Holiday Letters and Cards

So we have been noticing that everyone has been sending out these holiday cards and update letters....So we figured we would try to do the same, but we would save the trees so we will just do ours online. Enjoy!

The year started with us going to Tahoe so one of us could snowboard while the other one sat by the outside bar with a fire pit to read a good book, I will let you figure out which one did the sport while the other read the book.

In April we decided that we really hadn't done anything in four months so we decided to take a day trip up to San Francisco and did some touristy stuff. Such as the Japanese Tea Garden and the rest of Golden Gate Park. After which, we decided to not be cheap and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Vista point. It was probably the best weather for us to have done this little outing! Just proves that if we don't do much then when we do something everything will work out!

In May I got ditched by Anna while she went to Stockholm. She left for two weeks for work while I sat at home and did productive things such as playing video games!

In June I got ditched again while Anna went to some bachelorette party. Once again I sat at home and did some productive things such as video games. After Anna returned we took a little trip to Maui, which was Anna's best flight of the year since it was with me! ( I am glad that I am writing this so that she will only read this after everyone else probably has )

In July we went to Anna's best friend's wedding. It was fun to see and meet everyone. It was a great day to have a wedding and couldn't have been any nicer. It was so nice that I don't think I need to think about a wedding for a long time to come.

We also went to Yosemite in July. It was the closest I will get to camping ever! The only thing that could have been better was the weather. Sadly with all the record amount of fires we had this year in California the viability was nil. But it still was beautiful and we realized how close it really was to us, so there will be a follow up trip in 09 for sure.

Then it was another long break from travel for us until December. Where we did three trips in a row to Atascadero the day after Thanksgiving to see some of Anna's family that I had never met. Then we were off to Chico to see our friends graduation from police academy, which actually was closer to the movie than I could ever imagine. After Chico we had a few days off until we went to Vegas for a "business" trip. We enjoyed a nice meal at the Wynn and then took in a show at MGM. It was a great trip!

Well that wraps up the year until now. As for the rest of the year we will be doing a Christmas trip down to Atascadero. After which we will be sitting at home and hopefully staying up to meet the New Year...and if not that is why we have Tivo!

We hope you all have had a great year!

Chianna

Stimulus Package

Hopefully the Obama team will spend the money wisely. Especially since the 100 biggest metropolitan areas account for 65% of America's population and 75% of its output. Hopefully they won't build bridges to no where and they repair the bridges we already have.

Top 100 Cities:

