Monday, October 31, 2011

Marching Band and a Treat for Aunt Kristina

Can you believe the daugher of two band nerds got to be two-and-a-half years old before seeing her first marching band performance? Well, she loved it! We made an evening of it, went out for supper then to see the show.



She clapped and cheered a lot - but mostly she conducted.


James did great - slept through most of it, and played through the rest. 




To Aunt Kristina - we LOVE the hats :D

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Camo for Babies

The other night at church I was carrying James in his sling (as usual... where else would he be?) . Before church started, all the little kids kept asking me where he was. "He's right here - see?" I was really confused about why they kept asking, when he was right there in front of them.

Then I went in the nursery to feed him... and looked in the mirror. Oh.

They really didn't notice him - because my sling is the exact same shade of blue as my shirt was.

Whoops - but I guess now we know how to camouflage a baby!


Friday, October 28, 2011

October Pictures Round Two

Snuggle time!

Cadence found a piano book with pictures - it happens to be "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" which is one of her favorite songs.



Waiting to go somewhere - without Mama. Isn't she getting so big? We recently started sending her to Story Time with her cousins most Tuesday. The offer was such a blessing - it let me have some time to breathe, run errands, whatever, with only one kid in tow, and it gave Cadence a much needed outlet for some of her energy. She was starting to get stir crazy cooped up at home all the time :) It is a little rough on me though - I miss my little baby.
Cadence has been talking a lot about time and the days of the week, etc. I thought to help her out we would start using a week long calendar with magnets of all the things we typically do in a week. This has been so much fun. Each morning we check the weather, then put the right weather magnet on the day. Then we talk about what we've done each day, and what we normally do each day. She loves it, and it's a nice way for me to stand really close and *cough, cough* 'not' snuggle.

All the extra magnets are stored in the little green basket.

*Snore.....*

Isn't this adorable? "Aunt Kristina" made it for him. He actually has several, and we love them all, this just happend to be the only one we have a picture in so far :) We call it his Joseph sweater, as in the coat of many colors.

Cadence likes to pose with James. I'm TOTALLY ok with that :D

Prize Box!!! She has to earn 20 stickers on her sticker chart, for being good at naptime and bedtime. So far it seems to be helping a LOT. Less fits, crying, and floppiness.

Playing with her reward.

This is how James sleeps most of the time. Sometimes he tucks his feet up under him a little more, and he's usually covered with a blanket, but this is his basic pose.

Cadence playing *ahem, excuse me* "working pretty hard" with her calendar.

Cadence and James like to share their toys. Sometimes... it's a little funny.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

October Pictures Round One

James loves his bath.... Yay!

Cadence loves James' bath WAY more than James does.

They were in there together just long enough for me to take him out. To dangerous otherwise: wriggly toddler = squished baby.

But the baby doll got star treatment!

Haha, Cadence was playing hide-and-seek with the baby doll....

Peek-a-boo!

Row, row, row your boat with "Drew"

Don't forget to SCREAM!!!!!

"Hmmmm, this fellow looks interesting."
This was so fun. We finally had our roof replaced this month, and Cadence loved watching the men work. For the rest of the month she's been walking around muttering things like "Me man work on roof. Me climb, climb, climb ladder, scrape off shingles *scrape, scrape* BANG! BANG! Climb, climb, climb down ladder." and doing motions."


Whoops, turn your head sideways ;) This is the forklift bringing materials close to the house, which turned out to be one of her favorite parts.

The Moby wrap - this is what I use if my shoulders are tired or if I know he'll be in there a while. The sling is awesome, but the wrap distributes weight better. It's like he's not even there. The only problem is putting it on and off - I would just leave it on all the time, but he can't really nurse in it so we alternate between the sling and wrap depending on circumstances.


Blue eyes!

Two ponytails - twice the joy, half the work. Hmmm.... Who would have thought?
Her hair has grown so much this summer - at the beginning of June, she had the amount of hair in one ponytail that she now has in each ponytail.

Cadence is sometimes jealous (imagine that) but this was one thing I could accomadate her in. MUCH heavier than James, but it was still easier than carrying her. So yes, wraps and slings are good for toddlers too :)

Belle Isle construction in starting to look like real buildings now!

This will be the new addition, connected only by a hall. It will have several new classrooms, a library, etc.



