- I miss electricity. #
- @prosperousfool Do you still need a dropbox referral? in reply to prosperousfool #
- @prosperousfool Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTE1Mjk2OTU5 in reply to prosperousfool #
- Don't let anyone tell you otherwise: Electricity is the bee's knees, the wasp's nipples and lots of other insect erogenous zones. #
- @prosperousfool Throw in a Truecrypt partition and the PortableApps launcher and it gets really neat. in reply to prosperousfool #
- @prosperousfool Universal accessibility. I put an encrypted partition on it so any receipts or credit card info or login info would be safe in reply to prosperousfool #
- RT @untemplater: RT @jenny_blake: Deep thought of the day: "How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours." -Wayne Dyer #quote #
- @FARNOOSH So what's happening to the one good show on SOAPNet? in reply to FARNOOSH #
- RT @flexo: RT @mainstr: 1 million Americans have been swindled in an elaborate credit card scam and they may not know http://bit.ly/cr8DNK #
Repair Plans, Appliances, and Rancid Meat…Oh, My!
- Image via Wikipedia
We recently had our annual barbecue. (For the purists, I am Minnesotan. Barbecue means “cooked over fire”.) Due to massive scheduling conflicts, it was a bit smaller than normal; only about 20 people came. At least 10 other people RSVP-ed that they were going to make it, but didn’t. Grr.
Naturally, we had food for everyone said they would be there and enough for half of the people who didn’t say anything, since Minnesotans don’t RSVP well. That translates to a lot of leftovers. No problem. After all, leftover ribs are hardly a punishment.
Sunday morning, we woke up to find that our refrigerator was happier at room temperature than the standard “cold”. We didn’t know it at the time, but the defrost unit was borked, so the cold air couldn’t circulate from the freezer to the refrigerator. Bye-bye leftovers. Hello, Mr. Repairman. We needed an excuse to clean out the fridge, anyway, but not at the price of my beautifully seared meat! (Sadness strikes.)
Monday evening, the repairman came out, worked for 2 hours and left a functional refrigerator and a $240 invoice in his wake. Thankfully, we are on the appliance repair plan through the gas company. We pay $26.40 per month to cover repairs to our range, water heater, furnace, drier, sewer main, and refrigerator. The first four items are standard, the final two are options that cost extra.
We originally got on the plan for the sewer main. We had a tree whose roots grew into the main and clogged it every year. A backed-up sewer main is a crappy way to wake up. Getting that snaked to the street cost $200 per year. At the time, without the refrigerator, the plan cost about $12 per month. One $200 call-out more than paid for the plan for the year. That was easy math. Now, our 20 year old refrigerator has been repaired twice in the last year, giving us $500 worth of repairs for $316.80. I would like to take this time to thank all of the people with reliable appliances for subsidizing my repairs.
My furnace, drier, and range are all reasonably new and shouldn’t need repairs any time soon, but the refrigerator and sewer main have paid for the plan themselves, several times over.
Should you get a similar plan? If your covered appliances are more than 4-5 years old, I would consider it. If they are more than 10 years old, I wouldn’t hesitate at all. Repairing quality appliances is cheaper than replacing them, especially when the repair cost is paid monthly and subsidized.
Do you use a service plan?
What is a Mechanic’s Lien?
- Image via Wikipedia
When you hire someone to work on your property or provide material to build or improve it, they are entitled to get paid. A mechanic’s lien is the method of enforcing that payment.
Here is what you need to know about mechanic’s liens.
A contractor must usually give you written notice of intent to file a lien if the contract isn’t paid. He needs to do this within a short time of beginning the work. The notice will include text to the effect that subcontractors also have the right to file a lien if they are not paid. This notice gives you two methods of defense: You can pay the subcontractors directly and withhold that amount from the payment to the contractor, or you can withhold the final payment until you have received a lien waiver from each of the subcontractors.
If the notice isn’t given correctly, the contractor forfeits his right to file a lien. Also, in most places, if a contractor is supposed to be licensed to do the work, but isn’t, he’s not able to file a lien.