1. New York, New York (pop 8,213,839)
2. Los Angeles, California (pop 3,827,953)
3. Chicago, Illinois (pop 2,839,944)
4. Houston, Texas (pop 2,076,189)
5. Phoenix, Arizona (pop 1,473,223)
6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (pop 1,460,301)
7. San Antonio, Texas (pop 1,262,858)
8. San Diego, California (pop 1,258,961)
9. Dallas, Texas (pop 1,213,608)
10. Detroit, Michigan (pop 920,645)
11. San Jose, California (pop 912,736)
12. Indianapolis, Indiana (pop 789,181)
13. Jacksonville, Florida (pop 787,735)
14. San Francisco, California (pop 751,461)
15. Hempstead, New York (pop 744,344)
16. Columbus, Ohio (pop 738,665)
17. Austin, Texas (pop 703,592)
18. Memphis, Tennessee (pop 676,738)
19. Baltimore, Maryland (pop 640,064)
20. Charlotte, North Carolina (pop 633,259)
21. Fort Worth, Texas (pop 622,811)
22. Milwaukee, Wisconsin (pop 600,787)
23. Boston, Massachusetts (pop 596,638)
24. El Paso, Texas (pop 591,168)
25. Washington, District of Columbia (pop 582,049)
26. Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee (pop 579,738)
27. Seattle, Washington (pop 577,727)
28. Denver, Colorado (pop 566,359)
29. Las Vegas, Nevada (pop 544,887)
30. Portland, Oregon (pop 536,871)
31. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (pop 532,861)
32. Tucson, Arizona (pop 516,791)
33. Albuquerque, New Mexico (pop 498,716)
34. Atlanta, Georgia (pop 483,108)
35. Long Beach, California (pop 471,957)
36. Brookhaven, New York (pop 468,034)
37. Fresno, California (pop 459,540)
38. New Orleans, Louisiana (pop 453,726)
39. Sacramento, California (pop 451,261)
40. Cleveland, Ohio (pop 450,046)
41. Mesa, Arizona (pop 443,710)
42. Kansas City, Missouri (pop 443,702)
43. Virginia Beach, Virginia (pop 438,191)
44. Omaha, Nebraska (pop 414,798)
45. Oakland, California (pop 394,715)
46. Miami, Florida (pop 383,048)
47. Tulsa, Oklahoma (pop 381,370)
48. Honolulu, Hawaii (pop 375,825)
49. Minneapolis, Minnesota (pop 374,682)
50. Colorado Springs, Colorado (pop 371,287)
51. Arlington, Texas (pop 362,385)
52. Wichita, Kansas (pop 355,015)
53. St. Louis, Missouri (pop 352,572)
54. Raleigh, North Carolina (pop 345,584)
55. Santa Ana, California (pop 339,685)
56. Anaheim, California (pop 331,885)
57. Cincinnati, Ohio (pop 331,310)
58. Tampa, Florida (pop 326,887)
59. Islip, New York (pop 326,631)
60. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (pop 316,615)
61. Toledo, Ohio (pop 301,493)
62. Aurora, Colorado (pop 297,081)
63. Oyster Bay, New York (pop 294,520)
64. Bakersfield, California (pop 293,456)
65. Riverside, California (pop 287,739)
66. Stockton, California (pop 283,657)
67. Corpus Christi, Texas (pop 282,022)
68. Buffalo, New York (pop 278,398)
69. Newark, New Jersey (pop 277,903)
70. St. Paul, Minnesota (pop 277,015)
71. Anchorage, Alaska (pop 276,613)
72. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky (pop 272,219)
73. Plano, Texas (pop 250,067)
74. St. Petersburg, Florida (pop 248,191)
75. Fort Wayne, Indiana (pop 247,849)
76. Glendale, Arizona (pop 244,672)
77. Lincoln, Nebraska (pop 242,676)
78. Jersey City, New Jersey (pop 239,198)
79. Greensboro, North Carolina (pop 237,428)
80. Norfolk, Virginia (pop 237,349)
81. Chandler, Arizona (pop 232,312)
82. Henderson, Nevada (pop 231,880)
83. Birmingham, Alabama (pop 231,877)
84. Scottsdale, Arizona (pop 228,119)
85. Madison, Wisconsin (pop 223,719)
86. Baton Rouge, Louisiana (pop 222,669)
87. North Hempstead, New York (pop 220,975)
88. Hialeah, Florida (pop 218,529)
89. Chesapeake, Virginia (pop 216,644)
90. Garland, Texas (pop 216,012)
91. Orlando, Florida (pop 215,190)
92. Babylon, New York (pop 214,275)
93. Lubbock, Texas (pop 212,341)
94. Chula Vista, California (pop 211,609)
95. Akron, Ohio (pop 210,526)
96. Rochester, New York (pop 209,317)
97. Winston-Salem, North Carolina (pop 208,393)
98. Durham, North Carolina (pop 206,614)
99. Reno, Nevada (pop 206,375)
100. Laredo, Texas (pop 206,285)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We are having Thanksgiving with the Chiangs then heading down South to the Kinney's to spend time with both families for the holiday.

We wish all our friends and families a safe and joyful holiday season!

We will be out of town every weekend until the New Year so most likely the next post will be in the New Year.

LOL robbing Peter to pay Paul....

This should serve as a good warning to the US government to think before bailing out the auto makers. When you provide a bridge loan to a company you want to make sure that once they cross that bridge they will know where to go......

A.I.G. Borrows Another $20.9 Billion From the Fed

October 30, 2008, 5:22 pm

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American International Group has found another place to borrow billions of dollars from the government: the Federal Reserve’s commercial paper program.

The distressed insurance company disclosed Thursday afternoon that it was borrowing up to $20.9 billion from the Fed’s program, under which the central bank is buying companies’ short-term debt in an effort to unfreeze the market for commercial paper.

