Another new week, and we're into May! Even the Canadians will be feeling some spring by now which should put everyone in a good mood. I spent this weekend mucking out some much neglected flower beds and afterward a good deal of time lying on the couch aching and whining. I guess the 6-month workout hiatus may not have been such a fab idea after all.

Well, a new day and a fresh bag of coffee beans is enough to get me in a better mood, and as I'm sitting here in my raggedy yoga pants and Molson Canadian T-shirt I'm feeling the tension lift. How 'bout you?

So, first on the news headlines is the horrible news about another natural disaster in a far off place. Death toll is coming in at this hour of at least 4,000 and likely to rise to 10,000. Seems to me we've been singing this song a lot lately: 2005's Hurricane Katrina (1,800+ deaths), the 2004 Indonesian tsunami (200,000+ deaths), the 2003 European heat wave (35,000 deaths), and on and on. But-- 'Climate Change' is a myth (propagated by evil hippie liberals whose anti-progress agenda will sink civilization into the worst recession known to mankind). Riiiiiight. My good mood is officially spoiled (but at least I got to rant about it). Kinda wishing right now that Al Gore was running for President.

Shifting gears, it seems the financial story du jour is that there will be no MicroHoo (merger of Microsoft and Yahoo). I saw this story on the weekend and some overeager financial journalist described stockholders as waiting 'with bated breath' for the Wall Street reaction (I can't find that link now, sorry. It was worth a few derisive snickers for sure). Sure enough, Yahoo's stock is floundering - so the commentators got it right, but what struck me as funny was the whole emotional response to this news. I had this mental picture of a bunch of nerdy-type day traders hunched over their laptops with their Vitamin Water and fingernails bitten down to the blood.

Quick disclaimer: I can scoff because (as a self-managed investor) I got spanked on the earnings announcements a coupla weeks back. Who's the fool now?

I hopped over to MSN's entertainment page for some salacious gossip and was rewarded with this acid-trippin' pic of Mary-Kate Olsen. Wow. I guess no words are necessary.

That's a wrap for this Monday, peeps. See ya on the other side.

Peeve of the Week: The publishing of this post was delayed significantly because of an ongoing glitch at RoadRunner. It's funny - we rarely have service disruptions during crashing banging storms, but on a sunny day (for that matter all weekend) we have had sporadic service at best. Also, we had cheaped out and went with Vonage (Buyer Beware, but that's another story) for our telephone service (VOIP), so with that down too I have been forced to rely on my cell phone. Sux to be me though, since we live a little ways out of town and I have crappy/nonexistant reception. Crappy RoadRunner, stupid Vonage, ghetto Virgin. I hate technology.

What's your Beef of the Day? Bitch it here.