Puddles of Troubles

So, so far 2009 is turning out to be a blogging bust. Good thing I didn't put it on my New Year's resolutions list. Here's a list of some of the pressing issues on my mind lately:

1 - HAIRCUTS
Over Christmas, the LG took a pair of VERY large scissors to his already freshly cut hair. We call it the Quentin Tarantino do. Here is a progression, but the conundrum is what to do with it now. As you can see by the date of this post, he has survived for a month, but there are days I feel like taking the clippers to it, but so far I just can't bring myself to do it.

BEFORE


MOM HAIRCUT


2 YEAR OLD QUENTIN TARANTINO DO


2 - BANKS
In an effort to exploit the weaknesses of our financial system for our own gain (not an easy task these days), the BK opened an account with Washington Mutual (WaMu) with $1. In return for opening an account, about 6 weeks later we received a $75 gift card (this could go a long way in explaining their poor thinking and bankruptcy, but what do I know). Receiving the gift card happened to coincide with the news that they were going under so the BK told me I better start spending it as quickly as possible just in case. I think I got through $60 of it when final news of WaMu's demise hit. Unfortunately, as the BK predicted, this was the end of our $75 line of credit. Okay, so far so good, we still made $60 on a $1 investment. My irritation in getting ripped off on that extra $15 was minute until I received a TAX FORM in the mail that requires me to pay taxes on the full $75 - which means that WaMu also wrote off the full amount which I didn't receive. I'm sure my dad can find a lawsuit in there somewhere, but I am just content to whine about it for now.


3 - JOB SECURITY
My family relies solely for the time being on the employer of my husband who happens to be the Bank of America. Before you worry, don't, he is still employed. However, I have a couple of beefs about what has been going on in terms of bailouts and mergers and corporate greed. First, good riddance to John Thain. For those of you who don't know who he is, click here. In a nutshell, he is the Merrill Lynch CEO who, in the middle of a merger that his company was pretty dishonest about in terms of their actual balance sheet, he remodeled his office for $1.2 million. Second, and on a related note, is my irritation with all government interference to this point in the financial sector. Bank of America would have withdrawn from the merger under normal market conditions when it learned the truth about how much trouble Merrill Lynch was actually in, but the Government (Henry Paulson and cronies) pressed Ken Lewis (Bank of America CEO) to stick with it citing the pandemonium it would create in the markets. So, now BOA is taking a lot of criticism (as evidenced by their stock prices which are at 17 year lows) for taking government bailouts which, in essence, were granted because they bailed the government out of another sticky mess. I, for one, think this whole bailout mess is a joke. So far, the money has been spent lining the pockets of people like John Thain, and driving down stock prices of banks which are already suffering. I'm ticked, but I'm also very grateful that my husband is still employed in an industry that is clearly in puddles of troubles. Best of luck to us all.

Merry Christmas, and other out of date announcements...

For those of you who didn't receive a Christmas card - sorry, but it's a tight economy and a .40 cent stamp just screams at my sense of fiscal decency. This is the picture you would have received, glued to red construction paper - so you can see you didn't miss out on much. We were snowed in here in Portland for 2 weeks. No church for 2 weeks, 1 foot of packed snow on our road for 1 1/2 weeks, a trip to the grocery store that involved toting Jack behind us in a "tote" (one of the plastic bins) that John tied some rope to (my dad would have been proud), and LOTS of time spent indoors. Apparently, it is too much to ask the city of Portland to spend some $$$ on more than one snowplow. Fine, but could they check into some emergency funds to ship one in from a state or city that plans ahead? Christmas, spent with just the LG the BK and myself was sort of anticlimactic, but the snow helped. Luckily, we were off to UT a couple days later to see the fam.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Our trip to UT started out a bit shaky as we drove 4 hours to Pendleton, OR just to find out that I-84 was closed due to inclement weather. Good times. Back to Portland. Pretty sweet 10 hour day. We got up around 4am the next morning and plowed our way on through to the promised land. We had a great time seeing all the family including brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, great-nieces/nephews, etc. There was a palpable hole felt though by the absence of my parents who we all missed. There was sledding, eating, and a lot of doing nothing. The latter of these two events explain why I don't ever contact anyone that I plan on seeing. Unrelatedly, I'm excited for 2009. Should be an interesting year for our nation and our family which brings me to announcement #3.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

The BK and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a girl in May. I am about halfway through this pregnancy, so am finally feeling more human. As I have already told some of you, I don't blog when I am pregnant, hence my long absences from the world'o'blog and general disinterest in my own life. And, the answer is yes, to those of you wondering if I was one of the crazy pregnant women from the last blog who just can't give up their soccer shoes for slippers.

Consider yourselves all caught up on my life. Oh yeah, the LG POOPED in the potty last week. That was the best Christmas present yet. No how, no way am I changing two sets of diapers if I can help it. There will be lots of praying and pleading with God on this one.