Experience of Purchasing my First Home

When I purchased my home in the fall of 2002, I knew going in that it was going to be a work in progress. A fixer-upper of sorts.

I mean, it was one of those real estate listings with “AS-IS” tagged on. Never a good sign.

I remember my real estate agent calling me up at work and saying that he had a few new listings come in that I might be interested in.

On the way home (my bedroom in my parents house), I stopped by the RE/MAX office and picked up the MLS sheets printed out from an inkjet running dangerously low on ink. It was nothing new, I’d been doing this for at least two months without anything that remotely peaked my interest.

For whatever reason though, that night, after dinner, I brought my younger sister along for a “drive-by” of two of properties the realtor had printed out for me. It was about a half hour ride in total and neither house really interested me.

The next morning, while at work, the real estate agent (who was obviously growing impatient with my complete lack of excitement from his suggestions) called again and I asked if I was interested in any of the properties on the MLS sheets.

“Nope.”

Now, at the time, in the summer of 2002 — houses were selling even before they hit the market. Certainly a different climate than we find ourselves in today.

I’d found a few homes that were perfect, only to find out that by the time they made the newspaper (or even the internet) and I’d caught wind of them, they’d already been sold — usually within the same real estate office that listed them. It was really frustrating.

It was almost to the point where buyers were putting down deposits on homes sight unseen.

Over my lunch hour, I did another drive-by of the two “better” homes that I’d driven by the night before.

One was an updated cape, but a bit smaller than I’d like, it only had a 1-car garage, and it was on a busy road.

The other was a big dark decrepit looking thing with grass approaching the 2 foot mark. Short of boarded up windows, it was obviously abandoned.

Hmmmmm…

What did I have to lose? I hadn’t actually gone through a house for a few months at this point, so I called my agent back and said, “You know what, yeah, let’s take a look at the red one and the tan one…”

I took the rest of the afternoon off from work and headed down to the real estate office — I had become a bit of a familiar face (and probably an inner-office joke of sorts) and as I was waiting for my agent to get his stuff together (i.e. find his lighter), the listing agent for the big red house, an older gentleman, said to me, “I think this is going to be your day…”

God damn shyster… Don’t you tell me… That’s what I was thinking — I didn’t vocalize it.

So we hit the tan house first.

The agent opened the front door and we walked in to two cocker spaniels barking their heads off. They were penned in the kitchen using one of those baby gates people use at the top of the stairs.

The house looked alright I guess, but it reeked of, well, dog piss. I mean really bad. We’re talking so strong that an entire case of Lysol canisters wouldn’t be enough to solve this. Needless to say, it didn’t leave me with a great impression.

Off we went to the red house. That’s the actual photo attached to the real estate listing — from a distance, yeah, it looked semi-decent.

As we pulled up in my agent’s ashtray of a car, this time *he* said, “This is going to be the one for you!”

“I just hope it doesn’t smell like dog piss,” I replied.

We worked our way up to the front door and he struggled to get the old fashioned latch style storm door to open. One of the panes of glass on it cracked. Not a good start. We broke the house.

He finally gets the front door open and we walk in… Wow! Dark wood paneling (warped too!) and shag carpeting. I’d never actually seen a home so out of date in real life… Then the smell hit. Stale. Musty. Damp.

The house had been vacant for around 6 months and, well, let’s just say that it was pretty apparent. Still fully furnished with, well, cheap, old, sometimes broken, and, really, just crappy furniture…

Peeling wallpaper in the rooms that actually had wallpaper. Cobwebs everywhere. It really did look like a haunted house. Smelled like one too!

The MLS sheet stated that the home had hardwood floors. I guess that was truthful, but they failed to mention that they had been painted battleship grey.

The toilet had a post-it on it saying “Don’t flush”. I tempted fate and gave it a try. It didn’t flush.

No matter, it was a neat old house and I was feeling adventurous, so I went through single every room. Two of the bedrooms had 4 miniture size beds in them — not twin size, but not toddler sized either. Odd — unless the seven dwarfs resided here.

I checked out the walk-up attic, looked around the scary basement, and even hit the “play” button on the answering machine that indicated that there were 5 new messages.

As we left I was thinking, “Hey, that was kinda fun… No way in hell I’d live here, but it was a neat walk through…”

When we returned to the RE/MAX office, we looked through a few more listings through what they considered their “super secret agent only website” (I’d already seen every listing on realtor.com) and the listing agent for the big old haunted house poked his head into my agent’s office and said, “I really thought that was the one for you…”

I laughed him off, “Yeah, right…” and called it a night.

