Going for a Spin

Normally I don’t read Spin Magazine. I’m not into the grunge rock and punk music, and that’s what they seem to focus on. I think it’s great that some of these kids have a shot at a singing or performing career, but since I don’t have college age kids I just can’t get my head into what they are singing about or how they look. The extreme hair and makeup, the tattoos, the piercings - it’s so boring. Really boring. What I’d like to see is kids that are clean and groomed and take music seriously along the lines of lyrics meaningful to more than just 13 and 14 year old spoiled brats.

But I do like reading the ads in this magazine. You can learn a lot about a variety of things in today’s pop culture by reading the ads. Especially if you have an interest in liquor and electronics. You’ll read about things you aren’t exposed to in any other popular medium. That’s the downside of targeting ads to narrow demographics. The slick marketing pros in NYC and LA don’t always get it right.

Family Ski Holiday

The kids have a great holiday from school in November at Thanksgiving and we are thinking about taking the whole family away since we had to cut back on travel this summer. Now that the kids are older we have been wanting to take them on ski holidays. They love to travel as much as we do, and there are so many wonderful ski resorts that the hard part is picking just one.

I want to give them a chance to learn downhill skiing as well as snowboarding and have fun with some other winter activities, like sleigh rides and ice skating. We don’t get enough snow here in the South to even go sledding. So going someplace that is completely family friendly with a variety of winter activities for all ages is vital to our skiing holidays.

If we want to stay in the United States, I think that Killington is the most family friendly area and I’ve been reading the internet for more information on skiing in Vermont. But I have several friends who swear that we are better off going further north, into Canada and the Directline-skiing.co.uk/Whistler website seems to back them up. If we decide to go on up into Canada, we’ll definitely go to Whistler. From reading the website, Whistler is not only one of the top ski destinations in the world, it is especially great for families and beginners. There are adventure ski camps for all the different age groups, and the beginner trails take them through enchanted forests, past magic castles and there are even lifts dedicated to just kids. This is exactly what I have in mind and there are packages for every budget. This website is great for putting it all together and giving you all the details so you can plan the entire trip with just a few clicks of the mouse.

If we all have as much fun on their first learning to ski holiday, we can plan on a nice winter getaway next year, too. I’ve been wanting to ski France and Italy, and I’d love to bring the kids to Europe while they are young and appreciate being with their family. I’m afraid that once they turn into teenagers, the idea of a family vacation will not be met with as much enthusiasm. I intend to pamper and enjoy the kids as much I can while they are young and fun to be around. I hope that being a teenager doesn’t change that, but I’m preparing myself mentally for that, just in case.

Making it Harder to Get to California

Can’t believe that Southwest Airlines is starting to knuckle under. They announced today that they are cutting back on flights. Of course, one of the routes getting the axe is the one I take - the only nonstop from Nashville to Oakland. All the other flights add 2 hours to that trip and it’s long enough as it is. And changing planes always puts you at risk of missing that connection. To be honest, the most I am comfortable on a plane is the 4 hour flight to Las Vegas from here. Anything farther than that and I start feeling cooped up and get really restless sitting on a plane - especially when there are crying babies on board.

On a good note, Southwest is the only airline this year that is still operating in the black. All the others are in the red. That says a lot for Southwest’s excellent management practices and their customer service. They’ve always been good to me and I can’t say that for the other airlines, especially with some of the horrendous experiences I’ve had with American and Northwest. So I’m glad to see the good guys are still winning.

When I fly, I always check Southwest for an available flight first and it has to be an extreme situation for me to fly on a different airline. There are only a few cities that Southwest does not service from here, and most of the time I don’t have to go there, thank goodness. I love their website - its so easy to make reservations and check in online - I can’t believe we used have to make long phones calls and stand in line for everything that now just takes a few clicks.

Fresh Look at Credit Cards

With September just around the corner, I took a look at my budget and tax situation and wanted to get a feel for where I’ll stand at the end of the year. I’m due for my performance review and raise next month and I’m pretty sure I’m on track to buy a new house after the first of the year. Of course, a lot depends upon the economy and whether the price of gas has leveled off or if it is going to keep rising over the next several months.

Part of my strategy for buying the new house depends on the work I’ve been doing on my credit report. I met with a loan officer and talked about what I need to do to have a good rating and we made a plan that I’ve been working on all summer. According to the loan officer, I need 5 open lines of credit and all of them need to be paid down to less than half of the credit limit or loan amounts.

For that to work, I need two more credit cards and I’m applying for them now. I found a web site called Smart Credit Choices that has information on all the major credit cards and I can sort through the different options, like 0 balance transfers to find the cards with terms that I need.

One of the attractive offers is for a0 APR balance transfer. I’ve seen commercials for those and they promise 0% APR for up to one year. However, after reading the information on this site, I find out that most of them offer the 0% for only 3 months, or possibly 6 months. That is still technically “up to” one year but it’s not the full one year that most people would expect from hearing that commercial.

But I did find a Discover Card that offers no fee balance transfers and 0% interest for one full year. This card also offers cash back on purchases. That’s the one I’m going after and there was a link right there on the Smart Choices website that takes me tot he Discover Card site to put in my application online.

I Spy

One of the guys at the warehouse works for us part time and for his other job he works security for a chain of local convenience stores. I gave him a call tonight and told about my concerns in the neighborhood and he suggested I put a couple cameras on the exterior doors and the driveway. He has a bunch of that kind of technical stuff in his garage and he’s going to bring some of it with him tonight to let me borrow the cameras and controllers. He says they are easy to mount and are wireless, so I can have them up tomorrow in just a few minutes. They run the video feed to a regular CD or DVD player or to a personal computer. So I can record any activity and have a record of it to show the police. This is cool - I’m totally up for this little spy game.