The Silva Family

Utah Trip

2011-07-24T22:11:00.002-04:00

July 4th Provo parade. President and Sister Pitts with all their missionaries were in the parade.

Watching the parade

Silly String

Stadium of Fire. What a treat!

David Archuleta was on of the singers

Big family picnic and ice blocking. Mason was afraid to ride on the ice alone. So he rode on my lap

Caleb did pretty good on the ice blocks

Carter loved the water balloons

We hiked Mt. Timp and went through the caves

All the cousins together.

We had a picnic and a train ride at a friend of my parents. The kids thought it was great.

Sparklers

Trafalga - Caleb trying rock climbing

One of the rides that they liked

Baseball game with cotton candy

Ice cream cones at Thanksgiving Point

Digging for dinosaur bones

Silly string with Grandma and Grandpa

Steph and Mike's wedding

Caleb at the Salt Lake Temple

Bridal Veil Falls

Kangaroo Zoo

The plane Ride

Birthdays and Easter

2011-05-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

Happy 5th Birthday Caleb

He was very specific on his cake. It had to be a Jupiter cake looking through a telescope, with moons, and stars showing around it. And it had to have the big red spot.

The other Birthday boy this week - Carter

Happy 1st Birthday baby. I can't believe it's been a year!

Easter

We went to a really fun egg rolling party this year that the kids really enjoyed.

A play group egg hunt

We made rice crispy eggs with M and M's inside for an FHE snack

Dying eggs

Fight of the Century

2011-05-06T08:26:00.000-04:00

Let the Gardening Begin

2011-04-12T13:13:00.001-04:00

With the warmer weather we have started gardening again. We have set up a separate blog chronicling our garden adventures. Check it out at: http://silvagarden.blogspot.com/

Holidays

2011-01-16T22:15:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how fast the holidays came and went. We had lots of fun and lots of activities. Here's a couple to share with you. We also didn't get a letter out this year. So we hope all are doing well. We miss all our friends in distant places.

Playing at the gym

Fun with bubbles

My Gingerbread house

After I came back with my gingerbread house the boys were excited about making one as well.

Caleb made dinner for us. A holiday fruit and vegetable tree and monster sandwiches.

My mom got the boys the same shirts.

Reindeer cupcakes

Seeing Santa. (Mason wouldn't go near him.)

Christmas morning

Bowling on New Year's Eve day

Fall Fun

2010-12-05T22:42:00.000-05:00

Finger painting with pudding

Carter loves to watch our fun projects

Corn Teepees

Painting wooden pumpkin pictures from Nana

We made our own Teepee

Carving pumpkins

Cute Kids!!

We had such a nice fall day that we were outside in short sleeves playing

Trying to eat a doughnut on a string

Finger painting with shaving cream. Caleb actually enjoyed it. He usually hates getting messy.

catching up from summer

2010-10-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

Near by spray park that we had fun at several times this summer

Saturday hike at Grimes Glen

Camping at Watkins Glen with friends

Carter taking a morning nap wrapped up and layed in the stroller

Trip to Virginia with extended Silva Family

playing cards

the metro escalators

infrared sensors at the Air and Space : Mike is standing on the right I am kneeling next to Caleb and Mason

Mason comparing his leg to a dinosaur's leg

Miniature golf at the "resort"

Skyline caverns

Smithsonian National Zoo

Mason comparing his tongue to a tiger's tongue

Hiking in Shenandoah National Park

Train Ride

Mirror Maze

I thought this was so cute. Carter fell asleep holding both his feet together. By the time I grabbed the camera he had let go though.

A little hay maze for the kids where we went apple picking

Tracker ride to pick apples

Enjoying apple cider and donuts after picking.

We Believe

2010-08-22T09:59:00.002-04:00

I created a Wordle today using the Articles of Faith. Here's how it turned out:

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2317649/We_Believe

Summer Fun

2010-08-18T19:29:00.009-04:00

This summer so far has been so fun and gone so quickly. I can't believe how fast the kids are growing. I love watching them explore and discover and have fun.

I went to a murder mystery "fairtale" characters for a birthday party.

Carter is very alert and watchful of what is going on around him

Swimming in Canandaigua Lake

Enjoying the boat (Mason's typical face)

Yeah! One more potty trained and only one in diapers

Carter growing fast

Fun at the spray park

Mike went to his brother's wedding and brought these back from the plane. The kids thought it was the neatest thing

Blueberry picking

We spent a couple of days in the Poconos in Penn. We went Mini golfing,

Lots of swimming,

hiking,

and on a scenic train ride,

Enjoying Nana and Papa's boat on Mike's 30th birthday

July 4th Fireworks. All the boys loved them

Fun with cousins

Twilights Impact on Society

2010-07-28T22:29:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: The following is for entertainment purposes only and is in no way a commentary on Danielle.

The Case for Replacing Workers with Machines

2010-07-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

I recently was at the airport getting ready to check-in. I had two options: 1) go up to the counter and deal with a person or 2) use the self check-in computer. I had enough time that both were viable options (the line wasn't long) but in the end I chose to check myself in.

Once I got to the gate I thought about my decision and how my decision to use technology could replace the worker. I then thought about the self-checkout lines at the grocery stores and how much I dislike them. I generally make it a point to use the cashier at the store. Why? Because I like the customer service - Saying hello, bagging my purchase, etc.

I found the inconsistency interesting, but then I realized something: By using the self check-in option I left the airline check-in clerk free to focus on customer service.

I remember the day when we didn't have these fancy computers and had to deal with people. And you know what? It stunk! The lines were long, making the customers grumpy. The employees were grumpy because they deal with nothing but grumpy customers. Why were we such gluttons for punishment?

Now we can use technology and not stand in the line. The wait times are consequently shorter and the people less grumpy. The employees really should take advantage of the customer's preference and wow them with customer service. Technology may take jobs away from people but the employees and customers can have a better experience. I know I did!

Letting the butterflies go and activities

2010-06-20T22:02:00.002-04:00

Our first hike of the season.

Carter enjoying the ride

Letting the butterflies go

Carter Lowe Silva is here

2010-05-08T13:45:00.003-04:00

Carter was born May 5 at 3:20 pm. He weighed 10lbs 1 oz and was 22 inches long. We are home and doing well. The other boys love him and want to hold him and play with him all the time.

Our Caterpillar Project

2010-04-26T20:25:00.004-04:00

As a fun project this spring we decided to get caterpillars and watch them grow and change into butterflies. The kids have been inspecting them every day and we have been keeping track of what happens to them.

Day 1 - received 5 tiny caterpillars in the mail

Mason inspecting them

Day 3 - Growing a little - One died

Day 5

Day 6

Day 8 - interesting fact that we learned - The caterpillars do not spin cocoons, they split there skin to reveal the chrysalis

Day 9 - All of the caterpillars are now chrysalis

Day 10- We moved them into the Butterfly habitat

Caleb thought this was really funny because all of them started shaking as a defense mechanism.

Hooked in the habitat - now we just wait

Caleb's Party

2010-04-26T09:44:00.004-04:00

We had Caleb's party early because of the baby coming soon. He requested a solar system cake complete with the asteroid belt and a Jupiter pinata

He and I made the pinata together

Fear the Boom and Bust

2010-02-02T20:45:00.003-05:00

I just had to share this! I mean where can else you hear "animal spirits" in lyrics!

We redid the dinning room

2009-12-10T15:00:00.004-05:00

We finally got around to redo the dining room. My goal was Thanksgiving. We finished putting the room back together that morning. Although we still have a couple of things we want to touch up now. Here the before and after:

Fun activities with the Family

2009-10-18T17:27:00.006-04:00

We went to Stokoe Farm last Saturday. It was cold and sprinkled on and off but we had so much fun.
Caleb riding the sheep train.

Mason in the Pig.

The hay jump

A nature walk

This hay tower had tunnels through it that the boys loved climbing throughI called this the hamster wheel.

Corn maze

We picked green grapes and made grape juice. The boys like eating the grapes instead of helping to pick.

We made camp fires for snake for FHE on night

Carrots from our garden

Caleb made Bread Bear

The boys made up a roller coaster ride. This is Mason on it. It was funny to watch them run around and make noises and get in this container.

We went for a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Silva for a week. They kept us and the kids busy with lots of activities. Here are a few:
The Zoo. The kids liked feeding the birds but were nervous when they landed on their hands.

They also fed the goats

A ride on the Kenosha Trolly

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Chicago Children's Museum

Climbing on a Spider Web

Playing with water. Mason liked watching it jump

As Caleb pushed buttons the water would make different things happen

September calendar

2009-09-13T21:19:00.002-04:00

So we are going to start our daily activities again. Lat year I choose different days to focus on different activities. I'm going to start like that and see how he does. Although this year we are focusing on learning how to write the letters and what they sound like. I have books that go along with most of my days. If you are interested in the books or instructions on how to do anything contact me.

