A long time ago, someone once told me that you can monitor the health of your car through the gas mileage.  Not knowing if that was true or not, I started recording all the pertinent data during each fill up: gallons, dollars per gallon, miles driven, etc.  I started this practice when I first bought my Ford F150, and continue the routine today.

I can’t say whether or not monitoring this information can tip a driver off about degrading health of the vehicle, but it does give me some good data to look at for other reasons.

There has been a lot of gum-flapping on the television about the rising cost of …

I’m on my way to Reno this weekend for the annual Reno Air Races.  Since the new ban on anything liquid in a carry-on, I figured I better check and see what I can bring.

Permitted in a carry-on:

Scissors, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, knitting needles, nail files, nail clippers, toy weapons, walking canes, tweezers.  Oh, and “personal lubricant”.

NOT Permitted in a carry-on:

Toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, chap stick, liquid soap, eye drops, saline solution, deodorant, sun tan lotion, bug spray, mascara.

Does anyone else find this a bit odd?

Oh what a tangled web we weave.

According to an AP news story, a record 40 million people will be traveling this 4th of July weekend, and of those, 34 million will travel by car.

Evidently the high prices at the pump are not high enough to curtail many travel plans, which leads me to believe that the recently softened demand for unleaded gasoline will make a u-turn during peak driving season.

This doesn’t bode well for my plans to short Valero Energy (VLO: chart) for a quick couple points, however it will remain to be seen …

I just tallied up all my cash withdrawals from our trip to Europe, and compared the transaction and ATM fees to the fees that my local bank was trying to charge me just to convert currency.

The overall fee was 3% of the total currency withdrawn from the ATM, as compared to the 7% that my bank wanted to hit me up for to convert $100 USD to Euros…

So it turns out that using plastic does save you in the long run.  In addition, I found that both Visa and MasterCard have …

Overall, our trip to Europe was a pleasant one, despite sleeping in the train station in Italy.  However, our dealings with airlines were not so great.

Expectations were high for Alitalia.  Past experiences on British Airways were positive, and I’ve heard rave reviews from friends concerning foreign air carriers in general.  So maybe it was the hype that let me down, or maybe it was the terrible customer service, along with the fact that not a single flight on Alitalia left or arrived on time.

The beauty of the internet is that you can gather opinions and experiences in …

Nothing makes you appreciate your home more than being away from it. Nothing makes you appreciate your culture more than being shocked by another. Nothing makes you appreciate the value of the dollar than when you trade X dollars for even fewer Euros, only to pay more for goods and services.

Our recent trip through Greece and Italy was a good experience.  While I’ve been overseas before (France and England), evidently I forgot how sheltered our American culture has made me.

Greece has beautiful country.  Notice I said they have beautiful country. The Southern Greek isles are absolutely wonderful, with stellar views in 360 degrees.  Black and red beaches adorn the coast line, as a remnant to volcanic activity.

Starting tomorrow, my wife and I venture across the pond to the Greek Islands for a two week stint in Europe.  Needless to say, my posting will be scarce during this time…

Interestingly enough, I went to my local bank to convert $100 in U.S. currency to Euros.  The exchange rate was about 0.778, which means I’d get roughly 78 Euros for my $100 bill.

But wait!  There’s a catch!

The bank was going to charge me a $11 processing fee for the exchange.  Considering this would effectively lower the exchange rate by about 7%, I politely declined…

Surely there must be a better way.