Wealth Gap Between the Young and Old Widest Ever

I'm a worker bee, always have been.  I've had a job of some sort on a steady basis since I was 15.  I live in a modest home and live an average American middle-income lifestyle.  I have not reached any degree of wealthy financial success but I am proud of what I've accomplished b/c I've worked my ever lovin' ass off to get here.  And like so many others out there, for the past few years it's been a fight to stay there.  I worry about day to day finances but, more so, I worry about long term scenarios.  College and retirement both seem like ridiculously unattainable jokes to me right now.  And that statement is grounded waist high in reality.  Lately, that reality coupled with all the bullshit I hear spewed by politicians from BOTH sides sparks SUCH anger in me.  I secretly covet retirees lifestyles - do they know how lucky they are?  Pensions and health benefits, social security and Medicare.  And yes, plenty of folks of retirement age these days have gotten screwed BUT as far as I can tell noone is going to get screwed more than my generation.  Nobody my age or younger should count on any of those things to be around to buoy us in our time of need.  You know, when our fabulous 401k's designed as tax outs for corporations and then passed off to us as "retirement" run out - if you even have anything left after the market implodes for the 10th time in as many years.  The pangs of fear thoughts like these send through me are overwhelming sometimes.  All of these, previously internal, worries were justified in an article I happened upon today:

http://news.yahoo.com/us-wealth-gap-between-young-old-widest-ever-050259922.html

Real uplifting stuff - just thought I'd share - ha!

BLU's Birthdday Extravaganza

It's been a fun 4 days : ) Took a vacation day on Thursday and spent the whole day with Blake and Devlyn on Blake's actual birthday. Blake started his day off with presents and breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (by request). The big party was today. Had to switch our plans from outdoor to indoor due to cold rainy weather but all went well even though Crusty Old Gus didn't get to tend bar at the saloon : ( The pony was a big hit with everyone but the birthday boy. He was taking it all in but only wanted to pet it - no riding! No problem at all b/c most of the other kids took 2 spins around the yard on Pie the Pony. Blake had fun with his friends and got a bunch of cool presents. Slideshow below - no video to share this time. The singing of Happy Birthday was not a big hit with the birthday boy either!

Decode Jay-Z with Bing

I can't claim to be an avid fan of his music but I've been impressed and intrigued by Jay-Z as a producer and marketer for a long time.  He does things big and he does them right.  The agency that handled the marketing campaign to promote his book "Decode Jay-Z" recently won a Gold CLIO for the campaign.  A CLIO is the highest honor you can win in advertising and this campaign certainly deserved it.  A global, integrated campaign in partnership with Bing that delivered 1.1 billion media impressions, resulted in 1 million new Facebook fans and earned Jay-Z a NY Times best seller list debut.  Cross promoted using, traditional, social and guerrilla media, it had a worldwide gaming side to it as well using Bing's Google Earth like product.  I think it may be impossible to explain the unbelievable scope and coolness of this promotion in words, so here, see for yourself.  Visit the link below and then click on the first black box on the left to launch a video all about it.

http://www.clioawards.com/winners/winners.cfm?medium_id=6

UNBELIEVABLE.  I can't imagine being behind the execution and production of this campaign.  This is the sort of project that you could work on non stop for an entire year to pull of.  SO COOL!  

Happy 3rd Birthday Blake

You truly are one in a million! (thank the Lord)

Big Boy Teeth

Blake accidentally "knocked" one of Devlyn's teeth loose recently BUT that tooth must have been about to do so itself b/c yesterday I discovered Big Boy Teeth lurking behind Devlyn's two middle bottom teeth.  They've just started to sprout up!  Almost time to add Tooth Fairy to my resume : )

Mr. Sunshine

Practiced using the video on Grandma's camera this evening in prep for Blake's birthday party on Saturday.  Caught this gem ; )

"This Is Rich"

I've taken to using this phrase a lot lately.  I have no idea why but for some reason it's recently crept into my lexicon AND it perfectly describes a funny household happening from this evening.  One of my favorite initial blogs included me mentioning that we'd received direct mail from Similac and AARP in one week.  It was true and it was funny.  In the spirit of the neverending source of humor that is being 15 years younger than your spouse, I invite you to view the following pictures of direct mail Charles received today:

 I knew it was bad when I pulled it out of the mailbox and I saw "Dignity" in the return address.  After we cracked a few jokes about it while making dinner, I nagged him about something and he deadpanned me with this reply, "Who cares.  I'll be dead soon anyway."  I swear - you can't make this shit up.