A Year of Change

Ok, first up is the weather. After a weirdly mild fall with temperatures in the 70’s as recently as last week, the wind and snow along with single digit temps has arrived. Right now it’s 4:38am and we have maybe 3 inches on the ground but it’s still snowing and the wind is blowing. It’s supposed to keep up until mid afternoon and then temperatures will drop under 10 degrees. I was talking with a man in New York yesterday morning as we were boarding our flight for Denver and we were both in agreement that sooner or later we’d have to pay for all this warm weather, well here we go.

When I landed yesterday around 9:30 am, the sun was shinning as if it was a spring day. I pulled up to the house to find the misses 25 feet up a ladder putting more lights on the top of the house and big red bows on the upstairs windows. It seems she just wasn’t happy with what we already had up as it seemed only “half” finished. Personally I think Grandma Annette asking for pictures spurred on this second wave of decorations. Anyhow the house looks great and I love the fact that the misses (and the little kid still inside her!) gets all excited about Christmas. Today she works and when I woke up around 4am she was awake and told me she hadn’t slept all night. I hope she’s getting a few zzz’s right now.

Now on to “get out now”. This in case you haven’t guessed it, means call your stock broker or money manager (if you have one) today and get out of the market! Yesterday with the U.S. and China agreeing to prolong the inevitable for a little bit, the stock market shot up almost 500 points. Folks, this is a short term bump created by a temporary bandaid from big government and big banks saying they’ll “loan” some money to Europe who will never pay us back, at less than normal rates. The only problem here is someone sooner or later, will have to pay it back. Guess who that is? When this doesn’t happen (which it won’t) things will come crashing down worse than they are now. Some noted economists suggest that everyone should have let Greece fail or default rather than continuously propping up a failed system that will eventually go down no matter what you do. Here’s the view from the experts as to where we’re really at that pretty much sums it up. Take it for what you will.

“Today’s move by central banks changes nothing except the ticks on the Dow Jones. The debt is still there. The people are still broke. The system is still collapsing. Believe the mainstream hype at your peril.”

Let’s really look at what happened yesterday to make the stock market soar almost 500 points. Did you wake up today and find some new money in your wallet or bank account? I don’t think so. Did some of your bills magically disappear overnight? Mine didn’t (I checked). Did you get a call from your bank or credit card company telling you they’d like to loan you a bunch of money at zero interest to help you consolidate all your debt? Good luck. The point is, all that really happened was a short term fix to prevent a global collapse from happening now. Everything I just asked you above of course isn’t going to happen for you but it is what was passed out to failing economies and countries that cannot pay their bills. A couple questions come to mind, first off, why is America giving money to failed economies in Europe when we have no money of our own? Whose money do you think Obama and the Fed are giving to countries like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal? Well the answer is it’s our money they’re giving away, yours and mine. This is so because the government doesn’t have any money, they are actually borrowing (by printing) money that we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for and will have to pay back. Do you really think Europe and countries like Greece, will ever pay us back? I don’t think so. Second question is, what’s going to happen when this bill comes due and they can’t pay? Hmmmm.

So with this short term bump, you need to make a move today! Not tomorrow, not next week, but now. Like I said earlier in the week, let’s say I’m wrong (highly unlikely), what do you have to lose? But if I’m right….. you can and will lose lots of money. You really ought to pay me for this advice or better yet, if your financial advisor is worth a shit (excuse my language) he or she should be calling you telling you the same thing I am. I doubt this will happen as it’s not in their best personal interest for you to pull money out of the pool of money they manage, I mean how then will they get to charge you the fees they do as they have been for the past few years, while the value of your portfolio goes down. That’s right, they’ve been charging you and collecting fees all this time while you’ve been losing money, pretty good job they have huh. The only way they lose is if you pull your money so I highly doubt they will tell you to take all your money out of the market. What do you think? Now let’s say you have a really good trusted advisor, maybe just maybe, they’re fooled by all this maneuvering by the Fed’s and don’t see this coming. Does this mean you have to go down with them? No, it doesn’t. Once again, and for the last time, taking your money out of the market is a no lose situation, leaving it in is a potentially devastating decision. Wake up people, you are running out of time. At least we don’t have to worry about this as we have no money in the market!

