I don't have a down payment and my credit rating is definitely not up to the scrutiny of a standard 20% down mortgage, so I'm not going to be buying for a few years at the earliest. I figure by then, the market should be at a reasonable level--even at these lower prices, housing expenses would still more than 30% of my monthly pay, and I don't want to go too far above that level.

Isn't it, ita?! I admire tacky interior decorating at a certain level (not to live in, but it's fun to see), but if I stepped into that place, I think I'd go blind.

My living room is an orange -- terra cotta or pumpkin - take you pick. But now that the matching carpet is gone -- and none of the furniture matches -- it is tolerable. And oddly other people love it.

So can someone explain this swine flu thing to me. I get the WHO and CDC -- their job is to stop disease from spreading everywhere. But why are schools closing with just one or two kids sick? I may have missed something , but I haven't seen anything that says it jumps quickly, it looks like it behaves like a normal flu. Am I under reacting?

Kathy, is that Wheeling, West Virginia?

No, Wheeling, Illinois. We're in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, near Northbrook and Deerfield, and not too far east of Schaumburg. It's a nice bedroom community that grew out of the corn fields after WWII, so a lot of the tinier tract houses date to the 1950s. There are also lots of more recent subdivisions if I were to increase my maximum to $300K, but that ain't gonna happen.

Yay for babytea! Welcome and congrats to his wonderful parents!

Kat, I am so with you! I swear, as the kids get older I feel like my already tenuous grip on the time/space continuum is starting to slip.

I had no idea sea dragons existed, and after that piece I'm not convinced. They'e so surreal...

eta: So are snow rollers.

I've been at home the last two days with a bad cold and my boss just told me that, because people are panicking about swine flu, I should stay home until all my symptoms disappear. I guess she doesn't remember that my coughs often last for weeks. Um, yay?

FCM:

Adam Baldwin
Adrian Lester
Anderson Cooper

P.S. ita, remind me you need more Adrian Lester pictures, thus forcing me to go look for them.