Hello everyone!

I am sorry that I have been away for so long, but we have been busy.

Beloved was home for twice as long this time and part of the reason was because he was being honored at work. It was a couple of years in the making since he couldn’t make it before but he was finally honored for his driving over a million miles without an accident or ticket! His former dispatcher didn’t get him home in time for the banquet when he was to be honored, but he was told this year by his new dispatcher that beloved WOULD be attending and be able to have time at home as well.

We had a great time at the social hour for starters. We are both pretty shy people and don’t go to too many parties and when we checked in, we were told to pick a table. We found someone that we knew at one of the rear tables and sat there. We of course, knew more than this one couple, but we were drawn to that table. Mike and his wife filled us in on the behind the scenes stuff (since he works in the office) that his current dispatcher wouldn’t think to tell him. We were the only two couples at this table for eight when a few minutes before the start of the dinner portion, two more couples sat down and the real party began.

Even though I hadn’t been at the company banquet for over five years, I remembered both of the guys but couldn’t remember their names. They were being honored as well for their time of safe service and one of them was being honored for two awards. Curtis was the guy that gets things done on time and safely but still has a sense of humor about it. There was a guy at another table who was being honored for his first big safety award and his dispatcher told everyone how this guy was able to get loads in a bind delivered on time and he was really nervous. After he got his award and they took his picture, he had to run to the bathroom. Beloved said, “Look, there goes John with another hot load!” The rest of the room turned at looked at Curtis and just either glared at him or laughed. Our table just giggled and Curtis (whose black) nearly turned red.

We had a great time catching up with some of his work friends but wanted to get home so we decided not to stay at the hotel. Since we don’t drink, we didn’t worry about driving the two hours home.

We got everything done on the “honey-do” list and I did a ton of wash and shopping. I asked work if I could have a couple of days off and it worked out really good. I need to have an entry about work, but not today.

Pound Puppy has been upset that the regular wet dog food that she usually gets was on the expanded pet food recall. It’s been really tough to find something that will not get her sick but am glad that Pound Puppy hasn’t eaten too much of it. But Daddy made sure that she got her special treat when he was home for nearly five days. The special treat is the rawhide bone with peanut butter spread all over it (including spreading it inside so it’s harder to lick it off.) I need to spread a twin sheet over the pet bed so that peanut butter doesn’t get on the carpet before it gets licked off. When there is enough of the peanut butter is gone, Pound Puppy will stand up and ask Daddy for more. I wish that we had a camcorder so we could tape it, but we don’t darn it.

Well, that’s about it for now. Please when you stop by, say hey don’t lurk!

WASHINGTON - A major manufacturer of dog and cat food sold under Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other store brands recalled 60 million containers of wet pet food Friday after reports of kidney failure and deaths.

An unknown number of cats and dogs suffered kidney failure and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, Menu Foods said in announcing the North American recall. Product testing has not revealed a link explaining the reported cases of illness and death, the company said.

“At this juncture, we’re not 100 percent sure what’s happened,” said Paul Henderson, the company’s president and chief executive officer. However, the recalled products were made using wheat gluten purchased from a new supplier, since dropped for another source, spokeswoman Sarah Tuite said. Wheat gluten is a source of protein.

The recall covers the company’s “cuts and gravy” style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches between Dec. 3 and March 6 throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The pet food was sold by stores operated by the Kroger Co., Safeway Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PetSmart Inc., among others, Henderson said.

Menu Foods did not immediately provide a full list of brand names and lot numbers covered by the recall, saying they would be posted on its Web site — www.menufoods.com/recall — early Saturday. Consumers with questions can call (866) 463-6738.

Repeated calls to that number over several hours Friday night got only a busy signal. Attempts to reach a company spokeswoman for an explanation were unsuccessful.

The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.

Menu Foods’ three U.S. and one Canadian factory produce more than 1 billion containers of wet pet food a year. The recall covers pet food made at company plants in Emporia, Kan., and Pennsauken, N.J., Henderson said.

Henderson said the company received an undisclosed number of owner complaints of vomiting and kidney failure in dogs and cats after they had been fed its products. It has tested its products but not found a cause for the sickness.

“To date, the tests have not indicated any problems with the product,” Henderson said.

