I Farted!

Yup, decided to create my own facebook type situation... you can expect a post describing my current situation every 10 seconds... uh, oh... that wasn't a fart!!!!

Man, it has been busy here!

I cannot really get to everything... I mean, if I wrote this post yesterday instead of watching football all day maybe but what am I, a miracle worker?! So, quickly... seriously, Obamamania needs to stop running wild before we become Japan 2.0. Who is advising this guy, GW? Every time time the president opens his mouth, and that is every day, the market takes a hit. He wants to save the economy by cutting it off at the knees? OK, captain populist, do you know who will provide loans to small business and individuals enabling them to hire more workers? After you kill the banking sector... NOBODY!!!

Nice work Brett Favmnvjhvjlhvavre... you have ended your career 3 times w/ interceptions, that has to be some kind of record. I think even that fortune teller Cleo saw yesterday's implosion coming. Of course then you have the J-E-T-S jets jets jets... they played well in the first half, but Manning is just too quick making decisions. And yet, Rex Ryan is still yapping. It is one thing to talk when you win but when you get beat down, bad, shut the f*ck up!!

OK, back to my DC trip. So I stayed at a little boutique the Donovan House which is a Thompson hotel. I did not spend that much time there but it was fine. Pretty clean, spacious enough, inexpensive. 2 things... one the shower shaped like a snail shell was weird and got cold, two, I prefer a top sheet as opposed to just a duvet. 1 1/4 thumb up unless they raise $$. We went to dinner the first night I was there at Marcel's. It was pretty solid. We were a bit off the run location wise so the place was far from full but the food was solid and the service was excellent. You had the choice of 3,4,5,7 course meals or a-la-carte. I started w/ a simple green salad which was nice, then had a Rouget which are these little white fish all fried up nice and crispy. They were delicious. My main course was this sausage that had 4 kinds of fowl in it. The consistency was like tofu but it had a great crispy outside and really fantastic flavor. Plus the size was right for the flavor intensity. 1 2/3 thumbs up, I liked it, would go back. The next night we hit up the Occidental Grill. This was straight up steak joint. Service was very good from an ultra professional bartender to a courteous and well versed waitstaff. We had a bunch of apps that included solid mussels, good carpaccio, a pepperoni that was good, and other stuff I just piled on my plate and went for! Dinner we rocked fillet w/ a crab cake. The steak was well cooked and had nice flavor and the crab cake was pretty ok. To finish up a couple of us went w/ the espresso while my buddy Puma rocked the Mexican coffee. Did we make fun of him? You bet we did! 1 1/2 thumbs up, mostly on great service and company. After that? Well, I would rather not talk about it.

The last thing of course was the flight situation. US Air. Flight down was very pleasant. The flight back? Well... I had a hangover, the flight took off late, and I had the Jerry Maguire kid next to me kicking me elbowing me, and yelling in my ear the whole time. I almost punched a 7 yr old. I was close. Actually, I wanted to grab him by the legs and whack his sister... yup, someday I will make an exceptional parent!!!

just a quickie

yeah, I am a little spent after a two day conference in DC this week but thought I would just give a little teaser... We actually saw the new Mass. senator Brown in the airport this morning, being trailed by a couple of huge dorks! I guess politicians have not gotten quite big enough to have a hot attache? Usually we have our conference in Miami where it is warm and there are hot chicks everywhere... DC was kind of cold and there are very few hot chicks, so that was pretty awesome. Reagan airport is pretty nice as airports go. Did you know there was a law instituted that every other building in DC has to be the Reagan something? Yeah, me neither. My buddy the Puma was in action last night and it was good seeing him... it was also hilarious watching him order and then drink a Mexican coffee. Get one for yourself sometime... make it extra fruity! OK, more tomorrow!!!!

Seriously?!