Ok, now back to more pleasant things. Don’t you just love how the misses describes the colors in the morning each day. It’s pretty easy to tell who’s writing the post just after the first few sentences. In my defense, it’s always dark when I’m writing and who wants to hear, “it’s nice and black outside, with the sky like charcoal”. I do love how she first sees the colors when she wakes up though, that’s great.

Today we’ll need to get out all the coats, gloves, hats, snow boots and other assorted gear for the cold outside. It’s 5:20 right now and I think I’ll head to the gym for 45 minutes as I need to get the cars warmed up anyhow. Both dogs are sleeping at my feet right now which is their normal routine after breakfast. Today I get my haircut downtown at 9:30 and then I have lots of work. In fact I have so much work, I just need to take it one day at a time.

I hope everyone is well. I heard that Grandma Dixie and Pa Don aren’t having the best week as both of them are not feeling well. You two better shape up now and get healthy right away, that’s an order! For the rest of you, I hope you’re all doing well. Send us an email or post a comment. I heard from the misses that the Muppets movie was great, maybe we’ll have to go catch it in a week or so after I’m back from Seattle.

Ok, Take care, stay warm, stay safe and God Bless you all,

Good Morning to all and a “Happy Day After Birthday” to Gram Annette.  I’m looking out the back window as I write and the sky is amazingly beautiful. The cloud cover looks like a giant plume of orange and peach smoke. There is only a sliver of robin egg blue sweeping across the horizon. Stunning!

The Mister should be on his flight home from New York by now. I am going to work on getting all of the empty Christmas boxes back up into the attic before he gets home. I also need to do some major cleaning.  As Uncle T and Aunti B are well aware our two boys can destroy a clean house in a matter of minutes and since the dogs are enjoying a fun game of tug of war with one of the munchkin’s socks there will be a fair amount of hair to chase.

Thank you Uncle T and Aunti B for picking up the boys from school yesterday and a special “Hurray” for having them do their homework. Yea…big smiley face for me. When I picked the boys up I got to see how absolutely fabulous Uncle T’s xmas lights are. Oh my gosh…shooting stars, icicles Santa’s mailbox, a golden doodle all lit up, snow flakes and much much more. The house and backyard are so tastefully done that I know he will win the neighborhood first prize.  I am  going to figure out a way to put lights across the top of my roof and I still need to decorate the shrubs.  Anyway I look at it, the best I can hope for is 3rd place….

The youngest is up and he is hungry and cold, so it is time for me to close.  I have physical therapy for my hip today at 10 and then I will be back working in the house and maybe up on the roof top….ho, ho, ho.

The boys have their coveted Rock Fair going on at school.  This is a fundraiser for the 6th grade to keep the outdoor lab.  The boys are excited because they can purchase rocks and other items with their own money for Christmas gifts. They did ask if I would add ten or twenty dollars to their pot. That’s not going to happen…maybe I can add five dollars to each and we will all feel good about it.

Have a wonderful day and say a prayer that what or whom goes up does not necessarily come down.

Love to all and God Bless

LLF

Ok, even for me, traveling is getting old. At least I’ve been upgraded to first class for my return trip home tomorrow am at 8am EST. (that’s 6am Denver and 5am west coast) I then go to Seattle next week for 3 nights and booked a flight yesterday for a day trip to San Francisco the day after I return home. Luckily after I booked the trip, I spoke with a guy who works for us and we decided he should take the appointment in San Fran instead of me. Hopefully I’ll be done for the year after next week although I might meed to hop down to Phoenix and/or Dallas for a day.

The misses is still not up to snuff but is going to work today. She’s off tomorrow and then back at it Thursday if her back and hip hold up. The youngest had D.I. (destination imagination) yesterday after school. I picked him up at 4:30 and the Mom in charge was telling us all how creative he was out of all the kids. D.I. is where the kids pick their own theme and then build and present everything on their own. He’s done this before and had a lot of fun. It’s part of a national organization and kids all across the country participate. We’ll keep you posted on their theme.

