It's a GIRL!!

Last night K and I met up with the rest of the family and invited friends at daughter Erica's home for her baby's "gender reveal" party.  I'd never heard of this before, but it's apparently become a big deal:  After the doctor's sonogram is reviewed and the gender is determined, the nurse puts the typical sonogram portfolio and a note, "boy" or "girl" as appropriate, into an envelope and seals it.  The new parents take the envelope to a bakery and have the baker open it to see which sex it is, and then make a small cake with the insides either pink or blue, while the outside icing is unisex white/green/yellow.  Then at the party they cut the cake open to reveal the baby's gender.


It was a lot of fun watching the faces of the new parents as they got the news.  Even Erica's sister in San Antonio was there via the magic of iPhone live video.  It was interesting watching all the people tweeting and Facebooking as soon as the first sign of pink became visible.  Technological Neanderthal me....I couldn't even manage to take a decent iPhone photo.  Erica wanted a girl so she was ecstatic, while Donnie (I think) wanted a boy, but as they already have Parker, was fine with having a daughter.  


So now I'm going to have a granddaughter, to be looked after quite well, I'm sure, by her older brother and 3 nephews, and her dad, and her granddad, and her......


S

Mommy, where does sod come from?

Waiting for me in this morning's email:

Two blonds were sitting at a sidewalk table at Starbuck's one afternoon when they noticed a pallet of new grass sod across the street.  The first blond said, "Oh wow!  If I ever win the lottery, that's what I'm gonna do."

The second blond said, "What do you mean?"

The first blond said, "Send my lawn out to be mowed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This evening we're going to a family get-together at my youngest daughter's home where she's going to announce the results of today's doctor visit.  Today she'll learn the gender of her baby.  My 2 1/2 year-old grandson will learn if he'll have a baby brother or a baby sister, or as the blond from the story above might say, "He'll learn if he'll be  a big brother or a big sister."  ;)

S

It's Us vs. Them, and we're losing

I've read recently that the big financial interests, that would be commercial banks, investment banks (pretty much the same these days), hedge funds, etc, are pushing back hard against the implementation of parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms law.  Seems the new rules make it more difficult for them to gamble big (which means "heads they win, tails taxpayers lose"), and opens up their books for *gasp* consumers to see just how badly they're screwing us.  (They like to work in the dark, or at least in the shadows, as much as possible.)


I can see why they're pushing back, as it impacts their multi-million dollar pay and bonuses.  What I can't understand is why they have allies in Congress who are siding with them.   Well, I can understand why....Congress is bought and paid for by the "bankers".  I guess what I can't understand is why we, the electorate, keep giving these guys our votes?  It's like thanking the mugger and inviting him to meet you again next week, same time, same place. 


We need a new, third political party, a party that will represent US.  The Democrats and Republicans surely don't.


S

The end is near!

The end of our long holiday weekend, that is. I'm the world's worst about looking forward to time off, and dreading seeing it end, too. Right now K and I are drowning our sorrows non-alcoholicly at Starbuck's. K does this every Sunday, but as I usually work Sunday afternoon's, this is quite a treat for me. My instructions are to sit here and read for hours on end. And if my butt starts hurting, shut up and keep reading. Haha!


I saw on the Internet that Eurostat, the EU agency that keeps track of all the statistics, says that the UK has the highest obesity rate in Europe, and Italy has the lowest. Italy, with all the pasta and bread they eat? How's that possible? If I ate that kind of food daily I'd be the size of a house! I'll just stick with my meat and potatoes. Um....wait...


I read in the newspaper that Sergio Scaglietti has died. If you've ever admired the beautiful lines of a vintage Ferrari, you've admired the genius of Mr. Scaglietti. Just look at the cars driving around today (IMHO usually very bland) and you'll appreciate his sense of style even more. RIP, sir.


A family birthday party tonight, then it's back to the cold, cruel world tomorrow. :(


S

You might be a redneck if....

....your momma puts "ammo" on her Christmas wish list.


