I almost hit a bird with my car this morning.
"Pfthbph."
This is the sound of me blowing the hair out of my face, a time-honored gesture that conveys more than words could.
Busy week!
Last day in the office.
I almost hit a bird with the Rat Mobile on the way to work this morning! A flying bird. This sucker swooped down out of mid-air for a low-flying buzz right in front of my windshield! "Dude!" I exclaimed, and that seemed to fix his wagon! That was weird, and possibly an omen, although I have to admit that I haven't kept up with my bird signs.
Meanwhile, Ian and I cook most of our meals on an indoor electric grill. It appeared to die the other night. We were really bummed because, among other things, it's less than a year old, and was relatively expensive as indoor electric grills go. We kept all the paperwork because that's how we roll, but certainly we weren't looking forward to trying to get this thing repaired. At first we thought there might be a problem with the electrical outlet, so I plugged in the nearest other electrical appliance, my cell phone charger. All the lights came on on the cell phone; the screen lit up. Not the outlet. I left the cell phone plugged in overnight to charge, but the next day, it hadn't charged at all, and later died. Snu? Testing a theory, I grabbed the charger last night and plugged it into an outlet in another room, and not only did all the same things light up as before, but now there were new green blinky lights! Ah-ha! So all this is a long way of telling you that this is how we discovered that somehow we're tripped the breakers for the kitchen outlets, and the little grill still works just fine! Yay!
(Look, you read this journal during Moving Week, this is what you get, okay?)
Continuing Adventures in Life Insurance
In a drive-by comment by visiting penpal of my friend, elena23, serrana opened my eyes to why it's a good idea to have a life insurance policy independent of our employment: if one of use suddenly gets very sick or is in a serious enough accident, we might lose our job, and therefore we'd have no more insurance. (Yes, I can play the, "What if" game about how this is why I also carry long-term disability insurance, but I feel that serrana's point is still a good one.)
I did get some answers from the Liberty Mutual agent, however:
Do these numbers reflect a discount for carrying my other insurance with the same company?
Nope; said discounts apply only to auto/renter's or home owner's insurance, and don't play well with life insurance. Effectively, there is no financial benefit to keeping my life insurance with the same company I use otherwise.
What are the AD&D benefits, since of course I'm more concerned about those at our present ages?
To the best of my knowledge, none. Policy is policy regardless of how the holder dies. But what about the movie, "Double Indemnity?" Do insurance companies (at least Liberty Mutual) really not do that anymore? I'll ask to be sure.
How exactly does this work with the 30-year policy, then the rider for the extra 20 years?
As suspected, what I'm paying for is 30 years of insurance (so until I'm 68 or Ian is 57, respectively), and then the option to automatically renew for another 20 years without possibility of denial on the basis of health. My feeling agrees with that of my commenters to the previous post; we don't need this. If we're saving for retirement, then each of our retirement funds is in itself an insurance policy for the surviving spouse. We also plan to be smart about paying off the mortgage we haven't even taken out yet in that time -- if it's not paid off entirely, we should be down to the dregs. I have not discussed this with Ian yet, however, but since we discuss our finances in general pretty frequently, I suspect strongly that he'll not only agree with this, but even more solidly on board with that notion than I am.
Therefore I'm going to ask the Liberty Mutual agent for new quotes without that 20-year addendum. I think I'll also ask him for a quote on their smallest available benefit, $50,000, just to see how inexpensively we could get this just to have some coverage outside of our employers.
I did ask about their customer service process in the event of filing a claim, however. They do require an original death certificate before starting the process, but that's going to be fairly common I think. Seems like a low hassle scenario afterward, though, and that's really important to me.
And did I tell you about buying appliances?
We need to buy a refrigerator and washer/dryer set. We found out that the Frisco (town next door to Plano, where we currently live) Sears is having a Friends & Family sale just after we leave, 20% off on all Kenmore appliances! I gotta find out if they can and will do a courtesy sale for an Austin store and have it delivered from a local place. If so, I may send my mother with specific instructions to buy stuff for us. With three big appliance purchases looming immediately, 20% off is mighty tasty!
