Rant

I've learned not to read too many news articles regarding politics and government-related financial matters. It usually just frustrates me and makes me frustrated. Today I made the mistake of clicking on this article about our Fed Chair opening his mouth in public again. Here's a quote with the primary idea that I find offensive:

One of the suggestions Bernanke made was for mortgage and other financial companies to reduce the amount of the loan to provide relief to a struggling owner. "Principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may be a relatively more effective means of avoiding delinquency and foreclosure," Bernanke said.

So the basic idea is to forgive a portion of the mortgage debt on loans that are behind and about to go into foreclosure. Meanwhile, the people who have been struggling, scrimping, sacrificing and working extra jobs to pay their mortgage on time every month get a pat on the back and the opportunity to continue struggling to pay off their full debt. They aren't trying to find solutions to the underlying problem, they're trying to band aid the problem to keep voters happy in an election year.

I'm not even talking myself on this one, I know we're weird for paying off our debt. We scrimp and sacrifice by choice because security is a priority for us at this point. But clearly we'd benefit more from not paying our mortgage and letting the government force our lender to knock thousands of dollars off our principal balance. While we're at it, we should not pay the enormous tax bill we owe and let one of those absurd lawyers on TV settle our tax debt for pennies on the dollar. Seems like not being responsible pays a lot better than actually following the rules.

(Disclaimer: I'm sure getting our taxes back didn't contribute to my level of irritation over this. It's not like we owe the IRS more than half of what we owe on the house, due in part to the fact that we worked so hard to make extra money to pay off the darn house!)

No Bad Weather Here...

This is what Jen would call having a Susan moment.

In keeping with my life-long weather paranoia I threw our little weather radio/flashlight (we have two) in my bag just in case it got nasty before we left today. Since I work in a cave I have no idea of what's going on in the outside world. I thought once the rain moved in I could turn it on and at least get updates.

I went to turn it on just now and realized there are no batteries in it.

Up and Down and Out

So despite all of the insanity of last week, it turned out to be a good one. Both of the big meetings I worked so hard on went very well, better than expected even. I was worn out by the end of the week, but felt like I'd made a good bit of progress.

And that's the excuse I'm using for having slept somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 hours yesterday. It wasn't exactly on purpose, as evidenced by the fact that at one point I ended up sound asleep for several hours in the middle of the hardest, least comfortable living room floor known to man. I woke up a few times long enough to think, "I really need to get up off the fl... zzzzzzz." Don't ask how I ended up in the floor. All I know is I was getting up from the couch to go work in the yard and then I was asleep in the floor. I didn't really become completely awake and functioning until around 7pm.

I absolutely hate it when I do that, but every now and then it happens and I seem to have no control over it. I blame the fact that I wore my self out last week at work, but then I have to wonder why I didn't crash on Saturday. I dunno, but I feel like I wasted a perfect day to work in the yard and get some cleaning done.

And, of course, my apologies to Stacey. I hate that I missed your one day a week online.

Gold Medalist

I am the gymnastics queen of the Wii!

Since we defeated Mario Galaxy, we used the last of out Christmas gift cards to buy Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games last night. My best event is the trampoline. So far I have gold medals with 8 different characters. I really really wish I could record the video to post. You just haven't enjoyed the Olympics until you've seen Bowser do a 9.5 trampoline routine.

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom

A conversation between my husband and I, while leaving the grocery store where we went to buy tomatoes, mushrooms, and onion (nice, healthy veggies) and were accosted by evil Girl Scouts who forced cookies upon us:

(After reading aloud the nutritional content of the three boxes of cookies)

Me: It's not too bad. It could be less healthy.
Greg: Yeah. If you covered it in powdered sugar...
Me: hmm...
Greg: And then battered and deep fried it.
Me: A deep fried Tagalong... you know, I think I could do that...

(No, I didn't try it. But I'm still contemplating it.)