Iphone 5 - STOLEN!

The Setting

On Friday, I had an early breakfast meeting in Port Huron. It was snowing, 90 miles away, and I saw >5 cars in the ditch. On the drive home, I desperately needed to drop the kids off at the pool.

By the time I got back to work, I was in bad shape. I rushed in to the bathroom, did my business, pulled out my phone to play "words with friends," and left the bathroom - and my phone. About 20 minutes later, I realized I didn't have my phone. I called it, but it went straight to voicemail. Strange. I remembered the last time I had my phone was on the pot, so I hurried back to retrieve it. Gone.

Panicked, I came back to my desk, looked everywhere, called it again, logged in to icloud/find iphone, and it was not on the radar. Gone. Someone had taken it, and immediately removed the SIM card making it anonymous. Crushed.

Fortunately, I kept my old Iphone 4 and was able to activate it so at least I have a phone. But it sucks compared to the 5. Slower, slower, slower. Plus the home button sticks, which is incredibly frustrating.

Finally, I have a plan. I am going to bring my dad on to my plan, buy a new 5 under his phone number, then trade the 5 for the 4 so he is better off, I get the 5 and only need to pay $127 (special walmart price). Obviously, this is much better than paying $700 for a new phone or sticking with the old 4.

Lesson Learned: don't play words with friends in the shitter.

2012 Holiday Shopping - by special request

Last night wifey and I went to the mall to finish our Christmas shopping. Not a lot to get, but we had a sitter so we took the opportunity to close out our list. It was busy, but not too bad. By the end, I was starting to fall out a bit, but only because I had to wait in the Pandora store while wifey picked out a couple charms for one of her gifts. This prompted me to post on facebook something to that affect, and hence the special request for this post. However, there is really nothing to detail.

I suppose the one thing that kept me going was that we were going out to dinner after shopping which kept my spirits up.

Detroit Department of State - the Passport Saga Continues

After the post office crushed my dreams of an easy passport experience for my minor child, I decided to go straight to the source - The Dept of State. Mind you, this meant a drive to the hood, extra time off work, and an entire day off school for the boy.

I scheduled an appointment. Upon arrival, the place was a zoo - must've been a ton of people obtaining citizenship or something because they all looked like foreigners. There was a ton of security - multiple officers, along with the metal detectors just like the airport (but I could keep my shoes on). Because I had the appointment, they allowed me to skip all the lines and go straight to the front of the line. It was And once I had my ticket, I was next! It was a true VIP experience  Compared to my expectations, this was like a dream. The agent called us and when I told the story about the post office she laughed and said "you could have applied with the expired drivers license - it doesn't matter." This normally would have filled my soul full of rage, but not this time for some reason. I was just happy we were at the end of our journey. She actually sent us over to another agent to take our application. He also confirmed the expired license didn't matter. WTF. I handed over the paperwork, wrote the check, and he said I would have the passport in a 5 days. Imagine that!

In conclusion, I have a renewed attitude towards the dept of state, and an even lower attitude towards the post office. This promise may not be realistic, but I VOW TO NEVER ENTER A POST OFFICE AGAIN.

2009 Yukon Hybrid

This week we traded in the 2010 Acadia for a 2009 Yukon Hybrid. You may wonder why we decided to trade-in for an older vehicle...Here's why:

On the interior, the Acadia is great. It has everything; loaded. Even a usb plug for the iPhone and an auto trunk button. But the engine sucks. It is a heavy car with a V-6; not enough power. And I believe because it is a six banger, it also gets bad milage. In fact, the sticker said 16 city and 24 highway, but even going downhill on the highway it gets about 21. On average, we get about 16 with mixed driving.

We started looking at the Yukon hybrid because it gets 20 city/20 hwy and it is a bigger vehicle with a larger engine and more power. When I figured out the KBB of the Acadia, I was shocked - it was much higher than I expected. With the high residual value of the Acadia, it seems like we could make a deal work.

I found a couple Yukons with low milage but they were sold before I had the chance to make an offer. We ended up going with a 2009 model with 55k miles. More than I would have preferred, but still less than we had on the former (60k). The trade in value was just over 23k, and the price for the Yukon was 30k. Plus, as a self employed individual, my CPA figured I would save 6,500 in taxes by buying the 6,000 lb vehicle. That made it just about a wash, save for sales tax on the new purchase. So for taxes of $1,800, we traded up to a better vehicle in my opinion, and will get better mileage, and will keep wifey happy for another 3 years until she gets sick of it.

Financially, this should be a good deal. If she drives this for another 3 years, it only adds 1,800 to my cost of the acadia 3 years ago. Therefore it would be like driving the acadia for 6 years, adding on just a little more purchase price. Not a bad deal. The tax deduction is what makes the deal work.

I think the hybrid is very cool. When you are parked the gas engine turns off. That goes for a red light too. When you are starting out and driving slow like in a parking lot, the gas engine remains off and you are running totally on the battery. When you start out accelerating, the batter will take you up to about 10 mph until the gas kicks in. Unless you floor it right out of the gate, then the gas kicks in right away. These above features allow for 20 in the city when a normal yukon gets 13 in the city. That is a significant difference. On the highway, both get the full gas and the hybrid get 20. The hybrid does nothing for high speeds.

The yukon does not have the auto trunk button, or the USB for the iphone. It also has several scratches on the body, but no big deal. They are minor. The Acadia had the same.

How to Get a Passport

The Department of State and the US Post Office have teamed up to give the public a wonderful Passport Acquisition Process. My thesis of this blog post is to highlight the inefficiencies of the process, aswell as the incompetence of both agencies. First, you should know both are government agencies, of course. Next, understand the Post Office is running ridiculous deficits. And you already know the Dept of State is part of the US Government's 1.3 Trillion annual deficit. Why do I bring this up? Because both are run so poorly on so many levels it only makes sense they are severely mis-managed from a fiscal level as well.

My Story:

I am taking my son to Mexico in mid Feb 2013. I had a passport which was originally issued in 1999, so it is now expired. My five year old minor son has never had a passport. In addition, my wife and both kids will be traveling on a Disney cruise in April 2013. My wife's passport is not yet expired, but it  is registered under her maiden name. My second son has never had a passport.

My first step was to determine who needs passports. Do we need one to travel to Mexico via air? Yes. Does a minor need a passport if traveling via air to Mexico? Yes. Do you need a passport if cruising to the Bahamas and leaving from a domestic port? No. So wifey and second kid are all set - drivers license and original birth certificate get them on the boat. But my first boy and I need passports to fly to Mexico. Travel.state.gov is the official website where all of this above info can be found, but good luck trying to navigate that site. I gave up and called Disney cruise to get the cruise info and called the Dept of State 1-800 number to verify, and to determine we do need passports for the Mexico trip.

After that confusion was navigated, I had to determine how to get my passport updated and my minor son's first passport. I started at travel.state.gov, but quickly gave up and called them again to determine exactly what needed to be done, again. You may think I am anal, but we're dealing with government agencies and we have a strict time deadline we need to beat. And where does the post office come in to this story? Keep reading.

The agent ended up telling me info that could not be found on their website - I MUST renew my passport by mail. I was planning on doing his and mine together at the same time, but this cannot be done. WHY? It doesn't make much sense to me that a renewal must be done through the mail while a first time MINOR applicant MUST apply in person. Furthermore, both parents listed on the birth certificate must be present at the time of application, along with copies of both drivers licenses (front and back).You also need a photo sent with my app and a photo to bring to the post office for the minor.

So I ended up applying through the mail. I went to a local photo place listed in google maps as a passport place. I filled out the paperwork, and planned on fedexing it all to the dept of state to get the process moving. However, there was no overnight address on the paperwork. So I called the dept of state again, and the agent told me indeed there was no overnight address and I must send via USPS. WHY? And the post office drop box in my building picks up at 11am, the one down the street picks up at 3pm, and the box at the post office picks up at 5pm. I ended up dropping it at 5:30 after making a special trip to the post office, hoping the deadline was 5:30 or 6:00, so I wasted a day there. NOTE: the fedex box picks up at 7pm. The fee for mailing in a big envolope all the paperwork along with my old passport, check, etc, was about $2.00. My fedex agreement calls for a fee of $6.50 and picks up later and delivers probably ten times faster. At this point, my application is in, but after much frustration.

