Blog Master G

I recently registered the domain saratogablog.com. It currently points here (to my Saratoga Springs category) since I’ve been doing a lot of writing in this category lately. Maybe I’ll create a separate blog at some point dedicated solely to adventures in Saratoga, but for the time being, Saratoga Blog is just one more way to see what’s going on in this fun little town I call home.

Last night we appeared before the five-member grievance board to present our case about why we think the assessed value of our property should be lowered (since it’s set quite a bit higher than comprable properties in our area and we’re taking the brunt of it since we only bought last year… maybe that’s the point). But we didn’t get a good feeling about it. After asking us when we bought and for how much, it seemed as if the board had already made its decision. Apparently three of the five volunteer board members are realtors, so it seems — based on our hearing and those we observed — that all they really care about are sales comps, not necessarily finding equality among assessed values of similar homes.

Regardless, I’m sure my nervousness before the board didn’t help much, either. I had done so much research and had all these strategies in place, but feel like I just locked up and was a mumbling mess when we took our seats across from the board. I’m just glad it’s over with now. We learn the decision of the board July 1.

One of the ongoing joys of being a new home owner is learning about things like tax assessment and grieving. Although some people may have done the traditional kind of grieving when they received just over two weeks ago their notice that their assessed property values were increasing 8% this year, I decided to spend the last couple days researching how this whole thing works and what we can do about it.

Residents seek smaller value judgment:

People started forming a line in City Hall around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday for their chance to say why their new property assessment is too high.

They had a lot to tell the volunteer Board of Assessment Review.

Jen and I get our chance to go before the board tonight to plead our case. Although our assessment is somewhat in line with what may be fair market value, it’s quite a bit higher than most other comparable properties on our street and in our neighborhood (due to our recent purchase and the previous owner’s purchase the year before; other properties haven’t turned over as recently). City assessor Stephen Towne and the board reviewing the appeals claim it is their mission to bring the assessed value of all properties to 100% of fair market value, but I do not believe that is really the case. There is a discrepancy between sale prices and assessed values in the city, so some percentage of fair market value is being used. That’s going to be another point in our argument.

How Assessors Achieve Fair and Accurate Assessments:

In order for property to be assessed consistently at a uniform percent of current market value, assessors should analyze all of the parcels to determine which assessments should be adjusted. This requires that, each year, the assessor analyze and evaluate the market to determine current market value, and change where appropriate the assessments of properties. If the assessor is adjusting assessments to a uniform percentage of market value, rather than 100 percent of market value, the assessor would apply that percentage to all assessments.

While at City Hall yesterday, I happened to catch part of a speech by John P. Franck, a lifetime Republican who has recently switched parties to gain the support of the local Democratic Party and challenge incumbent Accounts Commissioner Towne:

Franck continued with the announcement of an ‘award for inaccuracy’ for Towne for misprinting the City Hall address on the reassessment notices.

…

Franck said that if he is elected, he will first see what the neighboring communities are doing before initiating a reassessment.

‘I don’t have a problem with assessments as long as they are disclosed and fair,’ he said. ‘But I see an inequity unless Greenfield and Wilton do a reassessment as well.’

Because the Saratoga Springs school district includes parts of Greenfield and Wilton, unless both communities reassess their property values, city residents can end up paying a larger percentage of the school district budget.

Regardless of the outcome of our grievance, it’s been a great experience learning about how all this stuff works — and to see how damn confusing it is to do something as seemingly simple as research the assessed values of other properties in town, which requires a lengthy and paper shuffling process of looking up property ID by street address or property owner, cross-referencing with records in city assessor’s office to determine square footage, number of bedrooms, etc., then forming an argument that proposes a fair market value for your property based on these data.

It’s also pretty telling that the process isn’t working quite right when a board member quits on Grievance Day.

Sometimes I wonder about this country. Sex offenders have been receiving state-funded Viagra, which is hopefully coming to an end, and Medicaid will pay for nearly $2 billion to treat erectile dysfunction over the next ten years, while federal funding for birth control programs and education has been cut worldwide and at home.

