Mortgage Crisis Worsens

And here I thought home foreclosures were hard on folks.

These eternal life and beauty foreclosures are bound to shave a few percentage points off 2012 GDP.

Brinky Cup – Week 12

Week 12 of the NFL season was a story of leaders striving for separation from the pack.  In the races for the Brinky Cup and the Bizarro Brinky Cup, it’s been clear for several weeks who’s best and un-best, but efforts to secure victory beyond any doubt have thus far been checked.  This week, though, Dark Mario put up a league-leading 13-3 record to try and blast clear of Marcus…except Marcus went 13-3 as well, so no luck there.  Lisa posted a second-straight strong week to make it real contest for third place with Dark Me.  In the Bizarro Brinky Cup, Reagan’s half decent Week 11 already allowed Ruby to extend her lead, but there as well, true anti-dominance had eluded.  No more.  The also-rans Katie, Reagan, and Justicole put up reliably weak weeks, but it did not signify.  With a stunning 4-12 masterpiece of badness Ruby soared under the pack, and now leads the BBC standings by 6 games.   Here are the complete Week 12 results:

• 13-3 (2):  Dark Mario, Marcus
• 12-4 (1):  Lisa
• 11-5 (1):  Lee
• 10-6 (4):  Brinkley, Dark Lee, Jenny, Mario the Elder
• 9-7 (4):  Charlotte, Jodi Ann, Mario the Younger, Tara
• 7-9 (3):  Justin, Katie, Reagan
• 4-12 (1): Ruby

Brinky Cup Standings (through 12 weeks):

 

	Games Back
Dark Mario	-
Marcus	3
Dark Lee	7
Lisa	9
Mario T.Y.	12
Brinkley	13
Mario T.E.	13
Tara	13
Jenny	14
Lee	14
Jodi Ann	16
Charlotte	22
Reagan	24
Katie	25
Justin	27
Ruby	33

Death First

So now the long-feared threat has materialized: Justin and Nicole will be getting married after all.  It was a close-run thing, as the Duke of Wellington once said, and if the dog had a slightly less malodorous digestive process, I maintain that it might have gone the other way.  But now we come to it, what really matters in this whole business of other people getting married and whatever, which is how it affects me and my baby championship.  I have three babies, and no one can realistically catch me…except for Justin.  That eight-year difference in age torments me.  So we will see what we see.  I’ve told Katie to keep her uterus at the ready should I have need of it again, because I swear this now and forever: I will be dead before I lose at babies to Justin.

The Truth About Marcus

For those who need to know the truth.  Here is the official version, front side.

That’s a solid D-minus effort there.  The teacher didn’t even put a nose on the smiley-face/grade.  The unofficial version is on the back.

I don’t know if he’s the jellybean or the alien, or both, but that’s really the whole thing about Marcus, isn’t it?  He could be either one.

Another thing I should get off my chest now, so it doesn’t become a problem for us all later on:  I’m the oldest.  Even when Mom was alive I was the oldest.  So people who think they’re going to come along and put a birthday ahead of my birthday should really think about taking one for the team–the team on which I am the oldest player–by becoming younger.  Try out something in an August birthday, perhaps; I don’t think we have any of those, except for who all I’m forgetting.

Not Katie

I swear this is Jenny, being both useful and grown-up.  You can tell by the temporary tattoo and the healthy overall pallor.

FSX Friday Doesn’t Count Because Everyone’s On Vacation Update By Katie

I’m guest posting again this week while I’m on vacation, so that Lee can also have at least a little bit of a break. Although he doesn’t take breaks well, but it is at least giving him time to write.

So it looks like the market is down this week about 4.5% or so through yesterday. Since I don’t really study the market the way some of us do, I don’t really know why. But maybe if holiday shoppers really head out and spend a bunch of money this weekend, it will rebound some next week. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

On to the FSX. The FSX is down slightly more than the market – 5.2% for the week. We’re still slightly down for the quarter (-0.2%) and down 16.7% for year. Let’s see why.

Advancers:

• Reagan (REGN) 10.6%.  Reagan was by far the biggest winner this week. You wanna know why? Because she’s weird. She had a dentist appointment scheduled for Monday, and I was going to put it off, mostly because I didn’t feel like taking her to the dentist that day. But when we mentioned that possibility, she completely freaked out (as she’s known to do) and said that her tooth was really hurting and she NEEDED to go. So we went. And she got her first filling. And she was really happy about it because she’s been obsessed with this dentist appointment for weeks. Doesn’t she know that Machis prefer to avoid going to the dentist altogether?
• Wilson (WILC) 0.9%.  Strange that Wilson’s the only other FSX member up this week. I think it’s because, as Lee mentioned, we’re having issues with the dogs getting out. The “issue” is really Zondro, who tries to dig his way out. Surprise – yesterday morning our neighbor knocked on the door to say Zondro was out. I think Wilson realized in that moment that maybe Lee’s more likely to kill Zondro before him.
• Zero (FRZ) unch. I’m counting Zero as an advancer because that just hasn’t been happening very often this year. I’m taking it to mean he’s going to have a very good holiday season at his job .

