a99kitten's Musings

Husband brought home some lobster macaroni & cheese for me from a business dinner. He knows I LOVE mac&cheese.

It was ok. I mean even a “bad” mac&cheese is a good mac & cheese :)

Mac & cheese is like risotto it seems. Many chefs feel they need to fancify it for their foodie tastes. So they add all sorts of weird stuff that has no business in either of them.

I’ve had risotto that some people might rave about that I was pretty turned off by. But it’s the simple that I like – pea risotto made using the Cipriani recipe is better than any gross seafood risotto made by some stupid, self-important chef in SF.

And a simple baked, rich cheesy mac&cheese is way better than some over the top version looking to be less “middle-class”. I’ll be making a yummy one for my Superbowl party that’s much yummier…in my opinion. But truthfully…I prefer the Kraft blue box or Stouffer’s to most foodies desperate attempts to not be so middle class or regular. Meh.

Obviously this is a personal choice. Some people want the exotic. They choose the exotic or different when the simple is so much better.

So in the end, I had a couple bites but the huskies were pretty stoked on the doggie bag of fancy food. :)

Illumin8 with Youthful Synergy Complex Eye Shadow Palette by Anastasia

While I am going to most likely purchase this eye shadow because I love all of the colors, I have to snicker at the anti-aging declarations. It’s eye-shadow people…

What it does:
These mineral-based eyeshadows provide a sheer wash of gorgeous, natural color. The long-wearing formula is free of fragrances and artificial dyes and contains both a Youthful Synergy Complex and a Balkan Botanical Infusion. The Youthful Synergy Complex has Brown Algae, Diamond Core Powder, and powerful antioxidants that lift, hydrate, and revitalize the appearance of skin. The Balkan Botanical Infusion soothes, softens, and hydrates the skin.
http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?categoryId=A17&id=P254224

I think every single facial product sold nowadays has to promise to reduce spots, or wrinkles, or just a general reversal of aging. And while I can see people falling for those claims and promises with night/day creams and potions (and my people I mean me, myself and I), I can’t imagine anyone actually believing make-up (especially eyeshadow!?) will deliver this. It might cover up aging to a limited degree but otherwise I think it’s rather silly to make or believe this claim (unless you can walk around photoshopped – now THAT would be the invention!!)

But any make-up you spend money on and wear should make you feel pretty. And I think that when you feel that you look good, you emanate that so then you do look good. So maybe  if you believe you look a little younger, you walk around with a smile and then you do look younger. So it IS magic-fairy dust!

But hey – they are great colors so I will still buy no matter what… :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_bi_ge/us_stocks__bad_is_good

“It’s called a short squeeze, and though many Americans don’t know such a thing exists, much less understand it, it’s driving up many stocks.”

Really? Do people just not know or understand the stock market? I LOVE this stuff!! It’s also important for people to understand how the market works. So many people have a 401k account, or a pension, or a stock plan. Does everyone need to be a fund manager? No. But knowing all of the basics should be mandatory learning in school nowadays. IMO…

Short sellers have always been vilified. The hedge fund I worked at did a LOT of shorting and made a LOT of money from it. Ferreting out bad companies who would lie to their investors, pump up their stock price, had NO earnings.  Short sellers didn’t create these situations – they found them out.

Can there be bad people short selling and driving good companies down? Of course. Like in everything, there will be bad people taking advantage of situations. i.e people shorting airline stocks around 9/11.

It’s much riskier than going long. And they have put in more rules over the years to try and keep it “fair”. But if you see an opportunity where a company is over-valued and the market is  not correcting it, there is nothing wrong with betting against it.

It’s a market counter-balance. It truly is when the value of information is a motto (as Gordon Gekko knew.)

http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/detailed.xml?product_id=1318434&type=img1

I couldn’t help myself….it’s coolio :) So someone will help me pack up all this stuff and display it elsewhere when my husband divorces me, right? :)

Animated Slave Leia from Gentle Giant

And herein lies my confusion….animated Leia…cute shoes….stock….animated Leia….cute shoes….stock….

This is one of my favorite songs by Sir Paul. I love that he loved his wife so, so much. Proof that true love does exist I think :) And dig that 70s hair! hehehehehe…

I’ve seen him perform this song live. Sounds exactly the same…even better actually since you can feel everyone there getting sucked into such a pretty song. Ok….must be the dreary weather…done being sappy!

Yes please! Size 7.5 in pink (obviously) Who is ordering for me? Imagine how cute I’d be wearing these!!! :)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl1101

Well, while I do not like Rahm, what he said was said in a closed session. If I say something in my living room, or Board Room, it should stay there. I’m sure you can argue he is a politician, he shouldn’t be using derogatory terms, saying that to others, blah, blah…

BUT has anyone looked up the definition of retarded in the dictionary? I guess you could argue derogatory but it really is the definition. And no – I don’t think that is a reason that it should be changed in the dictionary. Per the American Heritage Dictionary – Second College edition:

Retarded: adj Slow or backward in mental or emotional development.

Retard: v To slow the progress of; impede or delay.

