In the news.

When I got laid off about a year ago and was home for a few months, I subscribed to TIME to keep up on current events. Then, this fall, I ended up getting a free subscription to The Wall Street Journal. I usually read most of the TIME issues, not as much of the WSJ, though - mostly due to time constraints.

The WSJ is good for me to flip through daily, given that I do work in financial services. Outside of many of the dry, eye-closing articles, the newspaper does provide educated insight into many issues. The WSJ also has some decent, applicable personal finance articles. I will say though, I sometimes don't even read anything besides the headlines because it has been so depressing to me lately - all the layoffs, companies failing, etc. Some mornings I just cannot read anything else on the economy.

With TIME, at least there are color photos (LOL) and other "stuff" I find interesting - even a little trash about some well-known people.

Anyway...in this week's TIME, on page 14, there were some interesting numbers complied about President Obama's first week. Among them:

• $3,350: Cost of the enhanced-security PDA that may replace Obama's Blackberry.
• 3,300: approximate number of presidentially appointed jobs Obama will have had to fill.
• $61,000: reported cost of George W. Bush's blue and gold Oval Office rug, which Obama has decided to keep, for now.
• 3: Number of Washington restaurants Obama has visited since arriving in town-reportedly three more than Bush had visited since January of last year.

My WSJ will be dropped to my driveway again tomorrow morning. Somehow I think the front page news is not going to uplift my Monday morning mood.