Car Buying

Here is what I learned about car buying:

Most important - do all your car research before going to a dealer.

If you have multiple dealers of the same car manufacturer in the area find out which dealer is number 1 in sales. Then go to the other dealer.

Go at the end of the month. Salesmen and dealers are in a huge mess to try and make their numbers.

Talk specifically about a car on their lot. It gives you more power than if they have to find the car you want because they need to get rid of their inventory.

Whichever car you like on the lot, it doesn't have just every feature you want. There are multiple features missing that you don't like about it. Make that very clear.

The sticker price is just a number, you want to know the invoice price. I don't know the best way you ask to see this, but get it, it is how much the dealer is on the hook for for the car. I am sure it varies but employee pricing is basically $100 over the invoice price.

Even if you are happy with the first offer they give you, you are not happy with the first offer they give you. The other dealer, number 1 in sales dealer, is going to beat that offer by at least $100. Number 2 in sales dealer is very aware of this.

Leaving after sitting down with a salesman is your greatest power, not the money you have. If you get up and leave you got the hook out of your mouth and are gone, forever for all they know. Make it clear there is only one way for them to make you leave with a car before you get up and go shop around, visit the other dealers, look at other cars and think about your decision.

And that's how I own a new car.

In memory of Emily Teller Files

I believe Grandma Em would have turned 98 this week. Can that be right?

Fortune

Today I learned nothing about my fortune.

Or how to spell 'Strawberry' in some language.

Brangelina of Companies

Nabisco is short for the National Biscuit Company.

Phantom of the Garage

Strange music is coming from the garage.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_cM0eZ5vIM

Doll Face

Amish dolls do not have faces. Just think about Barbie and America and you can pretty much figure out why.

eHow will tell you too.

Ice cream?

Who remembers the old ice cream maker, with the special metal cups you had to use for it.

Who knows where the ice cream maker is, but at least one metal cup is still in the fridge, chilling.

Lunch

Today I learned my bread looks like lettuce.

White Elephant

"In ancient Asia white elephants were extremely rare and regarded as holy animals. It was very expensive to keep one because the elephant required special food and its owner also had to serve the numerous pilgrims that would come to worship it. If a king was displeased with one of his administrators, he would give him a white elephant as a gift. The administrator could not refuse a gift from the king but the upkeep of the elephant could financially ruin its new owner. This is the origin of the expression "white elephant.""

from Do Fish Drink Water?

Day in Nashville

Nashville stop over when coming back from camp...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62zoJkSqYos

Low Man on the Totem Pole

"Low man on the totem pole" is commonly used to describe the least important person, however, the meaning is actually reversed. The bottom figure of a totem pole is usually the most important figure and a place of honor. The person commissioned to make the totem pole usually only does the first couple feet while his helpers carve the rest.

References:

Stuff You Should Know podcast - Awesome podcast.

Answer Bag

Wiki

Eewwww

Yikes. Would you believe I just had a bat in my house? Eewww. Think it got in maybe via the fireplace/chimney. I managed to open a window in Alan's room and frantically wave it out with a towel, while my heart was racing, and Saffron was barking, snapping and jumping. Whew! Sorry, didn't get a photo--ha!

Charity

A couple of interesting thoughts on charity, told in a very interesting media format.

I think the question at the end of it is "what is there to do?" Some situations will get better through the slow progress of advancing civilization, but when do you switch from thinking about the individual to thinking about the community (especially when the individual's suffering causes you to action, but the alleviating of the suffering doesn't help the situation that caused it) An interesting example of this is that buying women out of prostitution makes the business of selling women in prostitution more profitable.

I found this tension, between helping individuals and helping much larger organizations (that move much slower), has really been the hard point to decide on in my thoughts on giving.

