Colts Game

As a surprise for Staci's birthday I planned a trip to Nashville, TN to have a weekend away as well as to watch the Colts and Titans.  We left work early on Thursday to get down here in time to watch the 8:20 kick off.  We got some seats in the upper deck online.  I didn't care how good the seats were, I just wanted to get in.  As we were walking up to the gate Staci started a conversation with some Colts fans.  As we got to the gate they asked where our seats were and I told them that they were in the upper corner.  They asked if we would like to sit with them.  You can see a shot with my camera from our perspective.



It was a fun surprise and great that the Colts won!

Funny Cat Video...

Christmas Cards

This thought just struck me, and I thought you may like it.  Staci and I (mostly Staci) are preparing a Christmas card to be sent out to our friends.  This made me think, Isn't it audacious to send a Christmas card to someone?  Initially you think, no, it is usual and customary!

But what if you think about it like this: I think my friends want a picture of me.  I think it should go on their refrigerator.  They will feel some sense of obligation to keep it up at least a couple of weeks.

Most of you will have that to look forward to.

If you don't get one, sorry.  We didn't have your address.  You're not missing much, its just a picture of me.

Sunday Christmas Decorating

Here is a time lapse of us decorating the tree...

And the ledge in our living room...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!


FYI, I am working on a post detailing the fun that was had by myself, Adam and Ali Wren, and my Mrs. in Sanibel, FL.  Have a great holiday!

DIY

Staci has really gotten into Do It Yourself projects recently thanks to a few different blogs she follows.  This happens to work out some of the time because I am convinced I can do about anything.  (Though I know most of the time I am wrong).  Her frustration with our shoe rack and my "can do" attitude happened to intersect recently.  Find the below pictures.

As you can see, there was a problem.

Here is the solution.

Funny Story

Yesterday we were preparing the house for some guests, Phil and Kara Gormong. As is our tradition we put all of the dirty dishes in the dish washer.  Staci said to me, "Nate, don't run the dish washer, I put some things in there that can't be washed."

I thought the concept of putting items in a dishwasher that can't be washed was ironic, so I said, "Ok, and don't run the garbage disposal, because I put my iPod in it.  And also, don't start the microwave, because I put The Bella in it."

What Budgeting Has Taught Me

Most of you know that I follow the common sense teaching of Dave Ramsey.  If you were not sure, you could have found out here.  My wife, Staci, and I have been budgeting pretty much since we have been married, almost 3 years.  We have looked at our monthly income, projected our expenses, and spent the money on paper (or Google spreadsheet).  I do not recall why we did it initially, other than it was recommended by Dave, but now, 3 years in, I see some added benefit to budgeting.

• When we budget together, we are forced to agree on our priorities in life.  I had a pastor who always used to say, "I can tell your priorities by looking at your planner/day timer and your bank statements." Staci and I are forced, every month to come to an agreement on where we invest or spend our financial resources.
• When you sit down and rationally plan your month ahead of time, your priorities change. 
•  My spending in golf has probably been the biggest change here.  I used to golf a few times per week, and since we started budgeting, I only go out on special occasions.  
• Another example is clothing.  This probably applies more towards Staci than it does me, but by planning out what we need for new clothing purchases ahead of time, we do not make impulse purchases that we regret later.  On the rare chance we do make a mistake on a clothing purchase, we have incentive to take the item back because our clothing budget is finite.
• When doing a 0 based budget, you cannot spend more than you make in a single month.  We have delayed purchases that we may have other wise jumped on earlier.  For example, the computer on which I am typing right now we had to save for.  With a credit card or in store credit we could have made an impulse purchase, but we saved for a few months, shopped around and got exactly what we wanted at a good price.  When you are spending future money it is easy to buy more than you need.  My sister, Jessica, told me that she was saving up for a Mac.  She wanted one for a long time, but now that she had the cash she wasn't sure if she wanted to empty her bank account for a computer (she already has a perfectly good one).  Saving up for something changes how you interact with it.
• When doing a 0 based budget, you also have to acknowledge that spending more on something also means spending less on something else.  We see this every month when one of us says, "we need to spend more on this" the other will say, "where is it going to come from?"  We can invest more, or pay down on the house more aggressively, but what will be neglected?

