The "To Do" list

Home again, and a desk piled high with "stuff" that has to be dealt with. Soon. I update my weekly, sometimes daily "to do" list, and immediately add three more tasks after I have just printed the list. Grrrr. Of course, some of the things on the list have been there for months, such as reformating World of Mirrors for a specific publisher. Also getting rid of some stuff on EBAY. I heard that EBAY prices have tanked since the economy dived into the toilet, but one should not heed rumors. It's easy enough to see for yourself if items have a) sold and b) sold at or near former prices.

Important fact about the stock market. You haven't lost money until you sell. Of course if you sold right when things started to slide, then you have to pay capital gains taxes, or in the case of 401K, etc., ordinary income taxes, and then there's the sales charge, and when you buy it (or something) back, the buying charge, so my theory is that it's better to sit tight and go for what is looking awfully like a Nantucket Sleigh ride (a whaling boat attached to a mad whale) with your investments. I mean, hell, it's only money, right? What would you do with it? Eat? Fill the oil tank?

Hey, oil is down, which means our heating bills won't be quite as high as everyone feared. Everything to do with money is a Nantucket Sleigh Ride. Housing, price of gas, investments. The old Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times has struck again.

I have some really cheap-to-make recipes that taste great, so email me if you would like to have a few.

So after being gone I had to catch up on Obama, and writing, and Suck It Up, along with my to to list. An unblogged blog don't get no hits. Meanwhile, there's daffodils to plant, my Toastmaster's speech to write.

I have chosen the topic, "My culinary disasters." Every cook has a few. My first one was vichysoisse, then boiled potatoes ("an insult to the German tongue"), then soup with bugs, some really vile Jambalaya that even the possum snubbed, and finally, a leg of venison that you probably don't want to hear about. Maybe you do. My recipe for Venison Ragout is sublime, but there were rocky shoals en route to the harbor, so keep the sailing motif.

See prior post.

I'm gearing up to write my big "Why I Am For Obama" post, and that better be soon. Driving back up to New Hampshire this weekend to beat the bushes and knock on a few doors.

So onward, and remember I'll send those recipes if only you will ask.

Grapeshot