Carcassone strikes again

Hey, all you Carcassone fans,
Have you heard there's a new game/extension out--Carcassone Wheel of Fortune:




Product Description
For years, knights, monks, farmers and builders have been undisturbed in their. But now a mysterious Wheel of Fortune changes the course of events in Carcassonne. The plague sends followers back home, famines must be fought. The players also receive additional points from knights, which collect taxes. Whoever is in the right place at the right moment, moves his destiny in the right direction. For everyone who knows the original Carcassonne game, the start is especially easy, because the Wheel of Fortune comes with just a few easy rules added to make a whole new game experience. Furthermore, the material of Wheel of Fortune can combine with the original Carcassonne and all the available extensions for even greater adventure. Wheel of Fate is both a full replacement for the base game of Carcassonne and an expansion to the original base game. It includes 72 tiles, consisting of 63 tiles released in the original base game, 6 from Inns & Cathedrals, 1 from Traders & Builders and 2 from King & Scout. It also includes a special replacement start tile which depicts the Wheel of Fortune, a new mechanic unique to this edition of the game. The new start tile is the size of 16 tiles, arranged in a 4x4 square and is built using some of the tiles removed from the base game.

Yogurt Parfait

The Slap Chop works EXACTLY as advertised. Simply an amazing product.

Egg in a poke

So, I recently saw some people on the internet discussing the name for this...

And people had some crazy answers,

egg-in-a-basket,

toad in the hole,

egg-in-the-hole,

bird's nest

and a bunch of other names, check it out here.

But not even on the wikipedia site does it list what we all know is it's true name "egg-in-a-poke". And now, because I love linguistics, and because you all humour me, here's why I propose the Files name for it is the correct one.

The word poke is an old word meaning bag or sack, where we get the word "pocket". It was used in the 14th century by Chaucer, and in the 16th by Shakespeare. (They probably used the word when their mom's made it for them for breakfast.)

Therefore, since it is a very old word, and has fallen out of modern parlance, we take the older saying to be original!

Gazpacho

Today I learned that I don't like Gazpacho. It's up there with pickles and peas for me now.

I'd like to know what everyone's least favorite food is. Go...

R-rated

What is the top-grossing R-rated film of all time?

You wouldn't guess the answer. And then when you hear the answer you won't be shocked.

*HINT* - You forgot it was rated R. But when you hear the answer, you'll quickly remember it was rated R.

ANSWER

New Apple Product

I made this mockup of a new apple product, it's a joke, and it's pretty funny, the only problem is that it has a limited audience.

Failed

Today, I learned this blog is not going to work. Failed experiment, off it goes into the blog abyss.

Stitches

Once you get a cut, you typically have 6 hours to get stitches to avoid a high possibility of infection and for best healing results.

7 stitches 3 hours 5 minutes after the accident

20 hours 15 minutes healing

GI Joe

I found this pic on the internet and I have no idea who this kid is, but I always wanted the GI Joe Aircraft Carrier.

Aluminum Cans

I have believed I could make money off aluminum cans my whole life, especially by collecting the tabs of cans. I think in grade school I remember hearing a full gallon milk jug of just tabs was worth like $25.

I guess this "money maker" is going to do me as much good as my baseball cards.

Here is the proof:

Pull Tabs

Aluminum Can Collecting

iPad

Whoever said, "money can't buy happiness," well, that probably made a lot more sense before the iPad.

I won an iPad at a conference for work and a company was doing a random drawing for the precious. Hands down the greatest contest I have ever won.

Here is where the phrase "hands down" comes from:

"The term dates back to the mid-19th century and the genteel world of British horse racing. Back then, a jockey who found himself way ahead as he approached the finish line would relax his grip on the reins and drop his hands. Not as confrontational as a spiked football, but still a bit of gestural in-your-face-ness. By the late 19th century, the idiom had been extended to non-racing contexts, and it remains in frequent use today."

Old School TV: Dumbo's Circus

Came across this gem today...

Anyone else remember watching that one???

Mulberries

Today I picked some mulberries (from the Morus tree) with some friends and we made jam out of it.

In related news, I did not win an iPad.

iPad

Today I learned I won an iPad.