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Happy Noodler Issue Four

“The Happy Noodler”


November 21, 2006

Week Four

Keep in mind these are model portfolios and not investment advice. If they do well and you decide to implement any part of them please understand you do so at you own risk.

Security Shares Origin Price Cost Current Price Current value Gain or

FXI 300 85.12 25543.00 93.85 28155.00 2612.00

ICF 300 96.20 28860.00 102.66 30798.00 1938.00

BHP 400 41.96 16791.00 40.20 16080.00 <711.00>

NEM 400 43.63 17459.00 45.11 18044.00 585.00

PREMX 726.2164 13.77 10000.00 13.98 10152.41 152.41

Options

.IKILF 3 4.00 1188.00 10.20 -3060.00 <1872.00>

.ICVLN 3 3.10 -930.00 10.50 -3150.00 <2220.00>

.BHPLV 4 .60 -229.00 .55 -220.00 9.00

New purchases

We bought back four contracts of BHP to close our November position.

.BHPKH 4 .10 51.00

New sales

We sold 4 December contracts of BHP for $60.00 each as seen above to open our new position. While it may look like we are down in our BHP position by looking on the chart above, we sold our original options for a total of $1068.00 and bought them back for $51 total. That means our options not only totally offset the fall in price of the stock but also made us $306 beyond the fall in price. If you look back you will see we sold our original options for $270 per contract but those were in the money options with a strike price of $40. The new ones we sold were only for $60.00 but are out of the money and have a strike price of $42.50 this gives us less downside protection but more upside potential while still generating cash at a rate greater than 20% on an annual basis. If you only look at our portfolio gain or loss it looks like it is down for this past week, but it doesn’t reflect the two options that are no longer in our portfolio that increased our account value as they went off the books. If you look at the portfolio account value you see we are up for week four.





Cash position 5242.07



Portfolio Gain or 493.41

Portfolio Value $102,041.48



401K PORTFOLIO Originated on 11/22/06



We are starting our 401k model portfolio with $10,000.00 but it could be modeled with any amount in a 401k because they allow you to spread dollars between funds and allow you to buy partial shares. Although MXI is a fund that is traded like a stock, we will treat it like a mutual fund for the purposes of this model portfolio and trade it in dollar amounts that yield partial shares. You will notice our major position is in money market funds. We believe we are at or very near a market top so the portion of our portfolio that would track the market in general is currently in money market funds. In our 401k portfolio we will contribute $100 per month and spread it proportionately between our funds. All distributions will be reinvested. As of this week the average money market fund has a yield of 4.82% but we will use a return of 4.5% for our fund. Returns on money market funds will be calculated in the first of the month letter.



Security Shares Origin Price Cost Current Price Current value Gain or

30% natural resources fund (global fund perfered)

MXI 55.0155 $54.53 3000.00

70% money market funds

Money market fund 7000.00

Total Value $10,000.00

Commentary

The U.S. oil majors have reduced production and OPEC has reduced production and plan further cuts. Japan has not only cut their purchases of U.S. bonds they have reduced their total holdings of U.S. bonds according to the latest current account report. That will pressure the dollar and make U.S imports more expensive. The dollar is at a two month low versus the Yen and Euro. We believe oil and gold prices have bottomed and will start back up from here. Gold prices respond to four things, actual demand, value of the dollar, inflation (rising oil prices are viewed as very inflationary) and war. All four look like they will move gold up from here. Our gold stock NEM closed below our option strike price so those options disappeared from our portfolio. We will not sell new options for NEM because that would limit what we now feel is a considerable upside potential. We bought back our BHP strike price $40 options Friday for $10 per contract while the stock price was below $40.00 and sold Dec BHP options at a strike of $42.50 for $60 per contract. We expect BHP as a diversified mining company to go up from here but not to the same degree as our gold stock. Money Market deposits increased 38 billion dollars this past week. This is another indicator of a hot market about to change directions. When we rolled our market sensitive stock options down, we rolled them into December options, because of that we have decided to postpone any action on them for now.

War

The U.S. is finally starting to take a tough position with the Iraqi government to fix their problems which has been the major hindrance to an acceptable solution there. But Iran is ratcheting up their support knowing that the worse it gets now after the election, the more likely the U.S. is to pull out. If the U.S. pulls out that opens the way geographically for the Iranian/Israeli war discussed below.

