I missed my regular bus this morning and so got into the pool about 10 minutes late- no big deal as they had just started the workout. I swam for half a hour only then got into the office.
Don't have all that much to write about tonight actually so will keep it short and sweet.
My oldest son's birthday is coming up. I promised him I'd get him a new cell phone and we'd switch from the no bars in more places network to the yes I can frackin' hear you network. Last night he texts me saying he wants to switch to T-Mobile because the HTC HD2 "frickin rocks!" I told him no way we are switching to T-Mobile. It ranked behind FON- seriously, that sucks. I then went and looked at the HTC HD2 and looked on VZ's site and they have almost exactly the same phone- the Imagio. I told him about it today and he said no they are not the same the HD2 has a larger screen. I said doesn't matter- no T-Mobile. He suggested he goes on the husband's plan and gets the phone- the husband has T-Mobile. I laughed and said nope, not happening.
My 20 year reunion for college is this June. I debated going to it and almost committed with friends then thought I better check to see if I have the boys that weekend. I do and I called the ex to see if it was possible to switch weekends. She can't so I am skipping it this year.
I got chided yesterday for doing something I often do and that is focusing on the facts. I started asking questions about the drive by 12 year bond offering done by Greece.. I believe less than half of it was taken which made me ask what constitutes a failed auction. The boss and the smart kid laughed at me for asking such a foolish question.
Everyone thought Ireland did the right thing with their banks and economy. Well the Irish government finally went the good bank/bad bank route and lo and behold things are much worse than expected. The government marked down all the bad loans by 47 percent. So what happens to all the U.S. loans when our banks have to go the good bank/bad bank route??? God knows Ireland has been more direct about its banking issues than we have.
So the NFP will be released Friday- as in this Friday which happens to be Good Friday and the equity markets are closed. Normally I would cynically think it was a bad warning. But the government has done this before so there is precedent. This also made the ADP number much more important since it doesn't really have a high correlation with the NFP. It sucked. The spin was in but it did not really seem to take so who knows what will happen on Friday.
The bus ride home I saw quite the hot guy walking down the main drag of Hoboken. If the guy wearing the brown sweater, dark hair, chiseled mug and the Garden of Eden bag reads this just want to say you were noticed...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
And you call yourself an sci-fi autuer???
Last week was pretty busy. One night at class I took a serious low kick from a black belt who looks a lot like Mr. Miagi but is built a lot thicker. I kept getting snapping front kicks into his ribs and I think that just pissed him off and the last low kick he hit my thigh with frackin' hurt like hell. When I got home and mentioned the name Mr. Miagi the husband had no clue what I was talking about.
The past weekend was a bad one at mom and dad's for their NCAA hopes as dad (and my older brother's) alma mater got displaced and so did mom and dad's hometown favorite. Speaking of the NCAA I was laughing to myself about Cornell. When I was a pledge my freshman year they played my alma mater in lax. We the pledge class had to show our support for the team as there was a significant amount of brothers on the varsity lax team. So of course we came up with the truly brilliant idea of spelling out on our chests (in red no less) the phrase "Big Red Gives Head." I like to think that had something to do with Big Red losing that day.
The other highlight of Saturday was my oldest trying to get me to give up the password to my iTunes account. His and his brother's iPod Touches are on my account. He made the comment that he could change the password. I said really and you know the account is attached to my email account. You don't know the password to that and if you do find it out and change anything you will lose your iPod Touch. Of course the usual response was how that was not fair...or cool, I don't really remember but he is almost a teenager so it had to be one of those two.
Saturday we had TK over for dinner. Afterwards we played cards for a while.
Sunday we got up and went for a nice run. the thing is the husband really doesn't know how to do a leisurely run. I said I was setting the pace but of course the run went at a faster pace than I was planning. I would never tell the husband but I think I run better solo than with him. The plus of the run with him was he pointed out all the hot guys, lol. The yellow hoodie with the piercing blue eyes was probably my favorite of the ones he did point out.
The other highlight of Sunday was the husband and I got to go to our dog walker's wedding. I was a bit surprised we got the invite but we love her and the kids love her as well so I was looking forward to it. It was really fun, small, at a restaurant on the Hudson with great views of the city skyline. The funniest part was when she introduced us to her travel agent and his boyfriend. I was laughing because it seemed to me like it was here, meet my other gay friends, you must know each other. The other fun part was trying to figure out of her son is gay or not. We are undecided as to his orientation but he sat at our table and was good dinner company.
Monday we signed the final contract for the cottage down in central Jersey. Now the husband just needs to get a job so he can implement his grand vision for what we will and can do with the house as this pretty much is putting my retirement at a small risk- ah the things we do for love.
I cannot believe they are making the book Freakanomics into a movie- seriously? What's next, Freakanomics- The Musical!?
Jesse Westbrook on BBRG tv looks a lot like a hot guy who worked out at the gym we used to belong to.
