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.