Next on to the minor. I already covered the fact that the state website does not give you all the details about both parents are required to be at the location at the time of the application delivery. Imagine if I ddin't call and wasted yet antoher trip taking him by myself? Earlier this week,  I did a little research on the usps.com webiste and figured out there is one post office in the city which takes passport applications on saturday, but it is by appointment only. So what would a normal person do? Call for an appointment. But because we are dealing with the gov't, nobody answers the phone. It rings and rings and rings, and then sometimes rings busy. I called on wed/th/fri, at least a dozen times, and never reached anyone. WTF? Today is saturday, and I figured we better just go down there and see what happens. I took the boy to CVS to try and get the photo taken. The first one we stopped at said their equipment was down. The next one we went to, there was an old lady scanning a garbage bag full of photos into the system, and the worker said she can take the pic, but can't print it out because she needs to use the same computer as the bag lady, and she can't kick off the bag lady. Seeing how many picks grandma was scanning in, and seeing how slow, we left. Google maps took us to another CVS which simply didn't exist. On to CVS #4 - it worked! We were in and out in 10 minutes or so.

The post office closes at 1pm, so now we're rushing home to pick up mom and head on to the post office which is open for passports on saturday. We arrived at 12:30 and waited in line.....Once we were next in line, the boy decides he needs to pee, and is holding himself. I ask the PO worker if they have a public restroom. You guessed it - NO. We leave line and run across the street to the library and use the bathroom. We run back to the PO, and get back in line. Now we're next again, and a new guy steps up in line, probably 7th in line. A PO worker asks the line if they are there for "some other service" and he responds "I just need an envelope, do I need to wait in this long line?" She responds - YES. The guy looks at me, I laugh, and he is not amused. Finally, we are called up. I ask about a passport app for my minor son, and she says I need an appointment and there are no more available today. heartbroken, but expected, I explain how I've been trying for an apt for days but nobody answers the phone there. She is not surprised to hear this, like it is a common complaint. She offers to schedule me for next week, and I take a spot for Monday. I felt like lecturing her about how this type of inept service is why the PO is losing 5 Billion a year at the cost of the taxpayers. I was actually surprised to learn it is 5B per quarter! How can that be? It is a monopoly!!!!!!

Now wifey and I need to both take off time from work on Monday, take my kid out of school, and make another run at it. If I knew this process would be so ridiculous, I may not have booked the mexico trip in the first place. Will I have any more unbelievable experiences with the PO in the future? YES, but I vow to use Fedex and UPS anytime I have the chance.

A couple more points: it takes 6 weeks to receive your passport after you submit your application. The fee is $110. I am convinced if I were in charge of this department, I could at least half the turnaround time and eliminate half of the workers in that department as well. There must be a plethora of inefficiencies to have that kind of time to wait with the levels of fees paid. Let's start here when evaluating our nation's deficit, Mr Obama.

Twilight

I was dreadfully sick on Sunday, running back and forth to the toilet all day. The worst part was it was wifey's 33rd bday. She had plans to relax. Instead, she was forced to watch the kids all day and take Hunter to two bday parties while I was worthless in bed. Late in the afternoon, I started to feel better and scrolled through the guide and found Twilight 1 and 2 was on FX. I recorded both and have now watched them.

First the girl falls in love with a vampire, then a werewolf. This is a giant hit movie saga. WHY?

Ohio

Here we are, the biggest week of the season: Ohio Week. Unbelievably, Ohio is undefeated. However, they are banned from the B1G championship game and not bowl eligible due to tattoo gate. Therefore, they are not getting the attention to that 11-0 should demand. However, they haven't played anybody. Yes, they beat Nebraska (who beat us), but that's about it. They don't seem that good. Then again, neither do we.

That said, as always, I want nothing more than to stick it to the bucs. I don't think I can handle them running the table and complaining about their undefeated season ruined by sanctions and how they deserved to play for the national title game. Then again, how sweet would it be they go undefeated but get left out?

Screw it, I want to beat them badly. They are favored by 3.5 in the shoe. With the token 3 points going to the home team, that means Vegas things they are  a half point better. Seems about right to me considering the recent history in the series and their record. 

Go DG, Go Dilithium, GO BLUE

Car Seats

One of the worst things in the world is installing/transferring car seats from vehicle to vehicle. In the early days of parenthood, it was a nightmare, because I was not an expert. Now that I am an expert, I can do it quickly. But now with two kids, I find we are transferring the seats much more frequently. From my car, to wifey's car, to the nanny's car, to nana's car, it sucks.

And in extreme weather conditions it is the worst. Like on hot summer days 90 degree +, I am outside with my suit on trying to take out/put in and it makes me sweat. Or in the freezing cold, just as bad.

Or, it is late and night and wifey reminds me I need to change out the seats from car to car for the mornings activities and all I want to do is go to bed, but I need to go out to the garage and deal with car seats? ugh.

I remember clearly one day I needed to buy a portable dishwasher for a rental (don't ask) and I drove the car to pick up the dishwasher from a guy across town I found on craigs, and I needed to take out the car seat and move it to fit in the dishwasher in the back of the car. The carseat was so tightly installed that I couldn't get it out. I drove across town, bought the appliance, had a big enough car, but couldn't load it b/c of the stupid carseat. Fortunately, the guy had young kids and had achieved expert level and was able to help me out. He taught me his secret, and I guess you could say I was an expert after that.

Mini-bank ATM

Don't ever use a mini-bank(brand specific ATM). . There is one at high velocity, one at the gas station by my house, and one at the liquor store by my house and I am 0 for my last 6 attempts to get cash.

2012 Tigers

A couple weeks ago, the Tigers were 3 games behind the White Sox with 13 games to play. I had officially given up hope and buried the Tigers.

Yesterday, the Tigers won and sealed the division. What a monumental collapse by the Sox. Or was it great play by the Tigers? A little of both. In the last 14 games, the Tigers have been 10-4 and the Sox have been 4-10. 

I still call it a collapse.

Z4 Update

Start here.

Yesterday I received a call from BMW of Ann Arbor. The service guy said back in late July that it would take six weeks for the Nazis to build my electronics harness, and the update this week was that there is still no anticipated completion date (9 weeks later). I was hoping to be able to drive the vehicle for a few weeks this fall, but that is completely unlikely thanks to Hitler and his cronies. Even if the part was shipped from Germany today, I am guessing a few days shipping then a quoted week long install, I would not get the car back for a couple weeks from today, Oct 2. 

My reply to the service guy was, "well, maybe the car will be ready for convertible season next April."

ObamaPhone Lady

Amazing.

There are so many comments racing through my mind right now I don't even know where to begin, and I don't think I have the energy to write a ten page essay on this 45 second clip.

First, it is the best youtube clip since the "hide yo kids, hide yo wife" guy.

Second, it illustrates all my feelings about Obama:  Poor people depending on the government, redistribution of wealth, our ridiculous debt - all summed up with a free phone.

Who even knew the government was giving away free phones?

He-man

Should I be worried that my 5 year old likes watching She-Ram more than He-man?

iPhone 5

Yesterday the new iphones came yesterday right on time (many thanks to FedEx). I was able to set up the phone quickly using the iCloud restore. It was seamless! My new phone has exactly all the same settings as my old iPhone 4 - including all the music. I was terribly afraid I would lose something and not be able to sync or whatever, but the worry was all for nothing.

I am glad I upgraded the Uverse internet speed because there was quite a lot of data to download. It was pretty quick - probably would've taken all night with the old data plan.

Overall I am very pleased with the product. The bigger screen, Siri is smart, speed of the processor, 4G speed is tremendous, the panoramic camera, the list goes on and on. The best thing is that now I can sell the old iPhone 4 for $150-200 and cover most of my upgrade fee.

Who Farted?

I respect Mark Dantonio as a successful coach. He was the D-Line coach at MSU under Saban, then DC at Ohio State under Tressel and won the 2002 National Title, then successful at Cinci, and now successful at MSU.

