Thursday Non-Rant: Sunshine Award/Garden Weasel Edition

I have some juicy Rants cooking, but they aren’t quite ready for prime-time. No Rant will be served before it is fully baked. Instead, I focus on something positive today, the Amazing Garden Weasel! Oh, and my Sunshine Blogger Award nominations!

I also swear that except for an occasional beer, I don’t partake in any mind altering substances…

Two bloggers were kind enough to nominate me for a Sunshine Blogger Award:

• Thank you friends and fellow Coloradans, the Debt Free Guys!
• Second, but certainly not second, thank you Cash Flow Diaries.

The Sunshine Blogger Award Rules

1)   Acknowledge and thank the nominating blogger.
2)  Answer the random questions from the person that nominated me.
3)  Nominate and notify other bloggers of my choosing for the award.
4)  Provide new questions for the other bloggers I nominate.

My Answers

First up, the Debt Free Guys:

1) Who do you think is the most profound non-deity?

Whoah, you guys don’t start out easy, do you? Anyone who has read me for any length of time knows that I’m a huge Charlie Munger fan. He is often lost in the shadow of his Berkshire partner, Warren Buffett, but he is every bit as smart and good. In this year’s Annual Letter (bottom of page 26), Buffett himself said something extremely profound, even though you probably haven’t heard it.

…Charlie’s most important architectural feat was the design of today’s Berkshire. The blueprint he gave me was simple: Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices.

Did you read that? Read it again, I’ll wait.

Warren Buffett just gave Charlie Munger credit for designing the foundation of one of the best performing businesses of all time, Berkshire Hathaway.

Munger is a genius in many other areas of life too:

• He designed his home.
• He designed the Garden Weasel. Yes, I made this one up.
• He is a Harvard educated lawyer. Before that, he studied at Cal Tech.
• From reading Poor Charlie’s Almanack, I’m convinced that Munger knows more about the human mind than most psychiatrists.
• Finally, and maybe best, Munger is a philanthropist who is giving his fortune to charity.

You’d be wise to study the life and teachings of Charlie Munger.

A close second to Munger would be Pee-wee Herman:

2) What were the two or three last pieces of music (song/album) you purchased?

I can’t remember. I’ve been streaming music for a while now, so haven’t bought any in a while. I’ll tell you the last three things I listened to though:

• Ozzy Osbourne, No More Tears: In my opinion, this is Ozzy’s best work. It’s the rare album that you can listen to from start to finish without skipping tracks.
• Garbage, Version 2.0: Wow, stellar music here. Butch Vig is a musical genius. Besides being the drummer and producer for Garbage, he also produced Nirvana’s Nevermind.
• Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique: A beautiful piece of classical music. If I go deaf someday, perhaps as a result of listening to Ozzy, I’ll lament the fact that I’ll never hear this again.

3) If you could go back in time, 10 years ago, and deliver a message to yourself, what would it be and why?

Don’t buy the Mistake on the Lake. In 2006, I bought a lake home to fix and flip. It set me back $535,000, but we figured that we’d sell it for $1,000,000 after we made it beautiful. Then, the Great Recession intervened. After six years and 1000+ hours of my own labor, we broke even. If I had just invested that money, I would have freed up large amounts of time and I’d be at least $300,000 ahead of where I am now. Probably much more. I’m too afraid to do the math.

Close second: Invest in the Garden Weasel company!

4) What is your one guilty financial pleasure (something you love to spend on but know you shouldn’t)?

I’m frugal, but spend money on quality items. I just bought a MacBook Pro for $2,000, but don’t regret it. I’ll keep it for years and use it to manage my photos, write code and make music.

Lately, I’ve been perusing Craigslist for old motorcycles. If I ever pull the trigger on an old Honda 919, that will just be ridiculous and I’ll have to write a rant about myself.

5) What is your favorite habit, financial or otherwise, that you will never give up?

Good old frugality. I ran my numbers through the Personal Capital Retirement Calculator* and it states that I may buy the farm with $7,000,000 in the bank. Seven million, holy &^%$!!!

Even if I find myself a multi-millionaire some day, I’ll never pay anyone to mow the lawn, change the oil, clean the toilets, polish the Garden Weasel or anything else that I can do myself.

6) Salty or sweet?

