Pay Toilets

When Mother Nature calls, I've come to take it for granted that there are readily-available restrooms everywhere, especially in places like shopping malls and gas stations. And while that is also true in Germany, there's one key difference: you pay to use the toilet.

The only exception I've seen is restaurants where you are already a patron. But general public toilets in shopping centers, gas stations, and other random spots? They all come with a price tag.

It isn't terribly much-- in the range of 50 to 70 Euro cents. And in some of the larger gas stations that partner with Sanifair, one of the more prevalent restroom-sanitation companies, you get a voucher for 50 cents off any purchase in the attached restaurant or convenience store, making the net cost of going to the bathroom only 20 cents.

Still, it certainly takes a bit to get used to. It's something you have to actively plan for when you travel-- make sure you have enough coins in your purse to cover the cost of toilet fare. And when you're traveling as a family, it really starts to add up after a while!

At first, I found it a bit annoying. I had to actively keep track of coins, and since I wasn't quite used to the various coin denominations, I ended up hoarding coins whenever I could (including 1 Euro and 2 Euro pieces!), which really weighed down my wallet. And just the idea of paying for something that's so freely available in the US took a bit of an attitude shift.

Then I realized what the money was (in theory) going toward-- keeping the restrooms clean and sanitary. "Gas station restroom" typically conjures up images of dank, grimy, smelly, disease-laden pits of hell, but in Germany they were quite nice. One of the neatest things I discovered? Self-sanitizing toilets. There's no need for paper toilet cover seats when this happens at every flush:

After a week in the country, we'd gotten accustomed to paying for toilets everywhere we went. We planned around it-- from paying for wares with certain bills to ensure we got coins back in change, to making sure to take advantage of "free" restrooms in the restaurants where we were dining. And in the end? I actually kind of liked knowing that the restroom I was about to enter was likely cleaner than the average public restroom in the US!

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!

Friday Five: Recent Exclamations

I've noticed that in recent months, I've been blogging at a rate of twice per month: one post is a Karaoke Ring of Death post, and the other is a "normal" post. Which means that in actuality, I've been posting only once a month. One of the things I used to do with regularity back in my blogging heyday was the Friday Five. So I thought I'd try to get the blogging juices flowing again... with another installment of the everlasting meme :-)

1. What were the events leading up to your most recent utterance of oops?
2. What were the circumstances that led to your most recent utterance of aha!?
3. What most recently caused you to say ick?
4. What inspired your most recent utterance of yum?
5. Where were you (and what was going on?) the last time you said ooooooooh?

1. Well, Allan can attest to this one-- it invariably involves some kind of electronic device, whether it's a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer. I have a reverse-Midas touch: every device I touch will, without fail, hiccup at least once. I'll bet you didn't know that Macs and Linux machines have BSODs, did you? Well, just leave those devices to my capable fingers... Anyway, while I don't remember the last specific instance leading to my utterance of "oops", I am quite sure it involved a device of some kind, and I'm quite sure it belonged to Allan ;-)

2. This one is less amusing: we'd gotten a letter from the IRS with questions about our 2010 tax return, and I was puzzling over why they thought we had so much unreported income. After sifting through our W-2s, pay stubs, and financial company statements, I figured out where they were getting those numbers (that was my "aha!" moment), and immediately printed out and organized my "evidence" to set them straight! Now I've got a nice little packet to mail back to them today. I tried to make everything as clear as  possible, and hope they will be able to sort it out. No offense to my father-in-law (the former IRS agent), but I have little faith in the organizational and comprehension skills of your average IRS agent!

3. This morning we held a little welcome breakfast for the new Chair of our department, and the subject, as it usually does amongst my co-workers, turned to food and local eateries. Someone brought up Jack-in-the-Box, which garnered many wrinkled brows of disgust, particularly at the tacos. Not me personally, as I like the place okay. But when my boss brought up how her husband loves JITB and how it sometimes doesn't agree with him, and a co-worker piped up with "yeah, JITB can be a real crapshoot", that certainly elicited groans at the pun and "ewws" at the visual!

4. Yesterday, a HS classmate of mine posted on FB about how he was cooking up sausage and kale soup. It sounded really delicious, and the thought of the dark, leafy green, healthful kale balancing out the less-healthful but undoubtedly yummy sausage made it sound even more appealing!