Big stuff going on around here, we’re back in that “change” mode for whatever that’s worth. Even we don’t know what that means but opportunities are presenting themselves that might be too good to pass up. Not much else to say about that except if and when we have more information, we’ll let you know.

I don’t have time to jump into politics but again, know that the economy is going to get worse, there will be more social unrest (like the Occupy movements) and you, if the government has its way, will have less and less individual rights. I’ll be conducting a class on this subject and how to prepare and survive the coming turmoil in a few weeks if anyone is interested. You’ll be able to participate on line if you like. I’m really interested to know what you all think. Are you worried about the direction of the Country? Do you feel your money is safe in the bank or wherever you have it? Do you feel safe and secure when you walk the streets or in your own home? Have you made any changes in your life or preparations based on what you see going on around you? Now I’m not too optimistic that many if any of you will answer (maybe Grandma Annette), but even if you don’t, perhaps you’ll at least think about it. You need to be aware of what’s going on in the World and not just in your little suburb to really see what’s coming. I’m not preaching here n’or trying to scare anyone but feel it is important to try to let those of you who think everything is the same as always, know the trouble we’re in. Now don’t fret, the World is not going to end or anything like that but for those of you that remember the Great Depression, you haven’t seen anything yet. Most people think the Great Depression was caused by the stock market here crashing (as we were taught in school), wrong, it was caused by Europe not paying it’s debts and defaulting which then spilled over to America. Look out because the same thing is happening all over. The crash or problems will all start (already have) in Europe. When Greece falls, and it will, there will be a domino effect that will sweep through Europe and then head to our shores. Just a little history lesson. Does anyone remember what it was like right before the Great Depression? It would be interesting to know what everyone’s frame of mind was right before things came crashing down. I wonder how similar it would be to our climate today and if we could learn anything, hmmm.

Ok ok I’ll stop, time to run anyhow. I probably shouldn’t go off on these sermons because most of you don’t believe it or don’t want to hear it. Oh well, I need to at least try to inform you of what we think is happening as sooner or later it’ll be too late to do anything about it.

A big thanks, once again, to Uncle T for picking up the boys. As I said before, the misses would have had to quit her job without his and Aunt B’s help, thanks again!

Take care, have a great day, stay positive, and do something today to help someone you don’t know and help make the World a better place! God Bless

That’s right, between the football games yesterday we headed to Lowes to get some more Christmas lights for the house. I wish you could see us now, I’m sure passing airplanes can. But alas, we just might not be through. The misses hasn’t even pulled all of her gear out of the garage yet. Her arch nemesis Roxanne also stepped up her game yesterday by adding a herd of lighted deer to her front yard. I told the misses if you want to sabotage Roxanne all you need to do is go Nancy Kerrigan on her boyfriend Jimmy. One or two good whacks to his knees and he’d be out of the game and Roxanne would get nothing else up as Jimmy does all the work, Roxanne just directs. Being serious though, it’s really not a contest, Both girls just like going all out for the holiday’s, no matter what the occasion. As the misses pointed out yesterday, thankfully we don’t live across the street from Uncle T as his house even has shooting stars hanging from tree to tree!

Other than that the most exciting news of the day was the Broncos and Tim Tebow’s victory over the hated San Diego Chargers yesterday. Once again our team came back in the 4th quarter to secure the victory. WOW!

This morning at 5:30 (it’s 4:30 now) I’m headed off to Vail to renew my license plates. I hope to be back in Denver by 9am. Then lots of computer work during the day to prepare for my trip to New York tomorrow morning. The misses cold seems a bit better but she had a ripping headache all day. Today the boys head back to school. They have 15 days of school left this year and 19 days off. Hold onto your hats, at least the weather has been nice so they can play outside. They even spent some time in the neighbor’s hot tub yesterday afternoon.

Time to get ready for my morning drive. It’s actually a real nice drive to the mountains early in the morning. Traffic is pretty light and there’s lots of wildlife to see plus you get that beautiful sunrise. I’ve made the drive so often I could do it in my sleep.

