Liese, the first possible pseud that sprang to mind for you on Facebook was kprinkle. It may in fact be the only possible pseud.

Please?

But it is somewhat offset by other things, like not owning a car.

That'd be nice. Sigh. Sadly, not possible right now. I can't even think of how much more income and how much less debt we'd have if we could get by without a car, or I'd start crying and never stop.

Oooh, juliana. The big sitting room and the deck and the 14' ceilings sound glorious. Is this the place that also has a hot tub, or was M living someplace else when he had that?

I somehow missed this! Congratulations!

I didn't really post about it, except for a few "OMGWTFF what the HELL am I doing?" tightly-locked posts in LJ. And thank you! It's going to be a house full of bartenders (M & G, and then the downstairs flat has 3 bartenders in it), so it'll be, um, social. To say the least. Plus, vegetable garden!! (I might be a bit excited about that part.)

Timelies all!

Still snowing here. Hopefully my feet will thaw out soon...

Is this the place that also has a hot tub, or was M living someplace else when he had that?

No, that's the studio he's moving out of. But there is a bathtub, which I haven't had in my own home in over 5 years. And, as I said, vegetable garden. And huyuge kitchen.

Alright this is by far the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. [link]

(Apologies if this has already been posted.)

Ok, Mr. Jane and I have got to come back for a visit now. Also, we need to start coming up with "How many bartenders does it take?" jokes.

House of Bartenders sounds like a reality show. One which I, for damn certain, would watch (as long as juliana, M, and Mr. Daisy Jane were in it [and the rest of juliana's adjacent bartenders, but I don't know them]).

Having moved in with The Boy right before the economy took its massive nosedive (versus the don't-look-here-look-over-there! decline it had been on for a while), I feel guilty that I've managed to pay down a HUGE amount of debt while so many other people's financial situations have gotten worse. Even my employment problem (and its temporarily lower salary) from the summer didn't really slow down my debt reduction.

As with most things, timing was everything. Since I was cutting my expenses in (less than*) half, the economy tanking didn't ding me too much.

*(Less than half because a few things that were expenses at the apartment are not expenses now -- I had cable then, but we don't now; I paid $30/month for a gym then, but I pay $30/YEAR now, etc.)

Steph, you should absolutely NOT feel any sort of guilt for making that move and benefiting from it!

What's going on in Bush's mind here?

I dunno - it could be anything. Hard to tell from a single picture. But the picture does look like he just watched his dog die....

This long NYT retrospective on the seminal news-photos of some guy named George Bush during his presidency ends with photos of the man on his way to his farewell address, during which it appears that he's been crying in the bathroom. I've looked at it several times now and I'm not sure I agree that's what's going on -- this facial expression seems to contain a lot more than mere sorrow.

From the NYT:

And I turned to one of my editors — First I said, “Oh, my God.” And he said, “What?” And I said, “You’ve got to see this picture of Bush. This is really stunning.” And I flipped it over to him to process and his first reaction was, “Wow.” And I said, “If he wasn’t just back there behind that door crying, I don’t know what that look on his face is.” Because he just looks absolutely devastated as he comes through this door after essentially ending his eight year presidency. And it’s just really striking. He just looks absolutely devastated.

Steph, you should absolutely NOT feel any sort of guilt for making that move and benefiting from it!

Well, it's just when I read news like yesterday's layoffs, I can't help thinking how freaking lucky I am -- which I know -- and having comparative good fortune when others are in horribly dire straits provokes guilt in me.

I was bred for guilt -- my mom could bottle and sell it to all the moms who aren't as good at it as she is.