A.I.G. already has access to two government credit lines totaling $122.8 billion in order to avoid collapse, and the company’s borrowing from the commercial paper program enabled it to reduce its debt under those lines.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, A.I.G. said four of its affiliates had exchanged commercial paper for cash from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It said in the filing that it would use the proceeds to refinance its outstanding commercial paper, as well as pay down its initial credit line of $85 billion.

The Fed said A.I.G. reduced its debt under the two existing credit lines to $83.5 billion, from $90.3 billion a week ago, by using cash from the commercial paper program, Bloomberg News reports.

With the latest loans of up to $20.9 billion from the Fed, the insurer’s borrowing now totals as much as $104.4 billion.

An A.I.G. spokesman, Nicholas Ashooh, told Bloomberg that the terms of the commercial paper program were better than those for the original $85 billion credit line, which has a higher interest rate.

“They’re paying off a Fed loan with another kind of government subsidy — it’s like using one credit card to pay off another credit card,” Robert Haines, an analyst at the research firm CreditSights, told Bloomberg. “If they make progress paying off debts over time, I don’t think it’ll be viewed as necessarily a bad thing.”

A.I.G. is rapidly running through the $122.8 billion made available by the Fed. Last week, A.I.G.’s chief executive, Edward M. Liddy, said the company might need to borrow even more money.

This enormous need for cash has raised questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September could have developed such a big hole by October. Some analysts say that at least part of the shortfall must have been there all along, hidden by irregular accounting.

How quickly we forget!

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9c0de7db153ef933a0575ac0a96f958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

Amazing that they could understand the consequences even before the tech bubble blew up...

September 30, 1999

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Will Batman save us?

• “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” - Thomas Jefferson

"every movement in the stock market must have a rational foundation...is one of the greatest errors in the history of human thought." -- Robert Shiller

“The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” - Ronald Reagan

Thank goodness DC gets a bailout too!

From www.hotair.com

However, the Senate did add a few winners to this new version:

New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill
- Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)

Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill.
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)

Thanks Bill

Op Ed in the Washington Post:

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092302322_pf.html)


How Main Street Will Profit

By William H. Gross
Wednesday, September 24, 2008; A23

Capitalism is a delicate balance between production and finance. Today, our seemingly guaranteed living standard is threatened, much like it has been in previous recessions or, some would say, the Depression. Finance has run amok because of oversecuritization, poor regulation and the excessively exuberant spirits of investors; the delicate balance has once again been disrupted; production, and with it jobs and our national standard of living, is declining.

If this were a textbook recession, policy prescriptions would recommend two aspirin and bed rest -- a healthy dose of interest rate cuts and a fiscal package that mildly expanded the deficit. That, of course, has been the attempted remedy over the past 12 months. But recent events have made it apparent that this downturn differs from recessions past. Today's housing bubble, unlike that of the stock market's before it, was financed with excessive and poorly regulated mortgage debt, and as housing prices began to tumble from the peak, the delinquencies and foreclosures have led to a downward spiral of debt liquidation that in turn led to even lower prices and more foreclosures.

And so, instead of mild medication and rest, it became apparent that quadruple bypass surgery is necessary. The extreme measures are extended government guarantees and the formation of an RTC-like holding company housed within the Treasury. Critics call this a bailout of Wall Street; in fact, it is anything but. I estimate the average price of distressed mortgages that pass from "troubled financial institutions" to the Treasury at auction will be 65 cents on the dollar, representing a loss of one-third of the original purchase price to the seller, and a prospective yield of 10 to 15 percent to the Treasury. Financed at 3 to 4 percent via the sale of Treasury bonds, the Treasury will therefore be in a position to earn a positive carry or yield spread of at least 7 to 8 percent. Calls for appropriate oversight of this auction process are more than justified. There are disinterested firms, some not even based on Wall Street, with the expertise to evaluate these complicated pools of mortgages and other assets to assure taxpayers that their money is being wisely invested. My estimate of double-digit returns assumes lengthy ownership of the assets and is in turn dependent on the level of home foreclosures, but this program is, in fact, directed to prevent just that.

