I never got a ballot in the mail for this year’s elections, so I decided to try and find one online. The Somerset County Board of Elections page has a bit of useful info, but I couldn’t find a ballot. I’ll do some more looking tonight before giving up, but I think I’ll probably have to wing it when I get into the booth tomorrow. One amusing thing I found on the site: a really cheesy, and almost entirely useless, video. Click on the “upcoming elections” link to watch it. The background music is hilarious.
Category: NJ
NJ Tax
NJ is now charging sales tax on a bunch of stuff that didn’t used to be taxable. From my perspective, the two most annoying categories are comic books (periodicals) and downloaded music. I notice that massage and tattooing are taxable now too. I don’t think either of those categories is going to be a problem for me.
NJM Bank
It turns out that NJM Bank also has pretty good rates on CDs, and I’m pretty sure they’re trustworthy, based on my experiences with their car insurance. They have an on-line form you can fill out to open a CD account, but you have to print it out and mail it to them. Low-tech! Maybe I’ll give that a shot tomorrow.
heat wave
After working in an office without air conditioning for the last two days, I’m ready to get out of New Jersey and head off to San Diego. The temperature outside in NJ was about 99 degrees today. In our office, it got up to 87 at one point. In San Diego, it was only about 78 outside today. Nice.
They got the A/C in the office fixed at around 3pm today, so it should be fine in the office for the rest of the week. I’d still rather be in S.D. though!
Illustrated History of Union County
I noticed something interesting in the Westfield catalog this month: An Illustrated History of Union County, by Frank Thorne. There are some sample pages here. Based on this message, it appears that this strip was originally published in the Daily Journal back in 1951. As a former Union County resident, and Frank Thorne fan, I think I’ll need to pick this up. Actually, I may need to pick up a few copies and send them off to other former Union County residents, too.
NJ Tax Information
You can find some interesting pointers to NJ tax info at the Morris County Library Real property & tax information page. A link on that page, for instance, lead me down a path that eventually showed me the assessed value for my apartment building. Apparently, this place is worth $1.8 million.
First Time Home Buyers – Seven Reasons to Get off Your Duff
A NJ geek blogs about buying your first home.