The Jury Returns a Verdict

Good Day!

Well, the verdict is in... a 2005 GMC Envoy SLT. Has pretty much everything.

Pretty nice truck. I think this might work.

Another crazy week... so busy.

Absolute Poker put money in my account, they want me back so badly... so I played a little single table tourney the other day. If an idiot doesn't draw out on me in the late stages, I am the huge chip leader, and probably coast to victory. But alas, that was not the case.... I thought I played okay, though. It was fun.

I gave away my original X-Box to my Dad, who let's the step-nephews play. Now, I'm really good at the racing/driving style games. Project Gotham Racing, 1, 2, and 3, in particular. So, they were quite disgusted with the ease with which I dispatched them, even in wildly inferior cars.

I was over there yesterday, and the house was abuzz with the news that Gabe, my s-nephew, is also really good. My stepmom informs me with great delight that Gabe "Beats us as bad as YOU do!!!"

Thus, a championship match must be played. We are led into the living room, as an expectant crowd gathers... there is a real feeling of a heavyweight fight in the air. It was kinda cool.

We take our seats on the couch, and choose our controllers.

I ask him what kind of car he likes. I figure I'll let him pick, and I'll drive whatever he drives... give him a chance, ya know?? I really didn't think I had anything to worry about, but the atmosphere in the room was like, hmmm, something might really be up here...

He wants a Ferrari 360 Spyder. I thought to myself "Big Mistake", as the Ferraris got me past all the worst moments in PGR3. Including the diabolical Nuernburgring... I'm still having bad flashbacks.





The race begins. I settle in behind him. I figure a) I'll let him lead for awhile, make him feel like it was a race, and b) Just in case he's good, I'll get an idea where he's fast, and where he's vulnerable.

I'm right behind him, and he greases thru the first turn, and the second, and he's running away from me. Whoops. I'm like the guy who realizes he has a tiger by the tail...

I finally passed him somewhere in lap 4 I think, and held on for the win. But it was a great race. The kid is really good.

Went to the new Marcus Theatre last night, the Majestic. Pretty cool. I almost felt like I was walking into a casino. It's that nice, and that opulent. Huge place, too. They have 2 ultrascreens, which are 70-some odd foot screens. Stadium style seating. Also $10 a seat. Unless you wanna pay an extra $3 a seat, for a "premium" seat. Which, hey, they did look nice, but wow. I have a home theatre system in my house, with premium seats, and premium vodka in the freezer, and a premium pause button, and no premium a-holes sitting next to me talking during the film....

I saw "Evan Almighty". It was okay. Morgan Freeman is brilliant in the role of God. I never saw Bruce Almighty, maybe that would have been better, to see that first... although I guess I get the idea.

Lotta money to see a movie, though, especially when you hit & miss on movies... $10 buys a lotta bacon cheeseburgers...

Speaking of which... talk to you later.

Stamped Return to Sender??

Good Day...

Well, I have my own stamps now. Nice.

Hope everyone had a nice Father's Day.... I did.

I see Nic Barnett was arrested... nice.

The US Open.... yawn. Not my favorite. Greens as hard as a driveway, and more sloped than the cement ones at Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf.... Yeah, no thanks. The US Open, if I may be so bold, rarely delivers us a legitimate champion anyway.

Seriously, I mean, god bless him, but Andy North?? He was never a factor on tour... never. But he won a brutally tough US Open. Gimme the TPC Sawgrass any day. Compare those lists of past champions side by side, and you tell me which one reads like a who's who of golf....

I see Michael Vick pulled out of a youth football camp he was scheduled to do.... I guess he had an important dogfight to attend....

Kinda slow, at the moment. Not much going on...

I thought I was being real smart yesterday, one of my Poker Pals takes great delight in paying off with pennies & nickels... so I counted up a bunch of change, and paid HIM with change... except then I won it back, and went home with twice as much change as I left with... hmmm. That plan sort of backfired. Ahh, it all spends, I guess.

