He sounds like a porn star

The bus ride this morning was nice.  There was this major hottie- def one of those black Irish types.  Since he was wearing a pea coat that is his name.  I noticed him sort of late in the ride as I had been reading most of the commute in.  I looked up and saw this boy and thought woof.  then I saw some blond floozy sitting next to him trying to chat him up.  She was flirting and poorly with him- if I had sat next to him I'd have done much better.

So Syracuse is playing in the Pin Stripe Bowl here in Gotham.  I happened to check out the roster for SU and there was one guy- I believe he is injured and sitting out he season- who is on it that I definitely noticed  His name also seems o sound like a gay porn star name- Cody Catalina.  I think he would do well as a wide receiver...

All you need to know about the markets for the coming year is that China is tightening and they are ratcheting up the stealth trade war that is going on.  That will have major implications for everyone else in the world.

One has to wonder what the government knows or is thinking when they change how the measure unemployment.  Currently- as it has been for the past thirty three years- the government stopped keeping track of how long one is unemployed after the two year mark is hit.  Even if one has been unemployed for 4 years, the government records it as two years.  Now they will be keeping track for up to five years.

The commute home tonight really sucked ass.  I left the office at roughly 4:45 and did not walk into the apartment until 6:45; seriously, WTF is that all about other that Hoboken is still a complete mess because of the blizzard.

It's apparently only Newport these days

So it was quite an adventure.  I got up my usual time figuring it would be an interesting commute.  I had to high step it through a good twenty inches of drifting snow along the Hudson to get to Hoboken Terminal.  I got about halfway there when I cam face to face with a cute guy in sweats, a big puffy jacket and ski hat who had apparently stopped to rest as he was laboriously breathing- almost rasping.  He said oh, cool you've made a path for me.  I should have said yeah, it leads back to my apartment, go wait there for me to get home, lol.  I did not.  I got to the terminal and my usual coffee guy was not open.  The buses were not running but Dunkin' Donuts was open so I got an ice coffee- garnering stares from the guy behind the counter.  Then it was on the PATH.

NYC on a snow day before 7 AM is a ghost town.  It was actually really cool until I stepped into a huge slush puddle.

I was one of only two people in my area that made it in and I think a total of twenty people at most made it in.  Not a big deal as most everyone else logged on from home and it was not a problem.

The day was painfully slow.  The only thing that saved it was being semi-short handed, so it seemed busy.  One of the senior people made it in and he came down to say he was ordering pizza for everyone who made it in.  He is notorious for having alligator arms so we joked one pizza is not enough- behind his back of course, lol.

Tonight I was supposed to hop on the train down to the cottage, spend the night at PJ and ST's farm with my parents and the husband.  Of course NJ Transit did not cooperate.  There was no train traffic between NY Penn Station and Newark Penn Station.  No problem so I figured I'd hop in the PATH to Journal Square and catch the WTC line to Newark Penn Station.  Except there was no PATH service between Journal Square and Newark Penn Station.  Back on the PATH to Pavonia/Newport, called the husband and told him I'd be down on the first train tomorrow morning.

When I got off the PATH I then realized it is no longer the Pavonia/Newprt Station.  It is now solely the Newport Station.  Maybe I am just old school but I liked it better as Pavonia/Newport and think they should have dropped the Newport moniker instead.

I caught a show The Rules of Engagement and have to say Oliver Hudson is pretty damn hot.  I of course had to wiki him and found out he is the son of Goldie Hawn and was on Dawson's Creek.

Thunder snow

Christmas Eve was great.  I picked up the boys around 10 AM and they were getting ready for what they thought was the usual drive back to Jersey City and when I pulled into the drive way of the cottage they both freaked out in a good way and were totally psyched the husband and I bought the cottage.  They were beyond happy.  We decorated the Christmas tree and then they got to open their gifts.  The net books were a big hit and the husband got them cases for them for when they are travelling.  I took them back to their mom's mid-afternoon and hooked up their new wifi router there.  There was a big argument of what to name the network so I named it after their cat and then created a password since they could no agree on one.

