Here is a brief tutorial from Google

And a nifty little video…

Before
Patchy grass thanks to the recent rains that had washed away all the top soil.

More big patches ready to get sodified

The tilling begins…I mixed 3 parts soil (from the tilling), 1 part cow manure, 1 part organic compost and 3 parts top soil (mostly on the surface).

More tilling…Took out square blocks of grass so as to accommodate fresh squares (rather rectangles) of sod.

I paid about 1.50 for a 16X24 block @ Home Depot. Lowe’s has the same deal and I did end up buying some from Lowe’s but I must tell you the sod doesn’t stay that great if you show up in the evening, thanks to our Texas sun. I’ve read online that you can get great, fresh sod if you show up early on Fridays at your friendly neighborhood Lowe’s store. Here’s how a not-so-great sod block looks like. Dry and yellow. Worry not, it’s grass. It will grow any which way it can eventually!

Many of our sod blocks were completely parched and were breaking apart into chunks of dirt and dry grass. To fix that, I set them aside and soaked them with a few sprinkles of water. This way, it is easier to get them to blend with one another once you have assembled the checkerboard. Here is an almost-finished picture of our checkerboard. We did not redo the entire lawn, just the bits that had gone bad. All in all, we bought about 30 blocks of sod out of which we ended up using 28. So yes, you will need a lot of sod even if you’re trying to do some ‘patchwork’.

After
Once all the blocks were set to cover the baldness of our lawn, it was time to invite the rain gods. All we had do was chant a few mantras and voila, 15 minutes of perfectly-directed showers on our lawn were bestowed upon us. Haha.

Hope you liked the pix and maybe got a couple of ideas about sodding your lawn in the process. It’s not that hard at all; just a little bit of patience and time (and the ability to undergo some torture in the sun) is all that is expected from you. Please do leave a comment or two and it’d inspire me to write more about my next lawn and garden project (to be kicked-off tomorrow).

Link

The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, you are a resident alien to the IRS. That is, if you pass the substantial presence test and reside in the United States, you’re considered a resident alien for tax purposes.

No, you’re not a resident alien to the USCIS. As far as immigration is concerned, H1B is a non-immigrant visa with immigrant intent. That is, if you’re on an H1B, you are not a resident but you can have immigrant intent in the future (eligible for permanent residency via employment etc.).

That is the question I have been asked by several of my blog readers in the past 6 months or so that I have not spoken about the Money Experiment. Did it work? Did it bomb? Did you scrap it altogether? Today, after a long hiatus from the blogosphere, I’m here to put all those questions that I got flooded with, by those ‘four’ die-hard fans of my blog, to rest. To be honest, I myself cannot tell whether the experiment was a grand success or an utter failure. All I can say is that it did change quite a few things in my life (hear the music playing?). In this post, I am gonna spit out all the details and let you decide how the experiment fared. In fact, many of the changes that came about were not related to money at all. If you’re going through the original post right now, please do ignore the post-script, the daily update never came about (I was busy dude!)

If you look back at the original post I wrote almost a year and a half ago, when I started the experiment, you can easily tell that I had no clear idea where I was going or what I was trying to achieve. It is not that hard to figure that from the way the post was put out right? All I knew was there were a lot of things that were wrong with my finances and I felt I had absolutely no control over them (they were controlling me rather). I was almost broke, with only a few dollars in my bank account and hoards of debt piling on constantly. I was living the American dream! As an immigrant, that was certainly not acceptable, at least by Indian standards.

If you recall, I had organized my experiment into three broad categories with very intelligent names – categories A, B and C! Category A was all about the stuff that I was buying by paying above-sticker price. The sticker price in this case would be the best possible price for a particular product considering all sources available. In short, I was buying things without doing enough research or giving considerable thought. Did that change? It did, to a certain extent at least. I do a reasonable amount of research now before I buy anything. I have several tools now that help me get the best available price for a particular product. I do have to confess that I haven’t stuck to the rule 100 percent of the time. For instance, my mobile phone bill for 2009 was $1340 for the year. That is about $112 per month, just for cell phone service. For that kind of money, I can hire a guy in India who will run over to the other party and deliver my message every time I have something to say. I’m not kidding! Well this has been partly due to my inabilities to keep an eye on my minute usage in addition to ATT’s incompetence. Mostly, ATT’s incompetence I would say.