The winds of war between Iran and Israel are starting to blow harder. Iran is determined to build a nuclear weapon and Israel is determined to prevent it. If Iran gets nukes they could be launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah and the Iranian military. Hezbollah takes orders from Iran and they have proved they don’t care what happens to the country of Lebanon. As long as the U.S military is in Iraq the political geography would not support much of a conventional confrontation between the two with out dragging the U.S. into it. Russia will continue to block any U.N. action that would actually deter Iran even as they continue to sell them modern conventional arms. Russia is either the largest producer of oil and natural gas or the second largest depending on Saudi Arabia’s production levels. They have renationalized most of their oil and natural gas industry. Any war in the Middle East would dramatically raise oil and natural gas prices again. Europe is heavily dependant on Russian natural gas. The resulting prices in oil and gas would strengthen the Russian economy while weakening the U.S. and European economies and their ability to dominate the world stage economically. It has not been lost on Russian President Putin that they lost the cold war on economic strength not military strength. The corresponding weakness in Asian economies would just be considered a side benefit.

The Lebanon government is on the brink of collapse. If one third of their cabinet resigns or is unable to fulfill their duties they must call for new elections. The Hezbollah and Syrian faction has resigned and one anti-Syrian cabinet member has been assassinated. If one more dies or is killed in any way their government must be dissolved and call for new elections. Talk about having a target on your back. After the short war with Israel, Hezbollah is much more popular and would gain the 1/3 of the seats necessary to veto any actions of the government without being in control of the government and bringing the sanctions that the Palestinian’s are facing with Hamas in charge of that government.





Fishing

This is the first blue cat Josh noodled. It probably weighed between 25 and 30 pounds. It is not legal to keep noodled blues so that is why this picture was taken while still in the water. Josh released this fish right after I took pictures. Notice the gloves and scuba gear we typically use. This fish was just lying in the hole very calmly and Josh was running his hand down the side of the fish to get to its mouth when the fish suddenly bit him repeatedly. He screamed like a girl under the water, it was great. But as you can see Josh won in the end and got bit a few more times before he could grab his bottom lip. If you look closely you can see some red scuff marks on his left arm. These are typical Noodling marks although sometimes they are much bigger and bleed. As I have said before, blues bite much harder than flatheads. The water is only waist deep at this location. We noodle fish from about 12 inches deep to about 7 feet deep. We have looked deeper but very rarely find catfish deeper than that when they are spawning.

Family



Well these are the best of times right now; I am feeling good, eating well and gaining weight. Next week I start radiation and chemo again. The worst of times comes the week following chemo. My chemo is timed to occur after Thanksgiving and after Christmas. I get to enjoy my holidays feeling my best, for which I am thankful, before getting whacked again. Who can tell me what novel starts “It was the best of times it was the worst of times”?



This is a picture of little Josh lying in the blanket Yvonne made. He had to stay in the hospital one extra day because of low blood sugar. But they got him up to par and he got to go home and is doing fine.


Five time Grandpa      Frank

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Happy Noodler Issue Three

“The Happy Noodler”


November 14, 2006

Week Three



Security Shares Origin Price Cost Current Price Current value Gain or

FXI 300 85.12 25543.00 91.75 27525.00 1982.00

ICF 300 96.20 28860.00 96.50 28950.00 90 .00

BHP 400 41.96 16791.00 41.27 16508.00 <283.00>

NEM 400 43.63 17459.00 44.83 17932.00 473.00

PREMX 726.2164 13.77 10000.00 14.03 10188.26 188.26

Options

.IKILF 3 4.00 1188.00 8.30 -2490.00 <1302.00>

.ICVLN 3 3.10 -930.00 4.85 -1455.00 <525.00>

.BHPKH 4 2.70 -1068.00 1.45 -580.00 488.00

.NEMKI 4 1.00 -389.00 .45 -180.00 209.00

New purchases

New sales



Dividends and Interest

PREMX

Cash position 5064.07



Portfolio Gain or 1327.26

Portfolio Value $101,462.33







Commentary

In spite of the market top indicator we discussed last week, all we have had this past week is buy signals, so we will roll our market sensitive stock options higher. This will cost us some of the cash we generated last week but will give us more upside potential. Also this is options expiration week so all November options will be rolled to December.

