Stock Tip

It's a tricky market. Ruby Greenspan keeps a firm eye on what is going up in value or becoming yesterday's news. Let's look at the latest stock report.

As you can clearly see, after a slow start MAMA stock is going up in value. Finally the Ruby Industrial Average is recognizing the value of cuddling to the population. DADA stock, after a strong initial upswing, is unable to pace the MAMA. Both stocks lag behind Dog Toys Inc for obvious reasons.

For those of you invested in the RRTDAC, be on the lookout for a new public offering yesterday at 3:01 in Allison Guy Griner Industries (Symbol:AGGI). Ruby is predicting future high return results after an initial slow growth period.

Let them eat cake!

I may have already mentioned this, but let me repeat myself in the name of clarity before I move on to the post. All the baby books tell you the importance of talking with your newborn. In the beginning you start with nursery rhymes or songs. Then you realize you don't know very many of them and start to work in more adult themes. After asking your newborn's view on what makes a great president and what makes a good husband (same things by the way fiscal responsibility and diplomacy), global economy, best movie ever etc.; you start to descend into babbling somewhere around the 6 week mark (also when you are about ready to go back to work and have a real conversation). I was deep into babbling territory when Jamey came home one day and listened to me tell Ruby that she was the Princess of Cakes. For some reason, that title stuck and has been tossed around quite frequently. Text Messages of "I have the cakes" obviously mean she has been picked up from daycare.

On to the post!

Last night, Ruby met one of her subjects for the first time. Day care is a nice introduction into "lots of time consuming things that the babies probably don't appreciate but you do it anyway in the name of being a good parent/teacher". Along those lines, they had a Valentines Day party today so I was busy last night experimenting with eggless cakes (children under 1 year should not eat eggs). I used a "Wacky Cake" recipe from Depression era times when people could not afford eggs. A combination of vinegar, baking soda and salt allow the cake to rise. I decided to experiment on Ruby to see if the cake would be well received. Observe the interaction between Princess and her loyal subject.

Cake: I have a property dispute I was hoping you could resolve great princess.
PoC: Yes, I'm listening.

Cake: Ahhhhhh!
PoC: Oh, I am so sorry! I have no idea what came over me!

PoC: Well, it appears I am not so sorry after all. Baliff! Bring in the next subject!

I Resolve to Not Resolve

Well, the holidays are definitely over. Luckily for me, we plan on going on a vacation to recover. Next week it's off to Steamboat Springs for some skiing action. 5 days of no dogs and no baby. Choosing between sleeping and skiing will be tough! I hope for a fun new journal to post when I get back.

However, I would be remiss if I did not share some snapshots to cover the whiteout of the blog from the holidays. Allow me to catch you up.

Santa was very good to Ruby

Yvonne was very good to Ruby



Ruby is a gangsta in her new jacket from Grandma.



Loki is old and can fold his tongue like an accordion


Karen and David are now adequately prepared to have a baby.


Now that I can check that off the list, let's move on to an actual post. Karen and David showed me a book they have of New Year's resolutions from the past several years. Not only do they write them down, they have a ton of them! It makes me wonder why I have never made a New Year's resolution. Am I so afraid of failure that I can't even propose an idea for one? Even after racking my brain I still can't come up with any. Is keeping up status quo a New Year's resolution? It's taking about all I have to do that. How about refusing to stress over whether my house sells? That would probably benefit me the most but it bothers my requirement writing mind because I don't feel its verifiable and testable. Maybe that's the true problem I have with writing New Year's resolutions. I spend all day writing contracts for systems. Am I too tired from that to write a contract for myself? What would the review process be? I think I do need that vacation.

In other news, we watched the movie Sunshine this weekend to test out our new rockin' projector from xmas. Now, we haven't watched a movie in a long long time which maybe compounded the disappointment we felt in it. I don't think the first half of a movie has ever been so promising and then sink so low. I don't think any of the following is specific enough to be a spoiler, but don't read on if you are paranoid about that sort of thing. Before you go off and watch the movie, I suggest you stop it halfway through and go write your own ending. Then keep it that way and leave that hour of your life a positive experience.

