Pimpbling Speaks!!

Just a quick note to my readers that Mr. Pimpbling himself has started a blog. The address is: http://blingpimp.blogspot.com/. I encourage everyone to let the big pimp know you found him. For those of you who are completely clueless as to who this mysterious "pimpbling" guy is, he is a co-worker of mine who sees eye-to-eye with me on many things. We regularly complain to each other about clients and the crazy business we are both involved in.

Cheryl is scheduled to come home tonight from a 2 day trip to Virginia Beach on work. I have to say that I have missed her. Besides that, not much new. I'm sorry...there is one more thing. The Senator is FINALLY back on his soapbox after 2 months of slacking. In case anyone forgot, the address is: http://www.stufftbox.blogspot.com/. Iit looks like the Senator really was saving up his energy for the big release. I hope his head didn't explode after he wrote the most recent posting. Good Day.

PARTY ANNOUNCEMENT

In all my excitement about the coming holiday season, I nearly forgot that New Years is also only a month or so away. That being said, I would like to announce the 2nd Annual Margarita Lounge New Years Party. We are thinking of startng around 8 or 9pm and I'll let everyone know the details as we develop them. If you are a regular reader of the blog, consider yourself invited.

4 Weeks and Counting

The Christmas music is in the air and as I look at the calendar, I realize it's only 4 weeks until the big day. The Margarita Lounge already has the holiday music in the air as Cheryl and Princess T are both Christmas nuts. My family has never made a real big deal about Christmas, but to both of them, Christmas is the biggest and happiest time of the year. While this was confusing and strange to me the past few years, I am beginning to get into the swing of it this year.

While the Christmas spirit is in my head now, I sure wish the Dolphins could find some cheer and actually win a football game. Last weekend in Key West my boys got destroyed by Cleveland in a 22-0 romp. In addition, my Canes blew any outside chance of making it into the BCS Championship game by losing to Georgia Tech. Talk about a bah-humbug, huh?

I'm dreading going into work tomorrow. Not beacuse I anticipate bad things or stress...it's just the fact that I haven't worked an entire day in over a week and getting back in the swing of things after vacation is always tough. When you are used to drinking wine every night and sleeping until 8 or 9am and you then have to start getting up again at 6am, it's gonna suck.

Back from Paradise

Cheryl and I slowly rolled the Explorer into the driveway around 2:30 this afternoon after our nice four and a half day vacation to the Keys. As usual, the trip was a memorable one. I took the above picture yesterday at the Bahia Honda State Park, which is about 30 miles outside of Key West. The picture shows the only remaining portion of Flagler's original railroad to Key West. We stopped there yesterday afternoon and it really is a beautiful park.

In general, our trip was a little more "touristy" than normal. We spent an hour or so in the Key West Cemetary, which was really cool. We also rented bikes and tooled around the island, checking out the Southernmost Point and the Truman Annex. For those of you who have spent time in Key West with me, yes I got drunk. Actually I think I was drunk every night I was down there. We met some interesting people at the Smallest Bar in Key West, one of our hangouts that makes us feel like locals. Below I have posted a few pictures we took. Gobble Goble Gobble tomorrow...heading to Gary and Sue's tomorrow for Turkey Day. Hoping everyone has a good one.

Sorry Gunther...

I just had to post this one. We ran into a guy who was a fellow parton at the Smallest Bar in Key West on Sunday Night. I wish I could remember his name, but it really isn't important. The bartender was a guy named Sully who worked summers at the Beer Barrel at Put-In-Bay west of Cleveland and we all had a good laugh when this guy walked in with this shirt on.

Cemetary

I guess Mrs. Roberts was sick after all, huh?

Sunset Pier

For any of you who have been to the Sunset Pier next to Mallory Square, this is what it looks like after Wilma kicked it's ass in October.

