Bonus Time

The Dishnetwork people scheduled my repair for that dreaded 12-5 timeslot today. Lucky for me the guy was waiting when I got here at 11:50am. He actually called my cell as I turned the corner and I told him I was just pulling into my driveway. Anyway, he was finished by 12:15pm. That really frees me up to get some things done. I took a 1/2 day and now I can get some things around the house taken care of. One of those is to clean the garage as suggested by friend and fellow blogger Erin.

My to do list:
1. Laundry
2. Kitchen
3. Our bedroom
4. Garage
5. Trip to Goodwill

Hope the urge to nap doesn't become too strong. Took some Sudafed for my sinus drainage. The pollen count is HIGH here in North Texas.

Gas Prices

The gas prices remind me of a helium balloon that you accidentally let go and it just keeps going up and up and up to a place that you can't reach. $78 for a fill up today. I swear the new game is "The Gas Price Watching Game." You know you do it. On the way to work you think you should fill up, but you're in a hurry and decide to stop on the way home. Then it happened, sometime during the day, the prices jumped another 10 cents.

Tonight I needed to get gas and usually go to the QT. As I pulled in I noticed that Racetrack across the street was actually 5 cents cheaper at $3.44 gallon. I still gassed up at QT out of loyalty. As I was filling up I got a tea and a bag of ice. On my way out of the parking lot I did a double take as I noticed that the Racetrack price was now $3.49 a gallon. In a blink of an eye the price changed. We're not talking a digital pricing board. Someone had to walk out and change the price while I was inside getting my tea.

There is no need to worry about it now. The gas prices have changed our habits a little bit. We are trying to only take one car to church now. That would save $25 or so a month. I usually try to drive the wife's car if both are available since it gets better gas mileage. We also skipped driving to STL this spring break due to gas prices. It was cheaper to fly my mom down for $130 round trip. The gas prices have TRIPLED since we moved here in 2002 from Missouri.

Need to start saving my mowing money to pay for the gas for my summer trip to STL.

Weather Again

I knew it was supposed to be a wet night so I got my mowing finished right after school. It started to sprinkle a bit as I loaded the equipment after my last yard. I got home in time for Survivor and for the last hour I have been watching weather reports instead. I'm hoping they'll replay Survivor, but right now they're reporting on The Perfect Storm. Just found out that they are going to replay Survivor at 12:37 am.

I have time to pull the truck mostly into the garage since they are calling for golf ball to tennis ball sized hail. No chance pulling my wife's car out. I think someone should invent a car cover that prevent hail damage. Something along the lines of a bullet proof vest or a shark proof diving outfit. Hmm.

Shriner's Circus

A few weekends ago a friend called inviting me and my son to go to a Shriner's Circus for FREE! Count me in. Once there I went ahead and paid the $10 for parking since my friend got the tickets and drove the 30+ miles to and from. He took his 2 boys and immediately purchased these light up swords for his boys. I knew then I'd have to buy one for my son. I really feel cheap when it comes to things like this because I usually manipulate my way out of buying overpriced items like this. I hestitantly walked up and said I'd take the blue light saber. $10.....WOW. My only other cost on the night was the $5 frozen solid snow cone. At least it came in a souvenir cup.

While there one of our 3 sabers broke, but we were able to get a replacement one. I felt okay about the night, we left early since the boys were bored by the 1/2 time intermission.

My son ended up breaking the light part of his saber the next day. It is hard explaining to a 3 year old why it broke and why daddy just wants to throw the piece of junk away. My son was persistent so I finally found the small screw driver and pulled it apart. Since I teach 5th grade and we deal with electric currents, wires and batteries I quickly saw the problem. This light saber had about 20 lights on a thin frame connected with tiny soddering. One of the soddered spots came undone 1/2 way up the pole AND the wire was disloged from the battery terminal. My chances of fixing it was about 5% or less.

It has sat on the counter for 10 days now and I think it will go out with the trash Friday.

It is sad that the non-profit organization is selling these dollar store made in China items for $10. Probably costs them about 50 cents or LESS for them. I usually give my kids a dollar amount and in this case he would have had to pick from the sword or the snow cone. My kids are pretty good about this too. It is just tough when the person you go with ends up buying his kids about anything they asked for.