But his public image is peculiar. He comes across cocky and angry, and he is constantly photographed after he has smelled a nasty fart. Like this photo below - he just smelled a fart and asked the question, "who the fuck just farted? It stinks."

In this shot below, he just found out uMich is going to the Sugar Bowl despite losing to MSU and finishing lower in the B1G. Already frustrated and upset, he smells a fart on the sideline. This is his reaction. I don't have him on record with a quote at this moment, but you can imagine he smelled a nasty Oberon fart and he is blaming Brady Hoke.

And he rarely smiles, but he is on record after this shot, where he is like, "Yeah, I just farted. Do you like way it the smells?"

Michigan Football

Last week I was convinced we would lose to Mich St for the fifth time in a row. My reasoning was simple: Denard still can't throw. However, watching ND @ MSU last night, I have renewed optimism. Not because I have any more confidence in uMich, but because MSU is not looking too sharp.

Last week, ND battled Purdue to a last second win, which to me, means ND is not strong. But then they completely manhandled MSU last night. Maxwell looks weak. We may have a chance.

Iphone 5

I order the iphone 5 - one for wifey in white and one for me in black on Sept 14. Then I heard on CNBC that the phone was sold our of pre-orders within one hour. But I ordered mine at 7am and I was worried that I wouldn't be receiving mine on Sept 21 as expected.

So I opened a chat window with ATT wireless, and they confirmed that as long as I ordered before 6am PST mine would ship by the 21st. Hopefully it will arrive on the 21st, but as long as it ships I will be happy. If I had to wait two extra weeks I would definitely be upset. I would consider waiting in line at the Apple store....and be THAT guy...

Allergies

So get this. All the sudden I have fall allergies I think. So I've got that going for me now.

Worst losses in the modern era(excluding rich rod)

Oregon 2007 Carr
Appalachian state 2007 carr
Alabama 2012 hoke
Syracuse 1998 Carr and hoke
Tennessee 2002 Carr

These five games are the most painful games I have witnesses as a umich fan from 1997-2007 and 2011-2012. Obviously, nearly every game in 2008, 2009, and 2010 are excluded (for obvious obvious obvious reasons).

But since you brought it up,

-miss state bowl game
- toledo
-2008 every big ten game
-2009 most big ten game
-2010 second half of the season

Lush lawn

Now this is a lush lawn!

Finally got the house rented

3200 in repairs, but it's looking nice. I had about 20 calls and 6 people come see it, and 2 people who wanted it. Then one backed out , so it was an easy decision. These people make like 35k and have worked there 5 years and seem like good people. Only time will tell.

In other news, I am dealing with another tenant in shitmore who isnt paying. This could provide for some quality blog content over the next few weeks. Maybe I should change the title of this blog to "why you shouldnt own rental houses"

Effing words with friends

Tonight I thought I won my first game. I had the lead twice and was ahead by 6 points and we each had one letter left. Then wifey (no longer a friend) scored 4 pts and my two point letter U counted against me for 2 and it was a tie. So that elusive first win is still in the future but at least this is one game I didn't lose: it was a tie.

Dry cleaning fun

In the past two weeks I have tried to drop off my dry cleaning at the cleaners four times, burly every time they were closed during normal business hours.

Today when I went, I notices a piece of paper taped to the door. Yes, an eviction notice! The same state of mi paperwork I use to evict my tenants.

I have been going there since 2004, and I always talked with the owner of the store when I was in. I feel bad for the guy, but over the years I made friendly suggestions to him to help improve his business and he never implemented any of them.

Lesson learned: listen to me.

Example of wasted government spending

Just found out yesterday that Medicare pays for you to get your toenails cut every 45 days. I wonder if the podiatry association has anything to do with that?

Prohibition

How in the hell could so many countries, including the US, ban alcohol? In our society, it simply seems outrageous this type of policy could be law and actually enforced. Actually, I guess it wasn't really enforced....see Al Capone.

In other news, drinking four beers in one "sitting" is "binge" drinking. Right.

I like Jeff Daniels

For my out of state readers, you may not know Jeff is from Michigan and lives in Chelsea (not far away from ann arbor). My first experience with Jeff was Harry in Dumb and Dumber ( I am greatly disappointed Jim Carey is not on board for the sequel).

He is a big supporter of the local area and you may have seen him in the Michigan ads.

Daniels most recent endeavor is Newsroom on HBO. This is a great show, and I highly recommend it.

Observations on wheels/rims

Why is it that manufacturer rims are not ever as cool as after market rims?

My Favorite Sesame Street Bit...

No question, this is #1

These guys must like it too

For Rent...

The Whitmore Lake Duplex is for rent. I put it on Craigslist last Sunday night and I received 13 calls on  Monday. I have never had such high interest in 7 years of renting. Hopefully I will be able to finally find somebody good (what I mean by this is somebody who can actually afford $695 per week.)

White T-Shirts

I have approximately 45 white T-Shirts. I know, this is a lot! I wear one under my dress shirt every day at work and every so often I buy more at Costco. I like the Costco ones the best - they seem to fit great and are inexpensive.

I accumulate so many because I never get rid of any of the old ones. I guess I am a hoarder like that. The funny thing is you can easily tell which ones are new and old based on the color. The old ones are basically yellow....

T-Ball Observations

I am at practice right now and count 14 kids and 12 coaches. WTF

Belly Up

It finally happened - wifey killed our 2nd fish. I am shocked it took this long. Mo-in-law got us two fish  much to my dismay. They were gifts for our son on his third bday. The first one died pretty quick, and the second lasted nearly two years. Two years of over-feeding and cleaning dirty fish tanks. The fish were named Jack and Jill. RIP

Browser Observations

Recently Google has made their browser available on the Iphone/Ipad IOS operating systems. I downloaded Chrome on my Iphone because I thought it might be an upgrade compared to the default Safari browser.

A little history: I use IE on my work computer because I can only use IE with my work internet portal. However, I also use Chrome daily on my work computer to stream CNBC and for my google docs (drive) programs, as well as Google Finance. I feel Chrome works better with those programs, as well as it makes my organization easier to use a different "program" when managing my open windows.

I enjoy using Chrome on my desktop, and I also use it periodically on my airbook. But on the airbook I also use Safari and Firefox. No browser has taken the lead; they are all commodities as far as I am concerned. But by logging in to Chrome through Gmail, all your settings are supposed to be synced in the cloud - same favorites, same tabs open, etc. However, I can't login to my Chrome browser on my phone. It just doesn't work. I did a little research and determined others are having the same problem, albeit a minority of users. Not sure why I am in this minority. Anyway, I couldn't figure it out.

Speaking of the syncing feature in Chrome (even thought I can't benefit from it), why is microsoft so far  behind with these types of features? Apple has a great sync service with their iCloud, and now Chrome, but Microsoft always seems to be a few steps behind.

Unfortunately, I must use IE for work. While none of the other browsers seem to be much better than any other, I am hamstrung by IE which is not available on a MAC or IOS. Let's get some functionality!

Tigers game

Here was my view of the field for yesterday's tiger game. Pink stick- eat it or lose it!

Observations on Passwords

Start here.

Yes, wifey has my google password as of this moment.

Now, she doesn't.

BOOM.

Bee Update with Mail in Rebate Bonus

Start here.

Wifey has still not called the bee guy, so we went to the local "DO IT YOURSELF" hardware store, and bought some bee spray. In fact, the bee spray is normally priced at $4.79 per can. But today, it was on sale for $2.00, with a $2.00 mail in rebate = FREE. Pretty interesting.

As recent as a couple years ago I would be all over the rebate, and would send it in ASAP and set all kinds of reminders for myself to make sure I actually received the check and when the check never came, I would tell everyone how DO IT is a POS company and they effed me out of my rebate. Can you tell I am an avid conspiracy theorist with MIR's?

New Nick is not going to bother with it. I bought two cans and am entitled to receive a $4.00 rebate. Eff it. fitty cent for the stamp and 15 minutes of my time, I'm over it.

FYI, the last rebate I was entitled to and did not receive was the $300 ATT Uverse prepaid visa card they promised when I signed up. Still waiting on that one.