5. This week has two Fridays. Tuesday was a "Friday" because of the 4th of July holiday on Wednesday, and, well, TODAY is a real Friday. So what better way to celebrate a mid-week "Friday" than by going out and enjoying a good happy hour? My mind and lips were full of "ooooh"s as I scoped out various local joints to find out which ones had a good happy hour. Eventually, I settled on Tupelo Junction, which elicited the most emphatic "ooooh"s from both me and Allan. I mean, come on, just LOOK at their Happy Hour menu-- isn't that enough to make anyone salivate? Here's a small sampling of some of the many mini dishes we savored on Tuesday night: bread assortment (cheddar scallion, smoked bacon gouda, and sweet potato pecan) and fried green tomatoes with a corn and tomato salsa and buttermilk dill sauce. Blackberry mojito in the background:

 

How about you?

I Love My Bank, Part 2

I am happy to report that I did NOT participate in national "Bank Transfer Day", where disgruntled members of big behemoths like B of A were encouraged to make the switch to a bank or credit union where they wouldn't be gouged with fees. I don't blame them. I did the same when WaMu got bought out by Chase, and Chase began implementing a fee structure that could only be waived by 1) direct deposit (which we had) AND 2) a minimum amount for said direct deposit (which we did NOT have). We switched to Capital One, where we'd been keeping our savings-- better interest rate.

But, that was not our main bank. Our main bank is USAA, and we're sticking with them because, unlike other big banks, they really care about their customers and know HOW to take care of them.

Three years ago, I blogged about how wonderfully proactive USAA was about alerting us to potential fraudulent activity on our credit card. A year later, Allan's car was hit in our apartment parking lot by a drunk driver, and the transaction of getting the repair paid for went very smoothly. All throughout, whenever I had any questions or issues, I always encountered the friendliest of customer service. They were polite and thorough, always making sure our issue was completely resolved, and even though they did try, on occasion, to sell/upgrade us to certain products, they never pushed when I simply declined. As I said in my previous blog post, there is a reason they consistently rank in the top of Consumer Reports' "best customer service" category.

In fact, if they exceed their profit margin for the year, they give some of that money BACK to the customers! It isn't very much, but it's a nice little gesture. There are no outrageous fees, they refund ATM transaction fees, and make it really easy to take care of all kinds of financial needs all under one roof: banking, investments, credit cards, insurance.

Anyway, today's warm fuzzy about my bank comes about partly because the whole Bank Transfer Day movement made me especially appreciative of all the service that my bank provides, and partly because of my recent experience with something I have NEVER ever done in my life: an overdraft.

You see, we deposit my paycheck into savings, and Allan's into checking. So we essentially live off his paycheck alone. That worked well until a couple things happened recently. Todd came back and began at a new school, whose tuition was almost twice that of his old school. Not only that, but because payments are divided up into 10 months beginning from July, we owed about 3 months' worth of tuition all at once, when he began in September. The other thing was his karate lessons-- rather than writing a check every month, I prepaid for 6 months, earning a discount in the process. That's still a huge lump sum, though.

The end result? Before Allan's next paycheck was deposited, two smaller checks I'd written most recently managed to overdraw the account.

Now, I've never been one to think about overdraft protection. I usually manage our money well enough that it isn't necessary. But I had forgotten about the huge checks we wrote earlier in the month, since they veered so far off from our ordinary expenditures. And I'd never thought to actually *sign up* for overdraft protection.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I logged into our bank website to see how we were doing, and wondered what these "OD" deposits were into our checking account, and why they matched the exact dollar value of the last 2 checks written. I eventually figured it out, and realized that even though I'd never explicitly signed up for overdraft protection, USAA went ahead and took the money from our savings account anyway, to cover the overdrawn checks. And best of all? They did it for FREE. Most banks I know of will charge you to enroll in their overdraft protection plan. USAA not only does NOT charge for it, but they implemented it anyway, even though I hadn't signed up.

Now, if that's not taking care of your customers, I don't know what is.

So... in a climate where big banks are struggling to maintain a solid reputation and are gouging their customers, I am happy that we are with a big bank that truly has its customers' best interests at heart!