Next I was off to PJ and ST's farm as the husband and I made a huge Christmas Eve dinner.  There was maple-sage butter basted turkey, string beans with ginger and garlic, potato mousseline, spiked cranberry relish (it was spiked with Gran Marnier), gravy, cornbread stuffing with apples and jalapenos and then regular stuffing.  For dessert I had made two things Thursday night when I arrived at the farm- a Christmas cake and a new recipe, spiced sweet potato pudding.  The pudding was a huge fail- most likely because I did not have all the proper equipment, as in a food processor.  The cake was a hit though.

Christmas morning we slept in late, then went across the road to do some cleaning up and a bit more work on the cottage.  We then picked up coffee and donuts.  Back to the farm and time to open presents.  I loved everything Santa brought me, the husband loved everything Santa brought him especially the iPad he got.  the husband has decided it will stay at the cottage and be used as a house computer.

Then it was time to shower up and off to my brother's house for Christmas dinner with his family and my parents.  We had a blast and it wasn't even because we did not have to do the cooking.  It was nice to see my parents, brother and sister-in-law but the nephews were the bet part.  Toddlers are awesome especially when they are not yours.

We got back to the farm and watched some television and had some left overs.  Then bed time.

This morning we got up, headed over to the cottage and finished off the flooring.  Well not all of it actually, I still need to install two reducers between the hallway and the bed rooms.  After that we are done with hardwood installations.

I grabbed an early train back as I have to work tonight in Asia and there is a blizzard hitting the area.  The walk from the PATH station to the building totally aspirated.  The wind drove the snow into my face and started giving me a headache.  The weirdest part though was hearing the thunder.  I had read that thunder and lightning are possible during snow storms but had never heard nor seen either.  Well as of tonight I have experienced both and it is pretty cool...

Short one tonight

So my cold is pretty much gone.  Thank you oh mighty neti pot!

Ernst & Young is basically screwed to the wall if the NY AG does actually bring fraud charges against them.  IT will be Arthur Anderson all over again.

I'd have to say North Korea blinked in a big way after all.  I am surprised at the lame response they gave too.

So it seems that some people are catching onto the idea that France 's credit rating could be at risk.  Yet another step towards the eventual core falling apart.

Surprisingly busy tonight fr work.  The husband is down at the cottage because the electrician came this afternoon and finished the installation of the remaining high hat lights in the kitchen.  This week will be slightly hectic.  Tomorrow night I am meeting up with some fraternity brothers for drinks in the city, Wednesday night I am going to guess I will still be busy and Thursday night I am off down to the cottage for Christmas.

Sell out

Friday night I picked the boys up and we drove back to the apartment in Jersey City.  As we were driving Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition" came on.  My oldest said he loved the song and asked me to turn it up so I did and on a whim asked if he wanted to sing along with me.  He said sure!  LOL!  I really don't know all the lyrics whereas he did and he totally surprised me.  It was one of the better highlights of being a dad and was very cool/sweet that he agreed to sing along with me.

The husband got up early and went down to the cottage as he had to meet the electrician to handle putting in the high hat lights in the kitchen.  He decided to spend the whole day down there and he cleaned up and organized the garage and cleaned out the screened in porch as it had lots of scrap wood and crap on it.  The boys and I had a fun day.

We spent the entire afternoon on the ice rink in front of the building.  It was typical of my sons.  They really did not want to ice skate and dragged their feet getting ready.  Once we were on the ice though they could not get enough.  Almost two hours later I told them me toes were starting to get cold and I had to make dinner.  We first ran to TGT to get something to watch something watch for the evening as I was still fighting the cold I had and did not want to go out.  So we ended up getting Supernatural Season 5.  Dinner was homemade sauce, meatballs and rigatoni.  then everyone showered up and got a bowl of candy and we settled in to watch tv.  We made it through the first disc (the first four episodes) when it was pretty late and everyone wanted to go to bed.

This morning we were up sort of late.  I had to have the boys back to their mom's house early today because they had a Christmas party to attend.  I dropped them off then went right over to the cottage where I had to cut out some of the kitchen ceiling to accommodate the remainder of the high hat lights going into the kitchen.

Then we showered up at PJ and ST's house across the road and were off to a Christmas party a co-worker of mine had invited us to.  We had the kids with us and we left them in the car with their sweaters on and went to the party.  I took a break and went outside to have a dip and let the kids out to do their business and my co-worker came out to meet them.  She was very impressed with how well behaved they were and that they listened to me.