Free wasn't FREE!

Deadliest Catch

Been a while since I've posted, but we're having battery issues with our laptop. Took the battery with me to a computer store and they needed the laptop model number to see if they had a matching battery. Why couldn't he just hold my battery up to existing batteries? I also pulled up to Battery Plus that same day and arrived at 6pm as they were locking the door. I proceeded to check replacement batteries out online....from school and LAST Monday ordered one. I emailed them yesterday, one week later, and was told the order was processed and SHOULD be here this week. So much for the "Ships out within 24 hours.....most cases..." Anyway I put the battery back in and after tricking my computer I manage to get it to work.

Tonight is the season debut of The Deadliest Catch. I LOVE this series about crab fishing in the Bering Strait. I even saw it advertised at the movie theatre on the First Look at Cinemark. Get the DVR ready!!!

Hopefully I'll be consistent posting again.

Hijacked

For a while now when I search for something on Yahoo or Google my search gets hijacked once I click on an intended website. For example, tonight I was going to research the demongraphic of buyers who've bought Pontiac G6s. When the Yahoo page comes up I click on one of the offerings and as I am going to that sight my computer gets hijacked. I ended up on Edmunds.com, a car buying and car selling website. Same thing happened when I typed in Major League Baseball. I go to click on MLB.com and then I'm switched to a site that sells baseball equipment.

How do I fix this or get rid of this issue? I've attempted to download Mozilla or Firefox, but kept getting hijacked. I'm currently trying to download Spybot.com. We shall see.

Long tiring day. One tough hour long work out followed up with about 3 hours of yardwork for a friend. I'm sore and stiff already. Should sleep well tonight.

By the way, I posted on my www.cravetheword.blogspot.com site tonight.

Jackpot

I felt like I hit the jackpot today. With my wife gone I was planning to take my 2 kids to a Jr. league hockey game tonight FOR FREE! Last night my daughter told me that I was going to have to get her a babysitter because she didn't want to go. Well, she got her way. A co-worker of mine asked if she'd like to spend the night with her daughter who is in the same class. SURE! I had already thought about this and expressed this desire with B from work.

So tonight my son and I went to the gym for a quick workout. Amazingly he didn't resist. I paid $5 for parking and parked right next to the indoor arena. Our FREE ticket included a hot dog(7 weight watcher points), chips (3 points) and a Dr. Pepper product. We stayed for 2 periods, bought a $2 foam puck souvenir and headed out. My son stayed up until 10:30pm, but went to bed right away. It was nice having just one kid to entertain.

Tomorrow could be busy: trip to trash dump, help a friend spruce up her property to put her house up for sale, entertain my 2 kids.

Tonight was a fun night!

Mowing Season

Mowing season officially opened for me tonight. The last 2 Sundays I tested out my equipment on my yard, but tonight I mowed for money. On days like this I'll load up my truck early in the morning so I can just head straight to mowing when school is out. The only real tester was on my first lawn when I ran out of gas for my weedeater. I brought what I thought was the gas/oil mix for my weedeater, but it didn't work. I cut my first lawn short and went to pick up my son from daycare.

I stopped and got gas as well as some 2 cycle oil. The new mix was exactly what my weedeater needed. I mowed 3 lawns all told tonight and I gave each lawn the spring treatment with weed and feed and ant killer.

My kids were with me and they did pretty well. After hitting a Sonic drive thru we got home at 8:30. So much for the new 7:45 start to bed time. As of 9:30 both were sleeping well. I showered up and will watch basketball and The Apprentice.

The wife is out of town so I've got kid duty all weekend.

Ink Refill

I am a VERY last minute type of person and when we run out of ink I'm no different. About 2 weeks ago our Epson printer ran out of ink. The whole Epson deal to me is a scam. I have 4 cartridges to purchase anytime one runs out. We tried to replace just one and no such luck. The black, blue, yellow and red cartridges run about $70 total so that is one reason I hold off on buying.

This weekend my mom visited and Friday she mentioned that at 4pm she'd need to print her boarding passes for her Southwest Airlines trip back to St. Louis. Immediately I knew it was time to get new ink. I've noticed a place nearby that's realitively new that refills ink cartridges. They are called Rapid Ink Refill. Early Friday morning on our excursion to yard sales I stopped by to see what the deal was.

