The Addison Cafe

Ah, Trader Joe’s. I love their frozen pizzas. I had just heard the oven timer go off, indicating that the crispy, meaty goodness I was about to consume was ready. I pulled it out of the oven and as I was chopping it into perfectly formed hand held wedges of love, a big chunk of onion fell to the ground. Within a split second my dog Shinobi (see below post for more information) seemingly teleported to the kitchen and devoured the piece of onion. Licking his lips, he looked up at me with perked ears.  I started to laugh at how desperate dogs are for food scraps, but then I faintly remembered hearing somewhere that onions were bad for dogs. It turns out that one of our blog subscribers named Kelly responded to my pet post with a comment on what foods are bad for dogs. If Kelly wouldn’t have written that, I would have never known…  I got online and googled “onions bad for dogs”, crossing my fingers while the results came up. Not good. Apparently, onions do some nasty damage to a dogs red blood cells, leading to anemia and in extreme cases, death. Typically it is large quantities of onions that have the worst affect, but being that Shinobi is a small dog I didn’t want to take any chances.

Shinobi looked more than pleased with himself after scrounging the onion, but I decided to call the vet and explain the situation anyways.  After being put on hold and listening to some awesome (yeah right) orchestra music (was it supposed to calm my nerves or something?) the vet assistant got back on and told me that the doctor says I need to get Shinobi to throw up. Oh, goodie.  I asked how I was supposed to accomplish that fun feat and she told me to make him drink one tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide. You know, that stuff that you use to dye hair and that you aren’t supposed to drink.  I was suddenly more concerned about him drinking hydrogen peroxide than I was about the onion. Deciding to trust the vet (imagine that), my wife and I grabbed the pup, sped down to Safeway, and spent $1.40 on a bottle of the stuff.

I ran out to the parking lot where my wife was holding Shinobi and unscrewed the lid. I figured out how to get him to drink it when I remembered the good old days of elementary school where we would stick our straws in milk, put a finger over the straw opening, and then draw the straw out, thus holding the milk inside the straw. I don’t know why that was so fun, but hey. So that’s what we did with the hydrogen peroxide…my wife put the straw in the bottle, thumb over the top, pulled it out and stuck the end in his little mouth. Judging from the noises and the twitching, I don’t think he liked it too much.  He made some interesting gestures but nothing “happened”. I called the vet back and in the middle of asking what to do since he didn’t throw up and now the chemicals where mixed up inside him, I looked down and saw him bobbing his head acting tweaked out. Half way through a head bob…BOOM! Partially digested puppy chow a la mode on the Safeway parking lot, crowned not with a cherry on top, but rather a large piece of onion. Woo-Hoo! I never thought I would be that happy over puppy waste…

And that is the story of how a blog comment and $1.40 bottle of hydrogen peroxide saved my dog’s life. Thank you for all your thoughts and comments, they are worth a lot more than we sometimes imagine. (A special thanks to Kelly for the comment!)

I could feel the rush of wind against my face, the sun on my neck, and the adrenaline racing through my heart; I felt truly alive. And at 25 mph no less. Oh the joys of scooting. I never thought much about scooters until I got on one for the first time. Sure, I came close to hitting a curb, falling over, and almost running into a parked car, but I knew I had found a new friend.

I am now on my second scooter, a 2006 SYM HD125cc that only cost me about 2,800 bucks brand new and gets upwards of 80 mpg (btw way, even though my first scooter only went 25mph, this one goes 70mph; they aren’t all slow). Even using premium it only costs about $6.50 to fill the tank and off that I can go to work 8 times. Per month my gas bill is around 15 big ones. What’s yours?

When it comes to scooters, you won’t find me complaining about the ease of parking, financial savings, enjoyment of riding, or the cool factor (go ahead and laugh skeptics…I know you’re out there. I am comfortable with my scooter masculinity). I won’t lie to you; scooting was no small help in attracting my future wife in college either (it’s kind of a James Bond thing; girls dig dangerous guys).

In all seriousness, check out the following math on scooter savings. If you buy a new scooter at 3k over 36mo, at our current low rate (depending on your credit) of 4.74% your monthly payment would be 90 bucks. Insurance for a year is around 100, and for this example we will just say 120 (which comes out to 10 bucks a month). 90 per month for the loan, plus 10 for insurance, plus 15 for gas = 115 bucks per month. If you own your scooter, then it is only 25 per month. Sometimes people don’t buy a scooter because they don’t want to spend 3-4k on the purchase, when in reality their monthly expenses will actually go down due to gas savings alone. Everyone is different…run the numbers and see what you come up with. You could save a bundle and have fun doing it.

PS: I live in Mountain View, Ca and have searched for a scooter gang in the bay area but found none. Anyone game?

PPS: If you are thinking of buying a scooter, do some research. Stay away from some over the overseas off-name brands that are cheap. You are pretty safe with anything that is Kymco, Honda, SYM, Vespa, Aprilia, Daehlim, Piaggio, Suzuki, and Yamaha. There are probably some others, but those are the big guns that tend to be pretty reliable. (I also recommend taking a motorcycle safety course, it could save your life).

