Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween.



Not as many people had stuff that was great at night. But, I got you these things.







Pacman pumpkins lit up.





Glad we got photos yesterday. Pinky is already having a meltdown.



This shot is a little lighter.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pacman pumpkins.



Mr S. was on a plane when he thought this one up. Somewhere along the line I created a giant monster with this whole pumpkin thing. When we first started dating I had to drag him kicking and screaming to carving pumpkins. Now this crap is taking the whole weekend.

Although, spray painting pumpkins is much funner than you would expect.



The bottom half needed to be a different color.







This whole thing is suppose to light up at night. And since there isn't much air because of the googley eyes, we decided to see if Christmas lights would be bright enough.







Yes. Women ARE always bitching about something.



The basic problem as I see it between men and women is this. Men basically want to be helpful. They do. That is their whole mission in life. This is why they are so confused when we wind up pissed. Their man minds they say "look honey, I'm helping"! To which women reply "reeeallly. You thought that was helping"?

Take for example these spray cans who were emphatically made by men. I know this not because these companies are usually run by men. But because the person who designed this can may have never even known a women.

When I ripped off the protective plastic and started using one of these cans I immediately went into a meltdown. Do these men not know how a woman's body is built I started. Mr S. just looked at me. He knows to let this spin out.

Sure the old way, you pushed down this tiny nozzle and that eventually hurt your finger. ONE finger. And that sucked after a while. But these new cans, you have to use two fingers. Or two thumbs. Or anything that will give you enough downward pressure. If you are a women. And it's not exactly women are sporting the massive forearm strength. So you literally wind up with carpal tunnel within a very short time.

On the bright side - they did make it so the paint doesn't run when you constantly hold down the button. Like girls do. Because basically you have to. I was almost crippled after one day of this project. And it's not exactly like I'm a sissy girl. Just two weeks ago I was putting in 1500sqft of sod.

Still, I don't know what kind of a man girl could use these cans without that sucking. They must have giant man hands or something.

I don't understand why men cant get the idea that we want to use the stuff you do, but our bodies are just different.

Monday, October 29, 2012

I think the only thing left to do is pray. And I'm an athiest.

Am I the only one who loves googley eyes?



Yes. Yes I am. She doesn't find this game fun at all.
FB is cursed. I believe the lockup expired today. Good luck with the exits when this market opens.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Dear NY. This is for making fun of me last time. Love Mother Nature.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

This leaves you with a lot of questions.




HT: Mr S.
That cold front Sandy is suppose to meet gave Tahoe the earliest opening since 1960.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Jamaica made her more angry.



No disruption at all. Cuba should shred her. She's such a big storm though.



Spinner in the carib.



All the mets seem to be pretty nervous about this thing getting pulled up by a trough and sending it to the New England area. Inland. Not out to sea. Cuba will probably disrupt it. Cuba is good about that. But this is a big storm, it takes up the whole Caribbean. That is a huge rain field, and they (the people who say things) think it will go extra tropical. Which means more intense rain.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I'm betting employees at FB are putting on their running shoes. I'd be putting in a market order for the minute the lockup period ends.

Update: This is how dysfunctional the market is. FB who produces almost nothing is up roughly 9% on a loss. IRobot who actually produces "something" is down 17% on basically flat revenue.

I might as well talk about Dupont too.

This morning when I got up and noticed DuPont had announced a pretty big layoff, it made me go a little rigid. I haven't seen DuPont lay off in a really long time. Until I read through what the problem was.

Solar.

That is what the problem is.

You will start to see layoffs from that sector start in earnest. Siemens just announced they were exiting, as well as Sharp. When these big well known companies that straddle the solar sector start exiting - shit is going to hit the fan. Because they can't hide the losses with other more profitable segments of their businesses.
Facebook misses by 9 cents, closes three branches of Zynga and they are up a buck? Yeah, makes perfect sense. That is a huge miss. But they need to protect their baby.

Cup up.

Today, I've been finding it funny that President Money Bags let congress and the Senate go on break essentially leaving every single business in the United States hanging. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when you don't know what the rules are going to be - you just hunker down and don't do anything. You don't spend money. You don't hire. I mean, what did he expect to happen?

