Cocktail Builder: Great Website For Mixing Drinks!

Have a few bottles of liquor in the cabinet but don't know what to do with them?  Visit www.CocktailBuilder.com and you'll be imbibing in no time! 

Type in your favorite alcohol and you'll immediately be presented with a list of cocktails that can be made, along with other required ingredients. You can quickly scan the list and discover something new.  Very quick.  Very simple.  Very fun.

I've had this large bottle of Frangelico in the cabinet for awhile, not knowing what to do with it.  I typed it into Cocktail Builder and received a list of 14 Frangelico drinks with names like Harvest Howler, Decadence, and, um, Russian Qualude (Frangelico, Kahlua, Stolichnaya Vodka and half and half).  Hmmm.

I typed in "tequila" and got a list of 30 drinks, including the oddly named "Chicken in a Blender" (consisting of tequila, vodka, bourbon, grenadine, lemon juice and topped off with Mountain Dew).  Sounds interesting.  I think.

So check it out and don't drive when you're done!

Time to Carpool (or at least start thinking about it!)

Last week we explored ways to save money on skyrocketing gas costs.  Let's take a closer look at carpooling options. The best approach is to find others at work who live in your vicinity.  But if this doesn't pan out, how about trying to connect with people online?

There are many carpooling websites but most of them are not worthwhile for the Conejo Valley.  These include:  www.NuRide.com (not available yet in our area), www.ridecheck.com (mostly for 1-time rides, not regular carpools), www.carpoolworld.com (just didn't seem very user friendly nor helpful), www.ridesearch.com (was useless to me) and www.ridester.com (mostly 1-time rides).  And ride-sharing social network sites www.zimride.com and www.goloco.org were too much effort to figure out.  I prefer something immediately USEFUL!

The one website that seemed to have a decent selection of potential carpoolers in the Conejo Valley area was www.eRideshare.com.  The site is geared towards daily commuters and did not take long to figure out.  I quickly found 50 possible carpools originating within a 10 mile radius of Thousand Oaks.  Type in your zip code and see what is available. You still must register (for free) to contact other users.  This one is worth checking out.

You can also try the Ventura County craigslist rideshare link (http://ventura.craigslist.org/rid/).  This turned up a few possibilities but is mostly geared towards 1-time rideshares.

I had high hopes for www.ridematch.info as it is sponsored by various local transportation authorities.  They make you register before searching for carpools which I did not like.  After that somewhat painful process I found very few options.  The site has potential but was not user friendly.  I would not recommend it.

Another alternative is the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train, which runs from San Luis Obispo to San Diego.  With local stations in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Moorpark and Simi, you can take the train to Glendale, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and other destinations.  Amtrak can be pricey for a 1-time commute (currently $32 round-trip Moorpark/Los Angeles) but if you buy a monthly pass ($302) and use it all the time you can really save a lot of money and wear and tear (both you and your car).  Visit www.AmtrakCalifornia.com for more information.

So good luck and let me know if you have other carpooling ideas!

Life Insurance for Babies? Worthwhile?

It has been 4 1/2 years since this posting, so we have updated our analysis as of January 2013.

So I'm sitting here in my family room with my young boys, TV blaring in the background.  A commercial for Gerber Life Insurance, the "Grow-Up" plan, appears on the screen.  What the?  Why would I want to spend money on life insurance for a baby??  Does this make any sense to consider?

The plan is summarized at www.gerberlife.com.  It is a whole life policy with coverage ranging from $5K to $35K.  You can buy the policy for a kid (or grandkid) anytime between the age of 14 days and 12 years. At age 21 the policy automatically doubles in value as long as the premiums are paid.  At age 28 your kid can increase coverage by a factor of 10 at the then applicable rate.

I took a closer look at the $30K policy, with a monthly premium of $20.46.  They say that after 20 years the "cash value" of the policy equals or exceeds the premiums you paid.  That would be $4900 in year 2028.

If you took that $20.46 each month and invested in a college savings plan and it earned an average of 5% or 8%, you would have $8400 or $12K in year 2028.  To me, that makes a lot more sense than an insurance policy.

Would this Grow Up plan make sense for anyone?  The policy makes sense if your child dies, as the payoff would pretty much cover the funeral and burial costs; not much more than that.  Statistics in the U.S. indicate a death rate of 1 in 5000 children aged 1 to 14 and 1 in 1400 for teens ages 15 to 19 (the California rates are roughly 10% to 15% better than these averages). 

Seems to me that the premiums are better spent on college savings then the possibility of death at an early age.

One last argument for the policy is that it guarantees your child the ability to increase coverage by a factor of 10 at age 28.  This would only pay off for someone who otherwise is unable to get life insurance at that age.  To me, this is not worth forking out 27 years of premiums for.

Return of the Hydrox...Coming in August

Hydrox, the world's only cookie that sounds like a skin moisturizer, is returning from retirement for a brief stint sometime in late August 2008.  Hydrox was taken off the market in 1999, so this is a big deal to diehard Hydrox fans.  Visit www.HydroxCookies.com for more information.

Hydrox was launched by the Sunshine Biscuits Company in 1908 as the first creme filled chocolate sandwich cookie.  The Oreo didn't come out until 1912 but soon Nabisco's marketing and distribution power had Oreo running circles around Hydrox.  In fact, nearly half a TRILLION Oreos have been sold since they were launched, making them the top selling cookie of the 20th century.

I like an underdog, so I'm cheering the return of the Hydrox and hope that enough people catch on to them again so that Kellogg's (which bought the company that owned the Hydrox brand in 2001) keeps them on the market.  I barely remember what Hydrox tastes like but I've heard they are slightly less sweet than Oreos.

So why did they create the name Hydrox based on hydrogen and oxygen, the elements that make up water?  Beats me!  Though even more perplexing is where the name Oreo came from. Nobody seems to know the answer to that one, even Nabisco.  Though the theory that the "re" came from "cream" that was sandwiched between the two "o's" from chocolate seems almost plausible.

So let's lead the effort to bring back the Hydrox permanently.  Kellogg's, if you read this, please feel free to send me a few cases of retro Hydrox cookies later this summer and I promise to spread the Hydrox gospel!  How about an Oreo/Hydrox Taste Challenge a la Coke/Pepsi!!??  Hydrox fans, let Kellogg's know you want the Hydrox back for good!