Funny or Not?

Is it wrong that I actually laughed when reading this?

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In Memory of Tuck

After a year and a half battle, and 4 surgeries for removal of the mast cell tumors that kept coming back, worse and quicker each time, the cancer finally got the upper hand. Less than 2 weeks after his last surgery, the masses were back and bigger than ever. By this weekend, Tucker could hardly get up, and when he did, would only take a few steps before laying back down. He stopped eating, refusing even hotdogs and steak. So on Tuesday afternoon, our beloved vet made the 25 mile trip out to our house to help Tucker through his last moments. It was a peaceful and quick, but terribly sad ending.

We have had Tucker since he was a 2 month old puppy, getting him the week we moved into our first house in October 1998. He was a sweet, loyal, eager to please pup. He had a great life, but the roughest of our menagerie, winning a battle with Parvo at 8 months, replacement of a "knee" ligament at 6 years, and terrible itchy skin problems from spring to fall for the last 7 years. We spent an incredible amount of time and money at various vets over the years, but never regretted a single dollar.

He will be missed terribly and never replaced or forgotten. Our hearts are heavy with the loss but our lives richer and blessed for having almost 11 great years with our boy.

We hope that everyone is blessed with a Tucker at least once in their lives.

Obama Tax Cuts

So unless you get the daily emails from Move On you may not have seen this. I found it very interesting and thought I'd share. This comes from Daniel Mintz,

Dear MoveOn member,
This is ridiculous. The media has been obsessing about President Obama's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans—from 35% to 39.6%—even asking if that makes him a socialist.1

But do you know what tax rate the wealthiest Americans paid on the top portion of their earnings at the end of Ronald Reagan's first term? 50%.
Under Richard Nixon? 70%. Under Dwight Eisenhower? 91%!
Shocking, right?

And for all the whining about rolling back Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, the truth is that Obama's plan cuts taxes for 95% of working Americans. Further, it closes huge tax loopholes for oil companies, hedge funds and corporations that ship jobs overseas so that we can invest in the priorities that will get our economy back on track.2
We saw a great chart in The Washington Monthly3 that shows just how absurd Republican complaints about Obama's budget are. Check it out and pass it on:

Becoming an Investor

John and I are still somewhat worried about our job security although having survived 3 rounds of layoffs (me) and his hours cut by 2 days a month, we think we will probably be ok.

Additionally, we are in the middle of refinancing to take advantage of the lower rates. With a 2.675 point buy down, we can get 4.375% as of yesterday. We are all approved to go but have yet to lock in - I will probably do so soon but I'm nervous wondering if there will be another rate drop.

Anyway, with the refinance, we are also taking a cashout to pay off ALL our other debt - our new car loan, creditcards (all of which have always been at 0% but those 0% offers are disappearing fast!) and student loan. This will lower our monthly payments by a little more than $800. At first I had just planned to use the surplus to aggressively pay down the principal and get the house paid off in 10 years or so, until I started running the numbers of what investing that same amount would get us. I was blown away! We would be idiots to pay down the principal at a cost savings of 4.375% when investing the money over time can get us a return of 8% conservatively and more likely in the range of 12-16%. Not to mention, the money would be there if we needed it, whereas cashing in on equity in your house is much more difficult. And with 25-30 years until we retire, we will still have the house paid off by then anyway.

So, for the first time in our lives, we are finding ourselves with a monthly budget surplus. We have been doing pretty well month to month and have even managed to save some money over the last year while still making some decent retail purchases.

So for the first time in our lives, we are in a position to start some serious savings. As a public employee with Oregon pers benefits, I will have a pretty decent retirement already. Add to that the fact I have been contributing over the years to other retirement accounts as well, not alot, but currently about $200/month, and we are not in bad shape for retirement without the additional money. We still plan to increase our retirement contributions significantly, but even if we did an additional $400/month ($600 total) that leaves us with a MINIMUM of $400/month to savings. I am actually thinking we will be able to swing an additional $800 or more most months.