I was greeted by a friendly, elderly lady and immediately I informed her that I was a first timer. I showed her my cartridges and she quickly grabbed the replaces from the wall. I didn't know if mine would be refilled and how long it would take so I was please to know that I'd have my product as soon as I walked out the door.

Great experience because the cost to me with a $3 teacher discount was just $27 with tax. Saved about $40. The lady informed me that my cartridges weren't completely empty. She said the little computer chip on the bottom was actually a page counter and it estimates how many pages it could print. That means many people don't get their money's worth when they buy cartridges, especially from Espon.

So when you run out of ink go ahead and check out one of those ink refill places. As long as these last a while, it will be well worth it!

Songs I Sing

I scoured through YouTube to listen to my all time favorites and the following is a list of sons I can't get enough of and I get charged from singing the lyrics EVERY time:

Asia-Heat of the Moment 1982
.38 Special-Second Chance
A-Ha-Take On Me(Great Video)
Peter Gabriel-Red Rain(Michael Stipe w/ Natalie Merchant is my fav)
Matchbox 20-3 am
Goo Goo Dolls-Slide
Benny Mardones-Into The Night
When In Rome-The Promise
Dwight Yoakum-Suspicious Minds
Dishwalla-Counting Blue Cars

More Later

Clean Shaven

Went to a place called Roosters to get my hair cut today. I had received a coupon in the mail and of course I was going to cash in on it. The first coupon I used in January was a for a free cut for my son. That was my first trip to this place. Like SportClips this place is geared towards men. They actually will serve you complimentary beer while you are there. Unlike SportClips this place has a decent standard for who they hire.

Today my coupon was for a free shave with a cut. My appointment was for 11am and I walked out 1 hour later feeling like I had cheated on my wife. The hair cut was typical. I then received a wash and a rinse followed with a conditioner and a rinse. Next was a gentle neck massage. My "barber" was indeed female and she was licensed to give straight razor shaves. This was a first for me. She did use a disposable razor on the neck and for trimming. She then gave me a neck and face massage as she put on skin conditioner. The event ended with a nice cold towel that would close up the pores.

What an experience. I felt guilty because my wife loves face and neck massage treatment. Not sure a shave would work for her though.

Other than that I went to see Vantage Point and it has rained all day. Some areas around here have already gotten 7 inches of rain and the creeks are overflowing.

Weekend Update

This is the first Spring Break since I can remember that I didn't leave town and visit St. Louis. This morning my wife headed out with our daugther on a camping expedition to Oklahoma. They invited a friend of my daughter and her mom who happens to teach at my school.

My first task of the day was detailing a Jeep Cj7. I still need to work off 2 details that I traded for a tree at Christmas. The hardest part was keeping my son busy. It was breezy so fortunately we both had jackets in the truck. My son managed to lock the doors to the truck and they keys were inside. A friend picked me up and I broke into my own house to get the back up pair.

I helped this friend mow the yard of the house he grew up in. His mom had been renting it out since 1984 when they moved into a bigger house. He said they paid $13,000 for it in 1972.

Afterwards my son and I played putt putt golf. This course has some really long, tricky holes. If I were golfing competitively, or should I say, if my wife were along, we might have needed to leave. A few day laborers were trimming the bushes around the course. At least 10 of the holes had SERIOUS debris: branches, extension cords, a bush trimmer, leaves and so on. My son didn't have a problem with it.

Maybe we should all have the worries of a 3 year old. Just the boys tonight!

Me Day

Dropped daughter off at school 8:00
Worked out 8:30-9:45
Took wife lunch 10:30
Went to movie 11:00
Washed truck 2:30
Picked daughter up 3:30

Beautiful day out. It was good to have a bit of mental health.

Indecisiveness and Appreciation.....

I don't know whether to say my appreciation first or talk about my indecisiveness? Oh well.