Refrigerator
Our 30-minute trip to Sears the other night was OVERWHELMING. Way too many choices! We definitely made the right choice going to get a feel for what's available without pressure to buy on that trip. Ian likes side-by-side because that's what he grew up with and it's familiar. I like a bottom freezer because they're supposedly much more energy efficient (and Energy Star labels we saw seem to back this up), I'm short, I hate frozen chicken breasts falling on me, and because most of what we freeze is in bags or is irregularly shaped and doesn't stack well. We both hate traditional apartment-style top freezers, so we've been able to eliminate that.
I want ice and cold filtered water in the outside door.
I like more compartmentalization rather than less.
Ian wants a stainless steel finish, and I don't especially care, so I can agree to that.
That's all we've got so far. OVER. WHELMED. Gotta check Consumer Reports and read some "Amazon.com" style consumer comments on different models online.
Washer & Dryer
Ian has said that he doesn't care about this topic at all, so he'll support whatever my wishes are here.
The single point I've decided is that I don't want to spend more to get quieter models. I don't care. I used to have a set with the Kenmore "Quiet Pack II," and they were just fine on noise in an apartment where everything is close together. In a house, the laundry will presumably be farther away, so Quiet Pack II is still fine with me. No sense paying more just for Quiet Pack IV, so that's decided.
But traditional top-loading, el cheapo, or fancier front-loaders? Looking at cheapo Kenmores regardless, not ready to go for super fancy computerized, colored, bells & whistles LG or something.
Since all dryers are, by definition, "front loaders," there's really no reason for me not to get the fancy kind that's more energy efficient. At worst, the washer & dryer might be different heights. Do I care? I don't think I care.
The washer is the sticking point. 13 gallons a run v. 45 gallons is extremely compelling to me! I like spending less money on water, and my inner hippie respects that fresh water is a nearly finite resource on earth and conservation is a good thing. I understand they also wash faster -- not a big point as it's the drying times that really hold up the works, but it helps. They're supposedly more gentle on clothing, which I admit I don't really care much about.
Cons: Higher cost upfront to the tune of about $200-$300 apiece. Do I want to bend forward all the time to pull the clothes out? I can always pay later to build a platform or get one of those fancy attached ones. I can't see myself every using the drawer space beneath it for anything I wanted to access often, and if I put it in there for long-term storage, I'd likely forget about those objects forever. Therefore they are clutter and must be annihilated! You have to buy special detergent for some models -- BUT! It's supposedly no more expensive than traditional detergent, but you less of it, so again, saving money and being nicer to the environment. I have heard, however, that you have to swipe the moisture off the door between each load to prevent mildew. I am OCPD enough to do this, but Ian never will, and children will not, and I'll be lucky if teenagers don't put the cat in there or something. This is not a dealbreaker, but it is a consideration.
I will check the figures online about energy and water usage and make myself an Excel spreadsheet to compare the actual long-term cost of each of machine over time, and then consult the consumer comments. I'll skip Consumer Reports on this one. I did that research in 2005, and it lead me to some UFO of a technological monstrosity that had no clear "Permanent Press" setting. I think my tastes run much more to the cheap & simple as laundry goes.
EDIT: The federal government has already done this work for me. Here is a page with a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with all the Energy Star information about clothes washers.
EDIT 2:The difference between the most efficient Kenmore washer and the least efficient is about $800 over 10 years of electricity and water use at today's rates as near as I can figure. Since the price of both these resources goes up frequently, the actual difference would be greater. This is compelling, but then again, we'd all buy top of the line everything if money were no object! Alas, it is indeed.
Now I'm off to what I think will be an extremely busy and possibly very long last day in the office.
Friend coming over tonight for dinner and the last episode of BSG. Goodness, I sure hope there's plot!
If you have a chance, catch the recent episode of "The Daily Show" with Bruce Springsteen -- not that the interview with The Boss was that awesome, but there's a bit about AIG that had tears rolling down my cheeks. Jon Stewart was just in very fine form that night.