Another pain-point for me has been the use of cash. As weird as it may sound, but I have used too much cash last year, almost $200 every month. Now I know what you must be thinking; isn’t cash better over credit cards and did you say $200 (loser!)? Yes, cash is better than a credit card! That is, only if you are living on welfare or have a gambling problem and in that case, you wouldn’t have any credit cards anyway. Why is cash bad you ask? Well, first of all it is a pain to go to the ATM to get cash and secondly it is a bigger hassle to keep track of where it went. I, for one, haven’t tracked any of my cash expenses in the past year (or ever). Was it spent on food or was it spent on gas? I’d be happy if it went into the former. On the other hand, if you use a credit card, you can easily import all your transactions into your monthly budget. I don’t get it when people get really worked up when they hear about credit cards. There are no bad credit cards, only bad spenders (and then there is Citibank, of course!). I’d rather use a credit card to get the free points ($$$) and help track my budget online than get slapped with a $39 ‘insufficient funds’ charge by the bank by using a debit card without knowing my balance.

As you can see, there is still some work to be done but I’m ‘working’ on it. However, the biggest change has arrived in my buying habits, which brings us to Category B. Category B items were everything that were turning me into a borderline, compulsive hoarder. Buying craploads of stuff that I did not need in the first place had become my evening job. I’d come home from work and go shopping because I had nothing better to do. A bike that I rode only once, shoes that I wore once (or maybe twice), magazines that went directly to the trash were just a few among a zillion other things that were being bought without thought. Did that change? Oh yeah baby, big time. Now I buy stuff that pays me back. It could be in the form of health, information, entertainment, travel or plain, simple fun. In other words, I seek value now, the way Tom seeks Jerry. No more going to the movies just because it is a Friday and you have no other way to kill time. I’d rather stream a movie over Netflix and stay home cozied up on the couch *wink* *wink*. Instead of going to expensive restaurants just because the wife’s friend posted some crazy pix of her gouging on a 5000 calorie meal on Facebook, I’m happy with my five-dollar-footlong while I watch the birds in the park. See the lifestyle changes that I was talking about earlier?

If you have read so far, then I really admire your patience and I think I just added my fifth reader. *High five!* By now, the question that might be lingering in your mind is ‘what about Cat C?’ or ‘you don’t wanna talk about that debt, do you?’ right? Of course! Who likes to talk about debt anyway? Toadly kiddin! Yes, let’s talk about Cat C! While at it, let’s run the numbers too.

Credit Card: ~$3200 @ 0pc until 2012. This was primarily spent on appliances that we bought recently. About $1000 from the previous balances is included in this. So yeah most of the CC balances were paid off from 2008. I did get a lot of flak from friends/family for buying appliances using a credit card. I will get to that in a bit.

Bad News: I do have some bad news to report too. It’s not bad bad but I did get an auto loan. Please let me explain before you jump to any conclusions and expunge me from your feed. Remember, I had bought a used Mitsu Montero in 08 that was using more gas than a mini 747 and was breaking more times in a week than a fresh Windows Vista install? Thousands of dollars and a gazillion gallons of petrol later, I decided it was time to bid adieu to the sucker. After months of permutations, combinations and several calculations, I arrived at the Toyota Prius. I was trying to zero-in on something that had the lowest ‘Total Cost to Own‘ and no matter how many models I compared it with, the Prius always came out to be the winner. I had spent about $4000 on the Montero in the first half of 09 compared to $2500 on the Prius in the second half (that includes everything from gas to depreciation mind ya!). Whatever said and done, I do have an auto loan and it is not my best friend. Aah, the bliss of American life. I did get a great deal on the loan though; 3.69%. That way, I could pay off the rest of my loans. I promise you will love me more once you read the following section.

Housing loans: We completely paid off balances on our Bangalore home. Yay! This was a major win financially. If we decide to go back to India in the next few years, we have a dwelling to call home. The other night, I had a dream that we were stuck on a rainy day in Bangalore and we had to spend the night on a sidewalk. Guess that’s not gonna happen now.

Just in case you were getting happy that the post was getting over, I have some news for you; it’s not. We are only half way through. I also have some breaking news for you: just a sec, waiting for the triumphant music to get over….

About three months ago, we closed on a home here in Austin, TX. Double yay! Yes, no kidding. After years of living in flats, apartments, tents and under bridges, we are extremely excited to be first-time homeowners. I’m yet to receive the infamous 8k credit from Uncle Sam which I’m going to diligently apply towards the mortgage. After getting burned in other instruments over the past couple years, my mantra for the next few years (or the rest of my life) is: you buy it only if you can touch it. Since late 08, I have solely concentrated on real estate and gold. Sorry, no intangible assets for me please. The above CC expenses were solely towards appliances like Washer, Dryer and basic move-in expenses like paint, furniture etc.

