Saturday, February 27, 2010

Where did Tim Olyphant come from?

So the snow hurricane yesterday made for quite an interesting morning commute. I had to drudge through at least 8 inches of snow to get to Hoboken Terminal. As I walked through I noted a dearth of trains. I got out to the bus area and noticed there really weren't any buses. I looked at my emails and one of my co-workers sent an email saying the buses in Jersey were not running. So I just hopped onto the PATH. There was a cute guy on there to so it made for a nice ride. The walk to the office was nice and the city is awesome when there is that much snow, few cars and almost no one on the sidewalks. I decided anyone who made it in should be rewarded so I stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got donuts and munchkins.

I knew barely anyone would be in so of course I wore jeans, my hiking boots, a baseball cap and one of my favorite tee shirts. The tee has this demonic angel chick with a large rack and a guitar that looks like a battle axe on the back. The woman who sits next to me commented on how it was a great tee but a bit provocative. The boss piped up "Would you expect anything less?" Ha. When I got home the husband was shocked and stunned that I wore that tee to the office and made a comment about how much the boss must like me to put up with my antics.

Last night we went and saw The Crazies. Great movie! What is even better is it is a remake of a George Romero movie. It was really well shoot- the husband (when he wasn't jumping and screaming like a little girl) kept commenting on the cinematography. Timothy Olyphant is great and actually quite hot. I imagine he will become a big name soon. I will also have to start watching his series on F/X.

After the movie we met up with JD and JW. They picked a place near us here in Jersey City that neither the husband nor I had been to before. It was actually pretty good food and drink. It was fun to catching up with JD and JW. I think the best part though was looking for parking and since most of the street parking not plowed so I just threw the truck into 4 wheel low drive and drove right into the unplowed parking space and looked at the husband and told him we were good for parking.

Tonight we have our friend SP's surprise 40th birthday party. It should be a fun time and it is right across the street so that will make for an easy ride home. Plus neither the husband nor I will have to worry about drinking and driving.

Tomorrow the husband and I will be going to Edison, NJ to take a course to become certified to use recreational jobs. After that I will have to go to a wake. A co-worker's grandmother had died. The husband asked me why I was going and I told him regardless of what feelings I may have for said co-worker, the right thing to do- the compassionate thing- is go to the wake and pay my respects.

The whole health care summit was really a waste of time; reinforcing my belief that only bad managers have summits, idea meetings, etc. The one thing I did take away from it was when some politician said that every year 45,000 people in the United States die from lack of health care. Really? I thought people usually died from old, age, drowning, accidents or violence done to them by others, I doubt any medical examiner every wrote on a death certificate lack of insurance was the cause of death.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

It's a trap!

No gym this morning as I was really sore after the dojo- Kobra Kai never die!- last night. I did notice the bruise on the inside of my forearm was shaping up rather nicely.

There were quite a few cute guys on the bus this morning especially the light brown haired guy reading the WSJ in front of me. I was not wearing my glasses however as it was raining and I have gotten tired of having my glasses covered with rain drops.

Speaking of the weather apparently we are due for what some meteorologists are calling a snow hurricane. We could be subject to wind gusts of 60 to 70 miles per hour. I mentioned that to the husband and he asked if our building (we are on the 17th floor) was built to withstand a hurricane. I told him I don't care about our building, I was more concerned about my office as I am 47 floors up there.

One has to wonder what is going to happen to Greece and their supposed bond coming next week when California has to postpone a $2 billion bond sale that was planned.

Apparently Ole Miss has retired their mascot Colonel Reb. No big deal. What is a big deal is that there is a huge movement to get Admiral Ackbar named as the new mascot. When I read that I think I played the clip of the Admiral yelling it's a trap. It was a big hit on the desk.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Do you like drawerings?

I am kind of getting annoyed with the swim club at the gym. It is supposed to start at 6 AM. It never starts on time. I've come to accept that and live with it. I got to the pool early this morning. got in at 5:55. Just started swimming laps knowing I could get at least 200 yards in before I was even handed at work out. The work outs were not handed out until roughly 6:15. I lost count of laps after I hit 400 yards. No big deal. What annoyed me was one of the older ladies kind of got snippy and said we're about to start the work out. So I stopped and let them all go ahead. They were all using fins today too the fuckers. I stopped after I had swam for 25 minutes. I had to be in the office kind of early anyways and I was just getting annoyed with the attitude.

We had a video conference call with one of our European compliance guys this morning. I know how sometimes Brits get all snippy about propriety and manners and appearance. So I wore a suit today. The guy's name was Simon and all I could think of was that skit on SNL Mike Meyers used to do about the Brit kid in the bath tub and his drawerings.

