grandpease grandpease the vault february 2009 Ups and downs in a recession Posted Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Hey everyone. Long time, no write. We’ve been laying low since our trip to Tahoe in light of the current economy, but that’s not to say we haven’t been doing anything fun or have nothing to report. We’ve gone Oscar crazy, seeing all but two of the films nominated in any of the seven major categories (actor, actress, support, support, original screen, adapted screen and top film). Like the rest of the world, we fell in love with Slumdog Millionaire and will be rooting hard for the film while we watch in ... London? That’s right. We’re taking our latest trip of a lifetime in just two weeks. We’ll be heading to Egypt for a week, followed by three days in Jordan and three days in London. Pretty exciting, but it’s tempered with a bit of bad news as well. The first hey-this-recession-thing-is-real moment came a little over a week ago when Tiff and I learned a new word. fur⋅lough [fur-loh]. –noun 1. Military. a vacation or leave of absence granted to an enlisted person. 2. a usually temporary layoff from work: Many plant workers have been forced to go on furlough. 3. a temporary leave of absence authorized for a prisoner from a penitentiary. For our purposes here, the second definition is the most appropriate. Having worked in the newspaper industry for the past nine years, I’ve come to expect bad news when it comes to our business, but this is especially unnerving. The entire Mercury News staff will be taking a (staggered) week of unpaid vacation in the coming weeks. The good news for us is that we had already scheduled our big trip during that time, so we essentially gain a week of vacation (until they take that away too). The bad news is that we will be down a paycheck each coming off a not-so-cheap vacation that was already half paid for and could not be rescheduled. Still, it could be a lot worse. Our neighbors down the hall now have a sign on their door, which reads “LENDER FORECLOSURE. HOME FOR AUCTION,” in obnoxious neon green lettering. Even in seemingly recession-proof Silicon Valley this is not an uncommon sight anymore.
 
 
Super feast! Instead of heading out to the bar for the Super Bowl, we couched it and cooked up some killer nachos and these amazing home-made pretzels with queso.
 
And while Tiff was up in Syracuse this week for the judging of the world’s best newspaper design, I finally beat Matthew’s Fallout 3, and then took in some tennis with the Rook’s from the cheap seats (only $12.50 a ticket!). We watched Andy Roddick warmup before an exhibition between now-retired champion Pete Sampras and Tommy Haas.
 
 
A screen shot from the ending credits of Fallout 3 with young Mateo’s name. The clock to the left reads 4:45 ... that’s a.m.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pete doesn’t have as much gas as he used to. At this moment he’s recovering from a point in which he lost his shoe.
 
 
Considering everything, life is pretty good.
 
-cmg
 
But enough rambling, who wants to see some pictures? Some of the ways we’ve been having fun on the cheap:
 
 
I’m obligated to report that Tiff kicked my ass at horse ... and not just once. She beat me two out of three times. Ugh.