A few weeks ago we got a card in the mail asking us to sit in on a presentation about joining some travel club. They offered us 2 free plane tickets or a condo stay just for attending. Now of course, this stuff goes on all the time with selling timeshare. I figured it would be cheap entertainment. They were offering 2 free plane tickets in the continental US, so I figured "Why not?", we could give 'em away to family or friends.

Tonight we sat through 2 hours of Vacation Travel Club. The deal truly was good; so good, in fact, that I decided to plunk down $2698. Basically it's this club where you get deep discounts on vacation travel and some airfare. Typical stuff. Well, I'm filling out the paperwork, and not feeling 100% good about it. The sales guy gives us this $300 gas coupon, and it isn't some voucher for $300, noooo, it's this totally hokey looking "FreeBeeGas.com" or something cheesy like that. Looks more like "Free Unlimited Spam In Your Inbox Forever, Junk Mail in Your Mailbox Forever, Unsolicited Phone Calls and No Free Gas For You!" to me. That's the first sign it was a scam. I'm still filling out papers. On the back of their contract the last line about "Lifetime Membership" says something to the effect that "Lifetime refers to the lifetime of the company". That was it. I told the guy I changed my mind and wanted the two free plaine tickets instead.

Now I'm gathering the paperwork I filled out and stuffing it in my pocket instead. I'm suspecting I'll be calling American Express to deny some mystery charges eventually. Anyhow, the two free plane tickets? Well, yeah, you gotta fill out this form, mail it in, and include $65 per ticket in mystery fees for the "free" tickets. So that's pretty much when I knew it was a scam.

I get home and decide to google up "Vacation Travel Club scam" and found out plenty. While they might not directly be a scam, it sure looks like the resellers who are doing the actual membership sales can be pretty crooked. The club itself seems to have some shady background, too. Anyhow, I'm glad we got out of it, much like a a fox gnawing his foot off to escape the snare. Now to see what arrives on our next Amex statement!

Typically try to include a photo with each blog post of mine, but no photo this time. I'm too irritated over that laptop PC of mine to take it's mugshot. After what seems like less than 2 years, it just died. No power.

I took it apart piece by piece, tested the power supply with a multimeter, tested the motherboard to verify it's got juice. Dead. I googled up "presario m2000 dead" and found out that I'm not alone. Apparently, they have a reputation for dying just outside the 1 year warranty period.

I think I'll hang on to mine for now, just as a souvenir, and just in case somebody files a class action suit over it. I might get a coupon good for a replacement power supply, or even a check for $22 dollars. Who knows?

So for now, it's time to shop for a new laptop. I had no intention of doing so, and hate spending the money after doing so much remodeling spending already, but really don't have much options. Argh.

Well, at Red Apple grocery in Mountain View, Alaska it sure is! I love shopping at Red Apple. It's definitely in the "hood", no offense to Mountain View folks, but you know what I mean. It's for sure not a place you'd want to have a flat tire, certainly not at night.

Red Apple isn't sure if it's an Asian grocery or a low-budget grocery, or both. I think it's both. Anyhow, they got a pretty good meat section, with all the selections stacked in those vertical freezers you find in a typical frozen food aisle. Well, not frozen, but cool for meats. You get the idea.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and I decided I wanted to do the first barbecue of the year. I went to pick up a package of T-bone steaks, and noticed that particular section of the freezer is behind a sheet of plexiglass. You can see the steaks, you just can't touch them. Sort of like jewelry. Mind you, these aren't premium-quality steaks either. The sign says to ring for assistance, so I ring.

The meat guy comes out and I tell him I want that package of T-bone steaks there, there are 3 in a pack for $17.99. The guy says wait and he'll be back. He returns with a typical styrofoam meat package with clear plastic overwrap, but in it is what I believe to be a dog's squishy toy version of a steak, or perhaps a child's play kitchen steak. He tells me to take this up to the register, pay for it, and they'll call him and he'll bring out the actual steak. Another customer sees this rather complex transaction, and noticing the toy steak in my cart, asks me if I'm going to grill it. I laughed because it was all so absurd.

Fine, I get up to the register, and present my toy steak. Sure enough, she calls the butcher, and he appears with the actual steaks, and takes back his precious token of intent to purchase. What a joke. I suppose they must have a shoplifting problem, what with it being in the 'hood and all.

Anyhow, those steaks hit the grill as soon as I got home, and they were fine. Not sure if they were worth the hassle, but fine nonetheless. At least I didn't have to fill out a permit for 'em right?

You might say "Bad to the bone!" Anchorage Daily News reported today that Costco is recalling Discover Cuisine Red Curry Chicken and Jasmine Rice entrees sold in four-pack 12-ounce packages. Funny, we only have three to return, because we already ate one! Tis' a shame, since it actually is really good curry for something you reheat. Anyhow, not being particularly interested in Listeria monocytogenes, we decided to return the remaining three boxes.

I often read the RSS feed from foxnews.com, and it's usually good. In this case, however, I do think it doesn't take too much investigative reporting to determine the victim's name.

I visited Bethesda, MD, to attend CFUNITED 2007. It was an excellent conference. While there in Bethesda, which to me seems to be an ongoing extension of Washington D.C., I took a load of photos. I posted them here so you can take a look, too. Anyhow, at the moment, the pics only display in a small thumbnail size, but it's enough for you to get the idea.

View More Photos of Bethesda and Washington D.C.

View Photos of travel from Minneapolis to D.C.

It took a couple of weeks to complete, but at long last I completed a rather entertaining project, a homemade xylophone.
I'll put up the specifics in a while, but for now you can give it a look or listen by followig that link above.

Digit Sum Explorer is a simple application I put together to allow one to explore the interesting properties of digit sums. I was inspired to write this application while watching our old video of Multiplication Rock.

For example, when multiplying a number by nine, the digit sums always add up to a multiple of nine. I noticed the same thing is true when multiplying by three.