There is more, I am sure, but those are the biggest differences in the way I look at budgeting from 2007 until now.  What about you?  Do you budget?  If yes, why?  If no, why not?

Customer Service

There is a fine line people try and balance in business between customer service and cost cutting. In the past few weeks I have had personal experience with both sides of the spectrum and I want to discuss my experiences.

Side 1:
AT&T customer service.  I have recently had some issues with disconnecting my home phone, but keeping DSL service.  This was done because it will save about $12/month and we never use our home phone, except to hang up on solicitors.  Rather than an extensive narrative, below you will find some bullet points explaining my frustration.

• Call in procedure: There is a computer that asks you to say what you are calling about.  It gives some common suggestions like "I would like to pay my bill" or "Technical Assistance" but it is difficult to put a 3 word name on problems often.  I think I prefer "press one to pay your bill.  press 2 for technical assistance"
• They always ask for your account number, which I finally learned to keep with me.  When I didn't know it, they would ask for other information, but the response from that was always "I'm having trouble locating your information"
• I eventually just starting shouting "speak with representative" as soon as I got the computer voice.
• Once I did get a human, they would ask me for the exact same information that I just gave the computer, prompting the question, "why did I give it to the computer?"
• Every time I got transfered I would have to give my info again and again.
• I got the feeling that the operators really just wanted to push me off to another department.  I got transfered more times than I could count, and I always had to give my life story to the new person.
• There was no mechanism for the person on the other end of the phone to take responsibility for a problem and see it to conclusion.  When I was at Regions I would grab a customer's problem and see it to its resolution and the follow up  to make sure everything was good.  That level of service was either not possible or just not given to me.

That brings me to the other side of that equation.  Side 2: Chick-Fil-A

• 2 Weeks ago my friend Derek attempted to buy a breakfast platter for our Friday Morning Men's group.  They had dinner there the night before, so he ordered it, got confirmation that it would be ready between 5:30AM and 5:45 in time for our 6:00AM meeting.  He paid for it that night just to make everything go smoothly in the morning.  Well, apparently, the message was not relayed for the morning crew and it was not ready.  In fact, he was told it would not be ready until after 6, since it had not been started when he asked about it.  Frustrated, Derek asked for a refund (so he wouldn't be late) and just got some donuts.
• Derek received a call later in the week apologizing for the mix up and they extended the offer to host one of our meetings and provide breakfast for everyone on the house.
• We all (about 9) showed up the next week and ordered whatever we wanted, all on the house.  They were so gracious and obviously felt that they had a responsibility to make up for letting us down.

Its obvious which was a better example of customer service, but the interesting question is, which is better for the bottom line?  AT&T outsources much of their customer service all over the world, so the cost of the call centers is minimal, however, I have no loyalty to them.  If someone comes in with a better, cheaper, mouse trap, I'll be the first to move.  C-F-A, however, has endeared themselves to me, Derek, and likely the rest of the group of guys that were there that morning.  The next time we are trying to decide between Wendy's and C-F-A, I will probably lean towards the chicken sandwich.  But the benefits do not stop there.  Think about the employees who want to take responsibility for a problem.  CFA gives their people power to make decisions, even if it costs money, in the name of customer service.  That is great for morale and a good work environment.  I have been an employee that has felt like I was wearing handcuffs before, and it is not fun.  Most people want to help others, and it is rewarding to be able to do so.

What are your thoughts?  How would you run your business?

Great Morning

Today was a good day.  Often times during the weekend, I relax and watch some TV.  Some days a little TV turns into quite a bit of TV.  This morning we hopped on the bikes at about 10:30 for a ride.  I wasn't sure where we were going to end up, so we just kept riding.  Once we got to the mall I decided to take the route seen below.


