If you are a registered voter in Arizona – Vote Yes For Prop 100.

So I started into my “story” about work, and Raelin speaks out: “Hurry Daddy, we do not have a lot of time.” Now, I want to remind you that she is 2 and 1/2 years old. Of course Diane and I started laughing pretty hard at what she said. I laughed because it was funny and in disbelief that she had the brain power to say something like that. When I gathered my thoughts I quickly told my “story” which took all of 45 seconds. Diane was impressed in my condensed version. But of course I was condensed because we did not have a lot of time.

It is nice to see the New Orleans Saints get their first Superbowl ring. As the Steelers who have 6 Superbowl rings know so fondly, the Saints can savor being the NFL World Champions for the next year.

Congrats Drew Brees and the rest of the Saints for a great season. Sorry to the Colts fans – the game really did come down to the deciding factor in so many Superbowl games – that of who made the mistake and who didn’t. Payton Manning probably had his best career of playing this year – especially in playing under pressure, but in this game he threw one errant pass and it will most likely haunt him for a long time to come. Too bad the critics will haunt him too. Congrats to Payton too for having an awesome year.

I hadn’t played in a few weeks because of all the rain we got (yes it rains in the desert for those people who want to know). Nor have I played much since before Christmas. But, it seems as though the schedule will be getting back to pretty regular again (yes I’m pretty regular too) with 3 days a week.

As for the shoes – they fit great, and they are still a work in progress. The guys like em!

Now, when Diane expressed her loving assessment of my shoes it dawned on me that I have a budding artist who loves to color and draw (still outside the lines at this age). I decided that I would let Raelin have a go at my shoes. What the heck I thought – I can only go up from here. And, they were only $40 shoes (on sale of course down from $70 or something like that) that I will wear out and throw away probably in the next 6 months provided I stay healthy and keep playing tennis.

So, Raelin and I sat down to start working on daddy’s shoes (see the action shot). We colored on my shoes for about 15 minutes until something else captured Raelin’s attention. I don’t think we’re done with this fun project, but for today we are. Here is a picture of the product in progress.

Diane’s assessment of these shoes has been modified to something like: “your shoes now look like they are a child’s art project.” Phew I said, I can now wear these with pride as I go about my tennis practices and matches here in sunny Chandler AZ. No more grandpa shoes for me. And, I hope this can provide some inspiration for those of you who have kids and want to spruce up an old pair of shoes. I’m sure Raelin will love to see daddy wear them. (I hadn’t worn them as of when Raelin went to bed – we wanted to make sure they were dry).

Oh, we just used the basic dry erase marker – the warnings on the back suggest to not use on porous material. My assumption about all that was that it was because they would not be so erasable. And they aren’t. Enjoy.

Semi Finished Shoes

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Kevin, and his crew, do an awesome job of working on our cars and do an even better job of charging a fair price and telling it like it is. If you don’t need something done on your car, they don’t do it. If they can’t do something they tell you that. They are also great at explaining what’s wrong – what’s needed to fix it – and what options you may have to get it fixed. When they explain the options they always throw in other places to get the work done so that you have some choice in the matter. I have done the pricing and Kevin’s quotes are always the best and his quotes of his competitors are always right on.

The service is great, although when you walk into Service Techniques you will not be greeted with doughnuts and Starbucks coffee. What you get is a artful display of old blown parts from previous customers that Kevin has on proud display. These items serve several functions that I know of – one to show how some people don’t really take care of their cars. And the other is so that Kevin can point out what something will look like or does look like if the display item relates to your car.

Kevin gets his business from word of mouth – so here is my attempt to spread the word about Service Techniques – If you want a great mechanic and want someone to watch out for you and your car call Kevin: 480-961-1483.

No offense to Waste Management – a big company in its own right – and one that will be around probably forever until we do not create any waste at all – ever. And the likelihood of this happening is most likely 0% chance of success.

If you have not been to this tournament it is one great event. The crowd is the best – costumes, super expensive clothes, wine, beer, quiet zones, and at times uncontrollable noise. Each year the crowd gets bigger and the cheering gets louder.

The event is from Feb 22 – Feb 28th and it is held at the TPC Scottsdale and it is dubbed the Greatest Show On Grass.

For more information – tickets etc. go to: Waste Management Phoenix Open

BBB Scams for 2009 – Top 10 List

These are in no particular order.

1. How to Get Stimulus and Government Grant money
2. Automated dialing – Robocalls – about such things as auto warranty expirations, or credit card interest reduction programs
3. Free Trials for products like Acai Berry Supplements or Teeth Whitening Free Trial supposedly endorsed by celebs such as Rachel Ray, Oprah, or Doctor OZ. (I actually fell for something like this a few years back)
4. Job hunting scams that requested prospects to get a credit check but lured the prospect into some type of unwanted credit monitoring program.
5. The old scam of winning a foreign lottery, sweepstakes where you have to deposit a check and then wire some money to cover processing the transaction.
6. Work from home to make $1,000′s working for Google or Twitter.
7. Mystery Shopper and Secret Shopper schemes
8. Illegitimate credit repair and loan modification and stop foreclosure programs – companies that required an upfront fee but did not do anything.
9. Over payment scams on Craigs List that targeted small business owners and landlords with vacant rooms.
10. Emails disguised as coming from authorities such as your bank, the IRS, the FBI that were set up to collect financial information which was then used to get money from the victim or for identity theft.
11. (This is the extra one that I’m adding) – The spammy emails disguised as coming from Facebook that talks about confirming log in information or changes of procedure.

For more information about these scams and other consumer scams contact either the BBB.org or the FTC.gov