Author Archives: Andrej Zivor

Candy Cravings

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The one thing that always gets me when summer starts is the midnight summer cravings.  Boy it sure is hard to start working on your body when the need for your favorite candy box hits.  Especially, since this year is 2020 and getting out and getting your favorite candy could be considered a crime.  Leaving homes for non essentials is strictly forbidden across much of the United States at the moment so it is a bit of a conundrum if you ask me.  Now how do you go about getting said candy boxes during the pandemic well here are a few tips from me. Also I am not a lawyer and suggest you follow your state guidelines at all times and seek legal advice from a practicing lawyer in your state.

Now when the craving hits I feel that it is worth going out and getting because life goes on and I am not going to suffer for what has been shown to be a pandemic that is less deadly than the common flu.  So my first thing to do is look for something essential in the home that I could stock up on.  This could be food, toilet paper, or any other number of household items that comes to mind.

Then I decide which one I need and make a list for it and then head to the car.  Don’t forget your facemask though.  Even though it has been proven not to stop the spread of covid-19 some companies are requireming them and now some states are requiring them as well. Ironic how it could come to this when facts are being thrown to the side for political pandering and shots on instagram.  But it may be necessary to play along to not go to jail and to get your candy of choice.

Now another way I go about getting my favorite snacks is going to refuel my car.  You can never say gas is not essential and being topped off is important for many different reasons especially depending on the season and now the lack of gas due to oil plummeting as well. Where I live many gas stations are as good as grocery stores and stock many of my favorite things. So I am able to get some gas and fill up on my favorite snacks too.  That is essential in more than one way because your mind is important and if you really need something then go ahead and fill your psychological need as well.

Too Much Cardboard

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Are you in the same boat as I am.  Is your house filling up with excessive amounts of Cardboard boxes?  Seriously, I am starting to be at a loss of what to do with all of this extra stuff laying around.  I know the excessive amounts of it are due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and continued riots.  The shutdown of our economy and lockdowns has simply left us with shopping more online than ever before.  I am seriously ordering more from amazon, and other online companies than any other time in my life.  This is leading to up to 2 to 4 boxes arriving at my home each day. The amount of cardboard boxes that is now in my garage needing to be dealt with has reached proportions of 6 feet by 10 feet by 6 feet of boxes in my home.  This is getting insane. The real issue is I am not really too sure on how to get rid of it. But I am going to go through my plan.

https://youtu.be/5IhXMmj1mHI

First I think the best way to get it out is simply to put it in my weekly trash.  We are not allowed to use recycling again as of the lockdowns.  I am not sure how that is not essential but I would contact your local government and let them know that you think it is just as I have done. 

The fact that all these boxes are going to go to waste does hurt me on the inside and I feel like I am hurting the planet around me because of this.  But my goal is to now just move them out slowly through my weekly trash pickup.  I am however limited to 10 50 gallon bags of trash per week.  The issue is I still have normal trash and extra yard work trash to put out each week and this leaves little left for boxes.

So my next plan is to cut the boxes up into small sections and place them in bags.  I wish there was another way, but my goal is to go into my closet and pick out a fixed blade knife that has the best handle ergonomics.  I want this so I dont get blisters and I also want to match it with the best edge retention steel. This is because cardboard is dense and abrasive then I plan to cut it up in small pieces and place in the bags to trash.  That is my goal and I hope this is something you can do as well.

Trips do DQ

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Life has dramatically changed over the last year.  The existence of many things is now gone and part of that is dining in at most restaurants.  The change has brought about a new way of life and a new way to experience it. This week I learned that lots of people still want the things they wanted a few months ago and are willing to wait a long time for them.  This was made prevalent on my trip to the dairy queen with my wife last night. We were under the impression that a trip to get some ice cream would make the end of our night perfect.  So we hopped in the car after putting on some shoes and headed to the store.

