Who you trying to get crazy with, ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

I finally did a photo dump (I said 'dump' - heh heh) onto my computer from my phone and found these fun images. I like the first one because the bottle looks giant in front of me and also like my head is attached to it. The second one is from waaayyyy back all the way to July 4 (well, only like 3 weeks ago). You can't see her, but Julienne is playing with a sparkler while Matt looks on, completely enthralled by the action. The most recent photo is from a local Chinese supermercado. We couldn't figure out if it was candy for people or snacks for your doggy, but I loved the packaging! Ah... whimsy that can seemingly only eminate from Japan. If anyone out there can read Japanese (I'm pretty sure it's Japanese, anyway) please let me know what the packaging says!

I recently re-watched Snatch and I'm still amazed how much I love that movie. I know it has it's detractors, but I think it's well put together with lots of energy and has a cleverly written script with a large and varied group of interesting characters. The soundtrack also reflects my high opinion of the movie. Do yourself a favor and lookup Mirwas - Disco Science, off the Snatch soundtrack.

gossamer

The concept of gardening for food isn't new to me, but this is the first thing that I ever planted and eventually ate (thanks to Cathryn for knowing when to pick it!). Holy shit this tomato was good! Now I know why some people are so fanatical about growing their own vegetables. I hope to one day grow an entire salad. It would be nice to eat something that I'm sure wasn't sprayed with yummy chemicals.

But you know what's really great? I switched auto insurance. I'm saving almost 9% a year with Allstate Auto Insurance. What can I say, the advertising with the ex-president of the United States from 24 worked on me! Plus, after being a 21st Century customer for 17 years, they agreed to cancel my policy without so much as a thank you or "here's what we can offer you if you stayed with us". Feh. Slowly but surely I'm starting to learn the lesson of not everyone cares or appreciates if you give them business.

And now to reveal something SHOCKING AND SCANDALOUS!!! I watch Oprah from time to time and while I wouldn't classify myself as a fan, I would definitely tell anyone who asked that her show can often be worthwhile. Why I bring this up you ask? She did a whole series of shows on something called the "Debt Diet". It was really fascinating to hear the various stories people had, how much in debt they were (!), and how doable it was for them to get out of it (which they eventually did in an often surprising small amount of time).

There are several main things you're supposed to do to help alleviate your debt, but I forgot them (check on her site, buy the DVD, etc. - however I do remember one of the easy ones was to simply ask for a raise). The other thing I remember was the pie chart of your budget, which I can share with you, my loyal and very interested readers: 35% housing, 15% transportation, 20% debt (meaning use 20% of your income to manage and pay down debt), 10% savings (pay yourself), and 20% everything else (food, haircuts, movies, etc.)

Well there you have it. Plant tomatoes to eat, save on car insurance, and get rid of your debt by watching Oprah.

Best blog entry EVER!

ERRATA
I got the pie chart info wrong! Sorry about that. 'Debt' is 15% and the 'Everything Else' part of the pie is 25%.

Less smog, more blog

Yep, it's a slow blog day when you're posting pictures of garbage. But it's just not ANY garbage, it's my bulky waste pick up. The garbage that says, "there's been a lot of work done in order to make this pile". Construction debris was piled waist high, the doors that I've kept all these years never found a use, likewise for the vanity stand, and the flourescent tube holder was sent off, too. I always feel bad for creating so much refuse, but this really needed to be done! Hopefully, only one more bulky waste pick up will clear out the rest of the crap.

Have you ever passed by that candyland looking house in Oakland and wondered if they were cooking children there? That place is called TJ's Gingerbread House and they serve Cajun style food. Apart from having the nagging susupicion that we were all going to end up buried in the backyard, the restaurant is actually really interesting and looks great once you get inside. All the food is VERY good and the service is, um... eccentric (the main hostess has quite the personality!).

I've been working a lot lately, and if you stay at work long enough, you get to see fun stuff. Like a pile of toilet paper rolls in the corner of the elevator. Speaking of elevators, I read that you can turn some elevators into express mode by pressing the floor you want plus the close door button. Steve said he'd try this out at his work and I can't wait to hear the report. If anyone else knows this works or have heard about it, please tell me!

Finally, a word about safety. No matter how lazy you are (like me), always, always, always, choose a safe and stable platform from which to climb up on and dismount from. I used a living room chair to pull down the screen and wasn't so careful about how I placed it. The result was my shifting weight causing the chair back to sharply snap up and dig into my hip/ribs as I stepped off the chair. Did it hurt? YOU BETCHA!!!