Weekend DIY - Backyard Walkway

Last weekend our cousin and friend's dad, whom is in the home renovation business currently, came over and helped us built a walkway in our backyard. We have been talking about it since we moved in, survived a messy winter without it, and finally, WE DID IT!

• We visited Home Depot 6 times in 2 days.
• We moved the HEAVY stuff in our 2 cars, multiple times. That's 20 bags of 20kg Decorative Stones, 34 bags of 30kg Stone Dust, 46 20kg Slab stone (total of 2340kg)
• Spent about 40 man hours

Total materials cost was about $650 though, which is "relatively" cheap

Item	Quantity	Price	Total
60' Edge	1	$19.99	$19.99
River Stone 18kg	8	$5.49	$43.92
River Stone 18kg	2	$5.49	$10.98
River Stone 18kg	10	$5.49	$54.90
Rockwall	14	$2.15	$30.10
Silicone	2	$4.48	$8.96
Slab stone 18x18 20kg	46	$4.52	$207.92
Stone Dust 30kg	20	$5.45	$109.00
Stone Dust 30kg	10	$5.45	$54.50
Stone Dust 30kg	4	$5.45	$21.80
Tree 3.5"	1	$3.89	$3.89
Weed Block	1	$16.99	$16.99
Total with tax			$658.73

Let me know what you think :)
It will certainly come in handy in winter - easier to shovel and no mud to walk on

Below are the BEFORE, WINTER, and AFTER pictures

Food Recall

In case you missed it in all newspaper, online media, and the radio - There has been a food recall due to the Listeria. This a serious matter and you should take a moment to check your fridge

It's a good thing I don't really eat or buy processed meat products, otherwise it'll be hard to compare against this huge recall list from Maple Leaf Foods. This is also a good time to become vegetarian for a short while, or eat fish

The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have received laboratory results from Health Canada that establish a link between meat products recalled by Maple Leaf Foods from their plant in Toronto and an outbreak of listeriosis. While these results are highly significant, and indicate that the investigation is on the right path, the investigation is not complete. Test results on additional food samples expected next week will advance the investigation further.

The investigation is ongoing and Maple Leaf Consumer Foods has initiated a voluntary recall products that may be implicated in the outbreak investigation.

- Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Listeria Investigation: Ready-To-Eat Meat Products Questions and Answers for Consumers

Drifting

Once in a while, I enter into this Drifting mode, where there seems to be no incentive to do anything.

 

Anyway, let's introduce everyone to TD e-fund series Mutual Funds, as I just recently purchased some after knowing about them for a few years. There are many articles covering this topic across many PF blogs, so my post will be just a summary of why I would recommend it

• Very low MER (aka management %), no commission per transaction either (unlike ETF)
• Can be purchased with minimum $100 per transaction, and $25 for pre-authorized purchase
• Decent selections of sectors, ranging from Canadian Index, Canadian Bond Index, International Index, Japanese Index, European Index and U.S. Indexes (Dow Jones, NASDAQ, U.S.)
• You don't need a TD account to purchase, just a TD Mutual Fund account. Note: I'd recommend open up a TD account either way for EasyWeb access
• You make all the decisions yourself, no advisor, no only-3-types of portfolios to choose from
• Diversification - it's always good, especially for the long term
• Enforced savings and potential growth better than GIC. Compared to save $100 a week and save it in the 3.40% High Savings Account (and 100% taxed for interest income), you can purchase $100 a week e-series funds and hope for a conservative 5+% return over 5 years
• I have heard a few people keep buying e-series funds and regularly convert them to ETF (i.e. sell e-funds and purchase ETF with the proceeds) as another way to save & invest

Interesting, why am I advertising a hidden treasure known to so little crowd.
In my opinion, ETF/e-series  beats picking your own stocks or mutual funds to mimic the indexes

A Weekend With Disappointment of Olympics

• 16.725 China > 16.725 USA? Nastia only won Silver despite having the exact same score as China. This is where another controversy is created, again after 2004 Athens. Why couldn't they just give out 2 Gold medals?
• Phelps did his job, making history - 8 out of 8 for Gold medals in Swimming
• Yani Tseng from Taiwan lost her lead in CN Canadian Open and finished with 3rd
• Only good news is Blue Jays blow out Boston Red Sox in the 2-game series, winning 4-1 and 15-4

Christopher Plummer rules the stage in Caesar and Cleopatra at Stratford

Hail Caesar, would be the words to sum up the Caesar and Cleopatra opening last night in Stratford

• Christopher Plummer really played Julis Caesar as well as I've seen anyone played anyone
• I loved the beautiful costumes and set - ancient Egyptian style, Rome dresses and soldiers
• The characters were portraited beautiful - Rufio, Cleopatra (much much better than her Juliet role in Romeo and Juliet), Ftatateeta, British man, and all the supporting actors
• I am still unsure about this, but it was definitely a comedy with laughters all the way through. However, beneath all the humors and satires, lies the deep minds of Caesar and Rome the empire.
• Thank you Stratford, for my first row tickets to be part of the opening

You can see all the news feed covering the play. Toronto Start rated it 4 out of 4, I wholeheartedly agree, and would recommend EVERYONE to see it if you can. Here are the excerpts that tells the whole story

It's a big, bold, beautiful, bounteous piece of crowd-pleasing theatre, filled with laughter and excitement, but also capable of provoking some serious thought as well.