Peace out, yo.
T$
This is the sound of me blowing the hair out of my face, a time-honored gesture that conveys more than words could.
Busy week!
Last day in the office.
I almost hit a bird with the Rat Mobile on the way to work this morning! A flying bird. This sucker swooped down out of mid-air for a low-flying buzz right in front of my windshield! "Dude!" I exclaimed, and that seemed to fix his wagon! That was weird, and possibly an omen, although I have to admit that I haven't kept up with my bird signs.
Meanwhile, Ian and I cook most of our meals on an indoor electric grill. It appeared to die the other night. We were really bummed because, among other things, it's less than a year old, and was relatively expensive as indoor electric grills go. We kept all the paperwork because that's how we roll, but certainly we weren't looking forward to trying to get this thing repaired. At first we thought there might be a problem with the electrical outlet, so I plugged in the nearest other electrical appliance, my cell phone charger. All the lights came on on the cell phone; the screen lit up. Not the outlet. I left the cell phone plugged in overnight to charge, but the next day, it hadn't charged at all, and later died. Snu? Testing a theory, I grabbed the charger last night and plugged it into an outlet in another room, and not only did all the same things light up as before, but now there were new green blinky lights! Ah-ha! So all this is a long way of telling you that this is how we discovered that somehow we're tripped the breakers for the kitchen outlets, and the little grill still works just fine! Yay!
(Look, you read this journal during Moving Week, this is what you get, okay?)
Continuing Adventures in Life Insurance
In a drive-by comment by visiting penpal of my friend, elena23, serrana opened my eyes to why it's a good idea to have a life insurance policy independent of our employment: if one of use suddenly gets very sick or is in a serious enough accident, we might lose our job, and therefore we'd have no more insurance. (Yes, I can play the, "What if" game about how this is why I also carry long-term disability insurance, but I feel that serrana's point is still a good one.)
I did get some answers from the Liberty Mutual agent, however:
Do these numbers reflect a discount for carrying my other insurance with the same company?
Nope; said discounts apply only to auto/renter's or home owner's insurance, and don't play well with life insurance. Effectively, there is no financial benefit to keeping my life insurance with the same company I use otherwise.
What are the AD&D benefits, since of course I'm more concerned about those at our present ages?
To the best of my knowledge, none. Policy is policy regardless of how the holder dies. But what about the movie, "Double Indemnity?" Do insurance companies (at least Liberty Mutual) really not do that anymore? I'll ask to be sure.
How exactly does this work with the 30-year policy, then the rider for the extra 20 years?
As suspected, what I'm paying for is 30 years of insurance (so until I'm 68 or Ian is 57, respectively), and then the option to automatically renew for another 20 years without possibility of denial on the basis of health. My feeling agrees with that of my commenters to the previous post; we don't need this. If we're saving for retirement, then each of our retirement funds is in itself an insurance policy for the surviving spouse. We also plan to be smart about paying off the mortgage we haven't even taken out yet in that time -- if it's not paid off entirely, we should be down to the dregs. I have not discussed this with Ian yet, however, but since we discuss our finances in general pretty frequently, I suspect strongly that he'll not only agree with this, but even more solidly on board with that notion than I am.
Therefore I'm going to ask the Liberty Mutual agent for new quotes without that 20-year addendum. I think I'll also ask him for a quote on their smallest available benefit, $50,000, just to see how inexpensively we could get this just to have some coverage outside of our employers.
I did ask about their customer service process in the event of filing a claim, however. They do require an original death certificate before starting the process, but that's going to be fairly common I think. Seems like a low hassle scenario afterward, though, and that's really important to me.
And did I tell you about buying appliances?
We need to buy a refrigerator and washer/dryer set. We found out that the Frisco (town next door to Plano, where we currently live) Sears is having a Friends & Family sale just after we leave, 20% off on all Kenmore appliances! I gotta find out if they can and will do a courtesy sale for an Austin store and have it delivered from a local place. If so, I may send my mother with specific instructions to buy stuff for us. With three big appliance purchases looming immediately, 20% off is mighty tasty!
