I love this idea. http://www.strengthenthegood.com/ In general, I like to give charity close to home. Oftentimes my husband and I start with our extended family. When people in the family are in need we like to do what we can to help them. It seems to me people should take care of their own if possible. Wouldn't you rather see your charity in action and know what it is used for?
On personal note, my grandmother has been diagnosed with stomach cancer which has metastatized to her liver. She is 84 and has dementia, and they don't know how well she could withstand treatment. Thus they have decided not to treat her aggressively. Instead, they will try to make her as comfortable as possible as the disease progresses. Sounds pretty grim to me. I am happy to have spent a day with her this summer when she was relatively lucid. She met my daughter Lucy and seemed to recognize us and ask about the rest of the family.
My daughters website www.lucille-alsdorf-williams.com
Monday, November 15, 2004
Friday, November 12, 2004
Scott Peterson Guilty
http://www.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTB2MXQ5MTU3BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDaW5kZXgtaWU-/s/220275
I had wondered how this mostly circumstantial case would play out. Who would kill their pregnant wife and unborn child?!? That is just too horrible to contemplate. Hasn't he ever heard of divorce. I had a hard time believing he was guilty anyway because this just seems so wrong. There also wasn't a lot of physical evidence. Doesn't matter anyway, it is time for the endless appeals. Bring it on.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
My bad day.
My daughter Lucy has been sick today. She just got two new teeth yesterday. The nurse at the pediatrician's told me that it is normal to have a low grade fever when getting new teeth. That didn't necessarily make me feel better.
I noticed this morning she was being pretty clingy and wouldn't really play at kindermusik class. I took her temperature. 101.4 Apparently this is not a high fever, but it scared me to death. I feel terrible because she is feeling terrible. She has slept on and off all day and is making these little crying noises and humming. It is heart wrenching. I wonder how parents of really sick children deal with that on a day-to-day basis.
My grandmother has also been diagnosed with cancer today. It seems everyone I know is getting cancer these days. Cousin Ben www.benjacobson.com (he passed away about six months ago from pancreatic cancer), my mother-in-law Dorlyn who has cervical cancer that has recently been found to have metastacised to her lungs and now my grandmother. I'll know more tomarrow, but I can't handle to much more of this.
Cancer really sucks.
I noticed this morning she was being pretty clingy and wouldn't really play at kindermusik class. I took her temperature. 101.4 Apparently this is not a high fever, but it scared me to death. I feel terrible because she is feeling terrible. She has slept on and off all day and is making these little crying noises and humming. It is heart wrenching. I wonder how parents of really sick children deal with that on a day-to-day basis.
My grandmother has also been diagnosed with cancer today. It seems everyone I know is getting cancer these days. Cousin Ben www.benjacobson.com (he passed away about six months ago from pancreatic cancer), my mother-in-law Dorlyn who has cervical cancer that has recently been found to have metastacised to her lungs and now my grandmother. I'll know more tomarrow, but I can't handle to much more of this.
Cancer really sucks.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
New House
My husband and I found a new house this week. It has been a very exciting process. This will be the third house we have bough in four years time. With each transaction we seem to learn more about the entire process. With the most recent transaction I think we are looking to be able to earn some sweat equity in the house. We needed to consider moving to a larger place because of our expanding family and also interest rates seem primed to climb. We had been casually looking for the last few months and since the election we have been more serious because I thought rates would be going up more with the certainty of Bush being reelected. Apparently there is usually a dip in consumer spending when an incumbent is unseated because times are uncertain.
Anyway we had three criteria I think with our new house:
1. Good Bones - we had to like the actual structure and layout of the house.
2. Good family friendly neighborhood.
3. Good School system. Our daughter Lucy is only 10 months but this is supposed to be our ten year house.
I think we filled the criteria. We are planning to do a little bit of remodeling before we move in. I can't wait to start that whole process. I have my spread sheet set up with my wishlist and my budget already.
We got a good deal on the house by not being in a hurry to buy and being able to take a risk in our bargaining (i.e. we did not need to buy a house and we were not emotionally attached to the property). I suggest this tactic to anyone looking for a good deal.
