SparkDad

This year had to have been one of the worst years for Super Bowl commercials. I did however see a commercial for Vacation Rental.org

that sparked my interest. They had a very funny vacation rental commercial.

This site is a travel site that focuses on staying at vacation homes instead of at a hotel when on a trip. This is a great idea and concept. They are very hard to find because there is no unified way to search them, but there are some phenomenal values in the industry, especially if you are going with a large group.

We used a vacation rental on our last summer vacation to Lake Medina, Texas. It was the second year that we rented the same home. The cost was about $1500 for a week and the home slept $10 so for about $150 per person for the week we had a lake front property!

I think that the next time that Mama and I do a weekend getaway we may check into using Vacation Rental.org

See you soon! – Spark Dad

Insurance. The industry we all love to hate. No let me preface this by letting you know that I am a licenses insurance agent and can sell both property insurance and life and health insurance. I have worked for State Farm, Allstate and Farmers.

During this time, I have only been insured by State Farm, even when I worked for Allstate and Farmers. But this year my rates went up by about $600 per year on our homeowners policy! Wow! That was a crazy high increase. Of course State Farm sited the recent hurricane Ike damage and expenses as the reason for the rate increase. I understand from a insurance industry stand point. I know what I would be telling my customers if they were calling me asking why their rates went up so much.

But as a consumer I have to wonder if I am making the right decision by keeping loyal to State Farm. Now there are reasons that I stick with them. First of all they have always paid claims on time and paid them properly. Never making me feel like I got short changed.

The other reason is that our State Farm policy includes wind and hurricane coverage which is rare in the Texas Gulf Coast.

So because of the price I sent shopping for insurance. I began by typing in Google, " car insurance ". It brought me to a great site called Net Quote that allowed me to enter my information once and get several quotes for insurance for several companies. It worked great and I was happy with the response.

I found some companies that were a little cheaper, but in the end my loyalty to State Farm because of my treatment during hurricane Ike and previous claims won.

But if you are ever in need of insurance be sure to use a site like Net Quote to help you find competing quotes.

-Spark Dad

In an earlier post I discussed my sunglass problems. This week I received a call from my eye doctor to come look at some frames that they ordered in for me to take a look at. My local eye doctor is a chain so the frames were less than spectacular!

When I bought the shades in Albuquerque at Dr. Iron’s Office I was able to get a very nice Oakley frame. I have received more compliments on my glasses this month that I received on my glasses in the past three years.  So you can understand why I am being a little picky.

I searched the web again and once again come up with Moda sunglasses. They have a nice selection. After looking around their site I found the shades in the photo at right. I am going to my eye doctor on Monday to see if they can order them.

I will update you all when I find the answer. Until then check out the great prices at Moda sunglasses.

- Spark Dad

Today we had a small party in celebration of the Dia de la Candelaria. This celebration falls 40 days after Christmas and for Catholics it is the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. You can read a lot more about the tradition here – Article about Dia de la Candelaria

The reason that we hosted the party is because early in January we attended a party at some friends house celebrating King’s day. During this party it is traditional to have “King Cake” or “Rosca de Reyes”. Hidden in that cake is a plastic baby Jesus. Tradition says that whomever finds the baby must host the next celebration on the Dia de la Candelaria. Well as you can guess we found the baby!

For the party I made a new spin on an old dish. I made Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole.

Note: I did not take photos of the finished product so the photo at left is not of mine but they looked A LOT like it!

Ingredients

1 12oz tub of low far Sour Cream

1 Large can of Green Enchilada Sauce

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

10-15 Corn Tortillas

5-6 Chicken Breasts

1 lb Mexican Cheese

2 Tbs. Garlic

2 Tbs. Salt

Steps

1. Boil chick in large pot on medium heat until cooked fully ( about 1 hour )
2. Drain Chicken and let cool, retain about 1 cup of chicken broth
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Wash and shred chicken and place in a large bowl
5. Season chicken with garlic and salt
6. Mix Cream of Chicken soup with chicken broth
7. In large casserole dish layer 4-6 corn tortillas
8. Pour in 1/3 of the green enchilada sauce
9. Add in 1/3 of sour cream and mix with the enchilada sauce
10. Add 1/3 of shredded chicken
11. Cover chicken with an ample layer of cheese
12. Repeat this process of layering until chicken is all used
13. Top the layers with leftover enchilada sauce, sour cream and cheese
14. Cook in over for 30-45 minutes

Serves 8

For those of us who were in Cub Scouts in our youth the Pinewood Derby brings to fond  memories of fun and speed. If you are not familiar with the derby, I will explain. Every year Cub Scout Packs around the country pass out pine wood kits. The kit consists of 1 wood block, 4 plastic wheels and 4 nail axels. The Cub Scout and his parent must then transform said block into a car that weighs five ounces or less. All of the scouts in the Pack will then race their cars down a 36 – 42 foot race track on the day of the derby.

The hard part is making the car. Making the car fast, stylish and fun! Skeeter has been a scout for three years now. The first year we made a spectacular car. We worked on it for a month. It was very shapely and looked good. It did not win the race, but Skeeter and I were both proud.

Then year two we procrastinated. I made a kit car and it showed. We won nothing!

This year we spent a week working on the car and it was a nice blend. It did not win the race but did come in 9th overall. So it was a good car.

This year we also made a car for Pork Chop. It looked a lot like a Chevrolet Camaro. Mama  designed it from a model of a Trans Am that is on our book shelf. The car was 10th over all in speed but won 5th place in the finals because it was the fastest of the siblings.

Skeeter was mad. Pork Chop was happy.

All in all our Pinewood Derby was a success, kids had fun and Skeeter and Porkchop had fun!

The derby is a great experience of competition and sportsmanship and is a wonderful tradition.

For more information about the pinewood derby see the following links below:

Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets: Design and Build the Ultimate Car

How to Book: Formula for Building & Racing PineCars

Maximum Velocity

Wikipedia Page on the Pinewood Derby

- Spark Dad