After sleeping on it, I felt my initial reaction was the correct one. Haunted houses are neat, but not exactly an ideal place to live. Even so, I drove by it again on the way to work.

It was a good 600 square feet larger than any of they other houses they’d steered me towards in my price range. It looked HUGE from the street. It had a two car garage. It was on a quiet street with well kept homes (excluding itself). It had an empty lot next door.

I arrived at work and called my agent to inquire about the lot next door — was it part of the property?

“The red one?”

“Yeah, the red one.”

He wasn’t sure. I heard him call out to the listing agent. He wasn’t sure either. I asked them to find out…

About an hour passed and the phone rang.

“Paul from RE/MAX is on the line.”

I took the call. He started off with his canned, “Good morning, how are you…” like he’d never spoken to me before. I really hated that. He did it all the time. Nice guy and all, but when you’ve been dealing with someone for a few months, you can drop the whole act…

Anyway, the property went all the way to the corner. It was just one lot, but a big one. I asked if the listing had been advertised yet.

“Nope, not beyond the MLS sheets.”

“Can I take another look?”

“Really? Yeah — sure!”

I went through the house again that evening but this time I didn’t treat it as a total joke…

This is the first post in an ongoing series I’m working on dealing with the large upgrade and renovation expenses involved when you purchase and live in an older home.

Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Home Improvements, Life, Mistakes, Success | 3 Comments »

Burress won’t take the Field… I won’t pay the Mortgage.

From a story I lifted off of TSN this morning, apparently New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is refusing to practise because the Super Bowl champions haven’t renegotiated his contract.

Burress reported to Giants Stadium for a mandatory minicamp Wednesday, but said he told the coaching staff he won’t work out without a new deal.

The wide receiver says he has three years left on his current deal.

Burress, who battled through an injury-hampered season last year, caught the game-winning touchdown in the Giants’ stunning 17-14 victory over the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Um… why’d he sign a multi-year deal? I think the teams should start giving the players a dictionary every time this comes up (pretty much every season).

From the worst dictionary/encyclopedia ever, Wikipedia, a contract is defined as a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce.

Sure, he made a great catch to clinch the Super Bowl back in February — but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to honor his current contract for the 3 more years he’s obligated to.

I suppose he thinks there’s a mistake in the numbers — the Giants didn’t pay him to win the Super Bowl for them, so he wants compensation now… Sorry bro, you’re gonna have to wait (and perform) for another 3 seasons before a raise comes along…

I hope he sits on the sideline all season. Unpaid.

Addendum:

The more I thought about it and tried to compare it to my own non-NFL lifestyle, I realized that my mortgage contract with Countrywide has around 24 years left to go on it.

And I’m not 100% satisfied with the terms of the loan.  It costs me too much.

If I were Plaxico, I’d stop paying the mortgage and hold out for Countrywide to renegotiate the terms in my favor…

Oh wait, people are actually doing that already…

Ridiculous.

Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 6:11 am by Brainy Smurf
Mortgage, Rants, Sports | 1 Comment »

OMG! Smurfs coming to Big Screen!!!

On a personal note, I just stumbled across this encouraging bit of news this afternoon on Variety‘s website:

Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation are bringing a live-action/animated “Smurfs” project to the bigscreen.
Sony obtained film rights to the blue-colored characters from Lafig Belgium via Jordan Kerner (“Charlotte’s Web”), who is producing. David Stem and David Weiss, who wrote the second and third installments in the “Shrek” franchise, are in negotiations to pen the screenplay.

Kerner secured film rights to the Smurfs property in 2002 and had been developing a 3-D CGI feature at Paramount/Nickelodeon, which has an option to co-finance the Columbia/SPA incarnation and distribute internationally. The Melrose studio has yet to make a decision on its role in the film.

Best known in the United States for the long-running Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the Smurfs were created in 1958 by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, known throughout the world as Peyo. The Smurfs, originally called “Les Schtroumpfs” in French, were created for a Belgian series of comic books, first as minor characters. The villagers, known for their blue skin and small statures, spawned a line of statuettes, games, toys, theme parks and a hit TV series, which ran as part of NBC’s Saturday-morning lineup from 1981-90.

Kerner said the genesis of the current project began during a holiday conversation with Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman-CEO Michael Lynton, who grew up with “Les Schtroumpfs” in the Netherlands. “He relished them as I do and suggested that it should be a live-action/CG film,” he said. “(Studio topper) Amy (Pascal) felt equally that there was potentially a series of films in the making.”

