The Stock Market Sucks

So I work for a major financial company in the US.
More specifically, I do IT work for a stock options trading group.

Does that make me a stock market guru?
Hell no! So quit asking me for stock tips!

Just to illustrate my point: my personal portfolio (haha - using that term loosely) is down 12.19% from last year at this time.
Still want those stock tips, pal?





I'm thinking savings bonds. Yeah, savings bonds.
And the rest, under my mattress. Yeah, that works.
Maybe I'll bury some in the back yard too.
(I'll do it at night so Tammy & Bill won't see me)

Or maybe I need this:















Anyone have any good stock tips or other "proven" safe investments?

A Belated "Congrats" to KG

To our gone but still appreciated Kevin Garnett:
Congratulations on finally winning it all.
Too bad it wasn't with the T-Wolves, where the "T" stands for "Totally Pathetic Team Who Can't Seem to Win a Game or Keep Any Decent Players Around".


The Celtics opened a can of whoop-ass and dealt the Lakers a 131-92 loss to clinch the title.
Talk about going out with a bang!

The Bricklayer's Soggy Shorts

Couple things to understand about me:
1) I hate teams from NY
2) I hate teams from LA

I've always despised the Yankees, Giants, Rangers, Dodgers, Rams, Lakers (after they left Minneapolis), and my favorite to hate: the LA Kings. Since when do people in LA play hockey?!?!

Ok, so I'm not a big NBA fan. My interest in the T-Wolves died when Kevin Garnett went to the Celtics. I do, however, still like to follow KG and root for him (and the Celtics by association). As luck would have it this year, I get to combine my disdain for the Lakers and my appreciation for KG this year in the NBA Finals. But wait, according to Kobe "Slimebag" Bryant, perhaps this is the BWA Finals (BedWetters Anonymous):

"We just wet the bed," Bryant told reporters. "A nice big one too. One of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible."

You can read the rest of his soaked jammies whining here. Perhaps you should consider a career in masonry with the number of bricks you laid last night, Kobe!

True to form, my man KG offered a good "Wet this one!" move that was captured by the photographers as the Celtics came back from a 24 point deficit to shame the Lakers in the Staples Center last night with a 97-91 win.

The only question I have is whether Kobe is wetting his own bed or that of his girlfriend/mistress?

Down a Rough, Dusty Memory Lane

The lush green of the swaying trees put me in a trance-like state this morning.
It had me thinking of my teen days in northern MN where the summers were hot, but not unbearable.
The fields were lush with a sea of wheat waving as you passed by.
The dust would swirl in the cab of my old truck that lacked both power steering and air conditioning.
It wasn't so much a specific memory that overtook my mind, just a general feeling of loneliness that marked those years, yet a longing to be there, driving the back roads, visiting friends, and uncovering what this world has to offer one piece at a time.

No cell phones.
No blaring radios.
No deadlines and pressures of life.

Just youth, freedom, the hot sun, and the local swimmin' hole.
Great treasures stored in my mind and heart, but reality reprimands:
You can never go home again.

Those memories were made for just that period of time.
All my friends are gone from there.
The places and names are all different now.
The world has changed.
And I have changed tremendously.

It was still a nice turn down a rough, dusty memory lane though.

What the hail is going on here?

Summer in MN is always a trip.
Sunshine, high humidity, and dripping sweat one minute, gusting winds, waves of hail, and tornado sirens the next.

Memorial Day weekend brought us our first big storm of the season, which leveled a bunch of houses in Hugo and Coon Rapids, MN. We got off easy by comparison, but still have a nice set of decorative holes in our siding on the north side of our house...again. We just had our whole house resided and roof replaced two years ago after a nasty hail storm swiss-cheesed our crappy vinyl siding and pelted the shingles. My truck took a nice ding from a golf ball sized hailstone in that storm, too. This year's storm wasn't as bad for us. Thankfully, we were gone at the time of the storm, so our vehicles don't have any hail damage like some of our neighbors' cars.

One thing that bugs me: Storm Chaser Contractors.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against contractors. I really like contractors, in fact a couple of my best friends are contractors. I just hate it when guys are canvasing the neighborhood with flyers and knocking on doors before the debris even lands and the hailstones melt. I have no problems with local guys making the rounds, especially if they're hometown guys. I just hate seeing out of state plates from North Carolina and Alabama with ladders hanging out of their trucks trying to turn a quick buck and skip town after a crappy repair job. Grrr.

I hate to say it, but it looks like its going to be a good year to be in the siding/roof and auto body repair industries.