While we want to increase our liquid savings, it is obvious that within a year we will have more than we really need in liquidity and with current interest rates at a maximum of 1.75% (traditional CD) it doesn't make sense to just put it all in savings. So I think we are going to be opening an investment savings account for the first time. I feel like over the last 48 hours I have been cramming for finals, trying to learn the basics of investing! Up until now, I have just done the standard retirement accounts, not having to really worry about how it works. Savings investments are a whole different ball game. I am leaning toward Hartford which the investment advisor at our bank suggested. The individual who runs the account has an excellent track record. I am still nervous as this is brand new territory for us, but I am excited about the prospect as well. Particularly with the markets so low right now, I feel like this is the perfect time to get started.

So, do you have any investment savings other than a retirement account? What has worked for you? Any advice or good reading suggestions would be appreciated!

Vacation Planning

So we have our plane tickets and are getting ready to book another vacation to Disney World for the end of August. Just wish it wasn't 6 months out! We are planning on staying at Pop Century again and are banking on Disney offering the free dining plan again at the end of August as they have done for the past few years. We did the dining plan last year (a year ago today as a matter of fact!) and loved it. But at around $90 a day for the three of us, getting it free means we will save around $800 in food costs over a 9 day vacation - well worth the wait! Plus it is the off season and we save on the package rates as well.

The really cool thing is that Gunfighter will be there the same time! Hoping to get a chance to meet up with him and his family. That would be really cool.

Catching Up

So Jaxon had his colonoscopy last week (yes he's not even 5 yet!) and it went smooth as silk. They gave him and oral sedative before wheeling him in to "surgery" so he doesn't even remember anything about it, not even getting his anesthesia. He recovered just fine. Took a couple hours for the anesthesia to wear off, but once he started to wake up, he was back to his normal self, eating lunch in the cafeteria with Grammie and I a half hour later.

The doctor found one polyp which he removed. Couldn't have asked for a better outcome. One polyp explains where the blood was coming from but isn't otherwise anything to be concerned about, so it looks like we can put this year long ordeal to rest finally! And so far, no more blood in is stool since then. Yay!

A Brilliant Idea?

So John's been playing M.I.A.'s Paper Planes a lot the last few days. It's one of those songs that really sticks with you for a long list of reasons, not the least of which is that it is so catchy. But the lyrics at first glance are a bit disturbing. After reading through them a few times, I started to grasp that they are heavy with satire and irony as well as double meanings. Listening to a few interviews with her she certainly seems to have a depth and intelligence about her that further support the likelihood of that rather than just some disturbing gangsta rap song.

Anyway - I was just thinking about how different her background is, having grown up in Sri Lanka and experiencing the early years of Tamil fighting. Hearing her speak and then listening to the lyrics of her music takes you out of your comfort zone, shouting hey - there are a lot bigger things going on in the world.

Which got me thinking...
1. We have an over-population problem in our jails. Many of these criminals are repeat offenders. Many come from a small world where they not only lack education but any sense of a world beyond their neighborhood or group of loser "friends".

2. There are many programs out there all over the world that need volunteer help.

Why not give some of the less dangerous offenders the choice of serving some of their time in some sort of relief program in a 3rd world country? Somewhere totally away from the influences that got them in trouble to begin with, somewhere that will broaden their horizons, somewhere where they can accomplish something to be proud of and give them a chance to see what they have to contribute, and a chance to see what else there is to experience in the world beyond their small horizon. I think this could be a very powerful rehabilitiation tool, with benefits for both sides.

Or, how about troubled kids? Same context, but get them out of their element before they get into serious trouble. Everyone I know who has gone to third world countries to help with relief efforts has been changed for life. Why not provide those kind of life altering experiences to sectors of the population most in need of a positive life changing experience?

