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Gas saving tips

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Finally St. Louis gas price is exceeding $3 a gallon. Today marks the first day my gas bill exceeded $40 ($3.179 * 13.105 gallons = $41.66).

I am not complaining, as I know people around the world are paying a much higher price for gas, or paying a higher percentage of their disposal income for gas. But I still want to do something to contain the gas cost, before sending my pay check directly to the Exxon-Mobile and the likes.

1) In the past, I tried to fill up gas at the proper time: there are two gas stations near my home, whenever I saw one gas station raised the price (the other has not), I will rush to the other one (usually it’s the Shell).

2) Also, I used the gas rebate credit cards, they are Citi Dividend (5% rebate in the past, this has been changed lately); Chase Freedom (3% rebate); and AAA MBNA card (5% rebate subject to the up limit of 2% of the monthly balance).

3) Last week, I tried another approach. I paid pretty dollars for car maitenance: engine tune up (replace spark plug and wires); fuel injection cleaning; replace engine gasket. Hopefully my investment will pay off over time (from saving in gas).

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Green Card DIY

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I don’t mean to steal immigration lawyers’ business

A few years ago my employer sponsored my GC app including attorney services. But that did not extend to the AP and EAD (optional for me). I heard from a friend that he paid $1,000 lawyer fee for the EAD renewal. So I filled the forms and filed for myself.

Last month (mid Feb) as soon as I saw the PD became current, I filed I-485, I-131 (AP) and I-765 (EAD) for my wife (H-4). And we received the all the receipts shortly.

I think for simple cases (like my wife), we can do it ourselves, as long as we know what we are doing. This maybe more effcient than using the company lawyers, because of the time wasted on “back and forth”. On the other hand, I am sure most Chinese immigration lawyers here are professional and effcient.  

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Caffeine in coffee, espresso and coke

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Which one has the most caffeine? A tall (12 fl oz, or 355 ml) brewed coffee, a tall latte with one shot of espresso (both at Starbucks), and a can (12 fl oz) classic Coca Cola?

Your instant answer maybe the latte (espresso), but the correct answer is the brewed coffee. According to Starbucks www.starbucks.com/retail/HWE-014-NutriBro-2.pdf”>Nutrition By the Cup (PDF), 12 fl oz coffee has 240 mg caffeine, one shot espresso (1 fl oz) has 75 mg caffeine. As to Coke, I saw it says “caffeine content: 34mg per 12 fl oz”.

I don’t know what is the appropriate amount of caffeine a person could consume daily. My guess is one small cup a day should be ok for most people. I think it also depends on person’s health condition (weight, height, habbit of drinking). But just like many other things in life, moderation is the key. A cup of regular coffee will get one refreshed in the morning (it has caffeine equivalent to 7 cups of Coke). But when the initial effect of coffee goes away in a few hours, he/she will resort to another coffee. And so on. I think we can be more easily get caffeinated that way. 
 

(picture souce: will work for food.)

Continue reading Caffeine in coffee, espresso and coke…

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Wind shield wiper, clean lavatory in China

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Wind shield stopped working in ice storm
It happened to me last Thurdsay, in ice storm The wiper quit working after working for a while. I did not panic but decided to take it into shop.

It turned out that the snow/ice freezed the connection joint of wiper (a.k.a, the “root” of wiper). The mechanic can feel the motor was very hot (poor guy, it tried so hard to rotate but got stuck by the ice). After clean up, I was ready to roll again.

Find clean rest-room in China
Find your nearest KFC or McDonald. Besides cleaness, it’s free which is not true in the public restroom (bathroom, powder room, lavatory…) China

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Postal Services Not Always the Cheapest

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I think most people would think that Postal Services is usually cheaper compared to UPS or Fedex, this is not always. Today I was about to send a parcel at US Postal Service (USPS), but there were 13 people ahead of me. Don’t want to wait for another 20 minutes, and also want to check out the Fedex Ground, I decided to leave. I went to their web site first. The rate was $16.95, which is lower than the quote I got from USPS web site.

After the comparison shopping, I sent the item via Fedex Ground at local Kinko (Fedex) store. One caveat in Fedex is the packaging material is more expensive than USPS. I packed the stuff using my own box so this is not an issue.

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