Kerner has been working closely on the project with Lafig CEO Hendrik Coysman and Veronique Culliford, the daughter of Peyo.

“Smurfs” marks SPA’s first hybrid film — a subgenre that proved popular given the success of 20th Century Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks” — and is the first project to go into development since Hannah Minghella was named prexy of production for the division in April. SPE digital production prexy Bob Osher said the studio plans to rely on Imageworks — which was recently taken off the sale block — for the film’s character animation and visual effects.

“The Smurfs are one of the best-known franchises, and among the most beloved collection of characters in the world,” Columbia co-president Doug Belgrad said. “We’re very excited to introduce a new generation to Papa Smurf, Smurfette and the other smurftastic Smurfs in all of their ‘three-apple-tall’ glory.”

Sony will launch a licensing effort around the classic Smurfs characters at this year’s Licensing Show beginning today in New York.

Ben Haber will oversee the development of the script for Kerner Entertainment. Haber and Paul Neesan are exec producing the film.

Stem and Weiss’ credits also include “The Rugrats Movie” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.”

Sadly, no mention of Brainy Smurf. Perhaps he’s too busy working on a PF Blog to be in the film… Perhaps…

On a slight tangent, in the late 1990′s I received a cease and desist order from the Peyo folks in Belgium. They meant business — the shipping charge on the envelope was over $80.

They weren’t very friendly either — they smurfed me up and down. The threat was, as I’d grown accustomed to at that time, trademark infringement.

Unlike my first run-in of this type, I didn’t stand my ground and sold my soul to Gargamel.

They’ve left me alone ever since. I semi-regret it now.

Anyway, I wonder if they’ll tone down the socialist tone for the movie? I should hope not, but I can’t imagine it staying true to form.

They’ll smurf it up somehow… And, yes, the verb form of “smurf” in that connotation means exactly what you’re thinking…

Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm by Brainy Smurf
Retro | 1 Comment »

Eddie Vedder and the TicketMaster Surcharge

This is going to sound ridiculous to some.

And it makes it quite apparent that I don’t buy tickets for events very often, but for some reason I thought that Pearl Jam actually “won” the battle against TicketMaster and their phantom surcharges in the 1990′s.

Apparently I’m mistaken.

On our upcoming vacation, I was hoping to catch a Blue Jays game at SkyDome (I will always call it that, regardless of the corporate sponsor) while passing through Toronto.

I’m not exactly a fan of baseball — it’s boring, but if I had to pick a team, the Jays are the one for me.

Unfortunately, my hopes of actually seeing them in action for the first time in 20 years were dashed because the Jays will be in Seattle at the time. Drat.

Enter the Toronto Argonauts.

South of the 49th parallel, I’m sure some are saying, “Who?”

The Toronto Argonauts play in the Canadian Football League.

Yeah, that might sound minor league, but they’ve been going strong in Toronto since 1873. Yeah, that’s right, a good thirty years before the New York Yankees even came around. Essentially, this isn’t some semi-pro run of the mill operation.

I’ve attended one CFL game in my life — and Argos game back in 1991. The big name for the team back then was Raghib “Rocket” Ismael. He’d just won the Heisman trophy for Notre Dame earlier in the year and was expected to be a first round pick in the NFL draft.

Instead, he chose to go play for the storied Toronto Argonauts. I’m sure the $26.2 million paycheck likely had a little to do with it — that was more than any NFL player was being paid at the time, but hey, he still chose to go to Canada.

On opening night — the game I attended — he returned a kickoff for a touchdown just as he had done so many times for Notre Dame. Mike “Pinball” Clemons was the star of the team — but Rocket Ismael was the hype.

So as it works out, we’ll be in Toronto for opening night this year. On July 3, the Argos will be hosting the rival Hamilton TigerCats. I’m looking forward to it.

The Argos can’t boast a line-up with stars like Rocket anymore. Joe Theisman and Doug Flutie are long retired at this point too. Ricky Williams, well, isn’t he in prison or something? Old Mike Clemons is still around but in a front office role.

I did read recently that former Colts and Cowboys kicker Mike Vanderjagt has signed with the team — but seriously, can anyone get excited about a kicker? Not me.

Anyway, in lieu of a Blue Jays game, the Argos seemed like a pretty good consolation prize. Being opening night almost made it a better “event” to attend than a mid-season Jays game anyway.

Off to TicketMaster I ventured.