Appreciation:
We were car shopping with the kids Friday night and wanted to go back Saturday to try to finalize a deal and really didn't want to chase the kids around for another 3 hours. I called my good friend B and hinted at being able to leave the kids with him and his wife. He graciously agreed. I just want to say how nice it is to have such a friendship like this that allowed me to first impose, and second for him to accept. More often than not I fail to ask others for help for fear of being a burden on someone else. Since we don't have grandparents around it has gotten costly just to go out or hire someone to keep the kids while we do something like visit my heart doctor. I just appreciate what B did for me and hope my kids don't get strep since they were at his house for 3 hours Saturday.

Indecisiveness:
I don't really do well when given choices. Even when it comes to picking out a type of tortilla chip for our dinner Sunday night I struggled. My cheapness, or frugality, often makes decisions for me, but Sunday night I wanted a good chip to go with our chicken nachos. I held up 2 bags and let my son pick.

2 Thursdays in a row I was offered FREE tickets to local pro sporting events. The first was 4 FREE hockey tickets to see the Dallas Stars. My wife would ask, "What do you want to do?" And I would say, "It doesn't matter, I'm indifferent." We finally went and enjoyed it. This Thursday a friend asked me to go see the Dallas Mavericks and it took my 5 minutes and a "let me talk to my wife and call you back" before I finally decided to go. One thing my wife said and it has stuck, "You'd talk yourself out of winning $1 Million. And it is practically true. I'd do much better back when Henry Ford gave his customers ONE color to pick from...BLACK.

A few of my nicknames that I was given during my Emotional Wellness training a few weeks ago was: Chose Not to Participate, Path of Least Resistance, Non-Confrontational. I don't have much emotional baggage, but I do probably rob myself of some joy by sitting out at times when I could participate and have fun. Imagine the process my brain has gone through since we started thinking about cars back in December.

I am so glad we got the car we did! No looking back!

A Brand New Car

We finally did it. If you think about something long enough and want it enough, it happens. Yesterday I received an email from a local dealer advertising 0% financing for 72 months. I saw the same ad as I drove by the dealership on my way to school. I convinced my wife to go and look at the Pontiac G6 last night. We took the kids and they did great compared to previous shopping experiences.

We drove a middle of the line V6 G6 and were quoted a few payments. We had decided not to do anything last night so we were ready to head out. I qualify for the GM employee discount since my dad retired from there. We were able to get a price of $17,500 on a car that listed at $22,000. Basically about $1000 less than someone who might come off the street without the discount. I was told we couldn't get the 0% with the GM discount.(OF COURSE)

The 2nd manager showed us the top model V6 GT that listed for an additional $5000, but he could sell it for only $1400 more than the middle model. We really liked this car. It was a car that they displayed at National Dealers Autoshows. It has everything except a sunroof. We went back this morning to look at it again and brought the title to the Neon.

They gave us an up front decent price on our Neon. The finance manager dropped the finance rate from 6.99% to 5.5% so he could put in a bumper to bumper 100,000 warranty and our payment just went up $8. Imagine how much our payment could have gone down had they given us the 5.5% up front. I guess he played the shell game with money that gave us a good deal and made a bit more for the dealership.

That said, 2008 Pontiac GT V6, Silver, Leather, anti-lock brakes, traction control, automatic with a stick shift option, 18 inch rims, tires filled with Nitrogen, heated seats, On Star(1 year), XM radio(3 months) and so on. And we didn't lease it so we can put miles on it driving to St. Louis. Can't do that with my truck anymore.

MAVS Game

Currently at the Dallas Mavericks game for FREE! A friend of mine, Toon, called and asked if I wanted to go to the game tonight. Keep in mind I almost wiped out in my truck on the way home since it was the 2nd day this week we had SNOW in the Dallas area. I thought about it and my wife finally said, "Just go before you talk yourself out of it." At the game I've spent $0 since we are being hosted by Compass Bank. Free drinks, cashews and fajitas. NICE!

AND, no lines at the bathroom. SWEET.

Very little traffic on the way in. My town got about 2-3 inches of snow. Downtown Dallas-0 snow.

Awesome experience.......for FREE! So ME!

Dora or Daddy?

Last night it was a bit past my son's bedtime and I had already started a 30 minute Dora segment on TV. Mommy said it was time for bed and my son wanted to finish watching Dora. I gave him the choice of watching Dora and going straight to bed, or come to bed now and daddy would play basketball with him. He's got 2 hoops hanging from his closet doors and about 1/2 the time we play ball before he goes to bed.

