Ah -- how could I forget -- my FBR was stopped out today at 10.25. If it gets down to $9 a share, I'll get back in. For now, I'm out. My portfolio is getting smaller and smaller!

I *really* mistimed KMP. I suppose investing in high-yield, interest sensitive stocks in a time of rising interest rates wasn't the greatest of ideas.

Well, Bush's approval ratings have hit 29%. We have gone out of Carter 1980 territory and entered Nixon 1974 territory; the next stop is Truman 1952 territory. Let's see if there are more polls showing a sub-30 rating -- remember these polls were taken before the NSA database. I'm not sure whether this'll up his ratings or drag it down a few more points, since it seems Mr. and Mrs. America don't have a problem with this. It's as if Bush gets a new scandal every week, one worse than the next.

The doctor told me that I had an allergy and a viral cold showed up sometime early this week. He prescribed a decongestant.

I'm bummed. I spent all day at work installing some application, and then as soon as I did what I could there, I had to babysit a tape drive replacement on the jukebox. Apparently, the backup server no longer sees that particular drive, and a jbconfig and a boot -r haven't fixed the problem. I'm out of patience and since backups start in about 40 minutes, out of time.

Well, we'll see what my wife wants for dinner. She's been known to change her mind on a dime, but since I'm not really set on anything, it's no big deal.

One of these days I will figure out how to turn comments on. Of course, the only person who'll comment will be the occasional relative and the more occasional spammer, but I suppose a guy can dream, can't he?

Still sick. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for 11:30am tomorrow. Hopefully the doctor won't automatically assume it's an ordinary cold and tell me to drink plenty of orange juice and get lots of sleep (stuff I'm already doing.) I'm not sure what they do to check for other things, like strep throat, sinus infections, etc. I just hope I'm not spreading this to everyone at the office, but I've thought that the contagious period is early on when you're not sure if you're sick or not. By the time you're sounding horrible, you're already getting better.

I got stopped out of my GOOD position, but I only got 17.55 for it, instead of the 18.00 I was hoping to get. Small annoyance, but I made well 15% on the stock including dividends. If we get below 17, I will jump back in. There is a decent management team -- these are the guys who made ALD a powerhouse.

In other news, it seems I might want to acquire a firearm. I need to double-check post 201,283 on the FNM board, there is some advice on there.

Side challenge: Can anyone name anything that the Bush team has done right in the past year? The most recent scandal as I'm sure you've read, is the NSA generating a database of ALL calls.

Of course, most of the Kool-Aid Republicans aren't going to care one bit. It's for our safety, we're told. The options seem to be a 0.01% chance of dying in a terror attack with our pre-9/11 freedoms, or having a 0.001% chance of dting in a terror attack with our freedoms slowly and surely being taken away. FWIW, why didn't the terror law passed after OKC stop the 9/11 plotters?

As promised, my filk. This is a 70s hit called "Ooh Child" by the Five Stairsteps. Yes, I should be ashamed of myself for thinking it was by the Wondermints. Here's the post I made. When another poster on the FNM Yahoo! board said it was terrible, I posted the lyrics to Melanie's "Brand New Key." I love me some bad 70s music. LOL

I say we should all put our thoughts to song.

Ooh Child (orig. by the the Five Stairsteps)
(remake lyrics adapted by S. Pickrell, and perf. by the Original Mudd Band)

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday when we value things rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday when Franklin is still sprightly

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday, rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday, sprightly

Someday yeah, we'll put it together and we'll get all GAAP'ed
Someday, rightly
Someday yeah, we'll get the value of derivatives mapped
Someday, sprightly

Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right
Ooh child earnings gonna get submitted
Ooh child 10-K'll be all right

Right now
You just wait and see, things are gonna be

Well, trying to get over a cold right now. I'll be heading to work but I'll be taking Blue Top to and from work -- I don't know if I can handle the mile of walking through the dusty air that usually hasn't given me a problem.

In investment land today, we found out this week that Warren Buffett sold his silver. To think that silver has gone from $7-8 an ounce to $14 (!) an ounce -- while Buffett was presumably unloading his silver -- over the past year is astounding. I will sink a few grand into SLV, the new silver ETF, if the price dips below $13.50 again.

I am still at a loss on USO (the oil ETF) and have made a bit more with GLD, now that gold is touching $700 an ounce. I will unload my physical if I can get enough money to pay off my mortgage. Otherwise, why sell now?

I got to cover my GM short at a loss today -- $26. Ugh. That stunk to high heaven. Still long ACAS, FBR, GLD, GOOD, KMP, USO and WRE. I have moderate stop losses on those, and am sitting on a decent gain with GLD (8-10%), GOOD (15%) and WRE (30%) , and a moderate loss on ACAS, KMP and USO (in the range of 4-6% on each of them.)

FNM is also rolling. One of these days they will release an earnings report. I'll post a song I modified in my next post.