Speed Racer Marketing - Missed the Boat

Boy did the marketers for Speed Racer miss the boat big time. Jaxon wants a speed racer outfit for Christmas. Not the new version, the 60's version with the blue shirt with the white collar and cuffs and the red ascot. Seems simple right? Make and sell blue polo shirts with white collars and cuffs and the big yellow G. Hell, add in a red ascot and yellow gloves and they'd be selling like hot cakes! All I can find is this sad number.

Now I am just trying to find a plain white non-cuffed polo and blue v-neck t-shirt that I can layer and add the G myself. Do you think I can even find that? Hell no.
At least we found this

which Grandma is getting for him.

HALLELUJA!!!!!

I can once again feel proud to be an American!

Boost Your Credit Score and Get a Free Vacation

I take great advantage of credit card offers. We do have a couple of cards that we carry a balance on and over the years the balance has gone up and down but never completely away. That said, I have also never paid interest on those balances. On average I open and close about 5-6 credit cards a year, taking advantage of 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases. I try to get only cards with this offer good for at least 12 months to minimize balance transfer fees. The fee to transfer a balance is usually 3% but it is a one time fee and some cards cap it at $75-$99 per transfer. So that is 3% (or less) APR for the year. Can't beat those rates. And it has not seemed to affect my credit rating - if anything it has probably improved it over the years as I have many examples of cards with a relatively high balance being paid off each year. I have done this for more than 10 years and my credit score is very good.

Another way I take advantage of credit cards is with rewards. I have a shell card which I pay off each month and only use for gas. At 5% credit toward shell gas purchases, I can figure $.15 to $.21 a gallon off at 5% - well worth it! My last two statements have had $33 and $26 credits from gas purchases. No yearly fee on this card.

Both my husband and I got American Express gold cards this year and received 100,000 AE points, (50,000 each account) enough for 4 domestic airline tickets (at least for Alaska Airlines flights). And yes I have checked and I can pretty much choose my dates and times for Alaska Airlines flights right now using those points. The first year membership fees are waived. I am coming up on my membership fee being due this spring, so to get the most out of the offer I will have to book a flight by then and cancel the card. But even if I don't, I can transfer the points to my Priority Club account, although 50,000 AE points only gets me 10,000 PC points.

So that brings me to Priority Club. If you don't have a membership and you do ANY traveling, you need to sign up for one. It's free. Use it when booking and checking into hotels and get points. Points can be used for a free night stay at participating hotels (usually starting at around 10,000 points per night) or converted to airline miles for a variety of airlines. Right now, you can also sign up for a Priority Club credit card through Chase with 0% purchases and balance transfers for 6 months and get 30,000 bonus points to your Priority Club account. That is 3 nights of hotel stay. Just make one purchase, (no small print as to the size of the purchase) to get your points. Then you can cancel the card at any time. Yearly fee for the card is waived for the first year.

So - for FREE you can get 2 domestic airline tickets and 3 nights stay in a hotel. If both you and your spouse sign up separately, that would be 4 airline tickets and 6 nights hotel!

Does it work? I haven't tried using priority club points yet but I have taken two vacations in the past year and a half with free airline tickets. Last year we used 25,000 capital one points to purchase one ticket from Portland to Orlando, and 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles to purchase the other two so the three of us flew to Disneyworld for free. No problem at all getting the reservations booked. The previous summer we flew to Disneyland using 25,000 capital one miles to book one ticket, and buying the second ticket so we could use Alaska Airlines kids fly free to get Jaxon's ticket free. So again, 3 airline tickets for the price of one and no problem at all booking the flights we wanted.

If you fly Alaska Air, you can also get 20,000 bonus miles by signing up for a Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card. We did that last year and again, no problem getting and using our points. This card also gives you one voucher per year for a $50 companion fare ticket. Used that when Jaxon and I flew home to Seattle last fall.