A few weeks ago the husband was flipping through the channels and came to the movie Evil Dead. He had no clue about it and I was aghast. Seriously- he prides himself on watching all the B-flicks on SciFi and had never seen this one?? He asked who the cute guy was and I said Hello? Bruce Campbell??? Michael from Burn Notices sometime sidekick. So I bought Army of Darkness and we watched that last night.
This morning was the bike, I got roughly 8 1/4 miles done in 30 minutes. Tomorrow I swim and then I hit the dojo- Kobra Kai never die!- after work.
The past weekend was a bad one at mom and dad's for their NCAA hopes as dad (and my older brother's) alma mater got displaced and so did mom and dad's hometown favorite. Speaking of the NCAA I was laughing to myself about Cornell. When I was a pledge my freshman year they played my alma mater in lax. We the pledge class had to show our support for the team as there was a significant amount of brothers on the varsity lax team. So of course we came up with the truly brilliant idea of spelling out on our chests (in red no less) the phrase "Big Red Gives Head." I like to think that had something to do with Big Red losing that day.
The other highlight of Saturday was my oldest trying to get me to give up the password to my iTunes account. His and his brother's iPod Touches are on my account. He made the comment that he could change the password. I said really and you know the account is attached to my email account. You don't know the password to that and if you do find it out and change anything you will lose your iPod Touch. Of course the usual response was how that was not fair...or cool, I don't really remember but he is almost a teenager so it had to be one of those two.
Saturday we had TK over for dinner. Afterwards we played cards for a while.
Sunday we got up and went for a nice run. the thing is the husband really doesn't know how to do a leisurely run. I said I was setting the pace but of course the run went at a faster pace than I was planning. I would never tell the husband but I think I run better solo than with him. The plus of the run with him was he pointed out all the hot guys, lol. The yellow hoodie with the piercing blue eyes was probably my favorite of the ones he did point out.
The other highlight of Sunday was the husband and I got to go to our dog walker's wedding. I was a bit surprised we got the invite but we love her and the kids love her as well so I was looking forward to it. It was really fun, small, at a restaurant on the Hudson with great views of the city skyline. The funniest part was when she introduced us to her travel agent and his boyfriend. I was laughing because it seemed to me like it was here, meet my other gay friends, you must know each other. The other fun part was trying to figure out of her son is gay or not. We are undecided as to his orientation but he sat at our table and was good dinner company.
Monday we signed the final contract for the cottage down in central Jersey. Now the husband just needs to get a job so he can implement his grand vision for what we will and can do with the house as this pretty much is putting my retirement at a small risk- ah the things we do for love.
I cannot believe they are making the book Freakanomics into a movie- seriously? What's next, Freakanomics- The Musical!?
Jesse Westbrook on BBRG tv looks a lot like a hot guy who worked out at the gym we used to belong to.
A few weeks ago the husband was flipping through the channels and came to the movie Evil Dead. He had no clue about it and I was aghast. Seriously- he prides himself on watching all the B-flicks on SciFi and had never seen this one?? He asked who the cute guy was and I said Hello? Bruce Campbell??? Michael from Burn Notices sometime sidekick. So I bought Army of Darkness and we watched that last night.
This morning was the bike, I got roughly 8 1/4 miles done in 30 minutes. Tomorrow I swim and then I hit the dojo- Kobra Kai never die!- after work.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Reinforcing stereotypes
The bus was pretty light again passenger wise. Although there was one cute guy in a suit though reading the WSJ.
I have to make a correction to my comment about Julian Rifat from yesterday. The picture with the article discussing his arrest was actually accompanied by the owner of the firm he worked for and that would be Louis Bacon- he is the handsome guy.
There was an internal audit team in the office today. I didn't have to deal with them at all as they were there for the tech and ops teams. I noticed three people (apparently corporate feels an audit takes three people) and one of the was this hot blond. I of course checked to see if he was wearing a wedding band- nope.
In the markets today the whole talk was about Portugal getting downgraded. It seems to be starting again- not that it ever really stopped. Combine that with an official from the ECB stating that if the IMF has to get involved that pretty much spells the end of the Eurozone and the euro. the comment I loved was that will pretty much prove the euro is a currency without a country.
The other big thing in the market was the 5 year auction went poorly. The reason was ostensibly because of the 10 year Treasury-swaps spread going negative yesterday. All the "experts" say it was no big deal when it happened yesterday and it was all technically driven. I think when all the experts tell you it is not a big deal it is a big deal. The problem with swaps yielding more than 10 years is it indicates huge fiscal problems- as in we are issuing huge amounts of debt and demand (i.e Chinese buying) is disappearing. We may have a problem rolling the debt we have in the medium term. The only thing that is saving our ass is we have the current reserve currency.
So BAC is now going to consider principal forgiveness for mortgages that are 120% or more than the value of the house. That means someone- equity holders or bond holders- are going to have to eat it. I read today that according to some analysts banks have to either raise another $210 billion in capital or shrink their balance sheets by $3 trillion; if not they are going to be insolvent.
