Thinking of them.......my heros.......

Each generations has it's war it seems.....your grandfather had his and your father had one too......my generation had Vietnam. Year after year the foundation of our freedom continues to grow from those who laid down their life so we could live ours in freedom.....it's just that simple.

Doesn't matter if you are for it or against it.....the outcome to some families are just the same. The most interesting memorial I have ever stood in front of is the one in downtown Washington located just across the street from the Federal Reserve bulding and short walk from the Lincoln Memorial on a busy busy Constitution Ave. You have to walk down the path to view the 58,000 plus names on "THE WALL" and the street noise seems to disappear and it becomes very quiet and somber. My advice is not to go on a day when it's raining......as the rain hits the black polished granite and runs down the face of the wall, the wall gives the appearance that it's crying tears of sorrow......very emotional to say the least.

But after looking for a while you find the name of your friend.....there it is engraved in cold granite and the emotions come to the surface as your head drops against the wall.....the tears flow as your hand moves across his name. There isn't just one name there that you knew.....so the process continues until you have found them all.......your wife and kids understand....or at least they try, but no one understands......no one will ever truly understand............and it will always be inside, for the middle of the night when you can't sleep, for when you hear Born to be Wild on the radio and the memories come flooding back....some one tells an old joke but you can't laugh because you can't forget.....until it's your time to rest.

Today's generation is no different...the results will be no different...the pain for those will be no different either. Have you hugged a VET today?????????? Have you given thanks for what "YOU" have...before you and your family sat down to a bar-b-que and laughed and told stories and enjoyed a beautiful day?????????

Get old and having trouble remembering things????

The Japanese have finally revealed a mystery for you.

The Japanese have finally revealed a mystery for you. How does the small arrow on your computer monitor work when we move the mouse?

Haven't you ever wondered how it works? NOW, through the miracle of high technology, we can see how it is done. With the aid of a screen magnifying lens, the mechanism becomes apparent. Click on the link below and you will find out.

The image may take a minute or two to download and when it
appears, slowly move your mouse over the light gray circle in the center
of the page and you will see how the magic works. Follow this link and find out the truth
http://www.1-click.jp

Things you really need to know.......

Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton and the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper wonder who was smokin what back then. Then I found out that the dot over the letter I is called a "tittle", while at a party one evening and that a raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and Down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller and Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. Actually I think Shirley will be coming back as a flower child of Susan but that's for another blog.

While eating those apple dippers one day I found out that 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals and if you check there are 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

that little 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes, at the time and was an albino. While seating in the emergency room last week I found out that on average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.

Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog, while on the other hand Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. I would soon go eating chocolate......banana pudding.

Don't ask how I know but most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww) and Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants, but at the beach they go topless.....go figure.

Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine and upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. How simple was that, wonder what people would do today........

Leonardo DA Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time hence, multi-tasking was invented alsoLeonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. But it also, took him 10 years to Paint Mona Lisa's lips. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

Have you ever seen any clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos? The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before! So before 1830 you couldn't even think of going to Wendy's and gettin a hamburger with ketchup without a note from the doctor....I guess.

A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death but is that better then being ramped in the stomach?

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask just painted white. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19, you also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.)

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink In quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless.) (I wonder who tried this and figured it out?) The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. But she could beat you with any width she wanted.....

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player For automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!
The only apples I eat have an inch of carmel on the outside.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.....which is great to know if you're a Southern
Bapist on vacation..

Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. I NEED TO REMEMBER THIS!

But the best one is from George Carlin talking about Martha Stewart: "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O. J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her fanny off to jail."

After 31 months we can see the end of this.....

There have been over 294 truck loads of 57 stones, over 162 truck loads of concrete, delivery trucks after delivery trucks unloading everything from rebar, shingles, drywall you name it....we got it by the truckload.....9 truck loads of furniture alone. The public road was taken back from the city and made into a private drive and during this time we have had trakhoes, bobcat, highlifts, cranes all tearing up the driveway.....so today after the last cement truck left we recurbed and repaved the whole driveway.......1740 feet.

While the paver warmed up the guys swept and patched the driveway....

Then they started up the road.....we had agreed to laying down one and a half inch of asphalt so they set a gauge to test the depth every couple of minutes, of course, you know who was watching the whole time to make sure I got what I paid for...

You can see the fellows testing their little device as the paver moved ever so slowly up the hill. Everyone had a job to do and made sure that the asphalt didn't get up on the curbing as they moved along....

Before they started a thin layer of hot oil was sprayered on the road, now when I walked across the road I was thinking...well this is just some oil...NO....by the time I got to the other side I had a quarter of an inch of tar that doesn't come off.

I remember thinking back about all those cement trucks parked at the top of the hill awaiting to back down in, and all the delivery trucks backed up at the peak of construction...at times it took someone up there to direct traffic.....this should be the final jam up.......I think!!!!!