And the credit card ire from friends and family I was talking about earlier, it was just a matter of choice. Whether I wanted to spend the cash upfront or would I rather pay it off slowly and take care of other expenses first. I had to buy the appliances anyways coz it sucks to lug your laundry to a laundromat in the middle of the night if you do not have a working W/D (believe me, I have done it before). It sucks even more if your wife makes you use your hands to clean those dirty dishes. So my advice, if someone is not charging you interest for something you need badly, take it. Pay off your other high-interest loans or if you’re one of those lucky ones who doesn’t have any, put the cash in a CD or a savings account.

Takeaway: This is all that I have ‘accomplished’ with the Money Experiment in the past 16 months. There have been some major lifestyle changes along the way and there are many that are still in the works. All in all, I have become a little more aware of my overall finances, be it income, spending, investing or saving. Wastage has almost come down to zero which I’m really proud of. Even though income levels have pretty much remained stagnant, I do feel we are leading a better life. All said and done, I’m yet to see the day where I can comfortably say ‘I’m well off’. Hopefully, I will get to see that day. Some day…

6. Dell Inspiron Slim 537ST HTPC Contd…
On Black Friday, last month, I got lucky with a Bing promo that was advertising 25pc cashback on all Dell Home Office stuff and managed to pick up an Inspiron 537ST for about $350.

The specs are as follows

- Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz, 4MB)
- 4GB DDR2 SDRAM,800MHZ- 2X2GB DIMM
- ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB
- 640GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200RPM
- 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
- Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio

Not bad for the price paid huh? In fact, a quad core might be a little bit of an overkill for most media today but you never know what will be here in the next few years.

Here are a few pointers about the Inspiron that I think I should share with you. I had a hard time getting info on these things before I bought the machine.
- The form-factor of the Slim is about the same as an XBOX-360, a tad wider maybe but overall, fits really well in the entertainment center. The piano black is about the same finish as the PS3 and is highly recommended if the rest of your setup is in black. Check out this video to get an idea about the size.
- The ATI Radeon HD 4350 that this Dell ships with has an HDMI out and it can do 7.1 Audio via LPCM. Here is a great article that explains in detail LPCM Audio via HDMI.
- If you’re thinking a quad-core box would be too noisy for the living room, well you’re in for some great news; the thing is extremely quiet, way quieter than your PS3!
- Is it beefy enough? Can it do 1080p? Well, with a quad core, it could do 2160p if it had its way! Jokes aside, almost all of your media needs will be taken care of; including even video editing and some excellent HD video streaming over the network.

Price paid: $350

That is my Home theater setup for now. I still have a few things on my list to complete the setup:
- Harmony One Universal Remote
- A wireless keyboard with a trackball (Looking at the Dinovo Mini or the IOGear Mini Wireless Keyboard).
- A NAS to put all my media in a single place and RAID it preferably.

All in all, the entire setup has cost me around $3500 (excluding the camcorder) and I should say I’m really pleased with the performance. Not to forget, 1080p with 7.1 surround with 24p all the way.

Happy Holidays and have a great new year!

Here is how my Home Theater setup looks like right now.

Components
- Panasonic 50PZ800U THX-certified 50 inch Plasma Display.
- Pioneer 1019 AH-K Audio-Video Receiver.
- Sony Playstation 3 Game Console/Bluray Player.
- Dell Inspiron Slim 537ST Desktop Computer.
- AT&T U-Verse Cablebox/DVR.
- JBL Northridge EC35 Center Channel Speaker.
- JBL GS500 Front Floor Speakers.
- Onkyo HT540 Rear Surround Speakers.
- Polk Audio PSW-505 Sub-woofer.
- Canon Vixia HF100 HD Camcorder.

Click on the image to enlarge.

This is basically my budget HT setup so far. Since I’m as frugal as I’m an Audio/videophile, in addition to throwing some light on the technical details of each component, I shall elaborate on the bargains that I got as well.

