Police officer

A police office stopped my car because I was driving my car in the middle of the road of a (but REALLY WIDE)2 way road. We always did this to pass the traffic jam heading into Phoenix. Luckily I talked us out of it, being real pathetic. We moved from Europe, we're both teachers at the High School and everybody was doing this so we thought it was allowed. "Well, David I will give you a warning"
Ok thank you, we won't be doing that anymore...

We bought a bed

It was the only bed we liked, pity we have such an expensive taste regarding beds.

KINGsize which means it is about 2m03 long en 1m93 wide. It's almost a square with 2 removable headstands. Headstands and small tables can be placed anywhere on the sides.

Hell will probably freeze over

before we see a GB truck in Belgium with this description:Please reform the State without our parasite's consent.

Locked

Lisa wanted to work for school AT school on Sunday. But someone already closed the fence before she finished. Luckily she is an expert climber.

Radio show gives a real remarkable present

a space trip.

Q-music, a Belgian music channel, will be the first music channel in the world to give a space trip to a lucky winner. The space trip will be provided by "Space adventures" which is building sites in the United Arabic emirates and Singapore.
You will be lifted to 100 km in space, rocketmotors will be turned off.

Q-music Space Trip LINK

Casino

In Arizona gambling is allowed on Indian ground, so GP and i went to the local AK Chin casino. Played for 2 hours blackjack: result: lost $42.5
The casino is larger then I expected. I went to the casino in Breda (Netherlands)which is the biggest casino in Europe and I visted the largest casino's in Las Vegas. The AK Chin casino is definitely a BIG casino. At least 500+ slots, no craps table AUCH, 1 roulette and 6 blackjack tables, 8 poker tables and an extra poker room and no clock and exit sign in sight :-)
AK CHIN casino

Fascinating concept, fascinating website

www.prosper.com
Leader in online peer2peer lending. I discovered this website a few months ago and I am now a lender/user.
People borrow money and prosper is the "middleman" that brings the lender and the borrower together on the prosper platform/website.
Prosper borrowers ask for a loan, lenders then have to bid for the loan. Most loans don't get fully funded so the loan is then cancelled. When the loan is fully funded, borrowers get a return that depends on the borrozers capability in paying off that loan. Borrowers can get cheaper rates then a bank would offer them.

Caution is advised because these loans are not backed by any security. Prosper does check identity and credit scores.

I find it an excellent diversifation in an investment portfolio. Consumer credit/lending is pretty unrelated to interest rates, stock markets, bond markets, gold and other asset classes.

Prosper is a very young website but I believe in the potential of peer2peer lending. I think it will become the ebay of P2P lending. If it will IPO, I will definitely buy a long term stake in the company.

BED hunting

We'll be shopping for a mattress this afternoon. We already decided on a bed, very modern, but very expensive. It seems we have avery expensive taste regarding beds... Luckily there is a mattress sale in my favorite (LOL)store SEARS (60% off).

My Computer is FOR SALE on ebay

LINK: Davids Comp on ebay

Naomi's bedroom (videofile)

Thx GP for compressing it to the right format.

This will not get any attention in the US media

so I will post it here. I searched for this article on the US news websites but they didn't have any coverage, I wonder why...
Former UK Army chief blames Rumsfeld's intellectual bankruptcy for US debacle in Iraq
Finally I found it on the Yahoo! website in INDIA. In Belgium this was one of the main topics for today.

The Mortgage bail out revisited (UPDATED)

1. Flippers and investors buy homes as investments and drive prices up
2. Families like John doe are not able to afford a home anymore, so
a) They give up their American Dream of owning their own home and rent
b) They buy a home they can't afford helped by the "Suzanne researched it" crowd
3. Wallstreet and the corrupt mortgage industry help them a hand.
Realtors and mortgage brokers received their commission.
4. And now the government will bail those people out.
Go Figure

DOUGH!

Credit Card problems

Are you sitting down because this will be hard to believe.
I received my first bill from the credit card company, it was about $3k. So I went to the bank on Monday to pay the full amount. But my available credit didn't return to the normal credit availability. In other words, the 3k went from my checking account but it seemed it was not received by the credit card company.
So I went to the bank on Friday to straighten this one out. The bank called the credit card company. What happened: the credit card company put a hold on the 3k payment. It was flagged by the computersystem because it is not normal for someone to pay such a large amount on his credit card. People pay only a small amount and don't pay their bill in full. Can you believe that, I must say I was "nailed to the ground" when they told me that.

Marketplace of Sint-Niklaas in the news

Click on the right hand side (top) under "video". (wait a few second to load it)
LINK

3rd September = Labor Day

No school on Monday, joehoe.
Labor day: Annual holiday devoted to the recognition of working people's contribution to society. It is observed on the first Monday in September in the U.S. and Canada. It was first celebrated in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882, under the sponsorship of the Knights of Labor. Various U.S. states observed the holiday before 1894, when Congress passed a bill making Labor Day a national holiday. It is often celebrated with parades and speeches, as well as political rallies, and the day is sometimes the official kickoff date for national political campaigns in the U.S. In most other countries, workers are honoured on May Day.

This can't be happening, tell me I am having a bad dream.

It seems that Belgium is not the only country run by monkeys...

Bush moves to aid homeowners.
They are going to help people that wanted to show off by buying a home they couldn't afford. They thought they were getting rich in a few months, real estate never goes down, right?
Will the Government also refund my money (with taxpayers money)if my television drops in price? Or when I lose my stake at the tables in Las Vegas?
This can't be happening! This is all a bad dream.

Luckily I didn't pay a lot of the taxes they are going to use...

Pimp my ride (with pictures)

Whoehaha

That is such a funny cartoon LOL

I would be worried to

Belgian king is worried that he won't get any more money from the Belgian citizens. If Belgium cease to exist, he'll need to find a job. I will write him a letter that they are still searching for French teachers at our school here.

Meat the teacher night

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had a meet the teacher night, similar to an "oudercontact". Not a lot of parents showed up at David's class (8), Lisa had more(17) parents visiting her. But then again, she teaches mathematics.