So apparently the state legislators in Mississippi are on a weight loss plan. It was a good story until the end of it when one legislator got quoted as follows: "My daughter says I'm getting sexier every day." Did he really say that?
I have to make a correction to my comment about Julian Rifat from yesterday. The picture with the article discussing his arrest was actually accompanied by the owner of the firm he worked for and that would be Louis Bacon- he is the handsome guy.
There was an internal audit team in the office today. I didn't have to deal with them at all as they were there for the tech and ops teams. I noticed three people (apparently corporate feels an audit takes three people) and one of the was this hot blond. I of course checked to see if he was wearing a wedding band- nope.
In the markets today the whole talk was about Portugal getting downgraded. It seems to be starting again- not that it ever really stopped. Combine that with an official from the ECB stating that if the IMF has to get involved that pretty much spells the end of the Eurozone and the euro. the comment I loved was that will pretty much prove the euro is a currency without a country.
The other big thing in the market was the 5 year auction went poorly. The reason was ostensibly because of the 10 year Treasury-swaps spread going negative yesterday. All the "experts" say it was no big deal when it happened yesterday and it was all technically driven. I think when all the experts tell you it is not a big deal it is a big deal. The problem with swaps yielding more than 10 years is it indicates huge fiscal problems- as in we are issuing huge amounts of debt and demand (i.e Chinese buying) is disappearing. We may have a problem rolling the debt we have in the medium term. The only thing that is saving our ass is we have the current reserve currency.
So BAC is now going to consider principal forgiveness for mortgages that are 120% or more than the value of the house. That means someone- equity holders or bond holders- are going to have to eat it. I read today that according to some analysts banks have to either raise another $210 billion in capital or shrink their balance sheets by $3 trillion; if not they are going to be insolvent.
So apparently the state legislators in Mississippi are on a weight loss plan. It was a good story until the end of it when one legislator got quoted as follows: "My daughter says I'm getting sexier every day." Did he really say that?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sometimes SciFi is ahead of it's time.
Thursday was fun. I had a good run after work and then went of for a few cocktails with a PM who is also a good friend. He had his divorced finalized and wanted to celebrate. I was totally up for it as I had been a good source of information on the whole process.
I then met the husband at a bar for some more cocktails and bar food. We had to sit with a bunch of women. They were nice, one of them worked for a gossip magazine and of course we brought up the whole Sandra Bullock issue. They then asked us if the three hot guys at the table behind us were gay, lol. I commented I thought two of them were and the husband disagreed but the women after observing the three of them agreed with me that two of them probably were.
This weekend was awesome weather. The boys were with us and we had a great time. Saturday I hit the dojo- sweep the leg!- in the morning and then the boys and I went to the pier park in Hoboken. We brought lunch and a football and spent a few hours there tossing the pigskin around which was a bit difficult for me to focus on as there was tons of eye candy and there was this one hot shirtless blond guy laying there...woof.
We then went home and relaxed a bit while the husband made us dinner. He made his awesome meatloaf and the oldest loved it. The youngest had his usual-chicken fingers. We then sat down and watched Young Frankenstein. I forgot how great that movie was and the boys thought it was hilarious.
Sunday morning I got motivated and got up early and went for a run. I ran about 6 miles in a bit over 45 minutes. I felt good after the run and the husband wanted to know if the hot doorman commented on my tight tee shirt and shorts that showed off my assets, lol.
The boys and I repeated our lunch at the pier park and than actually had a nice walk. I had to make dessert for our dinner guests that night. I decided to go with an apple and poached pear pie. The problem though was I had to use this gluten free pie crust mix and it did not come out well at all. I took the boys home and got back to help the husband get ready for our dinner guests. The husband made an amazing monkfish and really good mashed potatoes.
The bus this morning was empty, I think I was one of five people on the bus.
Chris Evans is going to be Steve Rogers in the movies- woo hoo! As Mr. Clifford said, I hope Captain America is shirtless a lot.
So the trader Julian Rifat got arrested for insider trading in London by the FSA. He is one handsome man, too bad he has been accused of illegal activity. Speaking of the FSA they are considering recording the calls made on cell phones of all traders. It is a concern for me and I wonder if I should move back to getting the work issued crackberry and get a separate cell phone.
So it seems India has militarized chili- the infamous ghost chili no less.
The series Invasion on SciFi was pretty good and I think it got short shrift from both its original network (ABC) and SciFi. I thought of it when I read the article of how there is a worldwide, silent invasion going on. It appears there is a certain jelly fish that is immortal and is expanding its range of habitat.
I then met the husband at a bar for some more cocktails and bar food. We had to sit with a bunch of women. They were nice, one of them worked for a gossip magazine and of course we brought up the whole Sandra Bullock issue. They then asked us if the three hot guys at the table behind us were gay, lol. I commented I thought two of them were and the husband disagreed but the women after observing the three of them agreed with me that two of them probably were.
