Hills of Hayward

Semi photo-worthy things while putzing around outside. Click for larger version.

Acorns of Some Kind

Two Endangered California Condors

Although most liberals can’t stand Chris Matthews for his Republican leanings, I appreciate that he is one of the few Republican talk-show hosts who still retains his soul. Here is a segment where he jabs at the fact that Bush’s White House will be writing General Petraeus’ September report and Cheney’s 1994 stance on why invading Baghdad would be tough.

Stephen Colbert is another one of my favorites. In this segment, he roasts Bill O’Reilly for attacking DailyKos over the comments left by users on the Kos website.

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The hummingbirds were buzzing around the flowers in bloom.

Do you recognize any of the flowers? Embarrassed to have them bloom every year without knowing what they are. Please comment if you recognize any.

Violet Eclipse is a blog I subscribe to regularly for witty social commentary, often about China. Today she says:

I just saw this on EastSouthWestNorth a site which translates Chinese news sources into English. Aparently the events happened in July but didn’t receive (blog) attention until this week.

Linan city Qingliangfeng town party secretary Xu had been busy with performing public service and passed away due to mental exhaustion in his car. Another excellent female cadre also laid down her life at the same time. According to information, the party secretary and the female cadre were discussing public business in a car. At the time, the car was out of gas and therefore the air conditioner was not working. Therefore, it was very hot inside in the car which was parked inside a garage. To relieve themselves from the heat, the two took off their clothes to continue discussing public business until they laid down their lives. People are lucky to have such a responsible and diligent party secretary. This party secretary had worked hard for the people, especially with respect to work related to women. The people will remember his accomplishments in their hearts.

Which totally seems like a Chinese Onion article, only the original paper printed a retraction last week.

Horrifically bad news reporting? Or genius parody? Read EastSouthWestNorth’s article and decide.

The downside of Christine coming home to prepare for the baby is that I have gained back all the weight I lost before. I have gone from 176 back to 181 pounds, and once again I have that “portly” feeling. For me, it is that glimmer of sensation that I am developing jowls.

When Christine was working at Cisco, I usually enjoyed a Subway sub for lunch. No mayonnaise, no cheese, all the vegetables, and occasionally the chips and a Diet Coke. Total Calories: less than 400

Now that Christine is home, she cooks half the time, and I am eating more. When we do eat out, we do not go to Subway, but Thai, Chinese, or Korean. In just a month, my weight has gone back up by 5 pounds.

I finally got fed up with my weight and started hiking the trails in Hayward Hills. I am keeping a public exercise log to hopefully keep me consistently exercising. You guys can access it at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pkaFsGOPotDnV92qKG7PVFA

If any of you see me in real life, feel free to call me “porky”.