| Expense Categories | % of Spend |
| Income & Property Tax* | 23% |
| Mortgage | 20% |
| Household | 10% |
| Groceries | 6% |
| Childcare | 5% |
| Dining Out | 5% |
| Cash Withdrawal | 4% |
| Bills | 4% |
| Vacation | 4% |
| Clothing | 4% |
| Gifts | 4% |
| Job Expense | 2% |
| Insurance | 2% |
| All Others | 6% |
Search Marin Modus Vivendi
Dec 21, 2007
How much does it cost to live in California?
It is the end of the year and I have compiled my own top 10 list... top 10 categories I spend money on. I actually do this every year as I prepare for taxes. This year I am ahead of the curve having completed my reconciliation three months earlier than I normally would (wohoo!). So, in the spirit of the "Top 10 list" season, here is how my family spends it money here in lovely California... (note, New Years Resolutions = Dine out less)
* Income tax does not include income tax taken out of our paychecks - it is only what we paid the Federal and State tax collected on 4/15 and our property tax from April and December.
Dec 7, 2007
Huckabee on Immigration: Everybody Out!
Yesterday, Mike Huckabee released a 9-point plan on immigration. In the plan, he includes a "No Amnesty" headline with this policy:
That is what you are looking to do if you support this policy. In this country of 300 million people, 20 million would be subject to enforcement under this policy.
Rounding 1 in 15 people up, detaining them, and then shipping them elsewhere is just not something that will happen without major human rights issues and potentially worse. I have said this before and will say it again- you will not be able to remove 1 out of every 15 residents from this country without re-creating the Great Terror from the 1930's police-state Soviet Union.
If enacted, this policy would potentially lead to one of the greatest struggles in US history since the Civil War. Iraq would be nothing compared to forcibly removing 1 in 15 residents from their homes and kicking them out of the country. [ed note: notice, I say "residents" not citizens. just a friendly reminder that although they are not citizens, they still do live here in homes like you and me]
Gawd, I hate bumper-sticker politics of fear.
Propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and leave the country. Those who register and return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply to immigrate or visit; those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from future reentry for a period of 10 years. [ed note: emphasis mine]Stop what you are doing. Look around. Imagine if 1 in 15 people you see were kicked out of the country?
That is what you are looking to do if you support this policy. In this country of 300 million people, 20 million would be subject to enforcement under this policy.
Rounding 1 in 15 people up, detaining them, and then shipping them elsewhere is just not something that will happen without major human rights issues and potentially worse. I have said this before and will say it again- you will not be able to remove 1 out of every 15 residents from this country without re-creating the Great Terror from the 1930's police-state Soviet Union.
If enacted, this policy would potentially lead to one of the greatest struggles in US history since the Civil War. Iraq would be nothing compared to forcibly removing 1 in 15 residents from their homes and kicking them out of the country. [ed note: notice, I say "residents" not citizens. just a friendly reminder that although they are not citizens, they still do live here in homes like you and me]
Gawd, I hate bumper-sticker politics of fear.
Dec 6, 2007
Ten Quotes: Mike Huckabee in his own words
The following are ten quotes from Mike Huckabee. These are not old quotes dug up as a "gotcha" to catch him with an inconsistent viewpoint. No, these quotes are as fresh as a farmer's own eggs. They are attributed to Mike Huckabee as of this very day.
For me, none of these statements instill optimism for our future. All of these statements raise fear and division. For those who like Huckabee, is this really your platform? Is this really what you believe in?
For me, none of these statements instill optimism for our future. All of these statements raise fear and division. For those who like Huckabee, is this really your platform? Is this really what you believe in?
- On separation of church and state: "My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them."
- On endless war: "Iraq is a battle in our generational, ideological war on terror."
- On his World War III: "I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war."
- On how he makes war: "I believe in... using overwhelming force to accomplish a mission." [ed note: you need a clear mission first... the first three quotes above is what makes this statement so scary]
- On government interference with private life: "I support... passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman."
- On being The Man: "I was the first Governor in the country to have a concealed handgun license."
- On protecting his friends and contributers: "As Governor, I protected gun manufacturers from frivolous law suits."
- On the Separation of Powers: "To control spending, I believe the President should have the line-item veto." [ed note: In other words (satire alert), "I'd like to ignore congress without the hassle of a real veto that could be over-turned by Congress"]
- On rampant consumerism: "Globalization, done right, done fairly, can be the equivalent of a big pay raise by allowing us to buy things more cheaply." [ed note: the biggest pay raise comes from working, not buying. Wealth creation should be the priority, not buying cheap socks (and helping your globalist business buddies). This one really irks me.]
- On energy (and priorities): "The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence." [ed note: I like this but do not think it is his 1st priority given the 1st five quotes here. Although I do believe it will be his policy to continue farm subsidies and claim it is for energy independence, "As President, I will watch out for our farmers because our national well-being depends on theirs."]
