Quote of the day

God speaks:

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
George W. Bush, September 20, 2001

How is the housingmarket doing in Arizona?

Not that good, this is a REAL ADVERTISMENT:

Buy My House In Arizona USA and Become a US Citizen!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: hous-491076954@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-11-28, 3:13AM JT


Buy my 10 room house in the middle of the city in Arizona, USA for $595,000 USD Cash and I will marry you or a relative of your choice!, you can become a US Citizen and bring your whole family over and have a great house to live in!

Please contact me for more information and Please tell me your name? country? and how I can help you?

Thanks!---Gabe.

Quote of the day

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
Warren Buffett

Jim Rogers on the USD, Bernanke and China

This is Jim rogers so it is a must see if you are interested in anything to do with economics.

Borat: What a great time to buy a home ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

NEW YORK (Reuters) -

The housing slump has increased the chance of a U.S. recession and will further weaken home prices, Goldman Sachs Group said on Tuesday, cutting its stock recommendations on a slew of companies vulnerable to sluggish growth.

In a grim assessment of the U.S. economy's health, the investment bank said the Federal Reserve will have to cut its lending rate to banks by 1-1/2 percentage points to 3 percent in the next six to nine months to avert a recession.

Home prices will likely decline by 15 percent from their peak. But if the United States enters a recession -- which Goldman expects the economy to narrowly escape -- home prices could fall as much as 30 percent nationwide, it said.

Naomi is sick this morning

So I had to stay at home. She threw up just before we took off this morning. She has no fever. I let her drink a lot of water, take vitamins, some child's ibuprofene and some Coca Cola for the stomach. Hope she will be better soon.

We have 11 days of paid leave days. They accumulate over the years, we want to keep Lisa's days as high as possible. They don't have any paid leave for giving birth...

Quote of the day

You're the only one who's closing your eyes at night. There's no one else who can do it for you.

James Caan

Setting up a Christmas tree

Assembling the tree:

Opening up the branches

The decoration has no little ribbons. Attaching our self-made ribbons to the decoration.

Placing the decoration in the three (the three has 800 lights, included, attached to the branches)

The final result:

Quote of the day

My kid was a great baseball player. I thought I had it made. Front-row seats at Yankee Stadium. Then he turned sixteen and wanted to be a rapper.

James Caan

Yeah right!

Countrywide Financial denies it's bankrupt

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, sought to reassure investors Tuesday, declaring it has ample capital, access to cash and is well-positioned to benefit from the financial turmoil rocking the mortgage sector.

The company's statement came amid rumors the company, based in Calabasas, Calif., could be looking to seek bankruptcy protection and as its stock tumbled, at one point down more than 15 percent. Countrywide shares fell 29 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $10.28. At one point, the stock had dropped to a low of $8.21. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price has been as high as $45.26.

Movies files from thanksgiving

Lisa and Shanti


The kids

Table tennis tournament coming up

On Saturday December 8 and Sunday December 9, I will be participating in the Valley of the Sun open tournament. I will be playing in U(nder)1900 singles, U(nder)2000 singles, open singles and open doubles. Americans use a number (sort of ELO system) in contrary to our Belgian letter and number combinations.

I will be playing doubles with (rated 7 TTC Phoenix, rated 16 Arizona, 1960) Adam Zagula, who is originally from Poland.

Except for open doubles everything is Round Robin (Belgian poule system).

Entering a tournament is much more expensive than in Belgium, $61 auch.

Thanksgiving (after "party")

Thanksgiving (the dinner)

Peter Schiff on FOX

Only 5% drop expected lol, me thinks she is opinionated :-)

Official commentory from Census Bureau (which is an official government agency)
Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,229,000. This is 3.0 percent (±10.6%)* above the revised September estimate of 1,193,000, but is 16.4 percent (±8.0%) below the revised October 2006 rate of 1,470,000.

Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 884,000; this is 7.3 percent (±10.1%)* below the September figure of 954,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 312,000.

Even a moron realtor should know that home sales are seasonal. You compare sales and prices YEAR over YEAR ,NOT month over month. That is just plain stupid media / FOX propaganda

Quote of the day

Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters.

Margaret Halsey

Thanksgiving party (preparation)

Black Friday (night)

In the first update of the night, our tour begins at Best Buy Store #564 on Port Washington Road in Fox Point. There were an estimated 150 people lined up at 2:45 AM, with more people arriving quickly to get in line. Everyone was covered in thick blankets and wrapped in sleeping bags, looking eager to get out of the cold to score some deals. (stores open at 5:00 AM)

source: http://bfads.net/

One hectic night of on-line shopping

List of the things we bought:
Logitech Quikcam 5000: 9.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser: 39.99
Seagate 500GB FreeAgent Desktop Drive: 79.99
RAM pc 4200 Corsair for DELL XPS: 36.00
Connect four (board game): 5.88
The game of life (levensweg): 5.88
2 games Leapster console(Naomi): 25
Las Vegas DVD season 3: 16.99
The Office DVD Season 1: 9.99
The Office DVD Season 2: 12.99
The House MD Season 1: 12.99
The House MD Season 2: 12.99
pics of the party will follow.

