It's Steve (now in blog form)

We now are the proud parents of a little girl!  She is just the cutest little thing ever.  Drop whatever you’re doing and proceed directly to It’s Madi to meet my daughter Madeline.

Note to parents: try not to feel bad when you eventually realize that she is superior to all other babies. It’s not your fault.

I really like Kiva.  It allows me to help struggling entrepreneurs around the world striving to make a better life for their families, and really plays into my desire to be a turn of the century railroad tycoon with a monocle traveling the countryside demanding my rent (You must pay the rent. I can’t pay the rent! Bwah hah hah!)

I previously had dabbled in Azerbijani fetish footwear and Nigerian palm oil and gin.  This time I decided to listen to the sound advice doled out by the financial experts who appear on morning news shows (they wouldn’t let them on at 6AM if they we’re really legit) and diversify.  I was thinking about putting a little bit of funding in a few different loans, but then I came across Familia Unida Group.

These Bolivians are not fooling around (as if Bolivians ever do).  They are involved in:

• Construction materials
• Coca leaves (yeah, you read that right)
• Beer
• School supplies
• T-shirts
• Fruit
• A brick laying school (the trick is to buy the brick dinner first!   *Note: even I am a little disappointed  with the previous joke.  I wish I had something better but Ben keeps trying to stick Cheerios in my ear and it’s the best I can think of at the moment.)
• Sausage and french fry production
• Soft drinks
• Flower stands
• Computer graphics
• TV advertising
• “Tropical Rainbow”, probably not Bolivia’s lowest rated television show

As an expert in the Bolivian economy, I can authoritatively say that some of these probably have some sort of profit margin.  I’m bullish on the potential for the Familia Unida Group. I give it a strong Buy rating.

Jim and I went surfing today and saw a fin in the water.  He assured me that it was a dolphin who happened to not be dolphin color  and was swimming alone (dolphins never ever swim alone).  I think Jim may be trying to kill me.

Update: Jim’s nefarious motives confirmed.  Here’s a video from the same day about a mile up the beach from where we saw the “dolphin”. Oh yeah, that’s a 10 foot great white.  Excuse me while I rock back and forth in a fetal position in the corner.

Feel free to shower me with gifts and/or compliments.  Of course, it’s silly of me to even think I need to remind you (my birthday always coincides with Equatorial Guinea Armed Forces Day so there’s no way you’d miss it).

I’d like to send a special thank you to the automated CRM systems that have already sent me birthday wishes this morning. Way to generate a form letter with a nightly chron job fellas.  I love you too.