I am surprised at how quickly Vampire Weekend has sold out with their song "Holiday."  Seriously  it is being used for everything and has gotten to the point of annoying.  The only ads with Christmas music that I find more annoying are those Toyota ads with the hipster looking group singing.

So it looks like some one's bluff is about to get called over on the Korean Peninsula.  The South is going ahead with their live artillery drills and the North has vowed to attack if they do.  Then I read a headline tonight (yes I am actually working as I write this) about a refinery that exploded in the South.  I immediately went to GOOG maps and checked out where it was and it is far south of the DMZ.  Still, who knows how many sleeper cells the North has in the South.

This week at work is a shortened one.  It should be fairly quiet and tame barring a hot war in Korea.

That is an odd gift

I am definitely close to getting some kind of sinus issue.  So it is neti pot season.  That is also why I blew off the gym this morning. 

So Ryan Reynolds is getting divorced.  I told the husband I have dibs on him but I will share him. 

The husband asked me what the Huffington Post is.  I thought he was joking.  Incredulously he was not joking.  He is not a big reader of blogs or news on the Internet.  I told him he was a Luddite and needed to get with the program.

A person we do business with over in Europe sent us each a gift today.  It was a do it yourself canoli kit.  WTF?  Seriously, the really only acceptable holiday gift for people in our line of work is booze plain and simple.  Total fail.  I gave mine to one of the guys in ops who is of Italian descent.

So now the ratings agencies think they see something bad coming down the pike with the Eurozone periphery?  Greece was put on watch for a possible downgrade.  That didn't really shock anyone and it gained most of the headline but if you took the time to read through the whole statement you would have seen that twenty four German banks were also put on watch.  That would be the first strike at the core of the Eurozone.  Yet everyone over here doesn't seem to care and kept buying.  It also helps that tomorrow is an expiration and supposedly some big gamma trade is in the offing.

I was supposed to have drinks with my bond friend tonight but he had to cancel as he had his company Christmas holiday party.  Looks like we won't meet up until after the new year.

I happened to be surfing thru the channels and came to an ad on DIY- holy crap Mark Bartelomo is hot!

A fantasy land

It was a bit cold this morning.  Thankfully the husband had found all the winter gloves and I did not have to wear my running gloves; I had nice, thick, fleece lined ones.

The bus was a bit annoying this morning as a rather large boned guy decided to sit next to me and he was definitely crowding me and invading my space.

On this day 37 years ago the United States deemed that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.  Yet it would seem many citizens still think it may be or is a mortal sin damning homosexuals to the eternal flames of the deepest pit in Hell.

I am getting somewhat annoyed at all the babbling heads on tv- including former President Clinton- who keep talking about the huge pile of cash U.S. companies are sitting on.  Hasn't anyone heard of double entry accounting?  They are only focusing on one side of the balance sheet.

You know when Governor-elect Jerry Brown tells Californians they have been living in a fantasy land and are in for some tough choices things have got to be bad.  I recall the guy as always being a bit of a nut job.  Maybe it is appropriate that they need to hear it from him.

So last night my oldest and I had a really good heart to heart talk.  When I spoke to them I reminded my oldest that he needs to keep working on his grades because even though he is not a big fan of school it is important.  I ended the conversation with asking him if he is smoking pot.  I explained to him I had read an article on BBRG discussing how 8th, 10th and 12th graders are all smoking cigarettes less but more pot.  After I hung up he sent me a text saying he was pissed I was accusing him of getting not great grades because he was smoking pot and assuming he was retarded to be doing that.  I immediately called him and told him that is not at all what I meant.  I told him I do not think he is but when I read how more and more 8th graders are smoking pot I was concerned.  We spoke for a good half hour and he asked questions about my history with pot, etc.  I explained to him that pretty much everyone he is related to except for his grand parents have tried pot.  I explained to him I and his mom are fairly certain that he will too and what we don't want is him lying to us or pot to end up having negative impacts on his life.  I told him bad grades are not the only negative impacts and there are a host of other consequences including breaking the law.  The conversation meandered into choosing the right friends, etc.  It went on for a good forty minutes.  I hung up, logged onto my computer and BBRG, found the story and emailed it to him and apologized again.  He told me we are all good and I explained again it is not that we don't trust him but we care about him.