K's former boss....she's now working "upstairs"....for some reason recently decided she wanted a concealed handgun license.  She successfully completed the classroom portion and passed the shooting part as well with a gun she rented from the gun range.  Now she wants to buy her own semi-automatic pistol. Trouble is, she knows nothing about handguns.    Tomorrow morning I'm taking her to the Gun and Knife Collector's show in Dallas and will try to give her a crash course in what she needs to know about firearms, especially about safety.  I'm afraid her out shopping for a gun by herself would be like the little naive lady at the unscrupulous car repair shop.  


She's not that big of a lady and she keeps talking about getting a .45.    She mentioned that her rented gun jammed several times during her test, which tells me her wrists might not be strong enough to handle the recoil from a .45.  I'm going to try and talk her down to a 9mm.  I hope she'll listen.  Then comes live shooting at a range, and finally care and cleaning.   When I get through with her she'll be a regular Annie Oakley.  ;)


S


Late edit:  K's boss called to say she's sick.  This is twice she's asked me to take her, and twice she's been "sick".  Maybe she does need to go gun shopping by herself after all.

My Thanksgiving story....

My Mom was, by her own admission, a lousy cook.  Every Thanksgiving, in order to avoid eating her cooking, Dad would buy a large turkey and take it to Moore's Barbecue and they would smoke it for him for a modest price.  My grandmother would make the dressing, and we'd always flatter Mom by telling her what great mashed potatoes she prepared, even though we all knew they were instant potatoes out of a box.  Her speciality was a side dish of celery sticks stuffed with store-bought pimento spread.  Go figure.


One year, for whatever reason, Mom decided she'd try to cook a turkey herself.  Dad still pined for some smoked turkey, so he went out and bought a small turkey breast and took it to Steve Moore for smoking.  (NOTE:  meat shrinks when it's smoked.)  When he went to pick it up the afternoon of Thanksgiving eve, Steve brought out a little foil ball about the size of a baseball and handed it to him.  His small raw turkey breast had cooked down to a bird he could carry home in his coat pocket.


Dad's faced dropped when he saw it, but smiled anyway and asked Steve what he owed him.  Steve just looked at my dad, then looked at the pitiful little bird, and said, "Um...no charge, sir.  Happy Thanksgiving."  Hahaha!


The funniest part was, Mom's turkey dinner turned out to be darn good, and we all enjoyed a fine Thanksgiving meal.  Today I'm sure Mom, Dad, and Grandmother are all sitting at The Big Table enjoying the greatest feast ever, including real mashed potatoes.  I'll be thinking of them.


Happy Thanksgiving to you all, too.


S

I definitely missed my calling

So I'm watching the news the other evening and they interviewed an SMU professor to get his insight on whatever the topic was.  Now get this....the guy was identified as a Professor of Comedic Arts and Science.  I wonder what the curriculum is to get a degree in Comedic Arts and Science?  (You think the other professors laugh at him? Sorry.)  First my high school guidance counselor failed to mention "Brazilian bikini wax technician", then she skipped right over a career in Comedic Arts and Science.  In retrospect I'd say she pretty much sucked as a guidance counselor.  ('Course, she herself had a degree in sociology and was lucky to have a job at all.)


Speaking of sociology, when I was at Harvard on the Plains, aka Texas Tech University, I took a course on the Sociology of Leisure.  True!  I was a senior, had already maxed out the courses I could take in my major and was in dire need of something to give my GPA a nudge, and that's what I came up with.  I also took "Home and Family Life" in the School of Home Economics (44 girls, 4 guys....Bazinga!).  I went to sign up for "Pots and Pans", which they tried to legitimize by calling it "Household Equipment", but the class was already full.  I guess the jocks got there first.  Geez, I can't imagine why? *wink*


S

Feelings

You know the stereotypical situation where the wife, or maybe the shrink, asks, "How does that make you feel?"  I never understood that question.  My possible answers to that question would be glad, sad, tired, hungry....that's about it.  To me those are "feelings".  When asked, "What does your heart say you should do?", I go blank.  I think in very practical, concrete terms.  My heart doesn't talk, it only pumps blood, but I know X is the right thing to do, so I go with that.  Is that the same thing?  


