Archive for "Family"
The Greatest Idea!
Posted on August 14, 2007 by Ching under Family, Food and Drink, Life, Sponsored Post, Wishlist.
I was looking through the internet today for ideas to use on my upcoming remodel. I came a cross a site that specializes in Stainless Steel Cabinets and workbenches as well as flooring and other garage products. I thought to myself that would be a really cool kitchen. Imagine it, you have all the latest stainless appliances with these high grade stainless cabinets and butcher block counter tops, or even stainless counter tops. I think you could even do a really nice beige marble with a nice white oak trim that would make the stainless pop. Now imagine the floor being either a white oak wood laminate floor or you could use the rubber flooring that the company sells. you would be able to drop anything on the floor and it would clean right up. and if you damage a rubber square then you simply remove it and replace it. Its brilliant. I will have to run this by my wife and see if she likes the idea!
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Rebuilding your Credit
Posted on August 14, 2007 by Ching under Family, Life, Sponsored Post.
After I wrote that article yesterday I got to thinking and realized that I had more to say on the subject, especially on the topic of debt and getting out from under it. Lets say for example that you have paid off everything. Your credit cards are all gone and you have told yourself that you will never get another credit card again. This is a mistake. Its not the credit cards that were the problem, it was your self control. Now that you have paid off all your debt and you see the error of your ways and how bad it can get then hopefully you have learned your lesson and you now have better self control. So, you will need at least one credit card in your possession to rebuild your credit and keep a good standing with the companies that track your credit record for things like mortgages and auto loans. Its important to not only have that credit card but to use it from time to time to make purchases. If you just had a few credit cards and you don’t want to take out a loan to pay off everything or you don’t want to use a consolidation company because it might ruin your credit record then you can find a company that will allow you to do balance transfers of your other credit cards. This will bring all the little balances under one payment and one interest rate. This will allow you to pay off the amount quicker and not get nickeled and dimed to death. These are all smart ways to rebuild your credit and keep from getting into trouble.Be sure that you do your research, compare credit cards to insure that you are getting the best intrest rates, options available and freedome of use that you desire. Take it from someone that used to have 12 credit cards and was over 30k in debt. I am now debt free and have one credit card that I use to make small purchases. I also make sure to check my credit record every year to insure that everything is good and I have no outstanding debt that I am not aware of (this would usually indicate fraud). Also, when you get to the point that you have the single credit card and you are making the small purchases, you need to make sure that you are paying off the card as soon as (or even before if you can) get the bill. this way you are not paying those outrageous interest payments. Just some helpful advise from someone thats been there.
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Get your Loan On
Posted on August 13, 2007 by Ching under Family, Life, Sponsored Post.
I was looking through the internet the other day and came across several companies that offered some sort of financial debt consolidation for individuals that had High credit card bills, too many credit cards, payday loans or just wanted to consolidate several other loans in order to make one payment instead of several. I thought to myself where was this when my wife and I were in need of consolidation. We went through a company that took our credit cards and canceled all of them and negotiated new percentages with the companies. It was set up so that we could never use those cards again until the program was over. However, this puts a black mark on your credit record. If we had been given the opportunity to consolidate the loans instead then we could have not only got out of debt but improved our credit rating as well, instead of hurting it. What sparked the search in the first place is that we are currently working on a remodel of the house and thought that instead of doing it one room at a time we would take out one of those second home Mortgage Loans and just hire someone to do the remodel. This would improve or credit and get the house done in half the time. My wife and I anxiously want to get into a newer home and we know that we can not do so until we get our current house into better shape. I have also thought about seeing if I can refinance our home and trying to get a little more money there as well. It works out the same with the overall objective to get our home remodeled so that we can sell it. I haven’t decided just yet what to do and I am not afraid to take out a loan because in the end, I will get a better value out of my home when I sell it and I can turn that value around and pay off the loan, its a win win situation. So stay tuned and see what happens. I am sure that we will have before and after pictures of the whole event, those of you that know us know that my wife is a photo junkie.
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Delaying Everyone’s Lives Through Atlanta
Posted on July 25, 2007 by Brian under Family, Life, Travel.
