JoAnn vs JoAnn

Chet got some photos up from birthday fest! Check ‘em here: http://tinyurl.com/oc92xh

Thank you, Chet!

I just learned that a traditional French aioli is not, in fact, a mayonnaise. However, like mayo, it IS an emulsion. But I learned that from an unverified wiki posting.

In any case, I hand-whisked a cup of mayo ala Alton Brown this weekend (used corn oil) and then added approx. 2 heads of smashed roasted garlic and a couple of tablespoons of snipped chives. Served it with lightly seasoned, grilled veggies–asparagus, carrots, zucchini, red/yellow/green peppers, red onion, homegrown grape tomatoes. (It ended up also being used as a condiment for a grilled ribeye and on a beef fajita taco, and mixed in with a jalapeno corn salad.) Kristina was actually veggie Grill Mistress…I heard her say something about seasoning with Penzey’s smoked paprika. I have no idea what else she put on those veggies but they were amazing. I like carrots normally but they were like crack done this way. Seriously.

I have Tyler Florence to thank for the fajita marinade and guacamole recipes. I usually use skirt steak but I found a leaner and cheaper cut of meat to use this time. I think I’ll go back to the skirt steak. In any case, the OJ and adobo kind of sweetened up the marinade a bit. I may scale back on the OJ next time.

The guacamole absolutely rocked. I thought it didn’t call for garlic so I didn’t add any (which is unusual for me). I used red onion because that’s what I had around. Simple, fresh, delish! Probably my fave guac ever. Seriously.

And Emeril’s margaritas knocked my socks off. Because we had to fill the 3 gallon Bubba Keg, we made 11 times this recipe–more or less. Emeril’s secret ingredient is pineapple juice which kind of cuts the tartness–and reduces the amount of sugar I would typically use in making a simple syrup. Bea was our Mixolomatrix–her instincts when pulling it together were excellent! I might pull back just a little on the pineapple next time though. (For the record, all but around 16 oz of ‘rita was left after a 10 hr party…)

For the first time in forever, I pretty much followed all of the recipes. Stranger things have happened!

On Saturday afternoon/evening, you have the chance to vote online for Susan Elliott and Joe Romano of Mood Indigo to win the Prairie Home Companion Great American Duet Sing-off held live at The Town Hall in New York City.

You may have heard these fab local Houston jazz singers over the years at The Daily Review Cafe (every Sunday) or maybe you heard them sing AT OUR WEDDING! (They learned and beautifully sang Tom Waits, “Little Trip to Heaven” for our 1st dance together.) These two are old friends of ours and could use your support.

Spread the word!

Go Joe! Go Susan! Wooo Mood Indigo!! Show ‘em how it’s done!

Here’s what you need to do on Sat, April 11:

* A link to the voting page will appear after each group of performers has had the chance to sing one or two songs. GK will announce on-air to go to www.prairiehome.org and vote. This will probably happen right around intermission (6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET).

* You may need to refresh or reload your browser page to see the link.

* Users will vote for one act only.

* Only one vote will be allowed per computer. No exceptions.

* The link to voting page will come down after about a half an hour. Online votes will be tallied and added to the total from those in attendance at the Town Hall.

We got me a new car this weekend. It was all very exciting! And nerve-wracking. I’ve never purchased a car before, nor have I given away or sold a car. I think I did pretty well. We got it for invoice less the $1500 rebate promotion. It’s not the color I wanted and it’s got the sports and audio packages which I didn’t need but it had everything else I wanted–ABS, sun roof, and convenience package. So I’m feeling good. But it wasn’t smooth sailing. I wish I had a checklist because I didn’t know how to do this whole thing. So, here’s one for you–or for me if I ever have to do this again.

Research

1. I went out to www.FuelEconomy.gov to research gas mileage.

2. I researched 5 year total cost of ownership on Yahoo!, Automobile magazine, and a number of other places.

3. I got the Edmunds.com MSRP/Invoice pricing.

4. I went out to CarMax to compare to older and new models.

5. I went to the car manufacturer site and configured the vehicle and got the MSRP. I asked for 3 quotes from local dealers.

Financing

1. I looked at dealer rebate and financing offers.

2. I looked for financing from my credit unions and bank. It turned out I could get better financing through my credit union AND get the rebate from the dealer. No penalty for pre-payment. Over payment is applied to principal.

3. We decided on what we wanted to pay. Then we decided how much we wanted to put down. Based on the dealer quotes (which was invoice price including options, less rebate, plus tax, title and license), I applied for a loan amount that covered the total price less down payment.

4. My credit union had an online only rate. So I applied for the loan online. I was approved. I requested a draft check. It took 4 days to get to me. But I was able to walk into the dealership with a blank check (payable up to the approved loan amount).

5. Loan payments don’t kick in for 45 days.

Before Going to Dealership

1. I probably should have contacted my insurance company to find out how much a new car would raise my rates. I didn’t figure that into my monthly costs. I would also alert them that you’ll be adding a new car to your insurance and will call in with a VIN when you purchase the vehicle. Decide on what coverage you want so it’s ready to go except for the VIN.