Am I some oddball for NOT being able to think in the abstract?  I build homes.  Lumber, brick, pipes, wires.....and of course, concrete.  Could this be some insidious, subliminal emotional/physical link?  An occupational hazard?


"How do you get from here to there?"  You take I-30 west to Frog Knot, then turn north on US 94, go 6 miles.....  No, the answer the questioner is looking for is, "You go where your heart takes you, where your soul can breathe and smile."  Huh?  


I must be the dumbest rock in the quarry, because none of that kind of talk makes any sense to me.  I guess thinking in concrete terms has become some kind of societal handicap these days.  (Wonder if I can get one of those special handicap parking tags?  Oops...sorry...yet another concrete, practical thought.)


S 

The Impatient Generation

We like generational labels.  Tom Brokaw once called those who lived through WWII "The Greatest Generation" and the label stuck.  Very nicely done, Mr. Brokaw.


Then sociologists jumped in hoping for their 15 minutes of fame with titles for other age brackets, such as Generation X, Generation Y, the DINK Generation (Double Income, No Kids), and even Boeing couldn't resist the urge, naming their newest iteration of 737 airliner the 737 NexGen, or NG.  All this has left me very confused.  What generation am I?  I propose that I'm part of The Impatient Generation, and in fact I'm the Mayor of Impatientville.  No, make that President of ImpatientLand.  Or even better, King of ImpatientUniverse.  


I stand in front of a microwave oven and yell, "HURRY UP, DAMMIT!"  There's always someone in my way, whether it's on the highway or in the grocery store check-out line.  MOVE, PEOPLE!  CHOP CHOP!   To me, a green light means GO, not "I think I'll soon be moving my foot over to the tall, skinny pedal on the far right, where I might exert some gentle downward pressure on it in the hopes of making the 400 HP vehicle I'm driving lurch forward ever-so-slightly."  No, patience is not one of my virtues.


Why do I bring this up now?  Because this morning I fired up my trusty Apple computer and it said, "Updates available.  Do you want to install them now?"  Um, sure, why not?  BIG MISTAKE!  The process began and said it would take three minutes.  My ass!  Try double that.  Grrrrr.  Then it had to write some new program and install it, or something like that.  Then the screen went blank.  Then I had to push the start button and watch the Colored Wheel of Death spin round and round and round and....  Finally, here I am.


Why do they ask you when you turn your computer ON if you want to install updates?  If I'm turning ON my computer I'm wanting to perform some search RIGHT NOW.  That's why I'm turning it ON.  If I wanted to search for something 15 minutes from now I'd turn it ON 15 minutes from now.  DUH!


Why don't they ask you when you're turning your computer OFF if you want to install updates?  Then it could take it's sweet time....all night, even....and I could care less.  Maybe this makes too much sense for the Geeks who run ComputerWorld.   Am I alone on this?  ;)


S

"We're the healthiest horse in the glue factory."

Let me leave *this* with you to comtemplate over the weekend.  Frankly I doubt you'll even get past the required short commercial lead-in, but you're missing a strong, honest message if you don't.  Seems like when I post some fluff people read it and leave comments, but if I post something serious it's passed right over.  


This is a short conversation with former US Senator Alan Simpson (R, WY) where he outlines the real mess our country is headed towards if we don't get our act together soon.  Where are politicians like him today?  We have way too many slick talkers and no straight shooters.  "Stirring the pot" is more admired than solving problems.  *shaking head*


Have a great weekend, friends.


S

For my cat-loving friends.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is almost funny:  Last night the co-pilot of a Delta Airlines flight from NC to NYC called air traffic control saying they were in the pattern for landing but the pilot was no where to be found.  He had stepped out to go to the bathroom and hadn't returned.  Then a guy "with a thick foreign accent" began trying to get thru the cockpit door, even using the proper security code, saying the pilot was in the lavatory and would not be returning for landing.  *que the scary music*  The co-pilot declared an emergency and landed, where law enforcement took over.  

Turns out the lavatory door latch broke and the pilot literally couldn't get out and sent the guy with the accent to tell his co-pilot "sup."  