Hope you all have a great day and week. December arrives this Thursday and before you know it it’ll be 2012. Hard to believe we’ve been doing this blog for almost a whole year, it sure has gone fast. God Bless,

How early do you all wake up? Am I the only one up at 4:30 to 5am everyday or are some of you up too? Just thought I’d check and see who if anyone, is awake. The way I see it is if I wake up around 5 am every morning, I can squeeze out about an extra 3 years of living over the next 20 years! You want to start getting up early now don’t ya? It’s a peaceful time as the house is quiet. First I go through my normal routine, feed the dogs, start the coffee and throw in any remaining laundry lying around. Next up I check for the paper (which usually doesn’t arrive until 5:30 or so) and then I hit the blog. After that, I’m free. I can go to the gym, read a book or just have some time to think about the day and any other things without distraction. It’s also pretty great to see the sun come up. When was the last time any of you saw a sunrise? It’s really something to see and never gets old.

Ok, enough musings on the early morning hours, onto the day. Yesterday I went to the gym and then had to run a few errands in the am while the misses and the boys finished putting the final touches on the Christmas tree. Then we were all headed off to Target to check out some new led outdoor lights for the house. We calculated that if the lights cost a total of $30 or less, we’d break even over the next month as they use 40% or more less energy than our old lights. This means a cheaper power bill and almost a break even scenario. On the way when turning into Target, there were 3 young girls (young 20’s) in short shorts and tight t shirts (almost looked like bikini’s) standing on the corner waving signs promoting a new restaurant that just opened. I forget the name of the restaurant (does it matter?) but the oldest was checking them out (the scantly clad girls) and as I made a joke to the misses about how cold they looked, he laughed and high fived me! Oh oh, time to have “the talk”. Anyhow we made it home and the misses began opening the boxes of lights while I got out the ladder and began stringing them up. After it was finished and dusk came, I have to say, our new lights put our neighbors homes to shame. The led lights just seem to stand out more and are much brighter than the old lights. The misses put up some additional touches like two wreaths and a hanging star she bought but will add some more later today as there’s this unspoken competition between her and Roxanne Rossi across the street with every holiday. I call Roxanne Ms Griswold after the Chevy Chase character in the Christmas Vacation movie. The misses is quite pleased her lights look better than any neighboring home.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around while the boys played outside and across the street. They came bounding in at 6:30 sharp asking “what’s for dinner?”. The wife and I are eating leftovers but I ordered up a pizza for them and ran up the street 20 minutes later to pick it up. It sure was a good pizza. We all headed up to watch a little tv and hit the hay (as they say in the midwest) for the night. Both boys have become quite the readers. They automatically grab a book before bed every night. The oldest is really a good reader and the younger guy has finally turned the corner as to where he now wants and likes to read too. It’s funny as you can see the same things and mannerisms in the little guy as we did in the big guy a few years ago. We’re thrilled they both like reading. The oldest will usually read to the youngest or vice versa. They’re getting to that age where they really enjoy spending time together and will just hang out but don’t fret, they still can go at each other like cats and dogs on a moments notice!

They both like to be tucked in at night which is usually my job as the good looking one is usually fast asleep. They’re both so sweet telling me “I love you daddy” and “let’s do something fun tomorrow” when they go to bed. The youngest always throws is “can I come in if I have a bad dream” to which my answer is always, of course you can. They’re really good boys and we’re very lucky.

Time to get moving so I can make it to the gym and get in my 30 minutes of cardio along with some core exercises. I hear the misses coughing but hopefully she’ll keep sleeping. Have a great day, take care and we’ll see you tomorrow, God Bless.

