Happy XX Birthday Grandma-GiGi !!!

Hope it was a great one!

Getting ready to go out...

Jen and I are heading out to a "Presidential Debate Party" tonight so Jen made me change my shirt.  Apparently the shirt I wore to work today was the one I wore the last time we went out. Don't get me started on the fact that she remebers that despite the preggo brain. Anyway, so I run upstairs to change my shirt and Kade follows me:

Kade: "Daddy why did you change your shirt?"

Me: "Because."  [squirt...squirt...put on a little colone]

Kade:  "Ooooh dad, you smell good.....just like cheesy noodles!"

So there you have it.

Similar Fate?

Let's just hope the $700B does not fall prey to a similar fate:

A week ago, it totaled just three pages — the White House's request for $700 billion to rescue tottering financial institutions by buying their devalued mortgage-related assets.

By Monday, after an intense weekend of negotiations, the draft of the bailout legislation before Congress had swelled to 42 pages.

By Friday, after almost a week of marathon talks between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and key lawmakers in both parties, the working version was up to 102 pages.

The right move for the wrong reason?

Today McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign and heading back to Washington to try and help hammer out an agreement with respect to the $700B fiasco. In the end, you can argue the guy's motives (as I am sure both the left and right wings will be doing for at least the next few days) BUT is it the right thing?

I say yes. After all...these two guys are STILL BOTH Senators for heavens sake. Shut the hell up and get in the game instead of watching from the sidelines and taking punches at each other.

While, I am not sure he needed to totally suspend his campaign to go back and work on this, I do like the fact that he will be doing his job for the country first and foremost.

I hear that Obama is now also planning to go back to Washington to participate...good for both of them. There is room enough for both of them to "Win" on this one.

One addition: Since Bush and McCain have forced a meeting today...I suspect that the Democratic lead Congress will now be forced to act. I have a feeling that they will suddenly be able to pull this out "on their own". Again, the right move for the wrong reasons...a theme in current politics

Trip to Tortuguero - Banana Republic

Along the way to Tortuguero, we drove through a Del Monte banana plantation. It was HUGE. We even got to see the entire process from trees to shipment. As you would imagine, it is a simple process...but I was amazed at just how simple it really was. It all starts in the fields where they place blue bags over the growing bunches of bananas to keep out insects and birds (picture 1). Given the sheer magnitude of number of trees...that is a daunting manual task for sure. When the bunches are "ready" the entire thing is cut down and tied onto a hook. Then that hook is put onto a long overhead "tram-line". They are then pulled along the line until they reach the "packing plant". You can see in the top-right picture (picture 2)...the bagged bunches being pulled over the street heading into the plant.

Next the bags are removed from the bunches and they are staged into a "waiting area"...where I guess they are inspected (picture 3). Then they are pulled over to a guy who cuts off groups of bananas from the central "stem". He then throws them into a water tub where they float down to the next station (picture 4).

At the next station (picture 5), the ladies weigh the bunches and if they weight too much (each bunch should weigh 4 lbs), they cut one or two off until they are the correct weight. The extra bananas cut off are thrown overhead to another conveyor which takes them to a truck (not sure where they go). Then the ladies throw them into another water bath which floats them down to the baggers. These guys just take the bunches, put them into bags and then throw the bags into a big black plastic tub (picture 6). Finally, the tubs take a ride down to the packers who put them into a box. Then they put the boxes onto the conveyor belt heading down to the truck (pictures 7 and 8). And that is pretty much it. If you look closely at the 7th picture you will see a small white "7" sticker on the top of the box. That is to let them know which packing station it was packed at...just in case you ever see that in your grocery store. Also, it is worth noting that I saw quite a few safety issues which would not be tolerated at my place of work. From basic ergonomic issues all the way to loose apron strings almost getting caught in the conveyor belt motor. I guess I see the world differently these days....

And that is how bananas get from the tree to your grocery store!

Trip to Tortuguero - Part I

Last weekend the fambly headed up to Tortuguero (extreme North-East of CR - see map) with the Rich and Gina show. The great thing about that is that Max and Kade are great buds from school and Payton and Tyler are also close in age so they could play together (although Tyler does prefer the boys). The whole event started at the Hotel Real Intercontinental near our house at 5:45am on Sat morning. The amazing part about this is that we ran into about 5 other families we knew while we were waiting for the bus. Apparently lots of people hang out with their families at 6am in Costa Rica...go figure.

Se we started up for Tortuguero which apparently is a world-wide destination for getting to see giant sea-turtles (both Green Turtles and Leatherback Turtles) lay their eggs up on the beach. Since this is something that you don't get to do everyday...Jen and I were pretty excited. First we started with a 3 hour bus ride through the mountains which were absolutely beautiful. Along the way we passed a really cool sight...there is a place where two rivers come together, one blue (from the mountains) and one brown (from a volcanic region I think). It is the picture on the top right.