Bottom line, I sprayed the bees pretty good and they were not happy with me. If anymore bees are visible tomorrow, I have one more can waiting for them. And if that doesn't work, no problem - the spray is free, right?

Homeless People Observations

Actually it is not on observation on homeless people, but on observation on wifey's behavior towards them. They stand on the highway exits all around AA, especially the exits wifey takes (you will find out in a moment).

So I found out today that wifey gives either $1 or $2 EVERY time she sees one of these bums at the exits. She says she even has some "favorite" homeless people and thinks about bringing them home with her and let them take a shower. WTF.

How does she decide on how to give $1 or $2? She says it depends on how "cute" they are or what type of mood she is in. WTF.

Growing up, my mother had a completely different view. I remember vividly when I was in college we went to San Fran (tons of bums). Come to think of it, if I were a bum I would want to "live" in San Fran too, because of the year round weather. Mom, brother, and I, were walking down the street and a bum asked her for some spare change as she passed by. He was sitting on the ground up against the wall of a building. She stopped in tracks, turned around, and YELLED, "I don't like beggars!" I was terribly embarrassed and fled the scene.

I guess she doesn't have the $50/mo bill I do.

Much Anticipated Release of the Big Boi pants Voicemail

Busch's My Way - A New Way to Grocery Shop

Busch's website can probably explain their My Way program better than me, but I can provide some good color commentary.

They keep track of all your items purchased so when you login they tell you which of those items are on sale. You just click on the "+1" to add to your cart. Then here is another huge added value for me - they do the legwork and have the bags ready at the store in 3 hours. You just pull up and they bring the bags out to the car. No wandering around the store, no waiting in line to check out.

The strange thing is that this program has been around for 3 years and I've only used the system once that I can remember. But I just used it today and found it very easy and enjoyable to use. Perhaps they've upgraded the system since the last time, or maybe I just wasn't ready for this super advanced technology.

A time saver?

I think it is. I could see really getting used to the navigation and getting the online 'shopping' done in 5 minutes.

Words with friends

For the past two months, I've been playing words. First of all, I hope the makers of scrabble are taking a nice fat royalty. If not, that is a shame. Second of all, I am horrible. I have yet to win a game or come even close. How can I be so smart but so bad? (lol) I think I need to go to a weekend seminar or something to improve my skills.

Another Eviction Update

I spoke with the Deputy, who said I could schedule the eviction for tomorrow (Friday) after posting the notice on yesterday (wed). I told him to hold off until I can speak with my tenant because I would rather have them move out on their own so the deputy doesn't have to be paid to watch me throw their shit on the street. As much fun as this could be, it would cost me time, money, and sweat.

So I called the tenant and he said they would be out for sure on Sunday night. I warned him clearly that if he was not out by 6am monday morning that I would be returning later that day with the deputy. He seemed to understand, even though you can never be sure with these deadbeats. I expect they will be out Sunday night.

I drove over there today on my lunch break and planted the FOR RENT sign, and I will be posting on craigslist soon. The next step is for me to evaluate the dammage. I will likely need to paint and repair some random shit. So best case is to have someone in there by the end of the month. That costs me repairs plus missed rent of another $700. All in all, this tenant will cost me over $4,000 in missed rent, repairs, and legal fees. That amount is well beyond any annual profit from this property.

When I reflect on this particular property, I am discouraged. I bought the house in 2006 and had a good lifer in there for several years before he died. Since then, I have bad very bad luck with three evictions in a row. This has cost over $13,000.

My only hope is to pay off these damn properties so the missed income I will incur in the future does not hurt so much. Or if I can find quality people (how many times have I said this?) then none of these issues would come up.

Olympic Observations

After watching some Olympics this year, I have the following observations:

1. Misty Mae-Treanor's headshot makes her look ugly.
2. The US basketball team will easily win gold, and today they scored 156 points against Nigeria. That is amazing. However, they still couldn't beat the '92 dream team. BTW, how the hell did we take bronze in '04?

From Wiki:

The close outcome of 2000 and the humiliating results of 2002 prompted a number of NBA superstars to agree to join the team for the FIBA Americas Championship 2003, which the squad was required to participate in to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics. The team easily cruised to a first-place finish, earning it a spot in Athens, Greece the following summer.

However, the dominant team that competed in 2003 could not be kept together. Nine of its 12 players elected not to participate in Athens. The revamped 2004 team consisted of some young NBA stars early in their careers, such as Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, but also included recent Most Valuable Players Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson. The team was coached by Larry Brown.

After struggles in several exhibition matches, the vulnerability of the 2004 team was confirmed when Puerto Rico defeated them 92–73 in the first game of the Olympic tournament in Athens. The 19 point defeat was the most lopsided loss for the USA in the history of international competition.

After winning close games against Greece and Australia, The USA fell to Lithuania, dropping to 2–2 in the Olympic tournament. Even after an 89–53 win over Angola, the Americans entered the knockout rounds in fourth place due to goal average, the lowest seed of their group. The Americans faced undefeated Spain in their quarterfinal game, winning 102–94.

However, the semifinal match saw the team defeated by Argentina 89–81, ending the United States' hold on the gold medal. The USA did rebound to capture the bronze medal by defeating Lithuania.^[27] Still, it marked only the third time that an American team failed to win gold (excluding 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott), and the first time for an American team composed of professionals. Before 2004, American teams had only lost two games in all previous Olympic tournaments, whereas in this one the American team lost three.

3. The gymnasts still have not developed breasts.

4. After having kids, the beach volleyball due of Misty and whoever have sagging boobs. They should have had some work done. I guess its not too late? But I would have had the work done before millions would be seeing me on tv. They will never have this type of audience again.

5. Bob Costas looks the same as he did in 1991.

6. Ryan Seacrest should not be broadcasting sports.

7. Michael Phelps did not train as hard as he did for the '08 games.

8. I enjoy watching the Olympics more in my house than I did in my ghetto condo in '08 down the street from White Castle.

9. I'm spent. 

Eviction update

I documented the ridiculous vmail she left me telling me to put my big boy pants on and to act like a man. And how that motivated me to drop everything and drive straight to the courthouse for the writ of restitution. And then another car accident.

Today I received a call from the sheriff telling me he posted the eviction notice on the door! This means they are OUT!

My big fear was the judge who hates me would find a way to delay further. But he surprised me and actually did his job! And to my amazement the sheriff was out the next day.

What's up now, bitch? I put my big boy pants on, didn't I?

Moral of the story: don't fuck with me.

BMW Electronics

A few weeks back I went to a Tigers game and drove the new BMW Z4. We packed a cooler for a little tailgating action. A small cooler, just enough to hold a 12 pack. We parked, killed the beer, and went into the game.

I dropped off my buddy, and on the way back home, the radio went out. Then all the electronics went out: blinkers, power top, airbag warning, basically everything besides the engine. I got home, worried, and opened the trunk to unpack the cooler. It tipped over, and water leaked all over the trunk. No big deal, right? Well, it turns out the battery and all electrical components are in the trunk, without a seal to protect it. Just a weak carpet-like cover with no seal. Did I mention no seal?

It turns out the water was in the battery compartment where the computer hard drive and radio amplifier is housed. All fried. Totally fried. I was driving around the car while the wires were basically on fire, melting from the combination of water and heat (that day was 100 degrees).

I took it to a friends auto shop and he said immediately, "call your ins agent and take it to the BMW dealer." So I did. And its a good thing, because the $9,700 original estimate (State Farm says $8,000 is what they will pay) is covered by my comprehensive policy because it is classified as a "sudden" accident. The other thing is that the entire harness needs to be built to suit which takes 6 weeks. In car world, that means 10 weeks. Goodbye summer with the top down.

note: the dealer will do the work for whatever State Farm says, so my total out of pocket will be the deductible of $500.

side note: yes, I do feel bad about myself.

Unbelievably, the Drawer Chronicles Continue....

A few weeks ago I went to a Tigers game with some friends. Earlier this year, I bought a Tigers road fitted ball cap and was the beneficiary of a Verlander road jersey. Obviously, I wanted to wear both to the game.

The day of the game I was looking everywhere for the hat. I couldn't find it anywhere. In fact, it was missing for weeks, until....

