The U.S. Post Office is going digital! In many areas of the country, you can sign up for a service where the USPS will email you a digital scan of your mail BEFORE you get it! I found this service by chance when browsing the USPS website. It’s called...
In March 2019, my wife and I went on an “REI Adventures” trip to the South island of New Zealand for some hiking and kayaking. It truly was a memorable adventure! What is an REI Adventure? REI Adventures are multi-day group trips, usually involving hiking...
My wife and I spent a day in Christchurch, New Zealand before embarking on an REI hiking trip in the southern island. We had no real plans in Christchurch, so we decided to just head to the city center, walk around, and play it by ear. Luckily for us, Christchurch is...
If you’re planning a trip to Orlando to go to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, check out these tips which I compiled during my trip there. These are the most important things I think attendees of the Magic Kingdom should know before going. 1. FastPasses are a...
If you’re on an an individual phone plan with one of the big four carriers, these tips can give you significant savings! 1. Call Your Current Provider to Complain The easiest way to save money on your plan might be to simply call your current provider to...
Are you making any New Year’s resolutions this year? How about making some that would save you thousands of dollars over the course of a year? Consider some of these resolution ideas to do just that! As a bonus, most of these ideas have side effects that will...
My wife had a graduate school student loan with an interest rate of over 6%. Although this was a government student loan with forgiving repayment terms in case of unemployment, the whopping interest rate meant we had painful monthly payments! After we got married, we...
These narrow floating wall shelves are perfect for decorating a blank wall without spending a lot of money My wife and I had a huge blank wall above our couch that needed decorating. Our first instinct was to put some paintings in that space, but after hours of...
For Halloween 2018, my wife and I went as John Lennon and Yoko Ono to our local Halloween swing dance party. Here’s how we put together the costumes. The Idea Years ago, I was in New Orleans for Halloween, and I saw a couple dressed as John and Yoko, wearing all...
Getting a colonoscopy may seem like a pretty big deal. You have to fast for a day or so, then clear your bowels the by drinking something that induces diarrhea. Most folks get general anesthesia for the procedure, and the the hospital experience resembles that of...
We were looking for modern, compact yet comfortable bar stools that would go with my bar. We have limited space, so back-less saddle style was the way to go. Plus, this style is actually pretty popular right now. We found the perfect ones at Wayfair.com, the Mahaffey...
For a long time, I had been annoyed by sun getting into my eyes while biking. Even when wearing sunglasses and a helmet with brim, the sun seemed to “leak in” from the sides. Sure, wrap-around sunglasses solves that, but when I wasn’t wearing...
These products worked better than a professional exterminator for us. We had a bad ant problem. It got to the point where if a crumb fell on the floor, in thirty minutes there would be an ant trail going to it. We tried some of those ultrasonic insect repellents. They...
I got engaged on New Year’s Eve. We wanted to get married as soon as possible with a formal wedding, and we were able to do so in less than three months on March 18th of that year! When we told folks we were planning to get married so soon, many were shocked....
Like many runners, I used the Strava iPhone app to track my runs. But, I was tired of having to carry my iPhone with me; I had it in an arm band and it was difficult to remove, making checking my pace almost impossible without stopping. So, when the iPhone Series 3...
When I moved to the East Coast, I only took a fraction of my stuff with me. I left a lot of it back in L.A: most of my music equipment, lots of books, some clothes, furniture, and so forth. The interesting thing is the entire time I was away, I didn’t miss any...
Not having to exchange gifts might be the best gift you can give your family and friends. One Christmas some years ago, my family came to an agreement that made all of us breathe a huge sigh of relief: we agreed to stop exchanging presents. The truth is, we were...
Las Vegas is famous for gambling and the Strip, but there are many other cool things to do there that are often overlooked in the afterglow of the casinos. If you aren’t into gambling, or you ran out of money, or you’re just plain tired of the madness of the...
It’s a common problem: you have a bathroom with thin walls and/or a flimsy door adjacent to a living room or other common area. Whenever someone uses the toilet, everyone can hear the person doing their thing. My condo has that problem. It’s embarrassing...
Many people dream of quitting their jobs and going freelance or starting their own business. Are you one of them? Maybe you want to control your own schedule, escape a bad boss, or get out of the cubicle and work from home. In 2012, I did just that, becoming a...