If you've been waiting for a perfect combination of high art and high entertainment this summer, then wait no longer.


On the other hand, I also saw Cabaret Saturday night, and will add my comments soon

More Olympics, more Sports news, and last season of ER

Olympics

• 3rd night in a row, sleeping at 1 am, only to watch more Live Olympics on NBC

• Michael Phelps won his 6th GOLD Olympic medal last night (he is 6-for-6 so far)

• USA women gymnastics tool home the GOLD and the SILVER medal, down to the last rotation. It was a game of deductions, game of perfection, game of decimals of scores. What a night, to watch Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson put it all out on the floor (literally) with no regrets.

In other Sports news

• There were around 5000 empty seats at the Buffalo Bills vs Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game last night in Toronto, and that scalpers couldn't sell the tickets. I actually feel bad for them
• Toronto Blue Jays puts Vernon Wells and John McDonald on Waivers. This was a surprise to me, not that it's unusual for a team to put players on the waiver at this time of the season, but I would not watch Blue Jays if there was no Johnny Mac (and Roy Halladay)

Last shocking news from the NBC commercial - Next season of ER will be their last season (15th season), after 14 years (first episode aired in 1994). I wouldn't know what to do on Thursday night anymore, I have watched ER since Taiwan - Dr. Green, George Clooney, Carter, and now .... it'll all become just memories

I was fortunate enough to get some Stratford Festival tickets for this coming weekend (Saturday for Cabaret the musical, and Caesar and Cleopatra on Sunday). Looking forward to it

Late Night Olympics

Last night was my first night really watching Olympics (not just channel surfing), and next thing you know I went to bed at 1 am.

• I watched Michael Phelps made history by winning 2 more Gold medals last night (11 career gold medals at the time of this post)
• I watched Canada's medal drought continues to fail to get on the podium at the synchronized dive
• I watched USA gymnastic team fought to catch the China team, but failed at the last minute to walk away only with a Silver. It hurts to see them fall off the beam, sit after backups, and not able to say "I did it the best I could, but China did it better"... I can feel the emotion and the pain of the USA team
• It is premature, but I liked NBC's Olympic broadcast better than CBC's as NBC indicated LIVE or not, and with less commercials, and the nature of it broadcasts more sports with USA teams in it versus CBC for Canadian team

It was worth staying late to watch and enjoy the Olympics, and I will continue to do so, and maybe find some time to actually watch the opening ceremony.

McDonald Olympic Glasses

McDonald is selling Olympic glasses for $1.99 each. They are quite cute, we have collected Blue & Red thus far, now just need the remaining 3.

Correction: just picked up the Green one, so down to Black & Orange

Follow up with my collection photos

Tried SupperWorks, it was interesting and fun

On Wednesday night we visited the SupperWorks for our visit to this new concept. The idea started in the US, How It Works, and SupperWorks "recently" opened in Waterloo at Northfield & Bridge. I was fortunately enough to win the preview at the Eastbridge Silent Auction for only $42 (worth of $150), and lazy enough to finally reserve and go after a full month. Let the story begin ...

Here are our 6 entrees for August

1. 
   
   Bourbon-Molasses Pork Tenderloin (grill)
2. 
   
   Cajun Basa (grill or oven)
3. 
   
   Cinnamon-Grilled Chicken Thighs with Summertime Salsa (grill)
4. 
   
   Java Joe's Flats (grill)
5. 
   
   Mango Tango Chicken (grill)
6. 
   
