I played a lot of board and card games this weekend. Friday night was “Clue Mysteries.” Saturday evening: Trhyme. Sunday: Go Bananas. Today, aMAZEing Labyrinth, Trouble and Uno. The first three games suffer from fomplicated rules. Clue Mysteries is essentially a respinning of the venerable Clue game. They’ve added fifty pre-canned scenarios, more of the […]
Dear Dell: Suppose you’re a business traveler on a mid-afternoon flight to a two-day trade show in a large metropolis. In your haste to adhere to the new arbitrary security restriction of the month, you were all over packing the sub three-ounce shaving cream, but forgot your Dell laptop power cord. Worse, you didn’t realize
When it sucks to own a Dell Read More »
After the initial panic wore off, I realized this is just my FSA* provider, and my exposure is limited to $381. Had it been my 401(k), I would be turning green and menacing. My editorial comments appear in red. Dear Valued Client, (Uh, oh.) It is with tremendous regret that we must inform you of
(Guess which Talking Heads album I’m listening to? 🙂 Since setting up Adsense on my site two years ago, I’ve hit the magical minimum about every nine months. The cool hundred United States Dollars partially offsets my web hosting fees. The real amusement has been what kind of organizations would pay for keywords pointing here.
Stop making (ad)sense? Read More »
Biking has been an excellent way to dissipate some of the stress at work. When that fails, I rely on my trusty sidekick, humor. Some inadvertant snippets from this week… To our IT person, regarding a problem I’ve had with email since we installed the new CRM system: Typically my use pattern is I get
A sign that this is a stressful week. Read More »
(See my update on this topic.) We have a 529K college savings program set up for my kids through the State of Missouri program administered by TIAA-CREF, soon-to-be Vanguard. Its investment options are turnkey bundles based on age ranges. In the initial years, the investment selection is aggressive. As college-time nears, the portfolio’s mix shifts
GET versus MOST – 529 plans Read More »
On alternate years, the Social Security Administration sends me a statement estimating various theoretical payouts should I retire or die. I showed up in their system in 1981, when I made a cool $1,337 working in the local grocery store bakery after school. Like Susan, some of my compensation was under-the-table (the forms required to
A $255 death benefit? Read More »
Last February, I mentioned my dentist had acquired a plasma screen television for his smallish waiting area. Although I was correct about the tax-deductibility aspect, I had naively assumed the TV would be primarily used for daytime television, perhaps even to keep the staff amused. Boy howdy, was I wrong. The morning started with my