Happy New Year 2010! Hope everyone has a great year and had a safe New Years!

I’ve been trying to purchase a new car and take advantage of the governments Cash for Clunkers (CARS) program.  I’ve been looking to trade in my 1991 Acura Legend 4spd auto which qualifies under the program.  I’ve been following the progress of the program since rumors of it first came about this past March.  I put a downpayment on a new car, that qualifies under the program as well, on July 14th.Here I am and still no car.

First my car was submitted the Tuesday after everything started but was rejected because the dealer didn’t have everything in place.  Then apparently it was rejected a second time.  I gave all the paperwork required the first time through.  I’ve had the car registerd consistently under my name and insured for the past 9 years and i have all that paper work.  The dealer sent me things to fill out, sign and send back to them.  I’ve done everything and still no car!

The dealer calls me, sends me more paper work to fill out and sign.  I send it back as soon as possible…  This back-and-forth has been going on 2 weeks now.  If I knew this would be more complicated and stressful than buying a damn house I would have opted out of it!  Totally not worth all this frustration for the money.

I’ve seen other people get their cars already, it’s taken them a couple of days to do the transaction.  This is just rediculous.

Update:  The dealer got a hold of me this evening to tell me the NHTSA rejected my car because it wasn’t insured for more than a year.  I suppose sending in a copy of my current and last insurance cards, showing well over a year of coverage, wasn’t enough.  So the dealer said he resubmitted everything with a letter from my insurance company with proof of insurance.  To top things off, the dealerships are supposed to be able to check on the status of a vehicle via a website provided by the NHTSA which the dealer stated wasn’t working either.  This bag of fail puts Mary Poppins purse to shame…

Earlier today Laurie had her first doctor’s visit in regards to the pregnancy.  I tagged along as well.  After the exam, everything went well, Laurie had an ultrasound done to better determine how far along the pregnancy is.

We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat, which was 160bpm, 1bpm faster than Connor’s was at this age.  The pregnancy is 7 weeks and 2 days in with an estimated day of birth to be March 7th, 2010.  Laurie has another visit with the doctor in about 1 month.

Yesterday I put a deposit down on a new turbocharged 2009 Chevy Cobalt SS.  I wrote up a nice post about it here on my car blog.

I’ve always been a fan of spicey foods and hot sauces but recently I’ve been pushing my limits.  Today I pushed things the furthest yet.  I originally started out many years ago on an American staple, Tabasco Sauce.

For the longest time this was pretty much the only hot sauce I used and I felt it was descently hot.  Then one day my wife visited a hot suace shop and picked me a few things up.  These two to be exact, See Spot in Heat and Bone Suckin’ Sauce: Hiccupin Hot!.

See Spot In Heat is similiar to Tabasco, it’s based on vinnegar and tomato but at the time I felt it was extremely hot.  Too hot in fact to finish more than 1/4 of the bottle.  The Bone Suckin’ Sauce was also quite spicey but made to be put on ribs or mixed with BBQ sauce.  Laurie recently used it to cook with in her meatloaf, which was quite tasty.

My parents recently went on a trip to Belize and brought me back Belizean Heat.  They had told me it is an extremely hot sauce and I was nervous to try it.  Then when I started my new job I found a number of people there are hot sauce nuts.  So I brought my Belizean Heat in to work with me and gave it a try.  It turned out to be hot but not too bad and have an extremely awesome flavor.  In less than 3 weeks I managed to polish off half the bottle.

So today I decided to give this other sauce a serious try.  I tasted it in the past but today I really dived in to it.  357 Magnum Mad Dog Silver, 750,000 scoville rating.  I used about a half of teaspoon in between my noodle bowl and some rice/meat/egg mix I had.  Without a doubt one of the hottest meals I’ve ever had and my stomach is still aching.  This stuff is extremely, extremely hot and claimed worlds hottest sauce at one time.  The flavor of the sauce is definitely made to go on ribs or with some kind of BBQ, similiar to the Bone Suckin’ Sauce in that respect only 100x’s hotter.

Today was actually the third time I had the suace, I just had very small doses the first two times.  So tonight I decided to have some Tabasco sauce on my pasta.  I generally prefer the flavor of Tabasco sauce on pasta to others.  The Tabasco sauce’s spice was nullified.  I tasted nothing but flavored vinnegar.  I piled it on to try and taste it, after a few tries I got something that I could only describe as tangy.

I don’t know if the 357 Magnum Mad Dog Silver killed my taste buds or if I am building up a tollerance but damn I was suprised.

After all I’ve eatten today I’m lying in bed with the Mylanta nearbye.

So after 3 long months of job hunting I finally found a job today.  I accepted an offer from Niksun, Inc. in Monmouth Junction, NJ for a Build Engineer.

