Nagel Family Website

I had a series of topics I wanted to write about, but I simply haven’t had the time. So instead I’m cramming them all in one. Sorry. Get over it.

Dad’s Retirement
My Dad retired last week. Not retired like he thinks I am (I work from home) but really retired. Like golfing every day retired. Keeping the nice people at NetFlix busy retired. Really retired. Of course the GM shareholders found out and started dumping GM’s stock.

Kiva
My Kiva loan (tortilla production in Honduras) was repaid the other day, and I reinvested it - this time in a chicken operation in Tanzania. Like the first loan, I should get my money back in 10 months when I’ll pick another operation to loan the money to.

Wicked
Steve took Laura and I to dinner & Wicked last week. I tried reading the book, but after about 1-1/2 hours, I was only about 8 pages in, and gave up. Some things I just can’t read. Anyway, the play was great - excellent storyline. I’d say there were a few songs they could’ve cut out, and Shea’s could have turned on the A/C - it was HOT in there! But we had a great time.

Fantasy Island
The next day, we went to Fantasy Island with the Fitzpatricks. This was the kids first day of summer vacation, so we wanted to treat them. I think we were last at Fantasy Island 2 years ago. The park was practically empty! After a long day on the rides & such, we went to Friendly’s for dinner. What a deal - 5 of us ate, with ice cream, for under $40. Can’t beat that!

Canada Day
Finally, yesterday we went to the Buffalo Yacht Club to watch the Canada Day fireworks at Ft. Erie. The club was closed, but we managed to get in anyways and had the balcony to ourselves.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

We’re at the half-way point… only 6 months ’til Christmas! I know, summer just started, but now’s the time to start planning this year’s light show. Last year was a vast improvement on the year before, and I’ve learned a lot that’ll help me this year. While I’d love to upgrade to a Light-o-Rama kit, I doubt I’m allowed to drop over $600 on the lights this year (although if I could program TSO’s Music Box Blues, I may find a way to do it). The $600 isn’t the big deal, but the hundreds of dollars in lights & extension cords (plus the tens of hours of planning & set-up) is a big deal.

Instead I’ll focus on getting the most out of my Mr. Christmas and arranging the lights appropriately. I’ll probably add more LED lights, replacing any of the old ones that are no longer working, and work on arranging things properly (top to bottom). I also plan on adding some more daytime decorations, which will keep Laura and I busy (cutting & painting) this fall.

This entry was posted by Eric on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

Rebecca graduated from Pre-K today - congratulations!!! After the first day, I didn’t think we’d ever make it. Her class sang 4 songs for us, then received their diplomas. Only one of the songs made me tear up a bit (not as much as my mom!). Then we went to Pizza Hut!


Jason goes in for a few hours tomorrow, then the kids are done ’til September! We have so much planned for this summer - it’s going to be busy, but we’re going to have a great time!

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

This past weekend was our big Family Camp Out with Pack 529 and it sure was a busy one! I was hoping to get out there by 3:00 to begin set-up, but when I left my office at 2:59, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. However, Jason & I did get out there pretty early. We soon found Ranger Bob & Mr. Tom showed up shortly after.

We got the dining canopy up and then our tents, then Jason & I sat down to eat as the others trickled in & set-up their tents. That night, everyone was chowing down on Hobo Pies (or, to be politically correct, “Mountain Pies”) - both pizza and cherry or apple filled. Of course, Smores were on the menu as well. Jason & I cleaned up shortly after 11 and were in our tent by 11:30 or so.

Saturday morning, like most days, I was up at 5AM. Too bad nobody else was. Or, maybe it was a good thing. I got to spend some time alone and I walked some trails & took some pictures. Seeing the moon set over camp was pretty neat.

Mr. Ed & I were the cooks Saturday morning, making up pancakes, sausage and coffee for the Pack. But either somebody forgot to bring the 2nd box of pancake mix, or some creature stole it during the night, so everyone ate except the cooks. Oh well, I was in the beginning of the line at lunch time!

