Category Archives: money

Blog Stays at /log

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Remember when I said I was going to move the blog under the main page, I lied. Or rather, I changed my mind. I’m going to leave it right where it’s at /log. I mean, it’s a blog, it should be off on the side and the main page should be something flashy and cool. Now I just need to come up with something flashy and cool. Maybe I’ll even put up some more pages.

I’m a big fan of the way my posts get imported into Facebook with that giant RSS feed logo or my PSN card. Makes every update doubly annoying. Gotta figure out how that works/why it’s happening and make it stop. And I didn’t really do anything, but the twitter posts are getting imported once again.

My brother picked up a PS3, and unlike when he had a Xbox he’s online with it. I’m thinking I’ll be getting my football on… nope, not gonna happen. He doesn’t want to buy Madden 10, he’s going to wait for Madden 11 to come out next August. That’ll work nicely for me, in that Kevin and Jay have probably decided never to buy a Madden game again. Without them I won’t have the leverage I need to get Denis to buy next year’s game. Joel might be coerced in if everybody else was playing, but without them, it ain’t gonna happen. So all my football dreams are shattered. It’ll probably end up being me and my bro playing Madden come next year… I love it when a plan comes together.

Zachary is involved with a girl now, according to his Facebook page, I have no other details. Haven’t heard anything more about Tyler and his lady friend, beyond him wanting to borrow the car. Karin… yeah, I don’t know what she’s up to. Kirra is making noises about coming to stay with us, she’s saying end of April, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Rascal (Crooktail) is doing better, swelling is gone and he’s actually got some flick in his tail at this point, but it does have a nice crook in it about an inch-and-a-half from the base. I keep meaning to take a picture, but I’m lazy and forgetful.

Tasha and I have decided not to move. We’re going to stay put for another year. We’re in a nice enough place and the rent isn’t going up all that much. It’s mostly a financial decision, seems like the bills always roll in when you’re saving your pennies for something. We  don’t hate it here, we’d like a house, but Tasha is just getting regular paychecks again and we’re going to just sit tight for another year. As a plus, none of our friends will have to relearn where we live. I am toying with the idea of getting a second carport, it’s silly but I think the one next to us is available and that’d be almost like having a two car garage and as such my bike wouldn’t be nearly as crowded and I wouldn’t have to worry about the neighbors bumping my car.

That’s it for now.

I'm In The Money

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Michigan tax refund has arrived, it ain’t much, but it’s here and that means the Federal refund can’t be far behind. Only took 9-days, electronic filing and direct deposit are both good things.

And it’s payday. Gotta love that.

Rascal is doing better, still lots of swelling and he’s still sore despite the medicine. I think he’s actually more distressed about taking the medicine every 8-hours than he is about the tail. Funny thing is that after we give him the medicine he foams at the mouth for 5-minutes. I tried to get a picture, but he ran off and drooled under the bed.

Just Call Him Crooktail

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Rascal, one of our two cats, broke his tail today while we were at work. I figure it happened one of two ways, either he didn’t make the jump up onto the kitchen countertop and landed on it, or the dog got a little too physical while they were playing (they do that, it’s quite amusing watching them chase each other around).

I came home, hopped on the computer and started checking email. The cat jumped up on the desk, as he always does, and sat right in front of the monitor. I picked him up to put him back on the floor and he howled like I was killing him. It was quite startling. As he was scampering away I noticed that his tail was down and not moving around nearly as much as usual. I tried to get a look at it, but every time my hands got close to the base of his tail, he’d twist away. I knew something was up. I watched him a bit more and the more I watched the more obvious it was that there was a problem. So when Tasha came home we bundled him into the cat carrier and took him to the veterinary clinic.

We were there for almost three hours. It cost almost $400. And much to my disappointment, the cat didn’t get a tail cast. Wouldn’t that have just been amusing as hell! Apparently, they can’t do much with a broken tail except x-ray it and give you some pain medicine that the animal will fight-like-hell to not take. Whatever the case, he broke the tail behind the hips and as such there are no other problems, just a funny crook in his tail from now on.

What we wouldn’t do for our animals. Later.

Zen and the Art of Auto Maintenance

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Took the car in to Midas this morning. I’ve been meaning to take it somewhere for a while, and now that we have Tasha’s car here, this morning seemed as good a time as any. The thing has over 86,000 miles on it now and my list of things that need attention was long; mushy brakes, squealing belt, front tires and alignment, tune-up, and oil change. So I was hoping to get out of there for $600, but expecting it to be more like $1000. This is what happens when you wait too long for these repairs. So I was expecting to pay some cash. Which I was okay with.

I took it to Midas because, well, they just seemed like they were equipped to do everything I wanted done. They gave my car the thorough once over and brought back a slightly expanded list of things that needed attention. I pretty much expected that there were things I hadn’t noticed yet, so no surprise there. In the end, the oil was changed, the other fluids were topped off and the car given a tune up, the fuel injectors  cleaned, the battery was replaced, the brakes were checked (and were still good, but needed to be bled and adjusted to fix the pedal), both serpentine belts were replaced, the front end was aligned, we got a new set of spark plugs and wires, and we replaced all four tires (a nice matching set). It was a lot of work and I didn’t expect to see the car again until Monday afternoon, but they had it ready for us by 4:30 pm. It cost me just shy of $1,200, but we want to keep this car for another year-and-a-half or maybe two before we get another and just going on what I’ve had to do to this car in the past, probably this’ll be the last repair I do to it. So it was more than I thought it’d be, but not too much so and I feel confident in the work. It’s all good.

We got the all the laundry washed, folded, and put away, despite the fact that our new (or rather most recent, this thing may be 50 years old) washing machine seems to leak slightly. Which is very nice, considering the last one didn’t spin out anymore. We can deal with a slight leak for a weekend. Tasha did her house stuff, went to the store, and then made some very good nacho’s for dinner (after freaking out about the cost of the car repair). Apparently, stress makes her a wiz in the kitchen.

nfl packersnfl_lionsRMy Packers and I played my unofficial, preseason game against Kevin and his Lions team on the PS3 earlier. And the Packers (28) came out on top of the Lions (14). Jay was in the background, probably sitting on Kevin’s couch, and I like to think he was watching film and wondering how he’ll ever be able to beat this powerhouse that is Green Bay with his lowly Bears. He was hard to hear, but the fear and trepidation came through loud and clear. And Denis? rumor has it that he’ll pick up his copy of the game tomorrow. Not that it matters, he’s not very good at sports games or any games for that matter. I have no fear of his weak skills.

Oh yeah, I must acknowledge that Kevin has joined the Franchise. No more flack for him.

I’m off to play some Burnout with Denis on the PS3. Perhaps Jay and Kevin will be around later to join. So many games, so little time.

Later.

A Day Off, More Tired Than Sick

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I’m getting everyone up to speed because I’m a slacker. I could put all this in one post, but that defeats the purpose of using this to keep track of my life… Soooo…. the next few posts are backdated. You’ve been warned

Took the day off work. A sick day, personal day, comp. day, whatever you want to call it. I was a little worried about getting paid for the day, what with the whole freeze on unapplied time through the first of November. But sometimes you gotta take a chance.

I slept.

Later.