Times flies by, eh?

All,

Believe it or not, only 6 weeks until I return to work. Boy that first twenty weeks just flew by. As a treat for my faithful four readers - a stock pick this week. I hope all is well in your worlds. Blessings,

Nate

Stock pick of the week (Ok of the month. There I said it):
My friends - at this point, I hope you're contemplating selling ANYTHING you don't consider a long-term investment. This week was the last gasp of the bull market and your last chance to get out of any short-term investments (or stocks/funds at or near 52-week highs). The Federal Reserve (Boris the Blade & Co.) have unconscionably continued to cut interest rates in effort to encourage US bond investments (aka China) and domestic real estate. Based upon Chairman (Boris) Bernanke's comments yesterday (see below), a bear market is very, very, very likely in our near future.

Stocks have closed sharply lower after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress the economy will grow at a "sluggish" pace. Bernanke said Thursday the economy will pick up later in the year. He also indicated the central bank will continue to lower interest rates. But the Fed chairman said the housing and credit crises have weighed on the economy and curbed hiring. And if the job market deteriorates, consumers will keep paring their spending. Consumer spending is crucial for economic growth.

Continued interest rate cuts? Why? So people can continue to be attracted to purchase properties they potentially can't afford? We are prolonging the inevitable real estate bust here, but if you are planning on buying a house do it very SOON and buy something you can potentially AFFORD or UNLOAD quickly in a worst case scenario.

What to do with your investments in the meantime? Three recommendations for you: Cash, Bonds (or bond funds), dividend-paying stocks and value stocks (a bit later). In the short-term, I'd suggest to sell any investments you've made that are facing shareholder action (ebay) or will be significantly impacted by the economic downturn (Bank of America, Wamu) and put your assets into cash & bonds and await the imminent bloodbath. However, if you feel the need to invest now, let me recommend this great dividend-paying stock: Verizon (VZ, 4% dividend yield or .40/share). They are currently near their 52-week low (37) and have very interests in every telecommunications market segment.

Weekly chuckle (from a friend of a friend)

All,

I hope you enjoyed the weekend. Attached is a letter received from the Mozambique Dept of Fish & Wildlife by a friend of a friend currently hiking in the country. I've researched this pretty extensively and it sounds like it is legit. Have a great week. Blessings,

Nate

That's right, Billy, I'm back!

All,

For those of you still checking the blog on a regular basis, I've decided to grace you with a post direct from me. A late Christmas gift perhaps? Amy and I returned from South Africa/England/France on January 1, but I was pretty much running on empty for the first two weeks after the return. A severe chest cold that I contracted in England gradually evolved into pleurisy (inflammation of the lining of my right lung) and two weeks and an ER trip later I'm finally back to bristol condition. By now I hope you've all seen the pictures from all three legs of the trip? If not, please shoot me an email and I'll send you a link to share the slideshow with you.

More to come this week. For real! Blessings,

Nate

Observation of the week: (or the past 3.5 months)

Separated at Birth?
Ben Bernanke-Chairman of the Federal Reserve













Boris the Blade-Uzbek Mobster from "Snatch"

Scenery Pictures

Top to bottom:
Table Mountain view and the "Table Cloth:
Flock of Penguins at Simon's Town
Nate relaxing in Knysna
Plettenberg Bay Beach

animal pictures!

In order:
Azlan the Lion - right? At the safari in Schotia
Nate's favorite, the cheetah (at Spier Winery)
Elephants on Parade, Addo Elephant Park
Perfect Symmetry, Schotia Game Reserve
Cape Cobra!

home safely: but what day/time is it?

hi everyone! we are home safe and sound in seattle and thoroughly happy to be back. don't get me wrong - the trip was fantastic! but it's always so nice to return home to your own bed after a few weeks away!

paris by night was fun. i say "by night" because we didn't see it by day at all... on 12/31, we both spent all day in the hotel room--feeling unwell. i stepped out a couple times to pick up some staples from the boulangerie (ie, baguettes and chocolate pastries!), and also bought a bottle of champagne for NYE (actually, it was prosecco...i come all the way to paris and can only find an italian deli from which to buy sparkling wine).



staying in all day was smart, though, because we had to save our energy for new year's eve! we headed out around 8 pm to meet our friends seth & cara to ring in 2008. walked to the champs elysees, the tree-lined street alit with gorgeous purple 'raindrop' lights; then made our way to a bridge on the seine, looking off to the eiffel tower. this is where we welcomed 2008, passing around a couple bottles of champagne and a huge bag of candy that nate spent way too much on (but it was yummy). made our way back to the PACKED metro -- we let 2 full trains pass us by before squeezing on to the next -- and headed back to our hotel.


the alarm went off much too early at 8, and i was not feeling so well (too much bubbly, too little food -- a classic combo), but we made it to the airport and had relatively uneventful flights home. again, i use my words judiciously: "relatively uneventful" because when we were waiting to board the flight in paris, we had to quickly evacuate the loading area when the workers discovered some unattended baggage. turned out to be nothing, but we were feeling grateful that the concern was taken seriously enough to move all of us, just in case.

i've been downloading pictures off the camera all morning (500!), and intend to send a link to the lot of them at some future point. for now, i'm attaching a few highlights here to encapsulate the trip! (also just posted another posting of pictures-only!)

big love to you all, and thanks for following this while we were abroad!
xo,
*A & N