This weekend was awesome weather. The boys were with us and we had a great time. Saturday I hit the dojo- sweep the leg!- in the morning and then the boys and I went to the pier park in Hoboken. We brought lunch and a football and spent a few hours there tossing the pigskin around which was a bit difficult for me to focus on as there was tons of eye candy and there was this one hot shirtless blond guy laying there...woof.
We then went home and relaxed a bit while the husband made us dinner. He made his awesome meatloaf and the oldest loved it. The youngest had his usual-chicken fingers. We then sat down and watched Young Frankenstein. I forgot how great that movie was and the boys thought it was hilarious.
Sunday morning I got motivated and got up early and went for a run. I ran about 6 miles in a bit over 45 minutes. I felt good after the run and the husband wanted to know if the hot doorman commented on my tight tee shirt and shorts that showed off my assets, lol.
The boys and I repeated our lunch at the pier park and than actually had a nice walk. I had to make dessert for our dinner guests that night. I decided to go with an apple and poached pear pie. The problem though was I had to use this gluten free pie crust mix and it did not come out well at all. I took the boys home and got back to help the husband get ready for our dinner guests. The husband made an amazing monkfish and really good mashed potatoes.
The bus this morning was empty, I think I was one of five people on the bus.
Chris Evans is going to be Steve Rogers in the movies- woo hoo! As Mr. Clifford said, I hope Captain America is shirtless a lot.
So the trader Julian Rifat got arrested for insider trading in London by the FSA. He is one handsome man, too bad he has been accused of illegal activity. Speaking of the FSA they are considering recording the calls made on cell phones of all traders. It is a concern for me and I wonder if I should move back to getting the work issued crackberry and get a separate cell phone.
So it seems India has militarized chili- the infamous ghost chili no less.
The series Invasion on SciFi was pretty good and I think it got short shrift from both its original network (ABC) and SciFi. I thought of it when I read the article of how there is a worldwide, silent invasion going on. It appears there is a certain jelly fish that is immortal and is expanding its range of habitat.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Erin go frack yourself
Ah St. Patrick's Day- a high holy day for my peoples. I committed heresy by not wearing green today. I did not drink green beer and I detest corned beef and cabbage. Seriously- who the frack actually enjoys boiled meat? I am fairly certain lamb stew would be a more authentic Irish dish and that I would love for dinner.
I swam this morning and I felt pretty good about it. It was the distance workout so I basically just swam the entire time and didn't bother keeping track if I was doing he work out or not, lol.
If I was Mr. Bernake I'd have been pissed that I had to face Congress and answer questions with the guy who had my job 20 years ago. Seriously, what a slap in the face that he had to sit next to Mr. Volcker while getting grilled by the likes of Maxine Waters.
I see Germany basically told Greece to go frack themselves. It seems that now Germany thinks it is a great idea for Greece to seek help from the IMF. That is a big u-turn and could be the crack in the EU that splits it apart. We'll see.
One of the biggest mistakes anyone in my line of work can do- and everyone does it at some point- is to make the data try and fir your thesis instead of changing your thesis when the data makes it seem the thesis is wrong. IT would seem even Mr. Birinyi has fallen prey to it. He has said that the VIX no longer has any correlation to what the market does, basically just ignore it.
I have not had a real vacation in more than a year and a half. The husband for some strange reason thinks taking a vacation together is a good test of a relationship- apparently living together 3 1/2 years and being married is not good enough- go figure, lol. So yesterday we planned our first proper vacation together. We are going to Play del Carmen for a week. Woo-hoo! The ironic thing is I found out last night that JP is going there later this month. It will be good to have the intell from his trip before we go there.
I swam this morning and I felt pretty good about it. It was the distance workout so I basically just swam the entire time and didn't bother keeping track if I was doing he work out or not, lol.
If I was Mr. Bernake I'd have been pissed that I had to face Congress and answer questions with the guy who had my job 20 years ago. Seriously, what a slap in the face that he had to sit next to Mr. Volcker while getting grilled by the likes of Maxine Waters.
I see Germany basically told Greece to go frack themselves. It seems that now Germany thinks it is a great idea for Greece to seek help from the IMF. That is a big u-turn and could be the crack in the EU that splits it apart. We'll see.
One of the biggest mistakes anyone in my line of work can do- and everyone does it at some point- is to make the data try and fir your thesis instead of changing your thesis when the data makes it seem the thesis is wrong. IT would seem even Mr. Birinyi has fallen prey to it. He has said that the VIX no longer has any correlation to what the market does, basically just ignore it.
I have not had a real vacation in more than a year and a half. The husband for some strange reason thinks taking a vacation together is a good test of a relationship- apparently living together 3 1/2 years and being married is not good enough- go figure, lol. So yesterday we planned our first proper vacation together. We are going to Play del Carmen for a week. Woo-hoo! The ironic thing is I found out last night that JP is going there later this month. It will be good to have the intell from his trip before we go there.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Futterwhacking
Was I the only one who missed all the warnings about the nor'easter this past weekend? Oh, wait all the weather reports said was we were going to get was some rain. The wind and rain did not let up the entire weekend. The kids were not happy getting walked at any point during the weekend. The weirdest part was the hail hitting the windows Sunday morning. The wind gusts on the 17th floor were kind of scary as well.