What I didn’t post about prior to this was my job loss.  I was laid off from my job back on December 10th, 2008; the very same day I totaled my car.  Luckily I was giving almost 5 full months of severance pay from my prior employer so I had what I felt more than enough time to find a new job.

I started to get quite discouraged after the first month and not only did I have only one phone interview and no in-person interviews, there were barely any jobs being posted.  Things were feeling very dismal.  I was going through different periods of feeling depressed, to angry, to excited, and back again.  I would sometimes get upset and eat raw cookie dough till I felt sick.  On a couple of occasions I pigged out at Wendy’s eating enough food for 3 people in one sitting!  Other times I stormed around the house on the pity pot.

I did manage to get a lot of things done around the house at least.  I organized what felt like 10 years worth of paper work, built a tire rack holder in the shed, ran electrical wiring for outlets and lighting for a work area in the garage along with a peg board over the desk as well as a number of other smaller projects.  All the while trying to job hunt.

Around the end of January I started to get more in to it.  My old company had set me up with a firm that helps you with your resume, networking, interviewing, etc..  I took a couple courses they offered, redid my resume and I was really extremely happy with the results.  Prior to this I was also relying heavily on recruiters.  At this time I expanded my search to use TheLadders.com, Dice and CareerBuilder.  I really started to hardcore job hunt.  After a couple weeks I heard literally nothing.  It was very discouraging.  Then, around the second week of February things really started to pick up.  I saw more job postings and the recruiters started calling more often with job opportunities.  I jumped on everything I could.

After a couple weeks of this I ended up not having much to go on.  I came across the posting for a Build Engineer at Niksun.  I was at first turned off a bit by it because of the distance.  But everything else looked right up my ally.  I submitted my resume to them and I got a call the next day.

They arranged a phone interview for later that day.  So I did the phone interview, which I had felt went very well.  Later that day I got a call to come in for an in-person interview the next day.  So I didn’t hesitate and went in.  I managed to get myself lost on the way down there and ended up in New Brunswick.  Mildly mis-oriented I contacted my friend Brent who worked but a few blocks away from where I was and he got me heading in the right directions (Thanks again Brent!).  Luckily I padded enough time in to my drive down there to arrive on time still.

I met with three different people and finally a someone from their HR.  I felt the interview went extremely well, especially after one of my soon-to-be colleagues took me out to lunch.  My drive back went much easier as I took a much more familiar, and shorter route.  After some more investigation I don’t think the commute will be quite as bad as I imagined.  Perhaps some fear of change was challenging my thought process.  So anyway, here I am, 6 days after the interview and I have accepted the job they offered me.

I am more excited than I could ever describe.  The past 3 months have felt like I have been crawling through a desert, using all my strength to climb over each dune expecting to see civilization or even water only to be disappointed by another dune and today I broke free of that and escaped.  I was literally jumping up and down in my house and managed to scare my son with my excitement.

What a fantastic feeling to be employed again and have all the nerves, stress, etc. gone.  No more worrying about how we would manage when my severance ran out or anything like that.  I’m so excited to start my new job a week from this Monday (3/16).  I want to thank my wife Laurie, my family (both sides) and my friends whom have all helped me out and our family out during this entire process.

I’ll sleep very well tonight.

So much for the cheapest 7-10 day shipping! It shipped on Tuesday from NH and it’s here today! Fantastic! Just need to wash it out and enjoy a nice, hot cup of coffee…. MMMmmmm….

The coffee pot was on the drying rack, one of my beer bottles, also drying slid in to it sending it hurtling in to the sink and smashing it   I ordered a replacement pot but it won’t get here till the end of the week….  This means tea until the new pot arrives…  Maybe I should have over nighted it…

So I’ve been trying to sell a set of tables on Craigslist.  They are the old end-tables we used for a while but since they are glass and will most likely be broken by little hands we decided to get rid of them.

I posted them on Craiglist back in October and heard nothing but a few questions.  I posted them a second time and they sold.  However, the woman interested didn’t realize how far away she lived from us and backed out.

So I posted them for a third time last week and attracted a scammer.  A scammer named ‘Albert’ or ‘Lord Albert’ by e-mail address.  I am desperate to get rid of these tables as they are taking up a fair amount of space in my garage now.  So I received the following e-mail from self-proclaimed ‘Lord’ Albert:

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:15:31 -0800
From: Albert smith <lordalbert2004@gmail.com>
To: sale-997667377@craigslist.org
Subject: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)

Hi,  I hope the item is still available and in good state.
Lrd Albert

Okay, no problems here, minus the odd title ‘Lord’… So I responded back:

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:20:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxx.xxxx.xxx>
To: Albert smith <lordalbert2004@gmail.com>
Cc: sale-997667377@craigslist.orgSubject:
Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)

Hello,

Yes, both tables are still available and in the same condition as
in the pictures.