He insisted on both and I gave him my teacher choice of Love and Logic: Either pick one or you go to bed with nothing. I waited anxiously as he decided. He picked playing basketball with daddy. I was waiting to be rejected, but was affirmed when he decided to spend time with me playing hoops before going to bed. Special times indeed.

The set up is pretty cool. Grandma bought him a lighted hoop and a basketball with lit neon stripes. We play in the dark. I got outscored last night 4-2. He was really on last night. Bad thing is this winds him up a bit and our prayer time usually isn't enough to calm him down. He ends up coming out of his bed 2-3 times before calling it a night. By this time his "sis" has been sound asleep for about an hour. She's like her mommy, "Lights out" as soon as her head hits the pillow.

The Daniel Diet

For 10 days my wife and I will be eating mainly fruits and vegetables along with some nuts. This idea comes from the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. Read the following where the king finds men to train for 3 years and they are given royal foods and wines. David did not want to defile himself and asked if he and his men could eat just fruits and vegetables. When the royal servant showed concern saying how would he answer the king when David and his men showed up at the end of 3 years of training looking weaker than the men who got the royal foods. David reponded,

12 "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

A friend of mine says he often goes on this type of fast when he has hit rock bottom with his eating habits. I really feel I've hit rock bottom as well. It is possible to lose 5-10 pounds during this time, but as always, consult with your own doctor before trying such a plan.

I've done fine so far today. No headaches and no caffeine. I ate a real late breakfast about 10am: small orange and a small apple. Around noon I had a can of cooked corn and a jar of my dad's homegrown green beans. I also drank a small cup of pineapple juice along with a few sunflower seeds and almonds. My afternoon snack was a banana and I just had a small tomato soup.

I'll keep you posted.

The Evolution of a Diet

According to the Bible, which I firmly believe is the truth, we were originally fruits and vegetarians.

Genesis 1:29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food."

It also says in verse 30 that all animals were given every green plant for food. No carnivores yet.

When Adam and Eve failed God's command and ate from the tree of knowledge or good an evil God added another twist to the human diet. In Genesis 3:17-18 God says. "17....cursed is the ground because of you: through painful turmoil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field."

It seems at this point in time man would have to work the fields for his food. He would have to deal with weeds and earn his food. The plants of the field included vegetables and grains. No longer could he just go and pick fruit, eat, and be happy.

When God flooded the earth and only Noah and his family was spared another twist was added. This was the 2nd major downfall of man. Genesis 9:3 God says, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."

At this point in time animals also began to fear man. The whole predator-prey food chain started as well. If you think about it there would have been no vegetation or fruit to choose from if the earth had been flooded. Protein was now added into the mix. There were some stipulations about which types of meats and such since the sacrifice of animals would come into play

Since a friend from church brought up that I hadn't posted in a while today I posted on my Crave The Word blogsite about signs from God. Tomorrow I am going to post a passage from Daniel pertaining to the Daniel diet which I am going to do for 10 days. I'll tell you about it Monday night.

Once Removed

It has been 4 days since we really tried to purchase a car. We left the last dealer with an offer of "about" $265-275 a month. That was paying the $700 for window ID etching. Yesterday I got a call that the new offer was $249 a month. I politely called back today and talked to an assistant and said no thanks. I got another call saying he had talked to the "owner" and it was now $240. That $25-$35 a month could have been $1500 more out of my pocket, and profit for the dealer. That is why it is smart to educate yourself first and be ready to walk away. Their last offer was $3 away from my wife's number of $237. I was hoping for $230. If the number would have been $240 Monday night she'd be driving the 2007 Sebring. I'm so glad they didn't offer that amount.

We've reconsidered whether or not we really want to make the purchase. That $2500 out of pocket with money down and monthly payments could pay off our Lowes card. We could realistically be out of debt by Christmas....outside a house payment and my truck.

So, when buying a car....TAKE YOUR TIME and be ready to walk away. My walking away has already changed the balance into my favor by at least $1500.

We did leave our garage opener in the car that we drove last weekend. Hope they mail it. Not wanting to drive 80 miles round trip for the opener.