Cowboy caviar

I think we’re only missing Wham! Last Christmas for my nightmare list from working retail.

Well, and anything from the Amy Grant Xmas album, but that’s my dad’s fault.

Oh wait, can’t forget Christmas shoes… (Shudders involuntarily).

They have some very premium brands as well, that definitely deserve praise: hardin’s creek, little book especially.

Anything labeled Jim beam is swill to meh (except Lineage, but you’ll never see that on a shelf). The old grandad (bonded or 114) line is bang/buck.

Love it. Gives a new meaning to JBOD too: junk box of disks!

Yeah, it’s the worst financial mistake we ever made. If we had waited just a few months, we would have at least qualified for the bailout money.

We had so many friends that bought in 2009 and 2010 at the bottom and watched them flourish.

It took us 12 years to recover, but we’re homeowners again and ultimate leaving for higher pay finally worked out in our favor. We bought again in 2020 and our down payment was the entire cost of the first house (we went from medium cost of living to very high with incomes to match). We emptied just about everything, but had also been saving hard since selling the shit heap. 5 years later, we’re finally comfortable.

We absolutely did not buy to rent.

If you see the timeline, we lived there 7 years and were landlords for 2.5. We moved across the country for a major income jump (and cost of living increase) and literally couldn’t afford to pay into the bank to sell the house for a $50k loss at the time. We were going to walk away again, but some friends convinced us to rent it out.

What a fucking nightmare that turned out to be.

We didn’t live in a great part of town, so rent was cheap and literally less than the cost of owning. We effectively subsidized the rent. A smarter person would have realized that taking a loan to sell was the better plan here.

The first property management company we hired found some people quickly and got them in. 4 months later the person managing our house left and the new person asked us why we hadn’t evicted because they had never paid rent, ever (we had been getting rent minus the fee, so we were shocked). So we had to evict and fucking hell I spent 3k cleaning and fixing and hauling out all their trash, flying across the country to do it. They stole the washer and dryer on the way out, ruined the dishwasher and destroyed several doors and walls.

We fired that company and got a new one. The next tenants actually paid rent for 2 years, but had constant issues with rodents and bugs and the appliances. When the market finally brought us above water we didn’t renew their lease and Jesus fuck me they had destroyed everything. The 160lb Cane Corsa they kept in the basement had literally pissed and shit so much the walls were destroyed and the cement floor had to be painted and sealed after heavy industrial cleaners. There was food everywhere in the house and rodents and bugs were prevalent, so we had to hire exterminators. Also they left several yards of trash in shitty furniture and garbage we had to haul out.

We lost so much money renting we would have been better off taking a loan to sell in the first place. We listed for 40k over what we originally paid, but took just 15k because, let’s face it, the house was still a shambles (and the basement still stank). We got a tax bill for 14k when we sold because of some financing fuckery that screwed us more.

I regret ever having been a “landlord”.

Geriatric millennial here: it’s missing the purchase at the top of the bubble in 2007, listing for sale at a loss 3 times in 2008-2009, list for rent in 2014 and 2015 at less than the mortgage, sell in 2017 at slightly more than when you purchased it when you finally got it off your back (but you paid it all in taxes because it was a rental), then see it sold in 2022 for 2.5x what you sold it for in 2017.

At least that’s how my first home purchase went when everyone told me real estate was a guarantee in my 20s on a non-profit salary. The only thing you wouldn’t see is the 0% mortgage offer they made on the first 150k when we started walking away in 2009. And the medical bills for idiopathic neuropathy from the stress.

Makes for a pretty good song too.

Sigh. I’d kill to have my $1700 premium back. 2024 I got cancelled and it was fair plan shit for $7500 or $9000 for proper coverage.

I live on the edge of town inside the city’s fire district with a hydrant just down the driveway and less than a mile from the fire station. My house is pretty average and reasonably well defended. My neighbors are seeing the same thing with their insurers.

That means for full protection for our house, we’re looking at $20k/yr. Because earthquake insurance is just over 10k. Utterly preposterous.

Ok, yeah, definitely had an update since we bought a couple years ago. At least it looks like the wifi stuff is for firmware updates only.

Uh, the one we have doesn’t do any wifi. Turn the dual to set the temp and push it to heat to temp. Maybe that’s what the “pro” stuff is about? And agreed, that’s absolutely silly.

We have a Fellow Stagg EKG for pour overs, and it works great.

If the gooseneck spout isn’t your cup of tea, it looks like they have a standard spout version too.

The prices are not for the faint of heart.

Love when the light comes on and I have an excuse to give it extra attention.

Hey, you forgot his most important qualification: children’s book author.

Drei bier ist auch ein schnitzel und dann hast du nichts getrunken.

Three beers are also a schnitzel and then you drank nothing.

I don’t speak German, but this phrase spoke to me.

I was going to buy the Lego Star Trek enterprise, but it was sold out before I got there. Oh well, they saved me from myself with artificial supply restrictions.

Instead, I didn’t buy anything.

Instead of the plug, you could get a soap dispenser for $25-30.

Agreed, it’s really unbelievable. My mom bought an Avalon limited new in 08 and it is now my sister’s. >400k miles and nothing but regular maintenance and some rodent repair. They still get >30mpg if they take it easy on the highway too.

There were decorations for sale at Costco in California in late August. Decorative gourd season decorations hadn’t even shown up yet.