The company alerted the Food and Drug Administration, which already has inspectors in one of the two plants, Henderson said. The FDA was working to nail down brand names covered by the recall, agency spokesman Mike Herndon said.

Menu Foods is majority owned by the Menu Foods Income Fund, based in Ontario, Canada.

Henderson said the recall would cost the company the Canadian equivalent of $26 million to $34 million.

The compensation committee of Wal-Mart's board voted Wednesday to make the award to Scott and also grant shares to other executives.

Scott's salary and bonus for 2006 was $5.23 million. His total compensation for that year was, excluding restricted stock awards, was $15.7 million. The $22 million bonus was for Wal-Mart's 2007 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.

The filing Friday says Scott was awarded 459,348 Wal-Mart shares, which will be 50 percent vested in three years and fully vested in five years. The award brings Scott's total Wal-Mart holding to 1,185,002 shares, worth $56.8 million, based on the share price of $47.93 listed in the filing.

Another story ~

This article was published on Monday, March 12, 2007

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. awarding President and CEO Lee Scott a stock bonus worth $22 million for "reaching revenue targets" last year has raised a few eyebrows. The Bentonville-based retailer disclosed the news in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission on Friday.

"It seems rather extreme. I'm not sure what the justification for it is. It wasn't a great fiscal year (for Wal-Mart)," said Jeff Macke, founder and president of Macke Asset Management and a regular contributor to CNBC.

The compensation committee of Wal-Mart's board voted Wednesday to make the award to Scott and also grant shares to other executives, including Mike Duke, who heads Wal-Mart's International division.

"I've no idea what their logic was," Macke said about the board of directors. "I'm a capitalist, but I'm not sure how you can justify $22 million."

Although Wal-Mart had record sales of $344.9 billion and a profit of $98 billion for the year ending Jan. 31, the company has reported dismal same-store sales -- sales for stores open at least a year and a measure of a retailer's health -- for months and its stock price has remained sluggish since Scott took over the company six years ago.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar said Scott's stock bonus was a "performance-based, revenue-growth award" granted in fiscal 2006 and approved by the board this year once performance goals were met.

He also said Scott is "paid competitively compared to other large company CEOs."

Scott's salary and bonus for 2006 was $5.23 million. His total compensation for that year, excluding restricted stock awards, was $15.7 million. The $22 million bonus was for Wal-Mart's 2007 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.

"Apparently, Wal-Mart's incentive structures aren't tied to stock performance. We wish they would spend that ($22 million) to shore up their employees' health care plan," said Nu Wexler, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, a Washington-based group that has been highly critical of Wal-Mart over its wages and benefits.

Tovar replied that Wal-Mart was "very proud" of its health care plans for employees.

The filing Friday says Scott was awarded 459,348 Wal-Mart shares, which will be 50 percent vested in three years and fully vested in five years. The award brings Scott's total Wal-Mart holding to 1,185,002 shares, worth $56.8 million, based on the share price of $47.93 listed in the filing.

Wal-Mart shares (NYSE: WMT) closed Monday at $47.26, down 16 cents. For the past 52 weeks the share price has ranged from a $52.15 high to a $42.31 low.

Date of Incident March 14, 2007

Describe Incident:

