I very rarely get political in my blog, but I get very irritated when I hear people complain about American schools. I am married to a teacher and come from a family of educators and criticism of our education system is one area that really gets my blood boiling.
There’s a commercial running on radio and tv right now talking about how test scores are so much higher in other countries than the USA. That may be true, but the United States is the only country in the WORLD that has a true PUBLIC school system. Anyone who desires an education can get one, and conversely everyone who desires an education must be given the opportunity. In many of the other countries listed off in these ads, children are tested for intelligence and aptitude and only the best are chosen to attend these schools. The other kids are trained to be “laborers”. Is it any wonder the test scores are higher? Can you imagine the uproar here in the USA if lower level students were denied an education?
If you’re a parent and you want to see those test scores rise… spend time with your kid. Get involved in their education and hold your child responsible for getting the most out of the education that is offered them. America’s schools are staffed with excellent people who are passionate about giving your children a quality education. By allowing every person an education, the “bell curve” is going to bring overall scores down. Despite that, the United States of America education system produces many of the top minds in the world.
I’m one of the few guys out there that actually enjoys grocery shopping. Amy and I usually leave the kids home for an hour and go for the peace and quiet. I love checking out fresh produce, finding choice cuts of meat and looking for a good deal anywhere I can find one. I have been absolutley blown away by how much grocery prices have JUMPED in the past six months. It’s obnoxious! It’s getting so a guy can’t afford to get good meat for the grill and that is where the line gets crossed!
So I did a little digging and here’s the main excuse “the man” is giving for the high costs: “Food manufacturers, under pressure for months from higher costs for everything from product ingredients to the packaging, are increasing prices. It started in the ceral isle and it’s spreading. Sara Lee Corp. will raise prices by 20 percent later this year for its meat products. (That’s Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park Franks). Overall grocery prices are expected to rise 5 percent to 6 percent this year. But some categories are projected to post higher increases, such as eggs, fats and oils and cereals.
Items made with wheat (breads and crackers) and soybean oil (cooking oil and fried foods) are expected to rise so much next year that they’ll boost the cost of cooking at home by up to 4.5 percent – half a percentage point more than predicted just a month ago. So pinched consumers thinking they can cut back by eating at home more will find little relief there. Home cooking remains less expensive than eating out, but the gap is closing.”
This year could go on record as having one of the largest increases in food prices since 1990. For many people, rising food costs plus the high cost of gas is leading to tough choices. Some families are going without meat because of the high prices. For sure many shoppers are trying the generic products to save money.
It may be time to start clipping coupons. Ther are many great sites on the web you can Google to get started. I got an email from someone recently singing the praises of http://theshoppersedge.info. [THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT!] I have not personally checked it out other than briefly scanning the site, but it could be a way to save you some money so we can all get back to the grill…
“Foot on the pedal - never ever false metal
Engine running hotter than a boiling kettle
My job’s ain’t a job - it’s a damn good time
City to city - I’m running my rhymes”
Can’t use a Beastie Boys reference without giving out some lyrics.
Seriously, though, I haven’t been sleeping very well lately. Not sure why. I usually go to bed around 8:30pm and get up around 2:30am. Pretty standard for a morning radio personality. Six hours of sleep should be plenty.
Up until about two weeks ago, I was one of those guys who could fall asleep in less than 15 minutes. Lately, though, I end up lying awake for at least an hour or two and when I do fall asleep I dream non-stop. Usually vivid, active dreams. My alarm goes off and I’m exhausted. With a little help from Diet Coke, I am awake and ready to go for the show, but usually dead tired by early afternoon. I try not to nap though… because I can’t sleep at night!
I don’t eat for more than two hours before I go to bed, and I don’t drink anything caffeinated after lunch. If you have any home remedies to help you sleep, I’d love to hear it.
It’s the darn humidity! Both Jesse and I have made trips back to the midwest in the past month and the difference in temperature (upper 80’s there/mid 90’s here) hasn’t been as drastic as the difference in comfort.
So, I did a little research. Humid heat is worse for us than dry heat, because humidity interferes with our body’s temperature regulating mechanism. When the temperature is very hot outside, the body’s regulating mechanism prevents heat from building up inside by releasing the heat from the surface of the skin through the evaporation of sweat.
On the other hand, humid heat does not allow sweat to evaporate from the skin. This makes a person stay hot longer and prevents the body from cooling down quickly. Thus, you feel hotter.
Here in Denver the relative humidity in the afternoon is around 40%, which up to 90 degrees is pretty much air tempurature. In the midwest, because the relative humidity is so much higher, it can feel up to 15 degrees warmer!
It’s going to continue to be hot all week, and dry or not, upper 90’s is still hot. Drink lots of fluids or do what I do… stay inside in the air conditioning.
I recently returned from a trip back to my home state of Wisconsin, where people turn every statement into a question by adding the phrase “or no” (ie. “We going to lunch, or no?”), where a little is a “skosh” and where people live on “hot dish”.
