mattbelcher.com

Wow have I been neglecting my blog lately. My tv is currently broken. I suspect toddler shenanigans. Thomas likes to push the buttons on the tv a little too quickly. Last time I turned it on the picture went wiggly, the tube made a high-pitched whining noise, popped, and now ceases to turn on. I suspect it will be more expensive than it is worth to fix, so I'm thinking about just getting a nice LCD HDTV to replace it, but what do I do with a broken tv? In the meantime I've had to put Guitar Hero 3 on hiatus. Luckily the college football season is over and I'll be elsewhere for the bowl games, so there's no urgent need to replace it.

The heat to the dryer in the basement was broken for 6 weeks. We had to dry our clothes by hanging them on a rack above the heater. As soon as it started working again, the pipe below our sink busted and we couldn't do dishes for two days. All is apparently working now, so it isn't a problem.

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Thomas, after mastering walking some weeks ago, is now experimenting with running. I think he's motivated to better be able to catch the dog. He chases her around with a dog toy and shoves it in her face until she finally grabs it and runs away. Then he giggles hysterically and runs after her. I was looking at some videos in <a href="/gallery/">my gallery</a> of when Thomas was a baby, and that made me want a camcorder to take better videos. HD cameras have finally reached a reasonable price, so I put one on my Amazon wish list in the hope of getting one.

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At work I've been doing the usual - writing new trades, doing market research, trying to make more money trading US Treasuries. It is an exciting time to be in the trading business. The mortgage liquidity crisis has made the roller coaster metaphor of markets that much more apt. I feel like I'm getting better and better at what I do, and the work is still challenging. I can't imagine doing something else right now.