shahine.com/omar/

Once again, OMAR outperforms MSFT 2 years in a row.I may never get my birthday wish... is 1$ a year in growth too much to ask for? Apparently...

Anyway, I have a nice 1991 Silver Oak Cab and a 1997 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet to keep me distracted tonight.

At dinner tonight with the family I saw something I've only seen once, a family walking their cat on a leash. No ordinary cat, this was an Asian Leopard Cat. It was the most striking and well behaved cat I have ever seen. I want one. These cat are hybrid cats.

Here is what they look like:

[photo by Bill Dow]

In other news, it appears that OMAR will once again outperform MSFT 2 years in a row.

If you aren't factoring the AMT into your taxes, and you:

• have a mortgage
• live in a state with income tax
• have high property taxes

then get ready to pay the Government a few thousand dollars on April 15th 2008. As of now, there is no AMT tax relief in site for tax year 2007.

To come up with a realistic picture of my tax liability here is what I do. I factor my AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) by not including state income and property taxes into my AGI. In other words, the only deductions that I factor are:

• Mortgage Interest
• Charitable Donations
• Personal Exemptions for myself, my wife, my child

And that's it. By doing this it offers me a simple way to calculate my paycheck withholding without using an AMT calculator.

BTW, I have paid the AMT tax for the past 3 years. However, in those years congress passed temporary relief that moved the floor of the AMT to adjust for inflation since the AMT rules originally went into effect. This year the AMT floor is the same as it was in 1969.

Hopefully something will be done about the AMT this year, but I would not bet on it as this revenue is factored into our budget, and offering relief will only serve to broaden the gap between our spending and our tax revenue.

Kinda cool to now experience a holiday thanks to this one:

Little Sarah is now 7 months old, and doing really well. She is quite a joy! 

Chris Saaca just detailed an account of how he saw a man get shot in front of his apartment (which by the way is about 2 blocks from my old apartment in San Francisco, and a path I walked every day for 4 years). I can't believe this happened so close to my old residence.

I hope I never see anyone get shot, but I'm glad Chris was able to get the plate numbers of the shooter which eventually let the cops to catching him.

I love how 911 gave him a busy signal though. I hope I never have to call 911 either.