T. was cleaning the front women’s restroom when I arrived this afternoon. She told me that another associate, E. was telling her that she was going to “help” her clean the restrooms and T. answered back that she doesn’t need help and that she can clean them by herself. She finished cleaning both the front women’s and men’s restrooms and put the cart away in the front closet. She then walked to the maintenance area in the back to refill her red bottle of Spitfire for the front cart as well as to get some liquid soap for the dispenser since there was none in the front closet either. E. was in the rear maintenace area and told T. that even though it was just before 6PM, she was going to clean the rear restrooms. T. told her don’t do it because she is scheduled to do it at 7PM but E. said she was going to do it anyway. T. went to C, support manager and told her what E. said. C. said that she would speak to E. and that T. was to do her scheduled maintenance of the restrooms at 7PM. T. took her break in the rear breakroom and E. came in and apologized for trying to take T’s job. Not five minutes later, she decided to “help” her clean the rear women’s restroom despite T’s repeated message that she didn’t need her assistance. There was a page on the walkie-talkie that E. was needed for a wet spill on aisle six in grocery (in fact there were two calls) that E. ignored even after she called back on the walkie-talkie to say that she was coming. Then out of nowhere, another associate, O. came to the women’s restroom asking for E. so she could train him to clean restrooms. All the while this was going on, T. was doing her best to ignore the distraction and do her job. I was standing in the restroom by the door watching her work and listening to everything. As soon as O. tried to come into the restroom, T. freaked out and said she had to get out of there. O. is a very big man and she seemed nervous, so she again went to C. to ask what to do. C. told her to just forget the rear restroom tonight and just go up to the front restrooms. T. went to the front closet, got out her cart and started cleaning the restrooms. When she finished the women’s and started to move her cart over to the men’s to close it, a male customer came up to her and said that what’s going on, the rear bathrooms are closed too. He told her that there was a shopping cart blocking the rear bathrooms with a homemade sign that said “Bathrooms closed.” Charlie, customer service manager was told what the customer said and went to the back to check it out. After T. cleaned the restrooms for the 7PM shift up front, she walked to the rear to see if the rear bathrooms needed to be cleaned. It was about 7:30PM and the women’s restroom was marked as done but the toilets were black with brush marks and some paper on the floor. She got upset that it was dirty after only a half hour so she found C. again in Sporting goods department. She wasn’t able to show her the mess that was in the restroom after waiting for about five minutes so she cleaned them up and then spoke to C. afterwards.

So that's what I plan to turn it tomorrow afternoon, any comments out there?

Note: T. is "my adult" E. is a genuine pain in the neck who is running scared that she will lose her job because "our adults" are kicking her butt the way they clean and take pride in what they do. She is a spy who tries to get all of our adults in trouble and is frustrated that she hasn't been able to do it. O. is another person who is just there to get a paycheck. Until today, he was a cart attendent. This guy is about 6'4" and probably about 300 pounds, very scary looking but lazy. When he thinks there are enough carts, he "hides" for up to thirty minutes at a time ~ which is why he is inside now. No place to hide anymore!

Could you stop spending for a month?

A few weeks ago, I invited people on the Your Money message board to try a little experiment: a "buy nothing" month.

For the 28 days of February -- I picked the shortest month to make it easier on volunteers -- those who wanted to participate would buy only necessities. Each person would get to define what was a necessity for himself or herself. At the end of the month, everybody would report back on how their shopping fast went.

The point wasn't just to save money. It was also a way of examining our relationship with money.

I'd recently wrapped up a similar monthlong experiment, which was inspired by a number of factors, including:

• "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping," a book by Judith Levine that explored her attempt to resist consumerism.
• The Compact, a San Francisco group of people who try not to purchase anything new except food, medicine and toiletries.
• A particularly expensive Christmas, which featured a roast that cost more than my first vehicle.

In the course of my own buy-nothing month, I'd learned some things about myself and my spending habits, plus I'd saved some dough. So I asked the Your Money gang if anyone else wanted to try.

Several dozen people volunteered, and in the process we learned a lot about each other, how we spend and how resourceful we can be when required. And, yes, a bunch of people saved some dough, sometimes quite a bit.

Why would you do this?

 A month without unnecessary shopping can be a great way to jump-start your savings, free up money to pay off debt or get a budget under control. Indeed, a lot of people who signed up were hoping to do one or more of these things.

"I decided to do the challenge because I knew our spending had gotten a little out of control since buying our home in July," wrote Sara Harrington, 24, of Iowa City, Iowa. "We stopped saving like we had been for many months prior to the home purchase and started spending a little here, a little there. All those little things really added up, and I couldn't always account for it."

But many had less concrete reasons for wanting to participate. Even people whose finances were in pretty good shape had a vague feeling that money was slipping through their hands with little to show for it.

Brenda Segura and her husband, both teachers in Amarillo, Texas, live below their means, typically spending 60% of their gross incomes each month. They have traditional pensions that are scheduled to replace 60% of their income in retirement, and they contribute to 403(b) workplace retirement plans.

But Brenda didn't like the idea that she might be frittering away money on unimportant purchases.

"I think so much was spent just because we can afford it, but I'm questioning all purchases now," Brenda wrote. "Do I really need it? Most of the extra money was spent on 'I wants.' "

What do you really need?

In the beginning, a few people wanted me to lay out some rules about what was a necessity and what wasn't. I didn't bite because thinking about what is truly a need and what is merely a want is an important part of this exercise.

