USA! USA! USA!

When checking out some videos on YouTube I came across the below. This guy basically goes on a diatribe about how most business cards are crap and forgettable. The guy is pretty intense, but engaging at the same time. “Life isn’t about being well liked, it is about being effective.”

Luckily my cards are kinda unique, though they are normal sized:

Like most guys, I really enjoy piddling around in the garage. My father does the same thing as he often sits out there in is 1973 desk chair watching Judge Judy. Because I spend so much time in my “man room”, I try to make it as organized as possible. My father recently gave me these super duper heavy duty carts to put all my stuff on. He has a ton of them that he uses for his home based Penny Machine business.

What kind of garage setups do you guys have? Would love to find more ways to make the garage more useful and awesome…. kegerator anyone?

Notice how everything is on casters so I can wheel the carts out to re-organize or clean the garage floors.

I took the day off recently to do a beach/zoo day over in the Cocoa Beach area off the east coast of Florida. The Brevard Zoo is small, but extremely nice. My favorite part is definitely the Giraffes.

Sorry for my poor cameraman skills:

I owned a second car for the past 6 years, only as a ‘toy” to have a little bit of fun.   After all of the tinkering, changes, and modifications I did to the vehicle, I calculated I had just a tad over 20k in the thing.  I didn’t spend all that money for investment reasons, but rather as a project or hobby.

With the economic slow down,  I decided to put the car up for sale because that extra cash would come in handy has a cushion.   I posted several Craigslist ads and noticed a a recurring theme. Every serious inquiry I got included a trade of some sorts. The only guy that wanted to do a cash deal didn’t even have the money, he wanted to put the car on a lay-away type of program.

The car sitting in my garage collecting dust doesn’t really do me any good, so I was open to a trade as long as the item I was getting was two things: 1.) of equal or greater value  2.) be easier to liquidate.

So, a guy out of Miami contacted me about the car and asked a whole slew of questions and said he had a motorcycle to trade.  I was open to that because I love bikes, but haven’t had one in a long time.

The deal went through and I got an 00 Honda RC51 v-twin sport bike PLUS cash in exchange for my car.   I don’t plan on keeping the bike, as I ultimately would rather have a waverunner or boat.

Gourmet food for an awesome bday celebration:

I have owned my own house for 14 months and realized very quickly that it requires a lot of work. Seems like there is always stuff to do! From remodeling outdated rooms, doing regular maintenance, to cutting the grass….. it just never ends.

I live in one of those neighborhoods where there is a lot of pressure to have a nice yard. One guy, I swear, cuts his grass every-other day.

Well lately I have noticed that my grass as been looking a little……mmm… dead. I hired TruGreen, but didn’t see much improvement.

I had a hunch that maybe the sprinkler system was having issues, but it was just checked a few weeks ago. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a test run during daylight hours since I have the timer set to 4 a.m.

Bingo! Look what I discovered:

I busted out the old PVC primer and cement and got the pipe reglued in no time. Now it is just a waiting game for the yard to come back to life… .hopefully.

I haven’t been in years since I no longer have a bike, but decided to head up this year for fun. We walked around Main St and then headed to the speedway for the AMA Supercross races.

With the economic slowdown, it is as important as ever to make smart financial choices.  Don’t buy things you don’t need, invest time in shopping around for a good deal, and never buy something brand new if used will do (this is my dad’s favorite saying).

About two weeks ago I had a little mishap in my truck…. basically, I hit a pole.

I called around and stopped by a few body shops and the CHEAPEST quote I got was for $1800. Personally, I thought that was outrageous. Mind you, I did not notify my insurance company so I was to absorb the entire cost out of pocket.

After doing some searching online, I found a website that could send me all the parts needed for the repair, with shipping, for $390.

I am not a mechanic and literally have zero experience doing body work.  However, I tend to be pretty handy and decided to tackle the job myself:

As you can see the bumper support was bent back, so my father and I used a chain and his van to pull the support beam back to the upright position.

We finally got the bumper installed and decided to move onto the fender:

The fender did take some modification and “finessing”, but we finally got it on and installed properly.

Now obviously the fender still needs to be painted, but the quotes I have recieved for this has been around $250 bucks.   This means that the total job cost around $650 bucks, $1,100 less than the body shop wanted…. and the whole ordeal took less than 4 hours to complete.

Just goes to show that a little elbow grease and hardwork can go a long way when saving money.

It is really no big secret that I love Judge Judy.  For some reason, I find her show so captivating.  It is almost like watching a train wreck…. before it happens.   The anticipation of knowing the folks going on the show, especially the defendants, are about to get annihilated.    It’s not all fun and games though, as you can actually learn a lot from her antics!   Below are the top 5 things I have learned from Judge Judy: