Crazy Optimist

I would just like one company to not try to wiggle out of what they promised today. Perhaps the skate company can send me the right bearings, the car company can find the part they ordered, the guaranteed ten day flowers won't wilt on day three, the realtor will post interior pictures of the house, the school will send home notes in English (not Spanish), the bag of apples won't have a rotten one in it, the ants will stop coming in the front door and the insurance company employees will find their soul.

I just don't understand how soo many people can get up in the morning, drink a coffee, drive to work and walk through the door to get paid for un-helping people? And when I say un-helping I don't mean just not helping them, it actually goes beyond that, because you think you are getting helped and so you don't make a back up arrangement, you actually count on a person/company to do what they said they would, you get lulled into believing that you can cross a thing off the list and relax and then Kablammo! I refuse to believe that I have the uncanny ability to pick the one agent, the one representative, the one company where the boss said

"You know what? That Integrity thing... too much overhead. We're cutting that today. Instead do everything to avoid delivering any sort of product to customers and we're going to see how that works out. Oh, and the automated circular customer service line is now open from 1:07 to 1:42 Australian Eastern Daylight Time."

If I could find a company that delivered what it actually promised they'd have me. I'd shop there forever, I'd blog about them, I'd recommend them, I'd invite them over for Sunday dinner.

Signed,

Loyal Consumer on Strike

Boosters

The crazy fun happening on vacation ends today as I bring Ella in to see her Illinois doctor and get her school shots. The insurance won't cover school shots in Texas so this was on the agenda from way back. Apparently our health is only important if we are dying. Preventative medicine, like vaccinations, though much cheaper than an emergency room visit, isn't important. That's the problem with letting insurance companies decide what kind of care we deserve. It always irks me when people throw out there that politicians will be making the decisions instead of doctors, if we pass reform. My doctor hasn't been able to make a decision about my health based on what's best for me in years - she has to call the insurance company and get whatever it is I need pre-certified, then we all hope that every secretary and medical coder crossed every T and checked every box so as not to give the insurance company any reason to deny payment.

Years ago I had my appendix out and because the surgeon was very good and they let me go home the next day the insurance company decided it was an out-patient procedure and therefore anesthetic wasn't necessary and I received the bill for $4,000.00. It's nuts. I have more to say about this and oh boy is it a good story, but I have to be on my current insurance through the end of August. I'd rather not bite the hand that may still need to slap me around for the next few weeks, but on September 1st Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL better look out. And for now I will just say let's pass reform now!

Depression Soup

Because of my new favorite celebrity from Illinois (now in upstate NY) Clara Cannucciari and her You Tube Channel Depression Cooking I've been thinking of this recipe from when I was a kid. It's from my Mom's side of the family and found in the trusty DeCori Family Cookbook, in which the recipe is attributed to Helen DeCori and Kay Nuciforo and so my Mom says it must be a Roman recipe. Menestra Shama loosely translates (as passed down) to "mock soup" or "poor man's soup" or "depression soup" I don't know and no amount of internet searching or English to Italian internet translators can clear it up, so please, if you know someone that speaks Italian or better yet lived/s in Northern Illinois AND through the depression AND speaks Italian, please ask them for me if they have any insight to the etymology of the Shama part of Minestra Shama. So anyway, on to the recipe that taste very yummy, was one of my favorite soups as a kid and costs a total of $4.25 to make.

Tomato Paste 1.25
Ditalli Noodles 1.75
Cabbage 1.25
I assume you own olive oil or some type of oil, salt and pepper.

Minestra Shama
4 qts Water
1/2 lb Ditalli Noodles (or any noodles really)
1/2 Head of cabbage
1 8 oz Can Tomato Sauce or 1 8oz Can of Stewed Tomatoes or 1 Tablespoon of Tomato Paste (whatever you can afford)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil (or vegetable oil - again whatever you can afford)
1 Tablespoon of Salt

Bring water and tomatoes to a boil, add salt, put in the sliced cabbage (long thin strips), when the cabbage is soft put noodles in and cook until tender. Pepper to taste.

