Sunday

Rainy days and Sunday's.  My apologies to The Carpenters.


This is so typical of the crappy weather that you can run into for Spring sports events, particularly track, where you get chilled to the bone and can almost never get warm.  The Drake Relays were held in Des Moines Friday and Saturday, and I'm betting that the folks in the stands were wishing for those March days when it was almost hot.  The runners, of course, would take the cool versus the heat. 

I'm giving some props here to an Iowa girl, Ashley Miller of Tipton, who runs distance events for Nebraska.  She won numerous events at Drake as a high schooler, and got back to the top step of the podium yesterday with a win in the University 1500, in meet-record time.  I think she has run quick enough for an invite to the Olympic Trials later this Summer.  Always good to see a somewhat-local girl do well on the big stage.

As I have stated here previously, I don't watch the NBA, but I did note the extremely bad news delivered to the Bulls yesterday when their star player went down with a torn ACL near the end of the game.  The replay that I saw just showed him landing awkwardly after dumping the ball off.  With his departure, Chicago goes to a long-shot of getting past any of the teams with star-power in the play-offs.  

The second-guessers are lining up in droves.  Critics say that the coach shouldn't have had him still in the game with the outcome not in much doubt.  Some pundits are saying that the league and the players union are to blame for the injuries among numerous players now done for the year, what with the compacted season and limited training camps after the work-stoppage.  And the most outrageous award goes to the designer of Lebron James' Nike shoe who tweeted, and retweeted amid criticism, that Rose wouldn't have been injured if he were wearing Nike shoes.  Armchair coaches. Columnist's.  Shoe salesmen.  What an august group.

I have my professional dander up on some of the push-back coming from the Left on the House-passed bill to limit the student loan interest rate increase.  The House bill taps into one of the Obamacare accounts to fund the cost of the student loan adjustment.  The Senate has yet to approve a similar bill, but it is expected to do so, with funding coming from other means.  The White House has already indicated that the President would veto the House bill, even it somehow squeaked through the Senate.

The White House wants the funding to come from fully taxing as Social Security income the pass-through income of small businesses that have elected S-Corporation status under the Internal Revenue Code. For all of my professional career, S-Corporation has been the preferred form of entity for small businesses (although the Limited Liability Company gets most of the new action these days).  Our accounting firm has been an S-Corp since 1982.  Owners take a salary and pay normal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes on these earnings.  Net income beyond the salary, the "dividends" of the business, are not subject to Social Security or Medicare taxes.

The IRS and these business owners have always had differences of opinion on the right amount of salary.  The issue has been beat to death on audit and in the courts.  The S-Corp rules were most certainly originally adopted to promote business development in the small business sector.  The Administration's choice to Social Security tax all of the business's income is further testimony of their "fair share" philosophy to tax success.

Actually, my biggest gripe is their characterization of S-Corp status as a "tax shelter".  This sells well in their talking points to their supporters, but to suggest that an S-Corp is a tax shelter in the same vein as oil and gas drilling, wind energy or other decidedly risky endeavors is nothing but political obfuscation. When you read stories this week about the S-Corp tax shelters, remember that they are likely talking about your dentist, your car mechanic, your plumber and most of the other locally-owned business people whom you meet during the course of your normal day.

There has already been a provision floated around to tax dividends and interest and other "unearned" income for Social Security purposes .  The S-Corp move described above would be consistent with that concept.  If we're going there, let's do real reform: lower the rates, eliminate the deductions, and bring on to the tax rolls in some manner that half of the public that pays no income taxes.  Get rid of the tax accountants, the lawyers and 90% of the Internal Revenue Code.  I could live with that.  Too bad the politicians can't get passed their reelection strategies to actually do something meaningful.  Oh, I know.  Let's tax the rich!!

Sorry about that.  The topic is a bit dry, I know, but since I have more than a little experience with it on a professional level, I judged my two cents to be relevant and worth the space.

On to other things....

I also want to send props out to Aunt Martha for already responding with some material on my proposed literary effort on Grandpa/Daddy.  I'm still working on concept things.  The timeline is awfully short, but I've got a history of working best under a deadline, so the ball is sitting on the tee waiting for me to take a cut.

The Winniferous is here for the evening.  And the rain remains.  Hmmm.  How do I get her energy bled off?

Good luck to all in the Peanut Gallery for the oncoming week.  May Day on Tuesday!

BCOT

Saturday

April is not going out like a lamb.  I'm not sure if we got over 50 degrees here today or not.  They do say 80 by the middle of the week'

The Chicago trip was about as forecasted.  Travel had its ups and downs.  The hotel/motel situations met expectations.  And the program was not without merit.  The conference accommodations at the Sheraton were excellent.  They did have another group meeting in adjacent rooms on Friday, but there was plenty of room for all.  A medical association of cardiologists, anesthesiologists, or some ologists like that.  They were mostly Indian/Pakistani.  Everybody has a convention.

The time for the Friday trip home was actually a little longer than the inbound trip (adding the Wednesday night segment with the Thursday morning commute).  Getting out of The Loop was a mess, as my normal route was closed for construction, and I elected to go South on the Stevenson to I-80 rather than take the Ike out to the I-88 toll road.  (I-88 had a bunch of construction on Wednesday night.)
I'm thinking that the I-80 option is just a bit longer mileage-wise, and the Stevenson takes forever to get to I-80.  Whatever.

I parked in a public ramp on Wacker Drive within a couple blocks of my hotel.  $24 per day.  Other hotels up the food chain advised of daily parking fees in the $45-50 range.  Hello C-town!

2 reports that her event at the Figge last night was a big success.  I know that she had spent a lot of time over the last few weeks in preparation.  Always nice when that work shows dividends.  Way to go, Kiddo!  You are Daughter of the Day.