The Fed

Bernanke’s comments on November 10, concerning management of the money supply seem designed to confuse and play down the discontinued publication of M3 statistics. By saying M1 and M2 doesn’t give an accurate picture of the money supply he is implying that trying to manage inflation and the economy by the money supply is not a good way to operate. He is correct M1 and M2 do not give an accurate picture of the total money supply, but M3 did give a better understanding of the money supply and thus made predicting inflation more transparent. There are too many people today that understand the relationship between growth of the money supply and inflation for the Fed to operate in the obscurity that it needs to be successful in the coming time of rising interest rates and inflation if they continued to publish the M3 figures. I had to laugh when I read one article that said Bernanke’s speech clarified Fed policy when it was obvious that his speech was designed to obscure and confuse people’s understanding of what the Fed does and how it operates.

Gold

The price of gold was about $450 an ounce the day the Fed announced they were discontinuing publishing M3 statistics. It had been drifting down from about $500 when it turned on a dime and went to almost $800 an ounce over the next couple of months. One of the things anyone that invests in gold looks at is the future of inflation. Gold is often cited as a hedge against inflation but that is true only when inflation is rising. When inflation is falling but there is still inflation, gold returns to being traded as the commodity it is and price is based on demand for use. If the price of gold from its high in 1980 was adjusted for inflation it would cost $2500 an ounce now, so much for being a hedge against inflation in the long run. Currently the Chinese are buying gold as a hedge against the dollar falling in the future. They are stuck right now because if they stop buying U.S. assets the dollar will fall and result in rising interest rates and reduce the value of their current holdings of U.S treasuries and other assets. Their currency is tied closely to the dollar so if the dollar falls significantly that erodes their purchasing power for all the commodities they are buying from out of the country from iron to oil and everything else they import. But if they buy sufficient gold reserves the rise in gold prices would offset the falling dollar, rising inflation, and rising interest rates that would result from their pulling assets out of the U.S. and allow them to decouple from the dollar. Gold and other precious metals are about the only asset that can be bought with dollars in the U.S. and be untied from the dollar. If they buy U.S. stocks, bonds or real estate they are still tied to the dollar. Real estate is a hedge against inflation because it all goes up in price as inflation goes up. If you also have a long term fixed rate mortgage on that real estate, inflation is your best friend. If the Chinese quit buying treasuries the dollar will fall and that would offset any inflation based gains they might make in real estate. If you examine our portfolio we only have one holding that would not benefit from the falling dollar and inflation. We plan to sell that holding when inflation starts up significantly. Anyone that can tell me which one that is wins a year’s free subscription to “The Happy Noodler”. There are several clues in this discussion. Oh I forgot, it’s already free, so I guess it would have to be an honorary free subscription.

Fishing

Noodling is catching fish with your hands. The catfish found in America spawn in underwater holes. These holes might be under rocks, under trees in the water, in holes on mud banks, or in holes under roads that were built before the lake was made and were not removed prior to the lake being filled. While the catfish are spawning they will sometimes defend their nest by biting whatever comes into the hole or nest. We noodlers go under the water and stick our hand in the hole and try to get the fish to bite it. The only part of the fish you can hold is their bottom lip. On a big fish grabbing their lip is like grabbing a broom handle. Of course you get scratched up and sometimes loose a little bit of hide and if you get bit by a big Blue cat your fingers may be numb for a few minutes. Blues bite much harder than flatheads; they are the pit bulls of the lake. Those things are all part of the fun and excitement of Noodling. My son Josh who also does some Noodling refers to it as extreme fishing. This is a picture of a 41 pound flathead I noodled in late June. This fish was rather docile. I have got better fights and been bitten much harder by some 20 pound fish. We only fish under rocks and submerged road beds. Tree roots pose too great a risk of entanglement, and there is no telling what will be in a hole on a mud bank that could extend up above the water line.


Family

I am back to feeling good, my ability to eat is increasing and I am gaining weight after having lost 15 pounds from the first round of chemotherapy. I think the sores that extended from my lips all the way through my intestinal tract inhibited my ability to ingest food because while my eating decreased, I don’t believe it decreased enough to lose that much weight in 2 weeks. Little Josh was born this morning at a little before seven. We will have a website listed were you can view pics next week.