My mom always made it with the tablespoon of tomato paste and more cabbage, less noodles and I suppose it would be good with a little Italian sausage in it as it's kind of yummy as a spicy soup, but really it's best as is with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Bombadee's Trading Club

So FORD actually belongs to a different company and because I didn't look closely I fake bought the wrong thing and sold it today for a .07cent loss and fake bought the actual Ford stock F for even lower than the other day, I came out ahead. It's $2.58 and on the 6th it was $2.79 so I saved .21c - my .07c mistake I still come out .14c ahead. Otherwise Sears is up, Tequilla is up (thanks Mike) and Tupperwear is doing alright too, I'm thinking of adding a McDonalds but I have to research it today and I may have to reconcile my feelings about junk food with my desire to make fake money.

The tangled web of finance and politics

I sold Visa with a net loss $0.66 cents on the advice of Aunt M. and bought Cambell's Soup CPB at $37.65 it's gone up $0.05 cents in the last few minutes (Yay! only $45.00 to go to make up for all the losses this last week.) I'm not buying Amazon because they contribute a fair amount of money to the GOP which brings me to the horror of Coors Brewing. Despite being my only money maker (+$0.71) I had to sell and invest in a better brewing company. I bought SAB Miller plc SBMRY at $14.10 aka the company that makes Miller High Life and Leinenkugel's (woohoo!)

Update: after some research I see SBMRY is partnered with Coors, I'm still not quite sure what "partnered" means, but I'm not investing in Anheuser-Busch for sure and I'm still researching a more democratic beer. Perhaps I'll dump beer alltogether and buy wine instead.

Bombadee's Trading Club

In 5th grade we did the stock market unit where we all picked some stocks and followed them in the newspaper every day for a month. I looooooved this unit and I was good at it. For ages when asked what I was going to be when I got older my answer was a stock broker.

Years ago, I actually had a chance to work for a broker named Brad at Stiefel Nicholas. I worked as a sales assistant for him and it was alot of fun, this was during the 90s, the Clinton years, when the technology bubble was just being blown up and investors were asking if they should be "doing that Wahoo stuff" (Yahoo.)

My job was great, I had the pleasure of orchestrating luncheons for hundreds of people (included sampling the menu and picking napkins as well as hand addressing 500 invitations and calling people for RSVP.) as well as being a general executive assistant, pulling files, fund info and managing the schedule. Towards the end of my time there Brad asked if I would like to get my licence and sent me home with books where I spent weeks reading about IPOs and Mutual Funds.

Why didn't I stick with it? I had just ended one high stress well accomplished career and honestly I really wasn't ready to jump right into the next, I moved to a nice small heating company where I just answered the phone and filed things and knew I wouldn't feel torn when I was ready to quit and stay home with a baby.

So the other day I was thinking of the day traders I used to know and the brokers I used to listen to go on and on and the days we spent just watching CNN for the ticker (there was a TV in every office) and that 16 year old kid that used to hang around at the office and ask the brokers a million questions and then do the opposite of their advice by making his mother buy two and three shares of tech stock every week with his paycheck. He was making a killing, wherever that kid is now... I wish I knew, I'd ask him what to invest in.

Well, anyway when I mentioned investing in Hasbro and I got on Google and found Google Finance and created a portfolio. I pretend bought one of each of the stocks I would invest in if I had $501.00 laying around. So far I've lost $40.00. Instead of doing anything I learned at Stiefel Nicholas by looking at safe diversified funds, I went with my 5th grade self and picked these based on the upcomming holidays, companies I like and a hunch:

- Hasbro HAS because I like them and Christmas is coming. Bought at 26.41 it's now at 25.63

- Sears Holding Co. SHLD they are the parent company of K-mart and K-mart is offering layaway again this holiday and I think it will do well this year. bought at 49.78 it's now at 40.21

-Google GOOG because I like them, use it every day and I always wished could've gotten in on that IPO. Bought at 307 it's now at 285.29

- Tupperwear TUP because when the economy goes down, left overs go up. Bought at 21.92 it's now at 19.06