That’s my opposite of Black Friday if you’re wondering. We hope it’s sunny today, which it’s supposed to be, but you never know. Yesterday the misses kind of slept in but was up when I took of for the gun shop to work retail for the day. I didn’t know what to expect but was hoping for the best as it was my advice that lead to spending money on ads in the Denver Post and putting this whole thing together. My buddy really needed to move some inventory and isn’t the smartest when it comes to business so after some convincing, he followed my suggestions. We ran some specials (in an ad I wrote) and had manufacturer reps and a contestant from the tv show Top Shot on hand so all we needed was some customers. I pulled up and there were 3 guys standing out front a half an hour before the store was to open. Not a huge line but better than no one. We opened at 8am and had around a dozen people right off the bat. At then end of the first hour things were looking good but from 9 to 9:30 it was pretty sparse. Then all of a sudden, it hit. We had non stop customers until 2pm when we shut the doors. We probably sold $25,000 worth of weapons and accessories which was a really great day for this shop. Better yet we had people that drove from almost an hour away to find the store and had never been there before. Everyone was thrilled to find the place kind of like when a bunch of women stumble on a Prada outlet mall. I’m sure many of them will be back. We had couples in their 70’s to father and sons to women wanting to buy their hubby’s a Christmas gift. We also had a strong group of seasoned veterans from the Rangers and Special Forces (active and retired) as this place is a real pro’s shop as well. My buddy and his wife (who showed up an hour before closing) at the end of the day were thrilled and thanked me profusely for my advice. Today is day 2 and although I won’t be working the store, we’re hoping for a repeat of yesterday. He had a party at his home 30 minutes up the hill into the mountains after work but the misses still wasn’t up to par so I passed.

When I arrived home she was patiently sitting in front of the Christmas tree trying to figure out why one strand of lights wouldn’t work. Finally though her persistence, she fixed it. I ran down to a local dive restaurant for some tacos as we were all too tired to even fix some leftovers. The boys wanted to start hanging ornaments and we let them do a few but most will go on the tree today. We also plan to hopefully get the outside lights up. Ours are so old and broken we’re going to check out what the new led lights cost but might pass depending on the price.

The oldest slept in until 9:30 am yesterday! I told you he’s in that teenage sleep mode didn’t I. The youngest was up early as usual. Yesterday felt like a Saturday and today feels like Sunday so it’ll be nice to get that extra day of rest. It’s almost 5:45 and I think I’ll head to the gym so I guess I’ll sign off. We haven’t even thought about Christmas shopping yet and won’t until around mid December. I think Uncle T is all through. I need to call him as he bought the oldest a gift for his birthday and it looks like the misses best friend bought both boys the same thing! Oh are they spoiled, lucky lucky boys. This will also give Uncle T something to do as he’ll have to shop some more. We joked we should wait until the day before the oldest ones birthday to tell him so he’ll have to shop with the crowds in mid December!

Time to run, hope all’s well and that everyone’s stomach has shrunk back to normal size. Have a great day and God Bless,

Hope everyone had a great day and that you don’t have too much of a turkey hangover. Our meal was great thanks to Uncle T and the misses. Everyone arrived between 2ish and 2:30 and stayed until round 5pm. The boys were extremely well behaved at dinner. We just have to remember that sometimes kids are kids. The only major casualty of the day is the misses. Her cold is back in full force twice as bad as it was yesterday morning. Mine is a bit worse too but nothing like hers. It’s now down in her chest and she has that deep guttural cough. Both boys seem to have it as well but it’s hard to tell in kids as they seem to keep on going like the Energizer Bunny!

I managed to get the dishes cleaned up as we went so by the time everyone was leaving, the house was pretty much clean. Today I’m helping out at my friends store from 8 am until around noon and Mom and the boys were going to start getting out the Christmas decorations. I think I’m going to have to ask the boys to wait until I get home so Mom can get some rest. It’s still almost 70 degrees around here but is supposed to be a bit cooler (in the 50’s) today.

On the news they’re showing all the people out for Black Friday. I don’t know if the crowds are so big because no one has much money and they need to take advantage of the deals or because people are planning on spending more this year than usual. I suspect it’s the first as the overall forecast is that spending will be down. The news right now is saying the same thing, that too many people shopping on Black Friday can be a negative sign. Oh well, either way I told everyone last night to give us their Christmas wish list by about December 15th or 20th as that’s when we hope to have a little bit of money to shop. No chance we’re going to have any extra cash before then as we’re still fighting the endless pile of overdue bills around here. It sounds like Uncle T and Aunt B and Grandma are all over getting the boys a bunch of stuff which is good as it’s going to be lean year around here.

I have two more trips scheduled this year, New York next week for 1 night and then Seattle the following week for 3 nights. Hopefully after that, I’m done for the year but who knows what’ll come up.