Their clumsy anti-scalper interface makes buying tickets a real hassle. You need to enter hard-to-read verification words, then you’re under a time constraint to complete your order, and their stadium diagrams are so small that you can’t read the section numbers. If you’re not quick enough, they cancel your order.

You’d think that being as big as they are, they’d have a better website.

In the end, I settled on two tickets in the $79 ticket bracket. Premium tickets, apparently, even though they’re in the upper deck.

Yeah, I know… Overpriced.

I entered all of my info and came to the place where you get to select “how” you’d like your tickets.

I weighed the options (in under 45 seconds so that they wouldn’t “release” my tickets).

Regular mail was free but they state, “Your tickets will be delivered by regular mail and should be received no later than 5 business days prior to your event.” We’d likely already be on vacation then.

FedEx — the other mailing option — would cost $32. Can you say rip off? Mailing, obviously, just wasn’t going to work.

Will call is free, as well, but being opening night, I’m not real keen on standing in the line that ticket window will likely have. I’d probably miss all of the opening ceremonies waiting in line. No thanks.

They also offer a free TicketMaster retail location pickup option. That would work — except it has to be a retail location in Canada. I’m in smack dab in the middle of Boston and New York City. There aren’t any convenient Canadian locations in my neck of the woods…

So I opted for the last option — the one where you print your tickets at home. They call it TicketFast.

I’ve always been skeptical of this sort of thing. Kinda like e-tickets for airline flights…

I dunno, something just doesn’t seem legit about handing someone a folded up piece of paper from a printed out email (that cost you a lot of money).

It’s not official.

It’s too easy to fake.

What if there’s a problem? Dispute at the gate? Then what? All you have is a sheet of paper you printed at home working in your favor…

Back against the wall, it was the only option I had so I took it. Any you know what?

TicketMaster charged me an additional $1.75.

Huh? It costs that much to send me an email? They send a order confirmation email anyway — what’s the extra charge for? I’m the one printing the ticket…

Check that out — in addition to the $1.75 TicketFast surcharge — they nailed me with an additional $2.50 cent “Order Processing Fee”.  What’s that all about? 

Oh, and I hope you didn’t miss the $10 they’re charging me just for, in their words, “Total Convenience.” What?

In total, TicketMaster took in $14.25 from my order. That’s almost a 10% markup.

Where’s a coupon code when you need one?

It’s too bad Pearl Jam didn’t win the fight — only a monopoly could get away with this sort of thing…

porn

Manufacturers Shop

Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 7:13 am by Brainy Smurf
Vacation | 2 Comments »

A Quick Google Saved Me an Extra 10% on Sneakers

Back in March, I mentioned that I wanted to trade in my Converse All-Stars for a pair of real sneakers.

Last night, I finally did it — and inexpensively too!

With vacation on the horizon and an itinerary that includes a ton of walking, it was getting down to the wire.

In high school, when I was taking running pretty seriously, my shoe brand of choice was Asics.

My training shoes were Asics, my racing flats were Asics, my spikes were Asics, my back-to-school shoes were, well, those were Converse.

So, obviously, my search narrowed in on Asics.

We’d looked at shoes in stores locally, Asics included, and I just couldn’t seem to find anything I liked. Seemed that at every store, I’d start in the running show section and wander off course back to the canvas casual shoe area — where the Converse are.

I really like Allstars, but they just won’t get the job done this time. That, and I already have 4 different colors on the go right now.

The biggest hurdle for me was color. All of the running shoes on the market are U-G-L-Y. I mean, you can only put so many reflective strips on them and still make them look nice, you know? And what is with the color combinations?

It was far too difficult to find a shoe with the base color being white. I want a white shoe with a colored brand logo. That’s it. No bells, no whistles, and as few reflectors as possible. Oh, and no over the top plastic bubble areas visible in the sole either.

Last night, I settled on a winner. They’re not perfect. I don’t particularly like the plastic logo that looks hastily applied to the side of the shoe. The funky toe cap area looks a little, I dunno, metallic for my tastes.

But you know what?

The shoe is predominantly white — and that isn’t easy to find anymore.

They’re Asics Gel 1120′s. List price is around $80. We saw these at local stores, as well, but not this color, just some horrible dark grey and maroon color combo — with a dashing hint of highlighter yellow thrown in. Yeah, did I mention that running shoes are U-G-L-Y yet?

Anyhow, I went online to find them and came across the site RunningShoes.com. Their list price was $39.99. Shipping would be $5. Too good to be true?