Subcontractors must also provide notice on intent within about 45 days–depending on the state–of the time they first provide services or material, or the lien is not enforceable.
Protecting Yourself
First, you only have to pay once. If you pay the contractor in full before getting the notice of intent from the subcontractors, you can’t be forced to pay again.
Next, make the contractor provide a list of all subcontractors and keep track of any notices of intent you get. Get lien waivers from everyone involved before you make the final payment to the contractor.
Finally, you have the rights defined in the notice of intent to file a lien. You can either pay the subcontractors directly, or you can withhold the final payment until you receive lien waivers from each subcontractor.
Resolution
The lien holder has 120 days to file the lien and 1 year to enforce it. Enforcing simply means that it a suit has been filed. Once that happens, you can either pay the contractor, attempt to settle with the contractor, or you can take the contractor to court to determine the “adverse claims” on your property. There aren’t too many choices at this point.
Do yourself a favor and get lien waivers before you make the final payment on any work done on your property.
Crack
I guess I’ve been feeling pretty domestic lately. This is the second food post in two weeks. I wonder what that means? It probably means I’m hungry.
If I’m bringing a dessert to a potluck, or I need a dessert for a party, I bring crack. I’m absolutely sure that wasn’t the name on the recipe when I found it, but it’s been renamed by everyone who has ever tried it. I’m sorry, Mr. Potato-Chip-Man, but I can eat just one of those. This stuff needs to be restricted by the government. It’s an addictive, sell-your-first-born-for-another-hit bit of salty-sweet yum. I’m gonna make you fat.
Ingredients
1 cup of salted butter – $2
1 cup of brown sugar – $1
2 packs of saltines (That’s half of a box) – $2
2 bags of chocolate chips – $4
2 handfuls of toffee chips (broken Heath bars) – $1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cover two cookie sheets in foil. Spread crackers over each sheet in a single layer.
Mix the butter and sugar in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until it starts looking like caramel, then stir for another minute or two. You still want it kind of runny, so don’t let it get thick.
Spoon the caramel over the crackers. Get some on each cracker. Try to get it even, but don’t worry about it too much. Sloppy is good. Remember, half the caramel for each cookie sheet.
Put the cookie sheets full of crackers and caramel in the oven for 10-15 minutes. The caramel will spread out and flow through and around the crackers. You’ll know it’s done when the caramel starts bubbling evenly.
Pour one bag of chocolate chips over each pan. Try to spread it out evenly, but–again–don’t sweat it.
Go away for 10 minutes.
When you come back, the chocolate will be all melty-good. Spread it evenly with a rubber spatula.
Sprinkle some toffee chips over the chocolate, then put the pans in the freezer to cool and set. It will take at least a couple of hours.
When you pull the pans out, peel off the foil then break it up into snack-sized pieces. Don’t break it up first, or you’ll spend the evening moaning over the candy and crying over the foil hitting your fillings.
Depending on how long you cooked the caramel, it will get soft when it approaches room temperature. I always store it in the refrigerator to avoid that.
When you bring this to a party, always pack it two containers. When the first one is empty, you can auction off the second. You should be able to turn the $10 you spent on ingredients into at least $50 of guilt-ridden goodness.
The Virtues of Preparation
The first day of school caught me by surprise yesterday.
I knew it was coming, and we had almost all of the stuff we need in the brat’s backpack, but we weren’t ready for it.
Yesterday morning, we woke up. Brat #3 was uncooperative, to say the least, so I wasn’t playing my ‘A’ game. I woke up Brat #1 and sent him on his way to get changed and eat breakfast. Ten minutes later, I chased him off of the couch to go get changed and eat breakfast. He had forgotten that his school day starts at 7:30, now.
He ate and grabbed his backpack to leave. I sent him to his room to change.
He changed and grabbed his backpack to leave. I sent him to his room for socks.
He put on socks and grabbed his backpack to leave. Then he realized his shoes weren’t by the door.
Shoe hunt!
