She's a Fast Learner

This morning we're just hanging out in the living room and Blythe was doing one of her favorite past times which is unloading Caleb's wallet. She used to take everything out, but this morning, she went straight for the cash. She left everything else, but took out $45 and headed for her car where she proceeded to hide it in the hood. She's been taking it in and out, adding stacking cups etc... for the past 20 minutes and is still going strong. Somehow she has learned that the cash is the good stuff. I've never been so proud!

As you can see, she has also picked up on how to mug for the camera. This is her, "I'm hilarious!" face.

Sick Baby

I Fired the Realtor.

If you are like me you will read the above title to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff." Monday afternoon marked the third time our realtor forgot to tell us someone was coming to look at the house. At around 4:30 I was about 2 minutes out of the shower, luckily it's cold enough that I got dressed right away. The house was a mess from a full day of living in it. I'm pretty sure the entire toy box was dispersed around the living room and I hadn't even made the bed. Sasquatch was inside with no collar on. Caleb said they knocked once and then were unlocking the door. Before he could do anything the door was opening and Sasquatch was running towards it. By the time I came out of the bedroom they were already in the kitchen and Caleb had Squatch in a headlock on the living room floor. Needless to say I'm pretty sure the house didn't make a great impression and I was furious. After the second time this happened I had called the realtor and told him as calmly as possible that we really needed the warning since all three of us are in the house all day long. We are never show ready without being told to be. So as soon as they left I called him up and asked if I had missed a call from him that day. His reply was, "Oh yeah, did someone come look at the house?" I went off. Apparently, I was scary enough that Caleb and Blythe left the room. However, he didn't even put up a fight so I didn't get to release all my wrath. Yesterday, he came to get the signs and the lockbox off the door and I caught him at the door otherwise the coward wasn't even gonna knock.
So let it be known... I do not recommend John Perrault as a realtor.

Henry Paulson

Interesting notes on the Paulson Era...

One thing to keep in mind, Paulson is the former CEO of Goldmans Sachs.

AIG is Goldman Sachs largest daily trading partner, something to the tune of $20B in obligations to Goldman Sachs. If AIG failed, it would crush Goldman Sachs.

In his proposed plan to Congress regarding the $700B bailout, he included this little note.

• "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Sept 30, 2008: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was the only Wall Street executive allowed to attend the Federal Reserves AIG bailout talks.

You Might Need a Drink Before Reading This One

http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122887075956093233.html

For Erin, here is the Abstract:

On Monday, The US Conference of Mayors met on Capitol Hill to ask for a $73 Billion "Infrastructure" bailout.

That bailout includes almost $100 million in tennis courts and $94 million for a parking garage at the Orange Bowl.

The mayor of Arlington, TX needs $4,000,000 to expand their Tennis Center.

Obnoxious.

Blythe's Birthday Party

Sunday we had Blythe's First Birthday Party!! Her birthday is technically Friday, but we thought Caleb was going to have to be overseas so we moved it up. The trip got moved back, but the party remained where it was.

Our families came over and we ate some food, opened some presents, had some cake, and mostly just laughed at Blythe. I'm not sure what we used to do when the family got together before she was around. Now everyone just stares at her, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Some of the highlights are as follows...

She got a rocking chair and monkey from Mama J and Papa Tim.

A walker from Mommy and Daddy. Currently being pushed around on her knees. We're gonna work on the point of the walker later today.

A firetruck (she's chewing on a firewoman below) from Grandma Johnson and Papa Tim, and an octopus that sings when you throw stuff in it from Lainie and Pops aka the Chief aka Grandad... we don't quite have an official name for him yet.

Then it was time for cake...
The first taste didn't go over so good...

But after a couple more tastes she didn't mind it so much...

She was highly uninterested in eating any cake. She's very much a lover of salt like her Daddy. She licked some icing off her fingers and then went back to the toys.

Thanks everyone for helping us celebrate. We love you guys!!

True Love

Just wanted to brag on Caleb for a moment. A couple nights ago I got up with Blythe around 3 in the morning to feed her. When I came back to bed Caleb had been lying on my side so it would be warm when I got back. Now that is a good man!! I love you, Cabe!!

OOOOOOkay

Yet another wild kingdom episode in the Johnson household tonight...
Monday they started to put a new roof on our house, and tore off all the shingles. Tuesday they ran out of new ones, so they finished up Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night we began hearing noises in the exhaust vent over the stove. We called the Chief, because he's the handy go to guy, and he said it was probably just the flap on top loose and blowing in the wind. All day Thursday we kept hearing noises and it didn't sound like a flap on top of the house noise. It sounded like something sitting right on top of the hood in our kitchen. Thursday night Caleb climbed onto the roof and, lo and behold, no loose flap. So we're thinking if a bird has flown into this vent it's been in there at least a couple days now and is probably getting close to death. So tonight after another whole day of scratching and flapping noises, Caleb pries open the exhaust tube and peeks inside only to find himself eye to eye with a giant mouse.
For the time being, he closed back the tube and we prepared the kitchen for battle. Towels under all the doors, gloves on our hands, and tried to get Sasquatch to pay attention. When everything was ready we opened up the tube again and waited. The first attempt the mouse made to climb out Caleb tried to grab it, but it freaked out and fell back to the bottom. We then got a stick and put that into the tube... sort of a ramp apparatus for the mouse. This time it made a run for it with gusto. It jumped out of the tube, bounced off the coutertop and then hit the floor where Sasquatch quickly took interest. It got hurt bouncing off all the hard surfaces from such a great height, so it wasn't really running. This gave Squatch the chance to play with it in the kitchen. Then we had to try and keep Squatch back, get the mouse in a towel, and throw it out the back door.
One of these days I'm going to get the video camera for one of these episodes. We get all jumpy and scream and yell and I'm sure it's hilarious to watch. When we finally got the mouse outside, my heart was beating like crazy.
Here the story goes from slightly entertaining to kind of sad. The mouse was injured and Sasquatch just kept playing with it. So Caleb went to the garage and emerged with a big stick. I stayed inside for the rest of the story, but there was yet another mouse casualty in the Johnson house making the score Johnsons 2 - Mice 0.