Honest service is hard to find

It occurs to me that in the service-oriented industries whose services we frequently consume, it's very difficult to find an honest, reliable provider. And I don't just mean a friendly smile in your local fast-food establishment, I'm talking about professionals to whom you shell out big bucks for important services. Auto mechanics and plumbers come to the forefront of my mind as an example. As do doctors, dentists, lawyers, realtors, mortgage lenders... all these folks charge a pretty penny for their services, and if you wind up with a bad product/service, it's more than just a bad meal or experience you can shrug about-- this is significant investments of your time, money, and health. Even hairstylists fall under this realm-- while not as life-threatening as a doctor who carelessly prescribes you meds or as bank-breaking as a lawyer who bilks you of hundreds of dollars for idle "work", it's still annoying to come out of the salon with an awful haircut because the stylist didn't know how to work with your hair type.

This is why, twice a year, we pile into the car and make the hour-and-a-half (with good traffic) drive to see the family dentist. Dentists probably rank right up there with auto mechanics for being notorious for doing unneeded work (and charging exorbitantly for it) under the assumption that the average consumer doesn't know any better, and won't realize that he doesn't *really* need this procedure done, or that there is a cheaper alternative. I've experienced my fair share of them when I was at UCSB, whose health insurance policy forced me to use the on-campus dentists. Speaking of health insurance, that expensive thing didn't give me coverage worth crap-- I still ended up paying loads out of my own pocket, especially with dental care. Might as well have seen a non-campus dentist and paid out of my own pocket-- probably would've been cheaper that way! But... that's another rant, for another time.

The reason we travel so far to see our dentist is because he's one of the few honest types you can expect to find. He does his own cleaning, keeps detailed records of the condition of your teeth and compares them from your last visit, and generally prefers to keep an eye on potential problems rather than jump straight into fixes that might not even be necessary. He also mounts LCD monitors on the dental chair so you can see your own X-rays onscreen right after they've been taken. How handy, and much easier than straining to see the film he's holding up against a light on the other side of the room ;-)

There's a crack in one of my back molars that has gotten worse since the last visit. It's not a great cause for worry, but if anything hard gets inside that crack, it could serve as a wedge (think how the wedge shape of an axe head enables it to split wood) and crack the tooth in two. Our dentist didn't outright tell me that I should get it fixed, but gave me a few options: 1) a crown (more expensive, but longer lasting) 2) filling (cheaper) or 3) do nothing-- and just take care not to bite down on anything hard on that side of my mouth. I think at this point it is obvious that work probably should be undertaken on that tooth, but even then he was reluctant to push treatment, since my tooth was still in good shape. Still, prevention at this point is a good idea, and the fact that he wasn't ramming "OMG, you've GOT to get this fixed ASAP!" down my throat makes it that much more palatable.

Time to make an appointment soon...

An honest, reliable, friendly dentist. Hard to find, and well worth the long drive from Santa Barbara to LA twice a year :-)

Here We Come A Wassailing

Ever hear of that song? I've *heard* of the title, but never knew what it actually meant (it means caroling). And I'd heard of carolers going door-to-door but never really understood where it stemmed from.

Well, this year my son's school, which is affiliated with the local Orthodox church, decided to try caroling as a fundraiser, just as in the Orthodox tradition. And I learned something new.

The way it works is simple: during the 12 days of Christmas (from Christmas Day on Dec 25 to Epiphany on Jan 6), carolers go door-to-door, sing for the host home, get invited in for drinks and a snack, chit chat a bit, and then receive their donation before departing. In our case, since the fundraiser is specifically for the school, we organize it a bit more-- targeting priority homes (mostly those of school parents and church board members), giving a more detailed spiel explaining what the caroling/fundraising is for, and scheduling appearances. So far, the fundraising has been a smashing success-- and we still have a week to go!

Last night provided another opportunity to carol at a Christmas party hosted by one of the senior staff of the Orthodox church. Since we could always use more singers, I invited friends from our church (a non-denominational Protestant church) to come sing. After all, we'd been practicing Christmas carols for our own church's choir for the past few months, and figured it would be fun to have a few more opportunities to actually perform what we've learned.

We had a lot of fun and got to meet lots of new people. Small world, too, as one of the Orthodox church members recognized one of my friends (who is the choir director at *our* church) as her kids' music teacher at a neighboring private school! And one of the school parents runs the business that supplies our company (among others) with our coffee and water dispensing machines. This city of 90K is not that big, after all.