Saturday night we watched The Hurt Locker. I thought it was pretty damn good and definitely better than Green Zone. Jeremy Renner and Brian Geraghty are both smokin'.
Sunday I went to the gym and ran. I ran for 45 minutes and got a bit over 4 miles which I am ok with as a distance. There was a hot latin guy getting on the elliptical machines in a white tank and baseball hat with great guns as I was finishing. That night we had PJ and ST over for dinner. The husband made an awesome dinner and the gluten free chocolate cake was really good surprisingly. PJ loved the view and apparently that is all he talked about on the ride home much to ST's chagrin.
So Monday morning the boss was all scruffy and dishevelled. It seems he lost electricity Saturday morning and was told he would not get t back until Wednesday- ha!
I had today off. The sister-in-law is off for spring break. We were thinking of going to Pennsylvania for a day of snowboarding. That idea was a big bust as the rain over the weekend rain pretty much got rid of the snow and today was sunny and 60. Instead we took her to a movie and are treating her to dinner for her birthday which is tomorrow.
We saw the new Alice In Wonderland. The 3D was cool but I have to say the movie was not that good. The plot pretty much sucked and seriously- how many more whacky, crazy characters can Johnny Depp play that much differently? The whole dance scene at the end- futterwhacking- was solely to try and seem hip I think. The SciFi network did it much better with their version fo Alice.
Yesterday in the WSJ they had a photo shoot of some athletes in the newest, hottest fashions. The ones that caught my eye were Julian Illingworth (squash), Ryan Lochette (swimming) and Giuseppe Lanzone (don't recall what sport he played). Then on BBRG tv there was a really cute/hot reporter talking- one Phil Mattingly. I pulled up his profile and hit the chat function by mistake, lol. I shut it down before it started though.
So apparently the less famous and less often quoted half of the Case/Schiller duo- that would be Professor Case- thinks it is even odds that the housing market has bottomed. Call me crazy but if I am going to invest money in something I want better than even odds I am going to make money. I might as well toss a coin.
There was a Fed meeting today and there really isn't anything they could do that would shock the markets and of course there was nothing they did from what I read on my emails.
Swimming tomorrow morning. Think I am going to take a different tack with the people in the lane and let them know I am just going to swim laps and if they need to pass me they can.
Saturday night we watched The Hurt Locker. I thought it was pretty damn good and definitely better than Green Zone. Jeremy Renner and Brian Geraghty are both smokin'.
Sunday I went to the gym and ran. I ran for 45 minutes and got a bit over 4 miles which I am ok with as a distance. There was a hot latin guy getting on the elliptical machines in a white tank and baseball hat with great guns as I was finishing. That night we had PJ and ST over for dinner. The husband made an awesome dinner and the gluten free chocolate cake was really good surprisingly. PJ loved the view and apparently that is all he talked about on the ride home much to ST's chagrin.
So Monday morning the boss was all scruffy and dishevelled. It seems he lost electricity Saturday morning and was told he would not get t back until Wednesday- ha!
I had today off. The sister-in-law is off for spring break. We were thinking of going to Pennsylvania for a day of snowboarding. That idea was a big bust as the rain over the weekend rain pretty much got rid of the snow and today was sunny and 60. Instead we took her to a movie and are treating her to dinner for her birthday which is tomorrow.
We saw the new Alice In Wonderland. The 3D was cool but I have to say the movie was not that good. The plot pretty much sucked and seriously- how many more whacky, crazy characters can Johnny Depp play that much differently? The whole dance scene at the end- futterwhacking- was solely to try and seem hip I think. The SciFi network did it much better with their version fo Alice.
Yesterday in the WSJ they had a photo shoot of some athletes in the newest, hottest fashions. The ones that caught my eye were Julian Illingworth (squash), Ryan Lochette (swimming) and Giuseppe Lanzone (don't recall what sport he played). Then on BBRG tv there was a really cute/hot reporter talking- one Phil Mattingly. I pulled up his profile and hit the chat function by mistake, lol. I shut it down before it started though.
So apparently the less famous and less often quoted half of the Case/Schiller duo- that would be Professor Case- thinks it is even odds that the housing market has bottomed. Call me crazy but if I am going to invest money in something I want better than even odds I am going to make money. I might as well toss a coin.
There was a Fed meeting today and there really isn't anything they could do that would shock the markets and of course there was nothing they did from what I read on my emails.
Swimming tomorrow morning. Think I am going to take a different tack with the people in the lane and let them know I am just going to swim laps and if they need to pass me they can.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The ugly bus runs later
The hot guy who read the WSJ I saw on the bus every morning this week except Friday. Friday I was up late and caught a bus about 40 minutes later than normal. The later bus is sort of like the short bus for looks. Seriously, there was not a single good looking ugly on that bus! I will definitely make sure that I my alarm is set properly from now on.
