Archive for February 1st, 2009

01
Feb
09

Domino’s Loves Me!

Most of you know that I have a love of pizza. I’m also somewhat lazy and frequently cop out and order delivery pizza instead of making it myself. I’ve had numerous run-ins with quality and care that the various local franchise have proffered. I’ve taken to ordering pizza by which one has the potential to be least bad and this usually defaults to Domino’s. I can order a diverse selection of pies online and they show up rather promptly and in edible condition (most of the time). I guess that I ordered a few too many times from Dominos last year. Saturday’s mail had a rather large, bulky white cardboard mailer addressed to me. The kind used to send a CD or a DVD. I did not recognize the return address, so I was prepared for some kind of junk mail. Inside the mailer was another envelope. This envelope was heavystock and bright red and lined with shiny foil. A sticker on this envelope proclaimed that “What’s inside is so valuable, we needed two envelopes”. And what was in that envelope? A letter thanking me for being a “true Domino’s MVP” and bearing a coupon for one free single topping medium pizza. Wow. I appreciate the freebie, but we are talking about a whopping $5 value here. Pity that Domino’s doesn’t have fun things like goat cheese as selections.

01
Feb
09

Super Bowl Gluttony

I’m assuming that I will eventually get some kind of notice saying that I do not have permission to use the name of the big game on my blog. Oh well. I will be heading out in just a bit to have brunch with my mother in law. After that, I will begin assembling all of the snack/appetizer type foods for grazing during the game.

  • A vat of chile con queso made with Velveeta and roasted Hatch chile
  • A couple of pounds of cold boiled shrimp
  • Armadillo eggs (jalapenos stuffed with jack cheese, wrapped with bacon and broiled)
  • Cowboy turds (same thing, but stuffed with refried beans)
  • Various dips and chips
  • Sliced venison sausage
  • Various sodas, beers, juices, and booze
  • Veggie tray with bleu cheese dip
  • One sliced up, left-over Subway sandwich ($5 footlong Spicy Italian)
  • Bowl of Zantac 150 cool mint

As for the game, I have no idea how to bet this thing. The ATS number varies between the Steeler -6.5 and 7. I’d feel more comfy with that number getting to 7.5 and taking the Cards. BUT… the vig (what the bookie charges on a losing bet) wobbles all the way from +105 to -115 to take the Steelers side and -105 to -125 to take the Cards. Has that much money already been dumped on the cards that the book has to jack with the line by buying it? The money line (a straight bet on one team to win) for the Cards has steadily shrunk from anreasonable 240 down to 205. The Prop bets may wind up being more fun to jack with.

01
Feb
09

Tax This

I suppose that Republicans are reacting with glee that so many of President Obama’s choices for positions of importance are having issues with taxes. Daschle apparently paid off at least $140,000 to the Treasury a month after his nomination. Timmy Geithner also appears to have forgotten about paying his tithe to the IRS. Maybe this really isjust a reflection of the people that the government rules, er, represents? Could it be that our tax code is finally so onerous, so ponderous and unwieldy that not even a truly seasoned financier can understand it it, much less comply with it? Is it impossible to really know what a given person owes on a given day? It’s not uncommon for three different tax preparation software packages to come up with three different results, all based on the same data input. Or should we hold our leaders to a higher standard than we hold ourselves? I really don’t know.




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