-Molson Coors Brewing co. TAP because again when the economy is down people buy beer and drink it at home over board games instead of martinis at the sushi bar. Bought at 42.20 it's now at 40.12

- Visa Inc. V Because everyne has a Visa, it's the easier credit card to get and lots of people will be using them in the comming months. Bought at 54.66 it's now at 51.12

Clearly it hadn't hit bottom before I bought them and that irks me alot (ever the optimist) but I intend on hanging on to these (and loosing my pretend ass or kicking myself for not really investing) until at least Christmas. I'll keep you updated if I add anything. If you have any tips or product you would invest in let me know, maybe I'll buy a pretend share and track it with my other five.

Plain Tuesday

At first I posted a meme, 31 questions with 31 short answers. The only answer mildly (And I do mean mildly) amusing was this one:

What does your watch look like? A cell Phone.

So I figured it could not get any worse than telling you what my day looks like. It's grey outside, washed out and clouded over. The trees and vines outside of my windows are old crooked lines against the grey sky, the leaves blew away last week with the last of the warm weather. Ella is sitting on the rug in front of the TV with the space heater on her toes. She is ignoring the grilled cheese I made her and instead eating as many pickles as I'll let her (that's 3, because I'm pretty sure you can get a stomach ache from eating a whole jar and inevitably she'll ask for more pickles at least four more times today.) I'm still sipping the same mug of watered down coffee from this morning. I'm trying to quit caffeine all together, it's slow going on purpose. It really doesn't go with grilled cheese very well and I'm wishing I would've poured myself an apple juice while I was in the kitchen.

I really need to bundle myself and Ella up and make it to the grocery store a few blocks away today, but it's one of those days that I could really pull dinner out of a little bit of this and that and it's not dire that I go yet. Plus the car never warms up when only driving a few blocks and the thought of carrying groceries in while my knuckles are freezing and Ella is dragging her feet up the stairs and the dog bouncing up and down onto my legs at the door sounds horrid. That means I really really have to shop tomorrow or we'll have to put the roll of paper towels in the bathroom and have left over chili for breakfast on Thursday.

That is all.

TOTALLY EXCITING UPDATE1:06PM:

A few weeks ago I was cleaning up the front hall closet and found our Dora Sit and Spin. Barely used I pulled it out figuring Ella's old enough to get the actual spin part now and so it'd be fun. We put it away last spring because we thought Ella just didn't get how to do it, and instead sat next to it pushing the annoying Dora song part over and over. Really after pulling it out again I discovered why it was so frustrating. The bottom piece was catching in a way that made the it more of a sit and drag instead of a sit and spin. I got a screw driver out and meddled with it loosening the sit part to no avail. In the end I told Ella, this toy was better when I was a kid and when could spin until you couldn't see straight but now it is safer and it as a result no longer fun anymore. In short this toy stinks. Ella griped with me "Yeah, this toy stinks 'cause it's safe."

Anyway, I never like griping without a solution so I flipped over the Dora sit and drag and found the Hasbro logo, located their 800 number online and called them to tell them their toy stinks. Ready to rant, I was greeted with the most cheerful helpful nice operator I've ever spoken with. She explained that they no longer sell that toy but she would like my address because they hate to imagine a little girl in IL with a sit and drag to play with and she'd like to do something nice for her. I gave her our address and forgot about it, content to know I told them thier toy didn't spin.

Today in the middle of our gray afternoon someone knocked at the door and as I grabbed the dog up in one arm and stepped outside I saw the FedEx truck pulling away. I picked up the box on the porch and Ella and I carefully opened it. Inside a brand new kitten surprised us purring and mewing (batteries included!) Ella filled out the adoption papers and named her new kitty Julia and is just itching to know if Santa sent and early present because she's been so good lately, or if the adoption agency just needed a good mom for this little kitty. I say Yay Hasbro, yay for a company with great customer service, if I had any money to invest I'd buy a share or two of Hasbro right now while it was low. It's wonderful to find a company that understands what it means to keep a customer. Great job in keeping happy kids on your list of high priorities.