Last week was interesting. Wednesday I wore a suit and tie to work as that morning I had to go to the offices of someone the firm does business with and I needed to make sure I represented the firm properly. I had to wake the husband up to make sure my tie matched. He was not happy about that, lol.
Wednesday night the husband and I went out to dinner. We had a good discussion about the house. He agrees the widow has to pay for the septic or we walk. He also suggested we should look at some other houses in the area. So of course Thursday I found some other houses on trulia. Tomorrow morning we are going to look at three houses, two with the listing realtors and the third is an open house.
Friday the boss gave me my review. It went fine as the boss said all he did was look at last year's review and copy and paste all his comments. I laughed and told him I had done the same for my part of it. We both hate the things as the are really kind of asinine. He received a nasty email from corporate HR telling him he had to have them all done by Monday. I then went to the gym and biked for 45 minutes and got 13 1/2 miles done. I then met eh husband and TK at the theater and we saw Green Zone.
I was not that keen to see Green Zone as I figured it was just going to be another Bourne type vehicle for Matt Damon. I was wrong and the movie was actually pretty good. The guy who played Marty Stone I thought did a great job as did the guy who played Al Rowi. Afterwards we had a late dinner at cookshop. I had the rabbit and the sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
Tomorrow we have PJ and ST coming up for dinner. The husband is making lamb and I will be making chocolate cake for dessert.
It seems that the state of New Jersey will allow same sex couples to identify as married on the federal census. I am not quite sure how that happens as the Census is a federal program and federally funded. It also makes me wonder why doesn't the state then just allow same sex marriage of they are allowing the gays to identify themselves as married on a federal government form? Of course the husband and I will be identifying as married when we do the census.
Saw a video on YHOO sports and thought the Raptors player Jose Calderon looked hot. Upon some further work on GOOG I thought maybe not so hot but passable. The guy in the blue sweater though for the .tel ads- his name in the ad is Ben- is really cute though.
I had to laugh when I read about Prodi saying the whole Greece crisis is over and Greece is safe and fine. That is so not the case but it seems that the EU official think if they keep saying things are well that will become true.
I don't know how the President expects to double our exports. The only way that can happen is if the dollar gets devalued or the cost of producing goods here falls appreciably versus the rest of the world. I don't see how the latter will happen and the former could happen but everyone else will do the same thing and that is what happened in the Depression.
I read about a book discussing identity politics and how GSCO and West Point are very similar. I had to laugh at that analogy and I laughed at the term identity politics. Identity politics is code for sociology. The economist is just too embarrassed to call it that as all the other economists will make fun of him.
Last week was interesting. Wednesday I wore a suit and tie to work as that morning I had to go to the offices of someone the firm does business with and I needed to make sure I represented the firm properly. I had to wake the husband up to make sure my tie matched. He was not happy about that, lol.
Wednesday night the husband and I went out to dinner. We had a good discussion about the house. He agrees the widow has to pay for the septic or we walk. He also suggested we should look at some other houses in the area. So of course Thursday I found some other houses on trulia. Tomorrow morning we are going to look at three houses, two with the listing realtors and the third is an open house.
Friday the boss gave me my review. It went fine as the boss said all he did was look at last year's review and copy and paste all his comments. I laughed and told him I had done the same for my part of it. We both hate the things as the are really kind of asinine. He received a nasty email from corporate HR telling him he had to have them all done by Monday. I then went to the gym and biked for 45 minutes and got 13 1/2 miles done. I then met eh husband and TK at the theater and we saw Green Zone.
I was not that keen to see Green Zone as I figured it was just going to be another Bourne type vehicle for Matt Damon. I was wrong and the movie was actually pretty good. The guy who played Marty Stone I thought did a great job as did the guy who played Al Rowi. Afterwards we had a late dinner at cookshop. I had the rabbit and the sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
Tomorrow we have PJ and ST coming up for dinner. The husband is making lamb and I will be making chocolate cake for dessert.
It seems that the state of New Jersey will allow same sex couples to identify as married on the federal census. I am not quite sure how that happens as the Census is a federal program and federally funded. It also makes me wonder why doesn't the state then just allow same sex marriage of they are allowing the gays to identify themselves as married on a federal government form? Of course the husband and I will be identifying as married when we do the census.
Saw a video on YHOO sports and thought the Raptors player Jose Calderon looked hot. Upon some further work on GOOG I thought maybe not so hot but passable. The guy in the blue sweater though for the .tel ads- his name in the ad is Ben- is really cute though.
I had to laugh when I read about Prodi saying the whole Greece crisis is over and Greece is safe and fine. That is so not the case but it seems that the EU official think if they keep saying things are well that will become true.
I don't know how the President expects to double our exports. The only way that can happen is if the dollar gets devalued or the cost of producing goods here falls appreciably versus the rest of the world. I don't see how the latter will happen and the former could happen but everyone else will do the same thing and that is what happened in the Depression.