Then we took a 90 min boat ride up the river to the Laguna Lodge (Yes,the only way in and out is by boat). Once we arrived it was already time for a late lunch and then it was straight off to the pool since it was hotter then hell. The boys watched the kiddos at the pool while the ladies went into town to see what they could see. All the boys were mystified by this since pretty much every town in Costa Rica is the same...a few markets...a few sodas...a few shops. Well, when they finally returned they gave us the status report....yup...a typical CR town indeed. At least they had the good sense to pick up some Rum and Coke along the way! A quick stroll along the beach before dinner and then time to get the kiddos down. At 10pm the boys went out to see the turtles. Luck was on our side and we got to see a turtle laying eggs, covering up her nest and then heading back into the sea. Since no cameras are allowed I don't have any pictures to share but I can say that the pics over HERE pretty much cover it all. A few interesting facts: It takes the whole process about 2 hrs start to finish, the incubation time is about 2 months and they are called green turtles because that is the color of their INSIDES...not their outsides. It was very cool indeed to see it all. When they conceal their nests they sometimes kick out some of the eggs. The tour guide said that those never survive so I picked one up and checked it out. It felt just like a really big ping-pong ball to me...firm but would dimple with enough pressure. FYI - the turtle nests are huge. You can see that from the picture at the right. Those craters are their nests!

The next day was another early morning with a 6:30am boat our into Tortuguero National Park...well, that is where we were supposed to go. We ended up not going into the park due to strict regulations regarding the number of motorized boats allowed...just 7! So we ended up heading upriver to Tortuguero mountain instead. We saw the typical Howler and Spider Monkeys, a few shore birds, poisonous frogs, Toucans, etc. Then it was breakfast and back to the pool for more fun. After lunch, Kade and I watched DVDs while Jen and Payton napped. Then it was back to the beach to see if we could see any baby turtles hatching. Unfortunately not...but we did get to see a few dead baby turtles that did not make it to the sea. That night the girls went to see the turtles and they were also lucky enough to see the entire process.

Then on Monday we headed back to San Jose.

Overall a really neat (but pretty damned hot) trip.

Arrrr Matey

Last Thursday was Family Day at Home Two. As usual it turned into an all morning affair with a distinctly Costa Rican flair. The Theme was Pirates so everyone had to get dressed up including the parents...well at least MOST parents...apparently Kentucky Royalty is excluded from these types of rules. Overall it was a lot of fun for the kiddos and a basic pain in the rear for the parents ;-) The only reason I say that is because it is not like you can just zip on over to a party store or Wally World and pick up some cheap pirate gear. Nooo...this is Costa Rica....so it takes a few days of planning just to come up with 4 pirate costumes. Overall, Jen took the lead on this one as my work has been ferociously busy lately and she did a great job.

The day started with a bit of a snag...we forgot to put the CF card back in the camera so we ended up having to take pics with my cellphone camera. Oh well, something is better than nothing. Anyway, we started with a treasure hunt which was a bit disorganized. It was one of those "you have to follow the first clue to find a bottle which would contained the next clue" type of things. The only issue, when we went out to find our bottle (Kade and I got to go first...which was interesting for us since the clues were all in Spanish) we actually found two. Now...since we were not sure what the hell the clue said to begin with we were not sure which was the right bottle. Ahh, your typical "can't speak Spanish but I live in Costa Rica" dilemmas. So what did we do...you know it...we brought back both ;-) The teacher looked at us like we were idiots...go figure!

After the treasure hunt we all ended up in the "backyard" killing time. The food has gotten better since the last event there. Apparently someone got a panini maker for their birthday so they had cheese and tomato paninis which were not all that bad...just ask Rich...I think he had 5! Anyway, about half-way through the "killing time" section of the event the REALLY typical Costa Rica thing happened...a giant Pringles can came out. No shit. Check out the picture (and yes that is Kade punching the can in the nuggets...his "male or famale Pringle can" test). Now what a Pringles advert has to do with Pirates...one can never be exactly sure, but in the end you just kind of stare at it thinking WTF? But hey...now that we have been here over a year...you just kind of laugh and move on (and of course take a picture so you can blog about it later).

The important thing is that the kids had a blast and were talking "pirate-ese" for days. Great stuff.