Still pondering my truck. Just not sure what to do. There's an 04 Yukon, loaded, in Fond du Lac, that seems to be the best option... 27,000 miles. Do I really want more payments??

What I really want is a bacon cheeseburger.... so if you'll excuse me....

Getting warm in here...

Good morning!

Been a super nice week. Tonight I will complete 1 week of riding my bike to work. Nice. Perfect weather. It happens so rarely here...

Spurs won the NBA Championship. Did anyone notice?? Actually, I find it refreshing that a bunch of good guys like Tim Duncan can actually win...

The USA Today has an article about the Green Bay Packers...

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/packers/2007-06-14-offseason-report_N.htm

The headline is: In Green Bay, they've got Favre, and inexperience. Favre, and nothing. Here's another quote from the article:

"Favre threw 18 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions last year, the second consecutive season in which he did not throw more touchdowns than picks. His passer rating of 72.7 was eclipsed by every NFC quarterback except Brad Johnson and rookie Bruce Gradkowski and was only marginally better than the 70.9 he posted in 2005 when he led the NFL with 29 interceptions."

Of course, he's only 7 TD's away from Dan Marino's record, so we'll have that to celebrate.

A vaguely interesting article.

I'm contemplating a new truck. Or newer, I guess. At the moment, we have a few prospects. Let's review (in order of Price):

1. 2004 Cadillac Escalade, 47k miles, $28,250
2. 2004 GMC Yukon, 27k miles, $25,900
3. 2005 GMC Envoy, 16k miles, $20,999
4. 2003 GMC Sierra Pickup, 53k miles, $19,990

These are all loaded. SLT's minimum.

As I ponder, I almost think the pickup has merit. As I think back, there's been like 7 or 8 times, in the past 5 years, that I've had more than one passenger. Seriously. I picked up 2 people at the airport once... little stuff like that. Really, it's mainly one passenger. Well, okay, it's MAINLY just me, but IF there is a passenger, it tends to be one.

I could push my bike in a pickup, and go wherever I wanted, no trailer. That's worth sumthin. The pickup has the painted to match "trunk lid" style cover on it, which is what I'd want...

The Doc seems to think that if I want an Escalade, I should buy it, since I'm not getting any younger... Big F says the Escalade will have better resale years from now, so I may as well buy it, because it's basically free, vs the Yukon. Those are both good points.

The A/C died in the Tahoe, which is what brought this conundrum to the surface... I just dropped a grand in a fuel pump for the thing, and now it's another 1200 to fix the air... sure I could do it myself, but I wonder. It needs tires real bad too. If I put the tires, I really should keep it for a couple more years. But if it's gonna cost $1000 every six months... questions.

If I don't post, Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there!!!!

Now, I had an ice cream bar around here somewhere.....

How many Trillion??

Good Day.

From this weeks "Mogambo Guru" column, we have this little observation:

******

And my guts were also wrenched by the complete surprise of Larry Edelson, of MoneyandMarkets.com, reporting that "Not many people noticed, but on May 17 the folks in Washington upped the country's national debt limit to $9.815 trillion."

Getting over my shock at not having already heard of this important news, he goes on to say that he's still got enough time on his hands after unearthing this interesting nugget of news to do a little research, and says, "That's a whopping $1.635 trillion increase in less than three years."

He then puts his finger on the cause of it all, and writes, "I've said it before and I'll say it again: As long as there is no gold standard - nothing and no one to hold back politicians from spending money and creating debt at will - then the value of the U.S. dollar will keep plummeting and inflation will keep rising."

******

Funny how I didn't see that in the papers.... Hmm.... If you're not reading the Mogambo Guru, you should be. Go to dailyreckoning.com, and look for The Mogambo Guru. A somewhat tongue-in-cheek breakdown of our current economic mess from Richard Daughty's vaguely paranoid alter-ego, "The Mogambo".