Moral:  Always take something to read with you as you might be in there a lot longer than you expect.  ;)

S

Just thought you should know....

USA Today has released the financials of all 535 members of Congress.  It shows that 11% of them, 58 members, are wealthy enough to be included in the richest 1% of the population.  I wonder how many of them were in the top 1% before they were elected to Congress?  No wonder there's a disconnect in Washington.

Ah oh....is this what we all have to look forward to?  Haha!

This is pretty amazing:  Canada is issuing new money.  Not your traditional paper bills, but super high-tech polymer bills that have redundant anti-counterfeiting features and see-thru windows.  Plus, they look really cool.  See them here on You Tube.  Good job Canada!

Careful....Amazon aims to get hold of a lot more of your money.  They have a new program called Amazon Prime.  It costs you $79 a year, and for that you get expedited check-out and free 48-hour delivery.  People who have it like it so much they find they're spending twice as much at Amazon as they used to.  Just like Amazon planned it.  ;)

Have a great day everyone.

S

"It slices, it dices, it cuts Julienne fries....

....but you gotta hit that sumbitch juuuuust right!" 

                                                          

No, I haven't found a super new culinary tool, but I have found a good-for-what-ails-you diet supplement I can recommend, plus I just like that quote from one of my favorite comedians, Gallagher.  I walk a lot for exercise, leading up to being able to take some nice long hikes in the mountains when we visit Colorado again next summer.  Trouble is, my left knee hurts for the rest of the day after I put in a few miles.  At my age I guess that's to be expected.

I saw a commercial for Osteo Bi-Flex, a glucosamine supplement that promises to "show improvement in joint comfort within 7 days."  Well guess what?  It works!  I asked my SIL the anesthesiologist before I started taking it if it was just snake-oil and he said there wasn't any scientific evidence to prove it worked, but he personally had taken it and was pleased.  He said even if it was just a placebo effect, so what?  If you feel better you feel better.  Just go with it.

Ten days into taking it I can say my knee feels dramatically better, and an endorsement from the ultimate cynic (me) is saying something.  

S

Difficult conundrum

Over lunch recently my brother and I were discussing current events, mainly the budget deficit and the cuts being contemplated to reduce it. We agreed that Big Business had a stranglehold on Congress, getting pretty much what they wanted in the way of tax breaks, special deductions, regulatory loopholes, etc.  We should do away with things such as subsidies to very profitable companies who could easily fund their own R&D on what was likely to be even more highly profitable technologies, subsidies to agribusiness, and so forth.


But then I said (and remember, bro and I are custom homebuilders) the government should begin phasing out the home mortgage interest deduction.  Whoa!  It was like somebody farted in church.  "How dare you!  That's MY deduction", he said.  "Why would anyone own a house if they didn't get their deduction?"  I asked if, when he got his last house paid for, he suddenly didn't want it anymore?  *silence*


And that's the problem.  Everyone wants everyone else to give up their special breaks, but they don't want to give up their own.


Back to my example:  [I believe] the US is the only industrialized nation who still offers a home mortgage interest deduction.  The idea was to promote home ownership, but I contend it's now "the American Dream" and doesn't need promoting any longer.  In fact, you'd be surprised how many homes sold today are purchased with cash.  By paying cash buyers don't get a tax write-off, but they're buying anyway.


Australia phased out their similar deduction years ago and ownership remained steady at around 65%, the same as it is here.  Remember several decades ago when the interest deduction on auto loans and consumer loans was phased out?  Did we stop buying cars without the interest deduction?  Of course not.  Did we stop using our credit cards because we couldn't write off the interest we paid MasterCard any longer?  Hahaha.  Hardly!


It's going to be painful, but we ALL need to wean ourselves off of our special deductions and start paying enough in to cover what we're paying out.  Sorry rich folks, but that means you, too.  


S

Industrious weekend....

I came home from work early Friday, cleaned up, and then K and I (she was off Friday, too) went to Target and Toys R Us and did our Christmas shopping for the grandsons.  We beat the rush and now we're through!!!  I absolutely hate to shop, especially Christmas shop, and especially Christmas shop when everybody else is doing their Christmas shopping, too.  I feel so relieved to get it over with.