No matter what the polls say - I believe that business will flee President Money Bags in droves. Because to not do so would be suicide.

I believe that all the bad things set to happen - have to happen. People need to lose faith in government for them to stop depending on it. It has to happen under this administration for Black people to stop blaming whitey for every bad choice they make. It has to be this President for people to stop believing that Republicans are evil.
Wow. On the day you report earnings you announce this? Maybe "announced" is too strong.

Monday, October 22, 2012

It doesn't matter what you feel about war.

War will be had. No matter who is in office.

I think tonight's debate is more important than anyone thinks. Despite everyone saying that Americans don't pay that much attention to foreign policy. I'm pretty excited about the debate actually. Because anyone with a twitter feed can know exactly what is going on in Syria. In fact, no one on earth can claim they don't.

If they don't - it's because they don't want to. It's horrible. It's cruel. It's torturing children and men shackled in hospitals. Pictures for everyone to see. Impossible to mistake for propaganda. It's the reality. Even I am still routinely shocked at the amount of sheer depravity. Bodies constantly... just mangled.

Having said that - what happened to our ambassador makes me want to drop a bomb on someone. Americans want to feel safe in other countries. If we can't even keep our ambassadors safe...how can average Americans feel safety?

For the last year I've felt we can not afford to go to war. I stifle my feelings about the citizens of that country. I vacillate through not wanting to be the worlds policeman. Yet wonder how a society can resolve itself with he horror of what is going on in Syria. In 20 years, what toll will we pay for turning a blind eye? When the world just looked away.

The people there can't believe no one is coming to help them. But then people in Iraq were praying for someone to come help them too. And all that got us was a big fat stick in the eye.

At any rate it doesn't matter what any of us think. Syria is provoking it's neighbors. One of which is a member of NATO. An attack on one is an attack on all. Remember?

And you can't expect the neighboring countries to keep tolerating and feeding the refugees in camps on the border countries. I mean, that is a humanitarian problem.

So it will be interesting how this whole debate thing shakes out.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

It was the smallest of outbreaks.



But, they were fast walkers. So... run!





They also looked newly turned. Wow. I've been watching way too many zombie movies lately. This was in San Jose.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Girl with eyes on the back of her neck tattoo.



This girl made me think I'd like her in some way. I mean, she must be damaged to get this kind of tattoo. It screamed - there is a deeper meaning somewhere in here.

Sadly my coffee slave was away, so I was mostly sitting in a surly puddle waiting for my morning fix.

I wonder if it queebs the guys out when they are having sex with her. To have those eyes staring back at you.

See, I could have asked so many questions if the line wasn't pissing me off.

Friday, October 19, 2012

The law of deminishing returns.

It must have been over the summer I was talking to my direct neighbor to the left. The one with the Turkeys on his roof. He was trying to convince me the economy was getting better because his wife was coming home every day in tears. You see, she works at a mortgage company. I interpreted his comment as - how can she be working so hard if things aren't getting better? She is plugging a 12 to 14 hour day. Day in and day out.

I basically told him that people are doing more with less.

Fast forward to yesterday and the turkeys. I figured it was a good time to pick his brain. Because of his wife's career choice. How long does it take to get a refi through these days? Which I didn't get an answer to because I cover a lot of ground when I talk to people. We got distracted on something else. He did scoff though, which enforced my belief that these people are working a lot harder because of that.

Also, I put this guy in the crowd that has done "multiple" refinances since the recession started. I guess this is a "thing" because I have two direct neighbors who have been following this trend. However, the neighbor to the left told me the last time they tried to refi, her own company would not refi them. They had to go somewhere else.

This is the other thing he told me that I found fascinating. He said they had taken all the equity out and was putting "somewhere" else. He said - you could be dead tomorrow. To which I agreed. But I also countered - you might live much longer than you think.

After a while, I found out where "somewhere else" was. It was in a new Suburban. At 500 bucks a month. They still make out ahead per month, but now they have exactly no equity. When he told me this, a light bulb popped on and I realised why all my dem neighbors wound up with new cars right after the recession hit. At the time I was all shades of confused. They seemed to be working less, not more. They all seemed to pop up with them all at the same time.