In effect, the Treasury will have the fate of the American taxpayer in its hands. The Resolution Trust Corp., created in the late 1980s to deal with the savings and loan crisis, dealt with previously purchased real estate, which was flushed into government hands with a "best efforts" future liquidation. Today, the purchase of junk mortgages, securitized credit card receivables and even student loans will be bought at prices significantly below "par" or cost, and prospectively at levels allowing for capital gains. This is a Wall Street-friendly package only to the extent that it frees up funds for future loans and economic growth. Politicians afraid of parallels to legislation that enabled the Iraq war are raising concerns about a rush to judgment, but the need for speed is clear. In this case, there really are weapons of mass destruction -- financial derivatives -- that threaten to destroy our system from within. Move quickly, Washington, with appropriate safeguards.

The Treasury proposal will not be a bailout of Wall Street but a rescue of Main Street, as lending capacity and confidence is restored to our banks and the delicate balance between production and finance is given a chance to work its magic. Democratic Party earmarks mandating forbearance on home mortgage foreclosures will be critical as well. If this program is successful, however, it is obvious that the free market and Wild West capitalism of recent decades will be forever changed. Future economic textbooks are likely to teach that while capitalism is the most dynamic and productive system ever conceived, it is most efficient over the long term when there is another delicate balance -- between private incentive and government oversight.

The writer is chief investment officer and founder of the investment management firm PIMCO.

How bad is it?

People are asking how bad the panic is right now....the chart here might lend some insight into the amount of panic out there.

A little humor to get us through the tough times.

Microsoft is back baby!

Forget the Mac and PC guys...this one takes the cake.

haha check out the new ad:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gBWPf1BWtkw

Wow.....we should find some more tubes to speed up the internets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTonHRerMC4&feature=related

Has it been a month?!

Has it been a month already?! We've missed you, did you miss us?

So, in a month we have actually done a lot! Let's start with our trip to Yosemite. Thankfully, we went when it wasn't on fire, but sadly we did go when the rest of California was on fire. So as you can see in our pictures it wasn't the best time to take pictures.

The smoke was visible all through the valley, and didn't ever leave. But it did clear a little as the temperature started to rise and the smoke made it in to the jet stream, TAKE THAT EASTERN STATES!





This trip was probably the closest I will ever come to camping. As you can see on the right this is my "tent" and yes it did have a bathroom, including a shower, in it.

And if any of you would like to repeat my camping adventures, we stayed at the Evergreen Lodge right by the entrance to Hetch Hetchy near the North entrance to the park.










Here you can see the trees in the Mariposa Grove of Trees. We took a bus tour with all the retired people through the park. Much easier than driving! Not only was our bus driver ridiculously knowledgeable, but he had a few good jokes too. In the two pictures you can see AK and me standing in a tree, one of the few times I have felt truly small in my life.















And in the second picture you can see a couple standing next to a super large tree. The funny thing about that couple is that the tour group we were with yelled a them to run up to the tree before our bus pulled away.....much like lemmings they complied. But yes those are two people waving from a tree that is nicknamed the cloths pin tree...for obvious reasons.

Much more on our other adventures in my next post....maybe even later today!

Maui continued....

We are actually facing the sunset not facing the camera and not using our flash like newbs!


All in all it was a great trip! A needed break from our crazy lives of working hard and not playing hard...

Sorry for all the short entries, but work is mega busy! Will catch up after our trip this weekend to Yosemite.

Maui and beyond!

So I have been super lazy recently and haven't been updating this blog thing. On the right there is a picture out of our hotel window:

We stayed at the Westin Villas in Maui, which is North of the Wailea area along the west side of Maui.



Right out there, as if you followed that path into the water there is great snorkeling, which AK took advantage of!



Errr....have to run, my client just showed up! Will post more pictures later tonight!

Join now!

Quick post, busy work day. Check out http://pickensplan.com/ and join in on a movement that actually might work....

And we're back!

So sorry for the delay in the posts and sorry that this one has to be so short, but AK has a game tonight at 11:30 which is very soon. But thought I would put up a note that we are back from Maui and we had a great time! We are off to Yosemite next weekend then to a friend's wedding the following weekend. So SUPER busy over here travelling which is good, but hard to make money while you travel!

Will post some pictures from Maui in a few days and more about our life, but we have to run now! Wish her luck at her game....well wish her luck if you read this in the next hour, otherwise it would be too late =P

And we're off!