Dec 2, 2007
David vs. Goliath: Pitting chinese restaurants Fishman Village and Tommy's Wok in a head to head test
Winner of this round: Fishman Village
I was a single Dad this weekend. Starting Friday morning, it was just me, Emily (9-months old), and Gus (3 year old yellow lab). My wife being a vegetarian, I took this opportunity to stray out of bounds and order Chinese food. I called our regular, Tommy's Wok in Sausalito, and started to place my order... "Wait", the person on the other end of the line said, "The delivery will take took long. We only have one driver tonight and it will be at least an hour and a half. If you like, you can come pick it up in 15 minutes." Well, I said, I have a sleeping baby here and I can not leave and then I said, Good Bye. Now, this happens when I call Tommy's Wok about 50% of the time. And to have only one driver on Friday night is completely inexcusable. I have issues with long wait times from delivery services - it seems about the worst type of customer service you could have.
I then picked up the phone and called the new Chinese restaurant down the street called Fishman Village. I have been curious about the name and I thought I would give it a shot. I placed my order and the only issue they had was that there was a minimum $20 order for delivery - - normally not a problem, but I'm only one person and more than $20 of chinese food seems pretty excessive. Fortunately, they sad they would waive it. I ordered vegetable fried rice and as I mentioned I strayed far outside the bounds of our normal diet, I also ordered sweet and sour pork (aka fried pork pieces with sugary sauce - -although I did say EZ on the sauce. Side tangent: never say "light sauce" because most people think you mean "diet sauce", not "less sauce"; the parlance in the business is "easy" or better yet "EZ" because that is what appears on the cash registers and printed tickets).
15 minutes later (FIFTEEN MINUTES) my food arrived. Incredible. Not only did it get there quickly, it was basically straight from the stove because I had to wait 5 minutes for it to stop sizzling and cool down. I love that. I really do. Well, the food hit the spot and I enjoyed my foray into the wrong side of the diet tracks...
The next night, still being a single Dad (wife returns Sunday night), I think to myself... I wonder if Tommy's Wok or Fishman Village is better. It is a well spoken "fact" in my circle that hands down Tommy's Wok is better than any other restaurant because they use less oil and organic vegetables. I myself have expressed much satisfaction with my previous orders from Tommy's Wok, but I never really had a strong benchmark to measure. I have never done a blind taste test and I have never really eaten Chinese twice in a row. So, I decided, "What the heck. How about I try Chinese food again tonight and see which place I like better."
Now, in any test, it is important to keep the variables as constant as limited as possible. I had already tested one variable - ability to deliver on Friday night - and Fishman Village won hands down (they crushed it). So to keep everything else consistent, I ordered the same exact order as the previous night - vegetable fried rice and sweet and sour pork EZ on the sauce. Here are the results:
1. EZ on the sauce was not something I could order from Tommy's. I could either get it normal or sauce on the side. I got it on the side. (another side tangent: when I get salad dressing on the side, I always am disappointed in the salad. Salad tossed with dressing is always better because the dressing is evenly distributed whereas when it is on the side, some bites are all dressing and others have none. Why can't someone just toss it with half the dressing when someone says "EZ dressing" or in my case last night, EZ sauce?).
2. 45 minutes later my food arrived... warm. Not sizzling hot, but warm. Tommy's Wok is in Sausalito (5 minutes from my house) whereas Fishman is in Mill Valley (1 minute from my house). Tommy's Wok is clearly more busy which is the probably cause for delivery time difference and food temperature. The food from Tommy's did not need to be re-heated, but it was not hot, hot, hot like Fishman's.
3. Tommy's Wok fried rice had 5 times the vegetables as Fishman Village. I liked this. But they did not really use a flavorful oil so the dish as a whole was pretty bland. I only ended up eating a couple of bites by picking out all the vegetables and leaving the rice.
4. Fishman Village's sweet and sour pork blew away Tommy's. Not just because of the sauce, but because the meat used by Fishman was actually meatier. By that I mean, Tommy's meat was basically tiny pieces with a lot of breading. Fishman used the same amount of breading per piece but that same amount covered pieces of meat about 3 times the size of Tommy's. This lead to a far superior dish - - especially important because it was the main dish.
All in all, I would say that Fishman Village delivers a much better experience than Tommy's Wok. Tommy's main selling point is that it is healthier than other Chinese restaurants. But, when you're ordering Chinese food, does it really matter what type of oil was used or if the veggies are organic? It's Chinese food (American style, that is) - it's not healthy no matter what you do to it. Which brings me to my point of "clarity" last night as I finished my last little piece of fried pork... "What the hell am I thinking? Fried pork? Not once, but twice in a row?" OK, I need to sign off for a little while. If you need me, you can find me at crossfit.com.
Post-Script: If I were a proprietor of a restaurant, I would mine Yelp, Citysearch, and Blogs for the type of information above (like Friday no delivery option from Tommys and then work that into my marketing). Restauranting is a brutal business and the marketing is often done in a vacuum or looking in the mirror (thinking too much about one's self instead of the competition). There is an immense value for a restaurant to know that Stefano's takes an hour to deliver pizza or Tommy's Wok can't accommodate its business.