I'm putting this out there that I am working on a small family "book" about Grandpa/Daddy/Phil.  Right now, I'm trying to put an outline together with some different ideas on format and presentation.  I think that baseball will be a central theme since that was the sport that I feel carried over to so many things we did as a family.  If any of my siblings are reading, send me an email with any baseball stories that you think would fit in this work.  Any relevant pictures would also be appreciated.  My goal is to have the printed product ready for Tahoe.  So I need to get on the move, eh?

I'm not entirely certain of the math here.  Others have made the fatal mistake of relying on a tweet, but I'm going with 3's entry on her journey to C-town yesterday and extending best wishes to Herky.  Happy Birthday, future 3.1!

The NBA playoffs start today.  Can hardly wait.  And they'll go on for most of two months.  Why do they even play a regular season?  Oh, yeah.  I forgot.  It's about the money, Stupid!

One of the guys near the top of the leaderboard in this week's PGA event down in New Orleans is Ken Duke.  He's the pro who stays at my pal Roy's house when the tour stops here for the John Deere event each July.  I've met him several times.  Extraordinarily ordinary guy.  Good for him.  Go Kenny!

Looks like I have The W again tomorrow night when 2 heads over to DM for a Monday meeting.  And I think next weekend is 2's NYC trip.  Hmmm.  This is getting past my preferred Las Vegas limits on W-sitting.

Enough for today.  Hope the peanut gallery is enjoying the weekend.

BCOT

Thursday...UPDATED

I'm starting this entry during the last session of the day at my conference in downtown C-town.  This particular presenter is speaking about the problems of structuring a retiree's portfolio.  Unfortunately, there's no easy answer to that problem.  Its a risky business.

This Sheraton is located right along the Chicago River on the lakeside of Michigan Avenue.  A very high end place.  I'll check out the wine prices in the lobby bar later.

Across the river (and not in this view) are several other hotels and commercial buildings that have factored into my professional career.  The Hyatt Regency is the place that Arthur Anderson put us up in for my original interview in 1976.  I've been to meetings at the Sofitel as well as the Hyatt, and there's a Fairmont that has had some things too.  Kind of surreal to keep coming to the same places over the course of 35 years or so.

******I've have picked up on this entry after five back at my hotel.  When I pulled that pic above off of the net, Blogger did a hiccup, and three paragraphs or so couldn't be saved.  Bummer.******

I was commenting on the new technology being employed by this conference to monitor attendance at the various sessions.  Historically, these types of conferences would have a variety of sign-in procedures to maintain some integrity to the actual attendance at the breakout sessions.  Continuing education credits for CPA's, attorney's and some other regulated designations can be a significant benefit to attendees, so the sponsors go to some efforts to comply with the demands of the regulators.

This is the first time, I think, that a conference that I have attended has used an electronic bar code system for this process.  Your name badge has your personalized bar code, and at the end of each session, a monitor person with an electronic reader, scans your badge as you leave the room.

The question really becomes, how far can this be taken?  My pal Tim, whose business times marathons and other road races. could probably set up a totally wireless, and automatic, system with a chip issued to each attendee and a few strategically placed tracking mats.  How long will it be before your iPhone can be used for all of these monitoring requirements?  Its all do-able.  Its just a matter of cost.

Another aside:  I am really struggling without the standard keyboard. I don't know if there is a defect in the built-in keyboard, but the cursor jumps around like a snow bunny.  Maybe my hands are too big.  #veryannoyingfact.

Hey to 3.  This room in Chicago is in a Club Quarters property.  Same outfit as I stayed in when I was in NYC last Fall.  About the same space too.  Small!!!

More here in a while.  I'm heading out for a tour.

Now Later....

I just got back from a walk down Michigan Avenue.  Chilly!  There's a game over at Sox park tonight.  Those folks are going to freeze!  Glad I had my running gloves in my jacket.

Yes, 4, C-town was the origin of Hilton Candy.  Suite!Actually, the hotel was in the western suburb of Downer's Grove.  Pretty much a Top Ten item on the list of family memories.

For the unaware, the reddish building to the left of the Watertower was the location of @srh's job when we lived in C-town.  I assume that it is still part of Loyola, but I don't know that for sure.  She usually took a bus from the Northwestern station where our train from the 'burbs came in on the West edge of  The Loop.

I'll be playing Passing Ships with 4 tomorrow.  She's flying into C-town in the late afternoon for a bachelorette party for her friend Meredith, and I'll be beating feet for Iowa, hopefully before the rush hour.  Boy, do I look forward to another hour on the Ike!

My guess is that I'll get back on for an entry during the conference tomorrow.  Make it a good TGIF!
BCOT

Wednesday

Apple's profits again exceeded the Street's estimates.  Shares had sold off over the last couple of weeks in anticipation of lower than stellar quarterly results.  But the analysts got it wrong and AAPL is up almost 10% today, still below the all time high, but over double its value in the last year.  How high is up?

I made the critical oversight of leaving the flag on the pole last night.  After I brought the brats inside, I never got back out nor remembered to lower the flag.  I need to develop a system to check that task before I hit the hay each night.  Maybe Siri on the iPhone is the answer!

I couldn't help but read this story in the local fish wrap this AM.   A couple of gals have opened a new coffee shop along the main drag in central Davenport, going with the Hooter's approach that, "sex sells".  I'm pretty sure that a stop at this place will not be in my near future, but I give the owner/operators props for making the effort. They do have Central High School and Palmer College within walking distance, although I think that this is a drive-through concept.  Whatever.  My guess is that they'll get a little press for now, and then face the difficult task of building a big enough clientele in an industry that is not very kind to the thinly capitalized.

The Big O continues to mine the low-hanging fruit.  Let's go to Iowa City and press the flesh with the non-politically-aligned folks in the Heart of America and talk about easing the student loan bubble.  You betcha.  Like IC isn't the most liberal town between Madison and Boulder. 