At dinner, I was pleased to hear Aunt B ask me about a previous post telling everyone to get their money out of the stock market. At least she’s thinking about it. Now you all have to decide for yourselves but let’s say I’m wrong about this, what are you going to lose by taking your money out of the market for a year or so, maybe 1 or 2%? Think about it, not much. On the other hand, what if I’m right and things get worse or heaven forbid, the economy crashes and you lose 80 or 90% or all of you savings! What will you do then? All I’m saying is as a precautionary measure, get out while you can and park any money you have in a bank account for the next 12 to 36 months until things settle down. It’s a no lose move, I mean come on, it’s not like you’re going to miss out on 20% gains or something. Enough said, I’m not the smartest guy in the World but I am the best looking, or something like that! Seriously, (oh oh, here I go again!), there are a lot of really smart people moving out of the markets which are basically a scam and these days too volatile for individual investors. If or more likely, when, the big pension fund managers decide to make a move out, the market will nose dive. Don’t be caught riding the wave down trying to get out after these guys and the billions they manage jump ship. You ought to pay me for this advice, trust me, it’s inevitable. I mean look at the stock market just over the past two weeks, one day it’ll go up 150 points and the next it’ll go down 300. The apathetic public (you) have become so desensitized to these huge swings that years ago would have prompted mass panic. Does anyone remember Black Monday in October in the late 80’s? The market lost something like 500 points in one day and everyone freaked out, now this happens every few weeks and no one bats an eye. I’ll stop now as I’m sure many of you think I’m crazy or over-reacting but I just feel I have to say something to you even at the risk of you thinking I’m nuts! Ok, if you don’t get it by now, I’m not going to change your mind, (MOM) but please at least ask someone else or do a little research yourself, enough said. Like I said, what do you have to lose by getting out, not much! What do you have to lose by staying in, oh yea, everything!

The youngest just joined me on the couch at 5:35am. The oldest has been in teenager mode for about a year now meaning he’ll sleep as long as you let him. The misses thankfully is still in bed although I’m sure she’s up as she was most of the night. I guess Grandpa Bob was alone yesterday as Eleanor went to her daughters or something and he stayed home as he was having heart palpation’s which is brought on by panic attacks. Hope he’s doing well, it was probably the 49’ers losing to the Ravens last night that set him off! At least Green Bay won so my Mom was happy. I was praying for this as if they lost she would have been in a bad mood for dinner.

I guess I’ll run now and get the little guy some breakfast and get showered and ready to go work some retail, whoo hoo! Have a great day and weekend and if you’re looking for something to buy the misses and me for Christmas, think gold coins or ounces of silver! We can tell you the name of a reputable dealer where you can order some up!

God Bless,

That’s right, it’s going to be 67 degrees or warmer today on November 24th. What a nice day. It makes you think that sooner or later it’s going to get real cold and pay us back for this nice weather.

Yesterday the misses was sent home from work. Not for her cold but for her hip and back which she somehow tweaked the day before standing all day. Her supervisor saw her bend down and then need help to get herself up and asked her if she wanted to go. She obviously replied yes. Before she left though, they filled out an injury report and told her she should go to their doctor to get checked out. After an hour or so later she was home with a couple of prescriptions and an appointment next week for physical therapy. They told her if she’s too uncomfortable working next week, to let them know and they’ll take her off work. They offered yesterday but the misses said that she needed to work. We’ll see how this plays out but her hip on her left side is definitely out of whack.

The boys and I ran some errands and then I did some work while they played outside. They then went to the neighbors so I could get some uninterrupted work done and get to the bank and a few other places. Mom and I fell asleep around 8 while the boys stayed up chugging egg nog and who knows what else while watching a movie. All we remember is them coming upstairs around 10pm.