The caveat if you are doing balance transfers - you have to be responsible if you expect to keep your 0%APR. Generally, when you first set up the credit card, you can select your billing date. I get paid on the 15th and 30th of each month. My end of the month check pays the mortgage so I try to keep all other bills after the 15th. I usually pick the 20th of the month for a payment due date. As SOON AS I GET PAID on the 15th I go online and schedule a payment for each credit card. Sometimes, I even set the credit card account to auto pay the minimum balance each month on the 20th. If you are late on your minimum payment by even ONE DAY the APR will default, often to an extremely high rate, 20-29%. I am ABSOLUTELY SURE TO NEVER be late on a credit card payment. EVER.

Another thing to consider, although I always transfer my balances before the 0% APR expires, I make sure that if I were not able to transfer again, the rate would not be horrendous. Most of my cards would be 9.9-12.9% if the 0% ended. When I get the card, I write in permanent marker on the front the month that the 0% will end to remind me to transfer the balance and close the card before the offer ends. With these tips in mind, I have never had a problem doing this.

I recently worried that with the lending crunch I would not get approval on a new 0% card, or that if I did the credit limit would be so low that it wouldn't matter. This is not the case. I have recently applied for a few with no problem.

And anyone thinking I may be a good target for identity theft? Forget it. I religiously watch my accounts and my credit reports.

Bailout

Whew - it passed! (Weird isn't it that this article is from Zimbabwe News? It was the first on a google search for "house vote bailout")

I also found this article which I think is extremely informative and hopeful. I am not much into economics or the market so I haven't really formed opinions about the players, but this article put Warren Buffet in a good light in my mind.

Scathing But Right On

I thought this summary of the debate by Robert Shrum was really good....

And They're Already On Top of It!

Huh, as you can tell from my last post this is a BIG issue for me. Looks like Obama already has an add out capturing most of the points I made.

The Debate

Watched the debate last night at a bar right next to the Obama headquarters. They had a room set up upstairs with the debate on a big screen and a packed room. It was like watching a sporting event (which John and I never do) with the cheering, laughing, groaning, and excited commentary. I thought Biden was fantastic. I thought a couple of times that he looked a bit like he wanted to shove a pencil through his eye, but who could blame him? However, he remained calm, cool, poised, and eloquent through the whole thing. Even when he felt the need to retaliate at the implication that he didn't understand what it was like to wonder whether or not a child would "make it" in recovering from a life-threatening medical situation, he held it together and it didn't come off like a grasp for sympathy. It was simply an 'ok, you went there and I am going to make a brief but pointed response and move on'.

I thought AriannaH. comments summed it up well...
"Watching Biden and Palin on the same stage was like watching a tennis champion walk onto Centre Court at Wimbledon only to find himself facing an over-eager amateur from the local high school."

And this quote from Sam Stein was pretty much right on target "...while Sarah Palin exceeded the exceedingly low expectations set for her, Joe Biden won the night." I think I used a bit more forcefull language though.

Did you see her blow a kiss to the crowd as she walked out? Yeah, very vice presidential. And the winking? Good lord woman! That's what we need, charm and flirting! Who needs to sit down and talk and talk through complex issues with world leaders? Just blow 'em a kiss and wink!

And did you yell "what the hell???" along with us when they were talking about foreign policy and the wars and she suddenly switched to talking about energy?

Ok - enough about Palin. I could go on for quite a while.

I loved how despite her sprinting in the opposite direction of half of the questions asked, when the camera turned to Biden, he would promptly and precisely answer the original question (without having to re-ask what the question was) and go on to also address whatever tanget she had gone off on, all well within his allotted 2 minutes.

I thought this post by Leah McElrath Renna was spot on. It's short - take a minute to read it. Joe's Tears: the Political Power of Paternal Love Yeah, he got choked up. But it was real, and he wouldn't have gone there had Palen not dragged him there. I think most of the room teared up with him.

So which issue fired me up? Well, many did, but I think the health care issue is one of the most important to me and I get frustrated that it is never covered in more depth.

I cannot understand how anyone thinks a $5,000 tax credit for health care is any sort of solution.

