I’m warning you, today’s blog is about Minnesota sales tax, dental insurance, zits, and laundromats. So unless those topics sounds interesting to you, you can move right along and it won’t hurt my feelings any!
Despite getting a really good rate on our car loan (2.83%) we got a really bad rate on our Minnesota taxes and fees. I was hoping I could find some sort of loophole since the car was purchased in South Dakota, but we were forced to pay over $800 in state sales tax, registration fees, and license plates… and we still have to wait to receive further instructions from the state to get an inspection before they will send us the new title since it was listed as a salvage. Oh well, we got a quality car that should last us many years. If anyone else is looking for a steal on a used car, Dick’s Garage is sure to help you out!
In happier financial news, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out my dental and medical insurances have ended up paying about 90% of my wisdom teeth removal expenses. I was forced to pay for the whole operation up-front since I once was delinquent on a payment to the oral surgeon and they didn’t trust me. I expected at best insurance would cover half of the bill. It took about 50 days but it was good news in the end. That saved me over $1500!
Wednesday I got very angry with our apartment laundry machines. The washer wouldn’t drain the water after a load, so I attempted in vain to wring everything out before putting it in the dryer. And then the dryer didn’t even come close to getting the clothes dry. So after writing a stern letter to management, I decided to load up all our wet clothes and take them to work with me the next day and do laundry over break. Chanhassen has a fancy new laundromat with the most gigantic industrial-sized machines. There was a washer that was as tall as me and did six “jumbo” loads at once. Even then I still managed to overload a dryer and some stuff never did get fully dry, but it was still better than doing one load at a time at the apartment.
I have been plagued by acne in various degrees over the years, but today was a new one when I woke up with an under-the-skin zit on my right eyelid that caused my right eye to open only partially. I asked for advice on Facebook and many people chimed in telling me it must be a sty, but I had a sty last summer and this is definitely different. This is a zit and it’s killing me not to poke and prod at it. That’s all I have to say about that.
Tonight is the annual Twelve Bars of Christmas pub crawl in downtown Minneapolis, where twelve bars are swarmed for the good of a couple charities. Everyone gets decked out in matching t-shirts and floods the hot spots downtown. Lauren and I are back for year #3. Tomorrow is supposed to be Lauren’s boss’s Christmas party but if we get hammered by that 16 inches of snow they’re forecasting, we won’t be going anywhere. This would be our fifth major snowstorm (4 or more inches) of the season and it’s technically still fall for a couple more weeks. Pretty ridiculous.
And since people like pictures, here are some recent pictures I’ve taken with my new Droid…
No just kidding, that last picture was definitely not taken by me. But I ran across it today on Stuff About Minneapolis and liked it.
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
I’d just start taking all my laundry to this new place near your work. It looks like they have nice machines. I think you may have a sty, just a worse one than you’ve had previously…quit peeing in the road. Dick’s Garage is also outfitting me with a nice Chevy Colorado pickup, just in time for winter weather. Alex has it painted and they are just waiting on some parts. Thankfully, I won’t have to pay MN high rates. I hate the sound of the snowstorm coming your way. We are only supposed to get around 3″, but high winds, so we’ll be staying put this weekend. Have fun tonite!
Those jalapenos look hot as eff.