View Larger Map

A great way to start the day. I hope to do it again soon.

I'll know we've made it when...

Staci and I try and say no more often than we say yes.  Part of it is financial, part of it is spiritual.  I can probably afford to have a data package on my cell phone.  (almost all of my adult friends have it and appear to still be eating well)  However, I have chosen not to dive in (yet).

Staci and I often talk about the days in the future when we do not HAVE to say no as often.  We each have one milestone that once we are able to accomplish them, we will know we have made it.

Hers: She can shop exclusively at Ann Taylor Loft
His: We can buy DiGiorno's Pizza (and not Totinos or Aldi brand)

Twins separated at birth?

As you know, I like Aldi.  On Sunday, Staci and I needed to pick up some ingredients to make a dish for some friends that just had a baby.  We stopped by after church to so we could be done with errands and do whatever we pleased for the rest of the afternoon.  As we were checking out I think I ran into our twins that were separated from us at birth!  See my thoughts below...

1. They were two young married people who were shopping together.  Staci and I almost always shop together.  It may not be as efficient, but it is certainly more fun.
2. They were shopping at Aldi.  They obviously are conscientious  of how they spend their money.  I would probably prefer the atmosphere at Marsh, but I'm just not watching willing to pay a 30% premium for it.
3. He was wearing a name tag.  It was one of those printed on label name tags that are also used for address labels.  We had just discarded ours before we walked into the store.  It was obvious to me they were on their way home from church.
4. They went to Taylor University.  Taylor is the basically the equivalent to IWU.  We could have just as easily gone there as we did Indiana Wesleyan University.  I knew they were TY Alumni based on the license plate liner that was on their car.
5. Speaking of their car, theirs was very similar to ours.  It was a compact import (Nissan), very similar to our Toyota Corolla.
6. Lastly, after we left Aldi they went the same place we did.  We hit up the near by Wal-Mart, which is part of our shopping routine.  We stop by there to pick up the one or two things that Aldi does not carry.

This may not be interesting to any one else... I just thought all the external similarities were unusual.

Near death experience...

I almost died yesterday.  Well, that may be an exaggeration, but a situation was presented to me that could have led to death.  Staci and I were discussing something (I don't remember what) as we approached a stop light.  I was at the front of the line in the left lane of a two lane intersection at the corner of 146th and 37.  Below is a picture of the scene.

I would have been waiting for the light exactly where the white car is seen above.  Staci recommended we stop at the CVS that is now at the South East corner of the intersection.  That is the corner seen in the upper right quadrant of the above picture.  I looked to my right and saw that lady in the car next to me was texting, so I knew I would beat her off the line, change lanes to the right lane and safely turn into the CVS parking lot.  Everything went as planned and I stepped on the gas.  Something caught my eye, however, just as I was about to enter the intersection coming from the left.  Well after the light had turned red a big utility van came barreling across the traffic.  Had I continued to pull out, even at a modest pace, the van would have no doubt crushed in the driver's side of my car.  I stood on the horn as he blazed by, apparently oblivious to his red light running.

I have no idea how someone could miss a light by the degree required to come through that late.  I guess we are just fortunate and I will continue to check both directions, even when crossing at a stoplight.

How Stuff Works

I love the technology that pushes Blogs and Podcasts to me.  I check my Google Reader every day and listen to podcasts as well.  One of my favorite sources for both is How Stuff Works.  My favorite podcasts for are Stuff You Should Know and Techstuff.  I think everyone could like SYSK but Techstuff is probably more for people like me.  One of the blogs from HSW.com is from the founder, Marshall Brain.  Below is an excerpt from one of his latest posts.


