You're Just A Bunch of Tee Shirts To Burn

Julie and I took some of our friends to a Rascal Flatts concert some time back. The warm up act was a fairly new country music star you might have heard of - Taylor Swift.  At the time I didn't know much about her or her music.  So, I went to iTunes and downloaded her album to tune-up (pun intended) on her music before the concert.

What I learned is that it didn't pay to be Taylor's boyfriend.  Because, when the inevitable break-up occurred you could be sure to pay the price by being the subject of one of her songs; like her hit Just Another Picture to Burn. 

Hannah took a page out of Taylor's playbook after a particular disappointing breakup over Spring Break week (let's just say she was Tiger'd).   Corbanna is no more.  To give you a sense of how she's feeling... here's how she spent her Friday afternoon.  In the (slightly modified) words of Taylor Swift:

So watch me strike a match
On all my wasted time
As far as I’m concerned,
You’re just a bunch of t-shirts to burn.        (In this case... old Corbett t-shirts!!)

Burn, burn, burn, baby burn.

Weekend Prep Tweets

Ooops.  Didn't get to the tweets yesterday.. which means you're probably backed up with things to say.  Go for it.  We'd love to hear what you're up to this weekend!

Tod: Has been assigned dog duty this weekend!

Tod: Can't wait to root for Hannah when she runs the Oakland Running Festival's half-marathon! 

Tod: Cheaters... cheaters... cheaters...   really pissing me off this week, to be honest.

Tod: Think I figured out what my next tat is going to be!

We can SEE!

I put off replacing the front lenses in our Jeep for far too long.  Finally I remembered to order them and got them installed this weekend.  What a difference it makes to be able to see when you drive at night.

As you can see there is quite a difference in the clarity between the old and new lenses. 

Meet Katie

We've had an extra member at our house for the last week or so.  Meet Katie; she's a basset hound that we are taking care of for a couple weeks.  Her parents are on a trip to China where they are adopting a two-year old named Noah.  It has been a very challenging experience for them - which you can read about, if interested,  at their blog The Adventures of Noah.  Their initial posts will break your heart... but things have been getting steadily better.

Our minor part in the adventure has been hosting Katie.  She is definitely fitting in here.  As you can see in the picture above - she thinks she owns Indy's bed now ;)  Of course, that also means that we've completely given up on controlling where the dogs go in the house!

Katie is quite a playful dog and it's been fun to watch her playing with Gina and Indy.  Here's a typical afternoon game of tug of war!

She's also fitting well into the walk regiment here at Team Henderson.  She does wonderfully on the leash with the other dogs and they make quite a sight as they walk around town.

Of course, Indy has not relinquished her spot at the front of the pack!  Welcome Katie.  We can't wait to see your new family member - Noah!

Go Dutch!!

Our company provides electronics systems that are installed on various foreign ships, submarines and aircraft.  So, it was with delight I read the following story today.  Check out the news story... then check out the armaments that are standard on this class of frigate.

NAIROBI, Kenya – These Somali pirates picked the wrong ship to hijack.

Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp (pictured below) fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said.

After the pirates realized they had made what spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour called a "rather silly mistake," they turned around and fled. EU Naval Force personnel tracked down the two skiffs and a third suspected mothership, finding ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades on board, said Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force.

The two skiffs were destroyed and the pirates were set free on the mothership after it had been cleared of weapons.

HNLMS Tromp Armaments:

• 5×8 Mk41 vertical launch misile system with 8 cells each
• Standard armament: 8×4 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and 32 SM-2 IIIA surface-to-air missiles
• Another 8 cell MK41 VLS can be added
• 2 Goalkeeper CIWS guns (4,200 rounds/minute)
• 2 quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers
• 1 Oto Melara 127 mm/54 dual-purpose gun
• 2 Oerlikon Contraves 20 mm machine guns
• 2 twin MK32 Mod 9 torpedo launchers with Raytheon MK46 Mod 5 torpedoes

In the Financial News

Okay.. one more thing this morning before I get back to work :)

I just read an interesting article about Europe's housing market.  It is quite different than in America.  Here's what I learned:

European real estate has been living in the world of volatile interest rates since WWII. There is no such thing as a 30-Year loan in Europe. Most people live with their parents until they are about 35 because they don't have the cash to buy a house. That is why fertility rates are 1.7. Loans are like 60/40. The terms are 2-4 years. That is all the risk the financial system will bear.

So, you have to save up 60% of the purchase price to buy a home and then pay the remainder of the price back within 2-4 years.  In fact, this is not all that much different than in America in the 40s.  At that time you had to put at least 50% down on a house and loans were relatively short term.

Interesting.....

Craicin Tweets

Top of the morning to you.  It's a fine day for some craic (pronounced 'crack').  That's Irish for fun.  So, let's craic up some tweets!

Tod: Happy St. Patrick's Day wishes to all my favorite craicers!

Tod: American Idol is sooo bad this year that I just listen to the first 20 seconds or so of most of the lame performers then flip to the judges who confirm my opinion that I just heard crap.  You can watch the whole show in 15 minutes that way.  THIS is what TIVO was invented for.

Tod: Cheating has become ubiquitous.  Hannah called this morning lamenting the kid that was trying to cheat off her exam this morning.  Sheesh.  I am very proud of my kids that they have more personal integrity than that.

Michigan News

It's been a rough week for my home state of Michigan.  This news story hit the San Jose Mercury News yesterday:

Michigan, the Wolverine State, has lost its only known wild wolverine.  State officials said Monday hikers found the 28 pound female over the weekend outside Minden, about 115 miles north of Detroit.  Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokesperson Mary Dettloff says natural causes are suspected.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Michigan, in this difficult time.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

When the sun is high in the sky and the temperature climbs towards 70 our hearts skip a beat.  So, you can imagine the joy we've been experiencing the last couple days.  California is delivering on its promise!   Ahhhhhhhhhh... 

