Germantown, WI

I think about him alot...but being Veterans Day today, I have thought of him often! On the radio you could call in and pay tribute to a veteran. Most people had a touching patriotic story. Seeing that my dad was somewhat of a comedian, I always think of his "veterans story"...it goes like this...

My Dad, Herbert Christopher Gust (1925-1998) was in the Navy right out of school, so I would guess that would have been 1940's. He was stationed on the USS STOCKHAM, a navy destroyer, in the Pacific. Well, my dad had a deformed finger tip. It was the result of some accident...when we would ask him what happened, he told the "story" of how he saved the Admirals life one day. He was on deck, as was the Admiral, and a bullet came flying by. He held his hand up in the air so the bullet wouldn't strike the Admiral. He said he did save the Admiral, but the bullet whizzed by and took off the tip of his finger...

(it turns out there was a typhoon one time, and the turbulence caused a hatch to fly shut, and caught his finger in it, taking off the top-I just learned that this year!)

Of course as youngsters, we believed this amazing story...well, for some time anyway. As we got older, we listened time and again to the story, and smiled as if we still believed he saved the Admirals life that day! That was just one of the humorous stories my dad told over the years....

We miss him every day, but on Veterans Day, this story really makes me smile!

OH YEAH! HAVE YOU THANKED A VETERAN TODAY? You still have some time to do that :)

Join in the "Winter Fun" of the annual Christmas Parade in Germantown Saturday November 15th, 2pm.

Will it be mild weather like we had in late October and early November, or will it be a repeat of last years "winter wonderland"? If you were there, you will remember it was a BLIZZARD!!! It was great fun for all. Whether you were on the curb watching the parade entries, catching candy thrown to the crowds or you were in the parade it was just plain fun. How perfect for a Christmas parade? A full all out blizzard that never let up. It was still fun then...by February we would be sooo sick of snow, and by season end we'd have a record all time 99 inches of snow for the season.

See you all at the annual parade, I will be there dressed as an elf in the Shorewest entry! A comical adaptation of todays tough market our parade entry will make you chuckle!

Kick off your holiday season by attending the parade, then follow it up with the village tree lighting.

A MUST SEE PHOTO BELOW!

In a bi-partisan expression of hatred of the press, Barney the white house dog took a bite out of a reporters hand this week! It seems Realtors arent the only ones sick of the negative reporting, the gloom and doom of the market...Let's start reporting on some of the good news out there in this market! Low rates, great selection of inventory, tempered prices all mean a great time for buyers to get out there and write offers! Take that you negative reporters!

HOW DO WE GET POSITIVE PRESS? If your paper is like ours and they only seem to find negative stats, stories and comments, YOU could write a guest editorial for the paper! Has anyone tried that?

Apparently, not very smart at all...YOu won't believe this video from our local news tonite:

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/33745859.html

It is really unbelievable! Shouldn't you know most of the answers to these questions? Don't you think if you graduated from high school you should be able to answer these quesitons? I guess that is what makes America so great, it is for ALL, educated and uneducated, rich (soon not to be any longer) and poor (soon to be richer!)....

It seems most people are planning on voting..Many have already voted either in person or by absentee.

We thought we'd outsmart the crowds and vote absentee...so we got the forms, filled them out, sent them back last week. I got home at about 6pm tonite to find a message on our machine from the village clerk. Seems something wasn't signed on one part, and we had til 5 pm today to come in and sign...

Hmmmmm....well, now what? I have a feeling we are out of luck, as we didn't get in there today, and if we cant do it tomorrow....and I think I heard that if you order an absentee ballot, you CANNOT go in person tomorrow to the poll. Not only is it a big presidential race, we have a very heated state senate race, and a big village referendum! I think our votes won't count.... Hmmmm..anyone know what to do?

11-5-08...Well, we were able to go Tuesday morning, and sign our absentee envelopes, just prior to the ballots being taken over to the polls! so our votes COUNTED! yippee! Thanks to Joy at the Gtown Administration office for helping!