The Kid from Brooklyn

Ok...I am going on vacation, but I just had to post this. The big catfisherman forwarded this to me today and I have been laughing my ass off for a while. Cheryl wasn't as entertained as I was. Here's the link: http://media.putfile.com/A-Brooklyn-Solution-To-Terrorism

You gotta be kidding me

As many of you know, Cheryl and I are heading to Key West tomorrow morning for our much-needed respite from the real world. I have been concerned all week watching the Western Caribbean and the remnants of TD #27. Right on schedule, Tropical Storm Gamma developed this afternoon with a projected track right over Key West on Monday afternoon. I guess we'll just have to hunker down at the bed and breakfast with some cold beers. Gamma aint gonna ruin my vacation! See everyone after Thanksgiving.

Random thoughts on the market

I was just inspired by my buddy Gunther over at MagneCarte. He wrote a good entry today that everyone should read if they get a chance. It has indeed been a strange market the last few weeks. The Dow is up near 52 week highs, yet the only thing that has rallied much is the financials. Oil is now under $60 on its way back to $50 and closed-end funds are getting hammered as the market goes up. For leveraged funds, this would make sense, but for equity option funds it sure as hell doesn't.

Even though I work in the financial services industry, I am not in the practice of making specific recommendations on this blog. This one just seems too good to pass up.... NFJ at 21.50 is an absolute steal here. Once it bounces back to 23 people will want to buy it, but I am smarter than they are. I'll buy it here when nobody likes it and hold it and it's 9.7% dividend. It's not like this is a junk bond from GM or a mortgage REIT thats going to cut it's dividend soon. Buy it in an IRA, reinvest the dividends and just leave it alone...even if the price goes nowhere you are going to get almost 10% a year to wait. Even big brother initiated coverage recently and is on the bandwagon. Back up the truck!

The CMAs and Brokeback Mountain

So, I'm sitting here watching the CMA awards tonight. I was unimpressed with the way things started out, but things seem to be improving. I preferred it in Nashville where it really should be. It just seems out of place in NYC.

In any case, watching this reminded me of a story I was reading recently about a new movie coming out in the next month or two called "Brokeback Mountain". I guess it's a cowboy movie staring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal set in the 1960s. So, whats the big deal about a cowboy movie? I guess the cowboys are both gay, so this is supposed to be some big deal to "Middle America". I don't see why it's that big of a deal, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I was just searching Google and every review I saw rated it as excellent. Might have to check it out.

Only one more week

One week from now I will be en route to Key West on a much needed vacation. As you can assume by my lazy lack of posts this week, it was a pretty busy week. Finally got my windshield fixed from Wilma, but the treadmill broke. Had a busy few days on Thurday and Friday, but didn't make much money. Just one of those odd weeks I guess. At least the market is doing better and my client statements should look better in November than they have the last two months. It's funny being a financial advisor because you NEVER hear from your clients when they are making money, but they all call when there is a bad month or two wanting to know "whats wrong". It can be quite maddening if you let it get to you. A word of advice to everyone out there who invests in the stock market...sometimes it goes down. Like life, every day/week/year isn't always perfect. If you can't deal with it, buy FDIC insured CDs and get your 4% return per year. I'll average 8-10% and be happy.

Sorry about that....had some pent-up rage about this week. Pimpbling and Gunther know what I'm talking about here, right gentlemen? Outside of that, I am planning on having a relaxing weekend...watching some football and doing some yard work. I'm also going to Brian's daughter Isabella's baptism tomorrow. She is almost a year old and I still haven't seen her....I think it's time.

Two Years

On this night two years ago, Cheryl and I were married on the roof of the La Concha Hotel in Key West. For those of you who attended that wonderful night, I thank you for being there and hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was indeed a special night for us...so special in fact that there was a lunar eclipse. Some of you may not remember that due to the alcohol, but trust me...it was really cool.

While the dates didn't work out exactly right this year, we are making out return trip to Key West on November 19th for three nights followed by one night in Key Colony Beach on the return trip. I am looking forward to doing nothing all day and hanging out again at a few of my favorite places: Irish Kevin's, Rick's Tree Bar, and Hogs Breath.