2. I would go into a dealer during the week next time. That way I would be able to call the insurance company and give them the VIN and get immediate coverage.

3. If you finance with the dealer you can ask for Gap Insurance. That way, if you drive off the lot and total your car, you’re not the proud new owner of a loan and wreck.

4. If you are buying this car to replace an old car, you should keep your plates and have them transferred to your new car. The dealer can handle that paper work for you but you have to ask them to remove your old plates and put them on your new vehicle. You want to keep your plates rather than let the Buyer of your old car have the plates so you aren’t held liable for anything the buyer does before the transfer makes it into the system.

5. Your old vehicle will need plates. You can get a Vehicle Transit Permit from your state DoT valid for 5 days. So best be ready to sell or transfer the vehicle immediately upon purchase. Buyer of your old vehicle can apply for the permit which allows them to drive the vehicle home or to the county tax assessor office.

At the Dealership

1. Don’t get the Extended Service or Warranty Plans.

2. We spent 2 hours and that included test driving the new vehicle, looking at 1 other option, filling out paperwork and dealing with the finance office. They told us we should plan for 1 hour. If you don’t walk in with a plan, you could sink a whole day there.

3. Ask for them to change your plates. Ask for Gap Insurance.

4. Have your insurance company’s number handy along with the VIN of the new vehicle so you can get them to add that puppy on. My guy did it in about 5 min. and was able to fax me an insurance card. Be sure to remove the old car from your insurance only once the title’s been transferred.

Getting Rid of the Old Car

See Tx DoT for latest.

1. If at all possible, and if you’re doing this mid-week, go with the buyer of your car to the County Tax Assessor’s office. In Harris County, they’re all only open M-F 745a-445p.

2. You’ll need to have the vehicle’s Title and the completed Form 130-U (Vehicle Title Application). It’s nice if you also have receipt for the latest vehicle registration on you. In TX, at the time of this writing, you can simply give the vehicle as a gift and check off the $10 Gift Box. If you sell the vehicle for $1, the buyer will still need to pay taxes on the bluebook value of the vehicle.

3. The buyer will need to have proof of insurance.

4. Fees will be a $2.50 license plate transfer fee (which if you’re keeping the plates, you’ll have to pay that at the dealer, I think), $33 vehicle title application fee, and the $10 gift tax (or the tax on the value of the vehicle).

5. To be extra safe, you can also submit the Form VTR-346 Vehicle Transfer Notification online. It goes on the record that you no longer own the title to the vehicle and shows who does. And you can specify whether the plates went with the vehicle or not. This is extra protection for anything that happens when the car is no longer in your possession but the paperwork has not gone through.

6. It will take 3 weeks for the title transfer paperwork to go through and for you to get the title and registration for your new car and for the buyer of your old car to get his/her title to your car.

7. Remove the old car from your car insurance.

One little tidbit on car insurance: it’s considered a part-time vehicle if you put less than 7,500 miles on it per year. This will lower your premiums. Also, in TX for 2009, sales tax on new vehicles is deductible on your taxes.

This is just my experience and my lessons learned. This may not be the best way for you to handle this. Best of luck if you have to go through this some time soon! What a pain.

If you think K & I should be (at least) given the opportunity to interview in person for The Amazing Race, please add your name to this list. Please indicate next to your name whether you would be a first time viewer of the show or not. I think it would be compelling to them if we could also say that we’d bring ‘em new viewers just from my small network of people. Thanks to Robbin for giving me this idea! As the saying goes, “We’re not dead yet!”

The folks at The Amazing Race haven’t called. Tomorrow is the start of the week of semi-final interviews. I guess I should give up the ghost. Grrr. I’m out several hundred dollars–not counting time and effort. I guess it’s better this way. If we got called for the semi-finals, that’s out of our own pocket too. But I feel like if they met us in person, they’d fall in love with us even more–and I would probably be even more pissed and more broke (and really, really bummed) if we didn’t get a call back for the final round of interviews. Pfft.

Well, I am glad we went through the whole exercise though. It’s been a long time since we’ve spent so much time together working on a project. And frankly, I’m pretty impressed with the quality of our final piece despite all the drama that went into the making of it. It was a lot of fun. And it’s been a lot of fun having this season’s race to think about how to work together, discuss our strengths and weaknesses, and reinforce our bond of friendship.

But I still wish we were selected…

As promised, here’s the link to the video we made, along with my written app and pics we used for our application packet. I also created a Top X list of why we would make great candidates for TAR that we used to make our videos, and the individual videos touching on each point.

http://www.globalwrites.com/private/TAR.htm

How could they not want us? Why haven’t they called? We’re cute as all get out. We’re funny–to both laugh at and laugh with. We’d make a great team that everyone will enjoy watching week after week. What’s not to love?