Cure for Aids

The following took place at the bike rack after school.

Student: Mr. B, is there a cure for aids?

Me: Well, it can be managed, but there is no official cure.

Student: Oh (his face grew somber as he turned away)

Me: Why do you ask?

Student:  Because I have aids.
( I genuinely begin to freak out a bit.  I prepare to have a serious conversation with a 5th grader who possibly has aids.)

Me: Who told you that you have aids?

Student: No one, I just know.
(Oh really.)

Me: So how do you JUST know?

Student: Well, I've been sick for three years. 

Me:  How sick?

Student: My nose is always stuffy.

Me: Sounds like aids, you should probably google it when you get home.

Old Droopy Eyes

This is what I get all day.

Naan Flatbread Pizza

We have discovered the beauty of flat bread pizzas.  More toppings and more choices.  From left to right clockwise: 1. Hummus, Peppers, Onions, Feta, Mozzarella.  2. BBQ chicken and Onion.  3. Chicken, Bacon, Cheddar, Ranch.  4. Chicken, Olives, Oil, Mozzarella.

Weekend Beer Review

Branching out and trying new things, as I always do, I picked out a new beer down at the Market today and thought, hmmm.   Maybe I could add some reviews to the many random things that I blog about.  I get around a 100 hits or so a day, maybe this could be a readable moment (haha as apposed to a teachable moment).  So I bring to you the very first "Friday Andy" New Beer Review.  Please bear with me. 

HOP SUN *Summer Wheat Beer
by Southern Tier Brewing Company
ABV 5.1%

Over all Rating 7.5 out of 10
'I could drink this again'






More often than not I gravitate towards a Wheat beer and Hop Sun did not disappoint.  It walks in your mouth with the creaminess of a traditional Wheat Beer and leaves with Bitter notes.  The bottle claims to be brewed with 1 variety of Hops and 3 types of Malts.   

There is a small amount of irony to be found in the brewing company itself.  The Southern Tier Brewing Company is located in Lakewood NY.  At first glance one might assume that the beverage was brewed a Florida Co. possibly skating by as a Florida beer or even a Keys concept. 

1yr Cable-Free

In October we will have set a decent milestone, 1 year without cable.  We have been satisfying our entertainment needs with the likes of Hulu, Netflix and the occasional jaunt to the Red Box.  As part of my retirement rant series this accomplishment would fall into the Pillar II category.

Here is how the math works out:

400 + channels of garbage for $80 or more a month

or

Only the shows I want to watch for $17 a month (Hulu = 7 and Netflix = 10)

This is a no brainer.  I carefully urge you to take another look at your cable bill search for alternatives.  I personally realized that all of my cable tv watching took place via recorded playback.  I didn't watch anything live.  Hulu and Netflix are essentially a large online DVR with all of my shows pre-recorded.

I must also disclose that Hulu and Netflix do a pile of advertising on this site.  This posting is not an ad, however I do greatly support their products.  Click on them and check em out if you like.

The After-Shock

I captured a few final shrimp moments from the competition.

Parr's winning shrimp #205

Troy crushed 167

Red Lobster kept em comin

Shrimply The Best

The annual Red Lobster All-You-Can-Eat Shrimpalooza took place last weekend and the results are in.  Check back tomorrow for the after shrimp report.

The Trophy will be up for grabs again next year

Parr took 1st

Surprisingly the staff at Red Lobster was very excited about our tournament.

Hung out in an elevator with this guy

Hung out in an elevator with this guy:

Rashean Mathis

Face Time

Dahlia's Pour House did not disappoint.  Too bad they were out of Intuition. 

An Evening With Jacksonville

The gang took to the 5 points area and tore it up!  It was great to see Steve again and meet Amberly.  I will have to thank  the European Street Cafe and Pele's Wood Fire Grill for making this night possible.

Euro Cafe Sans Sausages

Pele's Wood Fire

Rabbit, a pair of lasagnas and an arugula pizza.

Museum Oddities

By far Silver springs has the best $2 museum around.  I have paid much more for much less.

It was this big.

Gerard could stand up in it's mouth.

I was way faster.

Florida Deer (For Uncle Jimmy)

See they're not all small.

 

Shortly after this we came across a few wild pigs but they ran off before I could get the camera off.

50' Foot Man Terrorizes Neighborhood

It had to be done.

Dividend Day!

Three Dividend paychecks in one week!  Gotta love passive income, Pillar I.

Canoe You Too

No Canoe's were tipped while filming.

hehe Number 2

Quick, everyone, look that way!

Super clear water

Luna Moth

Gerard found this hanging out under the roof of a walkway.  According to Wikipedia it is one of the largest in North America.

Alligator Attack

Silver River has some of the clearest waters I have seen yet.  Top to bottom throughout the whole stretch. We saw tons of wildlife.  We were even chased off by some reptiles.

