I've got Muppets on the mind (bought Season 2 of the Muppet Show and have been watching some episodes), and I followed this link to a tribute song to Jim Henson by Tom Smith, "A Boy and His Frog." If you watch it, be prepared with some Kleenex.

Oh, man, Kathy. Waterworks.

~sniff sniff!

I love the Muppets. Jim Henson was a master.

in love with Allyson.

So....my actual panic for the day? We're supposed to meet my mom in Vegas tomorrow night, Monday morning at the very very latest. A snow storm just started in Boise about 3 hours ago.

GAH. That will make getting to my mom unpleasant and scary, especially with an almost-nine-month-old in tow.

Oh, poor Kat. I hope it works out.

Hey! I'm not that short. I'm taller than Kristin.

And?

I mean...

::walks tally off into the distance::

Sheesh...walk away from Natter for a day, and look what happens. Snide comments from short and tall!

Kat, I hope everything works out.

Allyson, I t heart your post a lot. I'm trying not to think about money or about my credit score at all right now. Just...no.

Allyson, thanks for posting that. It helps a lot. I'm definitely going to look into finding a counselor to discuss emotion/anxiety issues after we're back from our Christmas travels. Between the leaping straight to the most dire worst-case scenario and bottling up my emotions until they reach the explosive point, I need to learn some better coping strategies. I'll try to remind myself of what I've got going for me, and of how few of my most dire worries have ever actually turned out as badly as I feared.

We had a friend offer free babysitting tonight, so DH and I went out to a nice dinner at a place we'd wanted to try for awhile as our Christmas present to each other. And we paid cash, so I got to enjoy it without feeling like I'd be paying for it forever. We had a wonderful time (and a delicious meal--I recommend Tilth to the Seattlistas). We didn't talk about the money thing much because it's a downer, but we did talk about some of our plans for the new year, and we agreed that on Jan. 1 we're cutting up all but one of the credit cards and that by the end of that week we'll get the loan application process rolling. And if that doesn't work, then we come up with Plan B.

Susan, I recommend a very useful book called Feeling Good by Dr. David D. Burns, which covers Cognitive Behavior Therapy that you can work on without a counselor. There's a wealth of anxiety-management techniques that help a lot, especially because you have a logical streak that should respond to the work.

And there's some very good blogs out there centered around finance -- one I've heard praised multiple times is Getting Rich Slowly.

frozen waffles:

Susan, I just checked my own credit score with Experian, and noticed that the scale there runs from 330-830 and if I properly remember the score you mentioned, yours would qualify at least as the high middle... which, may not be as high as you expected, but might be quite acceptable to lending institutions!

I was pleasantly surprised by my score, considering that I'm unemployed and owe in the low 6 digits (including the mortgage), but it's nice to know that I look good on paper.