Both. I love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a side of Cheetos or chips. Mmmmm, orange fingers…

Next up, questions from Cash Flow Diaries:

1) Where is the coolest place you have traveled to?

I have been fortunate to travel to a lot of wonderful places and do cool things. I’ve been to 39 states and seven countries (Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Belize, Mexico, Canada, France and Spain). I’ve snowboarded in beautiful Whistler (British Columbia). I Ran with the Bulls in Pamplona. I’ve snorkeled off the islands of Hawaii. I’ve hiked to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite twice.

I’d go to all of those places and do all of those things again without hesitation.

Lately though, I’ve been partial to beaches, preferably where I can watch the sunset with a cold beer in hand. On our last visit to Pismo Beach the family and I would wake up at about 6:00am and go for a mega-hike around town and the beach. In the afternoon, we played in the sand and read. Finally, we watched the sun go down with a tasty beverage. I’m partial to this kind of vacation at the moment because life has been so busy. The forced relaxation is magnificent.

Pro tip: The Garden Weasel also works amazingly well in sandy soil!

2) How long have you been blogging and what is your end goal?

I started on January 1st of 2013 and I absolutely love writing. I’ll leave my job soon and when I do, I hope to write more. I have an idea for a second blog as well, but I’m not letting that cat out of the bag yet. I also have a book outlined.

3)  What is your favorite home cooked meal?

Mrs. 1500 is a great cook, so it’s hard to pick just one thing. I’ve been a carnivore my whole life, but she cooks some stellar vegetarian dishes. She makes this eggplant/zucchini sandwich with a cilantro dressing that is out of this world.

4) What is your favorite restaurant?

I was born in and lived most of my life around Chicago, so I’m a sucker for a good, deep-dish pizza.  Pequod’s makes a really, really fine one.

5)  Do you have pets? And if so, what kind and why do you love them so much?

Do little plastic dinosaurs count? How about weasels?

I’ll be telling you about my amazing Garden Weasel in just a moment…

And I Nominate…

There are so many great bloggers out there doing such awesome work. It is just about impossible to pick one. However, that is exactly what I’m going to do today. I throw my nomination at Laura and Randy from My Shiny Nickels for several reasons:

• Laura and Randy are entrepreneurs. I’ve always admired people willing to take big risks to improve their lives. Laura and Randy are doing just that as they’re currently in the process of buying their second laundromat. Passive income baby.
• Laura’s writing style is hilarious. She is brutally honest and writes from the heart. My favorite bloggers are ones that write without a filter. I like it when I feel the writer’s personality coming through in their posts.
• I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Laura and Randy several times and they are great people. I’d have them over for dinner every week if they lived near me.

Enough blabbing. Here are my questions for the My Shiny Nickels team:

1) You recently bought your first laundromat and are in the process of acquiring a second. What has surprised you most and how is the second one coming along?

2) Do you have aspirations to own a laundry empire? Is Laura’s Laundry Land going to have 100+ locations some day? Will we see you on a late night TV commercial with you telling people why Laura’s Laundry Land should be their one and only laundromat? (I’m picturing you standing on a washing machine, wearing a tiara and yelling into the camera.)

3) Do you remember the conversation we had in New Orleans at that restaurant? It was the one where we taught Jim Collins some new phrases. No need to elaborate on what we talked about as it is most unfit for a family blog. I just want to know if you remember since I still laugh about it.

4) When are you going to Kauai again? Is it your favorite place to vacation? If not, what is?

5) Tell me about your Amazing Garden Weasel!

6) Please say “Hi!” to Randy for me. (OK, that wasn’t really a question. So be it.)

*Yep, this is an affiliate link from a blogger looking to pad his wallet a bit. Of course, my main goal is to help you and Personal Capital is a great tool. I would never recommend anything to you, most appreciated Reader, that I didn’t think would improve your life and make you a better person.

Next week, tune in for my review of the AMAZING Garden Weasel:

• It ferrets out weeds!
• It tills the dirt!!
• It scares varmints away!!!
• It increases your children’s IQ!!!!

Wait, what did you say?

The folks who make the Garden Weasel don’t have an affiliate program?!?

Damnit!

Never mind, forget I said anything about that piece of s$#@**!

**Just kidding Garden Weasel people. I have no idea whether your product is good or not. Just having a little fun. Please don’t sue me!