I wrote about using our cashback bonus money for gift cards to restaraunts. We saw that one of them was going bankrupt, namely Bennigan’s, so we went to lunch there today to use up the cards before they were no good any more.

Tragedy! “We’re sorry, we don’t accept those any more. Corporate shut down and we can no longer redeem the cards.”

Oof. While I can understand fully the local restaraunt’s position, they would be out out meal cost, it was still a bit of a let down thinking we were getting a “free lunch” when we weren’t. Thankfully, the manager was very understanding and took off 20% for the inconvienience. That was nice!

The very large up side to the whole process, a brief call to the card with the cashback bonus got the bonus refunded for the now defunct gift cards! So, while we were looking forward to an afternoon out on the gift cards, it ended well.

Peace,
Tony

The local radio stations have been running deals on half price gift cards and other offers. The best one we just used last weekend. It was for a two night stay in a cabin at a water resort north west of Wisconsin Dells by an hour or so.

We had our little minivacation for the summer! This cabin had two queen size rooms, a kitchen, large dining/living area and then a loft with four twin beds and a 3/4 bath! To sweeten our deal we invited my brother and his family along. All eight of us stayed very comfortably in the cabin. We wore the kids out at the water park, put them down for bed in the loft and played Euchre and caught up on each others lives!

As an added bonus, we drove up to the Leinie Lodge for a tour, about an hour away, but it gave my kids time to nap a little and recharge the batteries.

In terms of money spent, the certificate cost just under $150, had we done this with no certificate, the cabin and waterpark passes would ring up in the range of $500+ for all eight of us. Not to bad of a score, if I do say so myself.

The station that my wife listens to the most has really good deals on Wednesday mornings at 8:20. That is how I got the resort one, but I’ve also picked up a days worth of activities at Crystal Cave and buy one get one tickets to the local RenFest.

Its worth a look at the station websites to see if they are running similar promotions.

Peace,
Tony

We were out of town this last weekend visiting relatives and doing other stuff. The girls grandma and great aunt watched the girls while my wife and I got away for the day. Among the other things they did was fishing off the dock. About 1pm we got a call from a very excited little girl.

She caught a fish!

The two girls together, they had a LOT of fun!

Last year we picked up a used pop up camper for a song. It’s in pretty decent shape for being nearly 25 years old. The roof was rebuilt and one corner doesn’t lift any more so it takes two people to raise it, but other than that its great, especially for what we paid for it.

 We took the camper a whopping 25 minutes east to a campground with a lake and stuff with some friends. Overall it was a blast, and we’ll be doing it again! It turned out to be a really fun weekend. The kids slept well, and it was borderline comfortable enough for us to sleep ok too. I added some things to my list for the next time we go, but it was still super fun.
(Still not what I consider Camping, no tent, sleeping on the ground, hiking in a few miles with everything on your back…)

The funniest, man-I’m-lucky moment happened at 4:15am Sunday.

I forgot the trash bag hanging from the picnic table. I woke up to the sound of crinkling and rummaging, look out the screen to see a silhouette of what I swore was a dog. First thought was Zorro, our four month old puppy, had somehow gotten out of his crate and the camper, I was dead asleep, you know, weird thoughts, so anyway, I figured it was a dog digging in my garbage.

I get up, grab a 2.5′ piece of 2×2 that we have holding up a cabinet in the camper, tip toe out so I don’t wake the kids. I figured I’d give the dog a good scare to chase it off then throw the trash up higher.
Tip toe tip toe, I get within arms reach of the bag, the dog hasn’t noticed I’m there and its on the other side of the bag, so I couldn’t see it. I tap the wood on the ground and was whispering “hey buddy”.
Remember, I am close enough to touch the bag…
It starts turning as the dog is trying to get some particularly good morsel.
The dog comes with it, head still buried in the bag.

I see it now,
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