Fitness

My exercise routine has been jam packed with volleyball. I have been playing about three times out of the week. I have not been able to go to the gym due to the fact that I have so much house work to do. Once I am somewhat comfortable with the house, I will start a regiment of strength training and plyometrics. Stay tuned!

Earnings Wrapup

So it has been pretty busy for the stock in my IRA portfolio. At this point here is the ratings for the stocks based on their quarterly earnings :

BIG Thumbs Up : NTDOY, TGI, UA

Thumbs Up : CBH

Thumbs Down : LNDC, SPAR

Still Waiting : AVAV, ATVI (they preannounced good results), SHFL

Great Numbers from TGI and NTDOY

Nintendo reported off the hook numbers. The stock has increased almost 10 points from 56 in two days. It is really fun owning this one. I have enough money exposed to the stock at this point though. So I will just enjoy the ride.

TGI reported great numbers. I am really excited about this stock. They increased their EPS guidance for the year. Revenues were up 26% to 275M. FY 2008 revenues were initially only expected to climb 17%. Margins were also up. Their balance sheet is good (according to one of the analysts on the conference call - I am not that good at following stocks). The only dent in their report was that they burned 10.8 M of cash in the quarter. Other than that everything I heard was good.

I have decided to shift money out of about 30% each of AVAV and LNDC and invest that into TGI. Win with the winners.

It's Earnings Time

Three of the stocks in my IRA portfolio are reporting earnings.

The first one to report was LNDC yesterday after the market close. It was kind of a ho hum report. Revenues were exactly on with the forecast and their profit beat the estimate by .02 cents. Nothing Earth shattering. They will hold their conference call this afternoon - so I will have something to do while I sit at my desk.

TGI which is my second favorite stock in my portfolio after Nintendo is reporting after the market close. This company is run by some really conservative old white dudes. They seem to be pretty smart and know the company and the business well.

Nintendo just reported their earnings in Tokyo. Their profit was up 416% from the year ago quarter to 668 Million (dollars). "Group sales" (which I interpret to be revenue) was up 160%. These numbers are pretty insane. They raised their expected total deliveries of the Wii for the year from 14M to 16.5M and for the DS from 22M to 26M. This company is really sitting pretty here. It is so exciting! Here is a blog that is not updated often enough, but still has some nice writeups. Here is one of the better articles about the company's earnings from Bloomberg.

Is it Friday yet?

We had quite a busy weekend. I took some time off of work on Friday in order to do yard work and sand the spackling in the family room. Our family room is now covered in a film of dust. It is quite disgusting, but I covered all of the vents and put up a plastic sheet so none is getting into the living area of the house.

On Saturday, my in-laws came over. They are Thai and are really cool. The one thing they do is hustle - and they don't stop hustling. So my father in law patched a little more in the family room. and my mother in law painted the trim. Scott, my sister-in-law's boyfriend sanded the nursery and my sister-in-law measured every room in the house. After about 6 good hours of work, we went to The Jughandle Inn in Pensauken for great ribs and great wings. I was the only one drinking - but oh well.

Sunday was purely evil. It was moving day. I don't even want to talk about it.

More House Work

Yesterday I spent about 3 hours putting a second coat of spackle on the family room walls. It came out really nice. It looks professional if I do say so myself. Everything I learned, I learned from this dude. Tonight I hope to sand it and finished removing the staples from the floor in the guest bedroom.

Exercise for week of 07/15/07

07/15 - 67 mile bike ride to the beach. Philadelphia to Buena Vista, NJ. It was a great day!




07/16 - off

07/17 - off

07/18 - off

07/19 - volleyball

House Work

Yesterday, I finished installing the dead bolt. The front door originally had no deadbolt lock, so I had to drill a hole for one. It took me close to 3 hours to complete this task. I realized, when drilling, measure exactly right and follow the directions to a tee. I skipped out on drilling a 3/8 inch hole and went straight for the 2 incher. Big mistake. Eying the cuts seemed that all of the holes wer aligned, but when I installed all of the parts it was obvious they weren't. I had to rig it a little but I think I am the only one who will notice.

I sanded the family room. Thank God for my Dewalt random orbital sander. If you have to patch a whole room, get one. It makes sanding so much easier, but not one iota less dusty.

I removed the carpeting in the guest bedroom. The carpet installers stapled the carpet pad directly to the hard wood floor. They are a pain to get out. We are still deciding whether we want to carpet this room or refinish the hardwood.

We only have four more days until we finally move in. I gotta get moving.

Paint Prep

I have started to prep the guest bedroom for paint. I have already finished the ceiling. It came out a little bit streaky. I think I had too much paint on the roller. So I did a little research and decided this is how I am going to prep the room for paint.