It’s a little after 5am and the good looking one already has a homemade pumpkin pie in the oven and is working on her butternut squash soup. It’s going to be quite a feast today all centered around the 20 pound bird Uncle T is roasting. I’m glad it’s him as it’s too much pressure for us to get it cooked right! Everyone is coming around 2pm and we’re planning on eating around 3. We did receive a couple of comments yesterday, one from Grandma Annette (you sure are doing well at participating!) and Aunt Robi. First Grandma Annette posted,

“Serena and Matt are having Thanksgiving with friends. Their friends provide the house, turkey and stuffing for all their friends that don’t go out of town. The girls are going to Erica’s and Aunt Jean, Uncle Mike, Jim aand I are going out to eat then see the Muppets or Hugo. I am making a turkey breast and cranberry sauce for turkey sandwiches later.”

Now Serena is the misses sister for those of you that don’t know. I’m not sure if they read the blog or not but we sure like her and the boys love playing with her and her husband Matt. Turkey sandwiches and a movie sound fun. I’d go see Hugo if it was me! Aunt Robi also chimed in,

“Well I’m not in California but I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!”

We’re not sure what she’s doing or where she’ll be but Happy Thanksgiving to you too! She’s in Arizona so I’m sure it’s warm down there.

Thankfully the misses and I both feel better today. It’s just one of those head colds you have to ride out. Don’t worry Mom, we’re past the contagious stage I’m sure. We think the boys brought this home from Uncle T’s house as he was kind of sick when the boys stayed with them. No politics today but I really think everyone should take Grandma Annette’s suggestion to buy American and buy local. I know everyone agrees with this but let’s all put it in practice and not just forget about it. We as a country need the revenue and the products are better.

Time to run, 3 football games today, I don’t know how many I’ll get to watch but I hope Green Bay and San Francisco both win. I don’t remember who plays in the second game. Take care and be thankful for all you have and stop focusing on what you don’t. We’re all real lucky in the grand scheme of things. If you have your health, a roof over your head and food on the table, you’re better off than the majority of the people in the World.

Count your blessing, take care and God Bless,

Well I finally caught the wife’s cold. Yesterday afternoon my throat started hurting and by bedtime, I had it. Thankfully I finished some work in the morning and made my way to Costco with the boys before I started feeling cruddy. I also decided to tackle the house from top to bottom the best I could as it hadn’t been really cleaned since we arrived home. I started in our room with my closet by taking everything out from the bottom to vacuum out all the dust bombs. Next up, after throwing away some old shoes, I moved the bed and cleaned under there too. Then some dusting and putting away some clothes and I was onto the rest of the top floor. About an hour or so later, I made it downstairs and continued the battle while the boys were outside playing in the front yard. Finally around 4:30 I finished and threw a chicken in the oven for dinner.

Other than my cold, I feel pretty good. It’s the misses who’s pretty tired. She worked 10 hours yesterday and could barely talk when she got home as her throat hurt so much. It’s 4:50 am now and she’s still sleeping but will be up soon as she works at 7:15. I woke up about 4:15 with a nose bleed. It’s so dry here and all of a sudden my nose just started bleeding. I never get these but the misses does quite a bit.

Now onto the holidays, Grandma Annette posted a comment yesterday which I think is worth sharing so here you are;

“I can’t beleive with all the cooking the two of you do, you can’t cook a turkey! I’m putting money for the boy’s on Fandango for birthday’s and Christmas (lots of good movies out). I’m buying American and supporting local business for Christmas this year. I’m glad you two got a few days away together and in Paris. Lucky”

Now the important part here other than knowing we’re getting movie tickets (yea) is that she’s “buying American” and supporting local businesses when shopping for Christmas. This may not sound like much but imagine how much better our economy would be if everyone “bought American” this holiday season. American Express (don’t know if you’ve seen the tv ads) is sponsoring a “Shop Small Saturday” where they encourage everyone to shop at small local independent stores this coming Saturday. It’s kind of funny that American Express knows the key to our economy (and their business) is small businesses and not the mega corporations. After all they’re not sponsoring this day just to be nice, they know that the majority of their customers are just that, small businesses. Why can’t the government see this? They’d rather support companies like GE who send jobs to China, file 57,000 page tax returns and pay zero taxes (this is true believe it or not!) and make mega donations to the democratic party. I’m telling you, it’s all out of whack. All Obama cares about is getting re-elected and if he does, things will not get better, I promise you!