I really have no idea where to begin with this story. I either try to compose myself and write a really long but not as entertaining article about our return trip from Atlanta or I get mad and write an incoherent rambling that will be slightly more entertaining but will make me look like a complete idiot. So I will attempt to try to balance this 2 in this little adventure.
I guess I should start our story in Jamaica! We arrive at the airport and immediately get placed in line to wait for the Delta ticket window, so that we can get our flight and gate information. After what seemed like an eternity we finally get through that ordeal (passing the time by making fun of the first class passengers) and move on to our next line, Security. We wait for our chance to dump all of our metal belongings into a big tub and walk through the metal detector and then immediately get placed in yet another line. This line is for Immigration and is a very long yet steadily moving snake of people that are all hot and aggravated. Once we got through Immigration it was pretty smooth. However, I suggest never buying food at a Jamaican airport. A dammed hotdog cost 5 dollars, a personal pizza was 9 dollars and a 20oz bottle of Pepsi that normally cost you 1dollar out of the vending machine cost me a whopping 4 dollars. I wanted to ask if they offered KY before they took our money and fucked us. After sitting for a while waiting on our flight we learn that it’s delayed. This concerns us because we have a connecting flight. Then at the last minute we get to move to another gate on the other end of the terminal. After more waiting we finally get to board the plane and get to take off. Then the true nightmare begins. We get to Atlanta and make our way to yet another line in Immigration. We move pretty quickly through there and get to make fun of some teenagers that thought they would be slick and jump in front of some people when they saw there friends. But Security was on top of it and made them go to the back of the line. Once through Immigration we moved on to an almost 2 hour wait at the baggage claim for our luggage. Yes, I said almost 2 hours. It was absolutely unacceptable. We had people around us missing there flights, everyone was getting increasingly aggravated it was awful. Finally we get our luggage and we move on to the biggest joke of all, Customs. Customs is nothing more than people piling there luggage into a big mound for the airport people to place on the plane (they called this the baggage transition). We then went through the regular security stuff of getting practically naked and then running to the plane. Once we got through security we literally ran to our gate. We found out once we got there that the plane was delayed and we would have had plenty of time to simply walk to the gate instead of running like a bunch of idiots. Once loaded on the plane and on our way home all we can think about is food and our own bed. However, Delta had other plans for us. We depart the plane and head towards baggage claim. Once there we watch person after person get there luggage and happily move on. We do not receive our luggage. We wait and wait and still nothing. We finally go to the Delta ticket window to be told by a man that obviously did not like his job that we would not receive our luggage till 10a, the next morning. So my plans to sleep late are ruined by Delta. 10am the next morning, we receive one item of luggage. Again, a trip to the ticket window, We are then told by a very rude lady that these things happen and I will have to wait till the next flight comes in to see if it’s on that one. We decide to go to lunch and then come back. When we come back we learn the flight is delayed, so we wait and wait and finally it arrives, But still no luggage. I go to the window again to be told that they don’t even have it off the plane yet. The plane had been on the ground for an hour and its still not unloaded. This is getting out of hand. I am trying to remain calm; no one is offering any excuses or apologies. No one can seem to locate my luggage and I was told that if I wanted it delivered that it could be 7 days before I got it. Finally a man came to look for the luggage because even he felt that it had been too long. Finally the luggage comes out and I move on my way. Again, with no apology, no compensation for my time nothing to show that they had any remorse for what they had done. Only the lingering foul taste of that woman’s words “these things happenâ€.
Needless to say, we will not be flying Delta again if we can at all help it. If we learned anything from this trip, it’s that baggage claim is the great equalizer. No matter if you travel, coach, executive or first class. You are all going to sit and wait for your dammed luggage to get spit out of the machine. We also learned to pack light, make sure it’s a carry on and if you have to take any liquids, go to the dollar store and buy the little 3oz plastic bottles and fill them yourself. Place them in a one quart Ziploc bag and you should be golden. No matter who I fly through, I don’t think I will ever check my luggage ever again.