I looked in the drawer underneath my pile of stuff on the counter. MY COUNTER, MY SPACE. WTF? who puts a hat in a drawer?

ANSWER: the cleaning lady.

I am getting sick and tired of my sh!t getting put in the drawer. You might say just look in the drawer if something turns of missing. I say - NO - just stop ruining my life.

Put on Your Big Boy Pants...

Last night I was reading my Hitler book and fell asleep. I was awakened at 10pm when I thought I heard my cell phone vibrating. I ignored it. Then I heard it vibrating again, and still ignored it. Then one  more time and I decided to get up (I keep my phone charged in the bathroom ((don't ask why)).

It was the renter who can't come up with $175 a day (a good job will pay that much in a day - they have three working age adults living there and can't come up with it). The real story hear is not the transcript of that call, which was brief and to the point (I am tired of dealing with you, and I am executing the judgement tomorrow). The interest comes from the second voicemail she left me.

The first voicemail asked me to call her back.

The second voicemail, one minute later, was as follows:

"I see that you called me earlier but the message was garbled because there were kids in the background drowning out your voice. [raised voice] Why don't you just call me,  put on your big boy pants and act like a man, and tell me what you got to say to my face"

If I would have listened to the voicemail before I spoke with her a moment later, all hell would have broken loose. I didn't hear the message until this morning when I was driving to work and I immediately became enraged. I was considering how I was going to get to the courthouse to file for eviction with a busy schedule today. But as soon as I heard the voicemail, I became so motivated to get them the eff out I cleared my morning tasks so the eviction became top priority.

HOW DARE YOU LIVE IN MY HOUSE FOR FREE FOR 2 MONTHS AND TALK TO ME LIKE THAT

The saga continues....

On the way to the courthouse, I crashed into the car in front of me at the red light. Not much dammage, but this day in age any dammage is $1,000. So my rage to get them out ASAP cost me another 1,000.

Side note: why won't the court just take a fax??????

Note to Self - eviction

Once I get the judgement and they are not out in ten days or have not paid the money, then I get the writ of restitution form (or eviction form) and mail a copy to the tenant and write on the top of the form that I have mailed it when I file it at the courthouse for a fee of $15. Then they have the judge sign it and they pass it along to the sheriff. Then the sherif calls me and schedules the eviction.

Gotcha! The truth is revealed

Guess what happens when you use the same password for the last 10 years? Your smart wife logs in to defend herself! This is Jenny. Nick, don't you dare delete this post. 

The story about the bees is not true. Yes, the guy said he would come back out within a few days. I had back surgery and was out of town for three weekends, so give me a break. I have called the guy and he wants to charge us, claims he got all the bees, and they are not "our bees" and the kids just got stung b/c they are really bad everywhere this summer. I asked Nick to buy some raid, he said we had some, turns out the can is empty. Btw, Jack and Hunter have each been stung twice. At least we know they are not going to have an allergic reaction--better at home than school to find out. Don't believe all you read on here. I won't even go into my complaints about Nick b/c I don't have time. Yes, the cleaning lady puts things in drawers (wait till you hear about his Tigers hat which I'm sure will be coming soon), yes, we have a lot of vacuums, yes, our oldest child is not easy, but I'm not the crazy person he makes you think I am. Ha! 

Bee Attack and Negligence

Every year we need to spray the outside of the house and deck for bees because they get pretty bad. Probably because we have some woods in the backyard. So wifey found a guy who does it for a reasonable price and it has been her job every since. This is the 4th year.

Every year the bee guy says to let him know if we see any bees in the next few days and he will come out and spray again for FREE.

This year, the day after he sprayed, I saw several bees on the deck by the steps. So since this is wifey's department, I told her to call the guy. Since then, I have asked her if she called no less than 10 times. And always the answer is no. 

Tonight, our two year old was stung by a bee. Two weeks ago, he was stung by a bee. Last week, our four year old was stung by a bee.

Still no call to the bee spray guy. We've had three bee stings and 10+ reminders/requests to call. I guess dumb ol' dad will have to do it.

No sleep

Via mobile blogger:

I would like to send a shout out to my 2 yr old for waking up at 3:30 and not allowing me to fall back asleep. Also, I would like to thank the sticky stuff holding out note board to the fridge , which lost its stickiness at 4:30 am and crashes to the ground causing me to spring up, grab my golf club from under the bed and secure the house.

I like Watching the Olympics

It is kinda funny. Sports nobody really cares about like swimming and gymnastics. But the pride from watching folks from your country definitely stirs the emotions and sense of pride.

It reminds me of ABC's Wide World of Sports, which so successful for so long. Sports nobody would watch otherwise. But if you put it in the proper context it can be enjoyable to watch.

This also got me thinking about how much work NBC puts in to this broadcast. There are like 6 channels which are dedicated to Olympic programming around the clock. Hundreds of events in a short period of time. How many people are on their staff? How many levels of management? How do you decide which events are shows on which channels? Needless to say, NBC is well compensated for all their energy invested with rich broadcast revenues.

My Brother's Lighthouse Endeavor

Yesterday, my brother decided to take on a rather large mission of viewing all lighthouses in the state of Michigan. Yes, there are well over 100. I could take a negative point of view, which I am inclined to do, and clown him and say "you will never follow through." But I am not going to do that. Instead, I will support him even though I highly doubt he will finish. Or at least I doubt he will finish anytime soon.

He has created a blog to follow his journey, which can be found here. Good Luck, sark!

Vacation Driving

Last week we drove up to Boyne Mtn (4hrs). This was one of the worst 4 hrs of my life, due to kids' behavior in the car. Specifically, my 4 yr old. Screaming non stop, wining, naughty words, etc. Then when my 2 yr old was sleeping, he was yelling at him, "wake up, wake up," which worked. Great. This was actually a precursor of his behavior for the whole trip. He was wild in every way. Specifially, when we had any down time at the condo. For example, he would wake up at 7 or earlier, and get wild right away waking everyone up (we went up with another family) to the point where I just had to get him out of there. While everyone else was still rolling out of bed and getting ready, I would rush out the door and take him anywhere just to get....away.

Blogger Iphone App

earlier tonight, I downloaded the blogger iphone app and made my first mobile post. This is strange: the post shows up on the mobile site, but not on the normal site. Is there a delay? I will check over the next few days.

If it doesn't show up on the normal desktop site browser, then it is worthless. What is the point?

Huntington Bank Loves to Call me on Vacation

Last year while at Disney on the griswold family vacation (Disney was not closed), I received several calls from the Huntington corporate office in Columbus Oh. They said they have an opportunity for me get a lower rate on my Home Equity Line of Credit (which is held with them) as long as I increase my balance by $25,000.

It turns out I was not eligible for this special program; can't remember why.

A few weeks later, I started receiving more calls from them with the same offer. I curtly asked them to remove me from their call list.

Last week, while up north at Boyne, I received another call from them, which was pushed direct to VM. She said she has an exciting offer for me. Right. Delete.

Do they have my vacation schedule?

Penn State Thoughts

JoPa didn't turn in Sandusky to save the program from embarressment and to claim the all-time win record for a head coach. Right.

In a dramatic twist of irony, PS has now given up all wins from 1998 to 2011 and JoPa falls from #1 to #8 in all time wins. Wow.

In addition, the loss of 20 scholarships, the inability to play in a bowl game or the B1G championship game, a $60M fine, and the ability for current players to transfer and play immediately for other NCAA schools. In fact, 6 Illinois coaches were camped out in the PS football parking lot soliciting players. Crazy, tacky.

PS is finished.

Your First Place Detroit Tigers!

The Tigers have been hot. They are 11-2 since July 4 and are looking good for another win tonight. After tongith they will actually be tied with the White Sox for first.

They are hitting, pitching, and the intangibles are in our favor. In fact, just this week they traded a prospect, Justin Turner, for a legitimate pitcher and 2nd basemen. This should be enough to put them over the top.

After a very slow start, with much anxiety, I am calling for them to win the division.

AAPL earnings

Yesterday aapl announced their earnings, which the iphone 4s selling 26M units, which was down from the past two quarters. Is it due to an economic slowdown or because people are waiting for the iphone 5? for me, I am certainly waiitng for the iphone 5.