So it's been quite busy for us recently. Work for me has really taken off, which is great, but I do miss my free time. And soccer for AK has been very time consuming also. We had a tournament this last weekend in Morgan Hill where AK's team came in second place...shoulda been a sweep, but 5 games is a lot to play in 2 days.

This week we have a friend in town and will be doing the Winchestor Mystery House, the Friday the 13th tour.....Scary! Then we are off for a week in Maui! yay a long vacation for us where we will go back to our normal routine of just sitting, but this time instead of a couch we will be sitting on the sand...When we get back we have a little duo-birthday trip to Yosemite then off to a wedding so we may not be back blogging until late July..

Hope you all have some great summer plans!

VC

Back to normal!

Hey all,

Been a very different few weeks. Anna was out of town in Sweden, I will make sure she uploads some pictures here sooner than later, and I was uber busy with work. It was probably better that she was out of town when I was working much later than normal. But now we are back to our normal boring selves. Just thought I would put up a quick note so I can rub it in to my other "blogging" friends who rarely post anymore.......HINT HINT

Also, neat link attached below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

What a week!

So just to update everyone on our lives. Anna was told last Friday that she would be leaving for Sweeden on May 11th and will be returning on May 25th for work. So if anyone is in town for the first week of her trip please feel free to stop by because I will be uber bored! BUT don't think about coming by the second half of her trip because Age of Conan will be released and I will be living in the world of Hybornia!

Also, this last Saturday we went to go see Michael Buble, www.michaelbuble.com, at the San Jose Pavilion. His opening act was an amazing group called Naturally Seven where each member would make the sound of a musical instrument with his mouth. If you check out their YouTube posting called Wall of Sound, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5MkNOXSdkA. Anyways, the whole show was amazing and Buble was very appropriatly inappropriate in his humor. Over all a great preformance, which would be worth seeing if you have the chance. His musical director and cowriter of the few songs that he writes is actually a San Jose native, so they had lots of references to the area in their show. Our favorite song is one of their originals check out the YouTube link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDQnkYwfNfk.

Hope you all have had a great end of April and are having a good start to May. Will update as soon as anything else happens in our lives!

And we leave the house!

So we left the house on Saturday to head up to the city, San Francisco for those of you from out of the area. It was mid 80s in the South Bay so we had ot escape the heat! With clear skies and the temp sitting right around 80 even in the city it was an all round gorgeous day!

We went to Golden Gate Park first and made stops at the Botanical Garden and the Japanese Tea Garden see the pics below:

A very fun morning in the Park then after a quick bite to eat in the Tea Garden we were off to the Golden Gate Bridge where you couldn't differentiate us from the tourists as we took more pictures in a few hours than we have all year! We met a many tourists whom we swapped camera man duties with so we have a few couple shots with the bridge. Overall a great day escaping the heat! Below are tons of pictures:

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Childhood dreams can come true!

So while I was "busy" at work today I over heard someone mention a pirate attack...yea let me repeat that one, pirate attack. So I was thinking they were talking about a movie, but no no check this out:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAoKoV-wzh9gGZMp6o7INkdOdadQD8VR7V400

Now I can realize my childhood dreams, unlike all you girls that wanted to be princesses..sorry that'll never happen! or all you guys that wanted to be dragon killing knight! I can go out on a pirate boat and raid for booty! As Captain Hook would say, 'YO HO YO HO, the life for me!' Now only if I can over come my seasickness and need for 4 star housing... But who knows? Look out Jack Sparrow, you've got nothing on me! Batten down the hatches and well whatever else pirates say, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFU078A3Hc4.

Have a good weekend all!

Two weeks later and....

So I warned all of you that we live extremely boring lives! So I was on the phone with AK and we realized that we have not posted anything in about two weeks, but as usual nothing has really happened in two weeks...though we did buy Michael Buble tickets, http://www.michaelbuble.com/, and are both excited to see his show.

Therefore, I will post a few random thoughts that we have had in the last couple of weeks. So we have decided to stop watching the Discovery Channels Survivor Man, http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/survivorman/survivorman.html, because we have realized that he actually doesn't truely survive. His show is more of a let me go a week without finding food or really building a shelter. Honestly, those of you who know me, which I will assume is everyone reading this, will know that I am not what you would call an outdoorsman, but I think that I would be able to survive longer than the "survivorman" just by doing less and wasting less energy! Therefore, we have stopped watching the show so as not to ruin our chances of surviving being lost in the Sahara Desert.