So, a few months ago I got coerced by so-workers into joining the lottery for the NYC Half Marathon.  I figured sure as it is the NYC Half that my chances were slim.  Today the results were released.  I was the only one who got accepted.  WTF???!  Seriously.  Not only did I get in but it is in frackin' March.  So now I need to train through the winter.  Not funny or good but I don't really have many options.

I am not a theater fan

White Pants was on the bus again this morning.  Two days in a row I have seen that hot hunk of man early in the morning.  Makes my day start with a smile.  I sort of stalked him in the Port Authority this morning too.  Stayed a few paces behind him to check out his ass.  Noticed as we were walking down the escalator though that his hair seems to be starting to thin out a bit on the top- still would not kick him out of bed.

A perfect example of federal employees not knowing when enough is enough.  The union representing Amtrak employees wants a pay raise comparable to the employees of the private freight rail lines.  Makes sense I guess until you learn that Amtrak has lost roughly $1 billion dollars over the last decade whereas the private freight lines are all profitable.  Hello?  You are federal employees and are employed by an enterprise that costs us, the taxpayers, money to run as opposed to even just breaking even.  You cannot justify that.  

I am so not a fan of Michael Moore in any way what so ever.  Yet I have to say he did do one thing I think is good and that is offer to put up $20,000 for part of the bail for Julian Assange.  I think Mr. Assange is getting totally fucked over for bringing to light the truth and the power elites in all governments are out to teach him a lesson and send a chill down the spine of everyone who seeks the truth.  I am also annoyed that our own government has apparently blocked all access to Wikileaks on their computers.  So much for freedom of the press and the idea of free thought.

There was a Fed meeting today.  Two words:  Who gives a shit?   They seriously have nothing to say that will change anything.

Had dinner with TK and the husband tonight.  Nice little brassiere near the office.  It was good to catch up with TK.  They were then off to see Angels in America- the first part.  ST asked if I was going and I told him no, I am not a fan of the theater and I don't need to spend three hours watching a gay fantasia when I have summered in The Pines long enough.

Breaking the ice

The office party Thursday night was a blast.  One of my coworkers who shares the same surname as I (but we are not directly related) and I started pre-gaming at 4:30 at a local dive bar.  One of the other micks in the office met us and we proceeded to have quite a few PBRs as it was happy hour and the special was 2 for 1.  The other mick who does not share our surname closed it out there by shot gunning a beer- which impressed the bar wench as she claimed she had never seen it done.

When we got to the barbecue joint it was just starting.  We did not wait for the coat check line as it was snaking half way around the room and went straight to the bar- shocker no? By the time the line had died down and we checked our coats the band was on the stage and announcing karaoke would be starting as soon as  someone volunteered.  Say no more.  I walked right up and did the first song, Roger Miller's "King of the Road."  I was home and in bed by 10:30 PM for the record...

Friday morning, oh hell, ALL of Friday was painful.  I was not the only one hurting either.  I found out that the boss and several others kept going after I decided to go home.  I actually was off the desk in the morning  to get some greasy food and fruit punch.  When I got back I was told the CIO was looking for me.  I walked up to his office and asked if I was fired.  He laughed and said no, I was to be complimented for breaking the ice by going first.  After I went it was like the dam broke and the karaoke did not stop all night.

Friday I picked up the boys and the kids.  The husband stayed at PJ and ST's farm as the refrigerator replacement door was coming Saturday morning.  I am psyched to say it was a nice Friday evening.  The boys have totally gotten into Supernatural  so we watched it and then watched some Cartoon Network.  Then right to bed.

Saturday was nice and lazy.  JP stopped by for breakfast and he brought it!  All I had to do was make coffee.  It was great catching up with JP as his current gig keeps him busier than a one armed barber and we rarely see him.

I decided against ordering out pizza or sushi which seems to have become the norm when we have the boys.  So I went to the store and picked up some chicken, carrots, celery, red onion, mushrooms and rice and made a quick, American version of coq au vin.  It was surprisingly a big hit with everyone for dinner.

Saturday night was a vampire double feature.  We watched the sequel to The Lost Boys.  Yeah, I did not know there was one either and it was an excellent B-flick.  That was followed by Vampires Suck.  It was good if you like the whole spoof genre.

