Angelika Michael has always been playing soccer with a passion, ever since he was a little kid. Here in San Francisco, he's been in a pickup game every Tuesday for many years, and he religiously sticks to his routine, rain or shine. One Tuesday in June this year, however, he came home early from a game, cursing like a sailor. Als always, he had given his last in the game, but had tripped and fallen hard on his shoulder. Michael knew right away that his collar bone was fractured from experience, as many years ago he'd injured this delicate bone on the opposite side during Judo training. So we called our primary care physician the next day, who told us to get it x-rayed and that we should drive to the emergency room for that.

Michael In Germany, many supermarkets carry these collapsable cargo boxes, and they usually cost about three or four Euros. Experienced shoppers carry them folded up in the trunks of their cars, and when they've pushed the shopping cart full of groceries back to their parking spot, they simply unfold the box, place the items in it, and have thus saved the environment from dealing with another plastic bag.

Michael Hardly any powermum has the time anymore to cook meals for dinner, and that's why new kinds of delivery services are mushrooming in the Bay Area. And it goes without saying that today's hipster families won't order profane dishes like burgers or pizza anymore, but instead they insist on produce grown by happy farmers, whole foods that are both sustainable, gluten-free, and detoxicating, if that's indeed a word. Since not every family-owned diner restaurant has the resources to get an order web site up and running, which is also compatible with the latest smartphones, or manage hoards of rabid bike messengers, a new breed of middleman entered the landscape offering exactly these kinds of services.

Angelika It's been reported all over the world that California has been struggling with a severe drought for four years now, because there hasn't been enough rainfall during the winter months. We've been experiencing the effects of this lately day in and day out. Caused by the extreme dryness all around, there's no less than 17 active wild fires raging across the State of California, and even in our neighborhood in San Francisco, we can smell smoke and the air is quite hazy.

Michael Agreed, a bag of salty pretzels isn't exactly a gourmet snack, which would justify paying more for a respectable brand, but what I find really fascinating about the Rold Gold pretzels is the classic 1950ies design of the bag, which almost looks like it came straight from an episode of "Mad Men" . These pretzels are bigger and thinner than those manufactured by other brands and you can easily eat a whole plate of them while washing them down with a glas of beer. While doing that, I like to imagine how a middle class family man plops down on the couch after work, turns on the black-and-white TV to "I Love Lucy" and starts dropping pretzels into his open mouth. Angelika finds this behavior unacceptable, which is why I can only do it when I'm by myself.

Michael Which hobby handyman doesn't take pride in his tool collection! Ever since I was a young kid, I've been collecting the highest quality tools, even when they could only be obtained at an exorbitant price. For example, in my toolbag, there's two pairs of piers that are about 30 years old, made by the famous German toolmaker Bernstein, which I personally purchased back in the day at the Bürklin store in the Schillerstraße in downtown Munich, and I vividly remember how I cringed because they were really expensive back then. Or take the screwdriver set made in Germany by Wiha, which I bought in Germany last year when we visited the old country again. They are really fun to work with and feel fantastic, they really make my day when I set out to repair anything that needs maintenance.

Michael How do you respond if someone is expressing gratitude by saying "Thank you"? It's probably one of the first things Germans learn in English class, that under no circumstances they may reply by using the literal translation of the German "bitte" ("please"). Instead, valid responses include "you're welcome", "sure", or "no problem".

Michael And, finally, a story on internal matters: After working at Yahoo for more than ten years, I was confronted with the decision whether to wait for the golden watch and retire, but at hardly thirty-five years of age (heh heh), that seemed to be premature. So, I pulled myself together to start another breathtaking carreer, and, as a matter of fact, to make a giant dent in the universe! I struck a deal with the famous mobile phone and laptop manufacturer, and instead of taking the company shuttle to Sunnyvale every morning, my stop is now called Coppertino or something like that.