Participants did a good job of zeroing in on their problem areas without my help. Many acknowledged they spent too much eating out or on clothes and put those categories on their "no buy" lists. At least one went the month without buying groceries, stocking her freezer and shelves with enough food to avoid a single trip to a store. A few narrowed their definition of necessities to perishables only -- milk, produce, etc. -- because they were blowing too much on food.

Rose, 54, grew up in a home "where bread was rationed." The lack of abundantly available food in her childhood turned her into a bit of a hoarder. At one point, she wrote, she had 120 cans of tuna and "cases and cases" of toilet paper stashed away in her Upper Michigan home.

Rose thought she had largely overcome her hoarding habit and prided herself on buying food only on sale, but she was still "totally surprised" at the hundreds of dollars she saved on groceries by participating in the buy-nothing month.

"I resolved to let my little store in the basement go out of business," Rose wrote.

Some challenges, a few surprises

Concerns about feeling deprived were pretty common, at least in the early days. Many participants confessed they often spent money to ward off boredom or to lift a bad mood, or to socialize with friends, and wondered how they'd cope without that outlet.

A New York woman, Vanessa, dropped out early in the experiment because continuing, she wrote, would have meant being too lonely. New Yorkers socialize by going out to eat and drink, rarely entertaining in their shoe-box apartments.

Maybe it's easier for us Californians. Janelle Vannoy of Fullerton, Calif., wrote she started the experiment by turning down her friends' invitations to go out, but then her friends "started adjusting for this plan."

"Instead of going to a bar or restaurant, we headed to a friend's house," wrote Vannoy, 31, who works as a warranty adjuster for a luxury-auto dealership. "Instead of shopping, we went to the park. Instead of going out to lunch, we began to brown-bag it and would walk afterwards."

Participants reported some positive side effects. Robert Underwood, a Seattle electrician in his 50s, wrote that the lunches and snacks he and his wife decided to bring to work contributed to their weight loss.

"Not only is this helping our bottom line, it fits right in with our diets," Underwood wrote. "She has lost 25 pounds since Christmas, I have lost 10."

Radha Avadhani, 35, also credited the month with losing a few pounds -- and with bringing her closer to her spouse.

"I was surprised and delighted at how well my husband and I worked together on this. To be frank, it gave us so much to talk about, we almost felt like it was romantic to be doing this together. . . . How sad is that?" joked Avadhani, a stay-at-home mother of two young children in Highland Park, N.J. "But we had been drifting in our parallel universes for a while, and it was great to re-evaluate."

Another participant decided the buy-nothing month was a good excuse to de-clutter. Diane Pettinelli of Embarrass, Minn., had already replaced her shopping habit with walking her Labrador and ice skating by the time she heard about the experiment. But she still had the remnants of her past life bursting out of her closets, and during February she was motivated to take 14 boxes of clothing and miscellaneous items to Goodwill.

"A few of the items still had the original price tags attached," she confessed. "Ugghh."

Getting in the habit of not buying has helped her see potential purchases not as desirable but as future clutter. She even sleeps better "with the regular exercise and no guilt over purchases that I don't need!"

Lessons in doing without

Several people commented on how much the experiment made them consider the difference between wants and needs, and how often we blur the line between the two.

"I hoped to learn how deep the 'need' to buy was or if it was just done out of boredom and habit," wrote Harrington, the Iowa City woman. "Much of it was just that. We found we can have a nice weekend together without going to the mall or home-improvement store and mindlessly buying things we might forget about two months later."

Not everyone ended the month deep in the black, although many did. Segura, the teacher, saved nearly $800 during the month. That was on the high end of the scale, but several people saved $300 to $400.

Much of Avadhani's savings wound up being used for an unexpected car repair. But that was OK, she said, because having the money available was much better than having to ask her in-laws for help.

That sense of empowerment infused many participants' appraisal of their experiences. Even those who fell off the wagon early and often -- like Nicole, who had to move unexpectedly during the month -- said the experiment taught them that they usually have options to spending money.

"I think what I've learned can only help me in the future," wrote Nicole, who lives near Washington, D.C. "That if I decide to do something, I can do it, and that I can make do with what I've got."

