One Reason Why a Wisconsin Dells Trip is so Expensive

One thing I learned on my trip to the Dells this past Thanksgiving weekend, although it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving or the Dells, is that Dippin' Dots are positively the biggest waste of money on the face of the earth. Almost five bucks for what amounts to a large scoop of ice cream.

Actually, I've known what a rip off they are since I visited the Minnesota Zoo a few years ago, but it finally sunk in because I was, up to that point, proud of how well I was sticking to a budget for the Dells trip. I don't get it. The texture isn't as enjoyable as hand-dipped ice cream, and the kids spill about half of them. I'm hoping even young kids will wise up and these things will go the way of the Pet Rock. At least at that price.

Wisconsin Dells Thanksgiving

It was a nice, long Thanksgiving break, and I kind of wish I had tomorrow off from work. I think an ideal vacation is one where you get whatever time off spent doing whatever you do on the vacation, then get one day at home to unwind.

My wife and I took our two little guys to Wisconsin Dells, just getting ahead of the nasty weather, last Wednesday. It was my ex-wife's Thanksgiving to have the three older kids, so to make up for what they missed out on, we plan on heading back for President's Day weekend with them. It was also my first Thanksgiving away from them for the entire weekend, that I can recall anyway.

For President's Day, we will probably find a nice resort with a water park built in. This past five-day weekend, we rented a timeshare, which was fine, and had nice facilities, but we had to drive to get to the amusement and water parks. That wasn't so bad, but with five kids along for the trip next time, for convenience's sake, we'll try to stay where there is all that stuff on-site. Another key factor is that it will be more like a three-day weekend, so to cram as much in, it will help to not have to drive around as much.

We'll also need to find something better to travel in than my old Ford Taurus wagon with 120,000 miles on it. If all goes well, and my wife gets one of the jobs she is interviewing for this week, we'll be able to get a minivan. I couldn't justify it otherwise, despite the alternative - seven of us packed like sardines for 3 1/2 hours.

Here's hoping...

Elections

This being my first post since the election, I suppose it would be appropriate that I comment on how badly the Democrats got beat. I won't profess to know why it happened, but I do believe it had a lot to do with a lot of people being impatient. I also believe it had a lot to do with the success of the right wing media to get people to believe crazy things, at least to enough of a degree to affect votes.

Take the untrue $200 million-per-day Obama trip to Asia, for example. Although the story came out too late to affect the election, it's testamentary to how people are willing and capable of believing some crazy stuff. Then, after presented with the evidence, they'll still either believe it because they want to, or, almost as bad, believe something along the lines of, "Well, it may not be that bad, but there's still a lot of truth to it."

And when you get a lot of folks in the media from the same camp repeating the story as true because "they heard it in the media," even though they are only hearing it from each other, the uninformed fall for it, and in large numbers.

While this does happen with all political "sides," the Right Wing pretty clearly had the lion's share of successful indoctrination of misinformation this go-round.

Why I'll be Voting Democratic This Year

I don't touch much on my politics here, but occasionally I feel compelled to. In my adult years, I haven't liked the idea of one party controlling the House, Senate, and Presidency. But this year is different.

Unlike past years, I don't plan on voting for a single Republican on Tuesday. Now, I'm not that far left politically. Certainly not on fiscal matters, anyway. Social issues? Definitely to the left. Like gay marriage, which I think is my generation's civil rights. Twenty years from now, if my children ask me how I felt about gay marriage and the right to serve, I'm glad to know that I won't have to lie to tell them I was on the "correct" side of the issue...today's "liberal" side.

I could point to countless things that contribute to my decision, such as the above, but all I really need comes from some of the simplest, yet most misleading lies from the campaign season. Things like calling Obama and Dayton's tax positions, "Job-killing tax hikes." Say all you want about it not technically being a lie, but my Webster allows for it to absolutely be called a lie. They know they are intentionally being deceiving; ergo, they are lying.

"But what about the Dems this and the liberals that, and they do it too, and blah blah blah?"

Yeah, I know. Please spare me the tu quoques. One side has disgusted me far more than the other this year, and it is the party of Lincoln.

But if you insist that, as you should, this is not enough, here's another good example of why I don't want another mid-term like '94, from Dana Milbank at the Washington Post.

Here's a good reason why we don't need a return to the mythified Reagan years.

Still think raising the top income earners' marginal rate by a whopping three percentage points (which they are supposed to do when Bush's failed policy expires) will be "job-killing?" Think again.

I'm totally a "throw the bums out" kind of guy. But not this year.

Too Much October

Within the span of a week in October, I have a son's birthday, a daughter's birthday, a sister's birthday, and my wife's and my anniversary. Somewhere within about two weeks, all in October, is also a nephew's birthday, a niece's birthday, and a sister's anniversary.

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something. Anyway, throw in MEA weekend and Halloween, and October is just too busy a month for me. Almost makes me glad I don't have to worry about following the Twins in the World Series.

No, not really.

New Business Adventure/Experiment

I used a half day of vacation today to pick up four pallets of return merchandise from a direct marketing company. I rented a U-Haul to pick them up in Chaska, and unloaded them in my garage, where scores of full boxes now sit. My intent is to assemble and/or check the usability of each item, then turn around and sell the merchandise individually on the various online auctions/classifieds.

My costs so far for the merchandise and delivery is just over $800. I don't expect I'll have any problems making the money back and being able to keep some of the items for personal use, gifts, etc. They include unassembled bikes, retro-style turntables, and turntable-cd burner combos, to name a few.

But will I profit? Keep watching this blog for updates on how the venture goes. I will include the accounting to show not only what net profit/loss I incur, but also a diagnosis from an economist's viewpoint (whether it was worth it in the end, opportunity cost, etc.).

I must keep reminding myself that this isn't too far from how Tom Petters got started. Things like that will scare me straight, all right.

Why Pay More? (Maybe they should)

It's after midnight, and thanks to another Twins faltering against the Yankees, two things are certain:

1) I'll have a dream of the game, during which the game isn't over yet, only to wake up and realize it really happened
2) Every thing that normally bugs me a little will really tick me off for a while

As for the latter, as an ex-radio guy, I really hate lame commercial copy. After the game, on the tube I heard the Vision World tag line, "Why pay more?" I think Taco Bell has been using the same one. I would bet at least 100 small market radio stations across the U.S. are using it for local advertisers as well. Perhaps the Twins' management is as well, and were reminded of the answer by the Yankees.

I can forgive the small market stations. You can only come up with so many different ways to tell the audience that price is your differentiator. For $10 a spot, or whatever the going rate is these days, you ain't getting Madison Avenue.

But from national chains? "Why pay more"??

I'll tell you why, because perhaps by paying more I'll get someone who cares about quality, which apparently Vision World doesn't when hiring copy writers.

Stupid Twins.