   Pesto Chicken Salad Wraps (Ready to Eat)

Pros

• 
  
  No cleanup required - you use the tools/utensils provided, place them in dirty basket afterwards, done
• 
  
  No preparation needed - all materials are prepared for you beforehand (or even splitted), you go there, put on a chef apron, go to your entree station, follow the recipes, place the food into the ziploc bag, and store them in the cooler before you go home
• 
  
  Lots of choices from the menu - steak, fish, chicken, wrap, desserts
• 
  
  Opportunity to bond, or team building, or a fun adventure with a date or s.o.
• 
  
  Quick - we finished 6 entrees in an hour
• 
  
  Cheap (subjective) - $42 for 36 servings is dirt cheap, each serving is $1.17

Cons

• 
  
  You still have to cook/oven/grill the entrees at home, in addition to prepare the rice/potato/vegetable/pasta and etc...
• 
  
  Expensive - even with the onsite rate of $153 for 6 entrees, that's still $4.25 per serving. Some may argue it's cheaper to buy groceries and prepare ourselves. I don't argue that, but I see the merits of trying it out occasionally and this is cheaper than dining out as well

Verdict

We were sold, at least for another month as we really enjoyed the experience

Tastewise it's hard to say yet, I've only finished the Pesto Chicken Wrap so far in 3 days. Will report back once we eat through the remaining 5 entrees, can't wait because they look delicious

Here are our 6 entrees for September ($153, $4.25 per serving)

1. 
   
   Eggplant Caponata (stovetop)
2. 
   
   Holiday Quiche (oven)
3. 
   
   Horseradish Sirloin Roast (grill or oven)
4. 
   
   Korean Orange Spice Steaks (grill)
5. 
   
   Salmon with Herbed Couscous (oven)
6. 
   
   Thai-Style Grilled Chicken (grill)

I got myself a 24" LCD for $270

My newest gadget, a big one as well - HP w2408 24" LCD Monitor (refurbished), and I paid "only" $266 after tax for it, dirt cheap.

Now, do I stay with 2 19" Widescreen LCD, or 1 24" Widescreen LCD? or a 24" and a 19"? Choices choices

I liked that it can tilt 90 degrees, and it has built-in light sensor to adjust the brightness as the surrounding light changes (aka. it darkens if you turn the lights off; brightens if you turn on the light)

Movie Reviews - The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Super Size Me

In the last 7 days I watched those 3 movies, and would like to share my thoughts on them. I have voted on IMDB as well

The Dark Knight

• Finally, finally, not a SOLD OUT show as we were bored during the long weekend. Used up our SCENE points for 2 free tickets for a good 2.5 hour Batman movie!
• I liked it a lot, it is no ordinary batman movie, and is a step further from Batman Begins. Joker was played beautifuly (RIP Heath Ledger) and he exploited the darkness of the human race completely. However, in the end, the batman survived, barely won, and mankind triumphed in the darkest hour (I loved the Ferry scenes)
• You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

Wall-E

• The Dark Knight was SOLD OUT, so we watched WALL-E instead. It was only 90 minutes, very short, but very cute and warmly. Definitely a Pixar product, and I throughly enjoyed their brand new idea, not another those let's-convert-comic-to-movie movies
• Now I think about it, fat people when machines do everything for us, Super Size me, frighting thoughts indeed.

Super Size Me

• I was cleaning out old movies on the hard drive, and came across this. I have savoured it since 2004 until now, just right after I had McDonald for lunch, how appropriate.
• It is quite cool, and scary to learn these facts, and what "bad fast food" can do to your body. Unfortunately it cannot ban me from fast food, but I will keep this movie in mind and minimize my fast food cravings dearly.

Money Management

Decided to review the money aspects of my life this morning, with Microsoft Money (I tried Quicken first, and gave up when it wouldn't even import my Credit Card transactions in Quicken format)

That only took 5 hours to import most of the bank and credit card transactions, and investment portfolio. I can understand why people are reluctant to look into the money matter. I know I'm debt-free, financially stable, and cash-flow positive, but sometimes you wonder where some of the money went.

This is by no means turning into a Personal Finance blog, although I follow way too many already, but I would urge everyone to review their financial statements, even only to keep a mental note of the spending trends.

But we have set a very aggressive goal for August --- save $4000 in the household!! a little bit crazy yes

A step closer to Warren Buffet

Most people have heard of Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, and despite our temptations, we firmly believe in his philosophy in buying to hold. It has been our joke and our dream to purchase Berkshire Hathaway shares (not the A class at $100K+, but the B class at $4000)

so this past week, we have reached that dream, I bought 2 shares of BRK.B stock at $3750 each, and now that I can attend their shareholders meeting if I really want to fly down to Omaha, Nebraska :)

Let's review this post in 5 years, in 10 years to see how it has advanced

New Month, New Blog

I have always loved to comment and chat with others over the internet, and my old blog (Wiki style) wasn't really capable of that. So I've decided to switch back to blogger now in the new month. Functionality-wise, blogger is still portable, no easy data loss, and it has RSS feed capability!

Granted, I may not even have enough visitors to even comment on my posts, but it's all for fun.
Not to mention trying to import the last 3 years worth of blog entries

I hope you will like this move, and continue to return in the future

Jerry