My Schedule…and A Little Extra: Good times, y’all! But sleep-deprivation had taken its toll. On Tuesday we had a neighborhood celebration at our park. There was food galore, face-painting, dancing, a hula-hoop contest, water balloon tossing, glow-sticks, and those big blow-up obstacle course things that my son went through about 75 times. The night ended with fireworks and two very sleepy kids who finally got to bed about 3 hours past their normal bed-time. Any idea what sleep-deprivation does to a 7 and 4 year old the next day? Well, surprisingly the kids got through the day relatively unscathed as my wife and I prepared for a small neighborhood get-together. Towards the end of the night, which lasted a little longer than we all really expected, the first evident sign of sleep-deprivation finally reared its ugly head. I was approached by two of the other parents to inform me that my 4-year old was hitting kids with a plastic bat in the backyard. At least it was a plastic bat, eh? So then again, for the second night in a row, our two little ones got to sleep late. The next morning, after I dragged my daughter out of bed, she uncharacteristically rejected her peanut-butter toast by shoving it on the floor. At least it was just toast that was tossed, eh? But who cares? The kids will remember the park celebration and our little get-together and the bat hitting and toast tossing will be easily be forgotten, eh? Good times y’all! 🙂
My Mystery Magic: Cool Card Trick
My Market Watch: Tomorrow is the Jobs Report and this is the one report that seems to have the biggest bang for markets moves, at least before the Euro-drama entered the scene. So, traders are trying to figure out what’s gonna happen tomorrow. As they do their guess-work, they are trading today in anticipation. So, if the majority of traders feel the Jobs Report will be slightly weak tomorrow, and the report comes in as expected, then you’ll see little moves tomorrow. But when the report is a surprise…something unexpected, look out! One way or the other, bonds will trade high or low. This is so exciting, don’t you think?! Disclaimer
My Schedule: Behind the computer all day….
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My Schedule…and A Little Extra: I was terrified of the outcome but I sat there as still as possible…desperately trying not to flinch. Thus was the strategy while I got my haircut from a girl that seemed more uncomfortable than I was. After I sat down in the chair and the body-cover-cape-thing was drawn over me I started to realize what I was in for…she began to speak and she didn’t stop…ever. While in full verse she began to examine my hair…pulling and separating in an effort to determine her strategy…this seven minute endeavor felt like an hour. At this point there was no cutting so I started to plan my escape but she kept throwing questions at me which made it difficult to concentrate on the fastest and most sensitive way to exit. Then the compliments came, “you have awesome hair…I know a lot of people that would kill to have your texture.” My response was sketchy, “Eh, thanks, I, uh, have decent hair to, uh, make up for all the other deficiencies on my head,” I said. It was official…I was trapped…I was in for the duration. Then she picked up the scissors and that’s when I noticed the larger than normal bandage on her middle finger, “What happened to your finger?” I asked. “Oh, I cut my finger on a haircut yesterday…nothing a quick trip to Urgent Care couldn’t fix. But don’t worry, the man’s hair I cut looked great!” Oh Lord help me. When she was ready to start cutting I was physically shaking as balls of sweat started to bead down my face. She prepared to cut like a golfer ready to hit her drive…back and forth…back and forth. Then she took her first snip as I shut my eyes in fear…I was motionless like one of those human statue street performers. She moved the scissors like one of those bartenders in Cocktail with Tom Cruise. With each snip only a few hairs came off…she just kept cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I kept my eyes closed and answered her relentless questions with “uh huh.” At the end she gave me the mirror to inspect my hair but I was too afraid to look and way too anxious to get out of the chair so I said, “I trust you…I’m sure it looks great!” I threw a twenty on the counter, forfeited the stamp on my visit card, and ran full sprint to the car.