They started at 8:20am to pave the driveway and with the trucks lined up it only took them until 1:00pm to pave and roll the driveway. NOW, comes the problem, no one can drive on the road for 48 hours. So, as other trucks arrived we had to carry the dang stuff down to the house.

Even as they were working on the driveway, we are installing sidewalks around the property and landscaping. First we dig it out, then pour in concrete to make the sidewalk followed by cementing in brick pavers......up to 18 pallets so far and we ain't near down with this noise....31 months but we can see the end of this now.....

THE LIZ AND PHIL TAPES

THE LIZ AND PHIL TAPES
L:”Be a dear, Philip, and help me take my purse off.”
P:”Yes, Your Majesty.”
L:”In case you’ve forgotten, Philip, we aren’t in the United Kingdom, you need not be so formal.”

P:”Yes, ma’am.”
L:”How are you enjoying your trip to America, Philip?”
P:”Quite extraordinary, although, I do miss seeing native costumes, like we saw in Rangoon and Canada.”

L:”Yes, quite.”
P:”At least your hats are smashing, ma’am, the hats they were wearing at the Kentucky Derby looked like Bella Abzug rejects.”

L:”I did so enjoy the Derby, although, I thought Elton and Helen Mirren were to join us?”

P:”Honestly, I ‘m not so sure the Yanks could have handled three Queens.”
L:”I did miss Elton, he’s the only one who knows how to curtsy properly.”
P:”Indeed.”
L:”I must remember to tell Prince about my wager.”
P: … [humming] ‘Purple Rain’.
L:”Not that Prince, you twit, our son, Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Whales.”

P:”What about you’re wager? Did you put a ‘fiver’ on, ‘Street Sense’?”
L:”Of course, with that mane and the bowed legs, he so reminded me of Camilla, I knew it was a winner.”

P:”I was thinking of myself and put a tener on ‘Imawildandcrazyguy’.”
L:”I do like George and Laura Bush, such a nice couple, unlike that Tony and Cherie Blair.”

P:”What’s so ghastly about them?”
L:”Such a common name, Tony, you would think he’d at least change it to Anthony.”
P:”But our grandson is called Harry.”
L:”Philip, don’t make me cross, we both know he doesn’t look like either of his parents, now does he?”

P:”I still think that George Bush is a prat after that wink he gave you on the South Lawn.”

L:”It gave me a tingle I haven’t had for a long time. Maybe if you had something, other than a stiff upper lip, your Queen would be better served.”

P:”How about some crumpet then?”
L:”Not now Philip, I have a migraine.”
P:”Smucker’s.”
L:”Now, Philip, there’s no need to be vulgar.”
P:”That’s the name of the preserve the Yanks use for breakie.”

L:”Well, I think I’ll turn in, good night, Philip.”
P:”Good night, ma’am, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
L:”Hardly, with you in the other bed.”
P:”Smucker’s.”
Q: … [barely audible]”Wanker.”
JAB

It was 1925.......but today it all came full circle....

One of my long time trading buddies sent me a link, at lot of people send link to everyone on their buddy list....and some you look at and some you just hit the delete key and clean up your email box.

Being an airline pilot I always thought that his nickname was some inside joke from trying to find an airport at 30,000 feet....but WOW.

Check it out it's a nice story of how we are involved in being part of a loop or coming full circle.

Either click on the title bar or here is the link.....
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/05090510markers-ON.html

The FINAL game of the year......let's rock in Cleveland!

I have heard Rocky Top played just about everywhere....even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland...who would have thought?

The hot tickets now if we could just get a pulled pork sandwich somewhere.

And then there were two and a sea of orange was ready for the showdown, we had played Rutgers early in the season and had no problem, but you never know do you?

The Lady Vols were relaxed all day, even as their warmed up....it was just another game and they were going to enjoy the experience...win, lose or draw.

Cleveland arena doesn't sell M&M's, potato chips or even Dots....they sell Cracker Jacks...so before I could get a couple of bags and get back to my seat it was showtime. The ref in this pic is one of those refs that teams really don't enjoy seeing....one game she will call a reach in but the next she wouldn't call one even you knock the other player down in the process.

Now how do you steal the ball from the other player if she is shortest in UT history and keeps the ball low to the floor.....well you don't, but be faster then Shanna and watch out for the double fake.

This was the same problem Rutgers had early in the season, being flat footed when Candice came to the paint.....three on one and nothing.

Another problem was not being able to rebound the ball, where are those red jerseys at anyways......

The game did have it points of interest as they fought back and forth but in the end Rutgers basically ran out of gas as UT turned on the fast press.

In the end, they say a picture is worth a thousand words.......yes there are.

The long road ended with tears of joy......and a hug from your friend....I mean teammates.