I definitley want a bigger screen just like the Samsung models. If the '5' is not any bigger, I think that would be a major disappointment it could signal the end of the  iphone dominance because it apears to me with the level of sales of the larger phones is staggering.

The ipad also had a sales increase of 84% over last year's number, which is amazing. what if the ipad starts outselling the iphone? For me, I have two original ipads but I don't see myself upgrading to the new ipad because I am happy with the existing model and I don't see a compelling reason to shell out another $500 for a camera and a little more speed. We've had one of them for over two years, so maybe when that one breaks I could see us replacing it, but for now, I'm good.

Executive Director Search

As a board member for a local non-profit and head of the search committe for the next Executive Director, I have been spending quite a bit of time reviewing resumes as of late.

Specifically, we received over 360 resumes, which I reviewed all. I seperated all into three piles. Great, Good, and No. There were about 75 Great and Good. There are also two other folks on the committee, who thankfully, were for the most part, in agreement on those 75. Yesterday, the committee met and filtered the list down to 22, of who will receive phone interviews later this week.

So far, I figure I have at least 10 hours logged on this project. Before it is complete, you can likely figure that number will double.

The good news is that I think we have some great candidates, and it is likely that any of the 22 can take the ministry to the next level.

Update on Renters

About a month ago, as detailed thoroughly (but I am too lazy to link to that post), I received a judgement the renters were required to pay $175 per week with the rent postmarked each Saturday. Here are the results:

Payment 1: On sunday he called me and said he would drop off the rent to me that day. I was headed in that direction anyway, so I just picked it up. I did receive the money quicker this way, but technically he failed to drop the rent in the mail on Saturday. So technically he failed to postmark as agreed upon and was in default.

Payment 2: On Wednesday I called and called and finally reached him and he said it was in the mail on Saturday as agreed upon. On thursday it didn't come, and I threatened to call him on the default and get immediate Writ for eviction, he said come to his house and pick up $350 for this week and the next. This worked out well becuase for week 3 I was going to be on vacation. So technically he was in default for a few days.

Payment 3: paid early, see payment 2

Payment 4: Today is Wednesday, and I have not received the payment yet. I called and they said they did not mail the rent but will have it for me tomorrow. Technically in default.

As you can see, this is not a good track record. I do believe I will get the $175 tomorrow or Friday, but how long can this keep up?

Fortunately, I am collecting on the other properties and the LLC has money in the bank,  so my sense of urgency is low.

Lawn Irrigation - Draught!

As far as I can remember, we haven't had a decent amount of rain in months. Most of the lawns in my neighborhood are looking terribly brown. I am doing my best, but I have some brown spots as well due to an inept RAIN BIRD installer. Most of my lawn is very lush, and I have to say, I probably have the lushest lawn in the sub (probably because I have the system running twice a day and I doubled the time in each zone).

To combat the brown spots, I tried resetting the sprinkler heads on my Rain Bird system, but that didn't work. There just isn't enough coverage to get the whole lawn. So I bought a couple of hoses measuring 130 feet and a POS sprinkler which I've been moving around nightly for full coverage. The reason I call it a POS is because on the box it says it has coverage of 3400 sq ft but that is not my result. I figure it covers a few hundred SF at best. It must be due to lack of water pressure?

This is simply a short term solution. If this occurs next year as well, I will be adding a zone or two and several sprinkler heads. The total cost of the hose/sprinkler was $65 and each Rain Bird head with installation is $80, so it is likely a $500 project. The patch system will work for now.

Brownie Chronicles

Last week our neighbors were in a car accident and had to make a brief stay at the hospital. Nothing serious, not overnight or anything, but still probably traumatic with a 6 year old in the car.

The next day I had the great idea of baking them brownies and dropping them off as a little treat for them. In fact, I baked the brownies myself, performed clean-up, and then had to leave for a late night work function. I asked wifey to pull the brownies out of the oven, cut them out, and take over to the neighbors on a plate (and to save me one). She then proceeded to text the neighbor to tell them we were bringing over a treat for them later tonight.

I came home later that night and asked if she dropped off the brownies at the neighbors and she said, "No, we ate them all."

That was 3 days ago. I bet they are wondering what happened. It is one thing to have the intention and then not following through. Then another to ANNOUNCE the intention and not follow through. Both are bad, announcing is 100 times worse.

More Drawer Acton

Last week wifey took kids out of town, so I had the house to myself for the weekend. She brought the ipads with her for plane entertainment, etc. So I gave her all of the apple chargers except for one. When she had left and I came home from work, all of the chargers were gone. So I went the whole weekend with only a car charger and my phone was always running low on juice, which annoyed me to no end. Anyway, she swears she left one for me, and I didn't believe her. Then she came home and one was still missing. So this past week, I've still been one charger short and running on empty.

Yesterday I opened the drawer under the counter top where I charge my phone and found the charger jammed in there with the instructions for the fridge.

1. why do we need instructions for a fridge.
2. who put the F'ing charger in the drawer?

It was either wifey 50% or cleaning lady 50%. I prefer to blame wifey. Keep my sh!t out of the drawers!

Western Union

Today my tenant in Brighton sent me 1,000 via western union. I drove around to several WU and none of them had 1,000 in cash on them. What kind of bush-league operation is this? So I got pissed and called the 1-800 number at WU and observed that you practically have to push 2 to get English and Spanish is the default language....but that's a whole nother issue.

So the 1-800 guy told me to go to the check cashing place on 6 mile and Middlebelt. While the facility was nice and clean, it was a horrible experience. The clientele that go there are the ones who get pay-day loans. Its pathetic. And I was stuck in there for about 15 minutes and I'm sure everyone thought I was there for a payday loan as well, and I hated every second of it.

Bitter -sweet - I finally got the money but I had to go to the check cashing place. And tomorrow, he said he is sending more money through WU for me to go pick up! At least I know where to go without driving around all over town.....

Sweet Action Shot

The boy finally got the courage to jump in.

Phone Chargers

Wifey took both of my phone chargers plus her phone charger to Fla, leaving me with none. Great.

A True Vacation

Starting today wifey and the boys went to fla to visit Grandpa Ron, turning 80.

For some reason I wasn't invited and I get to stay home all alone. How will I spend my free time? Well, today I came home and then brought the dog back to work with me so I could catch up.

Tomorrow I scheduled a massage at 5:30. After that?

Saturday I have golf in the morning with a buddy - but then what?

Sunday I have golf with dad and bro at 1pm.

I'm thinking house party Friday and Saturday night?

More Tenant Fun

As you know, last week I was in court representing myself for eviction in Whitmore Lake.

There has been other trouble brewing in Brighton. I have a tenant who actually makes good money - over 50k. Probably a record for any of my tenants. But for some reason he is inept at paying his bill to me or the utilities.

He failed to put the consumers bill in his name, and I didn't pay the one in my name, so the $85 in my name went to collections in February. He still hasn't paid the collection agency.

The DTE bill is still in my name (he moved in at Xmas). He is always one month behind and they mail me a shutoff notice every month.

He is paid up through mid may. Today is July 3. On June 2, he said the next friday he would have payment. Then he was out of the town and the check would be delayed, Then he said it was in the mail around like June 15. Today is July 3 and that check never came. I got pissed and told him I was going to send in the eviction paperwork to the court. Then he appeared to get motivated and said he would drive a check to my office. Didn't. Then he said he would fedex the check to me. Never happened. Then he said he could pay via credit card - it was denied. Then he said he would western union me the money today - didn't. At this point, I have no confidence he will pay, but the prospect of eviction and not collecting, then paying to evict, then remodeling and missing the next month anyway blows too. He said he is getting paid Friday and will have cash. I am thinking on Friday I will drive my ass up to Brighton and if the cash isn't there, then I will just file the eviction paperwork since I will already be there.

Woman of the Year

I am married to the Woman of the Year! Yes, the Mai chapter of American Business Woman's Association. I am pleased to be the backbone behind her success.

My New Favorite Snack

Available at Costco. Chocolate covered Macadamia nut clusters with caramel. Incredible.

