My 401k is now a 101k

Joke in the title courtesy of my colleague David Clegg. OK, so now this market feels EVEN MORE like a bottom from earlier in the day (as of this posting S&P 500 is down 8.0% just today). The run of difficult challenges in my life the last few weeks is getting a little comical. To wit:

-- Got put on to a crisis project that has me presenting in front of corporate officer level people (although this may work out to be really GOOD news if this visibility resulting from this helps my career or keeps me from a layoff...). But still stressful.
-- Recent church conference during work week was fun, but very hard work and taking long time to "recover" from. Had nice visit Sat night with good friends Wes and Corey, and they felt the same way after that conference.
-- Drummer leaves the band for indefinite leave.
-- Everyone in our family deals with a horrible stomach virus.
-- I get serious migraine that takes me out for 2-3 days.
-- Worst stock market in 20 years.
-- Obama up in polls, McCain not doing anything about it (he seems to forget that this election is a competition against an actual opponent who wants to beat him).
-- Freescale selling off or curtailing about 20% of its business (cell phone chips). See link to story here. Possible risk of layoffs?
-- Have to stop eating out (money issues).

This last one is a recent realization on my part. This is kind of tough, because eating out is one of our big stress outlets and entertainment options right now, and one that our two small kids enjoy. But I don't want to put car or house repairs on a credit card, so something's gotta give.

But, hey, at least I still am likely to have a job (the cuts at Freescale are not in the business group I support) and we're all healthy at home now. So I'm optimistic that the above bullets are just the darkness before the dawn!