While discussing the ingredients in my Grandma’s tuna salad, Vicky said that it sounds like simple tuna casserole. I could see that an intervention was in order. Salad is cold, hot dish is hot, and casserole is the pan hot dish is made in. See the definitions below from Wikipedia.
Casserole: from the French for “sauce pan,” is a large, deep pot or dish used both in the oven and as a serving dish.
Hot Dish: a variety of casserole dishes popular in the Midwest of the United States and especially in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and northern regions of Iowa. It consists of a starch and a protein (meat and/or a vegetable) mixed together with a binding ingredient (most often canned soup or a sauce) and a topping.
Salad: a mixture of cold foods, usually including vegetables and/or fruits, often with a dressing, occasionally nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, or whole grains.
Therefore, tuna salad is cold and made with macaroni noodles, mayonnaise, tuna, peas, onions and celery. Tuna hot dish is hot and made with a box of mac & cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and a can of tuna.
I’m heading out with my girls on vacation this weekend an into next next week. This will be our “big” vacation of the summer and it’s based around my wife’s family’s reunion, July 12th.
In order to get some sightseeing out of a trip to visit a bunch people the kids & I don’t know, we’re renting a car and taking the long way back to Wisconsin. We’re heading up through Wyoming and the Dakotas so we can see Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, etc. We’ll get back to Wisconsin mid-week next week and spend a little time with my family, then complete the trek to Green Bay and on to the reunion in Wisconsin Dells (which is pretty much underwater). The reunion is my wife’s dad’s family. Good people, so it should be fun. We hop a plane back to Denver the day after the reunion.
When I was about 11, I took a similar trip through the Dakotas and up to Yellowstone Park with two of my cousins and my grandparents. We camped all the way and it was a blast. I don’t remember all the tourist sites though and my wife has never been there, so if you have any suggestions of things we should see on the trip, or want to mow my lawn, let me know.
Yesterday, Jesse James and I had a $20 bet on whether or not the lawn sprinkler watering days change from year to year. He said yes, and I said no. After the show I called my water company and gave them his address. I asked if they also service his house with water. They said they do. Then I asked if the watering schedule changes from year to year and they said no. Specifically, it has not changed in the past several years, and they do not anticipate any changes in the “foreseeable future”. Sounds like a win to me.
This is why you don’t bet with Jesse James. While a few bets are cut and dried as to who wins (usually him), on the rare occasion that he is wrong, you can count on one or more of the following:
1) He’ll ignore the bet as long as he can.
2) He’ll try to find a loophole that allows him to avoid paying you.
3) If you can actually get him to admit he lost, (fat chance) he’ll claim he’s paid you already with an excuse like, “I bought lunch yesterday, so we’re even.”
4) He’ll try to get you to go “double or nothing”.
5) Although he INSISTS that you have your money up front, he’ll wait to pay you until an opportunity arises where he can “just call it even”.
Notice that the topic never came up this morning. I will never see my $20… and I won’t bet him ever again. I mean it this time!
UPDATE: (Wednesday) Jesse says he has this year’s water card and is looking for last year’s. He plans to bring it tomorrow.
I’m Distraught! Jesse accused me of “re-gifting” his birthday present this past spring. The worst thing is that he’s been thinking this since April and if it hadn’t come up in random conversation on the show today, I’d never have known!
Jesse tells everyone not to get him a gift. Not because he doesn’t want them, but because he doesn’t want to feel obligated to get YOU one on your birthday. I always get him something funny and inappropriate, usually from Spencer’s. This year I decided to do something more thoughtful. Big mistake! Now, as often as I get accused of not having my “man card”, I am still a guy. I went out the day of Jesse’s birthday, bought him a gift and a card, threw it in one of my daughter’s recycled gift bags and dropped it off at his house. The entire transaction took scarcely an hour and I never left my truck. (A man always keeps a pen in his truck in case he has to sign an emergency card. i.e. wife birthday, anniversary, etc.)
When it came up this morning and I swore it was a real gift, he says “Show me the receipt, then!” What an ass! I shred my receipts, as everyone should. I have pulled up the reconciled transaction from my Quicken account, though. Here it is…
Notice the date, the store and the price. I went to the Aurora Mall, bought him a Packer hat that I thought looked cool and that he didn’t have and dropped it off. He claims it had cat hair all over it. I call bunk on that!
Let’s face it. If I was going to re-gift Jesse, I’d do something big, funny, and obvious, not try to sneak it under the radar. As with everything else, he’s going to believe what he believes and never come around. My honor is being questioned though, and I’m actually kinda bummed about it. I guess I’ll have to actually do what he’s been telling me too all these years and just stop buying him a birthday present.
My wife and girls have gone back to Wisconsin to visit with family and I’m living the bachelor life for ten days. Also, for the first time, my wife hasn’t left me a huge “honey-do’ list, so I literally get to do whatever I want. Now I just need to think of something to do.
They’ve been gone for three days now and I had to remind myself yesterday to go get the mail. It’s funny. I complain to my wife every weekend that we can go anywhere or do anything because the kids always have their friends over running around the yard and never want to leave the house. Now they’re gone for a week, I can go anywhere I want, and I can’t think of anywhere to go. LOL.