I was skeptical at first — I’d never heard of the company or the site. Then again, I haven’t picked up an issue of Runner’s World since, probably, 1991 and that was well before Al Gore ‘created’ the internet. (What I’m saying is that RunningShoes.com probably didn’t exist back then and that I’m a good 17 years removed from being in the know.)

As I always do with a merchant that I’m not familiar with (or one that has a very, well, simplistic shopping cart script on their website), I did a little research on them to see if they had a bunch of bad reviews somewhere.

Everywhere I went had them listed (a good sign) along with the infamous, “Be the FIRST to write a review about RunningShoes.com!” Not a good sign.

Good grief.

Things were not looking good… I then tried to find the same shoe from another vendor. Lots of companies offered the horrible grey/maroon color — didn’t want that — and one had the color I wanted for $64.99 — didn’t want to pay that when I knew it could be had for far less.

I went back to RunningShoes.com. Hmmmm… I Google’d them again. They apparently sponsor a lot of local road races out in Washington State. I guess that’s a pretty good sign.

Then I came across this link. You don’t need to click it — it’s not that exciting. Really.

It’s from a United Healthcare Oxford Health Plan site. My guess is that it’s supposed to be behind a password for members or something, but it clearly states, “You are eligible for 10% off our already low prices and free shipping on orders over $50. To get your 10% discount just order online at www.runningshoes.com and use “oxford” as the coupon code.”

I felt a little guilty. I’m not an Oxford Health Plan member but I gave it a try anyway, and what do you know, my price dropped $4.

That did it. Sure, $4 isn’t much, but getting to plug in a coupon code made me feel like I won something.

I clicked “Submit Order”.

So my new sneakers should arrive early next week and they only set me back $40.99.

Hey, when compared to what Foot Locker and Sports Authority wanted for the same shoe (in ghastly colors), I just got them at half price! Woo-hoo!

Posted on June 10th, 2008 at 7:37 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Running | 3 Comments »

Sun Comes Out, School Dismissed. What?

All of the local schools dismissed early today. Yeah, it was weather related… but this was no snow day.

Nope, tornado sirens aren’t wailing either…

They sent the kids home early because, if you can believe it, it’s too hot outside.

Boo-hoo…

I’m not that old and it wasn’t really that long ago that I would have been sitting in a classroom at this precise moment. My senior year of high school, it would have been Physics at this hour.

I can’t even begin to imagine getting to go home early because it’s a little hot outside.

In fact, looking all the way back to elementary school, they never even kept us inside for an “indoor” recess unless it was raining outside. It’s hardly raining outside today. Not a cloud in the sky.

It’s ridiculous.

Making matters worse, it’s supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. Does that mean they’ll get the whole day off?

And (gasp!) last time I checked, school buses didn’t come with air conditioning as standard equipment. How will the kids cope?

Hey, at least the buses drop them all off individually at their front stoop now. Can’t expect them to walk more than 10 meters in this heat, you know…

I’ve come to the conclusion that those born after 1990 are growing up to be a bunch of sissies. Perhaps they’re not *all* sissies, but they’ve certainly been conditioned to think that being a sissy is perfectly acceptable.

If you’re not comfortable, it’s okay, you don’t need to perform.

Give me a break…

I mean, really, if it’s not a climate controlled 68 degrees at all times, they just throw in the towel and get to go home? Is that how it is?

Well, apparently nowadays in America, it is.

Posted on June 9th, 2008 at 11:17 am by Brainy Smurf
Rants, Retro | 3 Comments »

Will the A/C Make the Electric Bill Unbearable?

Summer is upon us. It came in like a flash.

It was just Thursday evening when I turned on the heat to take the chill out of the air.

By Saturday afternoon though, we were in the mid-90′s and we’ve been there since. It’s humid too. Uncomfortable. Not unbearable, yet, but uncomfortable, for sure.

So before we went to bed on Saturday, I ventured up into the attic to bring down one of the air conditioners. It’s just one of those small window units — I think it may have cost $75 from Walmart a few years ago. Nothing fancy.

We set it in one of the windows in our bedroom and I plugged it into the Kill-A-Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor that I got for Christmas. (Thanks Mom!)

I haven’t used the gadget as much as I’d wanted or expected, but the air conditioner is one of the appliances I specifically bought it for.

Air conditioners have traditionally been considered major resource hogs. Likely with reason too…
I remember when I was young, the lights would dim when the big one would turn on. Obviously an energy hog — comparable even to my mom’s sewing machine which would practically turn the television off.