Gold fell sharply today... and you know what that means.... it's on sale!! Buy!! A couple short years ago, you could have bought all you wanted for $400 an ounce. Now at $640, it's fallen sharply from $690... and when it passes $800, you're going to say "Wow, I could have bought all I wanted for $650!!" Hear me now, and believe me later...

Well, again, from the "Just shut up" file, Clionton Portis speaks again!!! Yes, he's done research, and he found out that people really love their dogs!!! He had no idea!! Who would have guessed?? Man's best friend.... Clinton thought man's best friend was an Escalade, with a bumpin' stereo and a set of killer dubs on it....

Translation: Nike called Portis's agent, and his agent called him and said "It's time for some damage control, buddy..."

Unbelievable. He did some research.... breathtaking, truly.

Anybody see the premiere of Season Three of "Chriss Angel:Mindfreak"??? Awesome. I love that show.

Charity ride tomorrow, for the Children's Miracle Network. I'm not just burning precious gas, I'm contributing something to someone....

I rented "School of Rock" the other day... an older movie, but it was really good. Great movie. Check it out. I also rented "Smokin' Aces". It had it's moments, but overall it was very weak.

I also have been reading some Robert Crais novels. I just finished "The Watchman". Great books. Get your hands on any of his, including "Hostage", "Demolition Angel", "The Forgotten Man"... all outstanding.

I feel the need.... for a Bacon Cheeseburger!!

Until next time!

Don't shoot!! Okay, NOW you can shoot...

Good morning!



I went to a photo shoot Saturday... taking pictures of motorcycles. Very nice. Very Nice. My compliments to Colleen Swartz of Digital Magic BigShots. Super job. feel free to email her at Colleen@digitalmagicbigshots.com.




My Softail, obviously.... Super nice pictures.



Was kinda fun. Amazing what they can do.

Ahh, well, the main problem I'm facing right now is I have to work Midnight to 8AM for the next 4 weeks, at least.

This is not a good development. When exactly do you sleep, on this schedule???

The interior decorators out there would lose their minds if they saw this, but yesterday I covered over my bedroom windows. I now have a complete blackout in there. The sun is hitting the windows right now, and no light is coming through. None. So, we'll see. Unless I happen to fall asleep at work for a few hours... of course, that would be wrong....we would never do that...

One of my poker protoges took second in a tournament the other day... nice.

Installed a new stereo in my garage. Super sweet. I think it sounds better than the one that's in my house right now. The acoustics in that big space, with surround speakers, are amazing. Really sounds good. Really good.

Anybody catch the World Poker Tour last week on the Travel Channel?? Epic final table, epic. Daniel Negreanu and Joe Hachem... wow. Joe Hachem won it. You of course recall his tremendous win in the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event, to the tune of $7 Million. Well folks, he's no fluke, because on the WPT, he backed it up at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, at the 5 Diamond World Poker Classic, for a $2 Million first place check. He now joins possibly the most elite club in Poker: people who have won the World Series Main Event AND a WPT Title. The ENTIRE list, for your perusal:
1. The Living Legend Doyle Brunson.
2. Carlos Mortensen
3. The Flambouyant Scotty Nguyen (pronounced "Scotty Win")
4. Joe Hachem from Melbourne Australia.

That's a pretty short list.

Well, I don't know when dinnertime is on this crazy shift either, but I think I'm going to go get a Bacon Cheeseburger.... better safe than sorry.

Until next time!

Try to stay focused..

Good morning...

I've had many thoughts, but I've been so busy, I haven't quite made it to a keyboard.





As you can see, when the Harley is not running, we have to take the Cadillac...



Just to soothe your concerns, I don't REALLY have to ride on the bumper....

Anyway, the bike is fixed. Thanks to Hal's Harley Davidson, and Dave in their parts department, it's back in one piece. They really helped me out.

This Packers thing... I hear so much crap, I just am not sure what to believe. So I'll make this real simple for you: Teddy T has to go. I was so hoping Jones would come in and hire a new GM right away.... with another year to consolidate his power, how are we ever going to get rid of Ted??? Sigh....