Here's a Top Ten list of just some of the things that are wrong with D-I college football and basketball:

1.  One and Done in bball is a joke.  Do those guys even pretend to go to class after Christmas?
2.  High school seniors' press conference announcements of college selection.  Thank you ESPN.
3.  The BCS lottery.  And its not about the money?
4.  A coach leaving one "dream job" for his Real Dream Job.  Really.
5.  Multiple uniforms.  No marketing money involved at all.
6.  Camera shots of "Mom" in the stands.  Sorry.  I could care less about Mom.
7.  Failed drug tests, felonies and other such "learning experiences".  And the perpetrator still being on the team come game time.
8.  Football games in August.
9.  Basketball games in domes.
10. Conference realignment.  It's not about the money.  Right.

OK.  I'm off to mow my yard.  Good luck on the rest of the week.  I'll be adding to the blog from Chicago over the next couple of days.

BCOT

Monday

So the road was not all that conducive to the blog.  Sorry about that.

I received another lesson in advance-planning oversights on Friday when I sadly underestimated my travel time from Galena, Illinois to Woodbury.  In my mind, I had done an approximation that said that I had already driven over an hour North, so the balance of the trip to Harvest Path should be no more than between four and four and a half hours.  Wrong-o, Bucko!  My situation was exacerbated by a later-than-anticipated presentation time at my meeting in Galena, and an overly optimistic appraisal of my time situation that allowed for a sit-down lunch at Mickey D's in Galena.

I took a gander at Google Maps at lunch, and the system produced a projected travel time of over five hours.  I was sure that it was out-of-whack.  Again, Wrong-o, Bucko! What ensued was a very tedious 5+ hour drive, mostly along scenic Route 61 on both the Wisconsin and then Minnesota sides of the Mississippi.  I didn't have the chance to take my own pics, but this one off the Internet gives you the idea of the view.  The road was consistently quite a bit above and away from the river, affording dramatic riverscapes at times.

Add in to the mis-read on the distance with lots of two-lane road, through-town routes, and Friday afternoon traffic, and you get the idea that it wasn't the best trip.  It was a strong argument for the less-direct, four-lane Interstate option that we normally take to Woodbury.

The weekend went quickly.  Sketchy weather, so even though I packed the bike, it never made it out of the car.  But there was plenty of entertainment provided by 1.01 and 1.02.  We also did get to see cousins Sue and Ryan on Saturday night, meeting for dinner near the Mall of America.  They were in town for a bball tourney that Ryan's Iowa Attack was entered.  Sounds to me like Ryan may have some track in her future.  Good luck, Kiddo.  And thanks to Sue for taking the time to meet us.

Not to be morbid, but I had another death in my client group late last week that gave me more pause to evaluate how I spend my time.  This was a 56 year old gal in Arizona whom I have worked with for over 25 years.  She was the CFO for a very successful business in the Scottsdale area, and had elected to use our firm for tax and retirement plan services over all the local choices that she had in the desert.  That client group would have to be a near Top Ten customer in our firm's history.  Brain aneurysm.  She never came out of the coma.  Stunning reality for all.

To 4, yes, my weekly letter concept came from Grandpa.  He wrote a brief note, almost every week when I started at ND, and included a $5 bill.  His hand-writing was worse than mine!  Like me, he never said much in the letter, but that five bucks was always a welcome sight in the mailbox.  I remember being surprised with the first letters, because I had never known him to write to anyone.  Mother was always into letters, but not him.  That said, I do remember letters that they received from my brother and sisters always staying on a table or somewhere close for re-reading. 

Lots to do in the next couple of days.  The IRS is back tomorrow, and I am in C-town for a conference on Thursday-Friday.  I'll try to jump back on here later today.

NOW LATER....

I had purposely waited to get home to load that pic of 1.01 and 1.02, and it became a semi-major project.  The memory card in the "good", big camera is pretty old, and my computer at the office was trying to upload the entire card.  So when I got home, I pulled the card from the camera, inserted it in the laptop, and...nothing.  After a couple of re-insertions, and similar negative results, I went to Plan B, which is a little card reader unit that is then slipped into a USB port (which was my Plan A before the arrival of the new laptop).

It took only one insertion to prove that Plan B was also a bust.

I was beginning to get a little PO'd, and not a little worried about whether those pics on the card were salvageable.  While most were in other files elsewhere on one of my machines, any since Christmas were only on the card.

Fortunately, there was a Plan C without having to call in the CSI lab.  The camera itself could read the card as you could work the viewfinder through all of the shots.  Then I remembered that the camera originally came with a cord that had a fitting at one end for one of those hidden slots on the camera, and a USB fitting on the other.  And it was actually in the zipper pocket of the camera case (where it was supposed to be).  And it worked!  Mission accomplished.

(Sorry to go through this tedium, but it was a bit fulfilling to get the pics loaded after the initial setbacks.  I'm not saying that I am a member of the Geek Squad, but I got some skills!)

OK.  Now done.  Thanks for reading.
BCOT

Thursday

Happy 102nd Birthday to the guy who started it all!

This is a clip-out of the pic that I have in my office of the Ottumwa Babe Ruth league's Wapello Dairy Giants, circa 1955 or so.  He would have been 45 years young.

The hard thing for me to process today is that he passed away over 18 years ago.  Lots of water under the bridge since then.

More here in a while.  Just wanted to get this up for the day.

NOW LATER...

The PGA event this week is in San Antonio at the JW Marriott resort where I attended a conference in early May last year.  That's the high-end place that had the $18/glass of Louis Martini low-shelf Cab in the lobby.  The course looks lush from the pictures on the Golf Channel telecast.  For anyone looking for a really nice place to visit, not-on-a-budget, this Marriott would qualify.

