10/14/2007

Thoughts On A Sunday

First thing this morning Deb, BeezleBub, and I headed down to the WP In-Laws to return the “country cousins”, Suzy Q and Buster, to their home.

We were cat sitting for the WP In-Laws while they were visiting friends and family in Florida.

While the rest of the feline occupants of The Manse got along well with the country cousins, Bagheera, being his curmudgeonly self, grumbled and hissed his way through the past week and a half.

I expect he's happy that the latest interlopers have left.

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It was a matchup of the two NFL teams with the best record this season.

The New England Patriots (5-0) and the Dallas Cowboys (5-0) met in Dallas in what has to be the best game of the season to date.

The Patriots managed to keep their record of scoring during their first possession intact, scoring a touchdown after shutting down Dallas's first drive with a three-and-out.

Dallas didn't let that get to them, forcing a fumble by Brady that resulted in a touchdown during the second quarter.

But in the end the Patriots offense won the day, beating Dallas 48-27.

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The four main sections of the Virginia-Class nuclear attack submarine USS New Hampshire were been delivered to the Groton, Connecticut shipyards of the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics and the interior work is under way.

The last ship to bear the name USS New Hampshire was a battleship built in 1908. There was a WW II Iowa Class battleship planned that was to bear that name, but the war ended before the keel was laid and construction was canceled.

The new sub is schedule to be commissioned some time next year.

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The housing market continues to soften, and with it, foreclosures are going up.

One of the things driving the collapse and financial burden upon many American families is that the motivation for buying a home was different during this last real estate boom.

Now a home is more — or less — than a place to live. It is an investment — a way to make money and finance a lifestyle, says Robert Manning, an expert in consumer credit and debt at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The housing and lending industries encouraged that transformation, promoting not just subprime loans but mortgages requiring little or no documentation of income, no money down, and interest-only payments.

When easy borrowing combined with a run-up in prices, speculators joined the fray. In Arizona and other Sun Belt states where foreclosures are rising fast, homes not occupied by their owners account for an outsized portion of foreclosures, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

But the ones feeling the pressure the most are those living in the homes they own and the ones shouldering the biggest burden.

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Is it winter yet?

I hope not.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves have still not reached peak color, our boat is still in the water, and where it's still not winter.

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