We got D'Art these booties to protect his paws from salt. They're shaped somewhat like balloons. We also got him a fleece coat for those super cold Chicago days (like when its ~0 degrees F).
He's not a fan and always has to "try them out" after we put them on:
When we got back from being in CA for 10 days and picked him up at the Kennel, he was excited to see us:
::: posted by
Soup
at 9:54 PM:::
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Tuesday, December 23, 2008 :::
ARM me?
Ok, so I'm a fan of ING Direct. I don't know if they were the first online savings or not, but I jumped on their bandwagon when I needed a higher savings rate.
So like many financial institutions, they offer mortgages. But here's the thing that gets me about their mortgages: near as I can tell, they only offer Adujustable Rate Mortgages. I don't understand that. Aren't ARMs part of the reason why we as a country are in this mess now?
Their marketing language, is interesting and appealing: "The average American gets a new mortgage every 5 to 7 years. Why pay a higher rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage when you can pay a lower rate that better matches the length of time you’ll keep your mortgage? You also have the option to lock your rate for another 5 years at any time during the initial fixed period, if and when your needs change."
Friday, November 28, 2008 :::
Eddy Munster Reincarnated
Bella read a funny review of the Twilight movie describing the main vampire character: "he looks like an emo-Eddie Munster."
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 :::
iTunes, why are you so lame?
I'm a fan of iTunes. It's a nifty little product. It's not amazing, but it gets the job done. One pet peve:
I feel like I get these little "update your copy if iTunes" at least every other week. Come on, is it really that necessary to relase updates so freaking often? They wouldn't be so bad except they require a completely reinstall and a reboot?
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 :::
is it really that hard to remove my email from a list?
I finally decided I'm receiving too much freakin' email and I'm going to do something about it. Most of the useless email I get is from places I have shopped at in the past (Macy's, Lands Ends, REI, FTD, etc...). I never excluded myself from their email bombs before because I figured they might be useful. And guess what, I always delete them and very RARELY read what's in them. I finally came to the conclusion (I blame the delay on being so busy from work, and now that I have a whole month off, I can take the time to take care of things) that I can dump these emails.
So now I'm on a quest to not receive useless crap in my email. So I go to the bottom of all those messages and find the "Click here to unsubscribe" lines. Here's my beef:
NOTE: Please enter the e-mail address where you are currently receiving FTD.com e-mails. Due to timing issues, you may potentially receive one or two future messages before your unsubscribe request is implemented.
So you're telling me in this age of super computers and the "interweb" that it's impossible to instantly remove my email address from all their mailing lists? It's not like Mr. Email-Remover-Level-One employee has to manually open every email list, search for my email address, and then delete it. I cannot fathom how it would take "one or two" future messages. Unless those messages have already been sent and they're currently on their way to my inbox. That has to be it! There must be some good explanation. It baffles me though.
Monday, September 01, 2008 :::
How stupid do they think I am?
So my mortgage company sends me emails every month claiming they can save me almost $70k in interest over the course of my loan without refinancing.
Cool! But how? It's easy, instead of making a payment every month, I make a half of my regular payment every two weeks. And at the end of the year, I'll have made the equivalent of one extra monthly payment, which goes directly against my principal.
Fancy thinking, eh? Just check out the fine print: Flexible fee options. Sign up for a non-refundable one-time enrollment fee of $375. There is a transaction fee of $1.50 for each biweekly draft.
Really? Is it silly to find that offensive to my intelligence? In any case, I do find it insulting. I'm going to pay them the privilege of paying them more often? I'll pass, thanks...
Okay, okay, I see the draw. I wouldn't have to worry about making the extra payment per year by myself.
That would only make sense if, over the course of a whole year, I never thought to myself "hey, I've got some extra money lying around, lets pay down the mortgage a bit."
You wanna know what gets me? I have direct debit set up, so they take my money automatically every month. Want to know how much it costs me? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Zero.
::: posted by
Soup
at 11:21 PM:::
(0) comments
Sunday, August 31, 2008 :::
freakanomics and UCLA
I recommend the book Freakanomics. It's a good read. The authors have a blog on the NY Times website that is often interesting. There's a post about UCLA using affirmative action illegally. Check it out here.
::: posted by
Soup
at 9:37 PM:::
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Monday, August 11, 2008 :::
i twitter therefore i am
I've started using twitter recently. It's easier to update and they can be spontaneous. Check me out on twitter here: http://twitter.com/soupman412
::: posted by
Soup
at 6:36 PM:::
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