There was an interesting editorial-like piece in the Scorecard section of this week's SI observing that a by-product of the Petrino mess in Arkansas was a further hurdle for women job-seekers in high-level D-I football programs.  That premise being that coaches would be less-inclined to hire women candidates to avoid any suggestion of impropriety in the hiring process or in the future during the job itself.  I'm not sure that I agree with that point of argument.

The reality in the Arkansas situation was/is that a guy with coaching skills was/is a reckless dirtball egomaniac.  He's got a resume that details character flaws throughout his career.  This time, he got caught in big lies that couldn't be covered-up, and his get-out-of-jail-free card reached it's expiration date.  Unfortunately for the young girl involved in the deal, she qualifies as collateral damage.  She's not exactly innocent, but I don't see her choices as damaging women's rights.

Speaking of sex scandals, let's hear it for the Secret Service for trying to help out the economy in Columbia.  Really, this just sounds like another case of an, "I'm bullet-proof", mentality gone to steroids.  From the little that I have read on the case, it sounds like the agents got cheap on the girls, the hotel or others in the arrangement, and at least one girl got very vocal, very publicly.  My bet is that there was no small amount of alcohol involved.  That always leads to great choices.  Anyway, I'll take the Over that there will be a few more early retirements or unscheduled departures from the SS in the next few weeks.

I had to read the story about Larry Brown going to coach at SMU twice.  I thought he was dead, or at least in a home in Florida.  Is there a bball coaching job that he hasn't had?  The story relates that he replaces Matt Doherty, the North Carolina alum and one-time Wonderkid, who has proven himself to be Mr. Mediocrity at several stops (including ND for a year).  There's something about these old coaches that can't get it out of their systems.  Why would you put your body through it at 71 years old?

To wrap up about Daddy, here's a Top Ten list of favorite memories.  I say ten, but it could be fifty.  Just sayin'.

1.  Bailing hay in the Summer with him throwing the bales in to the barn from the wagon, and always saying that that last one was the hardest because he had to stand on it while he was throwing it in.

2.  Coming over to see me play ball at ND and deadpanning stories to the truck stop waitresses about this being his first time to town.

3.  Being mortified at Sunday Mass one time when he and the priest had an exchange from the altar to his spot at the back of the church as lead usher about a special second collection.

4.  Playing H-O-R-S-E with him in the haymow.  His underhand free throws.

5.  Sunday morning breakfast at Molly's Restaurant after church.  Does toast and jelly qualify as breakfast?

6.  Reading the Sunday comics with him on the couch in the old farm house (with Rosie).  I still think of him every time I read a Dagwood strip.

7.  Playing "pepper" with him in the front yard of the old house when I was maybe 10.  And braking the windows from "foul" balls.

8.  Listening to his courthouse friends give him a hard time when they found out how much he spent on a new glove for me (maybe $30!).  Early high school, I think.

9.  Knights of Columbus Friday fish fries in Ottumwa when our girls were young.

10. His $5 weekly letters when I was in college.

This is a fun list to do.  If we wanted to spend some time, the stories could get a little long.  If you're out there having a cocktail tonight, give Daddy/Grandpa/Phil a salute.

So I'm on the road Friday.  Meeting in the AM in Galena, Illinois and then continuing North to check out progress on Harvest Path in Woodbury.  I'll be adding Twitter reports along the way.  The plan is to pack the bike for a couple of weekend rides. 

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Wednesday

Well, that was exciting.  Or not.

Tax-filing deadline days always seem to have a theme.  This one was dominated by numerous high-income clients with significant balances due...and incomplete information on major issues occurring during 2011.  The final straw was a situation with an out-of-state client whose Chief Financial Officer experienced a brain aneurysm last week before she and I had had any communication about extension calculations.  I had emailed her over the weekend with no response and had wondered if she had finally elected to use a local tax guy.  The client, an accounting clerk and I spliced together some numbers and sent in some cash.  What a mess.

The word from The Big Apple is that 4 has found a sublet arrangement for the next couple of months or so.  This gets her off the couch at 3's, and gives her a little privacy.  The location is about a half-hour bus ride(?) up the same street as 3 and Herky's apartment.  Two other girls whose third roommate will be out of town for a while.  From Twitter traffic, she has keys as I write this.  Good luck, Kiddo!

Lots of pics on the Web today of the space shuttle Discovery being transported to DC for permanent display as a Smithsonian exhibit.  They must have made several loops around town to get as many different shots of the piggyback ride.  It might be worth an afternoon to check it out the next time I'm in DC.

Also in DC yesterday, NASCAR made it's annual appearance on the South Lawn.  Tony Stewart, last year's champion, and the 11 other drivers from The Chase were given a White House reception.  The Big O is a politician at heart, and getting to mug-it-up with the good 'ol boys from the track has photo-op written all over it.

I ran into my RCL this morning for the first time in months.  I had circled back to Maplecrest after 1st Coffee to complete some laundry before her normal arrival, and she came while I was still there.  Turns out that I was correct, that a substitute RCL had been in a couple of times recently (after the regular gal had come back from her trip to the Old Country).  The sub doesn't quite have the detail skills as The Real Deal.  Regardless, the place really stays a lot cleaner with weekly visits.  Even The Winniferous wasn't able to trash it out that bad during her stay last week.

ND's Blue-Gold Spring game is this weekend in South Bend.  Does football season ever end?  Years and years ago, I think that the Spring Game was between the current squad and alumni guys who would come back and suit-up.  I'm sure that the insurance costs for that kind of stuff went off the charts.  And who wants to get injured playing a meaningless game?  They do have a flag football game beforehand for alumni players.  I bet that's exciting.