Other shows that we are currently watching are:

How I Met Your Mother - Which is hillarious!
The Big Bang Theory - This is my college life
Battlestar Galactica - Starting this Friday, program up those Tivos!

So besides watching TV, AK is back and at 'em in soccer. The knee is not holding her back at all and she is going full force! And as usual I am working on all kinds of projects and watching the democrats election hopes unravel.

Oh so our friends have started the Man of the Year Competition and it has made it to EPSN!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080401

Q: Ten of my friends and I officially started and are taking part in the "Man of the Year Competition," where each participant selects a random, shenanigan-filled contest in which we all compete. Examples of events we have planned: retaking the SATs, a chili cook-off, parallel parking contest, and a paintball pistol duel at dawn. (We took the SATs last week and all feel confident that we are smarter than we were in high school.) As awesome as this is, we have a problem. We can't decide what the 10th event should be, which is required to take place in Las Vegas. What would you suggest? Please keep in mind that the purpose of the Man of the Year Competition is to promote three ideals: shenanigans, self-improvement and debauchery (though not necessarily all of them at the same time).-- Daniel, San Francisco
SG: All right, I put some serious thought into this and tried to abide by the three categories (shenanigans, self-improvement and debauchery). I also stuck to a $1,500 budget for the weekend (not including airfare and hotel); since it's the final event and all, that seems like a fair price even if it's a little steep. Anyway, for the 10th event, if you're going all out ...
You have to show up in Vegas on a Thursday night, get a good night's sleep, enter one of those Friday morning poker tournaments (they have them at every big casino) and award 10 points to the guy who lasted the longest, with nine points for the second longest, eight for third and so on. Then, you get some lunch and play Credit Card Roulette for the tab -- the guy who loses pays for dinner, but he gets three bonus points for sympathy purposes. Then, you go to the sports book and lay down $200 worth of sports bets apiece on that night's games -- the guy who makes the most money gets 10 points (same scoring system). Then, you go to a craps table at 2:30 in the afternoon, start out with $200 apiece and play craps until your 7:30 dinner reservation -- the guy who makes the most money in that five hours gets 10 points. Then, you have dinner and play Credit Card Roulette again -- the guy who loses pays for dinner but gets six bonus points. Then, your goal for the rest of the night is to try to tag along with a bachelorette party without paying for their entire bar tab -- the guy who pulls this off gets 10 bonus points, anyone who makes out with a member of the bachelorette party gets 10 points and if someone makes out with the bride-to-be, that's an extra 25 bonus points.
On Saturday, you have to be up by 10 a.m. for breakfast -- anyone who doesn't show up gets deducted 10 points for being weak. You play Credit Card Roulette for the breakfast tab (three bonus points for the loser), head over to the sports book for another $200 worth of sports bets (same scoring system), then head over to the Wynn's European pool for a day of outdoor blackjack. (Note: if you're not staying at the Wynn, then the guy who was smart enough to remember to bring his old Wynn room key from a previous stay so you could get past the security guards gets five bonus points.) From 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., you have to play blackjack outdoors with no more than $500 in chips and order and finish at least 10 drinks total. Anyone who remains coherent by 7:30 p.m. gets three bonus points. Guy with the highest money total gets 10 points, second-highest guy nine points and so on. ... And anyone who gets a camera phone photo of themselves with a topless sunbather gets three bonus points per photo. From there, another dinner and more Credit Card Roulette (seven bonus points for the loser), then go out that night without showering.
Now, I'm going to leave the next stage up for grabs --- it really depends on the group and the marital statuses of the guys involved -- but however it plays out, hand out the points accordingly. On Sunday, you have another 10 a.m. breakfast and more Credit Card Roulette (same rules as above), followed by a round of golf in the scathing-hot Vegas sun for the final event -- this is an endurance contest, a little like the final event in the Gauntlet, only if everyone was horribly hung over. Everyone gets a handicap and the best score above the handicap wins 20 bonus points (18 for second, and so on), followed by another 10 bonus points for everyone who played all 18 holes without either throwing up, quitting or passing out on the course. Then, you add up the scores, figure out the winner and that's that ... he's the Man of the Year.