That Friday spurt of energy pretty much meant Saturday was a free day.  We had a leisurely brunch at IHOP....K suddenly likes their waffles, and I'm always good for breakfast food.  I even had some biscuits and gravy.  Mmmmm, love 'em!  And despite all that, today I weighed in and saw I had somehow managed to lose weight for the week.  I'm now down an even 11 pounds.  Just 9 more to go....with the holidays coming, that might be a tough 9 pounds, ya think?


Football watching off and on for the rest of the day ended when we walked to Ginger Man for a beer, where we ran into K's boss.  Somehow I got stuck with the tab for us all, including his son, daughter, and her date.  All I can say, he'd better come through with a nice raise for K come evaluation time.  *wink*


Gotta work this afternoon.  Maybe my next million-dollar home sale will happen today.  You never know.  :)


S

Early score

Oklahoma State 28, Texas Tech 0.  Kickoff is in 2 hours.  ;)


S

Clipped wings this weekend

Looks like whatever fun I'm gonna have this weekend will have to come in 4 hour spurts.  That's because I have to be home to feed Emma Belle a special stomach-calming diet every 4 hours.  The vet says she has pancreatitis and prescribed meds and gave us a 6-pack of special canned food.  Well, not gave....it costs me $337 all together. The stuff might calm Emma's stomach, but it nearly turns mine.  It looks like bad bean dip.   But of course I'll do whatever I have to to get my "best friend" well again.


Thank a veteran if you happen to see one today.  And as it's Veterans Day, fly your flag, too.  Really we should thank our veterans every day. Whenever I see someone wearing a military cap, for example (such as "Vietnam Veteran", "WWII Veteran", etc), I'll thank them and shake their hand.  It makes 'em smile, which makes me smile, too.


This is one of those work days I dread.  I have some dirty work that needs to be done (a house under construction needs to be cleaned out and swept, and it's a VERY BIG house) and there isn't anyone to delegate the job to.  We don't have a handy man on the payroll so the job falls on me.  I'll come back covered head-to-toe in dust and head straight to the shower.  But the good news is, after that, I'm free for the rest of the day.  'Course, if my dust mask doesn't work, I'll be sneezing for the rest of the day.  


OK, I've stalled long enough.  Here goes......


S

And all he got was a phone call....

Penn State University coach Joe Paterno's half-century of employment at the school ended with a simple phone call last night.  That's all he got.  You're fired.  Go away.  Did his actions, or rather inactions, in the sick pedophile Jerry Sandusky affair warrant such treatment?  


Wow...I'm torn.  He did right by reporting what he knew as soon as he knew it, but he didn't follow up when he should have, which was his downfall.  "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."  Still, it looks to me like the Penn State Board of Regents are just throwing any and everyone they can grab under the bus in order to deflect scrutiny away from themselves, even before all the facts are out.  And doesn't a lifetime of exemplary service to the university at least deserve a face-to-face, man-to-man delivery of the sad, bad news?  Apparently not at Penn State University, where the operative strategy seems to be "cover your ass".


And the students rioted.  There's a lot of anger in America for a lot of reasons these days.  I guess we can add this to the list, too.


S

Marketing gone terribly wrong

I remember one cold winter day a few years ago I went looking for my gloves and couldn't find them.  Just buy some new ones....simple fix, right?  Au contraire.  I found that most department stores had already put away their gloves, in fact nearly all their winter stuff, and replaced them with bathing suits and other warm-weather items.  

That makes no sense to me.  Why would you want to buy something you couldn't wear for 5 or 6 months? I buy something now, I wear it now.  My spousal unit, of course, saw this as making perfect sense.  You buy winter long johns and down jackets in July, and bathing suits in January, she said.  Huh? She explained stores want to get the jump on their competitors so they begin showing their "pre-season" stuff earlier and earlier each year.  I'm thinking eventually they're going to get a full year ahead of themselves, meaning they'll have next winter's gloves on sale this winter.  I wish they'd hurry.  Then my world can be right again.