Falling off the wagon

Most of us, by the way, couldn't get through the whole month without an unnecessary purchase. Some beat themselves up for their lapses, while others thought their off-the-plan purchases were justified, like a celebratory dinner out after hearing about a promotion or a great deal on carpeting they just couldn't let pass.

Some stayed strong even with grave temptation. Underwood, for example, wrote that his hardest challenge was attending a free seminar hosted by gardening guru Ed Hume.

"I could have bought one of his books and gotten him to autograph it," he wrote, "but I didn't!"

Often, our lapses taught us as much about our relationship to money as our successes. One of my issues, being a working mother, is a tendency to throw money at a problem rather than to figure out a cost-effective way to solve it. That describes exactly one of my falls from the wagon: About midmonth, my high-speed Internet access went down, and I needed to file a column. I went to one of my coffee hangouts that had Wi-Fi, only to learn -- after purchasing an illicit brew -- that its network was down, too. A barista pointed helpfully across the street to the public library, which has a wireless network that's absolutely free. Who knew?

Another thing I learned, after a month of making meals at home, is that I'm never actually too tired to cook, but I'm frequently too lazy. Knowing the difference has made it easier to put down the phone and pick up a pan.

The final surprise

I couldn't wait for my own no-buy month to be over, so I was caught off guard by the number of people who wanted to keep going.

The woman who stocked her freezer to avoid trips to the grocery store confessed that she had been keeping a list of the splurges she planned as soon as the month was over. By the end of February, though, she'd lost the list and no longer cared. Now she and several others are continuing the experiment.

"I am going into March with the same no spend mentality. . . . Strangely, I want more of this thinking," wrote one. "Further, I've met the most amazingly friendly people in this thread and new ones have joined in the last couple of days and want to try this. . . . I'm in again!!!"

Even Vanessa, the New Yorker who dropped out, wants to give it another whirl.

"In the summer I may try this challenge again, because I usually meet my friends in Central Park for a walk, picnic or rollerblading," Vanessa wrote. "You can't spend money easily while rolling down a hill at a great speed."

If you'd like to join them, feel free. They're chatting right now on the Your Money message board.

BREAKING - Halliburton moving headquarters to Dubai!

by Jerome a Paris

Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 08:55:04 AM PDT

• Halliburton will maintain a corporate office in Houston, but the company will be controlled from its office in the United Arab Emirates, company spokeswoman Cathy Mann explained.

"Halliburton is opening its corporate headquarters in Dubai while maintaining a corporate office in Houston," Ms. Mann said in an email to the Associated Press. "The chairman, president and CEO will office from and be based in Dubai to run the company from the UAE." She clarified "he will work from and his office will be in Dubai."

For a company that gets such a significant portion of its income from the US government, this is quite a stunning move, to say the least. Unless it means that they expect that this revenue stream will end soon - or that there is so little oil left in the USA that this is no longer where business will be? Or that it is suddenly becoming safer to stay away from US law enforcement authorities?

Last year, more than 38% of Halliburton's $13 billion oil field services revenue stemmed from sources in the eastern hemisphere, where the firm has 16,000 of its 45,000 global employees.

Mr. Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995-2000 and the Bush administration has been accused of favoring the giant firm with lucrative no-bid contracts in Iraq. Federal investigators said last month that Halliburton was responsible for $2.7 billion of the $10 billion in contractor waste and overcharging in Iraq.

Last month, Halliburton announced a 40% decline in fourth-quarter profit, despite heavy demand for its oil field equipment and personnel.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Those Geico "cavemen" shouldn't be so upset after all — they may get their own television series. ABC said Friday it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled "Cavemen," that features the characters used in a series of ads by the insurance company.

In the ads, cavemen appear insulted by a Geico pitchman's claim that the company's Web site is so easy to use that "even a caveman can do it."

The potential series, one of 14 pilots that will be produced by Touchstone Television this spring, features the cavemen as they "struggle with prejudice on a daily basis as they strive to live the lives of normal thirty-somethings in 2007 Atlanta."

It's unusual for characters from an advertising campaign to move into shows of their own, but not unprecedented. The CBS comedy "Baby Bob" featured a talking baby that had been used in several advertisements, according to Daily Variety.

The advertising copywriter who helped create the "cavemen" ads is writing the pilot, the studio said.

A pilot order is no guarantee a show will make it on the air; in fact, the majority of pilots don't make it that far.