Upon driving up to the DQ I noticed lots of lights near the store.  It turned out that the light were indeed about 30 cars lined up in the drive through.  It was strange because technically the inside of the store should have been open but it was not. This made us a bit sad because we knew we would be waiting for a long time.  Since the inside was closed we imagined that the line would go very quickly. Unfortunately, it did not and was a very poor waiting process. There was one upside to being forced to wait a long time.

The upside is that we got to go through the entire menu on our phones for a long time and talk about the best items to get.  Many were based around our favorite candy box candy. I mean is there much better than getting your favorite type of candy box in your ice cream? I am honestly not sure and I sure love a reese cup filled blizzard. My wife went for the oreo route after much debate and was a bit disappointed.

The big issue was that we waited a very long time and the order we received was shodilly put together and an extra topping was missing. It really showed a very poor lack of management.  A store that was being staffed with so many people should have had that line flying and orders should be correct considering that you are only taking one order at a time and not the 4 to 5 when the store is running at normal capacity. Overall the experience was a bust and most likely we will not repeat that fiasco again.

Real Estate and Moving

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The market is about to blow up. That is what we hear every 10 years or so and it is usually run by a credit cycle that our housing market goes through.  It looks like currently is one of the best times to ever buy a home.  The lending industry has negative interest rates on the rise and that means a home could be purchased for the smallest interest rates of possibly all time soon.  So is it time to get the cardboard boxes packed up and look for a new home! I want to go over some of the possibilities that are coming in the market and some things that may affect what you do with your real estate purchases in the future. 

The first thing to know is that interest rates are prime.  This is always a huge part of purchasing a home and that is because most everyone does not pay cash for a home.  The majority of Americans are in mass amounts of debt and that comes homes in a big way.  When people buy a home they end up getting a loan and mortgage to end up purchasing it.  The note is the debt and mortgage is the paperwork that states you will lose your home if you don’t pay for it. 

The extra amount of money the lender makes on interest is the incentive for them to actually give you money to buy a home.  The percentages for lending money these days are going to their lowest amount in my lifetime.  Soon it is actually rumored that interest rates on the federal level will reach less than zero.  This means that banks will lend money at most likely all time lowes.  This ends up in thousands saved over 15 to 30 years of interest accruing during the time living in the house.

This also means lower monthly payments on mortgages.  So if you are ready to get your cardboard boxes packed up and move to a new house you may be paying less for the same size house per month.  Many people are refinancing and saving 200 to 500 a month on mortgage payments.  This allows them to either pay off their house faster or have more income to spend on other things during the same time frame. So if you are thinking about moving or getting into your first house.  Now really is a great time to start looking.

Getting the best ice cream

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Life is full of nuances and small ways to get the best things possible.  The saying and ideas that the little dive shops are sometimes the best in the town are many times true.  I would imagine that the same goes for ice cream as well. 

At least in my local towns that I have lived in it was always the small place that never seemed to close down that was the most popular.  Back in my past I can attribute this to brand loyalty and also to astounding service.  The service I always received at those places was what always won me over. The first place was called Frosty Boy

Frosty Boy was a small shop located in the country.  The town was so small you could drive through it in 2 minutes and it mostly was frequented by individuals needing gas.  But there was a small store in the middle of the town that drew more people than gas on most summer nights and that was Frosty Boy.  They sold some of the best ice cream in the State.  The reason why was because they offered the best flavors of all the candy boxes imaginable.  They would literally take the candy boxes of all your favorite brands and line the windows of where you ordered with them.

  That away you could point to and pick which flavor you wanted in your ice cream.  The best part was each size was always twice as big as the competitors size.  If it was a cone a small was a medium and a medium was the equivalent of the competitors large.  The large sizes were super size and were almost always way too much.  But the best part was that they did all this with the most competitive prices in the State.  I image that they had a really good supplier and with all the foot traffic that they brought in they were able to survive very well and be profitable but wow was it impressive.


The next best place is located in my current town and they are smack dab in the middle of the city. They are a walk up ice cream shop and are open year round.  What sets them apart is that they seem to have the best flavors of any other ice cream shop I have had to date.  The flavors are all custom and each one is unique. All I can say is that the hidden gems are simply that. Gems!