YAY! Jesse also making me feel better.

I am starting to slide down mood hill into grumpy valley.

Mmm. Carrot cake.

I'm trying to ignore the upsetting rent/mortgage discussion, as I pay more than 50% of my salary on rent, and that's with taking a raise upon moving. And I'm trying to get into buying land and building and creating equity, but I just heard from my realtor today that in order to put in a septic system on perked land, I need to buy at least an acre. Which is what I wanted all that time ago, but gave up on as too expensive. I cannot understand for the life of me why property values in this area are so completely out of whack. They're priced like lots in freaking Hawaii for heaven's sake.

I love where I live. It's very pretty. But I'll be damned if I'm going to spend a half a million dollars on a small in-city lot and *not be in Hawaii*.

AND, don't you get a tax deduction on the payments? So the net cost to you is actually less than the check you write?

You get a tax deduction on the interest you pay. But it is only a benefit if you itemize deductions. For me, the standard deduction is barely less than itemized so it isn't a very big factor. For those with more expensive houses or high income the deduction is a big deal.

Crap. Got an email that our credit union is merging with the bank owned by DH's company. Somehow, I doubt this merger is going to benefit the membership.

Can they merge and still be a credit union? I thought that there were strict rules about what you could and couldn't do, and that's why some entities were credit unions and some were banks.

2 more days.

I've just got too many things going on. Monthly reports, some database weirdness, this stupid manual that I now suspect I cannot finish in the next two weeks afterall, a backlog of files to be ingested that really aren't that critical, just annoying, extra training to do and be done to, having to use word.... It'll be better if I just close out one thing at a time, but no, I have to try to do them all at once.

Nachos are my fave sour cream vehicle!

Mmmm, black bean soup with a big dollop of sour cream and a handful of chopped scallions. Yum.

Wow, j, I read you with my obssession goggles...cause I read "Marinara" as "marijuana".

Now this makes me wonder if marijuana would make a good oregano substitute in pasta sauce (given how oftern the reverse substitution is done to scam pot newbies).

Wow, j, I read you with my obssession goggles...cause I read "Marinara" as "marijuana".

And now I'm trying to figure out how to best add marijuana to marinara. It's like brownies or cookies - get high AND take care of the munchies! Brilliant!

Sprinkle it in like oregano.

Sprinkle it in like oregano.

Yeah, but it's bitter, so you'd have to compensate for that somewhere else, like adding more pepper.

Yeah, but it's bitter, so you'd have to compensate for that somewhere else, like adding more pepper.

Or more wine to sweeten it up.