Anyway... I am a solid gold doggie. We established that a few months ago. Lotta mixed signals in the economy. A couple things baffle me. Last week, the monthly consumer confidence printed, and it was expected to go up, and it went up even more than expected!!!

Whaaa??? What planet are you people living on??? Gas prices crossed the line into record territory... wages remain flat... Home prices continue to soften, and sales continue to soften. My utilities are up, my cable is up, my taxes are up, and the interest rate on a new loan (if I want one) is up!!! Why are you optimistic again?? Need I even point out that Jim Doyle has his eye on your wallet, and he's starting to drool?? You think the taxation living hell that is Wisconsin is going to get cheaper???

With your house, let's be kind and say "not rising" in value, you aren't going to be able to go and get another home equity loan... which is not a problem for me per se, but will be for the vast majority of the clowns out there, who continue their consumption month after month, year after year, with more & more creative financing. And, if you haven't been paying attention lately, this is a consumer driven economy. We don't make anything here anymore, and we don't export anything. Thus, if the US Consumer stops spending 103% of their income each year, this economy could implode.... (btw, I'm not making that up, we've been running a negative savings rate as a country for several years now...)

Raising rates, and shutting off the "home equity tapper" could put a real crimp in the huge spending that's been rolling for the last 3 years, at least...

I kinda thought that right now would be a good time to buy an Escalade. I was wrong. There's no deals to be had out there... Again, I scratch my head. With the price of Premium unleaded north of $3.60, dealerships apparently have dudes wandering in all day long who want to buy an Escalade, that might get 16 to the gallon. I was thinking I'd wander in there and say "I wanna buy an Escalade", and I'd be like Julia Roberts in "pretty woman", a lot of sucking up... nah. Once again, I was a victim of incorrect thinking. Obviously, these mythical confident consumers are out there throwing money around.... (shakes head)

That's okay. My Tahoe is fine. All that extra cash, I'll plow it into Gold, Silver, Uranium, Oil Company Stock, and Platinum, and in a few short years, I'll buy an Escalade and a house to park it in with all that beautiful money.

Actually, I was chronicling my quitting smoking. This is day 115. Now, my whole life, I've heard people talk about how much money could be saved if you didn't smoke. And it's true, I kinda roughly figured I was dropping around $130 a month on cigs... rough number. So, theoretically, I should see this $130 a month washing up in my checking account, right??

I SHOULD, yeah... I DON'T, but I SHOULD. And I'm working through my rage issues... as my good buddy Jake showed me first hand, you can be a good doggie, but if you're poorly socialized, and have some aggression problems, your life will be 50 times harder than it has to be.... no wonder people smoke...

Also had a real funny thing with my checking account. I all the sudden see that I have a "reserve balance", and they're charging me a finance charge... Huh?

It turns out that I went overdrawn... a pile of checks, from all range of dates, "mysteriously" hit my account the DAY BEFORE my direct deposit check went in.... Hmmm. Things that make you go "Hmmm..."

And in the true hallmark of an ex-smoker, I called the bank, demanded a manager, and released my pent-up rage on him.... Wasn't very satisfying. He coulda cared less. These banks are sooooo freakin' huge, your threats to "take your business elsewhere" mean absolutely nothing to these guys. Nothing. Less than nothing. We'd need to put a vacuum guage on it, to measure the "negative" quantity of care.....

So, watch your bank carefully... the predatory practices continue..... watch your statement, watch it... seriously, I was lucky I caught this at all... and then, the funniest part is that they open a $400 "reserve" loan, but when money goes back into the account, they don't pay that off. No no no no noooo, silly puppy. Nah, they APPLY a $20 a month payment to that balance, and let it ride at 22% interest. Heh heh, ya like that??? Yeah. Whew..... these people. Just watch your statement.

And watch yourself there, grease is leaking out of that huge Culver's Bacon Cheeseburger and dripping in your lap.... You lucky dog!!!

Until next time!