Anyway... if you're reading this and are in/around Santa Barbara and like to sing, feel free to come join us in caroling :-) It'll be lots of fun, and you don't even have to be a good singer (case in point: Allan sings with us!)

One last funny to close out the post: remember my post about Allan being called "Ms. Kwee"? Well, when Allan and I attended our first caroling session on Saturday, the headmaster of the school inadvertently introduced him as "Todd". Which is understandable, as he sees Todd far more than he sees Allan. But, as an old high school classmate pointed out, that combination of misnomers just goes to prove that Allan will someday need lots of help remembering who he is ;-) No wonder he puts on his nametag upside down every Sunday :-)

When giving gets dangerous

Okay. I'm all for charity. We all have our pet causes. We all have issues we feel passionate about and would donate to, and even if not, we typically don't mind giving a dollar to a cause when asked here and there, such as at the store register or walking along the street. No pressure, typically, and it only takes a few seconds out of my day to either say "no thank you" or fork over a buck or a few coins.

Then there was today.

Do you remember my blog entry about poverty in Indonesia, whereby I described a poor woman in the middle of the road, one arm holding her hungry baby and the other outstretched for a few coins? Dangerous situation to be in. One moment of inattention by a hurried driver, and she could be history.

Now picture that same situation. But set in the United States. And instead of poor, hungry, homeless people, it's strong, healthy firemen. Not just one. But several. Canvassing the many corners of one of the biggest and busiest intersections in Santa Barbara. Traipsing from car to car and holding out boots, begging for donations to the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association). And not just walking up and down the sidewalk, oh no. They were determined to reach maximum drivers by walking in the middle of the street lanes! Last I heard, that constitutes jaywalking, and is illegal here.

Don't get me wrong-- as I said before, I am all for charity, and laud the fire department for its efforts in promoting the cause and getting people to donate. I support charities that work hard and honestly and funnel our hard-earned money to the right places.

What I do not condone, however, is breaking the law to do it. Not to mention everything else:
1) by walking down the middle of a very busy street, the firemen are putting themselves at unnecessary risk for getting mowed down by a car. Yes, they usually wait until the light is red, but don't always extricate themselves in time for the light to turn green.

2) It holds up traffic. It's one thing to beg drivers who are already stopped and waiting for a red light, but the drivers who don't have to stop and only have to yield (i.e. those turning right) are another story. Some will actually stop when they should not, in order to pass money out their windows. And what did that lead to?

3) Traffic congestion: When I got off the exit that leads to the intersection, I was shocked at how full the off ramp was! By the time I inched to the front and made my turn, I saw that traffic was backed up so much, we couldn't actually move! Thoughtless/careless drivers making the left turn out of that offramp wound up blocking the road, and others trying to go straight in the opposite direction couldn't move. Oh, and this backup? Was all the way INTO the freeway offramp, not just the street. Meaning it stretched back nearly a mile. And had the potential for spilling that congestion into the freeway itself, which causes more potential problems and accidents.

4) What if there had been a REAL emergency requiring an ambulance to go through that congestion? Fat chance of getting through as quickly as it should under normal circumstances!

Seriously, guys. I understand the MDA is an important cause to you, and I respect that. But I cannot respect going out of your way to break the law, endanger yourselves and potentially others, and at the very least, inconveniencing many drivers along the way. Where do you think the police were during all this? Nowhere to be seen, unsurprisingly. If it had been demonstrators taking one step out of line, the cops would have been all over them. If a homeless panhandler was daring enough to jet back and forth amongst traffic, he'd no doubt be slapped with a jaywalking charge. And all for good reason-- that kind of behavior is reckless and potentially dangerous.

And you know, if you're so hung up on your cause that you're willing to put your neck on the line to support it (i.e. getting hit by a car), that's certainly your prerogative. But please don't risk the safety of the rest of us while you're at it. There are laws there for a reason. You, of all organizations/people, should know that better than anyone. Don't think that just because you're a revered and respected organization, you're above the law. And for the drivers that also disregard traffic laws and common courtesy: if you really want to give that badly, you can always visit the MDA website and donate there. Or look up their number in the phone book. Or heck, call the fire department and to get MDA contact info!

