Niall made a post about plastic bottles, and inside that article it talked about Sigg Bottles. They’re basically an aluminum water bottle, sort of like a thermos, except they look really cool. I figure what the heck, I take a new plastic bottle to work every day, and at $3.50 a flat of water, if buying a $25 sweet bottle will help me not use plastic bottles and save money, then it’s worth it. And I’m thinking the aluminum will help keep the water cooler a lot longer, and this way when other people at work also buy Stater Bros water I won’t have to put an N on the lid. So hopefully I refill it everyday and take it to work, look cool in the process, save money after 6 months, and help the environment. Here’s the one I ordered:

I’d also like to advertise a new online money sending site called Revolution Money Exchange. It’s like Paypal, but a better deal. My brother put it on his site, but I’m trying to steal his thunder and get you to sign up and refer me. You get $25 just for signing up, so get on it!

I’m going to make a Jason Parx blog post now. Please set aside the next 3 hours of your life.

I’ll go in chronological order over interesting events from the last two weeks. First up is something that I’m very proud of.

Right before the 4th of July a hose on top of the water heater cracked and started spraying water. In my fear I called Mike Diamond plumber. They quoted me $321 to replace the hose, which I later learned was a $10 part and a 20 minute job to fix. Total they wanted over $2000 to replace the entire water heater. Luckily my dad has done that before. The next day we headed out to All-American and bought a new water heater and hoses all for only $462. A few hours later it was installed. That’s a quality savings of over $1500. Boo yah. Not only did we save money, but I got to spend time with my father and learn something from him. Who knew a broken water heater could be such a good thing.

A few days later I had the pleasure of hosting a bachelor party for my brother. It was a pretty mellow affair, but I think everyone had a good time. I was again blessed to spend time with my family and this time be able to do something special for them. The wedding is this Sunday and I’m looking forward to it. This is a picture from our rock-paper-scissors tournament.

This next entry is a frustrating one. The weekend of the bachelor party we purchased a new 2007 Camry.

You’re probably wondering how this could be frustrating. I’ll keep it short and post links for people that want more info, but the main idea is this: The car makes me motion sick. I get car sick very easily as a passenger, and this is due to unexpected accelerating and decellerating. I have never in my life though gotten sick while I was driving, because I can fully anticipate the motion of the car as I press the gas or brake pedals. Unfortunately the Camry has some peculiar behaviors that take away my ability to predict acceleration and decelleration. Unfortunately a 10 minute test drive didn’t make me nauseous, and I would never have thought it could be a problem. If you’d like to read more about these behaviors read here and here. I’ve driven the car 300 miles, and every time I drive it I end up nauseous. Ultimately it looks like we’ll be selling the car and finding something else. We’ll end up losing money, but that’s a better alternative than being motion sick every time I drive it for the next 10-15 years. The next challenge is finding something that doesn’t exhibit these behaviors.

On to more positive experiences, this last weekend we went to Seaworld with Stacie’s Girl Scout troop. The troop is dissolving and this was their last big trip. We got to spend the night in front of the Beluga Whale and Polar Bear exhibits. Super cool. Here’s my best picture from the trip.

And finally my last picture is the least exciting of the five, but it’s not my fault that it came last chronologically. We rented the Rug Doctor from Stater Bros. to clean our downstairs carpet. Every now and then the dog likes to pee on it, and over the last two years it’s built up a few spots. It did a super awesome job too.

That’s about it for now. I will be heading off to Taco Bell pretty soon here to eat with Luna, and I might visit a Honda dealer to test drive a Civic. I hope you’ve enjoyed my Jasso style post. I certainly have.

For whatever reason I was bored yesterday, so we bought some coffee and creamer to use in our unused coffee maker. I think I’ve got a new love.

First off, I’m not a morning person at all. It’s super hard to wake up, and when I do I don’t have much energy. Lately I’ve been drinking energy drinks like the Sobe No Fear or Rockstar, but that gets expensive quick. So, I’ve turned to coffee to provide that morning bolt of caffeine. Quick little research seems like I’ve found an even higher caffeine source than mountain dew. For a while I used mountain dew to start my day (heck, it got me through my bachelors), but too much soda gives me indigestion.

So like I was saying, we bought some French Vanilla grounds at Target, and some Vanilla Carmel creamer at Stater Bros., and surprisingly, it’s reallllly good. I made the mistake of trying it last night before bed, only to find that I couldn’t fall asleep for 3 hours (seriously). So now I’m sticking to only drinking it in the mornings. Anyone else a coffee drinker besides Denise?

I think my posts to the blarg are going to suffer being married. Life is still really hectic as we try and get things settled and all moved in. This post is now going to be very short because we have to go to the market to buy food, so we can eat. To sum up the weekend, it was nice. We opened presents on Saturday and got to attend a friends wedding on Sunday. Off to newly remodeled Stater Bros.

Tonight I held the first ever "Big Burrito Challenge." This is a contest between two burritos available at your local Stater Bros. The first contestant is in purple called Tina’s Burrito, and costing only 33 cents! The challenger is the Primera Burrito, weighing in at 99 cents! Here are the challengers.

And they’re off!

Turns out Tina’s burrito tastes nasty. It’s supposed to be beef, but I couldn’t find any, not a good sign. The Primera burrito was head over heels better. It had much better flavor, came in chicken (Tina only has beef), and the meat was easily identifiable.

If you remember the awesome chimichangas from Jr. High that came in the tan/brown wrapper, the Primera is very much like that. Two thumbs up for the Primera burrito, and Tina your burritos are horrible!

Update: Kevin Wilkinson adamantly defends Tina’s burrito, even though it’s horrible. He had these words of wisdom to add…

kevin wilkinson: When we get to heaven, God will great us with a Tina’s burrito
nathan118: is that like getting knighted? he’s gonna touch us on the shoulder with tinas burrito and make us great?
kevin wilkinson: not
kevin wilkinson: it’s the food of the gods
nathan118: haha, way to be polytheistic
kevin wilkinson: haha
nathan118: pagan

For the first time, probably since 10th grade, I made a lunch today. During my prep I went to Stater Bros. and picked up all the essentials. Some good deli meats, sliced muenster and provolone cheese, spicy brown mustard, a head of lettuce, french rolls, lime and chili fritos, and some mountain dew. I’m in the middle of a 10 day sub job at West, and so far I’ve been living off of Taco Bell. So am I saving any money?

The food I bought will last me six days, and totaled just over $20. My average meal at Taco Bell is only $3.50, which for six days would be $21. Not much of a savings there. However, if I were to branch out from Taco Bell my lunch could easily be $6 at say Subway. Six days of Subway would be $36, almost twice as much as my “bag” lunch. Maybe it is worth it.