Underwater?

Here's an article from the NY Times about a city in CA where 90% of homeowners are underwater. The housing crisis has sure hit California hard. Still, it's hard to feel too sorry for some of the people:

"He has cut his DVD buying from 50 a month to perhaps one, and is waiting until the Christmas sales to buy a high-definition television. He does not indulge much anymore in his hobbies of scuba diving and flying. “Best to wait for a better price, or do without,” Mr. Rogers, 52, said."

Wow, what hardship. I'm sure your personal choices have nothing to do with your household balance sheet. 50 DVDs a month...?

Celluloid Brass

I didn't give a report on my wife's last concert. It was a lot of fun. They played selections from several movie scores, arranged for brass band. Behind the band, the film played silently with the dialogue displayed via closed caption. The conductor did a good job of discussing the pieces and how they fit into the films, as well as discussing generally the process of film scoring, which I found interesting. He threw in little tidbits, like, "In this next scene, notice how the tempo of the music is set by the hoof beats of the good guy's horse as he gallops across the prairie."

All of the kids except for the youngest were there, and they all enjoyed it. Three of the five selections were cartoons, including the scene from Dumbo where Dumbo and the mouse become drunk, a Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon, and Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny condensing Wagner's epic Ring of the Nibelung cycle (14.5 hours) into about five minutes as only Warner Bros. could do. My kids don't really know the classic Warner Bros. cartoons--they'd never seen Wile E. Coyote in action--but they thought it was hilarious, particularly my older son. I'm not sure if those cartoons aren't widely available because of licensing issues, excessive violence, or something else, but today's kids are missing out with the crappy cartoons they watch. My brother and I imagined many times the cool stuff that we could do with an Acme catalog in the days before we heard of the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Pig Kissing

On Saturday, the family went to a local corn maze / pumpkin patch. They had games, hay rides, a petting zoo, and other activities you might expect at such a place. Two of our kids also got to participate in a piglet-catching contest. Little LM was so cute running around the pen trying to catch a pig. She nearly succeeded, too, but was a little too timid to hang on to the pig for the required time.

SE did better. She beat out the other kids in her age group to catch--and kiss--a piglet. Her prize was two tickets to come back to the haunted forest attraction at night. She'd been wanting to go to a haunted house, and we'd been putting her off, so she was very excited to win. So, I guess that means I'll be taking her and probably a friend back for a few scares sometime this week.

Three year-olds

This morning I was eating breakfast while LM did a puzzle on the floor next to me. Her older sister came in and said, "Dad, don't make me a sandwich today. I'm having a bagel." After she left the room, LM turned to me and asked in a puzzled voice, "SE is having a baby?"

Just a couple of minutes later, I went downstairs to roust JW out of bed. When I came back, LM asked why I left her alone, because she is little. I said, "I thought you said you were big." Repeating something she'd said yesterday, she replied, "I'm big in the morning and little at night," then added, "and it's still a little dark outside, so I'm little!" How could I argue with that?

On second thought

That video interview? Not so fast. I got a call the afternoon before the interview saying it was canceled. They said they still like me, etc. and want to finish my interviews, but the position has been "put on hold" until after the end of their fiscal year, that they expected to call me in a couple of months, but that I should call them in the meantime if I get another offer or close to one with another company. Realistically, there's a decent chance that translates to, "With the current credit crisis, we don't know if we'll have this position or the cash to afford to hire you. We would like to keep you in our back pocket just in case, though."

And with the DJIA down over 10% in the last 48 hours, I can't say that prospects to work in the financial sector are looking up today.

On the rather bright side, I found out today I'll receive a raise after all for my recent promotion. In fact, my rather modest expectations were exceeded a bit. When combined with my annual raise, I'm even a little ahead of inflation--for this year, at least. Given the number of people looking for work or underemployed, it could be much worse.

So, with the market like this, am I better off buying "undervalued" stocks or guns and wheat? I suppose it's been alternating fat and lean years since before Joseph interpreted Pharoah's dream, which is why we'd all do well to follow the wise counsel to build a substantial, safe reserve over time as our means allow--even at the expense of that desperately-needed bedroom set or trip to Disneyland.

Shameless plug

The Utah Premiere Brass (which my wife plays in) kicks off their fall/winter concert schedule next Friday night with a concert at Temple Square, followed by a cool "celluloid" concert the following week at the Covey Center in Provo where they will play music scored for accompanying cartoons and films. Other concert venues this season include the DeJong Concert Hall at BYU, the Cathedral of the Madeline, and the Rose Wagner Center. Some concerts are free, while others carry a modest fee. For more info, visit http://www.upb.org.

The quality of the music is excellent; please pass this along to anyone you may know who enjoys good brass music.

Amazing wife

Some of you may know, but we've listed our house on the MLS recently. We've had a feeling we're to move to SLC and even have a particular house in mind if it is still available. Anyway, we're trying to test the waters and exercise faith that if we're supposed to be there, the house and job situation will resolve itself. Today I got a call from the bank I interviewed with a while back, before Wall St. had completely melted down. They want to schedule another interview with me--my fourth!!--next week.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point was that someone called today and wanted to see the house in about 20 minutes, so H had to scramble to get things in order very quickly. Then, she somehow managed to make 27 pans of cinnamon rolls for all of the Primary workers, write short notes for each one, and (with my delivery assistance) deliver them all around the ward as a thank you to all of her Primary workers. 27 pans in one day. She said she 6X-ed the recipe. Crazy, but that's her. She has a very big heart.