If interested in tracking the progress you can check them out here:

http://www.manoftheyearcompetition.org/about/about.php

Until next time!

The ooze has stopped!

So Anna's knee has stopped oozing and is actually healing quite well. So we decided that it was time to buy some bikes to cruise around on the weekends...well cruise makes it sound like we are going for long rides....let's just call it short outtings to the park or the bagel shop.

So for those of you who like to snoop more into our lives you can check out the bikes we bought at www.raleighusa.com . I bought the Detour 3.8, which is under the hybrid section, and because she always likes to one up me Anna bought the Venture 4.0, which is under the comfort section.

Since we both have Good Friday off we will be biking around! Hope you all have a great Easter Sunday.

VC & AK

Even if he doesn't win.....

Barak Obama has opened up a dialogue that has been ignored for far too long...

Please take 30 minutes out of your day to watch the vide at the end of the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo

It's been a long time!

We'd like to say sorry to the four of you who read our blog for not posting more, but the last few weeks have been super busy for both of us!

Since our last post three major things have happened to us:



The first thing as you can see from the photo, Anna skinned her knee during an indoor soccer game. Which left her limping around for the last week or so. It also left me without my car for a few days, she steals it whenever she can and this knee thing gave her quite the excuse to steal it for almost a week!

The knee has made a pretty amazing recovery, as you can see from the photo lots of skin was lost there, but it now looks like it just has a major sunburn which is better, but still is very sensitive to pressure.

Anyways, the plan is to start up soccer again this Sunday, YAY! =)

Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with the blood or oozies coming from the knee because I got to escape to LA for business. There was a convention in LA for financial planners that showed the new releases of products and services available to us. While down in LA I had the chance to spend time with a few friends in the area which was a blast. But what can I say it's always better to come home, even though I now have to deal with "THE KNEE" again =(

So after all that we needed a little relaxation time so thanks to the best sister in the world we went to the Matchbox Twenty concert last night. And since Anna isn't the tallest person in the world we got isle seats in the fourteenth row in the "Shark Tank" which were great seats. Almost too good! For those of you who do not know, Anna is in love with Mr. Rob Thomas who is the lead singer of the band....She almost ignored me the whole time he was out! Anyways, the show was great, if you have the chance to see them in concert we highly recommend them! The show is very high energy and surprisingly long., but good!

Well thankfully to me the show ended and Anna realized that Rob wasn't going to propose to her on stage so she figured I wasn't so bad after all.

That gets us to today. And just to try to preblog this weekend is the big bike purchase weekend where we will be purchasing Venture bikes made by Raleigh...we will let you know how that goes, it's been about 7 years since either of us have rode a bike.

Recycling and Kickin' Butt!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7273407.stm

It's the combination of the two American Ideals! Not only do we recycle, but we recycle materials into a butt kicking machine.. It's like combining a hippy and a member of the NRA. Hopefully this warship can bring Americans a little closer together... Let's hug it out!

And we give back!

When you have some time please check out the site www.healthcarevolunteer.com

I will be joining the Board of Advisors for this organization. It's pretty neat so if any of you need a good cause to donate to or want to help out a litlte please let me know!

Wow even the Chinese are spenders!

So check out this article!

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36278/113/

We Chinese are not known for our spending, but hey for the Olympics we can spend 40 BILLION dollars on infrastructure....thats more money than Dr. Evil asked for! THINK ABOUT THAT!

So to all of you that think that us Chinese don't spend money take note! We do not spend often, but when we do spend its BIG!



As for Chiannna, AK skinned her knee up really well in indoor soccer...I will have to post a picture of it...for some reason it is not scabbing over and it continues to gross me out. Sadly without a scab its gotta be left out to "air" which means that I have to stare at it continuously.

Besides that development not much has happened. We have a new roommate joining us before he heads out to grad school, so that will be exciting.

Hope you all had a great week and stay tuned!

MUST BE NICE!!!

Now I know this is the blog about our lives, but since we do not live a very interesting life I have decided to post some interesting artices that I read each day... And since I read a lot of articles every day there will be many more posts.