I read about a book discussing identity politics and how GSCO and West Point are very similar. I had to laugh at that analogy and I laughed at the term identity politics. Identity politics is code for sociology. The economist is just too embarrassed to call it that as all the other economists will make fun of him.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Uninterestium
Last week was kinda sucked. The husband and I were engaged in a "discussion" about the house and the attendant septic issue. I'm pretty sure we've reached detente about the whole situation and I will wait before I bring it up again. Wednesday CNN was in our office interviewing one of our more senior PMs (who I also happen to trade for) so I had to wear a suit and tie. Well not really but I thought better of my usual relaxed look. You never know if you are going to end up on national television and you have to represent the company properly. I did find out an interesting fact though from MP. I had worn a Brooks Brother tie with my suit. Thursday morning the husband IMed me asking what I was doing with a Brooks Brother tie in our home. I was completely perplexed by the question as I see nothing wrong with a Brooks Brother tie. I IMed MP and asked her and her response was yuck. Apparently those two Eurocentric fashion snobs deem Brooks Brothers as not up to snuff. MP was even more horrified when I mentioned I got home and kept my tie and shirt and pants on 'til I went to bed. She inquired as to whether I own and wear corduroy slippers as well. I still don't get that reference but whatever.
Friday morning Northface was a new hot guy on the bus. It made for a fun ride in.
The whole NFP number was a bit of a joke. The government had set it up so no matter what the number was the spin would be positive. If you think I am wrong then just look at one factoid all the talking heads commented on: Over 1 million people did not go to work due to the snowstorms. If they had the number would have been better. Well hello, if those people couldn't get to work it means they already had a job so it would not have impacted the NFP number anyways. It did however impact the hours worked component of the data.
We had the boys this past weekend. It was actually a pretty fun and relaxing weekend. Saturday was faux St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken- also known as amateur day. It is one of the biggest drunk fests in Hoboken annually. I went to the dojo but decided the boys did not need to come with me so they got to stay home. No need to expose them to all the drunks at 10 AM in the morning.
The rest of the day I just limped around the house after getting beat up a bit at the dojo. The husband offered to make dinner and of course my oldest was all over that as he believes the husband is the second best cook he knows- second only to his maternal grandmother.
The husband made what I can only describe as the Italian version of coq au vin- and I probably just insulted the Italians and French by referring to pollo da conovo as that. I made gluten free brownies for dessert. As gross as that sounds the gluten free brownies were actually pretty good and tasted like real brownies.
Funny thing about dessert. All day my oldest was extremely flatulent. As we were sitting down to dinner the husband says no farting at the dinner table. Of course about half way through dinner my oldest lifts a cheek and rips ass. The husband tells him no dessert.Then my youngest starts acting up and the husband tells him no dessert as well. I back him up on this. Of course about a hour later I see the husband sneaking the boys brownies. WTF??? He says they were all mopey and he felt bad for them.
Saturday night we watched a pretty good B horror movie called The Short Cut. the oldest was saying it was probably going to be lame but he watched the entire movie and commented on how intense and good it was.
Sunday we went to the American Museum of Natural History. I wanted to see the narwhal skeleton Mr. Barrett recommended. We couldn't find it but we did go into the butterfly conservatory. In case you were wondering yes the oldest thought it was not going to be cool and wanted to know why we didn't go see the lizard show instead. But once we got in there he smiled and admitted it was really cool and fun. Everyone all had butterflies alight on them and I got pictures of all of them. We then checked out the dinosaurs fossils, the extreme mammals and the ocean room.
We stopped at WFMI on the way home and I bought more gluten free products one of which was banana bread. i made that when I got home and the husband and I had left over pollo da conovo then banana bread for dessert.
The Oscars were last night and of course we did not watch them. I am glad that Hurt Locker won as I cannot stand James Cameron. I think Titanic was not a great flick. I think Avatar did not win because it was a derivative, crappy plot and the only thing interesting about it was the special effects. Seriously- couldn't they have come up with some name other than unobtainium? How frackin' asinine is that? Hence the title of the post since I have not seen the movie and have no interest in it or in enriching James Cameron any more than he needs. Isn't he already the king of the world by his own proclamation- what does he need my money for? I also loved the irony of his ex-wife kicking his ass in the awards.
Friday morning Northface was a new hot guy on the bus. It made for a fun ride in.
The whole NFP number was a bit of a joke. The government had set it up so no matter what the number was the spin would be positive. If you think I am wrong then just look at one factoid all the talking heads commented on: Over 1 million people did not go to work due to the snowstorms. If they had the number would have been better. Well hello, if those people couldn't get to work it means they already had a job so it would not have impacted the NFP number anyways. It did however impact the hours worked component of the data.
We had the boys this past weekend. It was actually a pretty fun and relaxing weekend. Saturday was faux St. Patrick's Day in Hoboken- also known as amateur day. It is one of the biggest drunk fests in Hoboken annually. I went to the dojo but decided the boys did not need to come with me so they got to stay home. No need to expose them to all the drunks at 10 AM in the morning.