So the new Obama plan is to tax banks in an effort to recoup U.S. tax dollars spent through the TARP program. In the small print is the sticky fact that these banks already paid back the money they borrowed. in fact, many never wanted the money in the first place but had it foisted upon them. Now, the government thinks they should not only pay what they owed but pay in money that other shitty companies such as AIG and GM owe. So the moral of the story is that if you try to de-risk, get your house in order, and then become successful... you are on the hook to cover the deadbeats who have no intention of cleaning up their act. AIG has repeatedly spit in the face of the government and the taxpayer, making it perfectly clear that they will do whatever the f*ck they want and because they are too big to fail there is not a damned thing we can do about it. Except tax someone else. Why should JP Morgan pay more money because AIG sucks? Seriously, Obama?! This is your plan for change?! And are we really surprised that this administration is so left leaning after that is exactly how they marketed themselves all along? So now the president and congress are imploding as a result of overly liberal policies opening the door for the conservatives to come in and clean house... and then f*ck up by instituting ridiculously conservative policies?!?! Why can't we just use some sense and find a middle ground? What is wrong w/ that?So good for you Obama! Tax those bankers and then pass through the costs to the consumer, and then you can kill consumer spending, wealthy consumer spending, any chance for an increase in employment, by extension New York, and everything below. Good plan, this is the "change" we needed!!!!

Creature Double Feature!!!

When I was a kid I used to love the Creature Double Feature on channel 56. This was a Boston channel and besides showing tons of goofy reruns like Three's Company, they would show back to back movies on Sundays... usually a Godzilla movie and then an old school horror movie. I loved it. This weekend it VT is was butt ass cold. Like under 10 degrees on Saturday and up on the tops of ski hills closer to zero. The special lady and I decided it was high time to get in our own double feature having a few new movies out that we were interested in checking out. We decided to head to the only local 3-D theater in Williston to take in Avatar. Well, we should have know it was going to be a clusterf*ck when we got to town and all of the traffic lights were out leaving the traffic management duties to one of our crack police specialists! After what seemed like 2 hours we finally made it the 1/4 mile into the packed parking lot and were 15 minutes early for the movie... which was sold out. Of course it did not matter as power was out in the entire town so no movies, no lights, no tickets for sale. We decided to wait in line for tix to the next showing anyway and after 10 minutes our faith was rewarded. W/ the some time to kill we rolled over to Mexicali's for a little snack. The nachos were greasy, the veggies undercooked, and the cheese synthetic. Pretty underwhelming but not unexpected. Beer was cold though and they have a nice tequila selection. OK, back to the movie. Of course 15 minutes early again w/ tickets in hand and we still got shitty seats but we settled in w/ our goofy glasses and got ready to be disappointed after years (12) of hype. Well my friends, it was great. It was a really solid movie even at nearly 3 hours. The characters were interesting, the story was hokey but well done, and the graphics and 3-D imagery was nothing short of amazing. 2 thumbs up. I am not sure how it translates on video or not in 3-D but in its preferred setting it is awesome.

Next stop, Sherlock Holmes! Not as great but very entertaining, and well worth 2 hours of your time. I like Robert Downey and to be honest even Jude Law was pretty ok. Of course more gummy bears and some water and we were feeling a little ill. 1 3/4 thumbs up.

2 good movies and a nice afternoon w/ my special lady... good day!

Hard Getting Back in the Groove

Last week was nice and quiet and this weekend was great. Burlington had record snowfall w/ over 30 inches dropping. My special lady and I had a lovely braised salmon w/ mashed potato/turnip/parsnip, and some wilted kale and spinach. We also took down an '89 Bordeaux that she brought back from France years ago. Really a very pleasant evening. The next day we did a winter hike up the Stowe pinnacle which was a solid workout in the snow. Saturday was a wedding. One of the more interesting weddings I have been too. It was alot of fun though. Plus, we ended the night w/ a beer at Frannie-O's. 6 people dressed in suits at Frannie-O's? Yeah, we didn't stick out! Sunday the snow fell all day. I had to shovel a couple times to keep the cars clean. We geared up and did a little x-country skiing which was good because it was pretty cold and windy. Now... I am back to the grind. Spreadsheets, and full weeks, and phone calls, and relative value, and... oh man. My New Year's resolution is to try and relax. That and karate chop Bernie Sanders!