Blah. That's the end of my rant for today. I think I could give Nick a run for his money in the rant department. Maybe it's his fault, his rant mode from yesterday rubbed off on me ;-)

Been ages...

... since I've posted here, and no wonder! Things have been going at full speed since I last wrote.

It started with our church's Thanksgiving potluck dinner. Allan turned a vegetable dish into his faux-risotto masterpiece-- cooking a bunch of different veggies and then adding a touch of rice and cream to it. Delicious! :-9 The evening was filled with fun and laughter as we played games and enjoyed good food with good company. At our table was the former CFO of our company, back when it was still a small startup. Small world!

The next day I delved into a short week at work, but it turned out to be one of the longest, as my only 2 colleagues in my sub-group were both out on vacation at the same time, so I was more or less filling in 3 shoes. Fortunately no major problems arose :-) Still, it was an interesting challenge, and a good gauge to see how much I'd learned this past year. Could I handle being on my own for a few days? Well, so far so good :-)

I was more than ready for Thanksgiving Thursday to roll around and just RELAX during the 4-day weekend. We did our usual-- celebrating at my sister-in-law's house with all of Allan's family. Todd apparently observed Aunt Debbie bustling about in the kitchen with nary a sight of Uncle Ron about, for when Uncle Ron tried to kid him about being the one to do all the work, Todd set him straight: "Uncle Ron didn't do anything! Aunt Debbie did everything!"

As much as I enjoyed the break, I was definitely looking forward to going back to work and resuming our daily routine again. You know me-- I crave order and routine, and thrive in it. So Monday began as it always does... except this time I found Todd a karate class! I'd been making phone calls a couple weeks ago, never finding anything suitable-- most of the kiddie lessons were during work hours, or else they were really far away (far away from an SB perspective, that is :-P). On a whim, I called one place whose website I hadn't previously been able to access-- and what do you know, they are located right NEXT DOOR to Todd's after-school care program, and starts at a reasonable hour! We visited and Todd did remarkably well, attempting to participate as much as he could, and even raising his hand and volunteering for a demonstration at the end! Here's to more successful lessons in the future!

Talking to my mother-in-law during Thanksgiving made me realize that I forgot to update everyone on the washer/dryer situation. It FINALLY got stacked! I actually printed out 3 pages of calendars to jot down notes on when I called and when things happened. I should blog it one day, just so you can see how crazily it stretches out over 3 whole months. But in a nutshell: we ordered the set on Sep 14, it arrived and was installed on Sep 26, and that's when the stacking adventures began. When did it finally get stacked? Nov 8. That's right-- nearly 2 months after we initially ordered it!

I got a treat in the mail yesterday-- thank you, Kendra, for the lovely card and the cute turtle bola necklace! I love them! And I'm sorry for ruining your careful handiwork by undoing the bow on the card :-( The picture of the Muppet threw me off, I kept thinking it was a real card instead of cardboard support, and the fact that I wrestled for ages to get all the bows undone didn't alert me that MAYBE they should've stayed tied up? Silly me!

One last note-- does anyone know what the going rate for a babysitter is? Our holiday party is coming up in a week, and we're thinking of hiring Todd's primary caregiver at day care to watch him while we're out. He (the caregiver) is okay with the idea, but we haven't finalized details. Obviously he's trained/experienced since he *works* at an after-school facility, which would warrant higher pay than the teenager next door... and I'm aware rates would fluctuate wildly from the rural backwoods to the busy big city, but... what do you think constitutes a fair rate?

I love my bank

Because of my military service, my spouse, my offspring and I are all eligible to be members of USAA (which originally started as an automobile insurance company for U.S. servicemembers, and has since branched out to offer other insurance, as well as banking and investment services). We get unbeatable rates on our car insurance, and great perks when it comes to banking. We also get discounts on various shopping needs, most notably, car rentals. Unlike a lot of places, their customer service is above par. Not for nothing do they frequently make the top of Consumer Reports' "best customer service" lists.

Anyway...

