On the road again

Off on a Milwaukee/Chicago road trip to visit peeps and see Stevie Wonder at Summerfest. Hell yeah!

New shoes I forgot to tell you about

I will not be buying these shoes with my insurance check* - because I already own them.

Let me count the ways I love these puppies: they're wedges, with a peep toe, and an ankle strap, and they're shiny, and they're crayon-green. The only thing I'm not overly excited about is the cork heel, but they're pretty close to perfection.

These are some solid work shoes. They look polished, but are still fun and the heel is low and sturdy, so I can frickin' fly around the office in them.

*No, I am not really stupid enough to blow even the smallest part of that check on shoes.

This just gets stranger....

An update on my hail-damaged Civic and why I may soon be going to prison:

I took the Civvie in for an estimate today, hoping to God that the insurance company did not total it, which I did not even think was an option until I heard that a few people that were at the same BBQ had had their cars totalled. I was positive that if my car were totalled, I would receive less than the actual amount needed to repurchase my car (in theory) on the open market. Plus, what a hassle, right?

So I take my car to a makeshift claims center in an abandoned Hyundai dealer in St. Louis Park, where a man with an intense Southern accent and uncanny resemblance to Kip from Napoleon Dynamite inspects it and comes up with an estimate of damages, which was thankfully only ~1/3 of the value of my car. Phew!

Now the strange part - they straight up cut me a personal check for the amount of the estimate, less my deductible. If the estimate from my body shop that does my repairs is more, they call the insurance company and get the extra money (within reason, obviously), but if their estimate is below the check that I have in my possession? "Well, good for you" says Kip. And then, he also adds, without provocation, that if I take it to a shop where I frequently do business, "maybe they'll help me cover my deductible." He straight-up called out what Brandon has assured me is illegal.

Then, the man who writes my $4K check comes out to just hand it over and begins discussing my options, which include not even getting my car fixed, but instead just pocketing the $4K and taking my chances when trade-in/resale time comes around.

Do you think I was part of some sort of sting operation? Like I was supposed to know all this jive was illegal and not take the check? Is Dateline gonna come knocking?

Also, does anybody have any thoughts on not getting my car fixed at all? I did not think this was even a legal option. Now I'm thinking putting that $4K towards my mortgage and driving a not so perfect car isn't a horrible option. The damage is far from embarrassing. Even if I pay for the repairs myself or take a hit on the trade-in value later, the interest that I'm saving by knocking down my mortgage principal so early in the game would totally be worth it.

Maybe I should call Suze Orman. She'll know what to do!

Short notice

David Sedaris is reading at Coffman tomorrow at 7.00 and it's FREE. I wasn't holding out on you guys, just found out yesterday myself.

If you're coming down, holla. I will be drinking somewhere on campus beforehand.

Lo siento

Such a bad blogger lately. To sum up the last month or so: trips and visitors and bar crawls, oh my!

...and thank God it's finally nice outside. Except when it's storming like hell. Speaking of which, my car got some pretty impressive hail damage last Saturday while I was out in Hopkins for Beth and Gregg's BBQ. If you have any pointers for handling the situation, holla. My dad tells me some body shops will pay your deductible for you if they can complete the job for less than the limit the insurance company gives you. This sounds illegal, but he assures me it is not. Will this really fly in MN or is it just a South Dakota thing?