Update

Life has been busy with my work weeks running around 60+ hours/week. Here's the latest update:

• Dryer: Last week it had gone out again, had thought it was the belt but it ended up being that I didn't tighten two of the screws enough in the back. Found replacement screws around the house and tightened it up. My wife did a bunch of laundry yesterday and no problems. We're going though with smaller loads now.
• Computers: I just worked with a customer last night that lived in a very expensive house (everyone in the neighborhood had a swimming pool in their back yard) and the lady of the house was saying that she thought computers should last more than 6 years. Her system had a short on the motherboard and was causing the system to crash. I didn't say it to her, but that's why the manufacturers give 3 year warranties at best.
  
• Redbox: I've been using Redbox the past few days. I knew my relatives had it out in Colorado, but didn't think it had come to Illinois. I guess I was wrong, there's a few in my neighborhood. If you sign up on their site your cell phone #, you'll get a free rental every Monday night until about mid-May. I just did one last night and had another free one from a promo code on their site.
• The Corporation: I just recently watched this movie, I knew it was biased against corporations, but it's still interesting to watch documentaries like that. It's made me look at companies a little differently.
  
• TigerDirect: Had one of those "look at differently" experience when I was shopping there. When you buy from there at their outlet stores, they want to know your phone number. I declined to provide it. When you return something, they say they are required to get your address. I was tempted to lie, but I gave it to them and asked them "Your not going to be sending me anything, right?" And they were like, "Um...I don't know." and they checked with another associate and told me they'd send me a catalog. They ended up marking my account as "Do Not Rent" which means a whole lot more than just their catalog. It means them selling personal information left and right.
• Shopping: I asked my wife a question when we were shopping at the hardware store "Do we have something at home that would also work?" She was wanting to work in our garden and was wanting one of those knee pads so that the ground isn't so hard while she was working. She ended up coming up with the idea an old towel and it worked just fine. That little question saved us $5 and one less item in the house.
• Breadmaking: I haven't done a cost analysis of it, but I think there is something so much more valuable in it. This weekend I made a whole bunch of bread and to me it tastes a whole lot better than store-bought bread. I feel it similar to the feeling of driving a fully-paid car or walking through the grass of a fully-paid home.
• Tree-cutting: I was planning on doing it this past weekend, but I couldn't borrow a ladder. This weekend coming up I'm going to try again and save the wood for our future fireplace. I'm going to do some research on how much firewood is needed to keep our house warm.