Turn the Page....

While I am not one to quote songs from Bob Segar, I couldn't think of a more appropriate title for my feelings tonight. It is a dark night at The Margarita Lounge. In life there are always changes that you need to deal with...some are good and some suck. Six months ago I had to say goodbye to a good friend of mine when he moved north to start a new life. That sucked. Tonight I received a phone call that I had been expecting for weeks. It also sucked. As of tomorrow, Mr. Hickman will no longer be employed at A.G. Edwards. While things will not be "official" until tomorrow morning, I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention it to everyone now.

From the bottom of my heart I will miss you Chris. Your office will never be the same without the Quigli Theater viewings of Wall Street. I will miss the witty jokes, the laughs and the "countdown to kickoff" of the Buckeye season. I will miss the infamous notebook of scratchings, stock symbols, and quotes. Most of all I will miss the good times.

Now this is not the end of the world by any means. Mr Hickman will only be five minutes away at another company, but certain changes suck and take time to get used to. We'll all miss you around the office, brother. Make sure to keep in touch.

The Senator Speaks!!!!

The stufftbox is FINALLY up and running. For anyone interested, the address is www.stufftbox.blogspot.com. If you are like me, you ought to add it to your bookmarks. While I tend to disagree with the left-leaning Senator on many issues, he now has his own soapbox to speak from. I look forward to many "pointed" discussions in the future.

Back from Paradise

Everything good must eventually come to an end. Thus ended our great trip to Sanibel. Unfortunately we had to return to the land of bills and work last night. The above picture was from the beach outside the Mucky Duck on Captiva Island on Friday Night. I guess the only good news is that this coming weekend is July 4th, so we get a three day weekend. Hopefully by then I will be back amongst the living. Hope you had fun at Buffett this weekend K-Delish...give the Margarita Lounge fans the scoop.

Chillin til Sunday....

This is the lighthouse on the south end of Sanibel Island. The place we will be staying is about a five minute walk from here. As long as the rain stays away we'll be good. See everyone Sunday.

Vacation Time is Here

And not a day too soon. Cheryl and I will be heading to Sanibel Island on Thursday morning for a few days away from "everyday life". To say that I am excited is the understatement of the year. Princess T will be hanging around the Margarita Lounge solo and watching over things. My apologies to the daily readers as I have been slacking since Friday. Here is what's been happenin since then....

1) Tracy and I have had a few dates with Jamie recently. Jamie is the dude from "8 minute abs". He has kicked my ass a few times in the last week.

2) Had Gary and Sue over along with Lisa and Layna on Saturday Night. We decided to celebrate Fathers Day early. Everyone escaped unscathed with only Gary having a slight hangover on Sunday.

3) Congrats to Michael Campbell for winning the US Open on Sunday. Even though the sports writers claim it was a "shock", it wasn't. Michael Campbell is a solid player with 13 worldwide wins and 6 European tour wins. For the second straight major, Tiger choked down the stretch. At the Masters he was able to get into a playoff and win, but not this time. It seems like the "Tiger on the prowl" line doesn't quite hold the same weight that it did 3-4 years ago.

4) Anyone taking my advice and shorting oil yet? At $60 a barrel it's overpriced.

5) Cheryl and Tracy are watching this stupid Katie Couric thing on TV right now about the "runaway bride". Sounds like she is trying to play the "poor me" bullshit. Some network should put her, Michael Jackson, and Saddam together on a show and see who they can dupe into feeling more sorry for. Pathetic is the first word that comes to mind right about now.

Well, thats about it for tonight. I am going to finish by glass of Merlot and take it easy. I am going to work tomorrow morning for a few hours but I am sure it will be unproductive as always on the day before vacation. Everyone have a good week.

Golf, Oil, and Ann Coulter

Let's start with the US Open, shall we? The most entertaining of the four majors is at it's halfway point with a mere 5 players under par. Retief is going to be tough to beat this weekend, but there is a lot of talent out there behind him. There should be some good drama the next two days at Pinehurst. I am predicting an over par winning score...maybe +1 or +2.

Black gold is again at record high levels. If you would have heeded my advice on March 16th and May 16th (look in the archives) you would have made a tidy profit. The time has come again to short oil contacts. Having just returned from Happy Hour and dinner with Cheryl, I was greeted with the headline on the Drudge Report of "OIL SETS NEW RECORD: $58.60. It will probably go a little higher next week as the major news networks haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet. BUT, once they do (and they will when it hits $60), start shorting oil.

And finally we come to Ann Coulter. Many of my left-leaning friends think that her name is right up there with Satan, but I actually respect Ann Coulter for speaking her mind about how she feels. If you have a free minute, read this article. If you are too busy, this snipet is enough to get the point across:

"American soldiers make do with C-rations. Dinner on an America West flight from New York to Las Vegas consists of one small bag of peanuts. Meanwhile, one recent menu for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo consisted of orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit crepe, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf. Sounds like the sort of thing you'd get at Windows on the World – if it still existed."

Lets all remember kiddies...these people are terrorists, not the poor old lady down the street.

The Big Game starts tomorrow

While the Open Championship (erroneously called the British Open by many of us yanks here in the US) is my favorite major tournament of the year, I would have to say the US Open is the most entertaining. Where else can you watch professional golfers make double bogeys and look like regular hacks? The word from the Golf Channel is that Pinehurst is looking just as tough as Shinnecock Hills was last year. First tee times are tomorrow morning at 7am.