And stores/malls always seem to put up their Christmas decorations earlier and earlier, too.  They're showing us snow scenes and we're still mowing the yard!  Actually, this year they were up before Halloween.  Jeez!  Everyone except Nordstroms, that is.  Nordstroms has said they would not decorate their stores for Christmas until after Thanksgiving?  They say they want to celebrate one season at a time.  At last, some sanity.  Good for ya, Nordstroms!  

S

I'm confused....and amused

This past weekend we set our clocks back an hour.  This is fine with me as I love to burrow down in my blanket, snuggle with my honey, and catch a few more Zzzzz's.  It's the "lose an hour" part in the spring that I hate.  What confuses me is why do we do it?  Now I can go to work and the sun is already up, making for an easier commute, but I'm coming home in the dark.  Is that an improvement?  Remember the old saying:  "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it on to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."  Time is going to do what time does, regardless of how we try to dress it up.  There is more daylight in the summer, and less in the winter.  It's just the way it is.


Our local news media is doing their darndest to create a story this morning.  For several days the weatherguessers have been forecasting severe weather today.  Sure enough there is a line of storms west of Foat Wuth headed this way.  Big whoop.  There are no warnings, just some rain.  It will blow through in a half hour or so, then behind it the skies will clear and we'll have a glorious autumn day.  But the TV stations have activated their "Team Coverage" with reporters scattered all around town to report on the approaching cataclysm.


It reminds me of the time my neighbor, who was a volunteer at the emergency management center at city hall, called me to say all excitedly, "The net is up!", referring to the storm spotter network he and his ham radio buddies were in.  So to appease him I tuned in on my airband radio and this is what I heard:


NG740, this is DJ358.


Go ahead, DJ358


Yeah, I'm at highway 78 and Castle Dr.  Over


Roger, highway 78 and Castle Dr.


It's raining now, estimate half an inch an hour.  Over


Roger, raining half an inch an hour.  Thanks for that report DJ358.


I'm sure some goober was back at city hall religiously plotting all these reports on a giant wall-sized map so forensic scientists would later be able to analyze the inland tsunami that engulfed us, but I was ROFLMAO!  Sort of like I am now watching "Team Coverage" of the approaching rain.


It's obviously a slow news day, which really isn't a bad thing.


S

EARTHQUAKE!

Saturday I got fed up with my Texas Tech team in the second quarter and turned off the TV.  We went on to lose in grand style to Texas....no big shock.  (I suspect Tech coach Tubbyville now two days later is still trying to pull his head out of his ass.)  Turning to retail therapy to soothe my disappointment we headed out for me to buy some new hiking boots, finding what I wanted at Mountain Hideout.  (Vasque's....very comfortable.)  Later we met up with a small mob at Desperado's Mexican Restaurant for a surprise 50th birthday party for my brother.  His b-day isn't until the 29th, so he never even thought of a surprise party this far in advance.  It was quite an affair....open bar, good dinner, great cake.  


We made it back home in time to watch the end of the LSU-Alabama football game, then stayed tuned afterwards for the local news.  That's when they announced there had been a magnitude 5.6 (?) earthquake east of Oklahoma City, and said it was felt as far south as Dallas.  (I didn't feel a thing.)  As things turned out my daughter Kristan and her husband Chris were in nearby Norman, OK to attend the Texas A&M-Oklahoma game blowout.  


They were back in their 6th floor hotel room when the earthquake hit.  Chris was lying on the bed watching TV and Kristan was in the bathroom removing her makeup.  She told me she had to brace her stance and hold on to the door frame to keep her balance, and Chris thought for a second he was on one of those vibrating beds.  Chris said he was prepared to stay and try and get some sleep, but Kristan was nagging him mercilessly wanting to pack up and leave town.  Naturally she won, so at 2 AM they checked out and headed back to the civilized side of the Red River.  Everyone is home now safe and sound, thank goodness. 