I loved the story on YHOO today about the woman who claimed her love handles saved her life when she got shoot. Apparently she was an innocent bystander in a shooting in a bar- in Jersey no less. She claimed her love handles saved her life and that is why so is not going to diet anymore. The picture was brilliant as it showed her sitting on her couch in a shirt that was a bit too small and allowed her protective love handles to be seen. I immediately thought she was in the cast of Precious.

Ryan Bedford looks pretty damn hot even with the goofing hair cut he got pranked into getting.

The septic system got inspected yesterday. It failed. I got the report today and it said the system is unsatisfactory. Another item the good widow will have to remedy before we close. The husband feels bad for her but I have no problem being the unemotional, hard ass about all of this.

I had an interesting email exchange tonight with a head of a desk from a major brokerage firm. We got into a discussion of whether or not what helped the U.S. public sector deleverage after WWII was Reg Q. He made the point that you can inflate your way out and delever if interest rates stay below the nominal GDP rate. I said it was only because the government put legal caps on the interest rate so they had no problem doing it. I did not even get into we also then had a currency backed by gold as opposed to our current fiat currency.

Karate was good tonight but I am definitely going to have some bruises. I sparred wit a black belt who is at least my size and weight and goes hard. He is in the process of becoming a junior instructor so he has to I guess. I got some good strikes in and a few good combos. He mentioned I had very good defenses and a few of my strikes actually stunned him. Grappling was not as good, lol. One guy was trying to get an arm bar on and I locked my hands. Of course he used his foot to break the lock and that will result in a bruise on the inside of my forearm- it's already started. Shaman was there too- woof.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Ok, that is not just signaling a change- it is a stealth tightening

I really forgot how much I hate the bike leg of the race until my bike ride this morning. I did a bit over 12 miles in 40 minutes. I think I hate the bike leg because I just find it the most boring part of the race. the swim is the first leg so I'm all hyped up with adrenaline. The run I cheat and wear my iPod so I can listen to my music.

So do we really need some pointdexter from Harvard to tell us that there could be a bunch of sovereign defaults in the near future? I can understand if it was a sociologist who said it as they are masters of sating the obvious but it was a frackin' economist who felt the need to say it.

Some talking head was commenting on real and bitter truths about the economy today on BBRG. Here is the only real and bitter truth we need to know. Our standard of living is going down. We will most likely not be better off than our parents and more than likely not be better off than our grandparents were. Sorry but when we have the kind of easy money party and debt binge we've had for the past twenty years there is no mathematical way more debt can solve the problem.

The marketing guys were in the office today. One of my PMs called me and said they were in his office taping and he just had to be on the phone looking like he was working, lol. Before he hung up he told me he and the other PM would be down at the desk with the video crew to tape a talking with the trader segment. I immediately cleaned the desk up- all the Skoal tins into the drawer, all non-essential papers thrown out. I really cleaned it up but I did of course leave the Chuck Norris book right out int he open along with the two pictures I have on my desk- one of me and the boys at the beach, the other me and the husband snowboarding up in Stowe. I got rid of the dip I had in too, lol. Sadly I had not shaved this morning. Thankfully there was no audio to go with the video.

So, first the Fed ups the discount rate. My bond friend tells me that was just a signaling, not an actual tightening event so not really a policy change per se but a signal that policy will be changing. Today what was done though was a tightening event albeit stealth. The Supplemental Financing Program was started by the Treasury at the behest of the Fed. It was done to help manage reserves. The Fed could not pay interest the reserves. The Fed can legally now pay interest on reserves. The SFP was winding down as it was not needed to help manage reserves anymore and the debt ceiling was getting close to being breached. Well then Congress raises the debt ceiling. N o big deal, the SFP was still winding down. Until today when the Treasury renewed the SFP to the tune of $200 billion. I have to wonder why they did that if the Fed can now pay interest on reserves? Well, if they want to drain reserves they could raise the rate they pay on them. That would be a blatant tightening and not received well. So instead the get the Treasury to renew the SFP. Now the Treasury will be able to continue selling bills on behalf of the Fed and thus drain reserves- voila, tightening...

My bond friend said this is a big deal. He did not make a call on if it is a bad deal as there roughly $1 trillion in reserves out there. The Fed does not want them starting to cause inflation so they need to do something to control them. He is not sure if the Fed will be able to pull this off but as he said it will make for really interesting observations and possibly tragic comedy. I think we really need to party like it's 1938 again.

Last night I had to do laundry to get my gi clean for karate- seep the leg!- tonight. So I figured I'd just do all of it in the super huge, industrial sized, super efficient machines in the building laundry rooms. They only take 30 minutes to wash and 30 to dry. Probably cheaper than using the ones in the apartment. I am in the elevator down to the laundry room. It stops at a floor in between and a guy who looks like my friend PF's twin gets in. The elevator starts moving again and he then starts with "So how are the machines in the laundry rooms?" I gave him my assessment. I think he may have been hitting on me.