The average cost for a family health care plan per year is $12,000. Most who can afford that already have coverage through their job. Those that don't have coverage are lucky if they make $30,000 a year. They probably don't. Most of them could not afford to spend $12,000 a year on a house much less adding health care on top of that. And that is if they could even GET coverage in the first place. When you get coverage through an employer, the insurance company HAS to cover you and your family, pre-existing conditions and all. When John and I first moved, there were a few months before we got jobs that we weren't covered. I tried to go and get basic coverage (you know, for major health issues/accidents, etc) and we got DENIED. We were 29 and 31 and VERY healthy at the time. Why did we get denied? Because I had pulled a muscle in my neck while packing for the move and made the mistake of getting some muscle relaxants from my Dr. - therefore, I had a "pre-existing condition" so they wouldn't cover us. Despite the fact that the muscle pull was all better the next week.

Back to the $5,000 credit. Remeber - coverage cost is $12,000/year IF YOU CAN GET IT and this means you have to pay the other $7,000 out of pocket. Oh, and by the way, the premiums would no longer be tax deductable. See, right now, even though my employer covers most of the cost of my insurance, that cost is not factored into my salary, and therefore, I don't pay any taxes on that portion of my "income". If I had to pay taxes on an additional $12,000 a year that would be roughly $3,600 (including medicare and social security and state income taxes)so bottom line I would pay an additional $12,000 out of pocket and net $1,400 less in tax payments. Yup. Biden called it - the McCain/Palin health care plan is a "bridge to nowhere."

Great. So with McCain, my taxable income just went up 20%. I make around $60,000 a year. Not bad, but definitely a mid to lower middle class income. Pretty much the low side of average. So here's some further food for thought currently I "pay" 20% of my "income" in health care. It just doesn't come to me first and I don't have to pay taxes on it. Any yet we balk at the thought of our taxes going up to cover the cost of health care? People, individually, those of us with coverage are ALREADY PAYING MORE THAN WE WOULD if we had national health care coverage for everyone. Let's just do it already ok? It will ultimately cost less and EVERYONE gets covered.

And talk about trying to support the creation of more small businesses? Well let me tell you, a HUGE reason more people don't start their own business is they either can't get, or could not afford health insurance on their own. And even if they could afford their own, they usually cannot offer it for their employees.

Ok - enough about that...

People, if this country elects McCain/Palin not only are we in serious trouble, the rest of the world is going to write us off. Most of the world was already incredulous that we elected GW the first time, and flabergasted (along with the rest of us democrats) that he actually got re-elected. Now we have a ticket with McSame and Cariboo Barbie? (I can't take credit for those names but I have wholeheartedly adopted them) Our reputation with the rest of the world is hanging by a thread - if they get elected I can pretty much guarantee that thread is going to SNAP!!!

Should McCain ditch Palin?

Hell no! (Of course if the election goes the wrong way I may feel differently!) She's the best thing that could have happened for Obama's campaign...

McCain Campain Lies

Ok - just have to spread this around some more....

Jack Cafferty Tells Us How He Really Feels About Sarah Palin

I LOVE his response at the end. I just don't understand why everyone doesn't agree.

On a side note though, Katie? Do YOU understand this issue AT ALL either? Once again, this is NOT about getting money into the economy. This is about getting lending back on track. I think part of the problem was Katie didn't ask the right question. Oh god-that sounded like I just defended Palin... I wholeheartedly agree with Jack on that, "That is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country....There's no excuse for that she's supposed to know a little bit of this. Don't make excuses for her. That's pathetic."

Go Jack!

Do the Math

I am sure you have all received an email about "The Birk Plan" by now, and hopefully have either "done the math" or did a search to counter it and found out the glaring error in the "plan". If not see this post ... then continue - be sure to read the other links in that post to get the background.

Ok, aside from the math, there is one other glaring problem. This "plan" even if the math was right, wouldn't solve anything. This is a major part of the problem. People do NOT understand what the problem really is, how it was caused, or why a "bailout" (which is really NOT what is on the table) is needed. Now I am not claiming that I understand any of this either, but I DO understand that there is a LOT of misunderstanding and misinformation floating around out there.

