Gas and Panera: more saving tips
Yeah, the $4 a gallon gas is finally coming, it’s $3.899 in recent 3 days here in STL. I tried to stretch the gas I put last time at $3.699 as much as I could, but it seems like I will need to put gas either tomorrow or Monday. Meanwhile, I tried to walk to and from Panera this morning and afternoon, maybe I saved a dollar or two on this 🙂
Seriously, I think my last car tune up worked in terms of improving gas mileage.
(Update May15) My friend Sun also set up a donation page for earthquake relief. He even put up a challenge (match) for Paypal donors. Kudos to him. I sent a check of $51.20 to OSCCF today.
(Source: NPR.org, more pictures from NPR)
(Original) There are lots of organizations one can donate for the China earthquake, such as this list (Chinese) and another list (English). I think everyone can pick an amount and a charity feel comfortable. Also the wider the participation (more people give in small amount), the better. Note some employers offer match for certain charities, and there is tax deduction for donors if the charity has registered with IRS for that purpose (there is an EIN). Personally I am debating about the following two:
1. Overseas Saving Chinese Children Fundation: as name implied, the emphasis is on the need of small kids.
2. Peking Univ Fundation: Chinese, English, they said the donation will be “for the middle and primary schools in the disaster area in China. All donations will be transferred to benefit schools within a month.”
Finally St. Louis gas price is exceeding $3 a gallon. Today marks the first day my gas bill exceeded $40 ($3.179 * 13.105 gallons = $41.66).
I am not complaining, as I know people around the world are paying a much higher price for gas, or paying a higher percentage of their disposal income for gas. But I still want to do something to contain the gas cost, before sending my pay check directly to the Exxon-Mobile and the likes.
1) In the past, I tried to fill up gas at the proper time: there are two gas stations near my home, whenever I saw one gas station raised the price (the other has not), I will rush to the other one (usually it’s the Shell).
2) Also, I used the gas rebate credit cards, they are Citi Dividend (5% rebate in the past, this has been changed lately); Chase Freedom (3% rebate); and AAA MBNA card (5% rebate subject to the up limit of 2% of the monthly balance).
3) Last week, I tried another approach. I paid pretty dollars for car maitenance: engine tune up (replace spark plug and wires); fuel injection cleaning; replace engine gasket. Hopefully my investment will pay off over time (from saving in gas).
I don’t mean to steal immigration lawyers’ business 🙂
A few years ago my employer sponsored my GC app including attorney services. But that did not extend to the AP and EAD (optional for me). I heard from a friend that he paid $1,000 lawyer fee for the EAD renewal. So I filled the forms and filed for myself.
Last month (mid Feb) as soon as I saw the PD became current, I filed I-485, I-131 (AP) and I-765 (EAD) for my wife (H-4). And we received the all the receipts shortly.
I think for simple cases (like my wife), we can do it ourselves, as long as we know what we are doing. This maybe more effcient than using the company lawyers, because of the time wasted on “back and forth”. On the other hand, I am sure most Chinese immigration lawyers here are professional and effcient.
The caffeine effect
Which one has the most caffeine? A tall (12 fl oz, or 355 ml) brewed coffee, a tall latte with one shot of espresso (both at Starbucks), and a can (12 fl oz) classic Coca Cola?
Your instant answer maybe the latte (espresso), but the correct answer is the brewed coffee. According to Starbucks Nutrition By the Cup (PDF), 12 fl oz coffee has 240 mg caffeine, one shot espresso (1 fl oz) has 75 mg caffeine. As to Coke, I saw it says “caffeine content: 34mg per 12 fl oz”.
I don’t know what is the appropriate amount of caffeine a person could consume daily. My guess is one small cup a day should be ok for most people. I think it also depends on person’s health condition (weight, height, habbit of drinking). But just like many other things in life, moderation is the key. A cup of regular coffee will get one refreshed in the morning (it has caffeine equivalent to 7 cups of Coke). But when the initial effect of coffee goes away in a few hours, he/she will resort to another coffee. And so on. I think we can be more easily get caffeinated that way.
(picture souce: will work for food)
I found this Samsung A437 cell phone deal through dealsea. I was thinking about replacing my good old Nokia 6010, not that I am not satisfied with the voice quality etc. I would like to get a flip phone (6010 is a candy bar phone, and I have to lock the keypad to avoid placing accidental call, and the time display is not clear). By the way, I got two (one for my wife), as shown like the picture below:
|
|
Another nice thing about A437: it is a quad band phone, and (if unlocked) can be used in China.
Logitech QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks
Found it through my friend googlist. Here is the link.
I always liked Logitech’s product, and the price (after rebate) is $8.99. So I bought one.
(Update Feb 29) The web cam arrived last night. Amazon Super Savers free shipping is fast. The next step is fill in the mail in rebate form 🙂
This blog is mostly about finance and stocks, but I will share other intereting things as well. After all, life is more than making (or losing) money. (It’s about spending money as well 🙂
Wind shield stopped working in ice storm
It happened to me last Thurdsay, in ice storm The wiper quit working after working for a while. I did not panic but decided to take it into shop.
It turned out that the snow/ice freezed the connection joint of wiper (a.k.a, the “root” of wiper). The mechanic can feel the motor was very hot (poor guy, it tried so hard to rotate but got stuck by the ice). After clean up, I was ready to roll again.
Find clean rest-room in China
Find your nearest KFC or McDonald. Besides cleaness, it’s free which is not true in the public restroom (bathroom, powder room, lavatory) China 🙂
A thousand words 