Sept 14 - Make Bread Bears
Sept 15 - Learn Seasons - Summer - do sun prints
Sept 16 - Alphabet books
Sept 17 - Dogs - Make Puppy Paw prints, start an animal book
Sept 18 - Alphabet Chalk

Sept 21 - Make camp fires - http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=40926
Sept 22 - Autumn - Leaf collage
Sept 23 - A is for Alligator
Sept 24 - Rabbit - cotton ball pick up, carrots, bunny hopping
Sept 25 - While we were out walk

Sept 28 - Make Taffy
Sept 29 - Winter - Snowflake bingo
Sept 30 - B is for Banana

August activities

2009-08-31T07:32:00.019-04:00

Fun summer days with cousins

I decided to try making my own salsa this summer. I'm pretty impressed at how it turned out. We also did pickles but my pictures didn't turn out very good.

Putting the jars in the water bath.

Our finished product. Pretty yummy!

We hiked in Corbin's Glen one night. Here's Mason doing what he loves, finding rocks and throwing them in the water.

Mike and Caleb walking in the water. Caleb enjoyed looking over the edge of the waterfall

On the hottest day of the summer we went to the spray park. The kids played on the playground before they turned the water on.

Mason was alittle worried of the water at first but after he saw what happened he was running around with Caleb

Our Sunflowers look so cool. Here is one. We have red with orange and some with yellow and all yellow. The colors are great.

Fish hatchery

On one of our hikes we found this chimney. The kids thought it was so funny in the middle of the woods all by itself.

We went camping with friends of ours up to Bristol. All the boys thought it was funny to line up and jump off of this bench.

The next day we went hiking in Grimes Glen. It was so pretty. We walked along the water and were able to go near waterfalls. Unfortunately it wasn't as warm as we wanted. We all still got wet.

Caleb decide to climb this hill.

And this is what happened. Covered in mud!

We found this cool looking lizard near one of the caves.

I'm 5 Times the Man I Used to Be

2009-08-01T21:17:00.004-04:00

So, I wanted to post something a little more on the personal side. I have really made it a goal to get into better shape. I was looking for a program and came across the one hundred push ups program. The program is that after six week (at a minimum), you should be able to do one hundred consecutive push ups. I thought that would be cool and I started off. I made the following to show my experience with the program (you can click on it if you can't read it):

You do an exhaustion test, which puts you in a class for a week or two. You have 3 workouts a week. The workout consists of a few sets of push ups finished off with a maxing out.

When I began the program I could only do 10 consecutive push ups (yeah I know it's pitiful but in my defense I haven't done a push up for about 9 years). The blue area is the maximum amount of push ups I have done. The green bars are the total workout (sets plus max). The purple bars are the exhaustion tests that you do every two weeks or so.

I reached the end of the six weeks then tried the final test. I only did 40 which was really lame. It happened that I came down with a cold (the gray area) which lasted for a while. Once I was feeling better I took another exhaustion test and did 50+ consecutive push ups.

When I started I could only do 10 and now I can do 50. That's why I'm 5 times the man I used to be. I would invite anyone who reads this to start the program. I might keep everyone posted when I meet the goal.

Health Care Solved - It's Because We're Rich

2009-07-30T17:57:00.004-04:00

It seems like all I hear talked about is how American health care is broken, that is in between reports on Michael Jackson (if you just came out of a coma he died recently). The argument usually goes something like because Americans pay more than Europeans for health care, and are less healthy the American health system is broken. Okay so it's expensive! I get that. So how are we going to fix it?

First, lets find out what is causing the costs to increase and maybe we can fix it. Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel Prize winning economist explained why Americans pay more in these terms:

The basic reason why health costs increased is that health care is a good thing! Because today there is a lot more you can do! Consider all these expenses that are diagnostic. Cat scans, X-rays, MRIs and now the proton-powered whatever-it-is. Something that is the size of a football field, cost $50 million, and has all sorts of diagnostic powers. A lot of these technologies clearly reveal things that would not be revealed otherwise. There's no question about it. Diagnostics have improved. Technology has improved. You know, sending things through your blood stream to help in operations, instead of cutting you open. It's incredible. But these things are costly.

Oh wait. We are paying more because there has been technological change, which is a a good thing, but it is costly. And I thought it was all those evil doctors who want to remove your tonsils because they can get reimbursed more. Well that changes everything.

To contain costs we need to stop innovation, and one way to do that is to make Americans poorer. We could model ourselves off of poorest Africa. That would insure there was no innovation. And that would solve the problem with America's health care system costs. After all we are no healthier given all this innovation so why pursuit it? Plus given the government's operatus modi, we'll have this problem solved in nothing flat.

Berry Picking

2009-07-21T19:01:00.007-04:00

We went Cherry, Blueberry, and Raspberry picking last Saturday

Blueberry picking

Mason put as many blueberries as he could grab into his mouth the whole time we were trying to pick

The "Fruit" of our labor

Enjoying a fresh homemade blueberry pie

Fun in June and July

2009-07-11T22:03:00.012-04:00

Here's a little update to what we have been up to lately.
Canoeing on the Erie Canal

Hiking

We camped in our back yard one weekend. The boys liked helping set up the tent

Mason decide he like the poles for the tent through our fence for our garden better than in the tent

We cooked foil dinners

And slept outside

And roasted marshmellows

The boys helping clean the cars (their car as well)

Mason helping with laundry

Relaxing on the 4th of July

Caleb took swim lessons and loved it

Update on the Garden

2009-07-11T21:39:00.008-04:00

June 27th - Box 1 - sweet peas are going crazy, broccoli is growing great, everything is doing well - we had to fence the whole thing in (no more cages) because a groundhog pushed the cages off and attacked our food.

Box 2 - replanted lettuce, spinach, and radishes (harvested all the first plant) and our zuchini plant is doing well after the attack from the ground hog

July 11th - we harvested lots of sweet peas, our broccoli, some strawberries, lettuce, and radishes today

Those are the crazy sweet peas behind Caleb

The boys in front of our sunflowers

I'm not alone

2009-06-12T07:36:00.002-04:00

A while back I wrote about issuing a stop payment on the stimulus. Well recently there was a poll done where and "45% Say Cancel Rest of Stimulus Spending." I guess I'm not alone in these feelings.

The Silva Family Garden - Week by Week

2009-05-23T21:26:00.025-04:00

So we have started up our first garden. We took pictures week by week intending to post them to the blog every week but we were too busy. So now we are playing catch-up. Here's the chronicles of the Silva Family Garden 2009.

March 28th - Planting Seeds

We began our garden by planting seeds. Caleb helped plant the seeds. We planted onions, lettuce, cauliflower, and peppers. We planted them in this starter kit we purchased at the Home Depot. It did okay but we had more luck planting the seeds in empty yogurt cups.

April 10th - Working Outside

We have moles in our yard. We didn't want them to eat our garden so we put down chicken wire to keep the moles out.
Here's my strapping husband making dirt (he wrote that). Caleb was watering it down. He loved helping out with the hose. Now let me explain how he is "making dirt." We are following the Square Foot Gardening method. Gardeners are encouraged to make dirt instead of improving the existing soil. It is a mix of peat moss, compost, and vermiculite.
Our first garden full of dirt.
We then had to build these cages to put over the top of the our garden to protect the crops from deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds and Mason.

April 18th - Gardens Ready

Our gardens complete with the cages. They are awaiting the plants inside the house.

April 25th - Planting Day

Strawberries go into one of our gardens. We had to adjust our planting plan because we got so many strawberry plants. Oh darn! Too many strawberries! Life is so tough!

May 2nd - Our garden is doing well

Peppers (far left column), Broccoli (middle left), Cauliflower (middle right), and Peas (far right).
Strawberries (3 columns) and onions in the right front square. Our onions died before translating so we purchased starts.
It may not look like much but these are raspberries starts that we planted at the base of our deck. A member of the Ward had starts so we got these for free!
This also doesn't look like much right now but there are potatoes growing in this container.

May 9th - A Moment of Silence

We lost a few plants! We lost 1 pepper plant, our cauliflower, and 3 strawberry plants. And I forgot to take pictures (remember me saying we were too busy).

June 19th - How Does Our Garden Grow!

In this is planted 8 boxes of strawberries, zucchini, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and onions.
Here you can see peppers, broccoli, beans (under ground), and peas.
The raspberry starts took. You can see new growth!
We added rhubarb starts. We won't get rhubarb until next year. The white pipe is the crappy sprinkler system that the previous owner installed (Mike added that).
Our potatoes are popping! So for you people who don't know about potatoes, the plants come up above the dirt. You cover the plant with an inch of dirt and the potatoes get bigger.