Sunday the husband went into the city to a brunch we had been invited too but I passed on as the weekends I have my boys it is about them.  I then dropped them off at their mom's house, stopped at the cottage and cleaned out part of the garage filling the dumpster.  This is the second dumpster we have filled.

The Kayak add with Mandy that is running currently- I am jealous of Mandy because she has Dante.  Watch the ad...

OMG the Thor trailer!  All I have to say is got to the one minute, forty-six second mark.  WOOF.

So part of the health care bill was declared unconstitutional.  Let's just agree the entire bill is flawed, not part of it.  The insurance companies are still making out like thieves and act in monopolistic manners.  If the government really wanted to reform health care they would have repealed the anti-trust exemptions the insurers have and made them actually compete like car insurers.  You would also think that the government would make health insurance portable if they wanted to reform health care.  Think about it- when you change jobs you don't have to go and find new car insurance or home insurance or life insurance.  But you do with health insurance?  Does that make sense?

No dojo- wax on, wax off- tonight as I had to get the frackin' Christmas cards done.  I am happy to say I finished them.

Parkas

So I was up until midnight last night for work and catching Glee on the dvr.  It was a cute, ok Christmas episode but it did reinforce my belief that Brittany is one of the best characters- and best acted- on the show.

Due to my late night I totally skipped the gym this morning, waking up at 6:45, quickly showering and getting dressed and catching a later than usual bus.  There was one cute guy on the bus this morning.

The work load did not stop.  I think today was one of my busiest days in quite some time.  It was definitely one of the largest volume days I have had in a long time as well.  I was pretty fried mentally by the end of the day and decided to skip the dojo- sweep the leg!

The husband cxld the refrigerator with BBY and go the same one from SHLD for less and they delivered it today.  I will now be writing a letter of complaint- old school style, sent through the USPS- and have my 8th grade English teacher to thank for teaching me how...I told the husband he cannot write it as his Latin temper would not make it a proper letter of complaint.

Today I asked my international PM if I would be busy tomorrow night as it is the Christmas Holiday party and I will most likely be imbibing copious amounts of beer.  The reply was no as a client visit is on the docket tomorrow and it is halfway across the country.

I happened to see a guy wearing a parka today on the way home.  I shuddered at the sight.  I had parkas growing up all the time until I was in 7th grade and I completely detested it.  All my friends had ski jackets which I though were so cool and I was not allowed to get one.  So of course I joined the school ski club in 7th grade just so I could say I needed one.  It worked and I had ski jackets all the time from then on.  The only other thing that comes close to making me shudder like that are pack boots- you know those green runner ones you had all through elementary school that had yellow laces and you wore the plastic bread bags to slide them on.

'Tis the season

I am starting to get disappointed with the level of talent/guy candy on the bus.  I am not sure what has happened to all the hot guys lately but they are either getting in earlier than me or they have become part of the U-6 and are no longer in need of a early morning bus ride.

We did not get a family picture done this year so we are just sending out plain, boring Christmas cards.  I am not sure how we did not find the time to get one done but whatevuh- no big deal.

I logged onto the portal the school district provides for parents to see up to the minute grades for their kids only to find out my oldest- who missed honor roll by one point in one class in the first marking period- has a frackin' 40 in his social studies class so far this marking period.  I flipped and sent his mom an explicative laced text message.  funny how I then get a call from my oldest after he got home from school to discuss it and he told me he had lost his cell phone privileges for the week.

Our company Christmas  Holiday party is being held at a barbecue joint and it is Western themed.  I have no clue why or how this decision was made but being the good gay that I am I of course took to heart the suggestion to dress the part as we love dressing up and sometimes go over the top.  My holiday party attire arrived today- don't you love the Internet and two day shipping?  I went against my friends MP and PF's axiom of never ordering shoes over the Internet and found cowboy boots for $49.  I then got a belt with a big ass, shiny buckle.  Next was the shirt- made by Ely- never heard of the company but it has embroidery and snaps instead of buttons.  The coup de grace- the felt hat by Justins- black of course as just as I could not wear white at the second wedding, a white hat would be inappropriate.  The husband wants to see me in my outfit so I told him he will tomorrow night.  He is currently down at the cottage as the refrigerator gets delivered tomorrow and then he has to get back up here for a Christmas party in the city and then he has dinner with friends from the business.  Otherwise I will wake him early Thursday so he can take a gander at me.