We took advantage of the sun this afternoon to do a bit of gardening.  Below is the Japanese maple that we added to the front yard.  Some friends of ours are doing a major renovation and they were going to have to remove this beauty from their front yard.  So, they were generous enough to let us come and transplant it.

We lost a plant a year or so ago that needed replacing.. so we think we found just the place for it.

Julie loves working in the yard.  She's weeding a plant that Janice gave us a few years ago.  It's doing great. 















Oh.. and this is dump week!  Here's our 2010 pile!  It would have a couple more items in it.. but our stuff has been pretty popular.  We had an old tub out there but that lasted about 10 minutes.  The spot rate for metal is $110 a ton (according to the young man that picked it up and carried it off).  I am so proud of America.  This is still a country where if you want to work hard and put in some effort you can find creative ways to make money.  It's fun to watch people come by and pick through the pile for 'jewels' that we thought so little of we threw them out!

After the yard work I went for a nice, long walk in the sun.  The flowers are out and spirits are lifted up! 

Grandpa Practice

Meet the Troika.  That's the nickname I gave Tram (momma) while she was going through pregnancy - carrying her twins. Tram and Jason are two of the wonderful people we have been blessed to have in our One Another Group (Bible Study Group).   It's been fun to have the chance to get to know them a little bit over the last year or so.  And, we certainly have been in a state of anticipation as their due date drew near.

Well, as you can see - the Troika are now Tram and her beautiful twins: Natalie and Evan.  This is Tram shortly after their birth (that's Evan with all the hair!).

When I saw Tram at church on Sunday I was really excited - because that meant that the babies were in the nursery!  I raced over to the nursery and was not disappointed.  There, in her mothers arms was lovely Natalie.  Tram was so thoughtful to let me hold Natalie and finish feeding her a bottle.  Sweet!!

Here's the amazing face that looked up at me as I held her.   What a privilege to get a little grandpa training in!  Thank you so much Tram (and Jason) for sharing your gift from God with me Sunday!  You are appreciated!

I'm getting practiced up for you Ryan!!

Interesting morning reading...

As I was checking out Yahoo Finance this morning - I caught an article that sheds some light, perhaps, on why so many Americans are looking to the government for their security.  Some snippets from the article:

The percentage of workers who said they have saved for retirement fell to 69%, from 75% in 2009.

The percentage of American workers with virtually no retirement savings grew for the third straight year, according to a survey released Tuesday. The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual Retirement Confidence Survey.

..the survey found that 54% of the workers with some form of savings said that they have less than $25,000 stowed away.

Hang with me for a second and let's see what these numbers mean in the big picture.  If 69% have saved something for retirement - 31% have saved nothing (31% have saved $0K).

If 43% of people have less than $10K in savings and 31% have saved nothing..  then 12% (43%-31%) have between $0K and $10K.   

54% of 69% - or 37% - of people that had savings have less than $25,000.  If 12% of savers have less than $10K that means 25% (37%-12%) of all people have between $10K and $25K. 

In summary:

• 31% of people have saved $0K
• 12% of people have saved between $0K and $10K
• 25% of people have saved between $10K and $25K

Now, to be fair, the survey covered employees from age 25 on up.  It would not be expected that the youngest people would have significant retirement savings.  However, in total 67% of American workers have less than $25K in savings for retirement.  It's not surprising that so many people are trying to figure out how to get the government to help them out.

What's truly sad is this last little snippet that indicates most people are not even interested in trying to understand how to be self reliant until, unfortunately, it's too late:

"People just don't want to think about this," said VanDerhei. "Everybody thinks they're too young to think about it, until suddenly they're too old to do anything about it."

The Coastal Trail

Saturday turned out to be a glorious date day for Team Henderson.  We decided to team up with Team Love You (Jon and Rachel) and they shared with us some of their beautiful city (they live in San Francisco).

They introduced us to the Coastal Trail - a walking trail that meanders along the west side of San Francisco from the Sutro Baths to China Beach.  The remnants of the Sutro Baths don't do the original facility justice. Once a 3 acre indoor bath (swimming) house containing 7 individual pools - each the size of a football field - it is now just some old concrete walls and pipes.  (BTW.. that's the famous Cliff House restaurant in the background).

The trail follows the coast in a northeast direction - drawing walkers (and the occasional runner) towards the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's getting close to Spring here and the trees and plants were stunning.

It's about 3 miles down the trail before you get back into the San Francisco streets. And, the area you come into is quite stunning.  We were checking out the homes along the coast trying to determine which one we wanted to buy.  I was partial to one that was listed for $11.5M.  A nice little 4 story built into a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate.  Sweet.

Here are our partners in crime hanging just above China Beach (down and to the right of the picture).















The view of the bridge from the coast is spectacular.

After our walk we dined at a Mediterranean restaurant; feasting heartily.  The company and conversation were equally pleasant - as was the food!  It was a great day out in our beautiful city by the bay!

Quick Question / Discussion

I don't know if you've noticed - but lately there have been a number of wacky comments on the blog.  That is possible because we allow anyone - even someone who comments anonymously - to participate.

We added a little warning on the top of the comment box a month or so ago with the hope that it might deflect most of the weird comments.  However, they still trickle in from time to time.

We don't consider this a big deal.  And, when we see the comments we routinely delete them.  However, it is possible for me to REQUIRE IDENTIFICATION to make comments on the blog.  Most of you - especially those that do make comments have such an id (GMail, Blogger, etc.).  But some may not.

So our question is - is anyone bothered by the occasional weird comments?  Is it worth limiting the comments by requiring IDs?

Let us know what you think.