May 23rd - Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend is when most people in Rochester start their garden. We, however, are ready to harvest some spinach and lettuce. We will also have radishes soon!
Notice the trellis in the back? We have added this for our vine plants (tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon and cucumbers - to be planted). Everything is growing well.
In this one we added tomatoes, a pepper plant (to replace our dead one), parsley, cilantro, and planted carrots up front in the right. This is our salsa garden. We picked up these plants at the Rochester Public Market.

Stay tuned for more garden updates and witty economic posts (Mike typed that too).

Father Knows Best

2009-05-20T18:04:00.003-04:00

Let me tell you of an experience that is all too familiar. Caleb and Mason love to play together. That is until both of them want to play with the same toy. Outburst errupt turning the peacefull Silva residence into a war zone.

A concerned parent sees what is going on. Since the post is titled "Father Knows Best," I will fill the role of the parent (although I'm sure Danielle will second this). Dad quickly asseses the situation: Simple - Two boys and one toy - Scarcity is the issue. Now because of my intimate knowledge of my children (for example: Mason usually doesn't care which toy he is playing with. He just wants to play) I am able to play the arbiter. "Caleb you can play with it while Mason plays with this train. In a minute, your turn is up and it is Mason's turn." Oh the wisdom of Father.

Have any of you had a similar experience? Maybe you were the child, or perhaps you were the parent. I imagine every one has quite a few experiences like this in their lifetime.

Well I think people think of politicians in the same sort of way. They are qualified to make judgements on how taxes should be spent, etc. Some look to them with the same ethos as a parent.

I find this falling quite short due to one thing: information. Remember in my example that I can make this decision due to my "intimate knowledge" of my children? I know (or more accurately Danielle knows) who has had the most turns. We know their preferences. We know their tolerance levels and limits. This information qualifies me to make this decision.

So how easy is it to aggregate this kind of information? Really hard. You probably have an excellent idea about your immediate family, and a pretty good idea of extended family and close friends. It becomes more shaky as you move on to friends, neighbors, or those you are acquainted with.

So then why do people think Washington can make these kinds of decisions? They can't. They simply don't have enough information. We really cannot expect them to. It is silly to me that people make people in Washington into heroes in their mind. That does not help anyone!

Caleb's 3rd Birthday

2009-05-14T21:11:00.007-04:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Caleb!!

Black tongue from the frosting

Bike for his birthday

Fun in the yard

Mickey Mouse PJ's

Mindy, Todd, Ava, Bowe, my Mom and Dad gathered at our house for dinner and the party.

Caleb really wanted a Mickey Mouse cake

My Meeting with Geithner

2009-05-08T10:22:00.003-04:00

Darn the New York Times! I was trying to keep a low profile and now the secret is out! They FOIL'ed (requested public information under the Freedom of Information Law) Sec. Geithner's appointment schedule while he was chair of the New York Fed and they found our meeting.

Here's the NYT Page. You'll never know what we talked about, but if you know me you can venture a guess.

Can't We Issue a Stop Payment on the Stimulus?

2009-05-06T17:38:00.009-04:00

If you haven't noticed, the United States economy has not collapsed into an unfathomable abyss. We are not out of the woods yet but there is some positive economic news. Pending home sales and construction spending both increased in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. I'm happy that the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) is three month moving average shows signs of improvement.

When the line goes up the gray bars usually end. And when the gray bars end, that means we're out of a recession. That's some good news. Furthermore the number of news articles about the Great Depression have declined. If you don't believe me, check out Google Trends.

So it looks like the economy is starting to recover. Funny thing too. You remember that "Stimulus Bill" that was passed. You know that that bill that had to pass or else we were heading for oblivion. Well only $15.4 Billion of something like $787 Billion has been spent according to the President's site:

Thats about 2% of the total. So if the bill was supposed to save the nation from economic calamity, why not issue a stop payment on the remainder?

The Grass is Always Greener ... in Norway

2009-04-24T12:41:00.019-04:00

Ah Norway! There has been so much talk of you lately and how America should model itself after you! After all, you are an egalitarian society, that enjoys both huge government spending and economic growth. Why wouldn't we want to be like Norway? I mean check it out! Isn't the grass so green!
Sarcasm aside, I am quite skeptical of the "Nordic Model" working in America and here's three reasons why (I do have more but these won't put you to sleep):

Scale - Have you ever made a plan and pulled it off and then though to yourself "That was great I should do it again but at a much larger scale." It's not as easy. Say you were successful with a small garden and you decide to expand your garden. After all it isn't much different right? Instead of taking an hour a day to nurture your plants, you would have to take more time in the garden.

Implementing the Nordic Model would be the equivalent of a gardener deciding to become a farmer. I don't think people are aware of the fact that Norway has roughly the same population as the state of Alabama. Alabama makes up less than 2% of America's population (which is coincidentally 1/50^th. Get it, 1/50^th. 50 States. I'm such a nerd). Administering the "Nordic Model" for the United States, a nation with 65 times the population, would obviously be, well, a difficult task. The scale of the project would be more complicated (have higher "costs" in economic terms). I don't believe the model scales well, and that's one reason why I am skeptical.
America's Diversity - America is a diverse place which is a good thing. So what does this have to do with Norway? Well did you know that 94% of the population of Norway is the same ethnic group (Norwegian). 94%!!! The United State's largest group is the white alone (meaning white and not Hispanic) group. They make up 74% of the population. There are a few places that are a homogeneous as Norway. No Utah is only 90% White. West Virginia is 94% white, New Hampshire is 95% and Maine and Vermont are 96%. Those are the only 4 states.

So what does this have to do with Norway? It is a lot easier to act in favor of the "Public Interest" when everyone is so similar. What is the "Public Interest" of America? The news illustrates the diversity of opinions that exists, and which is to be expected. Afterall, this is America.
Is the Grass REALLY that Green? - I really think proponents of bringing this way of life to America are in love with it; and as the cliche goes "love is blind." The black market in Norway has exploded. If people are so happy with their system, why is there a black market. Shouldn't their needs be taken care of? America's system is not perfect, just as our democracy is not perfect. But it is without a doubt the best system out there.

Interesting Side Note: There was an article in the Economist back in December of 2006 speaking about Sweden(another Nordic model country) and how it's not working for them. There have been recent studies saying that it is also a deceiving because Sweden is about a rich as the state of Louisiana. How would you like for everyone to have that standard of living.

Who's the Welfare State?

2009-04-11T14:28:00.004-04:00

I came across this picture of the Great Depression. I asked myself "Does this look like today?" After all, people are quick to compare today to the Great Depression.

One thing that is interesting about this picture is that the sponsor of the sign is the Chamber of Commerce. Today we do not look to the Chamber of Commerce for these kinds of solutions. We look to the government.

I started to look at the "welfare state" concept using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data and came across some interesting facts that I felt like sharing.

Welfare State Ranking - Top and Bottom 5
1. New York	$3.17
2. Massachusetts	$2.40
3. Rhode Island	$2.35
4. Vermont	$2.30
5. Maine	$2.09
...
46. Virginia	$1.13
47. New Hampshire	$1.07
48. Colorado	$0.95
49. New Mexico	$0.90
50. Utah	$0.80

These figures are per-capita dollars (this allows for a fair comparison across states) in 2007. The are for money received by individuals for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, TANF, etc. Interesting that the highest state receives 4 times as much as the bottom. It is also to look at the top five and notice a similarity of geography.

It is also interesting to look at the bottom five and compare it to the map in the previous post. It seems like the people from Michigan are moving to the states with the lowest per-capita dollars. Maybe these are states where the chamber of commerse is able to take care of their own and some others too.

A Lesson From Michigan

2009-04-03T21:52:00.005-04:00

So after a one day break I'm back in the saddle again. Here's a chicken-or-the-egg type question: What comes first the people or the jobs? While you think about that I want to share some highlights from and article in the Detroit News. It can be found here, and is summed up by the headlines "Leaving Michigan Behind: Eight-year population exodus staggers state" "Outflow of skilled, educated workers crimps Michigan's recovery" (was Michigan recovering?).

The writer states "Michigan's exodus is one of the state's best known but least understood problems." Least understood. Hmmmm. Could it be that your economy stinks? Let's look at the map (included in the article) that shows where the Michiganders are moving to.

The red states receive the people. Lots moving to Florida - retirement. But then theres a lot in the south, Texas, Arizona, California. These states have been the boom states economically. So what comes first the jobs or the people?

According to the article "The state loses a family every 12 minutes, and the families who are leaving -- young, well-educated high-income earners"

Now before you say wow I'm glad I'm not there, New York (where I live) is in the same boat. Sandy Parker, the President of the Rochester Business Alliance wrote an article saying that Upstate New York is facing a similar situation. In fact, when I first met her she welcomed me saying that she was happy to see a college education young person moving to Rochester.