One thing I've been feeling lately is that while this past four years I've been shoveling any cash I can find to shore up my balance sheet, these people have been fucking off and continuing to live life as if another downturn wasn't going to happen. These people now are left with no backup plan. You should never take equity out of your house unless you get laid off and need a bridge loan to get through that.

Now these people are unable to refi any more. Which means, the stuff they buy will cave.

This guy also told me that I will probably never be able to refi my rental. Positive equity. Perfect credit score. Forget it. Because I'm an evil landlord. They are only doing owner occupied houses. Period. That doesn't scream at all like we hate business.
I talked to my husband this morning, and he was playing golf.

He doesn't golf.

What does he think he is? The President or something!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Today, one of my other neighbors told me the Turkeys were on his roof! He has a little two man boat parked in front of his house, and he said the turkeys hopped up on the boat and then onto his house. No shit! Which I am so completely bummed out I didn't see.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

OMG. I hope I get to see one of these one day.



This car goes 354km/h. This is not my photo. It belongs to Sam Ruttyn.
For a couple of months I've felt pretty calm about the election. Mr S. not so much. No matter what he said to me I replied with the following...

Poor people don't vote.

Why do I think that? Because I come from poor, and I'm telling you. Poor people don't vote. Most people don't vote.

Also, I knew we had to get through earnings season. No one on earth can tell me that a 25% unemployment rate in large swaths of Europe wasn't going to be reflected in the earning of our companies.

Nobody.

Because they are just that modest.

Councilman Schenirer: City's business climate must improve.

"Following the closure of two large businesses - and after years of financial instability - Sacramento City Hall is talking about changing its business culture."

When I read this article yesterday, I was slightly excited. OMG, I thought. The world is finally changing. After all - they did say this. "A key part of the plan is to alter the perception that Sacramento is unfriendly toward business."

Yeah, not so much. Because the problem is they are just to modest too talk themselves up. Yeah. That's the problem.

"We have a great city, but we're not very good at talking about it," he said.

I run across the most random stuff.





Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I think Obama underestimated that Romney is a CEO. Who are well versed in conference calls.

I wonder he'll think about me from time to time.

Just a week ago I had a guy at my door trying to sell me solar. And he was super aggressive. I had to tell him "not interested" FIVE times. Which was unusual in itself. Every week these guys are walking the neighborhood. I finally flat out told him his company was going bankrupt.

Seriously.

But, we've been around for 30 years - he said. That was the past, this is the future - I said. Your company is going bankrupt.

Ya know what is awkward? Having an electric car battery maker go bankrupt on the day you are going to have a debate.

It's a little quirky I suppose.





It's official. This is a "thing" in my burb. I've seen them walk down the street in front of my house twice, and the neighbors have seen large groups of them. These pictures are not in front of my house but pretty much down town.

The funny thing is - they pretty much stick to the sidewalks.

How do they know!?

Their nails going clack, clack, clack on the sidewalk. I've only seen them cross the street once. And there should be a joke in there somewhere.

The funnier thing is every time I see them - the Fresh Prince of Bell Air song goes round and round in my head. I mean, all these Turkeys need is the ability to watch flat screen TV, and they will be the shit.
Mr S. is flying to a "battleground state" this week to visit his family.

And it's sort of funny how fast politics is moving. Just a week ago I was telling him - I know you have more important issues to deal with when you are out there, but if you can - find out what the hell is up with that state. It's pretty bad when Californians have to tell them to get their shit together.

Now the polls have tightened up. So... there is that.

Lambo Tuesday.





I haven't seen that many great cars out lately. Or if I did, they were on the freeway going the opposite direction.

As I was pulling out of a parking spot, this car passed right behind me and I went to chase mode. Which happened to be the same parking lot. Parking sucked, so I didn't even get out of my car to get a shot. As the driver saw me stalking him I managed a "nice Lambo" comment. Which in that area of Silicon Valley was about the lamest tardliest thing to say ever. And I'm totally bored of Lambos! Seriously. Silicon Valley is really an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Lambos. We have awesome weather ya know. Mr S. always reminds me to suck it up because people who live in most other states aren't as jaundiced by fancy cars.