I got him out of the door, only to see his face again a minute later when he realized he had forgotten something else.
Please remember that Brat #3 was acting up the entire time.
During the course of this, I was trying to make my lunch, which spent the day sitting on my kitchen counter. I was dressing myself; I don’t know how many times I made it to the front door, only to realize I hadn’t put on socks, yet. Or pants, for that matter.
What could have gone better?
Preparation.
On Monday, the day we all had off, with no plans, we should have set our alarms and done a dry run, right up to the point of walking out of the door. Here’s how Monday should have gone:
- All the school and daycare stuff should have been ready to go the night before.
- I get up, have breakfast, then wake Brat #1.
- He gets up and has breakfast, while I dress Brats #2 & 3.
- Brat #1 gets dressed while I help the girls with their shoes and jackets.
- Brat #1 throws on shoes and heads out the door while I strap the girls into the car.
- Everybody’s happy.
That’s the well-oiled machine I would like to see in the morning. Am I dreaming? How do you handle your morning routine efficiently?
Comcast: A National Treasure
This week, we upgraded our cable TV package. We were on their most basic 15-channel plan, now we’re on Digital Economy, giving my wife the extra channels she’s been suffering without for the last few years.
Our Tivo died last week. I love my Tivo, and we saw its death coming, so we ordered a replacement. We accidentally ordered the wrong one. We got the one that can’t take a signal straight off of the cable. It needs a cablecard.
Crap.
We could send it back and miss out on the Tivo for another week, or we could upgrade our cable package.
Hmm….
We looked at Comcast’s site to see what was available. Boost Plus–a internet + TV package–was available for $69.99/month for a year. That’s $6 more than we were paying, for about 30 more channels and it came with 2 years of free HBO. Yay!
Call Comcast.
The rep couldn’t find the offer, but there’s another one for $79.99 with no HBO, would we like that?
No, and we need to call the online offer number, since you can’t just transfer me. WTF?
So I ordered from the website directly, because I was getting sick of people already. I love e-commerce, just for that reason.
The last step of the process? A 30 minute online chat with a rep to schedule a tech. Grr.
After “Hello”, the first thing the rep said was, “Based on our conversation, the best thing to suit your needs is…” A freaking upsell to open the conversation. Buddy, you don’t know my needs. You’re here to run a calendar. I hate people.
No, I don’t want Triple Play. Your phone service isn’t cheaper than I’m paying now.
No, I don’t want a zillion channels. I have Netflix and a Roku.
No, I will not pay modem rental. I bought my own for $50 instead of paying you $7/month for it.
No, I don’t want equipment protection. The box will be on my dresser, out of reach. If it breaks on its own, I’ll return it.
Yes, I do want the deal to last the entire year–per the ad–instead of the 6 months you’re trying to change it to.
Great! Now my choices are a) pay $10 to have the new cable box shipped, b) pay $30 for a tech to come over and plug in 2 cables, c) drive to the cable office and pick up the box. I’ll take the 15 minute drive and combine it with lunch with my wife, thanks. I have to go there for the cablecard, anyway, since that’s not something you ship.
Wait a second! Going to the store means we’re going to cancel everything we’ve just done? And the store doesn’t have access to this deal, either? Nevermind, I’ll take the shipping charges.
WTF?
So, it’s off to the store to get my card, but not the box that will ship from that store. After a 30 minute wait, the wonderful(no sarcasm) lady behind the counter was happy to give me a card. Unfortunately, the rep from the previous night had entered the wrong deal, with a note on the account mentioning the correct one. Because that’s how computers and automated billing systems work. His plan left an error on the account that prevented anything new from being added, like my cablecard.
Grr.
Double guh-errr.
Let’s cancel everything from the previous night. There’s a better deal.
We got the same package for $49.99/month for a year, then $69.99/month for another year, with HBO for $5/month. I got to leave with my card and my box. Wee! I love you, lady!
Comcast, seriously, WTF?
Now, if I could just get Tivo to recognize the channel lineup for Digital Economy.