States May Deny Sex Offenders Funds for Viagra:

A federal agency began notifying states Monday that they do not have to pay for Viagra for convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services acted one day after the New York comptroller’s office said audits from 2000 through March found that 198 sex offenders in the state received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Their crimes included offenses against children as young as 2, Comptroller Alan Hevesi said.

We finally got our lawn situation under control Saturday afternoon, when we spent about four hours raking, weeding, turning over soil, seeding, fertilizing, watering, and roping off our work from passers-by. From what I understand, the key to growing grass is watering often, twice per day until the sprouts begin to appear and daily until the grass is established, according to the seed bag. Lucky for us, it rained all day yesterday and more rain is predicted all week long. The work Saturday was hard and invigorating. I was sore the next day, but in a good, connecting with the Earth and getting something productive done kind of way. Just 48 hours later, I’m already seeing tiny sprouts of grass appearing.

Saturday night we loaded up the dogs and headed to Kinderhook for the evening, in preparation for our Sunday trip to Long Island, where Jen attended Karen’s bridal shower and I saw Star Wars: Episode III with the guys. The trip there on Sunday was quick and painless — about three hours from Kinderhook — but the return trip last night was brutal: It took more than four hours back to Kinderhook, thanks mostly to Long Island traffic heading back into Manhattan, it seemed. Regardless, we got great gas mileage on the trip — just under 28 miles per gallon and about 330 miles on the tank.

I really enjoyed Episode III, despite several scenes that were just way too cheesy for me. When Anakin has completed his transformation into Darth Vader and learns that he killed Padme (so he believes), his screaming “Nooooo!” was just a little too cornball for the new prince of darkness. The movie nicely completed the saga, and my plan now is to watch all the movies in order (I have the other five on DVD).

Trailer for the worst movie ever: The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl. I know it’s a kids’ movie, but are they serious?

Emergency Petition to Save the Courts

The 2004 Red Sox World Championship trophy spent the day yesterday in Glens Falls, NY, of all places. Lucky for us, we live just south of there. We joined Sarah and Eric last night for a trophy viewing at the Queensbury Hotel, followed by a Sox party at their place. It was pretty cool to see the trophy up close and personal in its final stop before arriving at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

On June 7, 1984, I wrote what very well may be my first-ever blog entry. I was seven years old and had attended Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday Party with my Dad, who was a reporter for The Sacramento Union. We flew aboard a chartered PSA Airlines 727-214A dubbed Duck One that sported a giant logo of Donald for the occasion. According to my blog entry from the day, Chip and Dale were the “drivers that drove the plane.” If memory serves me right, we flew to Washington and Oregon, which seemed like far-off strange and wonderful lands to a wide-eyed seven-year-old. I felt like a rock star, sitting in the row behind Disney greats Clarence Nash (the voice of Donald for 50 years) and Bill Justice (the animator who created Thumper and Chip and Dale). Bill Justice drew me a personalized picture of Donald (but neglected to sign it).

The trip was unforgettable and a special part of my childhood.

It’s another perfect, sunshiny day here in Saratoga Springs. The skies are blue, the breeze gentle. It’s one of those days when it’s hard to sit in front of the computer when all you want to do is be outside, soaking up the rays.

Yesterday after work I mowed the lawn for the second time this season. Parts of our lawn, including in front of our house and the dog area of the yard, need help. We’ve been talking about fertilizing it for weeks now, and if we had only just forked over the 30 bucks for a bag of it, the lawn would probably look much better by now. But better late than never. I’ll probably pick up some fertilizer today. Of course, our lawn is far from the perfectly groomed, thick green stuff that many of our neighbors sport. Our thumbs are far from green.

One of our neighbors has a scarecrow in her yard. It startles me whenever I look out the window.

With temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s this week, we also need to stop talking about it, and actually put our screens on.

I’ve played the Pepsi Call Upon Yoda game with one empty box of Diet Pepsi. I did not win the $100,000 grand prize, but last night dreamt that my brother did. (So Peter- Drink your Pepsi and go Call Upon Yoda!) I woke up this morning in a panic that we had thrown out our most recent Diet Pepsi box without checking to see if it was the 1 in 12 million that would be a winner. (It’s all you, Pete!)

