Labs are smart, the SWFL economy sucks, Tivo rules

Just to update on a few previous topics....

Our lab is doing great and is adapting to hew new house and family. She had some accidents, but has only had 2 (I think) this week, so I believe she is starting to get it. Still has to have that puppy spaz where she runs thru the house/yard like crazy. And of course, still with the chewing. She has eaten a few things that upset my wife, but that's normal and I think she'll be okay. Anyway, she's a pretty smart little girl to get 80 - 90% housetrained in a week and a half.

For those of you who don't have Tivo, I recommend it. We have DVRs from both our cable provider (Comcast) and from Tivo and I can't tell you how much better Tivo is. I was looking on the 'net to see if there was a Tivo with more memory than the digital one shown on their website (Tivo.com) and found a site call weaknees.com that sells upgraded Tivos. They have one with 2 TERABYTES OF DATA!!! I can't imagine how much shit that is.Admittedly the 2 terabyte option costs more than my plasma did, but still that's pretty cool.

My Tiger baseball team managed to win a game finally. They had gotten off to a hot start, then lost 5 in a row. They managed to get the "W" against Tulane last night thanks to some timely hitting and good relief pitching. Used 8 pitchers during the game.

Went on Monster.com to look at a job back in LA that my wife had found for me. When I logged into the site, it asked me to update information. I did so, and this week I've gotten about 10 e-mails from people to see if I'm interested in various jobs. It's my belief that this has only happened because I'm not looking for a job. If I was, my e-mail box would have dust on it.....

Where has all the construction work gone here in Sw FL?? Our revenues are going into the crapper. My latest decision is to really push the sr. mgt. here to get busy finding jobs for 2009 so I don't have to start eating gov't cheese. I've got to get these guys focused on expansion of our markets, geographic expansion and selling some of the smaller jobs in our current markets. I know the economy will come back, the question is when?

Update 03-06

Yeah the title sucks but so what. I'm tired and it's the best I could come up with....My boys at LSU are at it again, beating Bama in basketball and Michigan State in Baseball. Looking good over in Baton Rouge! Need to take the girls over there for a football game this year if possible. Gonna try to get over to Gainesville for the LSU/Florida baseball game at the end of March if possible.

Headed to Tampa this weekend to look at a dog thru the lab rescue people. That's right we made it thru the interview unscathed!! Tried to get in on a puppy (pretty thing, at least on the website), but we're second in line. Going to go check out another, small yellow lab mix that's really good with kids. Wish me luck.

I don't think anyone is actually reading this blog, but regardless, have you seen the housing market deterioration here in SW Florida??? Holy Crap Batman!! If the value of your house isn't down at least 25% from the highs back in late 2005 and much of 2006, you must have a beautiful home on the water because EVERYTHING else is down. Even the waterfront homes are down, just not as much. Just by way of example, there are 3,700 properties for sale in the Bonita/Estero area and they are currently selling just over 100/month. I really almost wish we'd kept renting until the last couple of months because there have been some pretty nice houses put up for sale recently.

Our business is slowing considerably, but we still feel good about 2008. 2009 scares the shit out of me at the moment though. Between the housing slowdown, the credit markets and property tax cuts we are faced with a very tough environment.

Peace

Tigers Rule, Adopting a Lab, Cymbalta revisited

Well, the lab rescue people are coming over tonight for an "in home" visit. I swear (once again) I could adopt from overseas easier and faster than this. Hopefully, once they get done we'll be allowed to adopt a dog. We've been watching the dogs disapear from the website all week and it's pissing me off.

My Tigers had a big week, beating Duquesne 3 straight. This was not unexpected, but still nice to see. Had a big weekend swinging the bats and maybe, just maybe they will start to hit again. Men's basketball pulled out a win against Ga. Don't know where this team has been hiding out at all year but all of a sudden we're on a roll. Ladies basketball demolished another opponent and won the SEC undefeated. Football team is practicing, and it sounds like everything is going pretty well. Then yesterday, one of the top QBs in the country committed to the Tigers, so we have one heck of a recruiting class coming in for 2009.

After one full weekend plus a couple of days dealing with my wife without Cymbalta I can honestly say that this stuff still sucks. Apparently coming off can make you irritable, give you cold/flu symptoms, make your lips dry, remove all hint of sex drive and other delightful effects. The good news is that it could go on another 3-6 weeks!! Not sure how this is good news other than apparently is doesn't actually last forever. I'm hoping the effects will start to moderate over this week so that by this weekend I might actually be able to have a rational conversation in my house.