The End O' Summer

Well, it has been a while and believe me, I have plenty to tell you about! Where do I start?

Well, earlier this month we ventured into new land - the Home Show. Now, the reason that this is worth mentioning is because a) it was downtown in the convention center (yes, we have one of those) and so I got see some parts of town I normally don't and b) it was actually relevant. Weird how owning a home makes a home show interesting all of the sudden.

Anyway, the highlight for me was giving the poor people at the WaMu booth a hard time about their beleaguered company (as you might notice I have little sympathy for WaMu - but that's another story).

me: Why should I open an account with you - aren't you about to get bought out? Your stock is pretty low!

poor sap: No, we are doing fine - we have $50 billion liquid!

sidekick: Ya, and our stock doubled just today!

me: Ya, doubled to like 3 bucks. And don't you have over $200 billion in assets to cover that Wells Fargo and Citibank aren't even willing to touch?

poor sap: Uhh, well here's a letter from our CEO that explains more.

me: oh really?! Haha, okay.

poor sap: So would you like to open an account?

me: hahaha...umm, ya sure... "let me talk to my wife about that." Oh, and good luck!

poor sap: Ummm, thank you?

After the weekend it was announced JP Morgan Chase bought out WaMu. And I thought they were going this route instead:








On the subject of work-type things, my date for the Series 7 test is set for October 16th. Now that I live in a city that isn't completely surrounded by a multitude of other cities I actually have to drive a ways to get to an official test center. Which, as I understand it, is just a bunch of people watching carefully to be sure that you don't cheat...what a job. And I thought those WaMu people had it bad.

We are still working on a lot of things at the house including our pool light which has not worked since we moved in. Apparently, those tend to run about $300 so we wanted to see if we could do some repair work ourselves. Plus, this was a good excuse for me and Cecil to practice some rescue scuba stuff in the pool.


































It was fun to use scuba gear again (it's been a while) and we "had" to use up the whole tank so I got a lot of practice. Oh ya, we weren't able to fix the light.

We also took a break one night and stopped by the "freedom celebration" at the church in our neighborhood. It was a time to honor fallen soldiers from the local 'south valley' towns. It was very sobering but a lot of fun was had by all. I must say, we do celebrate freedom in very interesting ways...



















































Since we had been working so diligently on the house (buying stuff) and working on other projects (buying stuff) and keeping the yard up some (buying stuff) we decided that a free/cheap weekend away would be a well deserved rest. So of course, we went to a cabin by a remote lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.



















Luckily, it was actually a free/cheap - my uncle and aunt own the cabin and they let us use it for the weekend. It's actually on leased government land by Gull Lake near Mammoth.

It was really beautiful as the leaves were just starting to change. Jen and I just spent the weekend together taking it easy, hiking, and canoeing about.





















































































The cabin is in Inyo National Forest on the Eastern side of the Sierras but we live in the valley on the Western side so getting there could be kinda difficult. It turns out that the closest pass through the range is Tioga Pass which is located in Yosemite National Park.

Oh, darn.

Tragically, we had to drive through one of the most beautiful spots in the US to get to the cabin and back - oh, how did we even survive it?! It just doesn't seem fair to everyone else that this is just over an hour and half from our house.

Jen took some great pictures as we stopped off on the way back.




















Here's both sides of Half Dome (it's that thing over my shoulder).



































And, of course, the most beautiful view in the park...oh, and some scenery behind her too.



















However, on the way over (Friday night) we got this interesting picture. Any ideas what this is?



















No, it is not deer in the meadow silly. This is a picture of many people hanging out with their lights on about half way up El Capitain's face! We stopped by chance and happened to see the climbers when we turned the car lights off - it was amazing!

We also stopped for dinner at Bass Lake resort on the way home and took in a great sunset. A great end to a great trip - even if it did fly by!



















Summer was fun - but now it's time for Football! ...I mean Fall!