Leigh cuts my hair. She cuts all of the kids’s hair too. She has been doing this for more than 10 years. It started because one day we were at a K-mart and they had a bunch of remaindered books on a table for a quarter each. One of the books was “How to cut hair” or something like that. If you think about it, that little book has saved us thousands of dollars over the course of a decade.
So I found myself sitting in the kitchen the other night and Leigh was cutting my hair. It was late and I had a lot I was thinking about, and Leigh asked this idle question: “Why do you think we have three blond kids when neither of us has blond hair?” I sort of went into a “pop quiz” mode. Imagine that you are in a science class and the quiz question is, “A man and a woman are raising four children. Neither the man nor the woman, nor either of their parents, are blond. Yet three of their children have blond hair. What are the possible causes?” Yes, there are genetic reasons for children to have blond hair even if the parents don’t. It works the same way for eye color as seen on this page. It gets kind of complicated though, and like I said it was late, I was thinking about other things, and I did not have any particular desire to probe complicated things.
What is a simpler explanation? After all, Occam’s razor says, “the simplest explanation is usually the correct one”, and in pop quiz mode the simplest answer almost always requires less writing. It’s not a radio interview or anything like that where I would need to apply a social filter – I’m in my kitchen talking privately to my wife. So, without really thinking about it, what I said was, “maybe I’m not the father.”
That is a perfectly acceptable scientific hypothesis, and probably the simplest explanation. But I had not bothered to factor in social implications, it being late and all. And really, why should you have to factor in social implications when it comes to science questions? Science is science, and that is a logical, simple answer to the question if it had been asked in a vacuum.
This situation did not turn out to be a vacuum. Fortunately or unfortunately, many humans are social animals. There is a funny quote attributed to Oscar Wilde, something like, “A gentleman does not offend people unintentionally.” That is a huge high bar if you think about it, because you have to be able to do on-the-fly social calculus that prevents offense to all parties in all cases. (It could be argued that Winston Churchill was able to do the calculus in the opposite direction, in order to maximally offend people when necessary). People who can do the calculus consistently in either direction definitely have a gift.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I very nearly ended up walking around the next day with half a haircut. The lesson you can take away from this vignette is that science can sometimes be dangerous, and it is unwise to make alternative suggestions to your wife about her children’s paternity. As the answer to a late-night pop quiz question, it appears to be ill-advised.
So we get past that awkward moment in our relationship, Leigh is cutting away and she muses once more, “I wonder why my hair is so different from my sisters’s?”
“Maybe you are adopted…”

Actually, that ended up being the whole thing.  Hope you enjoyed.

Words With Friends

There is a great game available on the iPhone OS that has been commanding quite a bit of my time recently.  It is a variation on the Scrabble board and tiles.  The concept is the same, however, add up the points for the words you form when you lay your tiles.  Double letters and Triple letters are good.  Double Words and Triple Words are great!  Here are some screen shot from games I have played with Marc and Jon.

  

Both are Bingos. Bingo adds 35 points to your play.  A bingo is when you use all 7 tiles.  It is the holy grail for scrabble players.  The first play was a better score (94) because it was a triple word play, and the second I thought was a more ingenious play because I got HAZERS, AT and TI to go along with STILTED.  Anyway, its a lot of fun, and if you want to play please let me know!

Big Deal Theory

This reminds me. I need to do a post on the Big Deal Theory.

http://globalrichlist.com/

I'll tell you why I like Aldi

We started shopping at Aldi primarily in the fall. Our grocery bill has been cut by about 1/3. The food is good enough, but the price is right! They help you save money by doing the following.

