Saturday, December 6, 2008

There's a lot of territory to cover in this post, so let's discuss all the major issues:

Kristin went to the mall yesterday. She came home with a new sweater which she had bought for me. Now, if you'll recall an earlier post, Kristin and I had agreed that we would not be exchanging gifts for Christmas. Therefore, she should not have gotten me this "gift." Kristin then indicated that it wasn't for Christmas, that I could have it now. Who knew that you could get around the Christmas gift ban by simply saying something is not for Christmas? So you can see what I'm dealing with when I try to make agreements with Kristin. In some respects, she's like a lawyer always looking for a loophole. From now on, every time we make an agreement, I'm going to need a contract that's two inches thick to cover every contingency so that she can't get around the basic spirit and intent of the agreement.

Then last night, we went to dinner with the Nunnelly boys, Garrett and Patrick. Normally, one might say that they were in rare form, but from what I've seen before, this was a normal game-day performance. We covered lots of ground. Here are some thoughts from the evening:

• Both Pat & Garrett indicated that they were fans of this blog. (Seriously, though, can you really find someone who's read the blog who isn't a fan?)
• Neither of them were happy that they didn't receive blog awards from me a couple weeks back when I decided to acknowledge certain people. Who could have known that that would have created such a firestorm of controversy? Listen, people, this isn't T-ball; you don't get awards just for showing up! Awards are meted out for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence. If you step up your game, you may be recognized in the future. The question is, what can you do to to be recognized. We'll get to that a little bit later in this post.
• Based on last night's events, both Garrett & Pat indicated that today's blog post had to be really good. My apologies, but I don't think I can live up to that standard. I mean, there was a lot of good material from last night's dinner, but I'm not allowed to reproduce much of it (too much sensitive material). In fact, I even wrote down notes this morning of the important items to discuss, but I still don't think I can do enough of what it takes to meet such lofty expectations. So I apologize if I let the two of you down.
• With my readership growing to such great levels, I am quite proud of what this fine blog has achieved. More people are reading it than I expected (my expectation was that no one would read it, but it sounds like I may even have at least five readers). Anyway, the only people not reading it are some of the potential grand parents of our first child (TBD). They are either "busy" or not technologically competent enough to type in a simple URL. They even claim that I "have too much time on my hands." You know what, it's going to be their loss. When grandchild #1 comes along, they'll have no idea, as it will be announced here and only here. How do you think they're going to feel when they've been left out of the loop? And they'll have only themselves to blame.
  

OK, so let's shift gears a bit and discuss what you have to do to win an award from me. Essentially, these awards are handed out only when you help make this blog better. This list is not exhaustive, but here are some things you can do:

• Get Kristin to post. We're getting up to 40 posts sooner or later, and Kristin has contributed exactly zero of them. This blog was set up to be for and by both of us. If it's just me, this blog loses a certain amount of credibility. This blog would be more "fair and balanced" if she wrote on a (semi-) consistent schedule. In fact, for every post I write, Kristin reads it, laughs, and comments that I'm a dork. Clearly, I need someone "cooler" than myself for balance. If you can convince Kristin to contribute, you will get an award.
• You can comment on my posts. Since I don't know anything about the internet, I have no clue how to see how many people are visiting the blog. So I can only tell who's reading it by your comments (either in the blog itself or via email). Comments within the blog are especially useful because we can generate a sense of "community" that is sorely lacking.
• You can guest blog. This blog is about presenting ideas, important ideas. As one man, I can only do so much. If you have something to say, you are more than welcome to say it here. Just send me an email with your post, and I will put it up and indicate that you are the author. You might even realize that you have a special talent and that you should start your own blog. (Garrett and Patrick, I'm looking in your direction.)

It's not me who makes this blog great, but you, my loyal readers (actually, right now, it is me). So let's work together to make this blog something special.

That's it for today.

Little Nacho Libre

Financial Karma?

Yesterday
I was reviewing our tax situation yesterday, and I had thought that Kristin and I were going to owe an additional $6k with our tax return. But as I re-ran the numbers, I remembered to add some additional deductions that I had previously forgotten. Those would save us $3k in taxes. So while I wasn't happy to be paying additional tax, I was feeling very good that our payment would be much smaller.

