Visitors

Kristen Crosby, a fellow R.A. friend from Miami, came to visit Staci this past Memorial Day weekend. Check out the staci & todd section of the website to see funny pictures from the weekend. As for a blog topic... Last night we had a discussion of times we had hurt ourselves or another. Physical pain, like a broken arm, a baseball bat to the head. Anyone have a good story?

Seth Graduation

My cousin Seth graduated this past weekend. It was great fun even if it did rain during the graduation ceremony. You can check out more pictures here. On a related note calling Seth my cousin always disturbs me. I told someone in the department that I went to see my cousin graduate and they were surprised. It was because for many cousins are a dime a dozen. However, that is what I love about my family. We are all so cool- my uncles, aunt, and cousin mean so much more than is typical for most. I guess I am just lucky to have family that I like. Wondering if anyone else has a family member that means more to them than his or her title would suggest.

Anniversairy

May 6th market Staci and my 4year anniversairy. Doesn't Staci look great! I am a little bit behind, but here are some more pictures.

Economic Questions

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about the awful unemployment rates in Germany nowadays. Evidently that are the worst they've been since WWII. A German business student created a website where employers can list jobs, list a hourly wage they are willing to pay and then unemployed workers fight to underbid to win the job. These were things from office work to yard work. For example, someone could post something saying they would pay $10 an hour to have someone do yard work for them for a week. Then workers would go on and say "I'll do it for $9.50...I'll do it for $8." Sold, to the worker who is willing to go at $7.00/hr. Now, the unemployed can post listings as well, saying they have specific skills/education then let the employers bid for them. In this case, obviously, the are trying to out bid each other. Some praise the website, saying it is giving work to those who otherwise would be sitting around not earning anything. Others (more official sorts) are saying that it is basically creating a quasi-slave labor market where people are working for much less than they should be paid and it is pushing them poorer. On a side note, one expert said this is all really side stepping the problem and that the real fix to it would be to lower the salary of Germans so that products could be produced for less money, the prices on products would go down, consumers would buy and the economy would begin to rebound. But I don't understand, really - doesn't that all just make for a clean wash out? Lower wages, lower prices, people buy, but they have lower wages, so they won't be buying more than when they had more money. It's like when a basketball game is tied at 30/30 - it's really like they start all over... Todd, am I out in left field here? What about these Germans? Good or bad about the job website?

Rocky Horror

Chris is playing in the orchestra for a production of Rocky Horrow. The Show was great fun (as you can see).