**The following paragraph contains vague complaints about the movie Sunshine which you shouldn't watch anyway so just read on**
The first half made me so happy. There was even a discussion on risk management! Oh joyous day. I love sci fi, I love the idea that at the heart of physics, there is God. However, I cannot buy that at the heart of physics there is Satan and God. Also, I can't buy that someone would attack someone with a knife, then drop it in favor of a bolt tightner as a weapon. My mom, while quite possibly irritated by the large plot problems, only voiced complaints about the errors in spaceship design. I found that cute. I have to agree with her there were quite a few. Who put that vat of dangerously cold coolant for the "mainframe" in the floor for anyone to accidentally slip into? Griner trap!

Merry Christmas!

Well, we are off to the lake house for a fun Griner Christmas. I'll post again after the new year. Work is under control again for me so maybe I will even be clever!

10 years!

Dec 6 was our ten year anniversary. Normally we go somewhere for our anniversary, but the final Regions merger event was that weekend so we settled for a nice dinner st Standard Bistro. How we celebrate is really unimportant to me. I'm just so thrilled and happy that I love Jamey even more now than I did 10 years ago. I highly suggest everyone marry their best friend. I wasn't ambitious enough to scan in a wedding photo, but here is a 5 year anniversary picture from us in 2002 (the first year we had a digital camera).

The Palace

There's a reason I call my workplace the palace. At Christmastime they really go all out. They have the Alabama Symphony Orchestra play in the cafeteria one day. I often wonder if they built the cafeteria for that purpose because it sounds wonderful. I checked Ruby out from her company day care (see how much it rocks?) and took her to the show. In true baby style, you can never predict what a baby will like. She didn't mind the music, but she LOVED when everyone would clap at the end. She fell asleep before the end of the show which included a Christmas medley of sounds, my favorite of which was "Making Christmas" from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Next up was Breakfast with Santa. On Dec 8, they turned the building into the North Pole complete with fake snow. Ms Claus hung out in the cafeteria serving juice and muffins to kids. Meanwhile, the kids would go to the corporate conference center and wait for their picture with Santa. Ruby tried to eat his beard this year, but he was very gracious about it.

I also took this cute picture of her outside the building in front of a ridiculously large Christmas tree. She enjoyed pulling up the grass. Too bad kid. You don't have any grass in your backyard to play with!

LODO

Recently I was reading a paper about Enterprise Architecture (don't ask) and noticed an phrase I hadn't seen before. "LODO" LODO means effort and money spent on "Lights On, Doors Open" activities. Recently, I've noticed that we stink at LODO. Our trash can gets repossessed, our home insurance lapses and, to my great dismay I pulled up to an all dark house one night last week. So dark that our fun Christmas lights around the arbor to the courtyard were not on. I knew, even before I saw the disconnection notice on the door, what had happened. In Jamey and I's defense, we had a slight miscommunication about who was in charge of what. However, I would like to submit to the jury in defense of my side, who has the previous track record hmmm????? Anyhoo, the electronic payments did not work on the new house when we added it to our account. I did do the transfer and when they asked if I wanted it on one bill, I said Yes. I did assume it would keep deducting as we have setup. After Jamey's failure with paper bills, we had established a new procedure. I would handle paper bills and he would handle everything that gets paid electronically. I mentioned to him that he would need to check the paper bill to see if the electronic payments were still working and he said "Sure." I should have known that meant, "I'm not listening to you but I don't get picked on if I say the word 'Sure' after you are done talking." Well, I am now in charge of all bills. We'll see if I do any better. Power was pretty bad, but I would really hate to lose water!

BTW, we stayed at the old house (that was still paying electronically) for a few nights. Ah, I feel so rich having a back-up house! Too bad it really means I'm poor. Here is the first pic of the front of the new house dressed in its Christmas duds!