Friday, November 28, 2008

Fingerprinting and Black Friday

My younger son had today a fingerprinting appointment. When he first got his green card five years ago, he was too young for fingerprinting. At age 14, he is required to get a new card with his fingerprint. The fee this time was only $ 80, a bargain compared to the original green card costs.

My older son decided to participate at the Black Friday doorbuster game this year. He and his friend went at midnight to a big electronic store that was scheduled to open at 5 am. The store had announced to hand out tickets for the doorbusters at 3 am. When my son and his friends arrived at midnight there was already a long line.

He told us today, they had fun waiting there despite the cold because people were just talking to each other, joking around and were having a good time. At 4 am, employees of the store finally came out to distribute those tickets for the doorbuster sales. Only the first hundred in line got tickets. Each person could have up to 10.

The boys, unfamiliar with the game, were among the lucky 100 but only took two tickets. Later they learned that people were bidding for those tickets. They for example hold a ticket for a $ 500 laptop and someone offered them $ 50 if they would give it to him. Had they known, the two could have made a ton of money by just selling the tickets. Nevertheless, they are happy with what they bought and think, it was worth it to wait in line all night long.

They want to do it next year again, but after hearing what happened today I'm worried. In NY state, a Walmart worker died as 2000 people stormed into the store after door opening at 5 am. According to the news, people were even upset when they were told they would have to leave the store and couldn't continue shopping because they had crushed the worker in the stampede. I'm speechless.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving without a family to visit

There are certain holidays or traditions that serve as reminders that we are immigrants without extended family in this country. Thanksgiving is such a holiday.

My Tuesday college classes had already low attendance because my students were traveling to their families. Many of our neighbors are preparing big family gatherings.

For us, however, Thanksgiving is not such a big day: First, we didn't grow up with the tradition. In Austria, we don't celebrate this holiday. And secondly, we don't have family here. It's just the four of us, but no grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, nephews or nieces. The separation from the extended family is occasionally quite difficult for our sons. They deeply miss their grandparents and cousins at birthday parties and at christmans.

With regard to Thanksgiving, we try to make the best of it: We will meet for dinner with a German family and another German friend. We do this now for three years and it becomes our own little tradition. This year, dinner will be at the other family's house. There will be of course stuffed turkey, but with a mix of German, Austrian and American fixings: yams, red cabbage, and potato dumplings.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Cold Snap

Last weekend, we had incredibly cold weather; way too cold for November in Boston. Nevertheless, we wanted to get out of the house and make a walk around a lake in our neighborhood. Our boys weren't enthusiastic at first , but changed their opinion when friends of them joined us. So we managed to have some fun despite the bitter wind and freezing temperatures.



Today, it felt almost balmy outside though the temps were just in the forties. I'm not ready yet for winter and dread the long months ahead.

Friday, November 14, 2008

House Break-in

My next door neighbor had an unpleasant surprise yesterday upon returning from an overseas trip: Someone had burglarized her house. All of her gold jewelry was gone, only a few silver rings and necklaces were left.

She came right away to my house, in tears and afraid to stay alone in her house. Her husband was on his way back from a business trip and was expected later in the evening.

Together, we walked thru her house to see whether more was stolen than just the jewelry from the bedroom. Luckily,the burglars seemed to have been in a hurry to get out of the house again because they left behind a big and heavy shovel. So nothing else was stolen, but we wondered for what they would have needed the shovel.

We then called police. The officers investigated and took photographs, though they didn't give my neighbor much hope that she would see her jewelry again.

My neighbor is heartbroken, particularly because one of the stolen pieces is her engagement ring, which is a family heirloom. It was originally made as engagement ring for her husband's grandmother.

Worrisome is that one of the police officers told us about a sharp increase of break-ins in our Boston suburb. According to him, it's because of the bad economy and he predicted, we will see more crime like that in the future as the recession continues. His advice: Get a security alarm system. A simple one with window and door contacts will already do, which will sound an alarm if someone tries to move or break a window.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Fall Foliage Photo on CNN travel

I learned today that one of my fall foliage photos from our Labor day trip to NH was included in a photo report on CNN.com/ travel. (Last picture in 4th row). I feel honored (and I admit: I'm a little proud on myself. After all, I'm just an enthusiastic amateur photographer)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Credit Card Management 101

The other day, I heard in the news that the average American household owns 10 credit cards and owes more than $ 10 000 to credit card companies. Now, many lenders are pulling back by curtailing credit card offers and credit lines. At the same time, lenders are also increasing the APR of many credit cards. The APR of one of our cards for example was recently increased to 28 %! If we had debt on this card, it would be extremely tough to pay it off.

Lenders are pulling back because they fear that more people will default on their loans. In the first half of 2008, they had to write off about $ 21 billion in bad credit card loans.

Texas public accountants now offer 5 tips for consumer squeezed by credit crunch:

Tip No. 1: Check your credit limit (because it may have been lowered recently).
Tip No. 2: Call your credit card issuer and negotiate for lower rates.
Tip No. 3: Read the fine print on future offers.
Tip No. 4: Consider using year-end bonuses and holiday gift money to pay down credit card balances.
Tip No. 5: Stick to your holiday shopping list and pay for gifts with cash.

Read more details

If you want a crash course in Credit Card 101, read the Federal Reserve information on Credit Cards

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Income tax, marijuana and greyhounds II

MA's Governor Deval Patrick is happy with the outcome of Tuesday's election. Not only because of Obama. Patrick has another reason to celebrate: The majority of voters rejected an initiative to abolish state income tax. At stake has been 40 % of the state's income.

Personally, I'm glad that the voice of reason was stronger than the love for the own (filled) wallet. Hospitals, bridges, highways, schools - their construction and maintenance are expensive and how else are we going to pay for it if not with taxes?

The other two ballot questions in MA were approved: Voters were in favor of decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana and they voted for the ban of dog racing. The four greyhound tracks must close by 2010.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election: Many happy faces in MA

"I'm great. I feel so light. The election was just what I needed", said my neighbor this morning when we met. Like her, many people here in Massachusetts feel as if with Obama's election a burden was lifted off their shoulders.

We spent the election night at a neighbor's house. They had prepared for a big party with tons of food and decorated the room with a life-size cut-out Obama. About 40 people came, ate, drank, watched TV and cheered loudly anytime there were good news for the Obama campaign. The last seconds before the California polls closed at 11 pm east coast time were counted down as if we had New Years eve. And there it was: the CNN headline that Obama was elected president. At the party, all hell broke out: I never have experienced anything like that before. People cheered, hugged each other, laughed, cried, and our host filled dozens of glasses with champagne... I was surprised about the intensity of the emotions. Normally, people here in MA are a bit stiff and restrained (like we northern Europeans), but yesterday evening was totally different.

Today, in an Austrian newspaper, I read already about concerns some Europeans have. Many people in Europe watched Obama's speech yesterday evening and how he fired up the crowd in Chicago. The concern now is that people may expect too much of him. One comment was: "He is not Messiah, just a human being".