I am finding more and more the lower you start the lower your end price is. We ended up getting the house for almost 10% less than it initially listed for. We also found sellers who needed a sale and had been on the market for a long time (seven months). They had not done some of the fluffing work we are about to do on the house (new carpets, new window coverings, new paint in the spring). I think they did themselves a disservice by not doing these things before they listed. For a very small amount of money outlaid they could have raised their asking price by quite a bit. Then again it was a rental for them. So maybe mentally they were already out of the deal and didn't care.
I will post more about our remodel I am sure.
Anyway we had three criteria I think with our new house:
1. Good Bones - we had to like the actual structure and layout of the house.
2. Good family friendly neighborhood.
3. Good School system. Our daughter Lucy is only 10 months but this is supposed to be our ten year house.
I think we filled the criteria. We are planning to do a little bit of remodeling before we move in. I can't wait to start that whole process. I have my spread sheet set up with my wishlist and my budget already.
We got a good deal on the house by not being in a hurry to buy and being able to take a risk in our bargaining (i.e. we did not need to buy a house and we were not emotionally attached to the property). I suggest this tactic to anyone looking for a good deal.
I am finding more and more the lower you start the lower your end price is. We ended up getting the house for almost 10% less than it initially listed for. We also found sellers who needed a sale and had been on the market for a long time (seven months). They had not done some of the fluffing work we are about to do on the house (new carpets, new window coverings, new paint in the spring). I think they did themselves a disservice by not doing these things before they listed. For a very small amount of money outlaid they could have raised their asking price by quite a bit. Then again it was a rental for them. So maybe mentally they were already out of the deal and didn't care.
I will post more about our remodel I am sure.
My First Blog Entry Privitization of Social Security
Let me start by introducing myself. Wow, this is harder than I imagined. Anyway, I am by profession an attorney. I have chosen to stay at home with my 10 month old daughter this last year and done a little bit of work on the side. For example, I recently co-authored a paper for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparing conflicts of interest inherent in the privatized pension systems of several countries. It can be viewed at:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/37/34027482.pdf
What, might you ask, prompted me to take pen in hand and begin my life as a Blogger? I read an article today that stated Bush was moving to privatize social security.
Bush moves to privatize Social Security
I understand that our Social Security System needs reform. I have no problem with that, but my research has lead me to believe that individuals do not end up in a better position under a privatized pension system. The only people who seemed to benefit under these systems were the private companies managing these pension accounts. A billion dollar industry no doubt. The system was riddled with conflicts of interest as well. The only way around this was to have a highly regulated structure and when I say highly regulated I mean HIGHLY REGULATED. Why is that better than having a government run system? Enlighten me please?
Having audited 401k and Defined benefit pension plans for the last several years. I find myself disheartened that so many companies are moving away from defined benefit plans. These guarentee a monthly payment upon retirement after individuals have vested. I cannot for the life of me figure how people are so egotistical that they assume they can invest their money better than professionals. DB plans are required to meet certain actuarial standards with their investment strategies to insure that funds will be available to pay out retirees. There is a high amount of security in this system.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/37/34027482.pdf
What, might you ask, prompted me to take pen in hand and begin my life as a Blogger? I read an article today that stated Bush was moving to privatize social security.
Bush moves to privatize Social Security
I understand that our Social Security System needs reform. I have no problem with that, but my research has lead me to believe that individuals do not end up in a better position under a privatized pension system. The only people who seemed to benefit under these systems were the private companies managing these pension accounts. A billion dollar industry no doubt. The system was riddled with conflicts of interest as well. The only way around this was to have a highly regulated structure and when I say highly regulated I mean HIGHLY REGULATED. Why is that better than having a government run system? Enlighten me please?
Having audited 401k and Defined benefit pension plans for the last several years. I find myself disheartened that so many companies are moving away from defined benefit plans. These guarentee a monthly payment upon retirement after individuals have vested. I cannot for the life of me figure how people are so egotistical that they assume they can invest their money better than professionals. DB plans are required to meet certain actuarial standards with their investment strategies to insure that funds will be available to pay out retirees. There is a high amount of security in this system.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)