The Iowa Spring "game" was last weekend.  I think that it's basically an open-to-the-public practice.  Lots of holes to fill in IC.  From the history books, I made a bit of a stir when I was in IC for grad school, went to the Spring game and ended up writing a critical letter to The Des Moines Register.  I complained about the actions of an assistant coach who loudly cursed and vigorously shook the face-mask of a running back who had fumbled on a rushing play.  My letter produced two or three subsequent responses that were also published in the paper (long before Internet Comments!).  And I ended up getting a call from the subject coach.  I don't recall any of that conversation, and I don't think things have changed much in football.  See also: New Orleans Saints.

I guess I did see a bit of history last month.  It just came across the wire that Pat Summitt will indeed step down as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols.  Her last official game as coach would have been that regional final loss to Baylor in Des Moines last month that I went to with my pal Doug.  While her results in recent years have not been so great, she had quite a run.  I was never a big fan, but I don't think that she worried an ounce about what others thought.  It was a Lombardy-esque approach, "Win Baby, win!"

Hope to get out for a ride today and get back in the swing of a regular life.  More here tomorrow.

BCOT

Sunday

I'm posting this from the office before heading home for the evening.  I've sent the laptop North with @srh4 for the week, so I'll have to to do my entries from here.  The last week before April 15th has never been prime blog-time anyway.

This is another year where the tax-filing date has been extended an extra day because of the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia.  While the filing date is normally on the Monday following a weekend 15th day, DC's Emancipation Day is April 16th, and we all know the government workers in DC need another formal holiday.  Whatever.

Actually, Emancipation Day sounds a little racist.  I'm guessing that someone will come up with a less-offensive name like, say, Civic Appreciation Day.

My week with The Winniferous was everything that I expected it to be.  I thought to myself different times how taking care of The W was not unlike taking care of the dairy cows on the farm.  They're animals that don't know anything about a calendar.  They just do their stuff, day after day.  No holidays.  No vacations.  I know that she's a great companion for 2, but I'll stick with my hermit-tude.

The storms from the plains didn't quite get this far.  Some lightening and thunder, and periods of heavy rain, but no damage.  My sump pump popped on several times during the night.  We needed the rain.  I snuck in a lawn-mowing before the front came in last night, so I'm guessing that I'll have to mow again Wednesday.

I mentioned this on Twitter last week:  the local country radio station's play-list is short, and very repetitive.  In my trips to and from the office, runs back and forth for 2nd coffee or lunch, or doing other in-town travel, I'm not in the car all that long for any one segment.  But invariably, on the round-trip, a song by Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts or Kieth Urban will hit the airwaves.  I automatically turn the station if Rascal or Urban come on; their pop-ish-ness I just can't take.  I just complain when it's Taylor because she's not so much annoying as just that her range is so narrow.

Actually, there's been a little back-lash in country music after that last awards show a couple weeks ago when clown-in-residence Aston Kutcher gave a little diddy of a country song when he was on stage to present an award.  Whether he was serious, or mockingly non-serious is debatable.  Traditionalists also wonder what the band Kiss is doing on-stage at a country music awards show.   Kutcher and other Hollywood types are invited to show up to try to bring eye-balls to the tube, I guess.

I think that this photo from the new Three Stooges movie is another example of Hollywood's free rein at lampooning traditional Christianity for a yuck.  Hey, I have a pulse: I like Kate Upton in a bikini.  But try to run that scene with an equally-revealing burqa on a Muslim female and watch the outbreak of political correctness.  I'd guess that kind of disrespect would probably even bring a White House admonition.

3 did a 5K this morning in Beantown with some of her friends from there.  I think that this was a charity race run in conjunction with the Boston Marathon which will be held tomorrow (Patriots' Day in Massachusetts).  I'm giving her Daughter of the Day for making the effort and fighting the train travel to do so.  You go, girl!

I'm not sure if the Peanut Gallery has put the math together that the picture-sharing service used by 2 on Twitter is Instagram.  That's the company that Facebook has committed to buy for $1 billion!!  A company that a couple of Stanford MBA's started less than two years ago.  I don't think that they even have any income at this point.  It's all on the come.  Wow!  Shades of the Tech Bubble, eh?

I would be remiss if I didn't at least acknowledge that today is April 15th, a day that has historically been a huge focal point in my professional career.  Times have changed over the years, and the date actually is of less literal importance these days, but it is a reminder of a big piece of my adult life.  Lots of headaches.  Lots of late nights.  Stress.  Complications.  Mistakes.  Over night deliveries to out of town clients.  Not sure that my efforts added a lot to the nation's GNP.  Shuffling shekels.

But those April 15th parties in C-town were always a blast.!

Thanks for reading.   Have a good week.

BCOT

Thursday

W and I are now into the equivalent of a second week of vacationing in Vegas.  No offense to my sister who lives there full-time, but who vacations for two weeks in LV?  After two days and three nights, I'm looking for the cab to McCarran.

My pre-opening-bell business TV viewing habits have been forced to change in recent weeks.  CNBC moved Jim Cramer to a regular co-host position after the first of the year, and I can't stand the guy.  After the Squawk Box show ends at 0800 CST, I've been switching over to Bloomberg for In The Loop with Betty Liu.  Unfortunately, that show does nothing for me either.  They use a lot of hand-held camera segments, and I find that presentation a bit disconcerting.  And they've read the Political Correctness Journal a little too closely: being a minority seems to be a prerequisite for a spot in the cast.

Here's a heads up: tomorrow, April 13th, is Phil and Margaret's 76th anniversary.

Back to Squawk Box.  They had a recurring guest on this morning, James Chanos, a well-known hedge fund manager in NYC, who happens to be a professional "short" seller.  (Shorts are investors who sell securities in the expectation that the security will be falling in price.)  The shorts get criticized in down markets, and perhaps deservedly so, as accelerants in already flammable situations.  Anyway, his current picks include the company that owns Red Box (the DVD outfit), and company's in the PC hardware business.  He considers both of those models as dying concepts in the face of streaming and tablet technological advances.  Interesting.

