Sick Little Man

It just breaks my heart to see the little man sick. He has had the sniffles a few times over the past months, but nothing quite as nasty as this episode. He has been under the weather since Monday morning and still doesn't seem to be getting better. I took him to the doctor again this morning and we are hoping he gets better by the weekend. The good news is that Pattymelt will be arriving at the Margarita Lounge tomorrow afternoon to help out with some babysitting. Cheryl and I are going to Naples on Saturday for a night just for a little well-deserved "alone time". I am sure by then he will be feeling better. Everyone out there wish Zach a speedy recovery....

Gettin' Lazy

My sincere apologies to all of you, my loyal readers. I have been a lazy ass the last week and I am sorry. Yes, there have been a few things going on since I decided to lock Zach in my Explorer10 days ago on a rather hot and sticky South Florida afternoon. At least he had the A/C on....

It looks like Hurricane Dean kicked the hell out of Mexico today. The good news is that the area it made landfall at was a rather rural area and there shouldn't have been a significant loss of life. Thats good, because 165 MPH winds are nothing to joke about...I saw firsthand what a Category Five storm (Andrew) did to Dade county in 1992 and it was not pretty.

The market is crazy as usual. This whole subprime thing is completely out of hand. Sure, defaults are a lot higher than last year, but this all needs a little perspective. Subprime makes up about 12% of the mortgage market. Of this 12%, only about 15% of mortgages are in default or even delinquent on payments. By my calculations, this works out to roughly 1.8% of the entire mortgage market. Nothing to sneeze about, but certainly not worth all the press coverage it has gotten and the doom and gloom this is the end of the world crap I have been reading about. It's a shame I was too chicken shit to buy more of the Countrywide Preferred B's at 10 with a 17% yield last week(they closed today at 17.65) or double up on EOI at 16.25 with a 10% yield(closed today at 19.09). In my opinion, Thursday last week was the bottom. If the Dow floats between 13000 and 13500 for the rest of the year that is fine with me. And it's time to short oil again here at 70...I'm lookin at the lower 60s by the end of the year.

The sick bug has been making the rounds of the Pollock household...part of the reason for my slackness in posts recently. Zach brought something home from daycare and was sick this past weekend. This was of course passed along to Cheryl, who is now in bed and has been sick since last night. That leaves me as next...figured I'd better get this post in before I start vomiting all over the place....

Frotuss to the Rescue!

I want to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to Mr. Hickman for helping me out this afternoon in my hour of need. Cheryl and I were loading groceries into my truck at the local Publix when we locked Zach inside. Luckily, the ol' Explorer was running and the air conditioning was on at the time. Five minutes later, Chris pulled up in the Red Rover and he jetted me off to my house for the extra set of keys. I feel terrible for dragging him off the raft he was floating on in his pool, but he came through like a true friend. Cheryl and I (and of course Zach) thank you for your quick help...we owe you a nice bottle of vino!

756...Finally

I am so glad that old man Bonds finally hit homer #756 last night. Maybe...just MAYBE, Sportscenter will show something besides the "Chase for 756" for 20 minutes of every hour. While it is a great accomplishment that deserves respect and coverage, I am sad to see that Sportscenter has resorted to the same tactics of the regular news media. It is a tactic I like to call "complete overkill" where one subject (whatever it is that week) is absolutely beat to death and analyzed for hours and hours on end. Did Barry Bonds cheat? I could really care less...just show me the scores and highlights guys....

So, now that juice boy is out of the way (as well as A-Rod and Tom Glavine) we can focus on the good stuff. Baseball is getting ready to enter the stretch run and my Indians are leading the AL Central. The PGA Championship starts tomorrow. And there is this small thing known as FOOTBALL SEASON right around the corner. While I am not very enthusiastic about my Canes or Dolphins, everyone is undefeated and optimistic on opening day!

One Day Later....

Oh, the difference a day makes. After quite a struggle with yesterday's hangover, I was fortunate enough to have my wonderful and beautiful wife cook me a great dinner last night. Believe it or not, I actually had a half-glass of wine with dinner. Follow that dinner up with a pretty good night of sleep and presto! I am a new man today.

The unfortunate consequence of feeling better is that my "honey-do" list now looms large in front of me. Wash the car...cut the grass...ugh. Looks like it's going to be a long day today as well.....

Friday Night Trainwreck

It's been a long time since I got torn up as bad as I did last night. (yes, Mr Hickman...the toe was firmly outside of the shoe!) It's about 1:30pm now and I am just beginning to feel alive. Some Advil and Pepto has helped, but I still feel like I was run over by a freight train. How did this happen you ask? Well...I went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert last night with Joel Brookman at Sound Advice in West Palm Beach. I decided that drinking lots of beer on an empty stomach was a good idea and the rest was history. The concert was great...Joel has 12th row seats in the pavilion that are right in front of the stage. I guess I felt that I had to party like a rock star last night. At least there is some good news...I didn't drive. I guess I am getting slightly smarter in my old age....though not smart enough to avoid hangovers I guess. Duh...