The Oregonian

I have a hard time understanding why someone would pay for The Oregonian on a daily basis.  I admit, I used to be one of those people.  I cancelled about a year ago partially because I got tired of reading about crime and politics all day long, and because I can read the same articles online without costing me any money.  My dad often asks me if I saw “that article in today’s paper”, but I realized quickly that I read it a day ahead of time online.  I just don’t see why pay for a paper when you can read the same articles the day before for free.  I guess some people just have their routine that they can’t break.

www.slickdeals.net

I usually check www.slickdeals.net just about every day for deals.  I understand that most of the stuff on the “front page” isn’t something that everyone would want to take advantage of, but every now and then I’m looking to buy something and it shows up on there for a really cheap price.  It works by people posting “hot deals” in a forum, then a moderator decided if it’s front page material or not.  Deals range from a $250 laptop to $3.75 for a year’s subscription on ESPN magazine to free tacos at Jack-n-the-box.  I’d guess most of the front page deals are electronics, but I believe it’s worth the look 1-2 times per day since it is always being updated.

Redbox

I used to be a member of Netflix.  I thought it was a pretty good deal being able to have one movie at a time for $9 per month.  It seems like whenever you start a program like that you always start out strong and watch tons of movies.  Then things change.  Before you know if you have the same movie or movies sitting at your house for 1-2 months.  That is what happened to me.  So we cancelled, and then started using Redbox, which I think is a really good deal.  It’s a good deal for me because I can drive to Albertsons in less than a minute and pick put my movie for $1.  There are disadvantages to Netflix, like a due date (the next day) and they don’t have as many movies, but it would probably be hard to watch more than 9 movies in a month.  Maybe it’s a toss up, but I strongly prefer Redbox.  I don’t have to wait for a day or two for my movie to arrive in the mail, either.

P22 Chorus

Okay, maybe you’ve heard of them, but I saw their “director” the other day. They are an elementary school from Long Island, NY I believe.  Their chorus director Gregg was on TV the other day and I thought they were really good.  It would not be a service to kids to cut programs like this one.  I think kids need much more than math, English etc.  I guess they’ve met quite a few famous people, and has many celeb fans.  Anyways, here is a link to my favorite video.  There are many more posted on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tcE4rWovI

Kids in public

Before I had Addison, I really didn’t like other people’s kids.  It seemed everywhere I went there would be some sort of kid screaming and generally bothering me.  I’d always get the kid on the airplane that was kicking my seat, screaming in my ear, or asking all types of stupid questions.  Now that Addison is a part of my life it has changed a little bit.  I never thought of this, but with a little kid we seem to get better service.  For example, when Jen went to Crate and Barrel to get a wedding gift for someone, she drug Addison into the store too.  Right when she walked in someone met her at the door and asked if she needed help with something.  Jen told the gal how much she wanted to spend, she looked at the registry and went and got it from the shelf, wrapped it up, and that was it.  Jen didn’t have to do anything since she had Addison in her seat the whole time.  Now that’s service that you might not be able to get without a kid.  I also believe we usually get our food faster when we go out to eat.  All restaurants should always bump families with small kids up to high priority and should get their food faster than others.  It’s not only good for the families, but also good for others in the restaurant.  Kids just can’t sit as long as adults, and if they wait 40 minutes for food, they’ll be making all kinds of noise.  If I didn’t have Addison with me I’d volunteer to have my food come out 5 minutes later in exchange for a non-crying baby.  And that’s okay if they don’t want to bump us up, I’ll just let them sit there and scream.  I’m used to it.

I give up

I’ve owned my house for more than 6 years.  Over that time I’ve maintained a really nice lawn that I’ve cut at 1/2 of an inch.  After this summer, I give up.  I’m tired of mowing it every 2-3 days.  I used to have the energy to do this without much of a problem, but once Addison came along I just can’t keep up anymore.  So far this summer I’ve sat outside on my back deck enjoying my lawn 5-6 times.  That’s it.  I’ve played 1 game of Bocce Ball.  So, if anyone is interested in having their own putting green, I can cut you a good deal on a mower.  