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Warren Theaters Pisses me off AGAIN!
Posted on June 27, 2007 by Brian under Family, Life, Movies, News.
Warren Theaters has a knack of pissing me off. Below is an e-mail I sent to there coperate office. I think the e-mail explains everything.
Just for the record this will be the third time that the event that I will lay out to you has happened and the 2nd time that I have filed a complaint about it.Â
I am very disappointed in the way that your theater is currently conducting business. As I stated before this is the third time that I have had this problem. I’ll start by telling you that I am an avid movie watcher and probably visit your theater about 5 to 6 times a month, and most of that is balcony seating. Each time I call and ask your customer service when the tickets will be on sale. Lately I call several times a week because each time I call I get a different answer. The first time I called it was about the last “Pirates of the Caribbeanâ€. I stopped by after work on Wednesday the week before the movie was to start and was told that the tickets would be on sale the following Tuesday. I show up on Tuesday and find out that Tickets had been on sale since the previous Thursday, the day AFTER I came up and inquired about when the tickets would be sold. Needless to say I was very upset and almost did not get any seats. The second time was with the second “Fantastic 4â€. Again, I called on Wednesday and asked when the tickets will be sold. They advised me on the phone that it would be on Tuesday. This time I stop by the next day and see if the tickets are on sale (Just in case they are sold in advance again). And I was told Tuesday again by the man at the counter. So I figure that Tuesday is good and show up after work on Tuesday and ask for tickets. This time I’m told that tickets would not be sold until Wednesday or Thursday. Again, I was frustrated at the misinformation that I was told. My wife was frustrated enough that she filed a complaint on this web site and provided my number for the contact. I was called by a very rude supervisor that told me that they have never sold tickets on a Tuesday (Which is incorrect because I have been coming to this theater for years and have purchased tickets on ranging from the week before to the Tuesday of) and that I was mistaken in the information that I heard. Not that I was misinformed but that I heard the information incorrectly. This infuriated me that this supervisor would treat me in this manor. Now the current issue, I had called On Thursday again and asked when the tickets would be on Sale for the 4th of July. They stated on the phone that it would be Wednesday. So I call today before I get off work and was told by a lady that the tickets for “Transformers†were on sale. I specifically asked if they were on sale for the 4th of July and was told yes. I looked at your website and saw that the show times were available for the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July for “Transformersâ€. So I go to the 13th ave Warren (this is where all this happens if I didn’t mention it before) and go to the counter and ask for tickets. This time I am told that the tickets are not on sale until Friday, maybe Thursday “If I’m Luckyâ€. At this point I think maybe he was not aware of the web site displaying the tickets being on sale and pointed that out. He said that it didn’t matter what the web site said, he could only sell tickets for the 2nd (a special showing). I immediately asked for a Supervisor. About 10 minutes later a Supervisor showed up and I explained that I had called today 15 min before I drove up there and asked if they were selling tickets specifically for the 4th of July and was told yes and that when I got here I was told no. She tried to tell me that it’s not in the system and they didn’t have any Showtime’s available. I explained to her that the web site showed all times for the 3rd 4th and 5th. She had to take a min and go downstairs and check the computer for herself. She then came back up with a series of printouts and could not explain why the Showtime’s were there and not available in the system. She just told me that they didn’t know what they were going to drop yet and that this was the proposed times for the movie. She took my name and number and stated that she would call me when the tickets became available for sale (I’m not holding my breath for a return call).
Needless to say I found that this is a form of false advertising. You are claiming that you have something for sale that is truly not for sale. I will purchase tickets for “Transformersâ€, to be exact I will be purchasing 8 balcony tickets (this is pretty standard, I have several family and friends that go to the movies with me). However, this will be the last time I purchase tickets from your theater. The turnaround time from theater to DVD is fast enough now that I can patiently wait for it to come out on DVD and enjoy it in my home with out the hassle and frustration that I am currently going through. If you want to call me about this then I would be happy to discuss it with a member of your corporate office. If you are going to have one of your supervisors from the 13th ave Warren call me then save it. I have already talked to them and it has yet to be a pleasant experience.
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