But I was curious to see what it was really pulling down and, more importantly, what it was actually costing me to run. Often times, when I really look at things expecting the worst, they turn out to be not so bad.

The air conditioner was no different.

After two nights of having it run for around 12 hours, the meter read that it was costing me 4 cents per hour to run.

Per day (my daily usage, being just 12 hours), the rate was $1.12.

Dividing that out, it’s actually costing me around 5 cents per hour.

That doesn’t sting so bad.

I mean, if it were something that I ran 24/7 all year long, well, yeah, that would get pretty expensive, but when it’s just at night and only when it’s oppressively hot and humid — well, I won’t hesitate turning it on anymore due to concerns about the electric bill…

A good night’s sleep is definitely worth $1.12.

Posted on June 9th, 2008 at 7:22 am by Brainy Smurf
Cutting Costs | 1 Comment »

Free Entertainment Weekend Recap Part 2: Rescheduled Car Show

Now, not only did we take in the Strolling of the Heifers this weekend, we also took in the car show that was postponed due to weather last weekend.

Returning from Vermont, we happened across a car accident on I-91. At first, I was a little annoyed at the back-up. As we came closer to the “scene”, it became apparent that only one lane was getting through — it was a pretty serious accident.

The good news is that I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt — I base this on the rather jovial mood of the officers and firemen on the scene. Either way, I’m pretty sure the driver wasn’t off to a great weekend like we were.

We made a quick stop at home to freshen up and then off we went to the car show!

It wasn’t all that I’d hoped, but there were a lot of cars, a nice assortment of people (far different from the Vermont crowd), some great smelling food, and some live entertainment.

Unfortunately at this point, the temperature had soared into the mid 90′s, so it wasn’t real comfortable.

As expected, there were lots and lots of Ford and Chevy muscle cars from the 1970′s. Those don’t interest me at all. Unless it’s painted up like the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard, I can’t say I’m awestruck.

Sizing up the crowd at this type of event is always fun too. I mean, maybe I’m an arrogant snob for saying this, but anyone that oogles a mid 90′s Ford Mustang convertible while surrounded by real classic cars obviously has no taste.

None.

Not that the Velcro sneakers, sleeveless monster truck t-shirt, black jeans, and chain wallet didn’t give that away anyway…

But they are fun to look at. I’m sure they look at me with the same type of slant, “Look at that dork drooling over that Jaguar from the 30′s… My Dodge hemi could smoke that thing on the track…”

For me, style outweighs speed every day of the week.

Just a few weeks ago, a kid driving a VW Golf pulled up next to us at a stop light and pointed out that his pimped out Golf could ‘beat’ our BMW.

Yeah, that’s nice. But you’re still driving a Volkswagon with primer gray fenders. Sorry, in the words of Shania Twain, that don’t impress me much.

Anyway, as promised last month, here are a few shots of my favorites from the car show — and notice, a few of them are even American cars!

A really cool looking Volvo from the 1970′s, I think. It looks more like it might actually be from the 1960′s, but I have a hard time believing that Volvo’s would have been available in North America that far back. This was my favorite.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Volkswagon, regardless of what I said earlier about the Golf. Of their classics, I like the Notchback best, but you never see those. This is a Fastback from the late 1960′s or early 1970′s.

This 1930-something Jaguar was probably the most expensive car in the entire show. It was stunning.

Sadly, in this blue collar area, it was paid very little attention. I mean, it doesn’t have 24-inch rims or an aftermarket blower poking through the hood so, really, why bother?   Sigh…

A VW Beetle in great shape.

This poor 1960′s Triumph was surrounded on both sides by cars from the 1980′s. Guys sporting moustaches and mullets were oogling a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with a t-top next to it. Sure, it had the bird painted on the hood, but still, compared to the Triumph, it was a total piece of crap.

One of my wife’s uncle’s actually has one of these — a red one. I’m not sure I’d ever seen one before seeing his, but after getting a close up view of one that I was comfortable actually touching, well, I hope that someday 30 years down the road, my BMW Z3 can compare.

It’s amazing how a company like Oldsmobile could have made such great looking cars in the past only to be phased out. What were they thinking with the Bravada, Alero, and Silhouette? One look at their last few models, and it’s no wonder GM shut down production…

I’m not sure what this is. I’m not a gear head, but it looks like a Chevy to me. If I were ever to be caught driving a pick-up, it would have to look like this one.

I wonder if you can still get a hood ornament like that on a Cadillac. Really, I think that might look nice on the Escalade.