Trip to Arenal

Last weekend we had some unexpected visitors - Karen and Mary. So we headed up to Arenal with the EESAYs for a quick weekend trip. We started with a stop in Sarchi so the girls could get some small trinkets for the folks back home. Then we headed up through San Ramon and out to Fortuna. Along the way, we went through some beautiful countryside...complete with winding mountain roads. That was where we stopped for the second time. The first picture shows the essense of that stop...the EESAYs cleaning up from a car-sick Pi. Apparently, playing Nintendo in the backseat after eating Cheetos is a bad idea...go figure. Finally, we got to Fortuna and stopped for some dinner and then headed up to Los Lagos. I think we got up there about 9pm and lucky for us...the clouds had blown out and we could see the Volcano. So we hopped in the car and sped over to the bridge on the backside of the mountain. We were lucky enough to still be able to see the lava before the rain blew back in for the night. The drive in and out was fun...you can ask the girls ;-)

The next morning we got up and headed out for a hike at the hanging bridges park. Always a great time. Kade did much better this time and didn't cry at all. He even was going over the bridges by himself by the end...way to go Kade! Payton is still in the backpack and loving the ride! The last time we did the hanging bridges Jen was in great shape and wasn't winded at all...but this time she was obviously a little more tired but still did a great job all things considered. The EESAY girls also joined us for the hike...I won't comment on where Mr. Kentucky Royalty was at the time. After the hike we headed up to the Arenal Lodge for lunch...we were again lucky and the clouds blew out so we got to see the entire Volcano in daytime too. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

That afternoon we spent a bunch of time at the Los Lagos pool...which is probably the most kid/family friendly in Costa Rica. As usual, Kade had a great time and Payton really loved the warm pool. Kade finally went down the slide all on his own and absolutely loved it...although he did not want to go down again without Dad because he was underwater a little too long ;-)

Then on Sunday morning, Karen and Mary decided to go zip-lining while the rest of us hit the pool. They had a great time but Mary was a little unsure about the whole thing. The good news is that she DID survive to tell the tale! After the pool we headed back to San Jose and had a rather uneventful drive home. All in all, a successful weekend trip. The next day Karen, Mary and Jen headed down to the beach Punto Loena I think...apparently having another nice day...except for the drive back where it was raining heavily in the mountains and that always makes for a fun drive.

Issue #2: What to do with Fannie and Freddie

From today's Wall Street Journal:

The two companies [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] were chartered by Congress to support the housing market, and therefore were seen as having the backing of the government. That allowed them to borrow funds at favorable rates close to those of U.S. Treasurys, even though they are both profit-making entities answerable to shareholders.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, has said his goal is to make the companies "go away" and to push for regulation that "limits their ability to borrow, shrinks their size until they are no longer a threat to our economy and privatizes and eliminates their links to the government." Sen. McCain supported giving Treasury the authority to backstop the firms but has said any use of taxpayer funds should be combined with an ouster of management and a ban on lobbying by the companies.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, has said the companies are a "weird blend" and that "if these are public entities, then they've got to get out of the profit-making business, and if they're private entities, then we don't bail them out."

Way to go Obama.  "If this then that...else, if this then that...but they are both...a blend" ...uummm...what?  I will give it to him that he articulated the two options in a way that a common person can understand but he doesn't take a side.  All he had to say was..."And I believe it is a public entity at heart" and he would have gotten a gold star...but he didn't.  God it must be great to be followed by hoards of people who don't really listen.

While one can debate if McCain's position is right or wrong...at least he takes a stand.  Unfortunately, I think he is only "mostly" right.  I think all he missed was a clarification that it be privatized into a non-profit corporation...a "Mortgage-For-Humanity" approach.  A place where decent people simply try to match investors with home buyers in a responsible manner and uses the profits to keep the operation running. 

But what the hell do I know....I don't have a PhD in Keynesian economics.  Go GIANTS!

Breakdown of McCain's statement (I will leave Obama's alone):

• Agree:  We need to keep them from going under (they hold $5 trillion in debt after all...it iwll hurt you...see below).  
• Agree:  We need to cut off their lobbying power ($170 million over the past decade)
• Agree:  Limiting their ability to borrow would lower the risk to more acceptable levels (see below)
• Missing:  Require minimum lending standards to again lower the risk to more acceptable levels (see below)
• Mixed:  "Shrinking their size" will probably not help much since that will either directly hurt the consumer (higher cost loans or harder to obtain loans) or force more of the $$ for loans into uncontrolled outlets.
• Mixed:  Eliminating their link to the government sounds good but I do not agree that it can be completely privatized since Shareholder pressures could be re-introduced in that situation.
  
  

"Simple" view of how this works (at least my understanding):

• YOU go to Bank A and you borrow ~$100K. 
• Bank A gives you $100K expecting that you pay it back over 30 years with interest. 
• But the bank is now unhappy because they don't have any more money to loan. 
• So they "sell" the loan to Company B and Company B gives them $100K plus a little extra something for the effort. 
• Now Bank A is happy (have cash again) and YOU are also happy in your new home.
• Company B is also happy because they got their $100K for 4% and you are paying them %6 and they get to keep the difference.  That is...as long as you keep paying.
• If the story stops here then we all live happily ever after.
  