No Cats in America

Tonight wifey brought home a dvd for the kids; An American Tale. I remember watching it when I was a kid. Feival or Fieval or whatever, the no cats in america song, and the Somewhere out there song.

Quarterly Taxes...Ugh

I  forgot to pay the June 15 quarterly tax bill. Don't tell Uncle Sam.

I am completely disgusted with the amount of tax I have to pay. It just makes me sick. SICK

I realize everybody complains about taxes, but this is some big TAX. And for what?

Defense Spending - yes
Education - we spend more than any other country and our kids are getting relatively dumber.
Health Care - we spend more and we get cancer and autism at alarming rates.
Social Security- I won't receive back what I put in.
Administration for blah blah blah blah


I honestly don't have enough energy to count all those agencies.

I bet you could randomly take away half of the agencies outside of defense and 99.9% of americans would not notice any difference in 'quality' of life aside from the government folk who lose their jobs.

It is interesting to know that the first income tax in the US was during the civil war to raise money for the war. And they were like 2% of your income. Now because of all the 'services' the government provides for us, we pay 35% to the feds, 4% to the state, plus social security to the old farts.  It is totally out of control.


Fact: this tax money is going straight down the shitter.

Unlimited Sugar = Blue Poop

Last night we went to the Barton Hills Extravaganza and I told my 4 year old he could eat whatever he wanted, as much as he wanted, as long as he stayed for the fireworks and didn't chicken out.

He had a hotdog for the main course, followed by approximatley 7-9 blue snow cones and 7 push-up popsciles (also blue).

When he went poop today, he had blue poop. I've never seen blue poop before. 

Note: he did stay up for the whole firework show, unlike last year.

Observations of Pool Bathrooms

You know when you go into a pool bathroom and the floor is all wet from people dripping from their wet suits? And you step up into the urinal only to be standing in 'water' and you're not sure if you're standing in a puddle of piss or not?

yeah, it sucks. I am convinced that I am standing in a puddle of pee.

Everytime we go to the pool, my 4 year old has to go #2. With out fail! just like when we go to Busch's. You just count on it.

But when it happens, you are still upset because you hoped he wouldn't have to go this time.

So it is even worse in the stall. It's wet, stinky, and just all-around bad. My son can't wipe his own ass yet, so I have to help him and he doens't understand the filth...yeah, it just bad.

Uverse Update

I am very pleased with Uverse since we increased our internet speed from 1.5 MBS to 18 MBS. The internet is obviously faster, and I am taking full advantage of the free HBO.

The biggest difference, though, is with Apple TV. Before, it was taking 4-24 hours to download a rented movie from Apple TV. It litteraly wouldn't even let you start watching the movie until it was mostly downloaded, which as noted, took hours. Now I can rent a movie, and watch it immediately. Prior to this I was convinced Apple TV was a shit product. Why would I pay to rent a movie and wait so long? I could rent a movie from Uverse and start watching it right away, same with Netflix streaming. But now I understand to download a 1080 movie you simply need fast internet.

I was strongly considering going back to DirecTV or even testing out the dreaded Comast, but for now I am happy with Uverse.

In addition, the idea of a wireless TV received is incredible. Why was this feature not available years ago?

Its Too Hot...

for a penguin to be just walkin' around here.

http://youtu.be/eaKZkqeuRRI

Sorry, can't embed

While we're on the subject of Billy, when we go on the boat to Zukey there is always a family of Swan's we drive by, and I always yell at them....

HBO Documentary on 41

My recent HBO binge continues...

They have a doc on George H.W. Bush, our 41st president. This guy, when you think about it, has a highly decorated family and life. His dad was a Senator, he was a Representative, then Ambassador to China, then head of CIA, then Vice President, and President. Not to mention when growing up, he went to Yale and was Captain of the baseball team, and before that, a pilot in the south Pacific in WWII and was shot down and rescued by a sub at sea.

Finally, his son was Governor and President, and Jeb was Governor.

Not a bad life. He says his only regret is his father did not live to see him as President.

Not to mention, he lives in Maine,  here:

Surrounded by the Atlantic on three sides.

One more point:

Our last three presidents, including his son, never truly served in the military and in my opinion, do not have the type of resume 41 has. Each was a Governor or Senator, but it still not the same.

This Year's Trees

I put up a pic earlier of the new trees we put in this year. Recent evening projects include watering them heavily to make sure they take as well as because of the recent 90+ degree weather we've had tirelessly.

Jack is a good helper when it comes to watering.

I Love R,W & B Popsicles

So does Jack.

Last Year's Trees

Last year we put 7 pine trees on one side of our house to give us some privacy from the neighbors. It was a decent sized project as far as costs and discussion between wifey and I. Note: they've been planted for over a year now.

Tonight wifey asked me if those pine trees were the neighbors'. WTF?

I got the judgement

The judge was pissing and moaning about it though. He wanted us to mediate, which I agreed to. So the agreement is that he pays me 175 per week starting on Saturday June 30. Each payment must be postmarked by that Saturday. If a payment is less or if it is late I get the writ. So it is basically this: if he pays, he gets to stay. If he doesn't, he is out.

Then the judge lectured me on being a nice guy. He said he can read people when the come in front of his courtroom and that is what he comes up with. Ok, he is obviously a democrat and not a landlord. Or if he is a landlord, miraculously, his tenants have never made a late payment. I smiled, nodded my head, and said thank you, your honor. Then bitched about him all the way to the office.

The Future...

Today, June 27, 2012, is the future, at least according to Back to the Future II. Strangely, I remember seeing that movie in the theatre.

What I remember is that Michael J Fox had a flying skateboard, nope, and flying cars, nope, and pizza that was one inch big and baked to full size in the microwave in a few seconds....no.

But Biff had the sports almanac from 1955-??? and used that info to bet on the games and become filthy rich. I find myself wondering from time to time if I had the stock market almanac and what I could do with that little piece of information....

Brunette Girls...

There is about 9 more weeks until fooseball season starts....

So I decided to watch the highlights of the 2012 Sugar bowl highlights on youtube. See below.

The thing I remember about this game is how bad we were outplayed yet still won. Each time Gibbons (Gibbons you kick it through the uprights...AHHHHHHH! or Gibbons you kick it through the uprights????((MGOBLOG.COM)))  was set to kick he would false start and yet still deliver and no call from the refs.

Then there was the catch by Coale in OT which went our way. How did this go our way? All season these types of calls went against us (similar type of play), and I feel this was simply redemption.

Go blue!

Neighbor

My new neighbor not only lives next to me, but works in the building right next to me (15 miles away from home). To top it off, this a.m. I was shaving next to him at the gym. It is a little creepy.

ESPN app and the Palace

Which is more impressive - the Palace scorekeeper speed or the speed of the ESPN app on my phone telling me when the Tigers game has started?

First let me say either the scorekeeper at the Palace is lightning quick or they have some sort of computer system hooked up to the net...no. Several other people I know  have commented on the speed of this guy, plus a sports talk radio hour on the subject. I am not the only one who has noticed this. When a basket is scored at the palace, you glance from the rim/net to the scoreboard and you've already missed it. You keep staring at it wondering when they are going to change the score, when you realize it was already changed before you had a chance to look up. The reader might not think this is a big deal, but let me say the speed is incredible. Next you find yourself looking up at the scoreboard when you see a player shoot and you notice the scoreboard changes before you can hear the crowd cheer. Its insane. I mean, if you picture this guy, he is staring at the hoop with his finger on the button, and it makes me mad. I don't know why, but it makes me mad.

Second I am commenting on the speed of my ESPN Iphone app. I am subscribed to alerts for Detroit Tigers scores and updated throughtout the game, including telling me when the game has started. I have always been impressed with the speed of the updates. However, tonight, I had the game on TV and was watching the first pitch and within one moment my phone lit up telling me the game has started. Maybe it was less than one moment? I don't know, I am one bottle of Three Buck Chuck deep. But to analyze this, there is someone at ESPN sending feeds to the app and to the mothership website. And he is watching close. As soon as the first pitch, this goon is uploading the feed through their system all the way to my phone with only about a 2 second delay.

I take it back, he is not a goon. He is The Flash.