So why are the people running away? Some blame it on the decline of manufacturing based economy to a service based economy. I point my finger at taxes. People (individuals and businesses) are shifting to where they won't get dinged with high taxes. 9 of the 10 highest taxed counties in the United States are in New York.

And the problem is that it is becoming a death spiral. As the population ages, they leave the tax base. But there are programs like social security, medicare, etc. Some of these programs are state funded. What happens when your younger population is fleeing.

What we are seeing is the formation of ghost towns. It is fascinating to me in a car-wreck-on-the-interstate kind of way. (You know you rubberneck). I have some interesting data that I want to share about related topics. So what is the lesson that we learn? If you want to kill your economy, tax it.

What do Facebook, History, and Upstate New York have in common?

2009-04-02T21:34:00.003-04:00

So I have decided to leave economics out of the picture (if that is possible) and write a post. Danielle has finally decided to join Facebook and is currently sending our requests from my page. I don't really get Facebook. I love technology but don't get Facebook. Does that mean I'm getting old. I remember back in my day we used to email everyone. And before that we would talk to people in person.

I have been thinking about history lately (after listening to EconTalk, my preferred weekly podcast) and realize how important a complete and accurate understanding of it is. You really can't get a good idea of what is going on with out it.

We have been settling in nicely here in Upstate New York. We are trying to get our garden in (pictures forth coming). Today's weather was beautiful. I'm looking forward to things greening up, and maybe some friends from New York City will make the drive up. We could sit in the basement and Facebook each other. You know what. I thought I was pretty cool for having 50 some odd friends on Facebook. Then I found out my sister has somewhere in the order of 3 times as much. Oh well. If Facebook friends are a good indicator of coolness I'm not very cool.

So you're wondering what Facebook, history, and Upstate New York all have in common. They were in this random post.

The Pitts family Vaction Cruise

2009-03-10T21:08:00.024-04:00

Entering the cruise ship for the Bahamas

Caleb and Mike on our drill

Eating lunch our first day in the dinning room

Mason and Caleb next to the towel animal that our steward left every night.

Our first stop was in Florida and is wasn't the warmest weather for the beach but we took advantage of it anyway.
Mason loving the beach

Caleb chillin' out

Our second stop was Norwegian's private island, Stirrup Cay.

Mason snoozing in the hammock

Fun in the sun and on the beach

Our ship from the beach. Look at the nice water!

The kids club did Blue's Clues one night and Caleb loved it!

In Nassau, capital of the Bahamas, we went on a semisub. The boys loved looking at the fish and everything we saw. We saw sharks, conchs, sand dollars, starfish, barracudas, cool plant, and lots of colorful fish.

Here is some fish but the picture didn't turn out great through the glass.

Mason near a cannon in a fort.

Mason wasn't allowed in the regular pool since he wears diapers still. So, we brought a little pool for him. He loved it and wasn't as upset not to go swimming with Caleb.

Mike on the climbing wall

Danielle on the climbing wall

Their pirate Bahama shirts

Working on a Post

2009-02-27T17:54:00.005-05:00

I am working on a post with more cool graphs but I wanted to weigh in on the stimulus. I visited http://www.recovery.gov/ the website that is supposed to provide transparency on how the money is spent. I found it interesting that most of the money will go to "* Tax Relief."

Notice the star? I did. The footnote is learn more, so I did. I clicked on the link and saw a nice bubble chart showing the proportions of the money and "* Tax Relief" is the largest bubble. At the bottom of the page there is the following:

* Tax Relief - includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.

Hmm. So $126 billion for Infrastructure & Science not $111 billion, and $142 for Protecting the Vulnerable that was put into * Tax Relief. Do you know what the total spent on tax relief is after subtracting all this out? $105 billion. (By the way $8 Billion for Other. What does that mean?)

So the bar chart on the homepage looks like this:

Where is Your Money Going?

When it should really look like this (pardon the small fonts):

More to come on the economy. GDP figures are out today. interesting stuff is on its way.

UPDATE So I had to post an update to this post because recovery.gov changed their home page (and it's not on the way back machine). I did find something interesting which once again proves the devil is in the details of a boring technical document. This Page has a map of the US showing how many jobs the stimulus bill will save/create. I was interested in their methodology and read "The state jobs estimates are inherently more speculative than the overall estimates" which means that the information in the map is speculative. The overall estimates are not available. Does this seem Orwellian to anyone else?

Valentines Day and more

2009-02-22T22:04:00.007-05:00

One of Caleb's projects was a colored sand jar made from fruit loops. First we had to sort the colors.

Then he had to crush the fruit loops. He liked pounding them but he like sorting them better (more ended up in his mouth)

Caleb's finished product.

Mason was excited to open his Valentine bag

Caleb put together special bags for family members for Valentines Day. These are lollipop mice.

January Activity Highlights

2009-02-10T11:06:00.028-05:00

5 Senses - Sight Day - We made binoculars

FHE treat - Crunchy the snowman

Matching lowercase and uppercase letters

Letter P = Pom Poms

White Day - shaving cream drawings

treading marshmallows on licorice

Rochester Museum of Play

FHE treat - Waffle brownies

Letter Q= Quilt

Book Theme Challenge - The Mittens by Jan Brett
Treading mittens

Painting mitten toast with colored milk for a snack

FHE treat - skiing snowmen

5 Senses Day - Sound - Make tambourines

Color Day - Brown- We made a hat

Chinese New year - Made lanterns

Letter S = Sandpaper

FHE treat for Chinese New Year - Fortune cookies with fortunes by Caleb

Reading theme challenge foe Chinese New Year - We read "D is for Dragon Dance by Ying Chang Compenstine" In the book each letter stood for something that helped celebrate Chinese New Year. The R stood for Red envelopes so we made our own to help us celebrate (Year of the OX)

Mason's Birthday

2009-02-08T15:31:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Mason's birthday two days after his actual birthday so that family could be there. So on his birthday I made Mason and Caleb sheep cupcakes.

Mason loves the bathtub and water. He crawls into the tub as soon as he hears the water. So for his cake I made a bath tub.

Yum! Birthday cake!

He got a wagon for his birthday. All of the kids love it, Mason climbs in and out of it constantly.

Some of our December Activities

2009-01-23T14:51:00.007-05:00

Caleb made a spaceship out of some cool clay that he got for Christmas

Caleb and I worked on this snow globe through the month. It was a kit that I found on sale at a craft store.

Mason in his doggie towel

Caleb in his frog towel

Playing in the snow

Mason trying to figure out what all the white stuff around him is.

January Calendar

2009-01-22T15:07:00.006-05:00

Several people have asked me what I do with Caleb (2+3/4 year old now) and how I organize it. So I decided to post my calendar for January.

Date
2- 5 Senses - Sight - make binoculars (TP tubes)
5- FHE snack - Crunchy the snowman
6- Letter P
7- Colors - White - shaving cream pictures, marshmallow activity
8- Book Reading theme challenge - The Mitten by Jan Brett! - threading mitten, mitten toast snack and hot cocoa
9- 5 Senses - Taste
12- FHE snack - waffle brownies
13 - Letter Q
14 - Colors - kaleidoscopes
15- Book Reading them challenge - 5 little ducks - felt board activity, pringles duck beaks for snack
16- 5 Senses - Sound - make a tambourine with plates, beans, streamers
19- FHE treat - skiing snowmen
20- Letter R
21- Colors - brown, make a hat, cookies
22- Blue's clues day
23- 5 Senses - Touch
26- FHE snack - Chinese New Year cookies
27 - Letter S
28- Color - Grey, elephant
29- Science activity- change celery different colors
30- Book Reading theme Challenge - Chinese New Year

In the next couple of days I'll post some of the pictures from our activities so you can see what we have done.

Update on letters

2009-01-21T16:01:00.010-05:00

H= Hair

I=Icicles

J= Jaguar (Diego's Baby Jaguar to be exact)

K=Keys

L=Lollipops

M=Money

N=Noodles

O=Orange Octagons

P= Pom poms

Q= Quilt (Caleb helped me sew it)

More Interesting Economic News

2009-01-15T18:45:00.004-05:00

I am so happy! I read a post a while back that was really good but promptly forgot where I found it (I really hate it when that happens). Well I have had the fortune to come across it again tonight: Where is the Credit Crunch? (This comes from Marginal Revolution which is a major economic blog). This was written back in September (pre-bailout). I have been looking for this post for a while so I am happy I crossed it again. I found it because part 3 came out on the same topic: Where is the Credit Crunch? III. I have yet to find part 2. Marginal Revolution posts tend to be heavy at times.

Another interesting post that I read tonight and highly recommend to anyone is Despite Current Economic Slowdown, Consumers Have Never Had It So Good. Ever. Anywhere. It illustrates the point quite well. Also, there were a couple of comments to my last post which I plan spending some time investigating and providing answers to them. Danielle intends posting more pictures too.