Today I received an automated phone call from their fraud prevention department, questioning a $600+ charge placed on our credit card, to some computer game store in Arizona. Of course we never made such a purchase. When I spoke to a live security rep, she informed me that it was an actual swiped transaction, meaning someone hadn't just entered our numbers into an online purchase-- they actually got the card info and MADE a fake credit card for an actual, physical transaction at an actual, physical store. They quickly deactivated the card, told us to cut ours up so we could expect new ones in the mail next week. I was a little disappointed to learn that they wouldn't notify us of progress in the fraud investigation, I was curious to know how it would turn out. But that's just me and my morbid curiosity :-)

What impressed me was the speed with which we were contacted when the transaction took place and alerted suspicion. I wonder what exactly about the transaction raised a red flag in the first place. Maybe the fact the last time I used this card was just 2 days ago, and now a new charge was taking place 500 miles away? Or the fact that we don't routinely place huge charges on the card, so $600+ was a big leap?

No matter-- I'm glad they did. The charge could've gone unnoticed for several days if they hadn't called. I'm usually pretty vigilant over verifying each of our banking transactions, but I don't check our accounts every single day. I'm also pretty diligent about obtaining and scrutinizing my free credit report, one from each agency spread out over 3 times a year. Note to my American friends: if you aren't already taking advantage of this free service, you should!

I hope they eventually nail whoever did this, and make them pay! I feel sorry for whoever has to eat the loss. Either the computer store or USAA. And ultimately, I find it ironic that as much as I use my credit card and bank online, the FIRST time my card is used fraudulently (and wasn't physically stolen) was with a "spoofed" card in a physical, offline transaction.

I also have an amusing (unrelated) story about a snail-mail phishing scam (yes, you read that right: SNAIL mail), but that's for another entry...

Kids are expensive!

For those readers who have kids (esp more than one), I know I don't need to tell you that twice.

There's the obvious up-front expenses of diapers, baby wipes, formula, bottles, baby food and all that miscellaneous baby equipment that's essential (strollers, car seats, high chairs)... not to mention clothes that they outgrow every couple months. Or couple weeks, if you're a freak like Allan.

Then they get older and stop using diapers, start sleeping in normal beds and start eating regular grownup food alongside us at the dinner table, sans booster seat. They even help with the housechores! Yay, progress!

But then they get even older and it's time to start thinking about where to enroll them in school. If you're lucky and you have a reasonably well-mannered child AND live in a place with low crime and an excellent school district, then... well, you're lucky. For some of us, private school is the only option. Especially with an easily-influenced hardhead like Todd. It goes without saying that the word "private" by definition implies that you pay tuition (unless you live in the UK-- strangely enough, what the Brits call "private" school is what we call public school. Go figure). But if both parents work full-time, then there's the added cost of after-school care, too. Fun. Nothing quite like carving out $1000/month in our budget, knowing that's just an average estimate and could very easily go up.

I just spent some time perusing the websites of potential schools I want to enroll Todd in this coming Fall. Some had scant information, some had volumes. I did my comparisons and narrowed it down to a top handful of choices. At that point I downloaded and printed off application forms, just to make sure I had a checklist of things I would need to supply (like immunization records). What I wasn't prepared for, however, was flashbacks of 15 years ago, when I was applying to various universities. Not the mindless humdrum of filling out basic info multiple times, but the agony of formulating the perfect admissions essay. And the hesitance of bothering my teachers to supply letters of recommendation.

Some of these grade school applications could rival college applications! Detailed questionnaires. Goals for your kid. His strengths and weaknesses. His development history. Expectations. References. Time to sharpen my pencil and put my thinking cap on!

There was an episode of Law and Order (CI) on recently, about a deranged mother who shot 3 parents of toddlers at a prestigious preschool so that her own son could move up in the waiting list and be offered admission. Madness, you say, and you would be right.

But when you consider just how much it costs to get your kid a good education, and how much effort it takes to get him INTO a good school in the first place, I can understand how frustrating it is to sit on a waiting list, unsure of your next move.

Onward we shall forge. We get to do it all over again if we move. If we don't, and we remain in Santa Barbara, we get to go through this process all over again when Todd enters high school (or middle school, in some cases). And then comes college. At least THAT will be paid for. With costs rising ever more, we started saving when he was born. One less thing to worry about a dozen years from now :-)

Economic Stimulus

After reading Wayne blog about getting his check sometime ago, I started wondering when (even if) we were going to ours. Today the notice came to expect a check this coming week. The following conversation ensued:

Allan: What shall we do with it?