I was a single Dad this weekend. Starting Friday morning, it was just me, Emily (9-months old), and Gus (3 year old yellow lab). My wife being a vegetarian, I took this opportunity to stray out of bounds and order Chinese food. I called our regular, Tommy's Wok in Sausalito, and started to place my order... "Wait", the person on the other end of the line said, "The delivery will take took long. We only have one driver tonight and it will be at least an hour and a half. If you like, you can come pick it up in 15 minutes." Well, I said, I have a sleeping baby here and I can not leave and then I said, Good Bye. Now, this happens when I call Tommy's Wok about 50% of the time. And to have only one driver on Friday night is completely inexcusable. I have issues with long wait times from delivery services - it seems about the worst type of customer service you could have.
I then picked up the phone and called the new Chinese restaurant down the street called Fishman Village. I have been curious about the name and I thought I would give it a shot. I placed my order and the only issue they had was that there was a minimum $20 order for delivery - - normally not a problem, but I'm only one person and more than $20 of chinese food seems pretty excessive. Fortunately, they sad they would waive it. I ordered vegetable fried rice and as I mentioned I strayed far outside the bounds of our normal diet, I also ordered sweet and sour pork (aka fried pork pieces with sugary sauce - -although I did say EZ on the sauce. Side tangent: never say "light sauce" because most people think you mean "diet sauce", not "less sauce"; the parlance in the business is "easy" or better yet "EZ" because that is what appears on the cash registers and printed tickets).
15 minutes later (FIFTEEN MINUTES) my food arrived. Incredible. Not only did it get there quickly, it was basically straight from the stove because I had to wait 5 minutes for it to stop sizzling and cool down. I love that. I really do. Well, the food hit the spot and I enjoyed my foray into the wrong side of the diet tracks...
The next night, still being a single Dad (wife returns Sunday night), I think to myself... I wonder if Tommy's Wok or Fishman Village is better. It is a well spoken "fact" in my circle that hands down Tommy's Wok is better than any other restaurant because they use less oil and organic vegetables. I myself have expressed much satisfaction with my previous orders from Tommy's Wok, but I never really had a strong benchmark to measure. I have never done a blind taste test and I have never really eaten Chinese twice in a row. So, I decided, "What the heck. How about I try Chinese food again tonight and see which place I like better."
Now, in any test, it is important to keep the variables as constant as limited as possible. I had already tested one variable - ability to deliver on Friday night - and Fishman Village won hands down (they crushed it). So to keep everything else consistent, I ordered the same exact order as the previous night - vegetable fried rice and sweet and sour pork EZ on the sauce. Here are the results:
1. EZ on the sauce was not something I could order from Tommy's. I could either get it normal or sauce on the side. I got it on the side. (another side tangent: when I get salad dressing on the side, I always am disappointed in the salad. Salad tossed with dressing is always better because the dressing is evenly distributed whereas when it is on the side, some bites are all dressing and others have none. Why can't someone just toss it with half the dressing when someone says "EZ dressing" or in my case last night, EZ sauce?).
2. 45 minutes later my food arrived... warm. Not sizzling hot, but warm. Tommy's Wok is in Sausalito (5 minutes from my house) whereas Fishman is in Mill Valley (1 minute from my house). Tommy's Wok is clearly more busy which is the probably cause for delivery time difference and food temperature. The food from Tommy's did not need to be re-heated, but it was not hot, hot, hot like Fishman's.
3. Tommy's Wok fried rice had 5 times the vegetables as Fishman Village. I liked this. But they did not really use a flavorful oil so the dish as a whole was pretty bland. I only ended up eating a couple of bites by picking out all the vegetables and leaving the rice.
4. Fishman Village's sweet and sour pork blew away Tommy's. Not just because of the sauce, but because the meat used by Fishman was actually meatier. By that I mean, Tommy's meat was basically tiny pieces with a lot of breading. Fishman used the same amount of breading per piece but that same amount covered pieces of meat about 3 times the size of Tommy's. This lead to a far superior dish - - especially important because it was the main dish.
All in all, I would say that Fishman Village delivers a much better experience than Tommy's Wok. Tommy's main selling point is that it is healthier than other Chinese restaurants. But, when you're ordering Chinese food, does it really matter what type of oil was used or if the veggies are organic? It's Chinese food (American style, that is) - it's not healthy no matter what you do to it. Which brings me to my point of "clarity" last night as I finished my last little piece of fried pork... "What the hell am I thinking? Fried pork? Not once, but twice in a row?" OK, I need to sign off for a little while. If you need me, you can find me at crossfit.com.
Post-Script: If I were a proprietor of a restaurant, I would mine Yelp, Citysearch, and Blogs for the type of information above (like Friday no delivery option from Tommys and then work that into my marketing). Restauranting is a brutal business and the marketing is often done in a vacuum or looking in the mirror (thinking too much about one's self instead of the competition). There is an immense value for a restaurant to know that Stefano's takes an hour to deliver pizza or Tommy's Wok can't accommodate its business.
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