1. The Television
- My first flat panel display was a 42″ Philips Plasma that I bought about 3 years ago. Even though it was a 1080i panel, I absolutely loved the picture (I’m making it sound so bad ). Last year, I finally gave in and decided to go for a 1080p display. After reading raving reviews about the latest and greatest Samsung LCD, I got one home and the very next minute, I started regretting the decision. The blacks were way off when you sat off-axis and the pixelation during fast-moving scenes was driving me nuts. I returned it within a week. After that, I did a couple of months worth of research (without a TV ) and after repeated visits to pretty much every Circuit City/Best Buy/Frys/ in Austin, I pulled the trigger on the Panasonic 50PZ800U. You can check out the CNet Reviews on this display and see why I bought it. It was the first display to be THX-certified and came in a close second to the Pioneer Kuro in terms of black-levels. I am extremely happy with the purchase.
Price Paid: $2200 including taxes.

2. The AV Receiver and Sub-woofer
- This is an interesting story. I bought this receiver about 2 weeks ago and I didn’t know I was getting one until I actually got one. We were at Best Buy to buy a Washer/Dryer set and they were running an offer in the Home Theater department that gave you 36months Interest-Free financing if you spent $1000 or more. We had already spent about $1200 on the W/D set so I was kinda annoyed that we were not getting the same deal as the HT guys. The sales lady told us that we could qualify for the offer if our bill showed at least one item from the HT department. So, we walked into the HT section without knowing what to buy. We looked at the Harmony remotes (on my list for over 2 yrs now ) but found out they were priced almost double. Then I stumbled upon another offer which said if I got a Pioneer receiver along with a Polk Subwoofer, there was a $150 discount on the total. The receiver and the subwoofer were priced pretty competitively (close to Amazon). I checked a few reviews on Amazon.com right there and most reviewers had nothing but great things to say. After a few minutes of ‘discussion’, I got the green light from the wife and within a few minutes, we were out of the door with a 7.1 channel HDMI AV receiver. I was wanting to get one for a long time but just hadn’t done enough research in that direction. Most of the research came after I had brought the thing home and fortunately, it is one of the best ones in the market right now.
Price paid: $600 + tax

3. Sony Playstation 3
I don’t have to talk much about the PS3 do I? Other than being a great gaming console, it is also a superb Bluray player. Even ordinary DVDs look magnificent, thanks to its wonderful upscaling capabilities. I have had the PS3 for a while now and the primary reason for getting one was just the BD player. I started playing games on it only recently and I must say, that’s working out great too It can do excellent Dolby and DTS and at the same time, some awesome 7.1 (Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD) via LPCM. As you can see, my current setup is only a 6.1 and I cannot wait to add another speaker to the mix to make it a true 7.1 configuration.
Price paid : $250 (It was $400 at that time, got it brand new on Craigslist for almost half the price. So, look around.)

4. The Speakers
- I have had my Onkyo system for over 5 years now and honestly, it was pretty much a ‘bachelor’ setup. I was raring to get rid of the system but just hadn’t found the time and energy ($) to get a better one. Last year, I got the JBL GS500s, used from Craigslist. You will be surprised if I tell you how much I paid for the speakers. I got the mammoth front floor ones for $100. Yes, both of them together for $100. After a few months, I added the center channel (EC35) which cost me about $75 (again, used from CL). It was in an almost-new shape and I just fell in love with the gold-plated connectors. The surrounds are from my previous Onkyo HTIB which I had purchased for $400, for the entire set that is (receiver + 6.1). I sold the receiver, the sub and the front speakers for $225. I was left with the surrounds and you could give them a current market value of maybe $50.

5. Canon Vixia HF100 HD Camcorder
Until last year, I was using a Sony Hi-8 DV Tape Camcorder to record most of my home videos. Almost all of the other stuff in the household had gone digital but for the camcorder. After a while, it just felt there was too much work involved in recording videos and then transferring them to a digital format before storing them to a digital medium (SD, HDD etc.). I had almost resigned from using it for over 3 years as I was getting back to stills via my Canon DSLR. Finally, I gave in to the temptation and got myself a 1080p HD-capable Canon. I wanted to future-proof my purchase for at least 4 to 5 years (if not more) and since the Panny supported reading media directly from an SD card, I wanted something that recorded to SD media.
Price Paid: $700 (I will exclude this from the total sum since this is not a mandatory item for an HT setup)

24p
The reason I included the camcorder in this setup was to highlight the fact that it can record in 24p Cinema mode and the Panny 50PZ800U can receive and display 24p signals. If you’re a video-enthusiast, this might be something that would fancy your interest. But wait, there’s more! The PS3 is also capable of playing back media recorded @ 24fps and so is the Pioneer 1019 AH-K AV Receiver. So, your entire setup pretty much can handle 24fps throughout, just like in the movies? Yes, it can! If you’re planning on taking the 24p route with your setup, this would be a configuration you might want to look at.