Three years ago today I was writing about having seen Star Wars: Episode II. Three years?! Where does the time go? It’s been two years since attending my last Bay to Breakers (we got a phone call from Shannon and photos from my cousin Sararose, who both went to Saturday’s 94th annual foot race, though not together since they’ve never met). (My B2B reflections a year ago today.)

One year ago we had just gotten our mortgage commitment letter and were getting used to the idea of home ownership and enjoying life in the Northeast. We also paid our last rent check this month last year.

This is the beauty of a blog: It helps me remember the things I’ve done, the things I’ve thought, and where the time has gone. It’s only going to continue to go by faster from here on out. Here’s to the next year and 3.6% of my life to date!

On Sunday I’m seeing Star Wars: Episode III. The beat goes on.

My Mom headed home yesterday after four days of Saratoga fun. It was her first visit here and I really enjoyed having her in town.

The non-stop weekend began Friday with Chinese take-out followed by happy hour at Seth and Niki’s place. Happy hour turned into many hours as Jen and Niki jammed on the accordian, we scanned photos and other documents, and engaged in general debauchery. Ken dropped us off at Justin’s house to let Isaac out before we walked home.

My Mom took the red-eye flight from San Diego and arrived in Albany Saturday morning. Upon returning to Saratoga Springs, I gave her a driving tour around Saratoga Lake, Yaddo, Congress Park, Broadway (with a stop at Uncommon Grounds), then back to my place. It’s the first she’s been here since Jen and I moved here, and I’m really glad she came to visit. Saturday afternoon we walked several miles around town, stopping for ice cream cones at Ben and Jerry’s, riding the Congress Park Carousel, and soaking in the sun.

Saturday night Jen’s friend/coworker and her husband hosted a dinner/game night in Troy. There were four couples. We ate, drank, and partied the night away with Apples to Apples, Imaginff, and Cranium. I was a chicken at one point.

Sunday my Mom and I went for a drive to the Saratoga Battlefield, where “fifteen (of the) most decisive battles in world history” took place in late 1777.

Last night Jen’s parents arrived for a fun-filled evening of BBQ chicken, debate of local and world topics, and all-around very enjoyable family time.

Although I can trace my blog postings back as early as November 2000, as of this month, it’s now been three full years of nearly daily blogging. May 2002 archives.

Yesterday after work I picked up from my local Subaru dealership the crushed aluminum oil pan washers that the parts guys failed to give to me the day before when I bought a couple Subaru oil filters. Then it was off to Nat’s place for my 57,415-mile oil change. The last one we did was 3,664 miles ago at 53,751 on February 22. The oil was still very clean, due to our mostly highway driving.

I use Mobil 1 5W-30 synthetic oil. When I first bought the car, I used traditional oil, then switched to snythetic blend for a time, and have been using full synthetic since at least March 5 of this year (33,446 miles) insofar as I can tell by browsing through my service records and own notes.

There’s always debate about how often to change oil. The range seems to be anywhere from 3,000 to 7,500 miles among other WRX drivers who use synthetic, with many folks changing at the 6,000-mile mark. I’ve always tried to stick to every 3,000 miles. It seems to be mostly about peace of mind. Nat changes his WRX oil every 3,000 miles, and James has also always advised me to do the same.

Though I do tend to be pretty obsessive about digital record keeping, I don’t actually have a spreadsheet outlining my WRX service records (gasp!). I do have a combination of notes outlining the last three home-done oil changes, and invoices from all other service records. I don’t have anything as detailed as this guy, but here’s a glimpse at my oil changes since the beginning of 2004:

By shop:
1/7/04 29,926 (standard oil, first NY oil change)
3/5/04 33,446 (switch to synthetic)
5/3/04 37,462
7/9/04 40,752
9/1/04 44,049
10/30/04 47,436

With Nat:
12/18/04 50,300 (approximately)
2/22/05 53,751
5/12/05 57,415

Knowing this, now you can sleep better tonight.

Update: Thanks to Phil’s reminder, I just checked my history at My Subaru and see the following (I used to be better about making my own notes here, but pretty cool that the Subaru dealers do it for you):