Monday, February 22, 2010

I played soccer for six years

No gym this morning as I went to bed last night without packing my shit up for the morning. The alarm went off at the right time but I wasn't going to pack everything up and make it to the gym in time so I said screw it. I can make up the swim some other night.

I was stunned to see an Action Comics No.1 in very fine condition sold for $1 million. It makes me wonder how many years before my collection will have a $1 million comic book.

So there is a new FC in New York- even though they will be playing at their new stadium in Newark. I see the stadium all the time driving to central Jersey to pick up the boys. It is really cool. More importantly one of their players is smokin' hot and totally my type- dark hair, dark eyes and Latin. Juan Pablo Angel- he is making me wonder if we should get season tickets.

I saw a new Priceline commercial today that I though was great! It totally referenced the Mirror, Mirror episode of Star Trek. I did not hear the audio to it but it was awesome seeing Kirk and evil Kirk with a goatee.

Speaking of Star Trek I read that Chekov's son is missing. He apparently went to Vancouver for the Olympics and then never caught his flight back. I did not know that he was also a member of the cast of Growing Pains.

I have no problem with the government setting up a regulatory body to guide and/or set prices for individual health insurance. We already have it for some of our vital services- namely electricity and water. I can see the feds setting pricing guidelines for the individual markets but I don't think they should be getting involved in employer provided health insurance. I also still don't understand why the health insurance industry gets an exemption from anti-trust regulations?

Speaking of health insurance I find it kind of funny that the government has gotten pissed about WLP raising rates but has no issue when they want to raise taxes on them. You can't make too much money or we'll tax it so they are our profits.

I have been discussing the possibility of the payroll tax holiday with JW a bit. I think a payroll tax holiday would be ok if it was targeted only to employees. That would put more cash in their pockets and they could either delever their own balance sheets or spend more. Both options would be good for the economy. The reason the employers would still have to pay it is because Medicaid/care and Social Security are still screwed and cutting them off totally would only worsen an already bad situation.

I noticed that Dubai is probably going to default. I read that some source said it is likely that the debt holders will not be made whole. So you have to wonder what will happen with Greece. I also think that once Greece is forced to do something that the markets will move to the next one. The big question is who is the next one? A lot of people think it will be one of the other PIIGS. I personally think it will be a larger fish and it could be the U.K.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Those aren't obliques- they're love handles!

Friday morning I got on the bike and was pretty happy with getting almost 10 1/2 mile sin 30 minutes. If I can keep training at this pace I think I may break a hour on the bike leg of the race in June.

Friday night the husband and I had dinner with Mr. Barrett in the city. He was in town for Blow Up- some big, gay party that usually occurs in D.C. but they occasionally host it up here in NYC. He goes with his friends the Prada bears here in the city.

We ate a restaurant near the husband's old apartment that we had had our second date at way back when. It was kind of amusing as the husband at that point had not really 'fessed up to all his friends that he was dating someone. Of course it just so happened that night that about five of his friends walked in and I met them all.

After dinner, Mr. Barrett had some time to kill as all the cool bear events (hell all gay events) don't start until 11:30 at the soonest. We went out to grab some after dinner drinks. We hit Barracuda. Mr. Barrett agreed that the bar has some smokin' hot bartenders. He then proceeded to point out a guy he thought was cute/hot. The husband was all over him. Mr. Barrett made the comment that the guy he thought was hot had nice obliques. The husband said, no those are not obliques, they are love handles. I had to agree with the husband. We then ran into a friend of ours AT. We asked his opinion n the matter and he agreed with us.

We got home at a reasonable hour and hit the hay as I had to go to the dojo- Kobra Kai never die!- in the morning.

I only took one class as I had to be down in central Jersey to attend my oldest son's science fair.

Speaking of my oldest son, not only did he make honor roll for the latest marking period but the kid also was named student of the month! I was shocked beyond all belief when I heard this. By being named student of the month he gets to have a lunch of pizza with the principal and his picture in the local paper. I told his mom to please buy me two copies of the paper when his picture is in it. I am going to frame one and the other I will send to mom and dad for their edification.

His science project was on how nails rust in different liquids. I thought he did a great job but he did not place. I saw some of the ones that did and I may be biased but they all sucked the big one compared to his project.

The boys came home with me. The husband and I took them out for dinner to celebrate our new student of the month in the family. He got to choose and of course he decided on sushi. We hit a great sushi place near our old apartment in uptown Hoboken. He got the love sushi/sashimi for one. It was a massive amount of food and he finished it.

Today we went and saw the Percy Jackson movie. Mr. Barrett had seen it and said it was ok. I sort of disagree. I and the boys have red the series and this movie skipped so much from the book of the same title. As my oldest said if you have not read the book it would be a good movie but if you have red the book it is only ok- barely.