Ok, that’s enough politics for the day. Today the boys and I will be preparing for the big day tomorrow. I hope we’re all feeling ok. We’re going to try making our own pumpkin pies rather than buying them this year. The boys are also going to help, I’m sure I’ll have some stories from this. I talked to Grandma yesterday who was already making her famous 3 bean salad. I have no idea what else we’re making. Maybe some sweet potato’s, mashed potato’s, green beans and stuffing. I’d better check with the misses this morning in case I need to go to the store.

Well time to run and wake the good looking one so she can start getting ready for work. I’d like to find the boys some friends to play with today so I can get some work done. Oh oh, I just woke the misses and she sounds terrible! She has that sexy throaty voice like some sultry lounge singer. She doesn’t feel well at all, hopefully she’ll be better by tonight.

We hope everyone has a great day planned, post a comment (especially those of you in California) and let us know what you’re doing tomorrow! Wish we were all together, we could have a pie baking contest! I’ll bet some of you make some great pumpkin and pecan pies, boy would that be fun! Take care and God Bless and as Grandma Annette said, buy local and buy American!

Not long now and we’ll be eating turkey, watching football and celebrating the day. We have 8 people coming to our house including the 4 of us. The misses works 10 hour shifts today and tomorrow so I’ll be doing a lot of work around here as well as doing my regular work in the office.

Nothing much has changed in Washington, the President is MIA and each side is blaming the other. How’d that super Committee work out? I think any of us could have called this one a few months ago, right. What a joke. Get ready, not to be the bearer of bad news but things are going to get worse, mark my words. I need to stop now but if you have money in the stock market, get it out now. This is not a joke, we are heading the way of Europe and if you continue to trust the government which in turn means you’re trusting the safety and security of your money in the stock market ( the governments policies affect the market on a daily basis), you will lose most if not all of your money. Transfer it to a savings account in a bank or put it under your mattress, just get it out of the market, you are running out of time.

Ok now onto more pleasant thoughts. Christmas is a month from Friday, wow, hard to believe. Uncle T has his tree up and the boys are pressing hard for us to get ours out. We’re trying to put them off until this weekend but we’ll see if we can hold out. I’m helping a friend of mine this Friday at his store as he’s having a big sale from 8am until 2pm. He’s my buddy that I went hunting with who has the gun shop and he needs to move about $100,000 worth of inventory. We put ads for the sale in the paper and are running all kinds of specials. If anyone needs a gun, nows your chance. In fact, a recent article in the New York Times suggested that people go buy guns and ammunition as investments as they not only hold their value but have been appreciating at a better rate than the stock market!  Who’d thought it, the New York Times telling people to go buy guns.

The stores are already packed. We noticed this when the misses and I took the oldest for new tennis shoes yesterday. He’s now a size 7 1/2! Boy are both kids growing. It’s going to be a lean Christmas for the misses and I. We decided we’re not getting each other anything although we’ll have to get some small things like nail polish or cd’s or something so we have something to open in front of the kids. We’re also determined to only buy the boys things they can actually use. This doesn’t mean all clothes but it does mean no cheap useless toys from China. The toys they will get will be board games (they actually want some) and sports related gear like footballs and things that promote exercise. They’re good with this as even they have pretty much grown out of the cheap China crap. After all, it’s not about the gifts now is it? It’s about family and egg nog, right!

Well I think I’ll run and get to the gym before everyone wakes up. It’s almost 5am and the house will be buzzing in 90 minutes or so. I made a nice dinner of prime rib last night followed up with baked apples stuffed with brown sugar and raisins which were a hit. We need to get the gifts we brought home down to Uncle T and Aunt B and Grandma today. Now don’t get too excited as they’re not that big! It’s the thought that counts anyhow, right! We’re still on a high from our 52 hour mini vacation. I highly recommend it to everyone, just take off and get away for a few days, it’ll do you wonders.

Ok, time to run, hope all’s well, take care and God Bless and don’t screw up the turkey! Thankfully Uncle T is cooking the turkey as the misses and I just cannot cook a turkey no matter how hard we try. We dropped off a 20 pound bird at his house yesterday and now it’s all up to him, no pressure there huh! Good luck Uncle T!