Porcupine Provision vs. Greenmail

So, I am closing in on the end of my studies for the Series 7 test. It's been a long road (about 800 pages of information in preparation for a 6 hour test) but my practice test scores so far are good!

I thought I should share with you all some of the things I am learning. I know what you are thinking right now - oh great, Nerdfest 2008. No. You didn't let me finish... What I was saying was that I was going to share with you about universally interesting things from my studies, sheesh.

So, what I'd like to share today is some slang. Yes, that's right, the securities industry has some of the best slang. Not only is it weird but also truly trivial in nature and probably unneeded. Okay, some of it's technical jargon but it's all pretty weird and hence worth sharing (don't judge).

For awesomeness sake I will make it into a quasi-story for those of you who like story time.

Navigating the financial markets can be tough, not just as investor but also as a corporation. If a company is looking for some Inorganic Growth and considers you a Sleeping Beauty it's time to brace for the Saturday Night Special and ready your War Chest or try to pull off a Pac Man otherwise you'll probably lose your Crown Jewels. Likewise, as an investor it's easy to see Spurious Correlations or buy a Torpedo Stock that you thought was a Bo Derek, am I right?

Before you know it, that stock is approaching Bagel Land and now you're Aunt Millie. You'll be hoping for a J. Lo but it turns out to just be a Dead Cat Bounce and you ultimately end up Losing Your Shirt. A Graveyard Market is hard on us all, you know?

Luckily you have some options. You can always try to Sandbag the Black Knight. Perhaps set a Lobster Trap or a Poison Pill but be sure you also have a Dead Hand Provision or even the best Shark Repellent or Macaroni Defense won't help you. If you're lucky you might have a White Knight show up which is fine but beware of the Lady MacBeth Strategy or hope that you actually have a Yellow Knight instead!

So how can you tell what's really going to happen? Can you really trust a Soccer Mom Indicator or the Aspirin Count Theory? And seriously, The Superbowl Indicator and the Skirt Length Theory? I think I'd rather take my chances and pick up a War Baby. But sometimes there isn't much you can do to avoid the Bon Voyage Bonus or a Dawn Raid - just another victim of Affluenza. Cheer up though, I still think you can Beat The Gun maybe with some Big Uglies instead of Casino Finance because we both know where picking the Cats and Dogs got you last time! Here's hoping they Cut The Melon!

See, now wasn't that fun?

Hume Do You Speak Of?

Well, its Labor Day weekend so that can only mean one thing - Hume Lake!

Jen, me, and Mark joined up with the Ellison and Jones families at the group camp spot again this year for a fun weekend but with one little change - now it's only 1.5 hours away!

There's nothing like camping in the Sequoia National Forest especially without driving 5 hours to get there!






















Hume Lake is always great because it reminds me of all the good times at the Christian Camp and the huge impact they have had on my life. And also fishing is a good thing. Oh and also camping, and hiking, and eating, eating, eating!


















Don't worry we stayed on task and got to all the important things like driving up to the Water Tower Amphitheater to watch shooting stars, Frisbee Golf, hiking the trail out to Wildwood Camp, Church on Sunday, and of course, Extreme Boccie Ball (Mark and Cecil are going down next time)!

Camping at Logger Flat was great again. Even though the water was a little low, it did have its advantages - like seeing interesting things.























However, despite our attempts, none of those interesting things happened to be trout on the end of our lines...



















It was good to get away though. And as usual, Hume Lake closes out the Summer on Labor Day with the Country Fair. There is nothing like eating so much you just have to lie down and watch the clouds float by slowly over the graceful pines...


















Of course Mark and I also had to try fishing at the lake which yielded better results - 3 fish per hour! You may think that I just can't get enough of fishing because of the thrill in the catch. Well, with surroundings like this - sometimes it's okay not to catch much!

















(Michele, this picture's for you.)




Do you think Daniel enjoys camping? =)

















The weekend went by really fast and we knew we had to get back to reality soon - but how can you with God's great creation and friends and family all around you?