This guy was gunning straight for them.

Happy Birthday Gerard

This Blog is all about birthdays! 

The rain didn't stop us!

Silver River Cabin Time

We visited Silver River State Park in Ocala for Gerard's B-Day.  Galmping for beginners.  Good times all around, more to come.

2bedroom, 1bath

Retirement Rant Repost!

I am regurgitating this one as it is very important to me and a new reader has found some solace in it.
It also helps that I just had a few Divdays that came due, and I love free money, thank you Ford and Johnson and Johnson.


Everyone should know by now that I have devoted a great deal of study time to the notion of Early Retirement or Extreme Retirement. My overall plans are to be retired in ten years or less. It sounds crazy, but it can be done. I have read tons of blogs, books, articles, etc., each with their own systems in place to achieve such a goal. I have boiled them all down to three basic categories or pillars if you will. No matter how debt laden you are these pillars need to be a focal point in all of life's transactions.

The 3 Pillars of Early retirement (Financial Freedom, Financial Independence)

I. Passive Income / Making money without working (e.g. Dividends, stocks, CD's)

II. Parsimony / Not spending money (e.g. Frugality, Stoicism, being a cheap-o)

III. Sustainability / Not needing money to begin with (e.g. Making things, Ebay, Growing)


All three of these categories will put you in the scope of some form of financial independence. It is up to you to choose how quickly you want it. So far I have been working on all three in no particular order. From dividend investing to bread making it all adds up in the end.

I will probably dedicate future blog postings to our committment to the 3 Pillars and our ultimate goal of not needing a job for income.

What 9/11 really means

Mr. B:  Raise your hand if you know what 9/11 is.

Kindergartner puts the hand up and has a look of infinite wisdom, so I must inquire.

Kindergartner:  9/11 is when you get in the spaceship and it takes you to the moon.  You go there and see what is there, aliens and stuff.  Then you get back in and the ship brings you back. 

Mr. B: Really, so that is what 9/11 means?

Kindergartner nods his head to reassure me.

Flatbreads

We put together some flat breads (pizzalike).  Not too bad, unfortunately we bought the Naan.  Onions, peppers, tomatoes, arugula, black olives and some oil and lime dressing.

Rainbow Sandwich

So the task was to Draw your face and label your nose, ears, eyes and mouth.  Once finished you had to use your sense of smell and draw something that smelled good to eat.

Student:  Here is my nose and my eyes and my mouth right there.  What do I do now?

Me:  Now go and draw something that smells good to eat.

He brings me this:

Me: You were supposed to draw something that smells good.

Student:  I did, it is a rainbow sandwich and it is going to taste so good in my mouth.

I cannot argue with that logic.

 

 



Clean those vents Kenny

The dryer wasn't working right so we broke out the drill and the long brush.  Had to get on the roof and shove my arm down to clean out the last little bit.  We picked the tool up at HD for about 19, well worth it.

8 feet of pole.

Meet Mr. Whirley

Keats' new hangout.

Unicorns

I called my younger students to the carpet the other morning.  We went through alphabet flash-cards and this is how U went down:

Me: What letter?

Students:  U

Kindergatener: That is for Unicorn

Me:  Very good

K:  They make rainbows when they fly through the air.  There is always a rainbow after them.

1st grader:  But there is only a jewel at the rainbow where it starts.

Me:  Oh really?

1st:  It's only a small jewel, every time it's only small.

106

The 0 fell off and we decided to create a new house number sign.  Not too bad.  I used some more of the park bench wood from previous projects.  Cut the boards into half inch pieces, glued the pieces onto a board, cut and notched a frame.

Before and After

Glue time

Tally Me Banana / Financial Freedom

For new years we decided to set up aspirations rather than resolutions.  My new years aspiration was to make $365 worth of passive income this year.  The goal roughly breaks down to $1 a day.  I figured one dollar a day this year could compound to 2 a day next year and so on.  It was an official start to the Financial Freedom/Independence goal. 

The year started out pretty strong but tailed off at the beginning of summer.  There was a brief period of discouragement when it did not look as if the goal would sustain itself.  Stocks began to perform, Ebay picked up and the blogs helped a bit too.  Before I knew it the gap was closing.  Here we are only 8 months into the year and I have broken the $365 mark.  I am also realizing some passive income sources that had not been counted.

By the Numbers

$145  - Ebay
$31    - Blogs
$9      - CD's (Long-term goal 1 CD for each month)
$181  - Stocks (dividends and Sell-offs)
$366

$75     -  Credit Card Reward checks
$441

As you can see Ebay and Stocks are the biggest money makers.  There are still dividend and CD checks to be collected before the end of the year.  I will be adding a 6th CD this week.

I have to thank all of you who have supported my blogging venture, please keep reading!

Asleep on the Job

I caught one of my employees taking one too many breaks.