Frank

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Happy Noodler Issue Two

“The Happy Noodler”


November 7, 2006

Week Two



Security Shares Origin Price Cost Current Price Current value Gain or

FXI 300 85.12 25543.00 88.12 26436.00 893.00

ICF 300 96.20 28860.00 94.08 28224.00 <636.00>

BHP 400 41.96 16791.00 43.67 17468.00 677.00

NEM 400 43.63 17459.00 45.69 18276.00 817.00

PREMX 726.2164 13.77 10000.00 13.97 10145.24 145.24

Options

.IKILF 3 4.00 1188.00 5.10 -1530.00 <342.00>

.ICVLN 3 3.10 -930.00 2.90 -870.00 60.00

.BHPKH 4 2.70 -1068.00 3.20 -1280.00 < 212.00>

.NEMKI 4 1.00 -389.00 1.05 -420.00 <31.00>

New purchases

.ICFKS 3 .15 57.00

.IKILI 3 2.10 642.00

New sales

.ICVLN and .IKILF are listed above and replace the options we bought back. Please note .ICFKS that we bought back was incorrectly listed last week as .ICKKS sorry for any confusion.

Dividends and Interest

PREMX 2.07

Cash position 5064.07



Portfolio Gain or 1371.24

Portfolio Value $101,507.31



Commentary

Last Tuesday, as we mentioned, we received a market top indicator. This particular indicator was the was very strong but has moderated some since that time. While we were not anticipating a recession at this time, the FDIC raising the bank deposit insurance rates a more that expected 7 basis points puts that likely hood farther up our scale. We are expecting a downturn in the market and we will let our indicators tell us when it is finished. We also expect the bond yield curve to continue to invert farther. If you want a very good explanation of the yield curve go to http://www.smartmoney.com/onebond/index.cfm?story=yieldcurve . Prior to the current inverted curve, there have been 11 inverted yield curves since WW Two and 10 of them were followed by recessions and bear markets. The 11th was followed by a market downturn and slowing of the economy that didn’t reach recession status. This past week we received both sell and buy indicators, but with the market top indicator we decided to go on the side of caution. We have two stocks that respond to overall market conditions significantly, FXI and ICF, so on Friday we rolled (bought back our out of the money options and sold in the money positions) our options for these stocks down to, in the money positions, that will further hedge against losses in those positions. The deeper in the money the position is, the greater the hedge, but the less potential gain if they go up. In our Trader Portfolio that we hope to set up someday we would have sold these positions instead of hedging down. But in the Investor Portfolio we have taken positions that we intend to hold for the long term and enhance through options.

Since the only investing some do at this time is in a 401k, we will set up a 401k portfolio next that could be followed in almost any 401k plan. Keep in mind these are model portfolios and not investment advice. If they do well and you decide to implement any part of them please understand you do so at you own risk.

Fishing

I caught this Paddlefish snagging with an 11 ft. rod last March. It weighed 67 pounds and was 61 inches long, we refer to them as spoonbill catfish but they are not a catfish. They are similar to a Tarpon; they have a cartilage that houses their spinal cord instead of a backbone. This is a nice Paddlefish but it is not unusually large for this area. Taking them in the 70 and 80 pound range is common and the state record is about 150 pounds. We were going to take my boat because it has a shallow draft but the water was too low to get in at the boat ramp. We ended up walking about a mile to get to the snagging location. My good friend Kevin told me repeatedly we were not keeping any fish because they were too big to carry out that far. Kevin and his son Bo caught and release 3 that ranged from this size to about 30 pounds before I caught this one. You have to use barb-less hooks and if you put a fish on a stringer you have to stop fishing there is no culling for a bigger one once you string a fish. I got my stringer out and Kevin asked how I was going to get the fish out because he wasn’t going to help. I told him I would carry it out by myself. Kevin decided it would be easier to help carry my fish out than to carry me out after I collapsed. As I said above he is a good friend. We found the perfect tree limb to run in its mouth and out the gills and the two of us put the limb over our shoulders and carried the fish suspended on the limb between us. We both had sore shoulders the next day.




Family



On the home front, I am over most of the side effect of chemotherapy and feeling much better. My son Joshua and his girlfriend are expecting little Josh sometime in the next two weeks. Yvonne made them a really cute matching baby blanket, diaper bag, and car seat cover with an “animals of Noah’s ark” theme. This is the blanket.




Frank

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Happy Noodler - Issue One

“The Happy Noodler”


October 31, 2006

Week One

” The Investor" model portfolio has been set up with the following positions.

Following is an explanation of how the portfolio was set up that will not be explained in letters in the future.