1. Remove all light switches and outlet covers.
2. Find any nail pops, cracks, or divets in the wall. I looked for imperfections in the wall using by using both a spotlight and using natural light. Sometimes the nail pops would be obvious and sometimes they wouldn't be.
3. Mark imperfections with a pen knife. When I found a nail pop I would use a pen knife to make a cut in the drywall exposing the nail head. I would later come back to it and drive it in with a hammer and nail set.
4. Sand the imperfections. I use a Dewalt Random Orbital Sander with 150 grit sanding disks.
5. Sand the wall using a pole sander. I really sanded it lightly.
6. Wash the wall. I have read a lot of debate about this one. I used bleach mixxed with water. I wasn't sure it was necessary or useful, but the mount of dust I removed from the wall was ginormous.
7. Patch the imperfections.
8. Patch the imperfections.
9. Apply painter's tape for edging. This painter's tape is pretty expensive. I bought 4 rolls for like 20 bucks. It took me a while to figure out a good technique to put it on and get it straight. What I wound up doing was putting it on as straight as possible then coming back with a razor and cutting a perfect line. Then removing the excess. This worked well.

Today I will put the first coat on. Wish me luck! What I have consistently read is "Two light coats is better than one heavy coat"

LNDC May Be Running

Approximately two weeks prior to the last time it reported earnings, LNDC went on a nice 2 point run. At that time, it moved from around 12 to around 14.40 (the high when it reported). It seems it may have started this same trend today. The stock reports earnings on July 25.

Exercise for week of 07/08/07

Sunday 07/08 -

• 15 min stretch
• x5 squat jumps
• 2x5 broad jump and stick
• Hang Snatch : 5x85 lbs, 4x5x95 lbs
• Front Squats : 8 x 95lb, 8 x105, 8x125, 8x145
• Abs

Monday 07/09 - Volleyball

Tuesday 07/10 - weight : 191 lbs body fat : 12.1%

• pullups - 11.5 (disappointed), 5, 3,... total 30
• decline butterly - 8x40, 8x50, 8x60, 4x70
• shoulder circuit - 6x12 lbs, 8x10, 8x10
• abs

Wednesday OFF

Thursday 07/12 - weight : 189 lbs body fat : 12.2%

• Lateral Bounds - 3 sets of 6 jumps
• Step Back, Jump - 3 sets of 5
• Depth Jumps 4 sets of 4 at 4, 6, 8, 10 height
• Hang Clean 5 x 75, 5x95, 5x100,5x105, 5x125
• Snatch Squat 3 x 8 @ 95 lbs
• Abs
  
• 20 each Side Situps
• Supermans
  

Growing Grass

We have a disgustingly overgrown pine tree in our front yard. When I first looked at the house it hit me immediately, this tree must go.

I went out and bought a Remington Electric tree trimmer. I have a tendency to rush right in and use these new tools, but I always force myself to read the directions first. I picked up the direction book and it was all over the place. It is really confusing. They combine three different languages into the same book. So you will read a title in English, followed by the same title in Spanish, and finally French. But in other sections, there will be two straight pages of all English, followed by two straight pages of Spanish, then French. I couldn't take it because I was so anxious. The one tidbit I did get from the book was to put oil in the oil well. Done.

Trimmed one branch. Worked great. Trimmed a second, then a third. Got to the fourth branch and there was smoke and a foul odor coming from the motor. I figured that was normal. Gave it a pause, pushed the button to activate it again - and a big nothing. At this point I had to make sense of the direction book. Turns out you have to manually "prime" the oil after every cut.

I returned the saw and got a new one. I cut about 1/4 of the tree down leaving about 4 feet clearance so I could plant grass seed. We are in the middle of a heatwave and I knew that if I cut the whole tree down and left no shade, the grass wouldn't grow. After three days and three times a day of watering, I have grass!

I used Scott's sun and shade mixture. My neighbor told me that because of the dripping of the sap from the tree, I will need to fertilize with Lyme. He explained to me that the sap will increase the acidic level of the soil and that the lyme will reduce it. I haven't taken that step yet, but will in the near future.

Current IRA Holdings

Here I will list the current holdings in my IRA. My sttrategy for my IRA is to invest in small cap grwoth stocks. I try to buy companies under 2 billion market cap. In some cases this is not possible (ie. Nintendo, Activision).

Nintendo's American Depository Receipts (NTDOY)
-Just go to amazon.com, click on "Top Sellers" then select "Video Games".
Triumph Group (TGI)
-This company is a subcontractor for Boeing. They install the floor panels for the 787
Dreamliner. For my honeymoon I visited Thailand. Global air traffic is exploding. For a safer investment, buy Boeing. But if your are riskier, like me, buy TGI.
Aerovironment (AVAV)
-This company sells UAV that troops can carry on their backs. They are also working on a UAV system that will be continuously airborn and will act as a low orbit sattelite. Could get exciting but the stock hasn't been doing anything.
Landec (LNDC)
-This company makes breathable polymers. Think goretex packaging for fruits and vegetables. They also made a goretex seedcoating that would cause the seeds to germinate only during the right conditions. BRILLIANT!
Under Armor (UA)
-If you don't have any under armor clothes, go buy some. Especially if you are in good shape. They make you feel huge. If you ski, use it as your base layer. BRILLIANT!
Spartan Motors (SPAR)
-This company makes the Chasis for the MRAP (min resistant ambush protected) vehicles. Think roadside bombs in Iraq.
Commerce Bank (CBH)
-This is the best bank in the world. If you have access to Commerce, sign up with them. You will not be disappointed. When I was younger, I never paid attention to my bank statements. I was withdrawing money from ATMs at WAWA figuring they were free. One day I figured I would take a gander at the statement and in that month alone I was charged 11 bucks for withdrawing money - all along I thought it was "free". Well at Commerce it is free.
Activision (ATVI)
-Try Guitar Hero 2. I will have it at my next party.
Shufflemaster (SHFL)
-In Delaware and Pennsylvania, you can't have a blackjack table with a real deck of cards. Instead the odds must be already determined, like a slot. This company makes video black jack and poker machines that pay out based on a pre-programmed allocation. It's the law in states that are just opening up casinos.
Dandreon (DNDN)
-I was stupid and invested in this company after it doubled. One day it went from 18 to 6. I owned shares at that point and it really messed up my portfolio.