1. You rent your shopping cart for $0.25, but are given a refund if you return it. This saves them money since they do not have to hire people to bring the carts back in, but who instead sit around smoking outside all the time. Also you do not have to worry about carts being in your way when you are trying to park because there is incentive to return them to their original spot.
2. The parking lot is small, and I can almost always park in the front row. At Wal-Mart I feel like I should catch a shuttle from the "Mickey Mouse Lot" just to get in the place. Even at our local Marsh there is usually a hike to get in the store.
3. The store is small and there is space to maneuver around your cart. Have you ever been at Wal-Mart on a Saturday when the whole trailer park is doing their grocery shopping? You will occasionally come around a corner and see a 15 cart pile up down an aisle. I have just thrown my hands up in the air and not bought items on my list to avoid going into that mess.
4. You bring your own bag or you pay for a bag. I love this nudge towards being eco-friendly. Finally a great financial reason to be green! We bring our own bags anyway, so I am glad that the cost of those "free" bags is not built into the price of my food!
5. They scan your stuff so fast! They just scan it and throw it back into your cart. They are able to do this and skip the bagging because...
6. You bag your own food. They make it easy for you, however, and have a separate area when you can take your time and load up the bags you brought. Again, not paying someone to do something I can do myself!
7. They have a limited selection! I know what you are thinking. How is this a benefit? I think in life we have too many choices. This makes the buying process so much easier! It's great for me because if I was at Wal-Mart, Meijer, or Marsh I would be comparing prices. At Aldi I know I am getting a better price anyway.
8. Credit or Debit? The answer is Debit. Banks charge more to the merchant when you say Credit because that is when you get "rewards," cash back, or whatever perk your bank/credit card is offering. Debit is considerably cheaper for the merchant, so the savings can be passed along to the customer. Staci and I use cash for groceries anyway, so I am not subsidizing those rewards credit cards at Aldi!

I hope there is an Aldi nearby where you live. Try it out some time. Just go in with an open mind. Don't expect to find deals on your favorite brands because they don't carry any brands you will recognize. But if you are like me, you were going to buy "Great Value" anyway.

Great Video

This is a video by Ok Go who had that awesome video of the band doing choreography on treadmills. That video was good. This might be great. They have constructed a "Rube Goldberg" machine, which is a series of actions, while typically simple in and of themselves, but when put together form a more complex machine. Typically they serve little purpose, but to be fun. They often perform a very simple end task, but creativity is king. I think this one takes the cake.

Our cat is a dog!

12 Years Old

Kind of a funny story goes with this one. For our bank's celebration of 120 years of service to communities in Indiana we are having a week long party. The number 12 is being thrown around for a few reasons. One, 120 years is 12 decades. There are 12 letters in Ameriana Bank. We have 12 locations. One of the things we were asked to do is provide pictures for when we were 12 years old (Makes sense as not everyone at our bank has eclipsed the 120 year old mark, and everyone has 12.) The picture shown was one of my options to pick that Staci selected from our collection of photos. I asked her if she had ever seen a 12 year old before. Apparently, she hadn't. To make matters worse, the numbers 1991 were etched in the back of the photo. (In her defense, she did not look at the back.) Kenneth and Jessica are standing to my left, and more than likely both have full diapers.

hhhmmm.... wondering why I'm not talking about those awesome green and yellow knee highs.

Also the pattern in those shorts is mesmerizing.

I did rock a pretty sweet crew cut back in the day.

Kids Against Hunger

I had the privilege this weekend of serving the hungry of Haiti by helping prepare meals for them. Our church sponsored a drive for Kids Against Hunger where about 200 people over 4 hours packaged over 70,000 meals to be shipped to Haiti. It was a great experience that taught me just a little as to what it is like to be hungry. The meal was a rice based concoction of vegetables, soy, minerals and vitamins. They developed these ingredients to make an affordable way to get food to those that need it the most. You can find out more about it here. I am not a dietitian, but it looks like a great meal for the hungry in the world. I did get a chance to taste it, and while I wouldn't want to live on it, it was not bad. The rice was a little bland and pasty, but it is packed with nutrients.

The assembly line process they have down to a science. A group of about 10 people can put out hundreds of meals per hour. I do not know our exact count but it was probably around 200-250 in an hour and a half. We had 4 people dumping ingredients into the bag, 2 people weighing the bags, and 2 people sealing and packing away the bags.

I would encourage you to look at Kids Against Hunger's Website http://www.kidsagainsthunger.org/index.shtml and look for volunteer opportunities or even just donating resources. It is an amazing opportunity.

Our Little Photographer

I guess Bella stole our camera and started taking pictures of herself.