He also says that the problem with natural gas company's is that they are capitalized expecting gas prices of $6 per cubic foot, and the market is at $2 per cubic foot.  That math doesn't work.

Need a big production day.  Those out-of-town returns need to hit UPS today.

Make yours a good one.

BCOT

Tuesday

Looks like Bobby Petrino will be making his future at D-II Directional U after all.  That's a lot of cash that trundled off the back of that Harley.  And that doesn't even consider the divorce settlement.

John Grisham has an excerpt of a new book in last week's Sports Illustrated.  I didn't read it, but picked up on the fact that it was a baseball story.  Which raises the idea that, of all of our national sports, none come close to the story-telling appeal of baseball.  Even as the game evolves in this era of the Internet, there is an endless supply of plot lines, relationships and history.

Some thoughts and concepts on baseball:

The Game.  There's always a game in a baseball story.  Maybe even a double-header!  Teams against teams.  Towns against towns.  The pitcher against the hitter.  The base-stealer against the catcher. 

The absence of a clock.  Nine innings.  Three outs per inning.  Extra innings if tied after nine.  Now this can get to be a problem when the pitchers dwaddle on the mound, or the hitters stall against a good arm, but the lack of a clock takes that buzzer-beater play out of the equation.  I like that.  If the clean-up guy gets to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against the other team's closer, game on!

The numbers of the defensive positions.  Pitcher (1), catcher (2), first base (3), second base (4), third base (5), shortstop (6), left field (7), center field (8), and right field (9).  In the Unofficial Baseball (American) League, they don't even make an effort to call the DH a numbered position.

The Equipment.  You can play the game with the basics, ball, bat and glove, and make do with everything else.  Real, anchored bases help, but I've played games with gunny sacks or cardboard for bases.   Helmets, hitting gloves, shin/foot/elbow guards are safety elements, but aren't actually needed except to fend off the lawyers.

The sacrifice bunt.  What a play!  And it's virtually taken out of the game by the existence of the DH except in unique, end-of-game situations.  To the naive observer, it looks like a nothing play, but to the baseball guy, the wheels are really turning (on both sides of the ball).

Unwritten rules.  Love this topic.  If our country could play by the unwritten rules of baseball, we'd have lots fewer societal ills (and probably fewer lawyers!)

The Cut-off Man.  How many games have been lost by the failure of the outfielder to hit the cut-off man on a long throw?  I love telling the story of my shortstop at ND my senior year setting up for the cut-off in medium-deep left field when I was playing with a dead sore arm.  I couldn't throw it 20 feet, but he had a gun.  We made it work.

The pick-off play.  The catcher with a cannon, the southpaw pitcher with the move to first, the devious shortstop, and, best of all, the potato play.  Stories for each of these abound.

The bullpen.  You know, I never spent a lot of time in the bullpen.  But relief pitchers are a unique lot.  Many of them have the herky (no offense, future 3.1) jerky motion that can make it hard for a hitter to master in a single at-bat.  Guys can hide in the bullpen, right Wild Thing?

The Men in Blue.  Well, usually I had no problem with the umps.  Some had a wider strike zone than others, and sometimes a bang-bang play wouldn't go our way.  But the thing about baseball is that, you play enough games, and things usually even out.  Luck.  Calls.  Hits. Errors.  But there can be endless stories written on the trials of the umpires.

Scoring the game.  Why wouldn't you want to know how to keep a scorebook?  A backwards K?  Caught looking.  E-5?  Error at third.  A traditional scorecard has a place for every play.  Who needs Google and an iPad??
=========================

Well, you get my drift.  The game of baseball can be used to portray all of the personal and competitive drama that they now try to run as reality TV.  Football and basketball grab the broadcast headlines most of the time, but a good game of baseball in StL can leave memories for a lifetime.

More on this another time.  If you've never heard 3 recite in verse, I think, the differences between baseball and football, you should ask her for a replay.  It's worth the price of admission.

BCOT

Sunday

Easter Sunday.  Beautiful day here at the Bend in the River. 

We enjoyed the visit of 3 and Herky who came through town for some wedding events, as well as Easter.  Provided that their flight from ORD makes it to the Big Apple with no problems, I'm thinking that you could say that their weekend travel was fairly uneventful.  This pic was taken here on Maplecrest just prior to their departure for the airport.

2 has started her au paire duties in Minnesota as 1 goes back to work for the rest of the school year.  2's absence creates some lifestyle changes for me as well.  My house guest for the week has begun to settle in to her surroundings.  Tomorrow will be the test as the work week this time of the year tends to be long.  The biggest positive for me is that it forces me to get out for exercise, whether I have the motivation or not.  And my motivation hasn't been that great after a string of 12-hour days.

There was another notable obituary for me in the paper this morning.  One of the two senior partners at the Davenport accounting firm that hired me when we moved to Iowa in 1980 passed away yesterday at age 71 after a battle with cancer.  While we were never friends, we never had any truly "bad blood" and I would make small talk with him over the years when we would meet in public.  He might fit the caricature image that you could associate with the green-eyeshade accountant.

He was a guy who always wore a suit to work, drove a full-sized Lincoln towncar, and I'm sure always got his timesheet in on schedule.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  It was a long and glowing obit.  Church, Little League and accounting memberships.  When my time comes, a Google search won't yield much material for the writer(s).

I was glad to see Bubba Watson win The Masters late this afternoon.  He's a humble guy with lots of game.  He's contended in big tournaments before.  He was in that playoff a year or two ago when Dustin Johnson was penalized for grounding his club in a hazard (that didn't look like a hazard), and that the German guy ended up winning.  Anyway, Tiger should take notice: this tournament did fine with Mr. Woods playing the role of Mr. Irrelevant on the weekend.  Boorish behavior by guys who finish their rounds before the leaders tee off wears thin on the patrons.

Blogger is acting funny again tonight.  I had to input that last paragraph three times.  Do they do their web-maintenance on Sunday night?  Maybe a different platform is in my future,

Props to 4 and Herky's sister Katelyn on their work designing, editing and coordinating the production of the family recipe book for 3 and Herky.  The finished product was delivered for the shower on Saturday, and was a big hit.  (That's exactly the kind of book I want to do with you, 4, on our trip last August!)

I made the choice to cancel my Gold's membership effective March 31st.  With 4 gone and 2 not going much, it was down to me and spin class.  Hmmm.  Early Spring.  Long hours at the office.  Loud spin Nazi's.  It was an easy choice.  The question will be come December and I need the organization of the indoor bikes.  I'll cover that choice when that time arrives.

My dentist's bill for the implant came in the Saturday mail.  Hello!  I'm actually going to have my dental insurance folks run me a report for my charges over the last couple of years.  Total cost for the implant is getting close to $4K.  Ouch.  The general dentist's charges look to be higher than the dental surgeon.  I need to raise my rates.

So another week of busy biz.  I'll try to add some blog-worthy thoughts a couple of times.  It's a bit of therapy to bang these keys.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Thursday

There's a frost warning here tonight.  Glad I haven't set any of the plants out.  My Perfect Neighbor's wife has a bunch of things covered.  She couldn't resist getting an early start on her annuals with this warm weather.  Now she's grousing about the possible frost.  Another example of how doing nothing has worked out for me.

 I missed the show girls at the Marlins-Cards game last night.  By the time I turned to the broadcast, they were wheeling in Ali.  That was not a pretty sight.  And what's his connection to Miami?  I thought he grew up in Loo'ville?  He who used to float like a butter-fly, and sting like a bee, is barely a shadow of his old self.

Any guesses on the blow-back from the news coming out of Fayetteville that football Coach Bobby Petrino (age 50+, married with four kids) had a female passenger on his Harley when he lost control on a county road earlier this week?  Even if he's innocent, he's got some 'splainin' to do.  Doesn't sound like there are any DUI or other operator improprieties.  His walkback on this one will give the bloggers and comedians lots of material. I don't think that it's a fire-able offense in and of itself, but his bosses will remind him of just how much character counts.  A second mis-step and he'll be coaching the defensive line at D-II Directional State.

UPDATE:  Wow!  That didn't take long.  Petrino has been put on paid leave by Arkansas.  He admits to an "inappropriate relationship".  Hmmm.  Maybe he won't make it.  When the Philistines got to the gate, Penn State gave up Paterno.

Speaking of coaches with a wandering eye, Larry Eustachy, formerly of Iowa State, has made a solid home in Conference USA at Southern Mississippi.  He got his squad into the tournament this year, losing by 6 to K-State in the first-round.  (Now, he did lose his job by partying with the coeds, but those pictures went viral in a flash, and he was toast.)

Holy Thursday is a big day of ritual in the Catholic Church.  I think that the girls participated in the feet-washing protocol a couple of times.  Then we have Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.  The markets are closed tomorrow, but we'll be working due to the crush of April 15th returns.  Does anyone still abstain from eating meat on Good Friday?

Good luck to 3 and Herky in their travels tomorrow.  I had the Buick cleaned up for their loaner, but I guess HOOPDRM has been the designated ride for the weekend.  Maybe we'll have pics here tomorrow from the doings in Tipton and IC.

Political correctness run amok:  some school in Massachusetts made a decision to remove the word "God" from Lee Greenwood's signature anthem, "God Bless the USA".  Unbelievable.  I don't hold out much hope for our country when we have leaders who seem so oblivious to the fundamentals that built our great nation.  Religious freedom was one of the reasons the pilgrims came here, right?  Does that now get twisted to mean that the Christians need to keep it to themselves so that we don't offend all the other who-knows?

Make it a good Good Friday.

BCOT

Wednesday

College basketball is now officially over for the year.  The ND women got smoked last night by Baylor in a game that wasn't all that much of a game.  I've often joked in the past about how some of the low-post gals on the championship-caliber women's teams were players who could beat up on guys:  Brittany Griner takes that distinction to a new level of truth.  Scary.

There are a couple of other college sports seasons now in full swing.  Spring football and basketball recruiting.  With Calipari's recent success, I'm betting that the next wave of one-and-dunner's are signing up for a few months of ball in Lexington.  Do you think that they even go to class after Christmas?

I mentioned this to 4 yesterday in a text: the primary European cycling stage-race this week is in Basque country in Northern Spain, where we spent several days last August.  Yesterday's finishing town was Vitoria Gastiez, our base for four days.  I couldn't find a pic on-line from the post-race program that had enough of a view of the city to determine exactly which part of town that the race was calling home.  Actually, this was a race that had a hard time finding financial backing this year.  Shock.  (Spain is likely the next Greece.)

So the big news today is that we have Opening Day for MLB.  The Cards and Marlins are the feature game on ESPN tonight, not that I have plans to watch.  Being a bit of a baseball guy, Opening Day has always at least registered on my Richter Scale.  Back in our Chicago days, I don't think I made it to any Opening Day games, but we had a client that supplied Old Style to Wrigley Field, so were got to go to a lot of games.  Those early April events in Wrigleyville were always a weather adventure.  You really didn't want to be in the shade.

The new ballpark in Miami has received a lot of press.  It's one of those retractable-roof jobs.  To get people to a game in Florida in the Summer, you need to control the climate.  Heat, humidity and showers have a way of tempering attendance numbers.  Miami (not Florida?) spent a lot of money on players in the off-season.  Can you buy a championship?