• But then the shareholders of Company B get unhappy because they aren't making enough money.
• So Company B decides to bundle $Ms of these mortgages together and sell them to Investor C as dividend generation securities.  This allows them to get more cash to lend back to Bank A.
• BUT, Investor C is not dumb.  They want assurance.  If YOU stop paying your loan then they still want to get their fixed income from Company B. 
  
• Ahh, Company B says...we can guarantee that for you...no worries.  Thus Company B is ultimately left holding the bag  if YOU stop paying off your loan.
• If the story stops here then we all live somewhat happily ever after.
• But then the shareholders of Company B get unhappy because they aren't making enough money AND the government is also encouraging them to be more aggressive cause things are "slowing down".
  
• In response, Company B continues to become more aggressive with it's risk profile to continue to fuel returns.  They do this in two different ways.  First, they increase their debt:equity ratio...meaning they lend out more and more money vs. what they actually have.  Second they start taking on riskier loans (i.e., sub-prime). 
  
• Finally you start approaching a point where so many people are not making their payments and Company B is no longer able to keep paying Investor C.
• Now you have a problem because Investor C can be anyone from an over-seas government to your local teacher's pension fund...and not paying the retired teachers is a bad idea...especially if you are a Democrat.
  
• Thus the taxpayer needs to step in and cover the gap.  And the big wheels keep-a-turnin'.
  

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"Book on iPod"

After we returned from Arenal we were hanging out at the house with Karen and Mary. Payton grabbed the iPod from my briefcase and proceeded to jam out. Thankfully when she started it, it was on Veggie Tales and not my latest snoring book on tape (or book on iPod I guess) about finances. I think the microwave beeping confused her. I promise not to film in portrait mode anymore ;-)

One Addition...

In addition to the Susan Reimer article...did you hear Rudy Giuliani last night? He was pretty fired up...but there was one thing he said at the end of his speech that resonated. He condemned the media for asking Sarah Palin if she would have enough time to be VP and a mother...to which he asked "when did they aver ask that of a man?" (or something like that). Good point Rudy.

As a parallel story, a while ago one of Jen's friends laughed at the concept that Jen could go on a long weekend without her kids because Dad's were not able to take care of the kiddos for an entire 3 day weekend. It struck me as a really stupid comment....either made out of complete ignorance or out of some deeper contempt for fathers (planted by the feminists). In the end, I wrote it off to ignorance and dismissed this "friend".

Which brings me back to the Rudy question. To take it a step further...Why does the media "write off" Todd Palin as being unable to care for HIS family?? Much like many years ago, this just further turns me off to the "objective"media. They claim to be independant...but here they are nakedly re-inforcing a stereotype that "women need to be in the home and men need to bring in the bacon". Instead of getting angry...just dismiss them. Turn off the TV and walk away.

Are the women out there getting pissed yet?

2 days ago there was an interesting article in the Baltimore Sun.   It was about John McCain's choice for VP --> Palin.  At first I thought that it must be an editorial so I checked the top of the page...nope...billed as a real article

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Here are a few of the excerpts that should tip you off that this may be less than objective:

• "So. This is what being pandered to feels like."
• "He seems to think that my girlfriends and I are so disappointed that an utterly qualified woman is not going to be president that we will jump at the chance to vote for an utterly unqualified woman for vice president."
• "Does McCain think we will be so grateful for a skirt on the ticket that we won't notice that she's anti-abortion, a member of the NRA and thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution?"
• " His selection of Sarah Palin is insulting on so many levels that I am starting to feel like the Geico caveman."
• " You want to look good to the evangelicals? Choose a running mate with a Down syndrome child."
• " Palin's personal story is very compelling, but it reads more like a movie pitch than a resume for national leadership."
• "She makes John McCain, Naval Academy graduate, fighter pilot and prisoner of war, look like just another grouchy, old, rich white guy.  Oh. Right. He is."
• "If you are going to pick a woman for the sake of picking a woman, can you at least make it a credible choice?"
• "It isn't just that Palin might look bad campaigning against the likes of Biden or Obama.  It's that she already looks bad compared to the likes of Hillary Clinton."
  

Ok - that was a lot of the article.  Now - all politics aside...this simply does not seem very objective.  Looking at her other work it appears that she may just in fact be a professional editorialist.  So maybe it is just the Baltimore Sun's mistake for not placing a disclaimer anywhere that states "this is not the opinion of the newspaper"...but maybe they don't see the need.

In the end, it would appear to me that this lady misses a pretty fundamental point... that NOT ALL WOMEN are left-wing Clinton fans.  Maybe..just maybe...there are a few women out there who actually are conservative??  

So without further ado...here she is...your shining portrait of every woman in America...Susan Reimer.