the benefits of the "we'll start some day" investment strategy

while others of our generation of excess are stressing about mortgage payments on houses they couldn't afford in the first place or watching in horror as their nest eggs disappear, kristin and i are, for the first time, feeling the benefits of our "no investment" investment strategy. now, up until about a month ago, even kristin and i were kicking ourselves for our lack of investments. but, look at us now - sitting pretty without a thing to lose. (insert diabolical laugh here.)

the amish market is neither amish nor ...

with a level of anticipation rivaling that of what ralphie parker must have felt on christmas morning, we headed off this morning for the amish market in upper marlboro. i could hardly wait for the authentic lancaster county experience - plain people selling wholesome goodness and handcrafted masterpieces. well, i'll give them the pretzels and whoopee pies, but the rest of it reminded me of an "amish experience" safeway/indoor flea market staffed by mennonites.

now, i have no doubt that the stoltzfus deli probably at least knows of the people who made their lebanon bologna, but i'm not so sure we could say the same about those hawking the meats. the meats were advertised as free range, grass fed, blah, blah, blah. i probably would have believed them had i not witnessed the woman in the back removing the bacon from a store package prior to bringing it to the front counter! and then there were the grapes from chile, the apples from washington state, and the "homemade" chocolate that had clearly been packaged before.

if all of that weren't disappointing enough, much of what was sold in the furniture/handicraft area was made in china - not china, pa ... CHINA, CHINA! some of the furniture was probably authentic amish/mennonite made, but a quick inspection of other pieces revealed shoddy craftsmanship. i mean what self-respecting cabinetmaker would STAPLE boards together. even i know to look for the dove-tailed joints.

still holding out hope for a true bird-in-hand experience, i rounded the corner with excitement after my partner announced - "ah, finally - authentic amish!" imagine my disappointment when right before my eyes i saw ...

so fuck the amish market in upper marlboro. i'll have a more authentic experience the next time i go to safeway and request that the deli worker wear a covering before dishing out my "amish potato salad." (but don't be fooled into thinking that i won't go back for the pretzels!)

buidling a nationals stadium for the nation

stop me if you've heard this before. the most powerful person around attempts to sell the taxpayers on doling out enormous somes of public money - money that could otherwise be spent on activities like public education, public health - to assist beyond wealthy private entities with a project that they really should be able/required to handle on their own. taxpayers are told that providing this money is necessary to bring economic revival and are promised that when the private entities succeed we will all succeed. further, we are assured that there will be a return on our investment - so no worries.

listening to bush sell the bailout plan brought me back to the days when anthony williams, former dc mayor, was explaining to district residents why it was necessary, and in the city's long term interest, to publicly fund a new baseball stadium. we were promised major crowds bringing major money that would lead to major increases in sales tax revenue. and then there was the rent - the coffers would overflow with the money paid to the city by the team's billionaire owners. the reality is that the team sucks, the people don't come, the people that are there are buying as much as expected, and the owners refuse to pay rent.

the lesson - throwing money at something doesn't necessarily bring success. so -

NO NATIONALS STADIUM FOR THE NATION!

they call me hook tuneup palin

i've totally been wondering - what sarah and todd would have named me had god seen it fit to birth me to the palins? and, thanks to polit tsk tsk tsk, i wonder no longer. they would have called me - hook tuneup! now THAT has a nice ring to it ...

**thanks to urbanmennonite for finding this site

could it be? ethical behavior after 8 years of ...

i don't pretend to be any sort of expert on financial markets or even understand what is happening with the bankruptcies and bailouts, but i did find it interesting that this administration passed on lehman brothers and then put the hook into the deep end to rescue aig. i get that lehman's was smaller, the failure of aig posed a bigger threat to the economy blah blah blah ...

but then i came across this interesting tidbit on the huffington post - the bush family is quite connected to lehman's. wouldn't that just have been a massive conflict of interest if the government had provided a bail out? could it be that ethical, and dare i say jesus-like, behavior has finally surfaced after 8 years of corruption and callous disregard for what is right and fair?

trying to make sense of it all

some times i feel like living in dc, particularly during an election, is like living the opening paragraph of "a tale of two cities" - you remember the lines from the book you sort of read in middle school ...

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way ...

these are the best of times and the worst of times. dc is politics and politics are dc. and while politics are exciting, it's insane that we are forced to watch and re watch campaign ad after campaign ad even though there's more of a chance that the nationals will win this year's national league pennant than the voters of this area electing anyone but a democrat. sure you would expect that npr would offer political commentary, but it's not something you would necessarily expect between the latest offerings from the jonas brothers and taylor swift. that's dc reality.

foolishness and wisdom abound. foolishness rules the day - has anyone else noticed that sarah palin is getting a pass or that the royal they are attempting to trick women into believing that palin is an acceptable substitute for hillary clinton? i've heard little wisdom. until today ...

saturday, tim wise posted this fantastic critique entitled "white privilege, white entitlement, and the 2008 election" on buzzflash.org. read the article and read the comments - they're quite telling. pass on the link when you're done.

a stroke?

we returned yesterday from a glorious, summer-ending week at the beach only to be greeted by one pissed off cat that pissed on whatever he could find and another cat with clear neurological issues. while, the first cat mocked us as we cleaned, the second was taken on an after hours trip to the animal hospital. the details ...

about 10:30 pm i noticed that hubert's head was twitching and shaking. calmly, we performed our own exam and noticed that the twitching and shaking became worse when we pressed on his neck directly below his ear. then, we FREAKED! kristin uttered the unfathomable - brain tumor - and i quickly jumped to a world without our beloved big-boned fat cat. we called the animal hospital and they told us to bring him in right away.

he was such a trooper on the way in - no meowing, just a calm and collected kitty. it's like he wanted to leave us with one final beautiful memory. he valiantly made it through the triage and waited patiently to be seen by the doctor. all the while, i prepared myself to say goodbye and attempted to remain stoic.

finally, at 1:00 am the doctor called us into the exam room. she performed the routine exam and then moved on to the neurological tests - eye exams and the like. she poked and prodded, stuck and swabbed. after what seemed an eternity, she took a deep breath and gave her diagnosis - ear wax and a bill for $110.