Pat cut the last part of the net down, for the SEVENTH time in her tenture at UT.

You just have to love kids......yea, we like to make them more then they are....but again a picture is worth a thousand words....as Shanna looks at the first trophy.

There was more emotion after the game then they had before it started, holding back tears as 6,000 plus fans that had traveled 8 hours....just kept singing Rocky Top, it took about an hour for the activities to end and you could hear Rocky Top the whole time.....

Each team member and the assistants got to cut a piece of the net. Candice will no doubt have a very thick scrap book by the time she moves on to the WNBA.

After the game and back at the Hilton it was time for pictures, Lawson and Butts were amoung the former players that attended the game along with the team and coaches.

Then it was time for a team and family picture......Candice has a younger brother, any ideas which one he is.......talk about a dynasty.

A dream come true........there she was.....

It was a dream come true as I walked around looking at all the beautiful women....I mean cars....:) She had everything a man could dream for.....her original engine, chrome wheels, deep leather seats, a beefed up rear end and she started to talk to me....Come over here.....come on.....touch me...

It was the first rod run of 2007 last weekend as I found myself drifting amoung 6,000 plus hot rod, hoping to find my dream car. There were all kinds of cars and in every color under the sun, but I wanted a 29 Ford Model T with an original engine and it had to be RED.....not just any RED.....but REEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!! She does 40mph all day long. Now we had one of these when I was a kid, but somehow they must have shrank because it's not as big as I remember, but it does have that sound as it rolls down the highway that I left in my childhood, putt, putt, an putt, an putt, putt, putt!!!

So I called my sweet heart.....and told her the good news and the answer came back...."GOOD, now I have 30k to spend on something silly.....Got to love it.

Day trading and the week so far.....FBT...no Woodies CCI here

The first bar trade worked on Monday like a charm, it ended up being a classic trend day as defined by my mentor....LBR. Tuesday, with a Monday tick closing below -400 suggested that a new low would occur and the first bar trade got that one also. Today, it was HELLO and if you were waiting for a pullback or worse....to take a close the gap trade.......SORRY MAN!!!!

Heck, the CCI (50) with a turbo of 6 even managed to get this one right out of the shoot this morning. Hey, even a blind squrriel gets an accorn once in a while.....

So back to those construction pics....

Well, right after the drywaller finished sanding it was time to start finsihing up the inside of the house. We faux finished about 90% of the walls in the entire house. Now, if you EVER talked to a faux finisher and had them price a room or a floor, well they are just FRICKING NUTS. We had a quote for the bathroom on the second floor.....$5,300.00. So we tried several of the guys to see who could paint and it turned out we found two....only two out of thirty four guys. Faux finishing is easy enough, just takes time and patience. We sprayed the wall with joint compound and left it dry, instead of knocking it down, then we run a putty knife over it, to take off the high spots. Then a base coat, then the second coat, then wipe it off before it dried....WOW it's cool.

I have never been known for doing it by the book.....square straight walls...BORING.
So I thought it would be cool to have part of the wall pop out at the bottom but allow an area for a picture to hang...

I had an idea in the middle of the night, that is why I always keep a note pad next to the bed just for these moments. You know, you wake up in the morning and know you had a great idea but can't remember what the devil it was. How about making a platform about one step high and tile it, then put a nice stainless trim around the edge........we'll see!

Instead of having a company come and do a template and taking 6 weeks to make a counter top, we bought the Corian from a distributor and worked them into counter tops onsite. They come in 30" by 12 foot sheet at about 700 bucks a sheet....the side cuts are used to create more depth on the edges.....that only requires a zillion clamps....

Quality inspections are always important in every project....Thumper is in charge of this...since she is the tallest of the three.....hehe

The cabinets were shipped without the rippled frosted glass inserts, now you would think this won't be a problem....think again. It took about 5 months to straighten this out....ending in a shouting match.

Baseboards and door trim is being installed.....instead of buying pre-stained trim we bought clear lumber and made the stuff ourselves. Ripped it, shaped it, sanded it, stained it, stained it again, varished it, varished it again and then varished it one more time. Everything is also clued in addition to being nailed.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this picture....just some planks that have been stained and varished from the basement. Everyone was told to watch their step and not to step on them....WELL!!!

We had a alert security as it seems we have freeloader visiting at night.....at least they keep the place clean.....RACOON ALERT....

Day trading and having a trend day to deal with....

Here is an idea to take a look at.....Yesterday was a classic trend day. Market opened at one end (80%)of daily range and closed at the other end (80%). But the idea you might want to track is the closing of the ticks. Anytime you have a trend day and ticks close either above 400 (up trend day) or below -400 (down trend day)there is an 85% odds the market will trade lower the next day.

Now once you have tracked this idea and then have a first bar trade to confirm....well if you are a trader....THEN TRADE BABY TRADE.

the tips of the day.....