For all you fans of Europe

Has anyone heard this line before? "The United States is going to hell in a handbasket". Or maybe it's "Our civilization is going downhill fast." These lines are usually uttered by an 80 year old senior citizen who yearns for the "good old days" of the past. Just when I start thinking, "Maybe these people are right", I read an article about something in Europe and realize that we are going to be OK. I saw an article today about the Germans wanting to erect portable "love shacks" for the 2006 World Cup so that prostitutes can service clients without offering their "services" in public. For those of you not aware, prostitution is legal in Germany. I guess this wonderful idea is the brainchild of some German politicians. Here is the article if anyone wants to read it. I already feel much better about our "screwed up" country.

The Return of Pink Floyd

I almost shit myself today when I found out that the GREAT Pink Floyd is reuniting. It is only for one night at the Live 8 concert on July 2nd in England, but to see Roger Waters play with Floyd again would be amazing. Does anybody want to fly over with me? Of course you would have to pay for everything as I can't afford it, but to see Floyd with Roger Waters is well worth it. Somebody HELP me!!!

If you didn't realize, I am a big Pink Floyd fan. Even though I didn't start listening to them until about 1992, to say they are one of the greatest bands ever is an understatement...right up there in my book with the original Janes Addiction. There is very little music out there that compares to Pink Floyd's "High Hopes" or Jane's "Three Days" when you are in certain states of mind. I think few would be able to disagree with me on this one. What say you Gunther?

Still Raining....

Is it ever going to stop raining at the Margarita Lounge? For the 11th straight day it has rained and this shit is getting old really fast. Tropical Storm Arlene hasn't helped matters the last day or so. Poor Sue and Gary just came back from a 3 day vacation in Key West where they got rained on. My grass is growing so fast that I have to cut it every three days. Even Pittsburgh is having better weather that we are. Hope you are doing well up there in Steeler Country K-Delish...haven't heard from you in a while. Drop the Margarita Lounge an email sometime and let everyone know whats new.

Not as smart as we thought

Many of you might wonder who this is. If you haven't yet figured it out, it's no other than Mr. John Kerry himself. I was reading this article today and was surprised to see how good looking Bush was in his younger, wilder days. I don't think anyone would ever characterize Kerry as "good looking" in his picture from Yale. If you don't beleive me, just click on the link 2 sentences back. Oh..I can hear you screaming already Senator! Get that blog up and running and you can fire back at me...I'll even give you some free press on the Margarita Lounge.

My point? Oh yes...I did have a point. During the election , most people were led to believe that Kerry was an upper class, intelligent Yale graduate. On the other side, people thought Bush was a low class hick. In actuality, both went to Yale and both had similar(almost identical) grades. I think the funniest stat was that Bush received one "D" during his four years at Yale while Kerry received four. Does it leave any room to wonder why these records weren't released until just recently?

The Arrival of Princess T

Tonight we were blessed with the re-appearance of Princess T and Bear. She will be staying with us until she gets her ass a jobbie-job here in South Florida. And as your "welcome" present to Boynton Beach you get....rain. And more rain. I am so sick of rain...word is that we are in for another week of this garbage. That is all for now...good day.

"Girls Night" roundup

I was forced to vacate the house last night around 8pm so that my wife and some of her girlfriends/co-workers could have a little party at the Margarita Lounge. I am always one for parties, so this presented no problem. I went to City Place and had a good time with the Senator at Brewzzis. We ended up wandering down to Bradleys around 10:30 or 11 before calling it a night around 12:30. With all this damn rain for the last 5 days it was dead at Bradleys and City Place all night. It's looking like by beautiful wife is going to have a beautiful hangover today judging by her current disposition. Looking out the window makes me think that it's shaping up to be another miserable looking day.

The lone point of sunshine should be appearing tomorrow when Cheryl and I are being blessed with the return of Princess T and Bear. Word on the street is that T is moving in with us for a while to see how she likes Florida. It'll be good to see her and hang out. Considering it's the hottest time of year and Hurricane Season is upon us, if you can live here in the summertime you can live anywhere. Plus there are no mudslides and earthquakes here, right T? We are eagerly awaiting your arrival so you can cut my grass.

More garbage in the headlines

In my weekly hunt for news that is silly, funny, or in general "un-newsworthy", I saw two things today that struck me. The first story involves a headline on the CNN website: Community "stunned" as landslide sends homes crashing in Laguna Beach. Doesn't this shit happen every year in California? Something "stunning" would be a large snowstorm in July in Phoenix. I live in Florida, and I wouldn't consider a hurricane "stunning" news. I also wouldn't think that someone living in Kansas is "stunned" by a tornado. Lets see....I built a house directly on a hillside in a state where landslides happen all the time. Hmmmm.....

The other story involves Wachovia. Wachovia apologized today for profiting from slavery 150 years ago. I guess some cities Wachovia does business in are causing a stink and claiming that banks need to disclose any past ties to slavery. Folks, this was 150 YEARS AGO! Not last year, last decade, or even 50 years ago. Don't these cities have more important things to worry about, like improving their school systems? Wachovia didn't even exist 150 years ago. One or two tiny banks that were gobbled up years ago by Wachovia had a tie to slavery profits. Maybe since I work in the financial industry I have a slanted view, but I find this ridiculous. If you wanted to go after any company in the country who had any ties to slavery, I am sure the laundry list would be quite long, especially in the South. And what happens to these companies once they make this list? What is the benefit to anyone by a company disclosing this now? Nothing. Give it a rest.