Tracking finances...bye bye Quicken

I was probably one of the last users of Quicken but I'm finally giving up on it. I'd always upgrade to the new version when I bought Turbo Tax (am I one of the last Turbo Tax users?) Anyway, I've migrated to mint.com for asset tracking purposes....made by the same folks but does about as well with no screwing around with linking accounts that never seemed to work with Turbo Tax.... Speaking of finances if every year performed like 2012 retirement actually wouldn't seem so far away! Here are the various personal rates of return on various groups for year. 401k: 14.3% Intel Contribution: 10.5% IRA: 16% Not too shabby but needed after some big decreases in the prior few years.

Jack's "First" Bike

When Jack turned 5 we told him his main present would be a new bike - but only after he learned to ride without training wheels.   The day has finally arrived.  We took him to the bike shop and he picked out a 20" Specialized HotRock bike.

He loves the new bike and while it is a little big for him now, he can still ride it and it will be a great bike for him to grow into.

Hostess Twinkies - Last Holiday Box Style!

One of the neatest Christmas presents we got last year was one of the final box of Hostess Twinkies. The box even featured a holiday theme.

Flight Test

I found a remote control spy plane in the deep discount bin at Target. The Air Hogs Hawk Eye equipped with a digital still camera and video camera originally sold for 50 to 80 dollars. I picked it up for 17 bucks. When my pal Mullins visited for the Super Bowl recently, we took her out for a test flight. It was a little too windy for a stable flight, but we still had a lot of fun and got some good footage. Special thanks to my neighbor Jim Stevens who helped me out by retrieving the plane off of his roof. Special apology to my neighbor Jim Stevens for nearly cutting his head off with the plane!

School Picture Time - Dress Up Style

Jack dressed as a doctor, a race car driver and a cowboy? Which is your favorite?



Where's Elle? She wanted nothing to do with it and cried the whoe time so no pictures of her this time :(

Bye-bye Whiskers, Bye-by Whiskers!

Happy (Chinese) New Year! The Year of the Snake!!!

Jack colored this guy at school and did a very nice job in our opinion! Happy Chinese New Year!

If You're Happy and You Know It!

One of Elle's favorites and Jack likes it too! (he's still trying to master all the words :) )

Wrestle-mania!

Super Bowl 2013

The food theme for Super Bowl 2013 between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens was "Gone to the Movies". The menu featured movie candy and popcorn, Rotel dip (aka movie nachos), giant movie style super pretzels, and a variety of other appetizers and beer to round things out. Needless to say there were a lot of leftovers.