Posted on June 8th, 2008 at 8:26 pm by Brainy Smurf
Bargains | No Comments »

Culture, Cows, Tractors, Monsters, and did I mention Cows too?

Yesterday, we traveled up to Vermont for the 7th annual “Strolling of the Heifers“. It’s exactly what it sounds like — a parade of cows.

This year didn’t seem to have as many cows as last, but that could have been due to the weather. It was damp and misty in the morning and soon turned oppressively hot and humid. I’m not sure what the ideal weather for a cow is, but I’m guessing they’re not at their best in these conditions.

So, at the risk of turning PIAC into a weekend photo blog (And with this new layout I debuted last week, I can make the photos even larger — not always a good thing!), here’s this past weekend’s recap of the FREE entertainment…

The parade stepped off about 15 minutes late, but word spread quickly among the crowd that the cows were ‘moo’ving and the excitement began to build. Notice the kid on the pogo stick out front. How he managed to bounce all the way up a street for the length of the parade astounds me. Have you ever tried one of those things? They’re darn near impossible…

YES! There’s nothing cooler than a huge fiberglass cow that’s sponsored by a make-up company. Is Udderly Smooth Udder Cream for people? Or is it for cows? I’m not really sure.

Here come the real thing. Moo! I think Spencer was my favorite. Usually I like the brown cows (they make the chocolate milk), but Spencer looked pretty neat. Friendly too!

After the cows paraded by, an eclectic mix of superheroes, all of indeterminable sexual orientation (not that there’s anything wrong with that), came around to scoop up the poop. They were, well, odd but par for the course in this part of Vermont.

Seems tractors are all the rage these days in parades — agricultural or patriotic. The funny thing is — the tractors were a lot more impressive in hoity-toity Connecticut. Go figure.

After the tractors came the bands…

I like how low-key things are in Vermont. Notice that neither group is wearing an uncomfortable uniform in hot and humid weather. I dunno, most of the bands in local parades (especially the school bands) look sloppy all on their own. Dressing them up isn’t going to change that, so why pretend?

The high school band in the second picture even did a little square dancing as they marched up the street. It was a lot more entertaining than watching a bunch of stiff, yet still out of step, marchers like we did for Memorial Day.

Musically, it was a little odd. They were playing “Hoe Down” from Copland’s Rodeo. For those that aren’t dorks that stayed in the high school band all four years like me, that’s the song from the “Beef… It’s what’s for dinner” commercials from the early 1990′s.

Hey with that at your back, it’s no wonder the cows were willing to march.

Then the parade took a turn towards the edgy and controversial side. Yep, that’s a bag monster. It kills baby seals and suffocates birds. Nice, huh? Well, just be sure not to use plastic bags anymore.

Paper, apparently, is still okay in Vermont.

Some sort of hippie hand drum band or something. Not sure what their message was exactly — something “green” I’m sure — but they certainly made a lot of noise.

You know, when I was in elementary school, they didn’t teach us that “Composting saves landfill space and money.” We also didn’t make giant rotting fruit picket signs or gross hoop monsters that look like earthworms either. I think the schools should spend a little more time teaching kids to look both ways.

In the end though, these kids were *very* enthusiastic towards their cause.

A group of hula-hoopers made their way by us. One kid was really young. None of the pictures of him came out, so I used this one instead. There’s just something neat about people who can hula hoop with ease. The little kid was amazing.

I honestly don’t think she was wearing a costume. That’s just how they dress up there.

What is happening here? I mean, seriously…

I like to think, with the octopus and all, that Vermont was just celebrating the Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup season a few days late. (You’d have to be a hockey fan to pick up that reference).

I dunno — just some more weird Vermont culture I guess. You have to admit, that is a pretty neat octopus though. Not sure what it has to do with cows, but still, it was an exciting finish to the parade.

Posted on June 8th, 2008 at 8:30 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains | 5 Comments »

Free Weekend Plans: Cow Parades and Rescheduled Car Shows

Well, it looks like the weather is going to cooperate for us this weekend so we’re up early and preparing to head up to Vermont for the seventh annual Cow Parade.

I’ve gotta stop calling it that.

My mother-in-law (who I’ll be seeing today) would prefer if I call it by its proper name, the “Strolling of the Heifers“.

C’mon, no matter how you slice it, calling it by either name can get some rather odd reactions — especially if a couple of rather large women happen to be within earshot.

It’s best to whisper the name in public — outside of Vermont at the very least.