The Economy is in Crisis! Really?

2009-01-10T22:23:00.008-05:00

There is a lot of talk about the economy if you haven’t noticed. You can turn on the news or pick up a paper and read a report about “the economy in crisis.” I have heard news stories about how people are putting on recession pounds. The storyline goes since we are in such tough times we are cutting back on the dollars spent on food. This has the health experts worried because research supports a strong link between lower income and obesity. So because we are in a recession we are not eating well and putting on the pounds. More on this latter.

I have also heard of recent research coming out observing that people are not as unhappy as would be expected given the dire circumstances. The researcher’s explanation is that since everyone is hit with this recession, and everyone is worse off, it doesn’t seem so bad. If it would only hit one segment of the population then the level of discontent would be higher. But it is affecting everyone to some extent and we are all in the same boat.

Hmmm. I have a different take on this. MAYBE WE ARE NOT UNHAPPY BECAUSE THINGS ARE NOT SO BAD. Here’s how I got there. (Warning: The following section will contain some statistics. Do not read this if you are planning on operating heavy machinery)

I have heard it said that you can define a recession as when your neighbor looses his job and a depression as when you loose your job. So I was looking at New York State employment numbers. It turns out there may be some truth to that. Take a look at the following chart:

The gray vertical bars are the times when the nation was officially in a recession. You can see that during the three recessions that employment in New York State declined. But it is a little hard to see what’s going on in the current recession. The line looked flat but I couldn’t tell for sure so I created the same chart except it only shows January 2007 to November 2008.
One thing that I noticed was that New York State’s employment in November (represented by the red line)declined to the May 2007 level. I also noticed that employment GREW as the nation entered the recession. I found that very odd and checked out the other two recent recessions to see if that happened. It didn’t. Employment decreased every month in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession. But employment grew for a while in the current recession and in fact didn’t really begin to decline until September 2008 (the axis on the graph may make it seem like it happened earlier but it didn’t).

So then I became intrigued and looked into it further. The previous recessions both lasted eight months. The current recession began in December 2007 so we are almost a year into it (as far as the data goes). So the current recession is longer than the past two and based on all the news you hear you would think the wheels are falling off the nation. I mean all the Wall Street firms went belly-up. You would expect New York’s economy to be in the toilet. Well New York State has lost to November 2008 somewhere in the neighborhood of 21 thousand jobs. In the 2001 New York lost about 195 thousand jobs and about 240 thousand in the 1990’s recession. This translates into a 3% decline in the 90’s, 2.25% in 2001, and a 0.25% decline in the current recession. For those who just fell asleep or are confused with so many numbers check out the pictures.

So maybe we don’t feel so bad because it isn’t so bad. Yes the economy just lost a lot of jobs, but it has been gaining so many for quite some time. That’s why the unemployment rate is only at 7.2%. Now we could just be beginning the nosedive, but a lot of economists believe that we will be out of the recession by the middle of this year. I personally think that the media and politicians love to hype this up. It sells newspapers (or at least it used to when they were sold) and it gives politicians justification to put drastic policy measures in place to deal with crisis. After all that what we expect from our leaders.

So while we wait we worry and put on recession pounds. It is funny how that story came out right after the holiday season (the “worse one ever” by the way). Did you put on some recession pounds? Well don’t worry. Our leaders will solve the problem with the economy and we will loose weight in no time.

2009-01-05T14:31:00.006-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures of our new house. I took these the day of the inspection so this is there stuff still in the house. I just wanted to give you an idea. We are going to be repainting and stuff so I will have to do before and after pictures. We are getting excited.

This is the finished basement

This is part of the family room (hard to take a picture of this)

The kitchen

Backyard

Front of the house

We bought a house

2008-12-11T11:09:00.002-05:00

This week has been crazy. We went to look at houses again on Saturday and found one we really liked. We went back to the open house on Sunday. We made an offer on Monday and it was excepted, after a little negotiating, that evening. Tuesday I talked to banks, inspectors, attorneys and a lot of other people. The stress level has been high but it's exciting. I'll post some pictures of the place soon.

Some of our November Activities

2008-12-04T21:08:00.018-05:00

Caleb helped me paint signs and I used Vinyl to make some Christmas presents this year.

We made paper plate turkeys

Rice Crispy treat houses

For my nieces and nephew I made hoodie towels. A duck

Mike modeling my pink bunny towel (it made him think of a Christmas Story)

A doggie

A Butterfly

Caleb made donut acorns for FHE one night

Mason decide that he likes climbing on everything. He can get up and down stairs so fast and not very safe.

We made and canned applesauce

For another FHE treat Caleb made pilgrim hats by dipping marshmellows in chocolate and putting them on a chocolate cookie

We made bird feeders out of pine cones

We went apple picking. Mason enjoyed eating the apples.

Mike took this picture as a contrast to our view in Staten Island.

We got to ride a tractor our to pick the apples.

Clearing Up a Few Common Misconceptions

2008-11-27T10:38:00.004-05:00

So I received a forwarded email petition stating that "the Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens access to Social Security benefits" and we need to forward this email on to everyone we know to get signitures urging the president to veto this bill (note there is no bill number referenced in the email). The email continues "It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working lives?" Okay. Now I need to post something to the blog to clear up a few misconceptions for the benefit of the like 3 people who read my posts.

For starters, there are illegal aliens who get a social security number. And once they get a social security number, they have the social security payments withheld from their paychecks. If they are only paid in cash and there is no paper trail well that's a totally different story. So misconception #1 illegal immigrants have never contributed to social security is false.

Misconception #2 really needs to be addressed. People believe that they have paid into social security similar to the way you pay into a 401K or IRA. THAT IS FALSE! Social security has NEVER worked like that. Social Security is really more like a Ponzi Schemeusing the the "rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul" principle to work. The current labor force (who are paying social security taxes) is supporting all those who receive their check. (Side though: I wonder what happens when the labor force is smaller than the recipients. Hmmm. Oh wait that's a few years away). So when you get the mailing from the social security administration that looks like an investment statement explaining how much you have paid, realize this is misleading and a waste of your tax dollars.

So to review: Just because a worker is an illegal immigrant doesn't mean they haven't paid taxes including social security. And you are not paying into anything when it comes to social security. The statement that it is impossible to live on social security, however, is true.

Life is Good

2008-11-22T22:16:00.003-05:00

Our blog has fallen silent over the past few days. This is largely because I have been busy at work for a change and have not found time to post to the blog like I used to. Imagine that - working at work.

I really like my job. I enjoy the challenge that each day brings and actually look forward to going to work. I still enjoy going home more, but it is great to have a job that you don't dread going to.

Life upstate is good. Yes we have had snow and I don't think it got above 30 degrees today but that doesn't matter. We like it up here. We do miss our friends in New York a lot. I personally miss the reading time I had on the ferry. I don't get the same chance to read.

But life is very different. The traffic reports last about 30 seconds so I spend quite a bit of time surfing the radio stations trying to catch the report. Then I realize that even when there is heavy delays it isn't as bad a normal traffic on the Staten Island Expressway.

So in case your wondering we are still alive

2008-11-09T22:27:00.001-05:00

We have survived yet another move. It seems that we always seem to move around this time of year too. This will be the second year that we were "homeless" for Christmas (meaning not living in our own place). I love my new job. It is so much better I can't begin to express it. We continue to look for houses. This is a really complex problem with no simple solution. The calculus involves trade-offs, loads of trade-offs. Factor in we are not exactly sure what we are looking for (number of bed rooms, style of house, how much we are willing and able to fix up, etc). We have seen quite a few and our buyer's agent is great. I know once we make the decision we will post it here.

Thanks for the emails (I know Danielle's received some). Our phone is not working because half of it was packed in a box somewhere and it is in storage. We should take a picture of our storage shed. You can see the expert packing job that we did. We just found our cable to our camera so we will be uploading pictures soon.

Our activities the last two weeks

2008-10-24T15:56:00.009-04:00

This week we made a ghost. This was the first step

This was after we finished

G= Green Glitter

We got out of our half packed house one day and went to play at Chuck E Cheese

The boys racing around the house on cars

A trip to the zoo

F= Feathers

My Birthday Adventure!! (Last Week)

2008-10-24T14:53:00.015-04:00

For my birthday Katie S. watched my kids so I could have a day in the city.
I started in Central Park.

I went and saw Belvedere Castle.

Looking out over Turtle Pond

This is looking north from the top tower.

Garment District

Interesting sign on 25th street

I met Mike for lunch and we went to a Greek restaurant named Karavas. It was yummy.

This is an awsome store. They have cool fabric.
I bought some Halloween fabric to make a little quilt.