Here is a link that I think gives a pretty good explaination of where we are and how we got here. How it all happened.

Scared & Stressed

Sorry - just haven't been in the blogging mood lately. Just got news of who got hit with our third round of layoffs this year. I can breath a bit easier for now personally but my heart aches for my friends/collegues who got bad news today. This 11 makes 44 for the year and we aren't THAT big a city.

John's job will probably see layoff soon too. He's in the IT at the local daily paper. He thinks his job is safe *for now* but with no upturn in sight our jobs still hang in the balance. I am of two minds over the bailout. I can see it directly affecting my job. We have developers waiting in the wings with projects ready to go but they can't get financing. We are seeing reputable development firms going out of business because they can't finance new projects. And this isn't just the housing market I am talking about - this is commercial development too. And I am hearing stories about people trying to start up their own businesses (there are NO career oriented jobs here in Central Oregon right now) not able to get loans to buy start up. I have friends trying to sell houses who have had offer after offer fall through because buyers can't get loans. Even well qualified buyers. I am not for bailing out banks but we need something to get fixed because our economy and lives are too dependent on being able to get loans to buy things. I can't imaging having to save up cash to buy a new car. But guess what? That may be where we are heading. I just hope we don't have to sell our house and move which is what we would have to do if we get hit with layoffs.

To further stress us out, Tuckers cancer is back. Last week a huge lump popped up overnight in the same spot the last one was removed back in April. The good news is he is otherwise healthy, and no signs that it has spread to any organs. But now we are faced with the choice of having it debulked again at a cost of around $1000. He is ten, so he is old, but otherwise healthy, and minus the cancer, could easily live another 4 years. I love him dearly but John and Jaxon are going to be devistatingly heartbroken when his time comes. I am not really balking at doing the surgery again this time, but what if it comes back in a few months? We can't keep up those kind of bills forever, especially with the uncertainty of our jobs hanging over our heads. At the same time, I hate to not do it.

Jaxon has been doing well on his dairy free diet. I was never much of a milk drinker but now I am addicted to vanilla soy milk. Luckily Costco has it for about 1/2 the price of regular grocery story sale price. I have found soy "cheese" slices and tofutti ice cream - even ice cream bars and ice cream sandwiches. So he is doing ok. I have seen little to no blood in his stool lately. We are still going to consult with a pediatric gastroenterologist to be sure and to get more advice. Unfortunately that means a trip to Portland (160 miles each way!) and his appointment is not until Dec 1. At least none of the Dr.'s seem to think it is anything to be overly concerned about which is somewhat of a relief for now.

So, yeah - not much blogging lately. Just too depressing and stressful! Hope all my blogosphere buds are fairing ok if not well.
-A

Not a Meckel Diverticulum

So the Meckel scan came back clear as did the stool samples and blood work. Having been off dairy for more than 2 weeks now, we have very little to no blood. Which leads our Dr. and us to believe that the blood we have seen is directly related to dairy intake. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence. How scary is that? In doing a little searching I came across this post which is enough to make me think twice about even trying to reintroduce any dairy into his diet. I think we could all live without milk except for cooking, but cheese? We LOVE cheese! Anyway, for now we are continuing for a few weeks with no dairy and Jaxon has been very understanding about it for a kid whose diet previously consisted of about 80% dairy! He still sometimes asks for cheese or sour cream but when promted as to "what did the Dr. say?" he responds "No milk, no cheese, and no yogurt!" We have been creative with ice cream replacements though, sorbet at Baskin Robbins, tofutti ice cream sandwiches and bars, popsicles, etc. Tried some soy milk which John and I liked but Jaxon hated. I think when we start to reintroduce small amounts of dairy, we will try some goat cheeses to see how he does on those. We love mizithra on pasta.

Any other ideas for substitutions? I think there is a sour cream substitute as well but I need to see if that would work too. He loves burritos with sour cream. Poor kid, his burritos lately have been just beans. The only other stuff he likes on them are cheese and sour cream!