After reading this maybe I should go practice my stand up! I can stay up late and be on TV making fun of people and/or situations. Anyways enjoy this article from http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/02/jay_leno.html

November 1, 2009 ABC pledges to kick Nightline off the air to make room for Jay Leno, offering him $50 million a year.
November 5, 2009 Sony raises its offer to $60 million a year, plus a gold-plated motorcycle.
November 8, 2009 ABC counters with a promise to explain to Leno the secrets of Lost.
November 11, 2009 When Leno expresses dissatisfaction with Sony Television's plans for the Jay Leno Theater, executives offer to let him design it himself. The resulting structure is a pale imitation of plans designed first by other, edgier architects.
November 13, 2009 Desperate ABC executives raise their offer to $75 million and promise that Kevin Eubanks will replace Charles Gibson as anchor of World News Tonight.
November 21, 2009 Getting in on the action, Fox renegotiates its affiliate deals to become a round-the-clock network in hopes of attracting Leno, who is offered not just the 11:30 to 12:30 slot but the entire overnight shift, from 11:30 to dawn.
November 30, 2009 Sony Television annexes the picturesque Sea of Japan island of Niijima and renames it LenoLand, replacing its distinctive local statuary with busts of Jay Leno.
December 5, 2009 NBC wunderkind Ben Silverman, driven mad at being left out of the fun, offers Leno $100 million a year to continue as host of the Tonight Show. "That doesn't mean we're giving up on Conan," Silverman tells reporters. "We'll run Jay's and Conan's shows simultaneously, in split-screen."
December 7, 2009 Fox's Kevin Reilly hints to Leno that he can't make any promises, but he's "pretty sure" he can get Leno into the Hollywood Round of American Idol.
December 8, 2009 ABC ups its offer to $150 million a year and orders Ted Koppel shot.
December 13, 2009 Holding unprecedented power over every network, Leno demands that the Tonight Show run on all of them at once. All four network chiefs accept, and further agree to run Sony Television's syndicated The Jay Leno Show the other 23 hours of every day.

With Great Power Comes......

Great Responsibility!

I can proudly say that Chianna has inspired some of our friends to start blogs of the own. The down side of this is that our friends are more motivated than us and use their free time to do productive stuff....well more productive than learning how to cook and/or do interior design via HGTV or the Food Network....

So after being HARASSED on multiple occasions I give you post number two of Chianna:

Now we warned you that our life isn't that eventful....and when YOU, the reader, decided to follow our lives you should have realized that this would not be a daily chore for you......you should set aside maybe...hmm 1 hour a month or so to follow our life...

Since my last posting we have done house organizing...which means that AK has done house organizing while I complain about having to organize..... This stems from the constant conflict that we have; AK doesn't realize that organizing like nature is a perfectly valid way of living. As in nature the older stuff, be it fossils or sedimentary layers, is found underneath the newer stuff, my office organization is the older papers are found underneath the newer papers. While unlike nature I have multiple piles of papers, much like there are multiple worlds in our universe...but Unlike nature, AK piles my piles on top of each other...now this is as if Earth gets hit by Jupiter then Pluto and someone has to come along and figure out which one came first. This is why we have decided that I have my desk and she has her, additionally my desk has to be four times the size of hers due to my organizational method.

Besides organizing for the last twoish weeks, AK's mom paid us a visit for President's day weekend. We took a little drive out to Santa Cruz to see the brother and hang out for the day....It had to be one of the nicest days I've seen in a long while... I will post some pictures of it when I figure out how to do that..

Now a little note to our friends. I appreciate you taking an interest in our lives, but as I warned you before Chianna is a very boring life form. We like to spend our time in a relaxing way, watching TV would be a good example of our normal routine. Now we could update you with what we are watching movie and tv show wise, but that would take too much work and that is not what Chianna is about!

So thanks for reading post number two..... Unlike some people....ahem "14 x 4 - 12" I cannot keep up with you!

Be safe until next time!

Chianna

Post Number ONE!

Well you found us....or most likely you clicked on the link we sent you....foolish maneuver, now you will have to check back often to see what is new in our life!

One disclaimer before you continue to read our blog: This will not be the best blog you will read this year...or even today, but we will try to make it very interesting or at least an entertaining view of our very boring lives. =)

I will give you one prediction for 2008....nothing major will change in the life of Chianna! But please join us on our trip through the year!