high school, college, grad school...times three...only about 17 more graduations to go!)

Landon and Mama came home from the hospital just before midnight Sunday. Landon was on lights here at home Monday and Tuesday and now, finally, things are back to normal. Well, at least as normal as a home can be with a newborn, 2 1/2 and 5 year old running around. With the first two sons, I got the reputation as a baby hog. I've missed way too much time holding our latest edition. Time for some serious male bonding.

[Update:]

I kept thinking the photo should somehow be better. I don't know if I've accomplished "better" but here's another try.