Our House in Mill Run

On June 25, 2007 we settled on a four bedroom two and a half bath house. The house originally came on the market in October of 2006 at 429,900. We first went to look at the house in mid April. It had just been reduced to 375,000. It needed a lot of work, but it backed up to open space, and in this part of New Jersey, that is a money maker. Everyone else was scared off because of all the painting and "fixxing-up" that needed to be done. Not us (mainly me)!

We put an offer in at 350k and 3k down. The seller's realtor was concerned because we had 100% financing and she thought 3k down was kind of low. So we upped the offer to 350k and 10k down. They countered at 373k. We bid 355k. They countered at 370k. We firmly bid 360k. They said they will wait for another offer. I was really ticked off. I thought it was rude that we would raise our offer by 5k increments and the seller would only lower by 2-3k. So we went to look at other options.

We went to see another house that was the exact same model. This one's kitchen was only about 5 years old. The carpets were in good shape. The walls were nicely painted. The landscaping was in order. They were asking 410k. It was great, I thought, that we had found another house. One that fit our needs, in the same town. Who cares that our mortgage payment was going to be 200-300 more per month. We walked out back. And there it was. "vrummm vrummm" They backed up to a busy street. You could hear the incessant sound of cars driving by.

The good thing was we knew what we wanted. So we made it happen. We bid up to 370k and my back side felt a little invaded. But my brother-in-law made the right point. In 5 or 10 or 30 years, that 10,000 dollar difference won't mean squat.

Stock Alert

This morning, Activision (ATVI) announced that they will exceed their first quarter guidance. I bought this stock about a month or two ago in my IRA. It seems that their "movie games" are driving their success. I am really happy with the Guitar Hero 2 game I bought, but it seems this is not the main driver.

I bought more of the stock on the news. Unfortunately, since I have yet to pay my first mortgage payment, I can't deposit any more money into my IRA account at the present moment. I was itching to transfer money this morning, but I have an outstanding loan on my 401k that I need to pay off first.

Catchup

There are three major things going on in my life at this point. The first one is my wife is pregnant and due January 1st. The next major occurrence is that we bought a house. The final major happening is one that I hope continues for a long time and that is I play, practice, and workout in order to be a good volleyball player.

My wife is now 15 weeks pregnant. When we weren't so busy with getting - and now fixing the house - I was making breakfast and really helping her out. I was so proud of myself. Every morning I would wake up and make eggs or oatmeal or pancackes. I was cleaning the apartment and I was doing everything I could to keep her stress level as low as possible. She had a really great first trimester. Now things are a bit more hectic.

We are in between moving from our apartment to our new home in Mount Laurel, NJ. We bought an outdated house in a nice neighborhood. I got burned back int he stock market crash of 2000. It seemed to me that the housing market was going through the same sort of phenomenon.

On June 25, 2007 we settled on a four bedroom two and a half bath house. The house originally came on the market in October of 2006 at 429,900. We first went to look at the house in mid April. It had just been reduced to 375,000. It needed a lot of work, but it backed up to open space, and in this part of New Jersey, that is a money maker. Everyone else was scared off because of all the painting and "fixxing-up" that needed to be done. Not us (mainly me)!

We put an offer in at 350k and 3k down. The seller's realtor was concerned because we had 100% financing and she thought 3k down was kind of low. So we upped the offer to 350k and 10k down. They countered at 373k. We bid 355k. They countered at 370k. We firmly bid 360k. They said they will wait for another offer. I was really ticked off. I thought it was rude that we would raise our offer by 5k increments and the seller would only lower by 2-3k. So we went to look at other options.

We went to see another house that was the exact same model. This one's kitchen was only about 5 years old. The carpets were in good shape. The walls were nicely painted. The landscaping was in order. They were asking 410k. It was great, I thought, that we had found another house. One that fit our needs, in the same town. Who cares that our mortgage payment was going to be 200-300 more per month. We walked out back. And there it was. "vrummm vrummm" They backed up to a busy street. And you could hear the incessant sound of cars driving by.

The good thing was we knew what we wanted. So we made it happen. We bid up to 370k and my back side felt a little invaded. But my brother-in-law made the right point. In 5 or 10 or 30 years, that 10,000 dollar difference won't mean squat.