I am psyched to see Tron:  Legacy.  The boys are up for it too so we'll all probably see it the weekend it opens.

The bond market had a big ol' oops today.  The smart kid who works with me sent out an email showing today's action was close to a two standard deviation move- not normal and the last time in recent history it occurred was right before the sub-prime mess started.  My question of course was does this presage another crisis about to hit?  

It was no Showgirls

Okay, we'll get the boring stuff out of the way but I need to vent so anyone who doesn't feel like reading can skip the following few paragraphs.

California is in a fiscal state of emergency?  Really?  What was the clue Governor Schwarenegger?

I see the tax cuts are getting extended.  I also see the government is cutting payroll taxes for employers ostensibly to spur hiring.  They fucked that one up as they should have cut them for employees to spur consumption and further deleveraging .  I am pretty sure companies do not hire based on taxes getting cut as opposed to selling more of their goods and serivices.  Consumers deleveraging would spur healthier consumption down the road, that kind of consumption would be referred to as "organic" by all the talking heads.

Germany had yet another failed bond auction.  Bet you did not hear much about that but their most recent 5 year auction was a fail.  The Eurozone is completely frayed and one more thing will push it over the edge.  Spain and Portugal had auctions for short term paper and they rates were up 40-50% from the previous auctions.  The Street was trying to spin it as a positive but I am sorry, rates going up that much is not a positive.

TALF- so not only did the U.S. taxpayers bail out our own banks we also bailed out most of the European banks too.  Add tot he rumors going around that we the people were going to give even more to the IMF to give to the Europeans and that would have been a second bail out of European banks with our tax dollars.  Of course the Treasury came out and denied it immediately but the cynic in me says they have no problem prevaricating about such things and will do a better job hiding it this time so when someone uses the FIOA to get the details there will be none.

The geopolitical situation is not helping and yet it too is getting very little ink or airplay.  China keeps warning us that the Korean situation is not getting better and are all but telling us we are on a precipice of possibly bad things happening.  There is no way the markets have considered or fully and correctly discounted what a conflict between the West and China would mean.

The precious metals are telling you if you care that all the schemes the Western financial authorities are using will not succeed.  Gold hit an all time high of slightly over $1400/ounce and I smiled as I recall telling a fraternity brother back in August it could go to $2500/ounce in the next two or three years and he told me I was crazy.  Silver aint exactly slacking either.

The volumes in the market have completely aspirated lately and I am dreading how slow it will be the week of Christmas.

So Christmas this year will not be a big one due to the work we've put into the cottage.  The boys are getting netbooks and a wireless router for their mom's house.  The husband already got one of his gifts- a compound mitre saw.  I will also get hims a bunch of smaller things but that is it.

Mr. Barrett should skip over the next few paragraphs as it has to do with work on the cottage that we did not gut.  This weekend we finished installing the hardwood floor  in the kitchen area.  The cabinets are getting shipped the 12th so we removed all the old ones and installed the rest of the hardwood flooring.  This will make it easy for the dishwasher to get installed as many people only put the flooring to the cabinets then when they go and redo their cabinets and put expensive counter tops in then have to pull out the dishwasher they have an issue with differences in floor heights.  Speaking of the dishwasher got delivered when it was scheduled to today whereas the refrigerator did not and the store did not even call.  The husband was pissed.  Funny how the old store- Sears- understands customer service better than the new one- Best Buy

You know your sons are growing up when your oldest discusses irony with you.  It had to do with headphones for his iPod, buying new ones and then finding out his mom had spare ones.  I am still not sure if it meets the correct definition of irony or Alanis Morrisette's definition but I was impressed he was thinking that way.

Some really cute guys on the bus this morning.  The gym too- there was this guy who was a muscled version of Finn from Glee.  I could not get a great look at his ass as he was wearing baggy sweat pants but his mug and guns were nice.

The husband and I actually went and saw Burlesque  Saturday afternoon.  It was no where nearly as bad as that slow train wreck known as Showgirls.  Eric Dane was smokin' hot in it but if I had to choose between him and Cam Gigandet I would have gone with Cam as well.  Cam also has a smoking hot ass!  I want cookies from him.  Cher was ok in it but seriously her face is frozen and it does not move when she talks.  It is very freaky.