I mean, really, do they parade real live cows up Main Street anywhere else in North America?

Would they?

Yeah, yeah, I make fun of it now, but I must admit — the past three years we’ve attended, I’ve had a good time. I may even buy a Mardi Gras style cow mask this year from one of the bizarre hippie street vendors.

Then, if we’re quick, we’ll be able to hit the car show that was postponed last weekend.

Yep, another action packed weekend of free entertainment!

Posted on June 7th, 2008 at 4:26 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains | 1 Comment »

Summer Vacation: Coming in Under Budget

So last month I mentioned that we’d be going on a summer vacation this year.

I called it a “10 day/9 night marathon of museums, festivals, concerts, baseball games, football games, zoos, aquariums, amusement parks, and various roadside attractions.”

We researched hundreds of hotels on the route, yes, hundreds, and started making reservations for the first few nights, you know, just to make it feel, I dunno, real?

Yes, we were going on vacation this year and we have the reservations to prove it.

Since then, we’ve all but finalized our route and where we’re staying for 8 of the 9 nights. The last night is still a little wishy-washy but we’ll get that squared away in the next few days.

One thing we’re doing differently this year than in past vacations is, well, making reservations. We’ve never done that — our Vegas wedding being an exception.

Usually we just pull up to the hotel that looks the nicest and book a room right on the spot. As a result, we’ve stayed in some pretty posh locations like the one pictured. At the same time, we’ve also spent a fortune to do so — obviously I’m purposely “forgetting” our stay at South of the Border.

On this year’s vacation, we’re going to be hitting one big city after another — Cleveland (no longer the mistake on the lake), Detroit, Chicago, and Toronto are the big ones. Big city downtown hotels (again, like the one pictured above) run a minimum of $250 per night and that’s just not in our budget anymore.

So instead, we’re staying in, well, still Cleveland (the city’s former notoriety as a mistake keeps prices down apparently) but for the other cities, we’ll be staying in Dearborn, Skokie, and Markham for a fraction of the cost — like half price with free admission to area attractions included. Yeah, it’s that good.

Using Google Maps as our primary tool, we’ve compared the various “suburban” hotels using satellite images. Yes, I can tell the feel of a neighborhood from a satellite photo. Call it a gift. I, myself, call it “Ghetto-Vision”.

Anyway, what I’ve been looking for mostly is the parking situation. I hate paying for parking. I despise it. I’ll walk over a mile so as not to pay for parking. I hate valet parking even more. I have to pay you to take my car away? Um, yeah, I don’t think so.

Those are two things that are almost inevitable at a downtown hotel.

From the satellite photos, I’m looking for a spacious parking lot all around the hotel — with some cars in it to prove that people actually stay there. Some grass, a chintzy chain restaurant like Chili’s or TGIF’s across the street or something, you know, that type of thing. Not that we’d eat at a place like that (I’m not fond of either of them), but they’re often a good indicator of the type of area it is.

If a hotel passes this satellite test, we start looking at the rates and, so far, everything has been very accommodating to our budget.

It’s funny how I keep mentioning a budget — we don’t actually have one. We just don’t want to be paying for this vacation for the rest of the year. I’m prepared to spend around $4500 total, but I’m really hoping it doesn’t come anywhere close to that.

And so far, by staying just outside the city (and often times, that puts us closer to the attractions anyway), we’re saving a bundle.

Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am by Brainy Smurf
Bargains, Vacation | 3 Comments »

Happy 401k Friday!

Certainly can’t complain about the markets’ performance yesterday. My 401k balance went up $1078.72! Woo-hoo!

That is the second most on record for a single day not including days when a monthly contribution was applied.

It still wasn’t enough for me to reach a new all-time high — $68283.84 back on May 19 — but it’s put me back within striking distance.

As of this morning, the balance sits at $68173.03 — which is up nearly $5k since the start of the year.

That feels pretty nice considering this is a sum growing on its own from money that I never even see.

At the same time, when I do the actual math (adding up my contributions so far this year), I realize that technically I’m almost throwing money away.

At best, I’m breaking even — it’s close, but as long as the balance continues to increase, I’m not going to let it bother me.

Hey, if the balance is still rising at a pace of $10k per year in a down market, well, I consider that a pretty good thing.

I like to think, for 2008, that I’m stock piling when things are on sale… And I really look forward to the recovery because I think this strategy will pay off *very* handsomely…

Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 7:12 am by Brainy Smurf
401k, Finance | 1 Comment »