....but the world still goes around and round

• Just saw the headline "Economy worries push stocks lower."  Really?  The economy is bad?  Who knew!  I just picture the people at the stock exchange going to work every morning and reading a report that says "home sales drop by 2%,"  spitting their coffee all over themselves and yelling "SELL!  SELL!" to anyone within earshot.  The next day, they read a report that says "jobless claims drop by 2,500 over same period last year," spitting their coffee all over themselves and yelling "BUY! BUY!" to anyone within earshot.  The whole system seems hellbent on overreaction.  I know there's people far smarter than me that understand this better, but it just seems like if everyone put a steady stream of money into the stock market, everyone would benefit.  The companies would have additional streams of cash to operate with, thereby growing the economy, thereby raising the value of our investments.  Instead, everyone's trying to "get over" on everyone else, and we all end up taking it in the shorts.  What a bizarre system.
• Being a good husband is hard.  Rachel and I have an agreement about our netflix account.  Anytime she wants a movie, it automatically goes right to the top of the queue.  (sidenote, is there a cooler word than queue?  I don't think so).  The other night we got the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel "The Last Song," starring Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear and some anonymous good looking dude.  I figure watching a chick flick every now and then can't hurt me, and could only score me some bonus points.  Wrong.  So, so wrong.  I can't watch these movies without making some sort of noise during the sappy love parts.  A chortled laugh here, a "Really?" there, and I've sent all the goodwill I may have earned by watching the movie up in smoke.  I really believe that it's a miracle that any relationship works, to say nothing of my own. 
• Insanity is frustrating as hell.  Right now my body's just not strong enough to get any benefit out of it.  I'm starting to get a little more stamina, not having to take as many breaks, but the workout is so damn hard that my body just physically can't do all the switch kicks and push-up jacks that the workout requires, despite having the cardiovascular ability to go on.  As a result, I feel like it's going to be quite a while before I start to see big results.  I definitely feel better and have more energy, but the weight loss/body sculpting portion just isn't there yet, not that I'm ever going to be an underwear model (dear god, that even grosses me out).
• The other day, I was having trouble getting Jonah to leave daycare because he was playing Mariokart on the Wii with the other kids.  I had just resorted to threatening a time-out when our daycare provider offered to let Jonah borrow the game for a few days.  I'm trying to tell her that's not necessary, but Jonah is immediately going "See Dad, Malea said so!"  Where in God's name to two year olds learn to argue so effectively?  How do I argue with "you said I could play Wii at home, and Malea says it's alright to borrow the game, so why can't we just do it?"  I was just about to employ the classic parenting line of "Because I said so!" but I couldn't bring myself to do it because I always hated that response.  I always thought it was a cop out by your parents because they didn't want to do something that you did.  I was right, but at least now I understand why.  Parenting makes a lot more sense when you're the parent, I'll tell you that much.