Black Friday

Pics from previous Black Fridays:

After thanksgiving, Americans have an important shopping day, that day is called "Black Friday". It is the first day of the "discount" season and stores have a lot of extraordinary deals or discounts.

Some of the deals can be found on the internet: example. Just click on one of the stores and you will be shown a list of all deals. Laptops from $300, clothes 75% off, 40 inch TV's (no full HD) for $700, and so on.

What is the catch? There are only a limited number of objects available throughout the store and the lines to enter the store form at least 2 hours before the store opens...

I will have to do some homework and device a plan on what and where to buy this night or tomorrow(Friday).

Thanksgiving

It is thanksgiving today. We will celebrate our first thanksgiving at our own home with our family. If I haven't forgotten anyone, we have 13 (small and big) mouths to feed. We bought a 19 pound deep frozen turkey (9 kg). We will post pics from the preparation to the actually meal and the after"party".

Friday we have an extra day off from school.

Quote of the day

Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

Gore Vidal

Some TT pics

made by GP with an Apple device

What life lesson have we learned from the subprime mortgage mess?

DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!

Quote of the day

What a beautiful, sunny morning. It makes you happy to be alive, doesn't it? We can't let the sun outshine us! We have to beam, too!

Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata

Ron Paul 300 style

This makes the Ron Paul message easier to understand for the Us masses...

Oil $99 and euro/dollar 1.48 and the million dollar question now is:

Will the US government be able to pay back all that foreign debt?

This guy is in charge of +300 000 000 people...

Quote of the day

"They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper."

11/17/07
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

This is not a surprise, how long will it take for oil to be quoted in euro's, pounds or yuan's?

Naomi's wishlist for Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas is not a holiday Americans celebrate. However we think Naomi deserves to be celebrated on that day because she is handling our big adventure so well. We have started a wish list on amazon.com We are still in the process of adding stuff to the list that she really wants. Hence the list is not up to date yet.

To check the list:
go to www.amazon.com
click on the top part of the page on "Gifts and Wish lists"
Typ in the blank field: "My Name" (for privacy reasons not given here)

TO RECAP: DON'T FILL IN NAOMI's NAME but MINE

On the left hand side you will find Naomi's name, just above the word: "wishlist"

Shopping

17th of November and the weather is really great here: 25-30 celsius
Incredible. But we definitely need some kind of heating for the pool because as we see it now, a pool can only be used 5 months/year.



We went shopping for a Christmas Tree, we bought a 2.3 m tall (fake)tree. I took some pics of Naomi in the meantime:

Quote of the day

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.

Harry S Truman

The revolution is coming

After the "Thisnovember5th MONEYbomb", were I was one of the 35000 donors, a new initiative is here: teaparty07



On the move.

First big homebuilder to go bankrupt, who will be next...

TOUSA is better known to the public as a group that combines these homebuilders: Engle Homes, Newmark Homes, Fedrick, Harris Estate Homes, and Trophy Homes.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Homebuilder TOUSA Inc. said Thursday its third-quarter loss widened and it may be forced to file for bankruptcy as the housing slump in Florida worsened.

The company said its ability to remain solvent depends on restructuring to reduce debt in exchange for equity.

TOUSA shares plunged to 25 percent to 19 cents in morning trading on the news. The New York Stock Exchange has informed the company it may delist the stock because it has traded below $1 for more than 30 days.

PS: Our rental is an Engle home.

MIT students winning in Las Vegas

You have probably heard about this story before. Some MIT students win big in Vegas using a team effort. They use card counters, women distractions, acting, etc.
A must see.

It is November 14th and

in Maricopa it is between 25 and 30 degrees celsius. Can you believe that?

It's probably freezing in Belgium :-)

Preview UFC 78 Validation

There is a new UFC event this week-end: UFC 68 Validation, I hope that stupid Englishman Bisping will get knocked out in the first round. Oh, I can't stand that guy.

Crocop, in the picture, will probably retire soon.

E*trade financial: First big non-mortgage broker (read bank/stock broker) is going bankrupt?

Oh my, if E*trade goes down the drain a lot of banks will follow. Diversify those US assets...

Countrywide Financial (CFC) is going bankrupt but that is no surprise to anyone.

Comparing prices

We went shopping yesterday. I will post some prices of some basic and not so basic goods so our friends and family in Belgium have an idea how much dollars they have to bring if they come to visit us :-)

bananas: $1.5 / kg

kiwi: 0.50/piece

Aquafresh toothpaste: $1.50

Organic (BIO) milk 2 liter: $2.79

Milk 4 liter: $2.79

Tabasco: $1.69

Small tuna can: $0.50

14 small croissants: $3.99

12 cans of Coke: $2.75

President Brie 227g: $4.99 AUCH!!!

La Vache Qui rit 171g(=the laughing cow LOL): $1.65

French bread: $1.19

Gas: average $2.80 / gallon (=$0.74 / liter)

Table tennis order:

Super 729 FX $10

Bryce Powersponge $48

12 3-star 729 balls: $7.95