Thanksgiving

I am really blessed in the fact that I woke up this morning. With all the funerals we attended, it's been hard to take that for granted this year. I am blessed because my wife is still here with me, and still seems to care what happens to me. That's a big one too. I am working hard on trying to convert my thinking to appreciating that I got to spend so much time with Jake and with Holmes. Jake was my nephew and Holmes was my cat. They both died untimely deaths this year. The cat food manufacturer agreed with us about Holmes' death and sent us a check for her vet and food bills plus money to replace her. But I digress, I am really trying to convert my thoughts to ones of smiles thinking about the good times with each one, taking Jake to his first professional baseball game, bringing Holmes and her sister Watson home the first time.

I am blessed by the people who visit here and say some of the nicest things. I am blessed by the people that I have met in real life. they all know who they are, and how much I like them. My big wish is that we're all here, and even more of us, next year, for an even better Thanksgiving, and that even more of us have met, and become closer friends!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, wherever you are!

Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye

The erudite, tasteful, extremely literate, incredibly attractive, superbly endowed and intelligent beyond expectation Glamourpuss (A Pole Affair, Clairvoyance) was imitated by Marks and Spencer, the reknown English retailers when they came out with their new P.J. line. Puss, a cross between Diana Rigg and Elizabeth Hurley (eat your heart out Kim Kardashian) took it all with her finely tuned sense of good humor, and her good friend, buddy, pal Poleminx generated the much desired, most sought after "The Blog Most Likely To Inspire A Pair Of Pyjamas Award"! I was astonished, shocked, thrilled, and oh so pleased!

So I am nominating the really classy blogs out there that make me think they are the same high caliber as Glamourpuss, who has probably finished another smashing demonstration of Poledancing in Darby by now. Remember, these jammies are from Marks and Spencer, not just any old Kmart. We're talking grey or blue pin strip quality here! In silk (I would special order I suppose).

I don't have time to read many blogs while I am working, much less publish regularly. Odat, puts out high quality, wonderful material seven days a week. Odat is a staple of mental health. Remember this when the Bloggie Nominations come around, please.

Hearts blog Guilty With An Explanation, sets a very high standard of excellence, and it seems to transcend blogging and extend to living in general. One question people like to ask is something along the lines of if you could have dinner with any 5 people living or dead, who would they be? I'd really need a bacclaurean feast for a couple of weeks with a few hundred, like my Grandmother. But I guarantee you that Hearts would be there, along with Jefferson, Freud, Crankster, Einstein, CMHL, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Lincoln, Pool, Aristotle, Plato, and a few others. Assume a Universal Translator. That being the case, silk PJs are just a beginning.

Open Grove Claudia writes On A Limb With Claudia and her blog is something to look forward to reading. I can't do justice to describing her blog, you have to read it, and then you'll love it. Definitely a set of silk PJs.

Wicked H has long been one of my best kept secrets. No more. We are secretly adopted to each other. Wicked and Wandering Girl both write similar blogs, and I love them both. Sis, you get a set of the silky PJs too. You will wear them well. I am giving the same award to Wandering Girl for the same reason.



I am revisiting the Rocking Girl Blogger Award because Crankster was awarded it by me, but was on Sabbatical when I gave it to him. I am very biased about The Crankster since I believe that he could become one of the great writers of our time. Not that I want to put any pressure on him, understandably. Now that he is back to blogging, I am reissuing the award, and since I am reissuing it, I am giving it out to a few more people.

If you read Nosjunkie and her brother Will, you quickly realize that they both deserve this award. I enjoy their blogs immensely, even when I am reading from a reader on a break. They rock.

My sis Wicked H is definitely a recipient. I'm a true believer.

I adore MJ. she has suffered more than I have with the hospital, and other nasty stuff, and yet she handles it all better than I do. I want to grow up to be like MJ, but I'll never be able to group the hair.

If you have ever seen a picture of Open Grove Claudia, you'd know why she deserves this award, no questions asked.

And then there's Wng. Every mental image I have of her constitutes what this award is about.

And finally, I believe that M@ is a leading contender for this award.

In parting, I hope you all will remember that you are seeing less of me because of a major theme of this blog, namely quality. I am building the basis of what I am doing and where I am heading now, and if I am going to be any good, have any quality, add any value it will only come from hard work and some level of mastery. Please bear with me! Thanks for your forbearance. And have a fabulous week. I'll read and write when I can.

We Have Arrived

My wife has a 'thing' about scheduling, and making sure that we have enough time to do whatever is necessary. She is the uber-planner. Naturally, since we hadn't flown anywhere since the year 2000, we arrived in our little secured nook of Reagan Airport after going through security three hours before boarding of our aircraft. Impeccable planning! On the other hand, one of my favorite phrases, all of my insulin and needles went through without a hitch. Seems they have seen diabetics at TSA before, although I did seem to confuse them by wearing a pair of suspenders. I got pulled out of line for a individual 'pat down'. It may have been the pattern of the American flag on the suspenders, or the metal clips, or my wife snarling that tipped them off. They also 'statistically' picked my shoes for 'further study'. I was almost sorry I had showered, but, then again, I still sleep with my wife.