After dinner that evening the girls came and surprised me with a Girls Night Out in the city.
We went to Magnolia Bakery and tried there Banana pudding
(sooooooooooo good) and split a key lime cheesecake with Susie

Then we went to Serendipity for some Frozen Hot Chocolates.
All things I wanted to do before I left NYC.

Susie and I split a mint Frozen Hot Chocolate

All the girls.

Four Phased of Reaction

2008-10-22T15:14:00.004-04:00

So I was listening to an economics podcast and heard the following which I found interesting. Bill Hamilton, a biologist explained every scientific theory goes through four phases of reaction: that's not true; that's an interesting if perverse way of looking at the world; I see the experimental evidence accounts for certain edge cases; I have always believed it. I think this is a great quote! The podcast is Econtalk and I would recommend it to nerds like me.

FHE

2008-10-15T22:27:00.010-04:00

For FHE on Monday, Caleb made pear witches.

He enjoyed eating them!!

We also painted gords that we got on Saturday

My economic fears and what to do about it

2008-10-15T16:44:00.004-04:00

I was reading this post, about what you can do to prepare for what may be ahead (Please take a couple of minutes and read it), and was presented with some numbers which triggered my worst economic fears. Allow me to do illustrate with some sloppy arithmetic:

$152 billion for the summer stimulus package + $123 billion bailout of AIG + $700 billion bailout bill + $250 billion into several large banks (I told you they didn't even consider the smaller option) = $1,225 billion or $1.225 trillion. (Not to mention the money the Federal Reserve has been funneling into the financial system)

Now add to that some sloppy history: I may have missed the news, but I don't remember hearing that GDP expanded by $1.225 trillion since last summer. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly I remember talk about a slowdown in the economy, bordering on recession.

Finally apply some sloppy thinking: Goods slowing down...Huge spending increase...Businesses hurting...Huge spending increase...No growth in tax base...Huge spending increase...It can't be funded by taxation...Huge spending increase funded by money that isn't there.

To come to my conclusion: Money Supply increasing + Goods are not = Inflation.

Inflation fears worry me more than the threat of a Great Depression because everyone becomes poorer simultaneously which is not a good thing. Did you know that Hitler came to power because Germany was in a period of hyperinflation after World War I. Yep.

I had an econ professor that taught me that my generation didn't know tough economic times. We had grown up in the late 80's and 90's and had it good. So I fear that my generation will get sideswiped by inflation and not be prepared to deal with its consequences. So once again I would encourage you to read this post, and get things in order. I know we will.

What happened to last week?

2008-10-13T13:32:00.017-04:00

I made a special bag for Caleb to take on our nature walks. He was so excited for a small plastic bag of his own, I wanted to have something a little better.

I also made a really easy apron for him to wear when we cook together. (It's a dish towel and ribbon. So easy and he loves wearing it.)

Mason crawling around.

On Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Festival at Willowbrook Park.

We rode the carousel and picked out pumpkins and gourds to paint for FHE.

Mason's first ride on a carousel

Both of the boys enjoyed looking at the animals.

One day we played with goop. Caleb doesn't like his hands getting dirty so this was a challenge.

He enjoyed the things I gave him to play in it better than his hands.

On one of our walks this week we collected leaves and did leaf rubbings

Part of our interesting week was Caleb running into a pole at the playground. Ouch!

E= eggshells

Caleb coloring the eggs to make our letter of the week

For FHE on Monday Caleb made popsicles for us.

Babysitting Co-op: watching a movie and having a snack

Moving on Up...Upstate that is

2008-10-11T21:25:00.004-04:00

So in case you didn't know we will be moving up to the Rochester NY area. So we have been packing up, getting ready to go. We did pick up more than what we had when we moved in to our apartment. Now we just need to pack it up too.

This will make you do a double take

2008-10-10T15:59:00.003-04:00

A little while back I was reading an economics/finance book (yeah I know I'm a nerd) and came across this quote which I found very interesting:

When business in the United States underwent a mild contraction ... the Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any possible
bank reserve shortage. The "Fed" succeeded; ... but it nearly destroyed the economies of the world, in the process. The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market-triggering a fantastic speculative boom. Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves and finally succeeded in breaking the boom. But it was too late: ... the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenching and a consequent demoralizing of business confidence. As a result, the American economy collapsed.

It was reportedly written by a young economist by the name of Alan Greenspan and explains that it came from an article "Gold and Economic Freedom" from The Objectivist, 1996, reprinted in Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, New York: Penguin, 1987.

A spitball solution to the problem

2008-10-10T14:29:00.008-04:00

So if you are up on current events you are probably aware that we are in the middle of a financial situation melting down (interesting side note - there is a good explanation about the why this happened here and here). Now the question becomes how to deal with the problem and how to prevent it from happening again.

I have a solution that I think should be considered. One of the factors that contributed to the problem is the disconnect in the system. Bad loans were originated, purchased by another party, sliced-and-diced into another product and sold ad nauseum. When the blame question is raised to pin responsibility for the action it becomes very messy. Couple this with the scale factor. The institutions involved are huge banks. These titans were considered "too big to fail" (lesson one: nothing is too big to fail) but as they are coming apart just due to their sheer size they are pulling the system down. With these two points in mind here is my solution and why I feel it will unfortunately be overlooked.

The long-term solution lies in smaller financial institutions. Small banks (or better yet credit unions) who know who they loan the money to (like the neighbor down the street), and hold their loans for the whole duration. Smaller businesses are quicker to respond to what is going on. Also realize that the United States is economically diverse. Smaller banks would be able to adapt to the specifics of the area they serve. One things that is nice is that if we had smaller institutions the risk would be spread out. If this disaster were to have occurred it might wipe out a few banks but it wouldn't threaten the whole system. Smaller banks would fix the disconnect and the scale issues.

I think this would be a better solution then the current consolidation and global actions. Central Banks around the world are coordinating their efforts. Globalizing the banking system is the path that policy makers are tending towards. I think they are convinced if they get bigger they will eventually become too big to fail. I just don't think they are considering the small option.

What I did tonight that I haven't done in a long time that I should do more often

2008-10-07T21:16:00.002-04:00

Today was one of those days:
- A five min Rx pick up turned into a 50 min wait chasing the kids around
- Nap time turned into: How much trouble can Caleb get into? (He poured a whole bottle of baby oil on the rug in the boys room, woke Mason from his nap, and refused to sleep)
- I locked myself out of the house
- Mason wanted me to hold him all day (Even during my exercise)
- Because of no nap for Caleb and little nap for Mason the boys were very winy today
- The house is a mess and I did not clean one thing up
- No laundry got done
- I did not pack anything

So my day ended with a bubble bath, my favorite candle (Yankee Macintosh apple), a cake in a mug, and a relaxing movie. I should take more evenings off!

For those of you who want to make yourself a cake in a mug, here is the recipe (12 points if you want to know)
MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
1 Mug
4 tablespoons flour(that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake
will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Why I Want to be Rich

2008-10-06T10:25:00.002-04:00

When Danielle and I were married we lived in the University's married student housing. I remember one Friday we decided to splurge a little for date night and go down to Hire's Big H to have dinner. We didn't have much money at the time so we decided to get a pizza and split it.

We had a great dinner holding each other's hands while waiting for the food. Talking about our big dreams and what ever else we wanted to. We had our pizza and I was getting ready to pay the check. Then this guy in the restaurant that we had never met before nor after came to our table and insisted that he pick up our bill. After futile protest on our part and with much gratitude we accepted his offer. He just said promise that you do this for someone else.

I am currently reading "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey (and I highly recommend it to anyone). In one of his final chapters he shared similar stories. One story was of a man who handed out $100 bills to strangers during Christmas time. I would love to do this! This is why I want to be rich (and hope the government doesn't "help" me take care of "others").

Our week

2008-10-03T14:11:00.008-04:00

Thursday we made prints with apples

Looking down on the maze (secret garden) at Snug Harbor

Caleb loved the maze. He went through 4 times all by himself.

Wed. was such a nice day we explored Snug Harbor. The healing garden was just reopened and Mason and Caleb loved the little stream that was next to the walk way. We collected "fall things" for a collage that we are making.

Mason figured out that if he blew while I was trying to feed him that the food would fly all over and he could get a reaction from Caleb. Now he won't stop. This picture is after blowing food all over.

D= dinosaur

Who are we bailing out?

2008-10-02T16:11:00.002-04:00

This infuriates me. The Senate Conservatives Fund reports who is getting bailout money:

Here are some of the special-interest provisions that are now part of the Wall Street bailout legislation. The bill started at 3 pages, grew to 106 pages, and is now 451 pages.

Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)

Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)

6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)

Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)

American Samoa (Sec. 309)

Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)

Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)

Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)

Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)

Railroads (Sec. 316)

Auto Racing Tracks (317)

District of Columbia (Sec. 322)

Wool Research (Sec. 325)

Furthermore this post to Econbrowser explains how money to Detroit is included in the continuing resolution (which allows the Federal Government to continue to operate without a budget being passed). I really hate the way they do things in Washington!