Style

Neon is cool again.

Style has a way of coming back and becoming popular again. Short shorts in the NBA and well, these, might never see popularity again. I'll hold on to them for the owner though... in my attic's "costume box."

Dopp Kit

Why is that bag with all your toiletries called a Dopp kit?

The name derives from early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, a German immigrant to the United States, who invented his toiletry case in 1919.

I need to invent something and have my name on it.

Ernest

Today I learned that there are 3 Ernest movies I don't have...

Toy Story 3

The Ernest, of "Ernest goes to Camp" fame, Jim Varney died in 2000. I don't remember having a memorial, but I should have. (The Ernest series has 10 movies in all. Brothers, I am thinking a marathon is in order.)

And what about Toy Story 3? He was the voice of "Slinky Dog." WAS, now it is Blake Clark.

I love you Ernest P. Worrell.

"How about a bumper sandwich boogerlips." Which movie?

Chicago

Chicago is called "The Windy City" for a couple of reasons, perhaps you were thinking because the wind, but it really caught on because of its notorious long winded politicians.

BOOM! DOUBLE BONUS!!

Chicago's wind is called The Hawk.

A surprise in the garden...

I was removing a bush from our garden area like this one....



...and I had cut off all the branches when I came across this...



...and on closer inspection found this surprise...so cute after the initial shock....




....and have carefully covered them back up again for the present with this makeshift "shrub"...



...so what I've learned is that if you see a clump of fur lying about in the yard somewhere...you may find bunnies
underneath it!
(Some of you may remember that this happened to me just once before in our backyard in Lawton, OK)

Wrestling

Turns out, wrestling is real.

Most recent Alpha class--cook out June 8

This week we had a reunion of the Alpha class that just finished. Thought of you all as we took this in the same spot as the family pics...



And of course we had to have 'funny' version -- you know how we do....

Jamais vu

Jamais vu is the opposite of déjà vu.

Take a minute to let that sink into your head and your brain will explode.

Taking apart stuff

I took apart my iPod touch, to try to fix the headphone jack.

maybe tomorrow I'll learn how to put it back together...

Cedar Bucket

I learned the World's Largest Cedar Bucket is 10 minutes from Oxford, MS.

Q-tips

Q-tips were originally called Baby Gays.

What does the Q in Q-tip stand for?

Here is the history. Spoiler alert, it stands for Quality.

Mary Anning

While telling a geology major about finger fumblers I explained they are like tongue twisters, you know she sells seashells down by the sea shore...

He says, you know the 'she' in that was written about Mary Anning, a palaeonoloigst who gathered one of the most amazing collection of fossils ever.

Here is her wiki page.

Conveyance

One thing I learned on my recent trip to Italy...
Our guide told us we'd be riding the choo-choo (with McDonald's written all over it no less. That seemed a funny thing for a grown man to tell a group of adults. After I got on, I saw the sign...Who knew??

Juggling Combat

it's just a matter of time until I find other people who want to do this...

Making the team

http://pettube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b2db54d55bc8bba2fad1

This is my first test of contributing to the "conversation". I love this idea and thank Preston for setting it up.
Hope that all will 'speak up'!
What I learned is what I don't think Saffron could learn in a million years of training as seen on this video....couldn't get it to link up, so maybe you can figure it out anyway, or help me learn to set up the link properly.

Candy Land

On a recent board of Candy Land, Queen Frostine was no where to be found. Candy Land has striped her of title and given her a makeover...

Synthetic Oil

I have a 2005 Saab 9-3 and was told when it was purchased that it ran on synthetic oil that needs to be changed every 15,000 miles. But, my mechanic said that it actually is more like 7,500 miles driving in a city. Synthetic oil changes cost like $50. So you really don't save any money, but maybe a little time.

Here is what The Honest Mechanic says.

Finger Fumblers

In sign language there are phrases that are difficult to sign, like tongue twisters are to say, called finger fumblers.