Later in the evening I was recounting the whole story to Mr S. and he said to me - you are sure it was a Lambo - right? Because I sometimes get Lambos and Ferrari's mixed up. Oh yes I do. I had to go look at my photo to make sure I wasn't an even bigger idiot by calling the car the wrong name. It isn't so much that I can't tell the difference. I can. It's just they are pretty interchangeable to me. So the conversation between us ends with a " Lambo, Ferrari, whatever" comment.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Soon Kiddies. I will be back soon. Then you will have to put up with my mishmash of catching you up with the world and everything on what happened for the last week.

P.S. I'm slightly insulted my traffic has been better this week then when I actually post. Snowman pumpkin is killing it on the interwebs though. Which makes me feel a lot of pressure to come up with a better pumpkin idea for this year. I was going to do Honey Boo Boo. But no one is going to be searching on that next year. Not like South Park pumpkin.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

I'm thinking about taking the week off from blogging. I mean, unless something really interesting happens. Just don't be surprised to not see any posts for a while.

And anyway, for you new readers, the blog sorta goes off the rails this time of year. It takes a lot of effort to find interesting stuff and then write about the whole thing. I'm tired. Now the season is slow and I need to try and get extra sleep.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Even the easy stuff is hard these days.

Yesterday we spent half the day installing a gas dryer.

You see, you can not get anyone to install one of these things without buying their overpriced gas and dryer hoses. To the tune of 30 bucks or so. It doesn't matter if your house was is brand new. It doesn't matter if it was remodeled up to code one day ago. They refuse to install without you purchasing these parts. Period.

I believe this is a form of crony capitalism. I already have front loading machines. Which means my laundry room has been remodeled within the last 5 years. To tell you the truth, about a year ago when the washer started acting up again, Fry's refused to even take the order without the 30 dollar parts. They lost my sale. I know it's only 30 bucks, but it's the principle of the matter.

I was perfectly happy though to tip the installer 20 bucks for reversing my doors on the machines.

This is why governments can never predict tax income. They try to force you in one direction and people wind up saying, eff you, and directing that money in a different direction. It's called the free market. And even when it isn't free, we find ways to make it free.

New dryers are a bit of a bitch to install these days though. Water goes both to the washer and dryer. Because dryers have steam. And when you bought the first one you thought they'd roughly stay the same size. They haven't.

Friday, October 05, 2012

I was *so* close.

On my prediction that gas would never reach 5 bucks a gallon here. So close. I really thought I was home free at this point. But, I lose.
I have to admit, in some ways ZYNGA bums me out. The video game industry is notoriously hard. There is a year or two product cycle, and by the time you get the game out - the kids have moved onto something else. It's why EA keeps cranking out updates of old titles. So I guess I think it would have been nice for someone to sweep in and make the world different.

Having said that - it goes against all of video game history. All of it. Whenever I see any news out of Zynga, all I want to scream is - these kids should study the history of one Trip Hawkins. He owes money to a lot of people in the Valley. Well, I mean... "technically" he doesn't. According to the courts. People just wound up working for free for a few weeks. Ooopsie.

Zynga was just arrogant in not understanding the history of gaming. It is a really hard grind.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Did gas jump 30 cents overnight? Yipes. But, I guess all bad news is good news to me. If that's what it takes to wedge this administration out. That is what it takes.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Uh-oh. Maybe we have crossed that magic line.

California Gas Stations Begin to Shut on Record-High Spot Prices.

Gasoline station owners in the Los Angeles area including Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) are beginning to shut pumps because of supply shortages that have driven wholesale fuel prices to record highs. "
President Money Bags is getting a twitch.
When Romney wins - I get to gloat. I was the only one who had faith. None of you did. Not even Mr S. Which made keeping the faith that much harder.

Updated:

Somewhere around August I started to flip, and finally started posting about it here in the comments, here, and here.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

My car still thinks its 95.

Monday, October 01, 2012

My new washer has a pet bed cycle. Thats a thing? Yes. Yes it is.