I'm pretty boring. My SiL is deciding whether she's gonna spend a year in Liberia, I think the rest of us are eating her dust

I don't do anything, either. My family does not believe I am writing a book though. They make "Whatever." faces.

I frankly have no idea who the most interesting people in my family are because, if I am any indication, we aren't the most sharing of people. I know I'm not.

My sister is getting married Sunday and frankly verging on Bridezilla-ness. She is certainly the loudest and most attention-seeking one in the family right now. I don't know if I think that is interesting or not. Actually I am pretty sure I don't, but she is interesting in other ways most of the time.

I, on the other hand, am still sick. But hey, better me than them, I suppose.

I'm the family loser.

As always, this depends on the perspective that you are taking.

Each week during the summer, the newspaper in my Minnesota hometown does a profile on the garden of a local family. Typically pictures of tomatoes and day lilies, and human interest stories about the gardeners. A couple of years ago they did one on my parents' garden. Pictures, gardening tips, my folks' history in the town. Then their kids. A paragraph on my sister and her husband who live in a nearby suburb, their jobs and their love of gardening. My brother who lives in a nearby town, his job, his hobbies. My other brother and his wife, who live in the hometown, their interests, their Church, speculation on the newspaper visiting their garden in twenty years.

After a eulogistic paragraph on each of the good and decent offspring who stayed in the area, there was a final cryptic sentence: "The (Lastnames) also have one other son, who no longer lives in Minnesota."

I felt like a black sheep who had brought eternal shame on the family.

I felt like a black sheep who had brought eternal shame on the family.

Well, the entire town was more interested in what heinous deeds you were getting up to, I bet.

We just refinanced our house.

We didn't take anything out. I repeat, we didn't take anything out. All we did was move from an infinitely variable rate to a 5-year fixed.

We are $670,000 in debt.

I can't count that high.

I feel oddly reassured by my measly (and yet, also six figure) amount of debt.

Betsy, I don't even count my mortgage as my debt. I mean, I know it is. But I try to think of it as a really long lease, with no landlord problems.

I do count other loans (including equity loans, if they were for purposes beyond financing the purchase), and credit cards, and car loans, etc. Right now, I don't think we have any of those save a few thousand on the equity (but it paid for our patio), and maybe $150.00 on our credit card.

Debtwanking the only way I can sleep nights.

Debtwanking the only way I can sleep nights.

I suppose it does relieve tension...

I'm going to go cuddle my smallish, 15 year fixed rate (5.5%) mortgage. No credit card debt. Just one car payment. I'm happy at the moment that I've no need for debt wanking.

Note that's at the moment. This will probably change.