But then I got an email from AT&T regarding my new cell phone service. It indicated that text messaging was not included with my plan and that I was being charged $0.20 for each text (both outgoing and incoming). So I called AT&T to add $5 to my monthly charges so that I'd be covered. This new cost made me feel less happy.

Then, as I was driving home, I went to cash in my winning lottery ticket, and I received $11. Clearly, I was riding high. (And yes, per Logan's suggestion, I did let some of it ride, as the new jackpot is $146MM.)

Then, I went to pick up some dress shoes that I had left at the shoe repair store. I was thinking the total cost would be less than $40, which is more than what we ever paid in Santa Clara for having my shoes re-heeled, polished, and Kristin's shoes being fixed. I had two pairs of shoes there, and it cost $97 (for polishing, re-soling, and re-heeling). I was appalled, and my day was again ruined.

Then I needed to pick up our dry cleaning. The bill was $26. But they accepted coupons from a competitor, so that knocked off $4. So my day ended just a little bit better.

Today
I tried to sell one of Kristin's investments (a municipal bond from San Joaquin Hills). According to the Schwab statement, it was worth just yesterday approximately $13000. Today, when I called Schwab so that they could solicit bids on the open market, it would only fetch $7600. Again, my day wasn't going so well.

But five minutes later, a check for $50 arrived in my office. Apparently, a month ago, I had taken a survey for financial advisors, and they had promised a $50 check for completing it.

Conclusion
Clearly, on a dollar for dollar basis, things are not quite evening out right now. But it's good to see that for every loss, there's a gain. And vice versa.

Del Taco: A For Customer Service; F For Customers

So I decided that today would be a Del Taco day. I've been here in Pasadena for work for six months now, and this was only my second trip. So I walk over there just after noon, and there's a line 6 deep.

Near the end of the line is a group of three people who are about four feet behind the line and huddled in a group. Thus, they didn't seem to be in line. So I got in line just in front of them. Right after that, I hear a voice right behind me, and I realize they're now officially in line. So I felt bad, asked if they were in line, then moved behind them.

Eventually, they get up to the front. Instead of ordering as a group, one person orders for herself. Then the next two order. The problem is that they really don't know what they want. Then when they got charged, they realized that they don't want what they said they ordered. Then they start re-thinking their entire order.

At this point, the girl at the cash register opens up the second register to help me, while she's still helping them. She takes my order, then I pay. She goes back to help the other two at the first cash register, who are now complaining about how much change they should be receiving. Then the girl behind the counter takes the order of another customer at the second cash register.

Finally, I got my food and left, with the people who were in line in front of me still not able to figure out their own situation. I do hope the situation was eventually resolved to everyone's benefit.

Happy Birthday to Jennifer

Since Jennifer is a past award winner of this blog, we here at THE BEST BLOG EVER would like to extend her the warmest wishes on her birthday. (Please note, all you non-winners, that it's time to up your game. Logan, good job so far.)

I Just Won the Lotto

I bought a $5 quick pick for the Mega Millions. The jackpot was something like $126MM. And I just happened to match the mega number plus two other numbers. So I will be collecting a cool $10 (for this 1 in 844 chance). What will I do with the money? I don't know. But I can tell you this - I will not be sharing it with Kristin. She didn't win this money; I did.

Water Bottles Everywhere

Kristin is a very organized person. She has spreadsheets for everything - mailing addresses, our checking account, etc. She keeps detailed records (brokerage statements, back account statements, tax returns, medical and dental records, car maintenance records, insurance statements, etc). She never throws away her credit card receipts. Our apartment is kept organized at all times. We even have a calendar going out six months to make sure we're not double-booked (I must say that we are pretty popular).

And yet, amazingly, she will never throw away her water bottles. There are currently two semi-empty water bottles in her car, one on her night stand, and one on the coffee table. And when I mention this, she says "Why don't you mind your own business?" When I say that it is my business, she says "Oh" and then proceeds to ignore me.

And then, when I pick up after her and throw away the water bottles (into the trash), she points out that we recycle, and the trash is not where the water bottles go.

That's it. There's no moral to this story. I'm short on material for the blog, and I thought I'd write something.


Re-enactment only. This is not one of Kristin's actual water bottles, as none could be found at the time of this writing. And yes, I am aware of the irony.