Adventures of Nerd and Super Nerd

Today was the first afternoon to hit 50*F and the sun was out!  My sister came over while Dave(Super Nerd) was bowling. Sister and I took Emma, my black lab, for a long, long walk.  We splashed through puddles and Emma enjoyed drinking water from the streams.  We returned home and sat outside while the kitty was able to get out to chew on the grass.

We watched the movie Fever Pitch and tried a few drinks, like our very own Shamrock Shake (very good!).  It was nice to get out of the house, catch up on the latest life stories and relax in the middle of the week.

I’m looking forward to warmer days ahead!

~Nerd (Laura) ~

Yesterday the “Notice of Assessment, Taxable Valuation and Property Classification” came in the mail.

Because Super Nerd and I carpooled to work yesterday he was witness to the momentus unveiling of the 2011 house value number.

We lost over $5600 in house value since last year.

To which I offered a high five going YESSS less in property taxes for another year!

I mean c’mon… we live in a great area, we are meeting cool neighbors, we plan to be in the house til forever… so heck yeah I’m glad the value is down so we’re paying a little less this year!

Ohh.. that means my city won’t get as much in taxes this year and with Michigan needing to reduce budgets… That means the extra money we saved should go to a local cause that would help benefit more people… I’m thinking library donation this year.  I like it!  I’m so brilliant when I’m not fully awake and I’ve only talked to animal life forms.

Alright as I go and ponder my brilliance I need to get ready for work!  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Nerd (Laura) ~

So I would like to invite anyone in the Detroit Metro area to consider the Grace Centers of Hope Boogie Bowl on Friday March 11, 2011 at Thunderbird Lanes in Troy.

The Boogie Bowl is a 70′s Themed night of bowling to Strike out Homelessness.  $30 for each bowler with $15 going directly to the charity and the other half covers 3 games of bowling, pizza and soda.  Sign up here

Nerd and I have chosen to sponsor this event as a part of our Giving budget and we are definitely excited about helping a great cause.  We also need to create our 70′s outfits…Any suggestions???

So I am once again sharing my love of Perkstreet with you.

After my last post I told SuperNerd I needed to fill up at the gas station and because I was working on the previous post I wondered if it’s cheaper to use my Perkstreet debit card as a debit card to get a discount at the pump or as a credit card to get a perk from Perkstreet….

The Nerd in me came up with a pretty easy way to figure it out…. it’s a formula and if your cell phone has a calculator you have no choice but to try it out…. right?  please!  It’s really nerdy cool, I promise!

Take the credit card price and multiply it by .99 for 1% cash back (or .98 for 2% cash back).  Then see if that number is LESS than the debit card/cash price.

Let me show you with my example from yesterday’s gas trip.

Credit Card price: $3.09

Debit Card price: $3.05

We are earning 2% because we are still within our first 3 months with Perkstreet.

So I take $3.09 x .98 = $3.0282.  That means that it’s cheaper to buy gas as credit (without a pin) than it is to run it through as a debit purchase (with a pin).

The best part… it’s the same card who get’s the honor to swipe for my gas!

It’s been a long week for both of us since I dragged Super Nerd into my moral dilemma’s this week.  I just put in so much effort at work I didn’t have much time for home.  The amount of time spent working this week kinda sucked but I did what I felt was best and I did the best job I could do this week.  OK enough about work… Date Night…

Tonight we had some food from the freezer and pantry.  We went out and rented a FREE Redbox movie (check here for codes).  Yep I’m a cheap date.  We bought a few groceries for the chili cookoff next week at my office and some fresh ingredients to make some of my fabulous salsa (yes it is VERY hard to make your own salsa… even I can do it! – chop up tomatoes and onion, sometimes add cilantro, throw in salt and a squirt of lemon/lime juice (mine is out of a refrigerated plastic lime).  If you want to burn your mouth with spice, like my husband, then add a fresh pepper or two… viola!  salsa!  SEE terribly difficult… uh no! Just don’t cry with those onions those things make me sob).  If you want my estimates of the recipe just ask or email… I will turn my cooking brain back on to give you a good answer.

So anyways we played with the dog, the cat, we made dinner together and we watched a free movie.  Nothing too exciting but good to spend time together none the less.  Now I’m typing up this post and hubbie is downstairs playing on his computer.  I will call him upstairs to make sure he falls asleep in bed not in the cold office… again.

noaa.gov says that we’ll get 2-4 inches of snow tonight and 1-2 inches tomorrow so we are ready to stay in tomorrow and repeat tonight’s activities, play with the crazy animals, eat food and watch free movies or tv shows together.

So what do you have to say?  What type of date night have you enjoyed lately?  Any relaxing you’ve done with friends or family?  What about a night to yourself what helps you unwind?  If you are reading this 10 years from now feel free to still comment… we’ll still be listening.  We’ll probably have kids running around by then and laughing at how quiet it was and we will thank you for the reminder of how simple life can be if we allow it to be.