Decliners:

• Katie (CATY) -5.8%.  I’d say I’m down because I have eaten so much food this week. And because I like my new Kindle Fire…but so do Jenny and Reagan. So they’re driving me crazy every five seconds asking if they can use it.
• Dustin (DST) -5.9%.  Dustin’s down because he’s getting so old. And he had to post on facebook because so many people always wish you happy birthday on your birthday that it’s really rude if you don’t respond in some way. And I don’t think he likes posting on facebook. (Side note: someone actually typed “HBTY!” to him. Because typing out “happy birthday to you” just takes too much time?)
• Ruby (RBY) -5.9%. Mom was working hard on cooking the Thanksgiving meal today. At least that’s the way it sounded when I talked to her. And everyone knows mom doesn’t actually like to cook. The turkey wasn’t quite ready when I talked to them, but I hope it turned out well.
• Mario T.Y. (SUP) -6.3%. Mario’s down because he’s been missing his morning conversations with me this week since I’ve been on vacation. And because he rejected my invitation to come here for Thanksgiving because we’re more than an hour away. Hope your meal was good, brother.
• Mario T.E. (PBY) -6.8%. Dad’s down because he realized our handyman skills have surpassed his this week. We uninstalled our broken microwave (after the door flew off the other day as Lee mentioned) and installed a new over the range microwave. By ourselves. And it hasn’t fallen off the wall yet.
• Jenny (LEN) -7.0%. Jenny’s growing so much that it’s hard to keep her in clothing that fits her. She doesn’t have a problem wearing clothing that doesn’t fit her, but Lee and I both prefer that she wear appropriately sized clothing. So I’m going to brave Black Friday at the mall briefly tomorrow to get her some clothes that fit.
• Zondro (ZQK) -7.2%. Lee’s going to kill him soon. Or he’s going to get out and never come back. I mean, I know Lee won’t kill him, but seriously Zondro should quit trying to dig out under the fence.
• Lisa (LSI) -8.5%. Maybe Dustin’s getting too old for her.
• Future Lee (MSTR) -9.2%. While I think I’ve been able to help Lee out a bit with some things during my vacation time this week, I know that my presence (not to mention the girls’) throws off Brinky’s routine and Lee’s. I think someone’s looking forward to a return to relative normal next week.
• Icarus (FLOW) -9.7%. Icarus must really be missing Charlotte during this holiday week.
• Marcus (MCS) -10.4%. Marcus’s house finally beat him, so he had to move out. But I think that will lead to an improvement in his quality of life and the future looks good.
• Brinky (BCO) -11.4%. While I choose to believe that Brinky enjoys bonus quality time with his mother, he also really likes to stick to his routine. I let him just fall asleep on me if he’s tired and go out and run errands with me at inconvenient times. Or take him by my work to show him off. He enjoyed the outing to work – someone gave him a sucker that I allowed him to slime up his whole self with. And then he promptly threw up the sucker on the floor at work before we walked out. Then I knew it was time to go. Also, he’s decided to hate drinking his bottle the last couple days. I know we’re getting close to the end of the formula days, but he’s actually still supposed to drink that nastiness right now. He disagrees.

Name	Ticker	11/23/2011	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$22.82	-2.94
Charlotte	ICE	$113.31	-3.90
Dustin	DST	$45.10	-2.82
Icarus	FLOW	$2.34	-0.25
Jenny	LEN	$16.44	-1.23
Justin	WOLF	$2.27	-0.11
Katie	CATY	$12.14	-0.75
Lee	MSTR	$112.98	-11.48
Legacy Lee	LEE	$0.63	unch
Lisa	LSI	$5.18	-0.48
Lucas	LEI	$1.85	-0.05
Lulu	LULU	$46.70	-2.36
Marcus	MCS	$10.86	-1.26
Mario T.E.	PBY	$10.45	-0.76
Mario T.Y.	SUP	$14.70	-0.99
Marisa	MOLX	$22.31	-1.39
Nicole B.	NI	$21.23	-0.77
Nicole L.	COL	$51.16	-2.55
Reagan	REGN	$55.09	+5.28
Ruby	RBY	$3.37	-0.21
Wilson	WILC	$5.45	+0.05
Winston	HWD	$9.89	-0.36
Zero	FRZ	$0.68	unch
Zondro	ZQK	$2.83	-0.22