I recently got an email from a member who is about to get married (congratulations!). She had a couple of thoughts that I wanted to shed some light on:

“I’m about to be moving out from my parents and getting married, making myself officially no longer a dependent.  So now I’m starting to scratch my head about budgeting and what to expect.  Like, how much should I expect to spend on groceries, how much rent we can really afford, what to expect to be paying in car, health, home/renters insurance.  I suppose this could kind of be cut down into to separate topics: the cost of officially becoming an independent from your parents (like insurance-wise and such), and budgeting for life’s expenses when you’re clueless as to what to expect.  Then throwing marriage in the mix could also be a different twist.”

Ah, the newlywed stage. Exhilarating and daunting at the same time.  Anyone who has been there knows there is a lot of change, some good and some…uumm… I quickly wanted to touch on the question about how much to expect to spend on groceries, insurance, rent, etc.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for that one. Everyone has a totally different situation. For example, I moved from Corvallis, Or paying $699 for a nice 3 bed, 2 bath apartment to Mountain View, Ca where we ended up over doubling our rent payment (to 1489/mo not including the extra utilities we pay) for a half-way decent 1 bed, 1 bath apartment. Kind of like living in a walk-in closet…with a dog. Each situation calls for different budgeting. How much do you want to save? Spend? Give away? Invest? What is most important to you? Everyone is unique.

How you spend money as a couple is also tricky. Some couples spend what they each earn. Others do the allowance type thing. Kinda like government…you have communism, dictatorships, democracy, etc. Take your pick :) The number 1 most important thing to do, regardless of your method is to talk about your expectations.  This can save you more trouble than you know. (Don’t forget that financial stress is one of the top reasons for divorce.)  It is amazing how much we subconsciously “assume” our partner will think like us. Most of us find out the hard way that this isn’t true.

I know saying “it’s up to you” doesn’t really help much…but I won’t leave you high and dry. Young couples can’t possibly expect to know all there is to know about finances, so it is wise to seek out people who do know (not older people; I know a lot of those who couldn’t make a smart financial decision to save their life. Seek out wise people whose lives evidence smart financial handling skills). I read 2 books recently that were phenomenal from David Bach, “The Automatic Millionaire” and “Smart Couples Finish Rich”. It doesn’t get better than that (they are fast and fun to read too). Don’t wait to start getting ahead until you are 40; start now.  I would love to hear from anyone who has been impacted by those books (or can recommend other books) or has their 2 cents on making finances work in marriage.

So in summary: Talk a lot and learn a lot. It makes all the difference.

I remember walking into the stale office. My breathing was shorter, heart rate was accelerated, and my legs were like jello. What was going to happen? Would what it be like? Would it hurt? The nice man smiled at me and said, “don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing”… Several hours later it was all over. I was groggy, exhausted, and didn’t feel like myself. And my appetite was completely gone. Some of you might think this post will be about the horrors of oral surgery, but you’re wrong (that will be another post). I’m actually talking about the first time I bought a car (ok, he didn’t say “you won’t feel a thing” but he might as well have).

Buying a car from a dealership can be a fabulous way to lose A LOT of money and feel good doing it (not a good combo). These guys spend 40hrs a week for years trying to figure out how to MAKE YOU buy a car at the highest price possible. (Note: I know some people that are completely honest car salesmen and whom I trust completely. I even applied to sell cars at one point. This post is stereotypical so take it with a grain of salt). My first time in a dealership I told the friendly gent in the suit I would give him 14,000 and my old 1993 rattling Toyota Tercel for a used Scion Tc marked at 14,300. He stroked his stubbly chin, emitted a low “Hhmmm” and ran off to “get it approved”. Skipping happily back to me 15 minutes later he shook my hand vigorously while repeating “14k and the Tercel for trade”. I was stoked. “Ha” I thought, I really showed them. I, the great master negotiator, had pulled it off and gotten the car on my terms. Shoot, that was easy. I wondered why everyone else complains about buying a car…they must not be as clever as I was. Hmm (yeah right). Halfway through applications and paperwork the sales guy comes back and says “ssoooo, anyways, about that price…finance says they can’t do that, they will only give you 100 for your trade”. Heart rate goes up again at this point. I should have puffed up my chest and told him what would happen to him if he didn’t get me the price he deceptively quoted me while shaking my hand, but being young, naïve, and 6 inches shorter than him, I stuttered “uh, oh-ok”. Then he led me to the bottomless pit (the finance office) where the finance manager tried ripping me off on some 2,500 dollar warranty. I told her I wouldn’t be needing it because Scion was made by Toyota and Toyotas don’t break down (LOL). She looked like she would eat my children for dinner if I didn’t buy it (I don’t have children, but if I did…). After arguing for several minutes on the mechanical reliability of Toyotas with her she finally conceded and wrote up the contract. Another hour later and I was finally free to leave in my new car. I have heard worse stories, but the experience was still enough to frustrate me. In case you are thinking of buying a car soon, here are a 5 ways to save yourself some pain at the dealership (things I learned the hard way):

1. They need you more than you need them. YOU have the power. There are plenty of other cars out there. You can walk away.
2. Learn about the extra products like GAP and warranty before hand, you could save a bundle. For instance, we offer the same stuff as dealerships and a lot of it is WAY less.
3. Don’t act excited. If they think you like the car they are going to have a much easier time getting you to buy. Make them get on their knees and beg you.
4. They know they will end up selling it under sticker price. Barter Barter Barter. Unless it is a Saturn or a Scion (smart companies that set the price so you don’t have to deal with deceptive handshakes).
5. Take someone with you who knows the game. This can make all the difference in the world!

What car buying nightmares have you ran into?