Why I am an Independent

2008-10-02T12:04:00.002-04:00

So I was filling out a voter registration card the other day for Upstate New York so we can vote when we move up there. At the bottom of the card you declare party affiliation. I checked that I am unaffiliated (I won't tell you what my wife checked). I take pride in being an independent. I came across the following quote given by George Washington at his 1796 farewell speech:

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."

Political parties are destroying this nation (along with overspending), pitting American against American. Why don't we focus more on what is right versus who is right?

I believe Dickens put it best

2008-09-30T13:00:00.006-04:00

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditures twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of the day goes down upon the dreary scene, and - and in short, you are forever floored” This quote from Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield explains what America is facing.

For far too long, people have been over spending. Consumers have been doing it. Companies have been doing it. Banks have been doing it. Government has been doing it. All this overspending has created a false illusion of prosperity. Now as it begins to implode America will be floored.

There is a simple economic principle which is unavoidable: It takes work to get anything. Credit allows people to have something now with the promise to work latter. Well, America, it's time to go to work for all those things you have already bought, or worse yet, go to work for what other people have bought.

I am against this bailout for so many reasons. One reason is that I believe that failure teaches lessons. Contrary to popular belief I have experienced failure, and through the School of Hard Knocks I have learned (an sometimes relearned) valuable lessons.

I hope that a good hard knock could be used to change American purchasing behavior. Similar to the Greens who want $6.00/gallon gasoline to teach us not to drive SUV's, I want credit to dry up to each us that we don't need financing for all our purchases. Consumer electronics, clothing at department stores, and a host of other small ticket items are being sold on credit. All these things can be bought for cash. This happens when you save money for a while. You have worked and know you are free to purchase something and really enjoy it!

I really hope this is a turning point, in which people will wake up and start saving again. Until then, they are experiencing the hangover from the money party that has been going on, and has hopefully came to an end. So what will you choose: Misery or Happiness?

Waiting for Daddy to come home

2008-09-25T14:25:00.005-04:00

Lounging around eating a snack. I thought Caleb looked funny just relaxing like this.

Is Daddy home yet?

Saturday Family Outing to Governor's Island

2008-09-25T14:00:00.009-04:00

View of one of the NYC Waterfalls

View of Manhattan from the Governor's Island

Playing miniature golf. Caleb's first time.

Relaxing after our picnic

It was free kite and bike weekend. Caleb picked the kite and we put it together. We tried to fly it but there was not wind at all. We tried for a little bit though to make Caleb happy. The funny thing was that there were a lot of people trying to get there kites in the air.

Riding the Staten Island Ferry.

Letter of the week

2008-09-25T13:57:00.000-04:00

C = Cotton

Fun photos of the week

2008-09-21T22:03:00.005-04:00

Mason if growing so fast. He is now almost 8 months old.

Fun in the tub.

Caleb's ABC

2008-09-18T22:14:00.016-04:00

Caleb and I started working on a special touch and feel book of ABC's. Last week we did A-alphabet. He got a little carried away with the glue while I wasn't looking.

This week we did B - buttons. He had fun looking through all the buttons and deciding which on to put on the B.

Girls Night Out

2008-09-18T22:14:00.010-04:00

We all had a great night out at Max Brenner's for dessert.

Good food, Good Friends, Good Times!

Summer Fun

2008-09-13T22:41:00.020-04:00

So I know that I have not kept up on the Blog so I'm trying to do a little catch up. Here is some of the Highlights from the summer.

Mike had training in DC and we all went with him. While we were the we went to the zoo and the Space and Air museum.

One Saturday we went to Central Park and Caleb enjoyed running in the water at the park.

We got yummy cupcakes at Dylan's Candy Bar and Caleb enjoyed every bite. Mason even tried to dig in to whatever he could get his hands on.

Dylan's Candy Bar

Christy and I took our kids to a carnival that they had in Stapleton.

Nickelodeon had a slime fest at Snug Harbor that we went to explore. Caleb got to shoot slime from a gun. He was excited.

Mike had training in Boston and while he was working Me and the boys had fun in the Children's museum.

Caleb loved the different mazes that the had set up for golf balls. We spent most of our time in this room at the Children's museum.

Caleb became a fish. He loves the water and learned to swim well this summer.

Mason is just CUTE!!

Marc and Megan got sealed in the SLC temple and Mike was able to go out to be there with them.

We went to the NYC aquarium for play group.

All of us Moms and kids waiting for the show at the aquarium.

Williamsburg Vacation

2008-06-29T18:13:00.004-04:00

Change in Church Schedule = No Nap

2008-05-25T22:11:00.002-04:00

Food Storage

2008-05-20T18:38:00.004-04:00

Like a lot of people lately Mike and I have been trying to increase our food storage and learn how to use it and rotate. I've collected a lot of information in the past of how we were going to store food when we had space. Well, we decided that we probably won't have a lot of space for a while but we should get going. We bought shelves and put them in our spidery basement and started trying to store. I've been trying new recipes and making my own bread (we also just bought a wheat grinder that I love) Monica, my sister, got me in contact with someone from her ward who explained to me how to make a meat out of ground flour. (It's a meat substitute) Mike and I tried it for FHE a week ago and I cooked it as our meal the following day. Surprisingly it tasted like chicken (I flavored it with chicken broth) and had a meat texture to it. I decided that it would be better as a ground beef though. That's my next experiment. Then Monica told me about a web site that she heard on the radio in Utah. It simplylivingsmart.com I started looking at their site and was so interested in all of the things that they we talking about. I couldn't get enough of their information and within about 2 weeks had watched or read everything on their site. They (simplylivingsmart.com) just decided to launch a lesson program about how to use your food storage in everyday living, save money, and a ton of other things. Well, they were giving away scholarships for their classes and I won one. I'm so excited. I had to answer 3 questions

What have you already learned from www.simplylivingsmart.com or from the newsletter?
How has it helped you become more prepared or comfortable with your storage and whole food pantry?
Why are you excited to take Eating Gourmet the Food Storage Way–Online Training?

1) I just found your web site about 2 weeks ago. My husband, my two young children, and I, live in New York City. Space is limited and the value of what to store is important to us. Since I starting looking through your web site I've been glued to the computer. Trying to find the time I have to look through the vast information and apply it to what we can use for our family. All of the videos, articles, newsletters, and blogs that I have read and helped me start to realize that I can begin storing and using my storage even here in the city. Before I only made bread with my wheat but now I feel like a whole new world has opened up as I've learned that I can do so many different things with my wheat. My husband and I have tried several of the things that I have already learned. Each time I learn something new I'm so excited to share the information with him so we can apply it to our family.
2) One thing that I have always been intimidated with is beans. I've never known how to cook or use them correctly. Consequently I stopped buying and storing beans. By learning recipes and techniques to use beans I can feel comfortable again in adding this to my food storage shopping list.
3) I've always felt the desire to understand and prepare. My desire to learn has increased as my family has grown and my desire to care for them has increased. After doing research on my own and feeling frustrated with our lack of storage space, I found your site. It has put a spark into my need for knowledge. I told my husband that I feel like a sponge, I want to keep soaking up all that I can learn. I want to store what I need to for my family and know how to use in our daily meals. I want to feel comfortable with whatever is ahead of us. Whether it be regular living or having to survive a family crisis or disaster. I want to feel like I can help my family.

Now I get to learn through 12 different 60-90 min classes on the web and a bunch of other bonuses.
We will see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

A fresh start

2008-05-06T19:24:00.009-04:00

So several people have been asking why I don't blog. Honestly it's because I don't get to it. There is always something else to do. But, I do want to sit down and start blogging. So this is my fresh start.

Lately. . .
My parents were in town for a week and we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and ate at Grimaldi's pizza. I definitely suggest doing this if you get the chance. The Bridge was
really interesting to walk over.

Friday May 2nd we drove to Baltimore for a Day with Thomas for Caleb's birthday. He had a lot of fun and loved looking at all the Thomas trains as well as the real trains they had at the B&O museum. I'm not sure if he will ever remember it except for pictures but I'm glad that we did that for him.

For his birthday I made a train cake. He liked it and wanted to keep eating cake.

Something that we have misplaced

2008-04-30T21:46:00.006-04:00

Last weekend Danielle and I went to Radio Shack to make a purchase. While there I thought about the major change in Radio Shack. I remember Radio Shack being filled with electronic do-dads. Switches, buttons, transistors, soldering tools, etc. It was the place you went to when you wanted to get stuff to build electronics. They also sold a few things like telephones, and remote control cars (they always had the coolest R/C cars at Christmas time). Well that kind of Radio Shack is a thing of the past. Now they are full of consumer electronics, which brings me to my point.