CBS's stamp on the Final Four weekend extended to the elaborate, Hollywood-eque introductions of the starting line-ups.  There was cheesy snip-its from each team acting like grade-schoolers, and then the esteemed (in whose mind?) Jim Nantz calling out the players with the on-air feed also serving as the public address announcer at the Superdome.  I didn't stay up for the post-game awards, but I'm sure that Nantz was the emcee for that as well.  He was also featured in wire-service-photos of the Hall of Fame inductees.

At what point are the on-air personalities separating themselves from reporting the game to participating in the event?  Pre-game interviews and locker room look-ins.  Half-time contractual commitments for quick Q&A while leaving/coming to thecourt.  It's almost a set-up:  in the middle of a huge contest. coaches and players are supposed to convert from fully-involved combatants to commentators.  Like there's no chance of letting an emotional statement slip out that will be critiqued by the same arbiters-of-sportsmanship who are looking for exactly that conflict. 

Moving on.  The Masters golf tournament starts tomorrow.  The big story is whether Tiger can recapture his mojo at Augusta.  Whatever.  Carrying on my small rant from the previous paragraphs, my main gripe with the TV coverage is that we have to listen to more of Nantz's babbling about the "cathedral of golf", and how "the Master's begins on the back nine on Sunday".  What a crock.  And I actually like the Masters.

Looks like a great day here.  Make it a good one in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Tuesday

It's official.  1 is the big winner in the NCAA pool.  Why not be Daughter of the Day?  Congrats, Kiddo.  Who knew that doing picks before you could read would lead to such great success?

Old and new pics.  Preference?

More later.

BCOT

Sunday...UPDATED

Hello April!

I surprised myself and stayed up for the final of the KU- OSU game.  If they took bets at halftime, I would have gone all-in that Ohio State would win the game going away.  I guess that's why I drive a desk.  (Here's a repeat of the pic I had taken of myself with Coach Self last Summer at a business conference in KC.  So far, he's the MVC in the tourney.)

Weather came in last night and we had a pretty serious rain.  It was heavy enough that my sump pump kicked on a few times for the first time in many months.  The grass will shoot up for sure.  I'll mow later today, and I'll need to do it again by Wednesday.

Margret is being evicted from Century Heights today as well.  (Here she is!  No worse for wear after the hibernation.)

I identified another victim of the Wallet In The Microwave caper.  A bit short on cash Friday night, I stopped at the Wells Fargo ATM, but quickly discovered that I had no debit card in my replacement wallet.  So the official body-count from my folly has increased to at least 6, not counting the wallet itself. (VISA, SB's, Dunn's, AICPA, United Health, and WF debit.)  Replacements for all have been ordered.  Customer service rep's have all had their yucks.

The thought occurred to me the other day that Grandpa H made some significant life-style choices in the mid '70's in those years after my college graduation.  He would have been 63 in the Spring of 1973.  I would have been 24 and finishing up my second year at Dover AFB.  That makes the age references between him and me then, and 4 and me now very close.  So I've been trying to compare some of the things that he and Mother did back in that time-frame to the choices that I have been making in 4's post-graduation period.

The Wausau-manufactured house had to come about somewhere in the area of 1972-73.  I remember him talking about building a new house on that spot when we would be standing at the entrance to the milking parlor(?) on the South side of the old barn.  Those conversations would have been in the mid-60's when it was mostly he and myself running the farm.  He never said so, but finally getting all of us kids through college was not only the achievement of a goal for our own educational purposes, but it also had to be a huge financial responsibility lifted once I was done.

This pic would have been taken right beside the old house and carries a May 1971 date.  ND graduation was earlier that month.  My recollection is that Mother may have snapped it the day that I took off to visit my last St. Mary's girlfriend.  Anyway, the date and location tell me that the new house was still on the back-burner.  But I would be pretty much gone for good within 60 days.  Their three daughters and other son were already married.  They had paid off the mortgage on the farm.  Their future had to look considerably less-stressful. 

Within the next few years, the new house was in place.  The dairy herd was converted to beef cattle and the days of milking were nothing but memories.  Significant domestic and International travel became annual events.  Entertaining the grand kids probably was their most important planning consideration.  They had the good fortune to have reasonably good health for most of the next 20 years.  This latter point is the most important one.  Enjoying one's later years is entirely dependent on staying away from the health care system.

So as I look at those major points for Grandpa H's life back then, I think that he made choices that many empty-nesters do.  He simplified his work, keeping the farm life, but eliminating the shackles of daily milking.  (I think Mother would have preferred no livestock, but that's another story!)  He bought a decent tractor.  (No more  JD B's with the two-cycle putt-putt!)  They travelled.  They made plans for their grand children.  He spent more time at the coffee shop. 

I have no plans to start raising cattle on Maplecrest.  But other parts of his non-retirement story look 4KDAYS worthy.

Now out for the day.  Maybe a little more here during the women's games later today.

NOW LATER:  2 came over for BBQ and it was another rousing success.  Veggies, steak for her, fish again for me.  Rossoto.  The W was mildly under control.

I told my pal Cal at coffee this mornig that one of the tout bets for the women's Final Four tonight should be the number of gratuitous crowd shots of Condolezza Rice during the Stanford game.  I've only watched the game sporatically, but I've seen Condie twice.  (I would have bet a dollar on an Over/Under of 3, taking the Over.)

Tough day for LtPC's speed merchants.  The 24 (and the 48) dominated the NASCAR race today, and both got taken out on a re-start for a green-white-checkers finish.  Some boys behind them with fresh tires got anxious and they didn't get outta Turn 1.  And my fav Fabian Cancellara crashed in a big race this AM in Belgium...broken collar bone.  Rule 1 of cycling, big time.

Old Glory flying on Maplecrest today.

Hmmm.  April Fools's Day and Palm Sunday.  A unique double-up.

Good luck to the peanut gallery this week.  Thanks for reading.


BCOT