Top Ten Overused Words Or Phrases Heard During The Current Financial Crisis

1. Bail out

2.  Subprime

3.  Golden parachute

4.  Foreclosure

5.  ARMs (adjustible rate mortage)

6.  CDOs (collateraized debt obligation)

7.  MBSs (mortgage backed securities)

8.  Default

9.  Subprime lender

10. Subprime mortgage

I'm A Winner . . . Finally

It took five weeks, but I'm very  happy to report that I finally won a game in our fantasy football league at work.  Until this past Sunday, I was a pathetic 0-4.  But yesterday my players came through for me and had a very good game day and I won a game.  Maybe I'm being over-zealous and am celebrating prematurely; the team I played against this weekend has one player playing tonight on the Monday Night Football game, so there is a chance (although a small one) that he could actually win.  In order for that to happen, his player, a tight end, would need to get 56 points.  Last week, the player had a record-high thirty-something points, so I really don't see him getting 56 points and beating me this week.  Yeah, I'm gloating a bit, but hey - I finally won a game.  Well, almost won a game.

Link Of The Week

As you already know, I'm all into cycling now. I try to ride at least ten miles a day, and try to stay up on the latest cycling news.  The latest info I heard is about a bike recycling site called Pedals For Progress.  Here's what Pedals For Progress is all about:

Every year, affluent Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning many more unused in basements, sheds, and garages. Most of these end up in our already overburdened landfills. Meanwhile, poor people overseas need cheap, non-polluting transportation to get to jobs, markets, customers, and schools. Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated over 115,000 bicycles, 1,000 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to partner charities in 32 developing world countries.

Furthermore, Pedals for Progress promotes bicycle repair businesses in the developing world. Typically, a community owned non-profit bike store will get the first containerized cargo shipment for free (about 450 bicycles), but that repair store then has to earn enough money selling the repaired bikes to pay for the next shipment.

Pedals for Progress isn't just donating used bicycles: It's also helping developing world economies by promoting self-sustaining bicycle repair businesses.

Please visit http://www.p4p.org and help them if you can. 

Kamikaze Raccoons

It dawned on me this morning that I might be slightly OCD - I found myself counting the number of dead raccoons I saw on the side of the road on the way from The Compound to Wal-Mart.  In case you're wondering, the total was eight.  Yep, eight dead raccoons on the Greenbelt Highway this morning.  And that's just on an approximate three-mile stretch.  I'm sure there were probably more.

Maybe they all have a death wish this week.  It wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see two or three but eight?  WTF?  I told Dad about it and he said that with the weather being cooler at night now, more of them are out and about stirring around, and he reasoned that they just hadn't learned how to cross the road.  I have to agree with him on that one. Truer words were never spoken.

Flashback Friday

Fall has arrived in the Ohio Valley, and has brought with it cooler temperatures.  This week, the lows have been in the upper 40's and low 50's all week long.  I've worn a light jacket to work every day this week - a sure sign that it is in deed getting cooler, because I'm probably the most hot-blooded person there is, so when I wear a jacket you know it's cold.

On the way to work this week, the first true sign of cooler weather appeared -- people and kids waiting at the bus stops had on their heavier coats.  I'm not talking windbreakers like I wore to work this week - I'm talking big coats.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and cooler weather would sneak up on us.  As a kid, I hated wearing coats, mainly because even as a kid I was hot natured.  After incessant whining about being too hot in my coat, my parents and grandparents finally got the hint and would dress me in lighter coats in the mornings before I would head out to the bus stop. 

As an adult, I often hear friends and co-workers complain about their kids leaving their coats on the school bus or in their lockers.  My parents can vouch for me on this, but I can honestly say that I never left my coat on the bus or in my locker.  Even though I couldn't stand to be hot, I always remembered to bring my coat home even if I wasn't wearing it.  I've known co-workers who have had to buy 3 or 4 winter coats for their kids because they keep forgetting them and losing them at school.  Maybe they're hot natured kids like me. 

The Year Of Trying New Things

Faithful readers, it's been one wacky week for me.  First I set a record for trying two new things in a week's time, and just hours ago, I broke that record by trying a third new thing in a week.  At supper tonight, I tried fried okra.  And it wasn't bad.  It was down right tastey.  In fact, I had a couple of spoonfuls. 

For years I've seen Mom and Dad eat fried okra and have turned up my nose at it without bothering to try it.  I imagined it would be something similar to fried slime, since okra is slimey when you slice it.  I sure was wrong.  It wasn't slimey at all.  And Mom fried it in seasoned cornmeal so it was crunchy and very flavorful.  I can't say that I will probably order it the next time I want to binge and eat something fried, but I will definitely eat it again. 

I'm having some major tooth pain right now, and while I don't think I'll be eating anything hard or crunchy for awhile, who knows?  This weekend if I come across something new that's soft, I just might go for it and try it since I'm on a roll.

Breaking News From Blogdom

It has been one hell of a day, faithful readers.  This morning I hopped in the BMW and was going to drive it to work today since it had been awhile since I had driven it.  Imagine my surprise when it wouldn't start.  The battery was dead.  The more I thought about it, it dawned on me that it had been about two months since I'd driven it.  But I digress.  Another thing had me all out of sorts today.  This morning before leaving (or should I say attempting to leave) for work, I got online to check email.  I sure was not ready for my second major surprise of the day: an email from AOL letting me know that as of November 1, AOL Journals would be closed.  Yep, you read that correctly - in one month, there will be no more TWIT at AOL.  I thought I was going to hyperventilate or go into cardiac arrest, like you might be doing right now as you read this.  But let's all take some deep breaths and calm down.  There will still be TWIT - it just won't be at AOL.   Thank goodness AOL won't be leaving us high and dry - they are working feverishly and will come up with a way to transfer our AOL journals to a new blog host. I'll know in about a week where TWIT's new home will be and believe me you will be the first to know.  Other than the format and the URL address, everything will be the same at TWIT - every single post, photograph, and comment will [hopefully] be moved over so we won't lose a thing.   

And in case you're stil wondering, I was able to get the BMW charged back up tonight and you can rest assured that from now on I will drive it to work one day a week.