The rest of the day I just limped around the house after getting beat up a bit at the dojo. The husband offered to make dinner and of course my oldest was all over that as he believes the husband is the second best cook he knows- second only to his maternal grandmother.
The husband made what I can only describe as the Italian version of coq au vin- and I probably just insulted the Italians and French by referring to pollo da conovo as that. I made gluten free brownies for dessert. As gross as that sounds the gluten free brownies were actually pretty good and tasted like real brownies.
Funny thing about dessert. All day my oldest was extremely flatulent. As we were sitting down to dinner the husband says no farting at the dinner table. Of course about half way through dinner my oldest lifts a cheek and rips ass. The husband tells him no dessert.Then my youngest starts acting up and the husband tells him no dessert as well. I back him up on this. Of course about a hour later I see the husband sneaking the boys brownies. WTF??? He says they were all mopey and he felt bad for them.
Saturday night we watched a pretty good B horror movie called The Short Cut. the oldest was saying it was probably going to be lame but he watched the entire movie and commented on how intense and good it was.
Sunday we went to the American Museum of Natural History. I wanted to see the narwhal skeleton Mr. Barrett recommended. We couldn't find it but we did go into the butterfly conservatory. In case you were wondering yes the oldest thought it was not going to be cool and wanted to know why we didn't go see the lizard show instead. But once we got in there he smiled and admitted it was really cool and fun. Everyone all had butterflies alight on them and I got pictures of all of them. We then checked out the dinosaurs fossils, the extreme mammals and the ocean room.
We stopped at WFMI on the way home and I bought more gluten free products one of which was banana bread. i made that when I got home and the husband and I had left over pollo da conovo then banana bread for dessert.
The Oscars were last night and of course we did not watch them. I am glad that Hurt Locker won as I cannot stand James Cameron. I think Titanic was not a great flick. I think Avatar did not win because it was a derivative, crappy plot and the only thing interesting about it was the special effects. Seriously- couldn't they have come up with some name other than unobtainium? How frackin' asinine is that? Hence the title of the post since I have not seen the movie and have no interest in it or in enriching James Cameron any more than he needs. Isn't he already the king of the world by his own proclamation- what does he need my money for? I also loved the irony of his ex-wife kicking his ass in the awards.
Monday, March 1, 2010
With Gilligan, the skipper too
This weekend was very busy. The husband tricked me Saturday morning into cleaning the walls and baseboards. It was supposedly all part of the ruse we were part of for SP's surprise 40th birthday party.
Sunday we were in a boating class all day- literally from 9 to 5- that ended with a 50 question multiple choice test. I got 48 out of 50, the husband got 49 out of 50. We are now both certified to skipper (not captain as that is a separate test and licensing procedure) small boats. Then I showered up and changed clothes and was off to a wake.
The bus ride this morning was pleasant and easy on the eyes- quite a few new guys I have not seen before.
I recall back in the mid '90s how el nino got blamed for all manner of economic maladies. I bring this up because you are going to see all manner of economic maladies coming up blamed on all of the snow storms we've seen here in the northeast. If you doubt me just google what Larry Summers said today. His comment was that you should not look at the upcoming jobless numbers and instead focus on March. If that is not foreshadowing that the employment numbers are going to suck I don't know what is.
So, even though many seem to think the housing market has bottomed or is close to bottoming the FHFA seems to think differently. They have extended the HARP program for another full year. So, if the cause of the current downturn is still not fixed/working properly, what does that indicate about the economy in general?
Funny, how on BBRG today there was an article about how those thrifty Scots are preparing for the next currency/debt crisis- the British pound would be the one next to fall in their eyes. It really is only a matter of time before we have to pay our dues as well.
Sunday we were in a boating class all day- literally from 9 to 5- that ended with a 50 question multiple choice test. I got 48 out of 50, the husband got 49 out of 50. We are now both certified to skipper (not captain as that is a separate test and licensing procedure) small boats. Then I showered up and changed clothes and was off to a wake.
The bus ride this morning was pleasant and easy on the eyes- quite a few new guys I have not seen before.
I recall back in the mid '90s how el nino got blamed for all manner of economic maladies. I bring this up because you are going to see all manner of economic maladies coming up blamed on all of the snow storms we've seen here in the northeast. If you doubt me just google what Larry Summers said today. His comment was that you should not look at the upcoming jobless numbers and instead focus on March. If that is not foreshadowing that the employment numbers are going to suck I don't know what is.
So, even though many seem to think the housing market has bottomed or is close to bottoming the FHFA seems to think differently. They have extended the HARP program for another full year. So, if the cause of the current downturn is still not fixed/working properly, what does that indicate about the economy in general?
Funny, how on BBRG today there was an article about how those thrifty Scots are preparing for the next currency/debt crisis- the British pound would be the one next to fall in their eyes. It really is only a matter of time before we have to pay our dues as well.
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