Refrigerator
Our 30-minute trip to Sears the other night was OVERWHELMING. Way too many choices! We definitely made the right choice going to get a feel for what's available without pressure to buy on that trip. Ian likes side-by-side because that's what he grew up with and it's familiar. I like a bottom freezer because they're supposedly much more energy efficient (and Energy Star labels we saw seem to back this up), I'm short, I hate frozen chicken breasts falling on me, and because most of what we freeze is in bags or is irregularly shaped and doesn't stack well. We both hate traditional apartment-style top freezers, so we've been able to eliminate that.
I want ice and cold filtered water in the outside door.
I like more compartmentalization rather than less.
Ian wants a stainless steel finish, and I don't especially care, so I can agree to that.
That's all we've got so far. OVER. WHELMED. Gotta check Consumer Reports and read some "Amazon.com" style consumer comments on different models online.
Washer & Dryer
Ian has said that he doesn't care about this topic at all, so he'll support whatever my wishes are here.
The single point I've decided is that I don't want to spend more to get quieter models. I don't care. I used to have a set with the Kenmore "Quiet Pack II," and they were just fine on noise in an apartment where everything is close together. In a house, the laundry will presumably be farther away, so Quiet Pack II is still fine with me. No sense paying more just for Quiet Pack IV, so that's decided.
But traditional top-loading, el cheapo, or fancier front-loaders? Looking at cheapo Kenmores regardless, not ready to go for super fancy computerized, colored, bells & whistles LG or something.
Since all dryers are, by definition, "front loaders," there's really no reason for me not to get the fancy kind that's more energy efficient. At worst, the washer & dryer might be different heights. Do I care? I don't think I care.
The washer is the sticking point. 13 gallons a run v. 45 gallons is extremely compelling to me! I like spending less money on water, and my inner hippie respects that fresh water is a nearly finite resource on earth and conservation is a good thing. I understand they also wash faster -- not a big point as it's the drying times that really hold up the works, but it helps. They're supposedly more gentle on clothing, which I admit I don't really care much about.
Cons: Higher cost upfront to the tune of about $200-$300 apiece. Do I want to bend forward all the time to pull the clothes out? I can always pay later to build a platform or get one of those fancy attached ones. I can't see myself every using the drawer space beneath it for anything I wanted to access often, and if I put it in there for long-term storage, I'd likely forget about those objects forever. Therefore they are clutter and must be annihilated! You have to buy special detergent for some models -- BUT! It's supposedly no more expensive than traditional detergent, but you less of it, so again, saving money and being nicer to the environment. I have heard, however, that you have to swipe the moisture off the door between each load to prevent mildew. I am OCPD enough to do this, but Ian never will, and children will not, and I'll be lucky if teenagers don't put the cat in there or something. This is not a dealbreaker, but it is a consideration.
I will check the figures online about energy and water usage and make myself an Excel spreadsheet to compare the actual long-term cost of each of machine over time, and then consult the consumer comments. I'll skip Consumer Reports on this one. I did that research in 2005, and it lead me to some UFO of a technological monstrosity that had no clear "Permanent Press" setting. I think my tastes run much more to the cheap & simple as laundry goes.
EDIT: The federal government has already done this work for me. Here is a page with a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with all the Energy Star information about clothes washers.
EDIT 2:The difference between the most efficient Kenmore washer and the least efficient is about $800 over 10 years of electricity and water use at today's rates as near as I can figure. Since the price of both these resources goes up frequently, the actual difference would be greater. This is compelling, but then again, we'd all buy top of the line everything if money were no object! Alas, it is indeed.
Now I'm off to what I think will be an extremely busy and possibly very long last day in the office.
Friend coming over tonight for dinner and the last episode of BSG. Goodness, I sure hope there's plot!
If you have a chance, catch the recent episode of "The Daily Show" with Bruce Springsteen -- not that the interview with The Boss was that awesome, but there's a bit about AIG that had tears rolling down my cheeks. Jon Stewart was just in very fine form that night.
Peace out, yo.
T$