Ah, been busy with Christmas preparations, drinking, working out, playing with Artemis, and otherwise doing my thing.

The Redskins had a great win against Dallas, crushing them 35-7 including 28-0 at the half. My fantasy teams all won, too, earning about $500. I have a shot at about another $500 this week, so I'll be watching the scores intently this weekend. Oh, and there's Christmas, too.

Poker has been going well. I'm playing short sessions online, usually only 20 or 30 minutes. Most days I make between $50 and $100. While not enough to live on, it's a nice re-entry into poker without the kind of time involvement of tournaments.

We watched Meet the Fockers the other night - wow, that was funny. I am not a big Barbra fan, but she was great in the movie. I think Ben Stiller really enjoyed getting to be the sort of normal guy.

My arm is doing really well, and I'm almost finished with physical therapy.

Update: Here is my take on the whole Bush unauthorized surveillance kerfuffle (originally posted on Paul Phillips' blog):

It's funny, this happens every couple years at least.

Bush wasn't breaking any new ground with this authorization, as noted. Our country is not losing liberty or security despite your favorite Ben Franklin quote. No one sounds too upset about someone at NSA spilling the beans, but oh well, he isn't married to Joe Wilson. Bush waves his arms at the NYT "no please don't throw me in the briar patch!" and the MSM goes nuts with the non-story. Impeachment!

Meanwhile the majority of America sees the Democrats and their media arms making yet another flap in the service of terrorists and terrorist rights, while the Republicans, if anything, err on the side of defending Americans. Remember, the wire tapping is nothing new - not new to the executive branch, not new even to Congressional Democrats. It's a sucker punch and the Dems walked straight into it again. This is politics - big league brass knuckle politics - not an argument about liberty. As has been the case for the last 6 years, it's Bush wearing the knuckles and the Dems wiping blood and wondering what the f*&$ just happened. Good luck in the mid terms boys.

Misunderestimated again!

Stocks have been pretty wild since last week. I got stopped out of TIE, HOC, HANS, and Apple! Wow! I'm glad I had them in place, as a couple of the stocks continued to slide after my stop was hit. Apple didn't, though, so I ended up buying back in. Since I had cash, I also bought some Starbucks - but be careful if it drops below 30! I also bought some Google. Other that what I have, I don't have much to say.

Positions:

AAPL, Price: $73.50, Stop: $68
YHOO, Price: $40.47, Stop: $38
PMTI, Price: $37.39, Stop: 35.96
CEDC, Price: $41.65, Stop: 40.25
GOOG, Price: $426.33, Stop: 415
SBUX, Price: $30.53, Stop: 29.90

Year-to-date Performance: +42.1%
Artemis YTD Performance: +48.4%