Helly: Put it towards the deposit on our new apartment (the check we'll get covers about 2/3 of a month's rent at the new place)!

Allan: But that's not going to help the economy!

Indeed. How many other people are going to use that money to pay down debt or save it or use it for purposes other than its intended use: purchases leading to economic stimulation?

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/408074085)

How many times...

... can Allan repeat the same mistake?

Well, let's see... earlier today, he ran a quick errand: get some cash from our joint checking account so he could pay a holding deposit on a new apartment we plan to move into soon. The items needed? His debit card and an ATM machine. Any ATM machine, in fact. Simple, no?

Off he drove. Stopped at the first one. Inserted card. Punched in PIN. And was promptly greeted with "Card ineligible for this service" or something like that. Hmm... odd. A little different from the usual "Card not valid" or "Invalid PIN" messages you tend to get at ATM machines. But hey, ATM machines act oddly sometimes, so he shrugged it off and trooped off in search of another machine. Repeat the above steps. Receive the same error message.

Scratching his head, he went to yet ANOTHER machine and again got the same results. Thoroughly fed up, he finally pulled out his debit card for his own private account and finally managed to get some cash that way. Off he went on his errand.

When he returned, he briefly explained that our ATM card wasn't working. That's strange, I thought. Just a couple weeks ago I managed to use my card just fine to withdraw cash. I figured maybe he just had an expired card, as that's happened before. I pulled out my card to compare expiration dates. And Allan obligingly pulled out his.... credit card! That's right, the *credit* card issued to us by the same bank with which we keep our joint checking and savings accounts! And last time I checked, those particular cards weren't eligible for cash ATM withdrawals (a good thing, of course!)

Lesson learned? A credit card is not the same thing as a debit card. They don't even look the same! One is plain green the other is blue with silver trim. Funnier still? That Allan managed to run around and hit nearly every ATM machine near our house before giving up... and still didn't realize his error till he got back!

Time to pull out that special helmet of his from storage...

Triple digit dollars...

... for a tank of gas? Not unheard of these days.

I have come to realize that the Chevron station down the street from where I live posts THE most expensive gas prices in all of Santa Barbara. And I realized that I love snapping pictures of it everytime I pass by and the prices have gone up another outrageous notch.

Here I was shaking my head in amazement when gas was approaching-- gasp! $4 a gallon in May 2007:



A year later, May 2008:



And just a few short weeks later, here is the sign today. June 2008:



What I love most is the dyslexia (or is it mere impatience? Disgust?) of whoever changes the numbers. In the May 2007 pic, the "3" in the bottom price (super unleaded) is upside down. And in the above pic, the "1" in the bottom price is backward.

I guess, when you're paying through the nose at the pump, you might as well have a small chuckle while you're at it, eh? When your gas bill for filling up your tank approaches the triple digits, you know it's time to start looking for alternatives...

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/406576152)

Fill 'er up

Allan fondly recalls the days when his grandmother would hand the gas station attendant a $5 bill to fill up the tank of their car-- you know, the pre-self-service days. While he refuses to acknowledge this as a testatment to how old he is, this anecdote does provide a striking contrast to the gas station experience today.

I spied this on Jenny's blog on her Jenkat site (have you visited it? www.jenkat.com) and had to laugh. So very apt nowadays! I present you with the value of a $5 at a gas station today:



This next shot was taken at our corner gas station last week. Santa Barbara is not known for cheap prices-- in anything. Gas is no exception. Thankfully, this station is one of THE most expensive stations in my neck of the woods, and just a few miles away regular unleaded can be purchased for just under $4 a gallon. Still...!!!

Taxes

I just got done sifting through a stack of receipts from our vacation, as well as double-checking our credit card statements online to make sure there aren't any strange charges on it. So far, so good :-)

And I've got a couple of questions for my non-California-dwelling friends:

I came across one of the receipts from a store in Canada, and noticed entries for 2 types of taxes: GST and PST. What are they, and what do the letters stand for?

Speaking of taxes-- no sales tax in Oregon sounds nice. But surely the state makes up for lack of revenue from this stream, through other sources? So what are the state income and property taxes like there?

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/288343027)