My Schedule…and A Little Extra: On Saturday I celebrated my 11th wedding anniversary. Every other year we take turns on who plans the anniversary and this year it was my turn so I had to plan it (I mean I got to plan it). As you may or may not know my wife is a travel writer and planner-extraordinaire. She is kind and thoughtful and thoughtful (yes, I said it twice). When she plans the night there is usually a theme involved. This is a very intimidating standard for any typical man to live up to. Well, I think I pulled it off (I definitely pulled it off). We started out the day like normal with swim lessons for the kids and then dropped them at a neighbor’s house just after lunch – the babysitter would take over from there later. I had planned to take the family to a play that morning but my wife gave me a pass that it was overkill (whew!). So, my wife and I went to La Jolla for a quick bite and then couples massages complete with flower petals, chocolates and champagne. Although it was a little corny for us, the service was great, the massages were excellent, and the overall experience was memorable. After our facials (yes, we got facials too and yes, I got one) we went to dinner at Eddie V’s with a view overlooking La Jolla cove. Not shabby, eh? J
GREAT ADVICE: If you are in the woods, and you are alone, and you hear a noise in the next cabin, but nobody answers, and you hear an owl hoot nearby but you can’t see it, and the skin on the back of your neck begins to crawl, and you hear the noise in the cabin again, and nobody answers, DON’T GO SEE WHAT’S IN THE CABIN! RUN LIKE HELL!
My Schedule…and No Extra: Wells Fargo Exits Wholesale – What?!?!!!?!! Wow! Even though wholesale only represented about 5% of WF’s business, it was still a big chunk of the wholesale industry. All day yesterday I received emails and phone calls from you asking me what I thought about the news. Do I think it’s bad for our industry? Yes, I do think it’s bad for our industry because whenever a major player like WF exits it scares everyone and why shouldn’t it scare you…AND, it’s Friday the 13th! Do I think it will hurt my business at Interbank? No, it will actually help my business, at least in the short-run because Wells was a competitor of mine. Does Well’s exit negatively affect Interbank? Absolutely not…not even in the slightest little itty bitty bit…to us it’s a non-event. FYI, here’s a link to 
My Schedule…and No Extra: No extra today…no time and in no mood to think up something clever or interesting….
My Schedule…and A Little Extra: I finally gave up after spending hours trying to figure it out. My wife’s computer crashed yesterday, specifically with Outlook. As her official IT guy, I spent all night trying to figure out why her deleted emails folder was corrupted…maybe it had something to do with the 30,000 emails in there and another 10,000 elsewhere. I finally gave up and created an all new profile meaning exporting and importing everything with some tolerable data loss. I’m sure this is extremely exciting news for you…I’m all keyed up just typing about it! And so this is your Little Extra today…with little sleep you’re just going to have to suffer. All right, well, that was fun. I need to make more coffee.
My Schedule…and A Little Extra: I’m forty-four years old and I still haven’t learned how to prevent sunburn. On Saturday I took the kids to swim class…my son swims at the outside pool for lessens so I lathered him up good with sunblock. Afterwards we went to my best friends place to go swimming. But I didn’t reapply the sunblock to my son which I have now learned is important for his pale vulnerable skin. Moreover, I forgot to cover my back – just sun on skin. Well, after 4 hours of shirtless fun, my son only had a minor sunburn but my back looks like an over-cooked lobster. Seriously, what is wrong with me? Maybe by the time I turn 88 I’ll figure it out…. That’s all I have to say about that.
My Schedule…and A Little Extra: Keep it in perspective my friends. My best friend in Minneapolis is a fire fighter. Yesterday his team was called out to help a child who was in distress. When he got there he discovered it was a four-month old baby girl. My friend couldn’t tell me the details…an investigation is pending. But he told me he did his best, that his team did their best…but the baby girl didn’t make it…she died right there in his arms. I’m tearing-up just typing about it. Keep it in perspective my friends. Yesterday my father was in a car accident…he unknowingly scraped up another car in a lot and then left the scene…there were several witnesses and cell phone cameras were present. The police showed up at their door this morning and is requiring my Dad to go through a mandatory driving evaluation. I spoke to my Mom and Dad this morning about it…they’re concerned his license will be revoked. “Dad, are you okay? Was anyone hurt?” Did you hold a dying baby girl in your arms? Keep it in perspective my friends.
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