all these kids are getting older.

who would have thought these guys would be teachers when they got older?

alex is a middle school teacher at a school in san francisco [sfgate.com]

fellow lonetree alum phil winston, now principal at palo alto high school [csu eastbay]

billy is the pe teacher at curtner, here standing with alex, discussing lesson plans for the upcoming week over a pint of PBR.

kids calcium intake is really low these days, especially compared to when i was growing up. it’s hard to believe that this shake is 90% of the RDA for calcium. that’s crazy! all in one drink. they should be giving these out with school lunches!

i wonder if pure appraisal could get a good value out of this house? i also wonder if this is covered by homeowner’s insurance.

it’s funny to us how the east coast folks responded to a magnitude 5.8 earthquake the other day, since us californians probably wouldn’t even notice such a temblor while going about our daily lives. but some east coast folks got a little ticked that we are making fun of them and one of them responded with this:

touché

gunning for the male vote recently. it’s working for that guy on the left.

that’s just like biting string cheese in chunks.

on my only day off before my new job, the daughter and i hiked up the 2,500-foot-tall mission peak in fremont. after hearing some initial grumbling, we kept going and did the whole trip up and down in 3 hours. halfway through, she started to joke about having a moving walkway to the top, like what we see at airports.

we’ll see how the next couple days go for her muscle soreness.

apple computer has more cash on hand than the us government [sfgate] this is because apple is not fighting a useless war in the middle east and the us government is not charging $78 for an AC adapter like this:

and, speaking of that useless war in the middle east:

i’m trying to eat a little better, but who can turn down ribs like this? huffpost reviews some good rib joints [huffpost]

of course, this happens every time i use my grill:

i don’t think this is a great value when you factor in the $1,650 in paypal charges for this transaction. [source]

Big corporations claim they need tax breaks to “create more jobs”. Why doesn’t our government just give breaks to companies who actually hire and retain more employees and none to those who do the opposite?

al-jazeera has a story about the rising social discontent concerning the growing gap between the have and have-nots. while i generally agree with the tone of the story, it’s interesting when i hear some of these numbers about how the us median income is about “50,000” and the rich are making “over 200,000”.

it seems that these folks do not live here in the sf bay area where a 200,000 salary (100,000 x2 for husband & wife) gets you a small house, a car, and a little bit of savings for your kid to go to college. i’m sure 200,000 in topeka, kansas will get you a mansion and a butler, but i think it’s weird to lump in these really expensive metro areas where your median income means a lot less than in a more rural area when talking about the “rich”.

again, i’m not complaining about any of it. i am the one making the decision to live here in the bay area, but somehow it doesn’t sound right to me when they say the “rich” are making “more than 200,000”