I’m not going to defend the guy too much since I don’t like him anyway. And he was speaking about a plan put forth by liberal special interest groups that does sound like it fits the definition but for such an “outrage” to occur? Give me a break….latch on to a cause to fight for that really needs fighting. Not word play. If someone gets offended by a word, any word, grow a thicker skin and get over it. Bigger fish to fry in this world…

This is definitely one my favorite DM songs…sung quite hauntingly…

I want somebody to share
Share the rest of my life
Share my innermost thoughts
Know my intimate details
Someone who’ll stand by my side
And give me support
And in return
She’ll get my support
She will listen to me
When I want to speak
About the world we live in
And life in general
Though my views may be wrong
They may even be perverted
She’ll hear me out
And won’t easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact she’ll often disagree
But at the end of it all
She will understand me

I want somebody who cares
For me passionately
With every thought
And with every breath
Someone who’ll help me see things
In a different light
All the things I detest
I will almost like
I don’t want to be tied
To anyone’s strings
I’m carefully trying to stay clear
Out of those things
But when I’m asleep
I want somebody
Who will put their arms around me
And kiss me tenderly
Though things like this make me sick
In a case like this
I’ll get away with it
And in a place like this
I’ll get away with it

I went snowmobiling for the first time in my adulthood yesterday. I went as a little kid but didn’t drive so that hardly counts :)

You start on these nice, wide groomed trails and then we were off up to a lookout. Up meant windier, narrower, less groomed trails. I drove part of the way up and it was SUPER fun! Snowmobiles do not have power steering. So you have to pay attention and use your arms to control this thing 100% of the time. And a lot of leaning (like when driving a motorcycle.) So I scrunched forward and in my supreme geekiness, pretended I was driving a speeder bike but on planet mixture of Endor and Hoth (through the forest and trees BUT in the freezing snow!) :)

Totally look like Leia :)

We came upon a couple who had crashed their snowmobile into a tree stump/well. Husband got off and helped the guy get it off. So then after that, I let husband drive as the trails got narrower and I didn’t want that to be us!

Husband drove a LOT faster than I did and I was flying up and off my seat over and over. My neck and back felt like when you take a hard butt check on the ice – spine condensed. Visualize an accordion…

Made it up to 8656 feet elevation where they have a warming/lookout hut. It’s called the Martis Valley Fire Lookout hut. It’s cool up there and you can see everything (hence the reason they would look for smoke and fires from up there.) The views were amazing. The sun was setting and the sky was filled with gorgeous colors.

Lake Tahoe

Majestic...

I love the mountains. I can never get enough of the beauty no matter what season, snow, sun, cloudy – always. Beaches are gorgeous – I do love Maui (and even my own beach at home) but mountains are my absolute favorite. The Sierras are awesome. I’ve been to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, British Columbia and Banff. I loved them all. Nothing can compare to the beauty of the mountains for me, not even a gorgeous sparkling Tiffany’s window display ;)

Loved this tree's contrast..

Someone had broken the door of the hut earlier that day so we were using the big slide windows they have to get in to the hut. The hut has a deck which is probably nice in the summer. It was icy so I took a digger on it which I’m sure would have been funny to catch on video :)

The snowmobile place closed at 6:00pm and it was a little after 5pm so we decided it was time to head back. Plus I was now freezing and starving! Husband took what he thought would be a shortcut to make it down quicker. But it wound around the mountain instead of down so put us in the opposite direction. By now it was getting dark and I was imagining all of the stories of people who get lost in the forest in winter and they go off trail and are never found alive again…great (I have quite a vivid imagination!) Luckily husband does have a good sense of direction and got us back on the trail we needed. We got back to the main gate and my hands and face were only partially frozen solid…

It was fun. Would I go again? Sure. Would I go all the time? Probably not – unless I got to drive my own and knew the trails better. It is a great way to get way up there where cars can’t go in the winter. Would be fun to take snowshoes up there and hike around too. And if I ever get my 100 acres in Wyoming – it would be super fun to have my own snowmobile to tool around :)

You know…if you read this speech…if you truly listen to what he is saying…he is right. Look past the trendy “hate Wall Street” rhetoric being bandied about by our current President and media. Look at what is being said here and think about what is *truly* being said….

Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company. That’s right — you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line, Gekko!

Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. (applause) Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Thank you very much.”

This movie was done in 1985. Still holds true today. One could argue that you can apply this to all of the life-long politicians that have never held a real job, a job where they have been responsible for creating anything, for making sure payroll is met, making sure that shareholders receive a return on their investment. They collect their giant salaries (look it up) and benefits that our paid by us…the taxpayers. Do you really think they are any better than the purported “criminals” of Wall Street or the banks? Really? If you do, than you are truly naive…

Are there criminals on Wall Street? Of course. Are there criminals in every single line of work? Yes. Are there criminals serving as your Congressman, Senator? Yes. If you don’t think so…you are truly naive…

This country was created, built on and made into the greatest country on earth because of the entrepreneurial drive to be successful. And our current government wants to destroy that. Put everyone on a level playing field. Everyone doesn’t belong on a level playing field. Face facts – there are smarter people, harder-working people…not everyone “deserves” the same thing. Period.

One of my most favorite movies ever…