Assassination Attempt Foiled

Last night I opened the microwave to reheat some chicken and it threw itself at me, separating and launching its plate glass front in a brazen attempt to decapitate me in the kitchen.  IN MY HOME.  (It works better if you picture Al Pacino for that last line, not me.)  I blame the book.  Did Austria blame the Bosnian anarchists who assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand for his murder?  Well, yes, and they were all executed.  But it also blamed Serbia, and that turned out to be a much more momentous blaming.  So the book will pay for this affront.  The assassin himself is locked in the basement with the spiders and we are attempting to install his replacement.  I consider that, since the moment of that unprovoked and dastardly attack yesterday evening, we have been at war with all microwaves everywhere.  We will stop at nothing now to win through to absolute victory, and install this new microwave.  If I have to buy a diamond-cutting laser drill, well, I shall.

I Know My Daughter

This really happened when we were all watching Up All Night on DVR yesterday.

DVR: [showing commercials, the last block between the end of the show and the 30 seconds after the end before the start of the next show, whatever that's called]

Katie:  Fast forward!  FAST FORWARD!  WHERE’S JENNY?!

[Jenny was in charge of the remote.]

Jenny:  [not in the room suddenly]

Reagan:  I’ll do it!

Me:  Wait…you’re going to fast forward?

Katie:  You don’t think she can do it?

Me:  It’s Reagan.  She has to hit the same button twice in succession and time it right.

Katie:  I have confidence in her.

Reagan:  I can do it!  [Reagan hits the fast forward button about ten times, skipping immediately to the end of the recording.]

DVR:  Save program/Delete now?

Katie:  No, Reagie, don’t–

Reagan:  [Panic.  Hits delete now.]

DVR:  Are you sure you want to delete now?

Katie:  NOOOOOO!

Reagan:  [Extreme panic.  Nothing can stop it now.  Confirms delete.]

DVR:  New deletion speed record!

Katie:  Oh my god!

Me:  This is the best thing that’s ever happened.

Reagan:  [runs upstairs]

Brinky Cup – Week 11

Back to 14 games for Week 11; I don’t understand the NFL schedule at all.  I thought it was byes-off, byes-on, byes-off, but apparently it’s more intricate than that.  I like the Thursday games, though; I enjoy the feeling that there’s a football game at the end of the day, and I usually plan to watch, which then, of course, I don’t.  It’s amusing to me that I always think I’m going to watch and I never do.  But after all, those games don’t start until almost 9 P.M.!  If I’m awake at 9 P.M., it’s because I’m doing something important; if I’m not doing something important, I’m not awake; if I’m not doing something important but I’m awake anyway, I have insomnia and I’m too grumpy to watch football.  Week 11 gave us another batch of tightly-bunched results, with a four-way tie for first and another four competitors just a game behind the lead pack.  In the overall standings, the two main races remain up-for-grabs.  Dark Mario’s lead in the Brinky Cup narrowed by a game, as both Marcus and Dark Me inched closer.  The race for the Brinky Cup still looks to be all Darkness and Marcus, with a big group of trailers led by Lisa sitting at 7 to 12 games back.  At the other end of the spectrum, Ruby widened her un-lead in the Bizarro Brinky Cup to two games, but any one of the four-and-a-half ladies and half-a-man within six games of the bottom could still make an un-run.  Here are the complete Week 11 results:

• 10-4 (4):  Jodi Ann, Mario the Elder, Reagan, Tara
• 9-5 (4):  Dark Lee, Lisa, Marcus, Mario the Younger
• 8-6 (3):  Brinkley, Dark Mario, Katie
• 7-7 (2):  Charlotte, Lee
• 6-8 (3):  Jenny, Justin, Ruby

Brinky Cup Standings (through 11 weeks):

 

	Games Back
Dark Mario	-
Marcus	3
Dark Lee	4
Lisa	7
Mario T.Y.	8
Tara	9
Brinkley	10
Jenny	10
Mario T.E.	10
Jodi Ann	12
Lee	12
Charlotte	17
Katie	18
Reagan	18
Justin	21
Ruby	23

New Look Needed

For a long, long time I wore a suit every day and an XXL v-neck Land’s End undershirt with baggy exercise shorts at night.  It was a bad look for a bad time.  For the last two years I’ve worn the same baggy exercise shorts as before–literally the same ones–and comic book T-shirts, all of it ripped and streaked with paint, various industrial sealants/solvents, and bleach stains.  It’s a good look, I think, but I work it day and night, in and out of the house, and I’m starting to think I should have a different look for the times that me and my lady go out on the town.  I’m down to three choices.

Track suits:

Heavy dress capes:

Or everything this guy is doing:

The common denominator seems to be: I want to feel soft.  I wish someone solve this wardrobe problem for me, and by someone I definitely mean Charlotte.