6. Dell Inspiron Slim 537ST HTPC
Now comes the HTPC, the driver that hosts and streams all of the media to the other components. Ever since my classic XBox started failing on playing HD content, I started toying with the idea of building an HTPC. Previously, I used to stream all of my content via the XBox or my PS3 (thru TVersity) and it worked really great. The only downside was that I had to keep two components ON at all times, the XBox and the desktop that the media resided on. And as I mentioned before, the newer skins and high-bandwidth video formats were a straight no-no for the aging XBox. There were very few choices available in the market for an OEM HTPC, even as of this writing. I wanted something that could handle 1080p video and beyond (it will be here in a year or two, I’m telling ya!), so it had to have a good GPU with an HD output that could deliver 7.1 audio to my receiver. I looked at the ASRock ION 330, the Acer AspireRevo and the newer Dell Zino HD. All of them used something on the lines of an Intel ATOM processor in conjunction with NVidia’s recent ION onboard GPUs and claimed to seamlessly do 1080p. I hadn’t looked at one first hand, so there was no way to tell if they really did. And if at all they do, I have a feeling that it is going to be borderline. Add something advanced like the BD Live and I am sure they will start crapping out. Most of them were selling for somewhere between $300 to $450.

To be contd…

Last year, I had written about a plastic coffee tumbler that I’d gotten for cheap from the Starbucks store here (opens in a new window). The post received a lot of interest from informed readers like you, especially concerning the presence of any BPA in the tumbler material. After repeated attempts to get that information from the store as well as several other sources, I was not able to provide an answer. Yesterday morning, however, I logged into the site after a long hiatus and found out that one of my blog readers, Kori, had posted a comment about the recycle code on the bottom of the tumbler. I said to myself, D’oh! How could I not look beneath the tumbler! Anyways, this is some really valuable information for most of us who love to transport our coffees along with us everywhere and at the same time, want to know the safest (and cheapest) option out there to do it. Thanks a ton Kori.

After reading Kori’s comment, I decided not to use the Starbucks tumbler anymore and look for something nicer (read safer) elsewhere, within my budget though. I had been wanting to get a stainless steel one for a long time now but most of them run in the $20-$40 price range. Not only is the price a big bummer, but most of them are not that great in the quality department either. To make it worse, the coffee does not stay hot that long, I guess since it is steel. This info was based on my experience with another steel tumbler that I had received as a present from a friend.

Last night, I was doing my weekly errands and had stopped at Costco for some quick grocery shopping. My eyes fell on a set of stainless steel coffee tumblers that were strategically placed at the entrance. Not only was the price attractive (given how badly I look for deals ), I was smitten by the style too. These were tumblers made by a company called Contigo and they were selling for $20 a pair. Yes, that is $10 a pop. The packaging said that the tumbler had an AutoSeal feature to prevent spilling and it kept liquids hot for about 4 hrs and cold for around 12 hrs. I was clearly impressed. I picked up a pair just to give it a try and so far, I have been pleasantly surprised with how good this tumbler actually is.

The build looks very sturdy. Fits in quite snugly in the palm with a pretty tight grip. The lid is very well-built too and it is dishwasher-safe. The lid is completely air-tight which helps it keep the temperature steady for a longer period of time. The lid also has a switch that you use to let the drink out every time you sip on it. Another thing I observed was that the lid has a very cool design right around the opening. Gives a very good feel when you sip on it, letting out the right amount of drink while at the same time, making sure not to burn your tongue. I cleaned the tumbler twice since yesterday and I must tell you, it is extremely easy to clean; both the lid as well as the bottom container. And even though it is steel, it is as light as my previous Starbucks tumbler.

The only gripe I have is that they have only one stainless steel finish available at Costco. On their web site, I did see an additional four colors to pick from. The red one would be pretty cool! But again, the Costco ones are selling for half the price and the stainless steel look isn’t totally terrible. In fact, it looks pretty cool! You do get a choice of colors with the lids. I got the blue and green combo.

Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed with this tumbler and going by its build quality, I’m pretty confident that it’s going to last a lifetime. So go ahead, if you are a Costco member, grab yourself a pair. I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Image courtesy: Contigo.com