I think Radio Shack is indicative of the change in the American Economy. What would you do if your electronics broke? Well you would go to Radio Shack...and buy a new one. We have lost the tinkering skills that my Grandfather had. He was an electrical engineer by education but he was able to muddle his way through a lot of tasks. He had a knowledge of how to do things, a savoir-faire. I fear that we have lost something.

Update: Concerning Goverment Waste

2008-04-21T16:12:00.002-04:00

So in my previous post I wrote about the expensive airline tickets for my flight to Rochester. The story gets better.

Now Government workers get a bad rap for waste but sometimes it is systematic errors. I received an email from the travel agency because they said my airfare expired. I called in to the travel agent and gave them a credit card to purchase the JetBlue tickets on. Well they waited and waited and now the price has gone up.

So they contacted me saying that they needed to rebook the flight. The fare went up and they couldn't purchase it at the price the told me when I called in. Now the airfare has hopped up to $423 from $229, and I am flying a puddle jumper in and out of LaGuardia.

Now why didn't the travel agent take my credit card number and not buy the airline tickets? This baffles me. What bothers me more is that I could have done it myself using jetblue.com except for some department of labor policy that requires us to book through the travel agent.

The office is full of economists who, for the most part, value efficiency. This is due to our schooling. When things like this happen, everyone in the office gets agitated. Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth have been known to occur. But the waste is not due to me. I can find a better way of doing it but what they really want is the most cost efficient way within their parameters.

What a Great Day to be a Field Agent

2008-04-17T16:21:00.002-04:00

I love being a field agent, especially on days like this. I was able to drive to an appointment in Brooklyn, and visit another company further out on Long Island. The sky was blue, the sun wash shining, I even rolled down my window for a bit (as I got closer to the City I rolled it back up so I didn't choke on pollution). It is nice to have the chance to get out of the office every once in a while.

But mind you it's not all fun and games. There are those days when you have to drive up to Connecticut for an appointment you made two week prior not knowing that on this day the tri-state area was hit with a major snow storm and quite a few people never left home. Those white knuckle driving times aren't great, but it is still better than being cooped up in an office. Especially on beautiful days like this.

Why I Don't Blog

2008-04-16T21:44:00.003-04:00

So for all those who keep checking the Silva Family blog for updates and leave disappointed because there isn't anything new here is a post explaining why.

I preface my response with the following. If you know me, I am a big fan of technology. I love email and the internet. I was a computer science major before I moved to economics. If you didn't know that now you know.

Having that said I will proceed with my answer. I don't blog because I don't find it to be a very helpful technology. The kinds of things I would put on a blog I would prefer to discuss with people face to face. I find that technology is a poor substitution for person to person interaction. Thus I would prefer to speak with most of the people who read this blog about what is going on with my life, etc.

I do find a blog helpful to help me remember things, or to communicate information with people you don't need or want to speak with. For example I have my Genealogy Research Log. It has 691 hits since the beginning of this year. This is a good use of the technology in my opinion. I post to this blog at least weekly. So that is why I don't blog.

But realizing that the time to meet and discuss is hard to come by, we (Danielle and I) will start making posts to the blog. So stay tunned...

Concerning Goverment Waste

2008-02-25T14:43:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting little tidbit. I recently traveled up to Rochester, NY for work. It is our region's practice to fly JetBlue because the airfare is cheaper than the contracted rate (with the airline we are supposed to fly on).

When we have to fly we have to book our flight through a travel agent. So instead of booking a flight through jetblue.com using the government credit card (the way we used to be able to do it), we are forced to call a travel agent and book the flight for a service fee of $30.00. It gets better.

I was excited to find out that JetBlue was added to the government's travel system. It allows me to book flights online through the government travel agency. I thought to myself "Great! Now I won't have to call in the flight! I'll be able to do it myself and save $30.00!" Well I found the flights on JetBlue.com that I wanted to take. The grand total (round trip airfare, taxes, fees, etc) came to $229.00. Well in the travel system the exact same flight had the price tag of $619.00! The contract rate was $560.00. So if I book the exact same flight through the government travel agency's online system it costs $390 more. That's one heck of a service fee.

I called in to the travel agency (Cha-ching $30.00 gone) to book my flight, and the travel agent explained that JetBlue's tickets are non-refundable...yada-yada-yada. The total for your fully-refundable tickets comes to $619. I stopped the travel agent and repeated that JetBlue's tickets are not refundable. She stopped pushed some buttons and came up with the $229 price. Hmmmmm. She said she didn't know what the other price was. Now I am not blaming the person I talked with on the phone. After all, she pushed whatever buttons she needed to to get the lower price. Why is it that I have to jump though so many hoops to get the same price that any other shmoe would get? Why do I have to use the travel agent instead of doing it by myself (a lot better, faster, and cheaper)? Why do I have to suspend logic to make anything the government does make sense?

He's a Maniac Maniac

2008-02-08T20:11:00.000-05:00

This YouTube video is of Caleb dancing. We went to the National Museum of Play in Rochester New York during our Christmas visit upstate. He is dancing along with his two cousins.

Who Changed Positions?

2008-02-02T18:27:00.000-05:00

Last night we had Danielle's Grandfather's Sister (I think that's her Great Aunt) over for dinner and pleasant conversation. She is a self proclaimed radical, "as far left as you can get." She ran for president a few years back under the marijuana party ticket. She didn't win.

Anyways, we were discussing the primaries and politics. Now I am an independent conservative, so when she brought up the primaries I thought to myself was that this was going to be an interesting conversation. It ended up being interesting because we saw eye to eye on a lot of the issues. For example she thought that Romney should be the republican candidate. She didn't like McCain and claimed that there is evidence that the elections were rigged in places like New Hampshire. She had questions about fund raising that were interesting questions.

I was shocked to see how much we shared in common. I wondered who changed positions? Myself or her? I think that we came together because we were Americans worried about this elections results because it will have a huge effect on America, a country that we both loved. It is just a reminder that most Americans want whats best for the country, and we don't need to demonize people who don't agree with us.

Badda Bling makes me want to Scream

2008-02-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

There is this stupid commercial for the New York lottery. There are urban thug types singing "it don't mean a thing if it aint Badda Bling" instead of "got that swing." Then there are some Italian mobster types that repeat badda badda badda badda bling to the rhythm.

It has to be one of the most annoying commercials in the world. The lottery rubs me the wrong way to begin with. Add in the urban thug/mob element, multiplied by the use of the word "Bling" and the resulting magnitude of the detest level is approaching critical limits. It get's worst because it is repeated on both the radio and the television, and it get's stuck in your head.

I have to admit, the time that Caleb saw it on TV and repeated badda badda... with the Italians was kind of funny. But aside from this occurrence there are no redeeming qualities with this advertisement.

GoodReads

2008-01-25T11:45:00.000-05:00

We have joined GoodReads. To view Mikes profile go to http://www.goodreads.com/profile/mikesilva. Danielle's ishttp://www.goodreads.com/user/show/626656. If you don't know what GoodReads is, it is a social networking site where you can recommend books to your friends. You let people know what you are reading and what you think of it.

Dusting off the old Blog

2007-06-11T20:36:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since we have added anything to our blog. We had to update a lot of the pictures, links, etc. Our new goal is to stay current on what's happening with our family.

Here's a brief update. Caleb turned one and is walking all over the place. We went on a family vacation with the Pitts' to South Carolina. We had a lot of fun on the beach and Caleb enjoyed hanging out with his cousins. We are still in NYC and have made it over a year now. We are looking at moving into a new place that has a washer and dryer. (A Danielle must have) So far for the summer we have no real plans. We talked about going away for a couple of days to Montreal or someplace and leaving Caleb with his grandparents. We want to go camping, and continue exploring NYC and the sights here.

LabBook

2006-06-04T17:14:00.000-04:00

Mike created a php web application called LabBook while working at the Schoenwolf Lab. The downloads of LabBook have sky rocketed. This is due to a post on a message board on the 15th of March. It is nice to see others appreciate your work.

Happy Birthday Caleb

2006-05-04T20:07:00.000-04:00

Our first son was born today. He weighed 8 lbs 14.5 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. He is so adorable.

The Big Move

2006-03-06T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Silva family has packed their bags and moved to the Big Apple. Mike has a new job in New York City!

A Special Announcement

2005-10-01T19:20:00.000-04:00

The Silva Family is happy to announce that they are expecting a new addition. In the beginning of May the first child(ren) will enter the Silva Family.

The Silva Family's New Hobby

2005-06-20T15:23:00.000-04:00

Recently Danielle and Mike became interested in astronomy. They have decided to post what they have seen in their Astronomy Log blog.

The Silva Family Blog

2004-10-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

Welcome everyone to the Blog for Mike and Danielle Silva. This will be your source for news about our family. Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed to receive updates about us when they are posted. Thank you for visiting.