I will still keep my aerator and thatcher, but not the greensmower. 

A few lawn notes: 

If you’re going to fertilize, use Scotts turf builder.  It doesn’t burn your lawn like others do.

In Feb-March put down granuals that kill lawn grubs.  A little work then saves a lot of time later if you have to deal with crane flies.

If you get a dog, get a male dog.  When it pisses on the grass it goes a little here and there (spreading it out), and a female dog “puddles” the urine.  Since urine has a high nirtogen content, it will burn your lawn just like too much fertilizer will.

Make sure your blade is always sharp.  After you cut your grass, look at the tips of the grass.  If after a day the grass has white tips, your blade is not sharp enough.  The white part are fibers that didn’t get cut all the way.

Water in the morning, at 5:00 am.  Make sure 2 sprinklers cover all areas.  Only 1 sprinkler doesn’t quite cut it adn shoots over areas. 

Put down super sweet lime every month.  It keeps the moss away.

Keep a bucket of 3/4 fine sand, 1/4 grass seed to put down in thin areas.

Top dress your lawn with 1/4 inch sand every 2-3 years.  I don’t have the time to explain this one.  Trust me.

When you spray use an adhesive like Activate Plus.  It will double the strength of your spray by breaking down layers on leaves of plants you want to kill.

Change your mowing patter.  You don’t want the grass to get “trained” and lay down.

Aerate and put down seed every year.

Spot spray weeds, don’t use weed n’ feed.  It’s bad for streams.  Spot spraying is cheaper, too.

Olive Garden

Jen and I do like to eat at the Olive Garden every now and then.  I usually get the soup, salad, and bread sticks since it’s usually inexpensive.  I can understand dinner prices being higher than lunch prices, but what I experienced last Thursday was just bad.  We drop Addison off at m parents house and go to a movie, then head over to Olive Garden to get what we get 95% of the time.  We get seated right away, and the server comes over and we tell her we want the soup, salad, and bread sticks.  She says okay, and asks us if we know it costs $11.25.  Jen said, “Each?”  She says yep, so we get up and tell the waitress we’re heading over to Stanford’s for happy hour instead.  Seriously, $11.25 for soup, salad, and bread sticks?  Come on, folks this is the Olive Garden, not the Keg or something.  The lunch price is $6.99.  It must taste better for dinner.  I now have to add Olive Garden to places I avoid for dinner.  I’ll take happy hour just about any day of the week.

Wedding Costs

This has to be one of the most stupid things ever created.  What are the point of these?  It’s almost like, hey, I’m inviting you to my wedding, but I’m probably not going to be satisfied with getting one gift from you, so I’m going to have this “shower” where you can buy me something else.  I can totally understand baby showers, because after the shower is over, that’s it.  No more gifts or time commitments.  But when women get married they decide that the wedding isn’t big enough for them (because they’re so important) that now they need a shower too.  I know people are going to say well, their friends throw it for them (so they throw one for them back someday cough, cough), but women should say no.  I have come up with a plan to fix this.  Decide how much you are going to spend on a couples wedding.  Whatever that amount is, every expense you come across for their wedding, deduct that amount from the total.  Let’s say you have a really good friend.  Maybe your total would be $100 or $150 or something.  If you’re in the wedding, deduct $60 for a tux rental.  Deduct $40 that you may have to spend on a bachelor party.  If they think they’re so important to have a wedding an hour away from everyone, it’s okay to deduct gas money.  Whatever is left is spent on the wedding gift.  You should also deduct shower gifts from your total too.  If we’re deducting, there should also be positive credits too.  Dinner, $10-$20.  Beer, wine, and soda should also always be added.  Driving1-2 hours, getting a hotel, going to a bridal shower, renting a tux, bachelor party, and paying for parking can add up.  Of course if you really don’t care, you can spend $200-$300 pretty easily on a wedding.  Not a big deal, but I think it’s important to look at it as a whole package instead of a bunch of little events that can really add up.