TO outta here

In what could be the greatest move in NFL history, the Eagles told TO to kiss their ass today and suspended him for an additional 3 games. After the suspension, the team plans to de-activate him for the remainder of the season. I know that I mentioned this in yesterday's post, but I couldn't be happier. When a guy is complaining at the beginning of the NFL season about making ONLY $7 Million this year, it's really hard to feel bad for him when he shoots his mouth off and gets punked by his own team. An "A" for the Eagles for having the balls to do what other teams won't.

On a completely separate note, oil prices dipped under $60 today on their way back to $50. I realize there is more demand from China, but $60 and $70 oil prices are just not sustainable for a long period of time. Good thing I listened to the Chevron CEO about a month ago when he said exactly that. We'll be back between $50-$55 after Jan 1. I am off to play "God of War"...Scott was kind enough to buy it for me for my birthday and I'm already addicted.

Nobody's perfect

Well, it looks like Michael Vick was a much more able adversary than his younger brother Marcus was last night. I end the weekend 1-1 with the Dolphins 7 point loss today. Congrats to the Falcons on the win and it's back to the grind tomorrow.

The Big Win

Ah yes....that great feeling. The feeling that you were right when all the sports writers and reporters were terribly wrong. Yes folks, the Canes pulled off the big upset last night as I prognosticated in yesterday's post. And they didn't just beat VA Tech, they destroyed them. I could rant on about how overlooked and underrated the Canes are, but I'll let the game last night do the talking.

Congrats to Scottie up in Raleigh. His Wolfpack again proved to be Bobby Bowden's achilles heel by beating Florida State yesterday. Sounds like he had a good day yesterday...I just got an email that he went sky-diving in addition to the big win.

Shifting to the NFL, I see that TO was suspended indefinitely by the Eagles yesterday. I am so happy to see this happen...he really has zero class in my book. And that brings us to the Dolphins today. The Dolphins get a chance at Mike Vick today when they take the field at 1pm to play the Falcons. Could the Miami teams go 2-0 against the Vicks this weekend? I'm not quite as confident in the Dolphins as I am with the Canes, but I'm feeling lucky today...take the Dolphins plus the two points. Seems like the sucker bet, but they seem to play better at home.

Big Game Saturday!

Well, the big day has finally arrived! At 7:45 tonight by beloved Canes go up against the hated VA Tech Hokies. I am already excited and it's still 12 hours till kickoff. Since we have had our asses kicked the last two years and all the critics say that Marcus Vick is the "X factor", I am taking the Canes in the upset. Our time has come to ruin their National Title hopes. If we can pull out a win tonight and get some help from USC, Texas and Alabama, we could still be playing for the title come January. Stranger things have happened......

Breaking out the Champagne

Congrats go out today to Pricess T who started her new job this morning. I wish I could give lots of details, but I just found out this morning myself. It seems that the Princess was being quiet about the job offer and sprung it on us this morning. We all wish her the best as she re-joins the ranks of us working class tax-paying stiffs.

Those Damn Oil Companies

I've seen lots of news stories recently about these "damn oil companies" who are making all this money. This is another example of stupid reporting that flies in the face of everything our country stands for. Oil prices (per barrel) have been higher in the last year than they have ever been in history so it stands to reason the oil companies will make more money.

I guess I just don't get the whole argument about this being bad. Profitable companies make money and create shareholder wealth for grandma and grandpa. They also create jobs for people like you and me and enable us to purchase inexpensive goods and services. Sure, gas is more expensive than it was two years ago, but it's still cheaper to go to the local BP station than to explore, transport, and refine it yourself. When the tech market was going crazy in the late 90s, the computer companies were making shitloads of money and you never heard about those "greedy, evil computer guys", did you? Why is it that oil companies and drug companies are now seen as the big bad wolf? The last time I checked, making lots of money wasn't a crime.

Rush Hour Madness

It took me 25 minutes to get home from work today. Some people may wonder why this is a big deal as they have longer commute times. The problem is that they don't live 2 miles from work. Word to the wise people of Palm Beach County in these strange post-Wilma days...don't go anywhere near the Mall between 4 and 6pm.

In other "items of interest", looks like the Stilers pulled one out last night on Monday Night Fotball. Congrats to the non-posting Margarita Lounge deserter K-Delish. Where you been K?