Regards,Nick

At this point I received the following, lengthy and poorly formatted e-mail from the ‘Lord’.

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:40:56 -0800
From: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
To: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxx.xxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)
Parts/Attachments:
 1   OK     20 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
 2 Shown     4 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
----------------------------------------

 Hi,Thanks for the prompt response.I'm currently out of town but
wouldlove to make an instant purchase,so please do  withdraw the
advert from Craigslist.I dont mind adding an extra $50 dollars for
you to take  the advert down fromc riagslist so that i can be rest
assured that am in hand of the item.I  will also like you to know
that i will be paying via check. You don't need to bother your self
with the shipment ok,I will take care of that.So Iwill need you to
provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing
of the check.1.Your full name.2.Your mailing address,be it
residential or postal address.3..Your phone number.

**Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be
responsible for shipping.I will have my mover come over as soon
as you have cashed the check**Do Have a nice day,

My Warmest Regards.
Albert

So it already sounds fishy but I have his ‘warmest regards’.  He’s out of town, he’ll pay extra to get them now, etc..  This did indeed raise a red flag with me but I have not yet heard of this type of scam.  So I responded back:

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:39:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxx>
To: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)

Hi Albert,

I'll unlist the tables for you, that's not a problem.  I'll get
them all ready for your mover.  When I receive the check I'll send
you an e-mail and again when it's cashed.  I can most likely deposit
 the check same-day I receive it for a faster turn around time.

Here's the information you need.

Nicholas DeClario1
23 Main Street
Home Town, USA 00000

Regards,
Nick

Okay, so I figured I would shoot that e-mail off just to see how he responds.  I was stupidly giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.  He responded with the following e-mail:

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:25:53 -0800
From: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
To: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxxx.xxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)
Parts/Attachments:
   1   OK     17 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
   2 Shown     4 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
----------------------------------------

Hi ,How are you doing? I want you to understand that the deal is on
as my secretary has posted the payment already, but there was a
slighterror iguess we can handle with care, instead of the actual
amount  $80 forthe item plus the $50 extra i promised, she made out
the check for$80 she claimed that was what irequested  but she
didn't get that straight. And when i checkedthe email i sent to her
i discover i made a mistake and typed double0. $800 instead of $80. S
o once you have the check please cash itand  deduct the money for
the item $30 plus $50 that for yourrunning around expenses. The
excess fund should please be sent to mymovervia western union,this
fund will be use in offsetting the cost of theshipment he as
undertaken  for me recently.**Please email at once to let me know
that i can trust to have theexcessfunds sent to my mover**

Regards,
Albert

Okay, well if that other e-mail raised a red flag, this one shot off some fireworks.  After speaking to some friends and reading a few links I found out that this is the classic traits of a bad check scam.  The idea of the bad check scam is to send someone a check with a “mistaken” amount of money.  That person would cash the check and wire the remaining amount of money to the person who sent the check.  Then some time later the check actually bounces.  The bank fines you for a bounced check and deducts the money from your account or demands the money back.  You are now out the money.  In my case, I would have been out $800 and the scammer would have walked off with a profit of $720.  So I responded to Lord Sleezebag as follows:

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:30:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx.xxx>
To: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)

Hi Albert,

I don't feel comfortable dealing with this amount of money.  When
the check arrives I will void it and shred it.

If you wish to still buy the tables, please have your mover bring
$30 incash and I will be more than happy to help him load them on
the truck.

Regards,
Nick

He promptly followed back up with this somewhat rude and malformed e-mail:

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:39:32 -0800
From: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
To: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)
Parts/Attachments:
   1   OK     2 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
   2 Shown    1 lines  Text (charset: ISO-8859-1)
----------------------------------------

Don't be naive. It's just an error will can take care of. i'll
be more than happy if you can help.

So I finally told him I flat out refuse in this final e-mail:

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:41:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Nicholas DeClario <nick@xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx.xxx>
To: lordalbert2000 <lordalbert2000@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Wood/glass Ikea endtables *** - $30 (Lebanon, NJ)

I'm sorry.  I can't help at this point.  Please, bring cash.  I will
void the check.

Nick

And he has yet to respond.  At this point he realizes I know he’s trying to scam me, so no point in even sending a response.  This is the first time I’ve had someone try to scam me on Craigslist or even eBay.  Grant it, I don’t sell much on Craigslist but I have sold quite a few things on eBay in the past.

For more informations on bad check scams, these are some links I found:

Bad Check Lands Craigslist Seller in Jail

Craigslist Scams

So today is Inauguration Day…  Just in case you couldn’t figure it out from the picture.

In Communist Russia TV Chooses what you watch!

And in case anyone was wondering, channel 4 NBC had the best HD picture.