But to judge who is more impressive, I go with the Palace because it seems a little more amazing and pisses me off more trying to figure it out.

Please Fix the Screens Today

My newest renter is late and owes me two months rent. She sent me a letter explaining how her husband lost his job, and her son was hit on a motorcycle, etc. I don't care. When people's feet are held to the fire, they find a way to survive. I have a court date set with them on June 28 for eviction. The fee for eviction is $45 - I used to file for eviction and money damages but the fee is like $150 for that, and I never collect a dime, so what is the point?

After they were already late on the rent, she sent me a letter telling me the house needs screens on the windows (I guess there are presently no screens, and no a/c, whateva). I was like, pay the rent, and I will have screens installed. then I was like, you can put the screens in yourself, and I will give you a rent credit). My proposals went on deaf ears and I never heard a reply back.

Then last week I received a voice mail from the lady telling me that they will be coming into some money before June 28 blah blah blah (probably an attempt to get me to cancel the court date to buy them more time and I end of never collecting). The second part of the message was that I promised to put in screens and I need to keep good on my word, and I need to get the screens done that very same day, in a very stern lecturing tone like I am her kid.

This angered me greatly. First of all, I never promised to fix the screens. Not until she paid. Second, she owes me $1400 and I need to go to court to get them out of my own house ( pay $45 court costs, $50 to be served by the sherrif, and literally the whole morning of june 28 out of the office, followed by 10 days grace period to get out, and of course, I'm sure they will TRASH the place. I will be lucky to get a new tenant in there by the end of July, which means I miss two more months rent. So in the end because of there being deadbeats I will lose $2900 in missed rent and costs incurred to remove them. Acutally I have the security deposit, so call it $2200.

I called her back and reached her voicemail and with an even more stern voice left a rude message telling her I never promised to get the screens fixed until they paid and I don't appreciate being told what to do when she owes me $1400 in back rent.

bitch.

The Check is in the Mail

I have been in business with my day job for 12+ years, which requires quite a bit of reliance on the USPS to mail checks. Usually customers mailing checks to me because I use Fedex to send the checks on from my office.

Its funny, I have limited confidence in the USPS, but I have to say they are at least 95% accurate. We don't tend to have many issues, but when there an issue it is disastrous.

Now on to the point of this post: How could my professional experience be 95% with the USPS, and my moonlighting as a slum lord be worse than 50%? What I mean is that I hear from deadbeats that "the check is in the mail" quite often. And it never comes!!!!

For example, today is sunday and I still haven't received the check that the guy put in the mail last saturday. Right.

So when someone is late with rent and I don't trust them and they are facing eviction, I demand they drop the rent off at my office. That way there are no games about blaming it on the mail.

Free HBO: Game of Thrones

As mentioned in my last post, the Uverse guy game me 3 free mos of HBO with the upgraded internet subscription. I had been hearing good things about Game of Thrones, so I decided to check it out in On Demand. Well, its been a week and I have seen 16 episodes. Let me explain how significant this is: I have ignored the Tigers and several of the NBA Finals games, and my average bedtime has been 11:30 (normally 10). All due to this show.

I love it, and I love the imp. Although I'm not so sure about the dragons and the white walkers.

Faster Internet

I have Uverse for TV and internet service. For the past three years, I have been receiving speeds of 1.5 MBS. I didn't know this was slow! We started having netflix and youtube buffering issues and I started educating myself on speed. When I did a speed-test at my in-laws, I found they had 18MBS speed! I was enraged and jealous.

So a few weeks later I got motivated to call Uverse and upgrade. I am now paying an extra $14/mo for 18MBS speed and downloads are coming quick. Along with the upgraded speed, the guy gave me free HBO for 3 mos, which brings me to my next post...

Product Review - non-specific

Today for my birthday I received some bluetooth headphones from my mom (too lazy to get up and look at the brand name). Thanks, Mom!

I've tested them out and they work great. Paired easily. and Freedom! No need to carry your phone around in your pocket with wires going down to your pocket. Great for mowing the lawn, going to the gym, or, like, anywhere you want to use headphones!

On the mowing the lawn note, that reminds me of when I bought a Nomad mp3 player in 2002 with 64MB of memory. It held like 7 songs. I listened to those same 7 songs for years every week when I mowed the lawn. It sucked.

Sweet TV at Work

Today we had a 51 inch Samsung installed in our office by Mark's Modern Media. It was a great deal, looks classy and sophisticated, and will allow much more functionality when making presentations. I can use my laptop and connect via bluetooth to the tv. Also, I can play tv shows on my laptop on uverse and broadcast to the TV just like airplay with apple. Sweet!

Landscaping

Last week we had Ron the crazy Iranian do some work installing trees and cleaning up the mulch beds, weeding, etc. Here are some pics of the trees. We added some to frame the driveway, as well as some sugar maples in the back yard to block the line of sight from our deck to our neighbors. I am happy with the way it turned out. The next item on the agenda is to plant a crimson king maple in the front and one in the back. I like how they are red all year round.

Car update

We've had the new car for 18 days and wifey sat in it once for less than one minute, has not ridden sotgun at all, and has not driven it at all. This is much longer than expected. I figured 10 days max. I will keep you posted.

Father's Day 2012

I received no gift for Father's Day. That is all.

iPhone 5

no point to this blog post other than to express my eager anticipation of the iPhone 5. I've had the iPhone 4 for about 17 mos and my two year contract will expire precisely when the iPhone 5 is speculated to debut. I am excited the most about a much larger screen and 4G internet speeds. Also, with a new OS likely to debut at the same time, there should be some nice software upgrades that should just be some icing on the cake.

Fun with Zestimates

I love Zillow, but the Zestimate of my house is just plain wrong. Last year at this time my neighbors house sold for $200,000 more than my current Zestimate, and a house down the street in my sub with the same floor plan is currently listed at $325,000 more than my current Zestimate.

Our House Will Burn Down Soon

I don't do much laundry around the house, but when I do....

You know how you are supposed to empty the dryer lint every so often? In our new HE dryer, it says it is critical to empty that little lint catcher thing after EVERY LOAD to avoid serious injury or death. I guess for whatever reason, this is even more important that with the old school dryers.

So, I follow the warning. Every time I do some laundry, I empty out the thingy. What I find interesting, is that it is always overflowing ridiculously. So either the person who does most of the laundry (wifey) is unaware of the hazard, does not take the hazard seriously, or is tired of living in this house after three years and wants to terminate our 15 year contract we set back in 2009 of not moving again (by burning down the house).

Fun with Drawers

I am not sure if I have posted about this subject in recent years, and I am too lazy to look. But something happened today to motivate me to tell this story.

For years now, if wifey sees stuff of mine on the countertop (junk, important stuff, ALL STUFF), and she wants a clean countertop, she will put all of the stuff in the drawer directly beneath the counter it was on. Note the drawers are already full of junk, so this causes mass chaos for me when I try to find the said stuff.

A couple examples: one time, in a presumable drunken state, she put a bag a kraft shredded cheese in a drawer. I found it the next day and had to throw it out because, like, cheese needs to be refrigerated. She puts important work papers in the drawer which causes me to meltdown when I can't find them. She puts checks from renters in the drawers causing me to send 7 day notices.

After years of my fallout from this activity, I convinced her to leave my stuff alone as long as it is in a neat little pile and I promise to "take it to work tomorrow." So lately there has been little to report in with the drawers. But tonight.....

Tonight we sold our John Deere lawn mower to a buyer on craigslist. As I was outside getting it started in eager anticipation of a nice showing, I asked her to go get the Deere manual out of "the drawer." When she found the manual, she also found a netflix dvd, which was unopened in the red envelope.

A bit of history. When we canceled netflix mail-order over nine months ago in favor of Netflix streaming-only, there was a movie they sent me and I thought I never received it. A while later I noticed on my final bill from them I was charged for said movie ($15-20) for never sending it back. It was actually a movie that I wanted to see, and is not on Netflix-streaming.

Long story short, but you guessed it. Wifey took the missing netflix movie from my stack on the counter and buried it in the drawer it was innocently resting above. Nine months after the fact, the missing dvd is saved. Now at least I get to see that movie, since I bought it from netflix.