For the most part, the boys entertained themselves. There were a couple of organized games, and some of the kids went fishing, but for me, it was go-go-go. Bringing in firewood, or prepping dinner, or cleaning up something had to be done. Prepping dinner a couple hours ahead of time worked very well this year: we had an assembly-line packing tin-foil dinners with seasoned potatoes, frozen veggies, a ripped up burger patty and salt & pepper. More family members came for dinner, including Laura & the girls. In all, we ended up feeding 52 people that night!

After dinner, the boys & leaders got into their uniforms for the moving up ceremony. Jason moved from the Bear den to Webelos I (and so did I). It was a nice ceremony after which we changed back into our play clothes and got ready for another campfire. Another leader approached me during the fire and asked, “Was your pie iron the aluminum one with the metal handle?” I replied, “I heard you say, ‘was’”. The pie iron had melted in the fire! If you’re going to get a pie iron, make sure it’s cast iron!

During the campfire, the sky got dark and the winds really picked up. We could see lightning in the distance and hear the rumble of thunder. We scrambled to put away what we could and rounded up everyone into a nearby cabin. We all had our phones out, watching the weather radar as the kids just acted like nuts in the cabin. After a bit, we decided to calm them down, turned off all the lights except for a single lantern, and told some ghost stories. When the rain slowed & the lightning was gone, we headed back to our tents. I found water in ours and with the threat of more lighting that night and home being only 20 minutes away, Jason & I took off. I snuck in a quick shower then slept in my own bed Saturday night, then we both headed back the next morning.

I thought everyone would be sleeping when I got there Sunday, but a few were up trying to figure out how to use my coffee maker. Coffee is very important, especially when camping. We enjoyed breakfast (leftover sausage & cereal (hot & cold)) then started to clean up. Most of the pack was gone by noon.

When Jason & I got home, we quickly unloaded the car, ate lunch, and then were out the door to watch Laura’s cousin play softball. I enjoyed the game, and hopefully will catch them again Thursday night. After the game, they came back to our house for Chiavetta’s chicken. Then a bit after 7, I went upstairs to watch TV & rest. I think I got too much sun that afternoon as I slept from 8 to 9:45, then went back to bed until 8:00 the next morning! That’s what happens when nobody else in the house needs to wake up (the kids had the day off of school).

I’ve got 2 more camping trips planned for this summer: 1 with the Cub Scout leaders to plan next year’s activities, and another at Summer Camp with Jason. Both are going to be completely different experiences (one w/out any kids, and the other I don’t have to plan!).

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

I just got word that the ZipCodeGuy is giving away his Zip Code Database for free! Zip Code databases are great when you’re targeting regional offers, such as gas prices, dating, or practically any zip submit offer. With this database, you can do tons of things, like lookup nearby cities and show singles that are there (well, not really, but the user doesn’t need to know that when they’re signing up) or their photos on a zip code map of the region (using Google Maps API).

If you’re lazy, combine this with an IP database and you have some pretty powerful info on your hands. Or scrape, I mean, reference city-data.com and show all sorts of info!

Even if you have no plans to use it, download the zip code database while you can!

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

The market hasn’t treated me too nicely lately, so I’ve been quiet about my trades. But I made 2 sales & 1 buy this week, so I thought I’d share them…

I sold NWY at $9.12. I bought them back in November of 2006 and again in August of ‘07. I sold to break even (actually, I made $0.52) and glad to get out. NWY rates -8.1967 using my Stock Index, so I was pushing it to even get out at that price.

I sold WLT at $105.00. I bought WLT in December of ‘06 at $49.545, and more last August at $22.56. My system rates it 28.3671, so I could have stayed in a bit longer, but with a 300% ROI, it was time to get out! This is one of the rare times I completely sold-out of a stock (normally I keep my “profits” as stock in the company).

Finally, with all this cash on my hands, I had to buy something and after much research, ended up with Goodyear Tire (GT). While it only comes in with a score of 44.5440, Wall St. seems to like this one. I wouldn’t have moved on this, but the “Total Cash Per Share” is $9.212, so 44% of what I bought was cash! The mean target is 35.30, but I’m looking to get out at $28.23.

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 9:52 am and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.