I'm Rubber. You're Glue.

Every now and then a playground taunt surfaces from nowhere while I'm driving the kids around, and I blurt it out like genius. The latest: I'm rubber, you're glue. Pure schoolyard gold, back in my day.

That Feeling When...

That feeling when routine maintenance costs ten percent of your car's value, and you suspect the mechanic is going easy on a high-mileage beater. Plus a Saturday of orchestrated chores, including the six-year-old who hoped to dodge it all (she did not).

Starlink Mini

My Starlink Mini arrived, not quite as mini as I'd hoped but impressively light. Setup was smooth even pointed the wrong way under trees, though I was surprised by the DC plug instead of USB-C. Next step: hauling it down to the waterfalls to see if remote work from the creek is feasible.

Bat House

The kids spotted the bat on the dining room wall in seconds, though they step over their own toys all day. Armed with a borrowed net and a flattened cereal box, I set out to evict a houseguest who had absolutely no interest in leaving.

The Money is not Worth It

I've had amazing jobs and terrible ones. One manager kept reminding me I was paid too much; that wasn't even his worst blunder. The takeaway after a lot of jobs: if you find the right one, stick with it. If you're in the wrong one, work like hell to leave. The money is not worth it.

Affordable Luxuries

YouTube is full of Michelin dinners and $10,000 steaks; some luxuries are expensive by nature. But on Fridays I grill, and the flavor of charcoal-cooked burgers and brats (plus melted cheese and a toasted bun) is hard to beat. These affordable luxuries are where it's at.

Pull-ups for Screen Time

I told H he could earn a minute of screen time for every pull-up he does. Now he lives in my office, racking up 60 minutes in two days. The other kids want in, so now I'm engineering an exchange rate for squats, lunges and pushups. What have I done?

The Perfect [Poop] Storm

One kid can't keep her bed dry, one pooped through every pair of underwear in a day, another can't poop enough, and then a fourth threw up. Twice. A good week for having an unflappable wife. At least there's a half-price leg of lamb for dinner.

Driver's Licenses Around the World

Pumping gas at Kroger, H asked what my driver's license looks like. It reminded me of Glenn from Bloomberg's London office, whose "license" was a plain, unreadable sheet of cheap printer paper some 15 or 20 years old. I guess they didn't use that at airport security.

Kids and Office Work

I talked with an xAI engineer about a role: hit the ground running, don't watch the clock, in the office every day, in Palo Alto. That work style is completely incompatible with having a family, which is curious given who owns xAI. Incongruity in words versus actions.