That was my weekend.  Not the "same old" for sure.  ;)


S

Things I don't understand

Actually, there isn't enough time left until the Sun burns itself out and leaves us here sitting in the dark for me to list ALL the things I don't understand, so I've chosen three for your consideration:


Why do New Englanders have trouble with the letter "R"?  They put it places it shouldn't be, and then sometimes leave it out where it belongs.  For example, if New Englanders want to visit our nation's capital, they travel to Warshington.  There's no r in Washington.  And back in '62, JFK blockaded Cubr.  No r in Cuba, either.  But then they pronounce "car" as "kaa", and "yard" as "yaad".  Why is that?


Vests.  I don't understand them.  Did somebody long ago actually think, "Ya know, my torso is freezing, but my arms are toasty warm.  I think I'll invent a puffy goose down coat that will cover ONLY my torso, but leave my arms uncovered."  Really?  Maybe it's just me, but when I'm cold, I'm cold all over at the same time.  It's not like my belly is in the Yukon and my arms are in Cubr....er....Cuba.


And finally, why do Indian people (at least those living in America) wear sandals in the winter?  Yesterday morning it was in the 30's and I saw an Indian gentleman all bundled up with a coat and hat, long pants, and sandals.  I can understand wearing sandals in India in the winter as it usually stays pretty warm there year round (I think), but we have seasons in America.  His body from the ankles up was cold, but his feet were hot?  Could it be that an Indian guy invented the vest mentioned above?  He had a cold torso and legs, but warm arms and feet?  *strange dude*


I'll share plenty more things I don't understand later.  Until then, have a great weekend everyone.  ;)


S

She has powers over me!

Somebody tell me it's OK to feed yogurt to dogs.  And mean it.  Every morning I come into my study first thing and check my email and the news and eat my little cup of yogurt.  I swear Emma Belle has a sixth sense about when I'm finishing up my yogurt because I'll look down and there she'll sit, waiting to lick off whatever remains on my spoon:

I figure if it's good for me it should be good for her, too.  Right?  But then I remembered there are some things dogs can't have, like chocolate and grapes, and Brussels sprouts.  (No wait....I can't have Brussels sprouts)  Kind of late now, but I'm hoping yogurt isn't on the no-no list because it's the highlight of her morning and I hate disappointing her. I admit it, she has me wrapped around her little....er...well, you know.

S

Chuckles

I'm sorry, but I can't help but chuckle when I read that the brokerage house MF Global is in bankruptcy.  The MF CEO *chuckle* is former Goldman Sachs CEO and ousted crooked politician Senator/Governor Jon Corzine, MF. *chuckle*  Now we learn that up to a BILLION dollars in customer deposits is missing.  I guess that makes the MF CFO a MF, too. *chuckle*  What if they had bought the naming rights to a stadium or an arena?  Imagine....MF Arena.  Catchy.  *chuckle*  See, this is just too easy.  :)


I do, however, feel sorry for the rank and file MF'ers who are losing their jobs, especially right before the holidays.


In a similar vein, there is actually a ceiling fan company named "Big Ass Fans".  As you might expect, their fans are huge, up to 8 feet in diameter, hence the name.  So if they bought the naming rights to a sports facility, you think they'd call it Big Ass Stadium?  (Aren't they all?)  *chuckle*


I think I need coffee.


S

THIS is why there are protests in the streets!

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Eugene Isenberg is retiring as CEO of Nabors Industries (oil and gas) and is taking with him $100 million in retirement pay.  One hundred million dollars!  The report noted that the company was contracturally obligated to pay him the $100 million even if he was fired.  What kind of dumb-ass Board of Directors would agree to that?  Oh, and for the record, his company's stock is down 20% for the year, a performance well below the industry average.  


Earlier this year 57% of Nabors' stockholders who voted opposed the compensation package being offered to their executives.  But of course it was non-binding, so the Board of Directors gave 'em the money anyway.  And if you're curious....I looked it up....Nabors' directors (in 2009) each received $213,440 in compensation and stock.  (Directors usually work only a few hours a month.)  Sounds like a pretty sweet "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" deal, huh?


I'm all for our best and brightest people making lots of money for doing exceptional work, but where is the line between "lots of money" and "rip off"?  To me, $100,000,000 for turning out the lights and closing the door is too much.  This is a rip off!  If I was a Nabors' stockholder I'd be out the door, too.


S