Congratulations Michael Firth - You Did It!!

This is a bit of a delayed post, but I wanted to share news around a good friend who recently proposed. Mike Firth proposed to Molly Belozer the Friday before Christmas.

I am very happy for these two and wanted to post a photo of the newly engaged couple (Mike has no knowledge of me doing any of this and hopefully sees the site someday). Considering I have very few pictures of the couple and I hardly see them (given they live in Seattle), I went to Google for help. The first Michael Firth I found is the Chair Professor of Finance at Lingnan
University and semi-published on the web (see right). Somehow this photo was going to represent my good friend (yes, it would have been a FAR stretch).

Then, with a little luck I found the Jackpot! I stole a picture of Molly and Mike (see above) from someones Flickr account online. You have got to love Google.

We are so excited for the both of them and hope they enjoy what the next few months and years bring their way!

Congrats to you both and to Michael, Cheese and Crackers - you did it!!

P.S.: The power of persuasion and the internet come true again.

Cartoons relating perfectly to today's financial market mess!

One of my daily work related readings, PEHub, had this perfect link to an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon from 15 years ago that perfectly describes today's financial crisis. This is totally great. Click here for a cleaner link if needed.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

Hey everyone,

I'm sure all the faithful readers of Musings from Boulder are sad to not have received a Christmas card this year, featuring the Lee family along with a "sweet" Christmas sweater. With busy schedules, including work, school, baby-planning and spreading local holiday cheer, we were not able to get out our annual card (plus the photo opp's necessary to create such a card were missed or not there).

With that said, perhaps I can say we chose to go a more Green route by saving paper and sending a card electronically is much easier for everyone.

Please accept this posting as the Lee Family wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! All the best to you in the new year and we hope to spend some time with all of you. Enjoy your New Year's Eve and come visit us if you have a chance in 2009... we always love guests!

Best wishes,

Melissa, Ryan and Ranger

One semester down... seven to go!

Well, life is going to be back to normal for a while now (see: 3 weeks). I successfully wrapped up my first semester of grad school last night. Now it's time to actually get some things done at home and enjoy the Christmas season with my wife and my family. There a slew of 'to do's' at home and Melissa and I did not get our annual Christmas card out (does it still count if people receive a card around New Year's? We may have to start a new tradition). Anyway, definitely looking forward to a little R&R.

School turned out to actually be really fun. The time commitment makes life busy and time management becomes extremely important. The material has been interesting and the conversations in class are stimulating. My class is pretty small as well (33 people) so I have gotten the chance to know most well on a personal level. People also come from a diverse set of backgrounds so it's interesting to see people's views on things. Below is a pic taken by our professor during our last class... I think we are having fun.

During the time off between semesters I plan to do some reading for fun, see friends I haven't had the chance to see and of course on New Year's day we are headed to Puerto Vallarta for eight days. We planned it back in early August and with school done now I can finally begin to think about hanging out on the beach and having some fun!