You all (well, LJ friends at least) know my background, my odd little front row vantage during the big mortgage ick, the personal impact the crisis had in my household (possibly even about the ripples it had into both sides of my family) and my tendancy to get ranty on the subject. A good friend and former manager of mine posted the following ( Read more... )

• The American public’s anger at the banks certainly hasn’t decreased any in the last two years, but neither has their knowledge of what actually happened increased. And the journalists aren’t doing anything to correct this, quite the contrary…and it will never cease to amaze me how the myth that the bulk of the foreclosure “victims” are borderline ( Read more... )

This not so little guy, an orb weaver the size of one of the small crabs you sometimes see in kelp beds, decided to decorate the space between the pine boughs and the lamp on the walk beside our patio. I christened him the sky crab and Mortgaged took this great photo which, being a night shot, shows the hairs on his legs, but not his bright orange ( Read more... )

To adapt freely from the wisdom according to Skank Marden, we watch baseball and we fornicate because they are the two most fun things to do in broke weather...

Hmmm...they're also two of the most fun things to do in affluent weather. What do you know? The best things in life really are free ( Read more... )

I know that God will not give me anything I cannot handle. I just sometimes wish He didn't trust me quite so much. - Mother Teresa

More weight! - Giles Corey

Yeah, that about sums things up. *Raises hands high as the roller coaster prepares for another drop* Whee.

But I know the economy is improving because Congress tells me so...yeah, anyway. In case ( Read more... )

Here’s hoping that 2011 is better than 2010 for all of you! That way, even those of you who had great years can still only improve ( Read more... )

When I shop or eat in a restaurant (or heck, when I pick up fast food), I say please and thank you to the store clerks/wait staff who help me. When they ask how I am doing, I ask after them as well and try to make polite conversation. When things are not going my way, especially when the customer service person I am dealing with is just the person ( Read more... )

I love the Ad Council's ad cautioning people in danger of foreclosure to work with HUD approved housing counselors instead of going to the predatory "mortgage restructuring" companies that advertise on the radio and such. Check it out. The mortgage restructuring company rep is Blofeld, cat and all, and his office is tre SPECTRE. It's awesome!

Click to view

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The Mission, should we choose to accept it was to trim our household budget even further than we have already managed to trim it over the course of the last two years. Mission impossible indeed! But, really, it’s not like we had much of a choice: accept the mission or the bank account would self destruct. Hmmm…the visual that goes with my silly ( Read more... )

You have been wound up so tightly from stress for so long that it actually starts to feel normal. And then you catch some sort of break, start to relax and instead of just relaxing feel like you have gone completely limp and could sleep for days and days (and, if you're me cry because that is my stupid, natural post-stress response.). And it is ( Read more... )