We were into 'Rage Against the Machines' and the plane wasn't at the Airport yet. We were behind the Security walls, and there was no good coffee in sight. We were prisoners in a security nook of Reagan Airport, across the Potomac river, where George Washington had flung a dollar and some change trying to get a ride also, from the Nation's Capitol, and the best food was Jerry's Subs, and the coffee was swill. I am convinced that TSA stands for Tough Shit Asshole, not that they seemed to have an attitude problem.

We eventually boarded a pencil that looked like a glider with two jet engines, where we could not put the tray tables down because there wasn't enough room between the back of the seat in front of us and our bodies. It took two and one half hours to reach the beautiful Des Moines International Airport, where our luggage eventually arrived via motorized conveyor, directly from the belly of the jet-assisted pencil. A phone call to the hotel on the specially provided phone right there in the airport yielded a shuttle that took the two of us directly to the Marriott Downtown.

In my next post, I will go into the purpose of the visit, namely Judy's aunt and uncle's 80th and 90th birthday party, a fabulous dinner on Friday night thrown by their sons, The University of Colorado Bison's who stayed at the hotel (and played the University of Iowa on Saturday), and meeting Hilary Clinton, Barrack Obama, and the entire Press corp covering them, who were also staying in our hotel, and holding Town Halls, addressing Unions, and the Farmers.

In the meantime, we did make it home in one piece, but we had to come home through Minneapolis, because it's only like 300 miles out of the way. Naturally. That's modern day spoke and hub aviation.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

We leave in seven minutes for the airport. I have avoided flying since 9/11 occurred, so I am not looking forward to this experience. I know, I should have a positive mental attitude. I guess I should be glad that Richard Reed tried to hide a bomb in his shoes and not up his ass.

Puss, I was reading about your EFT techniques and ran out of time. I shall return. If you don't read Glamourpuss and Open Grove Claudia and Crankster and Nosjunkie, you should. They are all on the blogroll, and the car is here to take us away. See you all next week! Have a blast.

Peace On Earth, Good Will To All

I spent a lot of time thinking that I was going to decorate the globe above with Holmes' picture and the name The Morning Meeting, and submit it to the blog that promotes this every year. I was too busy to get a copy to all of you who have blogs, or to put your blog names onto a copy. My apologies. So here is a plain copy, just copy it right off the page, or click on it and copy it to your machine and then upload it to your page. The idea is more important than the precise form.

Open Grove Claudia is one of those people that oozes talent. She writes really well, and she is a first rate thinker, much smarter than I am, and ever was. She has written a post on Winning the Peace that you should read, complete with video. It's Part 1 of a series.

Life just keeps getting better! I trust that those of you who had elections yesterday, voted in them. Check you later, and have a fantastic day!

Working Gets In The Way of Blogging

There are a few drawbacks to working that I didn't take into account, namely it cuts harshly into my blogging time. Worse, there's no Starbucks anywhere nearby, the office has a Cuisinart 12 cup coffee maker, and they use Folgers coffee, and they make it weak. In the good old days, last week, I'd drink the whole 12 cups in about three (3) hours. They are small cups don't you know. And let us not forget, coffee is liquid mental health, diabetic friendly, can be used with Splenda if you like sweetener, and when you lace it with espresso, it's really good for your heart! There should be a Starbucks in my building, if not on my floor. Mental Note, write Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) and have him open a Starbucks in my building. On the other hand, I need to avoid the blueberry muffins, the marble cake, the chocolate this, the chocolate that. Maybe my own coffee pot! Critical thinking at work here. Strategy, tactics, operational efficiency, I'm back at work. My thanks to Odat for the ringtone that I have attached to my boss's phone number in my cell phone. That woman is a font of useful and timely information.


Create free ringtones at Phonezoo

There is no time for blogging. There is a ton of reading to do, at least for me. In modern portfolio theory, diversification is a huge issue. An economist proved that something like 91% - 93% of gains actually came from asset allocation, and not from selection in its class. That's the quick version. The entire theory won the Nobel Prize in Economics in the early 80's, so I started there. I also have to learn every account type, the restrictions, how to open them, how to transfer accounts, and on and on and on. And that's just the beginning.

The investing world at the professional level is quite different than I had imagined, at least in the area I am working in, namely Wealth Management. We are ALWAYS supposed to take the client's needs into account. Everything is focused on the client.

The big brokers are known as 'the wire houses' and are also often called the 'sell side'. My partner, who has twenty-one years experience with the wire houses, claims that one day someone will be able to prove that the wire houses issue sell recommendations when they want to build a position in a company's stock. My last account with a wire house was such a bad experience that I prefer to not mention the company or the experience. What I will tell you is that it took almost two months to transfer my account to another institution. Even better was the more than $250 they took as fees to close the account, and various other sundry charges.

I am not trying to tell you that any setup is perfection, and that nothing can ever go wrong. I can't even do that at home. On the other hand, I am so happy to be trying! The hours are long, the math is a push over, and you actually get to help people.

And finally, Judy and I are going to Des Moines, Iowa Thursday morning, and we won't be back until late Sunday. The video is an homage to Odat, just because. I hope all goes well with all of you, and I'll be back on-line as soon as time permits!