I took the boys back to their mom's house and then came home and made dinner for the husband. I kept it simple and made shrimp scampi over brown rice with some roasted zucchini and tomatoes. As I was making the shrimp scampi I found out we had no parsley- well we did but it was brown and yellow. I improvised buy using dried herbs de Provence. The husband was none for the wiser. The part that makes me chuckle is I used the recipe from the ex-mother-in-law. Dinner was a big hit.

Seriously- who gives a shit about Tiger Woods? The guy really only has one person to apologize to and that is his wife. The world would not stop spinning if he disappeared and yet his ego seems to know no bounds.

I see mortgages hit a new record of foreclosures for the most recent period- again. The Fed is trying it's hardest to pretend it has not changed policy direction but the more I look at it and the more all the talking heads mouth the party line I think we are screwed and everyone should party like it's 1938.

This week appears to be slow for the husband and I on the calendar.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Remain calm, all is well...

So I woke up very sore and tired this morning but headed off to the gym anyways. I am glad I did as Full Lower Lip sat next to me on the bus! He is still pretty frackin' hot and I almost stopped playing bridge on my iPod to text the husband but then determined that would be a bit too obvious. He has hair back to Jersey boy faux spiky style. It looks much better than the Gordon Gecko slicked back style he had going for a while there. Best part- his pant leg brushed my sweats- OMG, OMG, OMG! LOL.

The run was not fun this morning. I am continuing with limited to no heel contact even though the husband has chided me for it. I got 3.3 miles done in 30 minutes which is ok. My calves are becoming inured to the discomfort that style of running produces.

I knew it was going to be a long day when I was getting dressed and a button fell off my shirt but I did not feel like looking for it. Then I was doing my coif and realized I did not rinse out the conditioner. Guess what? I said fuck it and put the godddman product in anyhow. Seriously, I am not out to impress anyone at the gym or the office. I then almost bumped into orange toe nails walking out of the locker room as well.

Mr. Barrett is coming to town tomorrow to go to Blow Up. He gets in around 5 PM and is staying with friends up in Harlem. The husband and I are going to meet up with him for drinks and dinner before he goes off to Blow Up as he will have some time to kill. It will be good to see him. The husband has not yet picked a place for our rendezvous.

I have the boys this weekend but it is a bit complicated. My oldest- the one on the honor roll- has a science fair Saturday. Apparently the schedule is that he has to be at the school at 9:30 in the morning to set up his display. He has a hour for that to be done. Then he is to return around 11:30 to give his presentation. That is to wrap up by 1 PM. At 2:30 the fair is opened up to friends and family and that ends at 3:30. The ex called last week and suggested because the schedule is so elaborate it might be easier for all involved for me to just come to the fair at 2:30 and then the boys can come home with me after it is done. I thought about it and decided it was a good game plan.

So Shaman- I overheard his full name at class. I of course google stalked him today. Found him on the tome of mugs too, lol.

Am I the only one who thinks the real problem with the country is that Congress is a bunch of fucks who are not doing their job? Seriously? Isn't their job supposed to be to take care of the finances and write laws? They can't even do that correctly. The President has set up a committee to handle the tough decisions that need to be made. I have some issues with that as it seems yet another encroachment by the Executive branch into the Legislative branch's purview. It also is a way for the President to dodge forcing Congress to do their job- since it appears his main goal is to make sure everyone likes him and thinks he is a great guy. He can also then say that when taxes get raised on EVERYONE that it was not his doing, it was the committee he appointed that made the choices.

So, the Fed goes all Chinese on the markets. After the close they announce they are increasing the discount rate to 75 bps. That is a 75 bps increase by the way since it was effectively zero even though officially it was a range of zero to 50 bps. They then had the balls to say it is not a policy change. Really? I may be a dumb delta one type of guy but it sure as hell seems like a policy change to me. I read after the close some pundit trying to make a distinction that it is a credit policy change not a monetary policy change. Really. Well last I recall what caused all the shit that has hit the fan over the past two years was a credit problem not a monetary problem. Seems to me they are splitting hairs as credit and money are fungible. It will make for a fun day tomorrow since tomorrow is also an options expiration day. Can you say volatility?

I picked up the clothes from the husband's tailor that I dropped off a month ago. The guy did a very good job. I modeled them for the husband when I got home and he approved. One of the items was what I mistakenly called a blazer. The husband corrected me and said it was sport coat. I felt like I was in that scene from The Devil Wears Prada where the protagonist is educated about the difference between blue and cerulean. For the record a blazer is a specific type of sport coat- it is Navy. So all blazers are sport coats but not all sport coats are blazers. I can now die a happy man....