We bought 300 shares of FXI at a price of 85.12 per share for a total of $25543.

We sold 3 Dec call contracts of FXI strike price $87 for $180. per contract. These call contracts are an option for someone to buy 100 shares of our FXI stock for $87. per/share on or before the 3rd Friday of December. Most of the time these options are not exercised or the stock actually purchased before the expiration date. If the stock is below the strike price of $87 dollars on the 3rd Friday of December they will expire worthless and their $180 per contract just stays in our account. If the stock price is at or above $87 we will have made $1.80 per/share on our options and $1.88 per share on the stock for a total of $3.68 per/share or 4.3% before commissions. If the option is in the money, above $87 per share, we will buy our options back or roll them forward to the next month a day or two before the expiration date, so that we can keep our stock. The stock price could fall to $83.32 and we would still break even, anything above that amount and we would make some money.

We bought 300 shares of ICF stock for 96.2 per/share for a total of 28860. We sold 3 November call contracts of ICF for $105 per contract for a total of $304.

We bought $10,000 worth of PREMX at the close with a NAV of $13.77 per/share or 726.2164 shares with instructions for our capital gains to be reinvested and our dividends to be paid into our account.

We bought 400 shares of NEM for $43.63 per/share for a total of $17459.We sold 4 November call contracts of NEM with a strike price of $45 per/share for $100 per contract for a total of $389.

We bought 400 shares of BHP at $41.96 per/share for a total of $16,791. We sold 4 Nov call contracts of BHP with a strike price of $40 for $270 per contract for a total of $1068. Please note this contract is in the money to start with.

Security Shares Origin Price Cost Current Price Current value Gain or

FXI 300 85.12 25543.00 84.25 25275.00 <268.00>

ICF 300 96.20 28860.00 97.75 29325.00 465.00

BHP 400 41.96 16791.00 42.25 16900.00 109.00

NEM 400 43.63 17459.00 44.50 17800.00 341.00

PREMX 726.2164 13.77 10000.00 13.89 10087.14 87.14

Please note the following positions are call options contracts that we sold for our starting position. These are referred to as covered call positions because the options are covered by the stock we own. Their cost shows up as a negative because we sold them we didn’t purchase them and their value does also. But their sale results in money in our account just as any other sale would. But if they near expiration and the stock price is above the strike price we will buy them back. If they expire out of the money they are worthless and disappear from our account and we keep the money we sold them for obviously.

.IKILI 3 1.80 -529.00 1.20 -360.00 169.00

.ICKKS 3 1.05 -304.00 1.40 -420.00 <116.00>

.BHPKH 4 2.70 -1068.00 2.70 -1068.00 < 12.00>

.NEMKI 4 1.00 -389.00 1.15 -460.00 <71.00>

Total purchases 98653.00

Total sales 2290.00

Dividends

Interest

Cash position 3667.00

Portfolio Gain or 704.14

Portfolio Value $100,704.14



We received our first indicator that we are possibly at a market top, this in itself is not a sell indicator but if we receive a sell indicator on top of that we will roll some of our options down to lower strike prices to better hedge the down side. We have been expecting the market to top out sometime around the election. That is one reason I wanted to start the model portfolio now because it is easy to have good results when you ride the wave up, harder to significantly beat the market in down turns and then out perform it on the way back up, but that is the goal of this portfolio and the others when I get them set up.

Last week I went through 5 days or chemotherapy. I felt worse as the week went on and was really sick the weekend. It also resulted in throat and mouth sores that make it hard to eat. But thank the lord I am doing better now and my appetite is improving. I think I have stopped loosing weight from the treatment and am now am able to eat enough to hold my own and soon begin regaining weight.

Below is a picture of Alex myself, and a 16 inch crappie I caught about a month ago. Josh and I went fishing and caught 40 crappie this was the biggest.



Frank

The Happy Noodler

Papa was, in most people's minds, a brilliant man. He connected things others failed to connect, noticed associations between circumstances and found solutions to problems when no one else could.

He was also laid back, hick-ish, and funny.

Toward the end of his life, he started a newsletter called "The Happy Noodler." It included investment advice, lectures, various topics of interest, family news, and, of course, fishing pictures. There were only 19 (he was planning to do twenty, and call the last "The Last Noodler" but ran out of time) so over the next few weeks I am going to post them here for anyone who wants to read them. I will post them just the way he sent them.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011