This is a sample of how we spent Wed. afternoon:

Unspeakably adorable.

Emmett's eating Star Trek waffles for dinner.

Aims, pick some of these up for Joe, will you? I'd be sad if he never ate Star Trek waffles.

Meh. My landlord won't reduce the rent. And apparently he is raising it by a paltry 0.7% as rent control allows; he's just late about it. He gave a litany of excuses related to his expenses and not making any money off the property to begin with, and also I have the lowest rent in the complex anyway. If he lowers the rent for me, he has to lower it for everyone else. And he can't include water in my rent since I was on a separate meter. He was very nice about it all, though, and he told me to send him the addresses of those cheaper places and he would check them out.

I asked for a new stove, and he was fine with that. And he said that he'll give me a month's rent free if I help him figure out the cause of the strange sounds that were coming out of my pipes before but have now stopped inexplicably, so I don't know how we'll ever find the cause if they don't come back.

Just a big bucket of meh. I still don't want to move because I like my place, but maybe I should just start keeping my eyes open. Except goddammit, I am fucking buying bookshelves because I was planning to not move, since I have not bought them in three years since I always thought I could move at any time. Whatever, money, rent, meh.

I just wish I didn't feel so defeated.

isn't it Meara's birthday??

Well, it is in Australia...

t looks around

Huh. Look at that. Happy birthday, meara!

Whatever, money, rent, meh.

Owning? You might make some equity but you are not saving money. The new stove you want? The strange sounds you want to chase down? Those cost not insignificant monies. There are places that renting saves you just by never changing by much. I know that you make equity and everything else by owning but you are also responsible for every little twitch the building makes. So, in renting, you are also containing costs. Your rent paid isn't pure profit. It's the mortgage and repairs and everything that randomly, or regularly comes up.

Owning? You might make some equity but you are not saving money. The new stove you want? The strange sounds you want to chase down? Those cost not insignificant monies.

Yes. Oh my god, yes. There are times when I really wish that Pete and I had understood that a bit better before we had decided to buy a house.

Yeah, I was just having the same thought. Why would I want to buy a condo and have to fix every little thing myself?

I love having my own house. I was always afraid I would hate having to take care of everything, but I don't. If I had bought an older place that needed a lot of fixing up, I'm sure I'd feel differently about it, but this place is only 11 years old and well-maintained, so it's not likely to break my wallet anytime soon.

In retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't glad buy a condo in New Jersey when I had a chance to. I wouldn't have been as happy with basically owning an apartment.

I'm too lazy (and drifty with martinis) to Google it up, but I'm pretty sure that some economist did an in-depth analysis a short while back that suggested that the Bay Area is one of the few weird spots in the US where renting makes much better financial sense than owning.

Dinner tonight: martini, ibuprofen, dark green salad loaded with dense lush tomatoes and kalamata olives, and for dessert a waffle with Captain Kirk's face, slathered in butter.

Jilli, OMG those pictures are gorgeous. Pure fun slathered in gorgeous. Can't wait to see the rest of them.

The Star Trek waffles are so much cooler than the Star Trek pasties (eta: [link] ) I saw earlier today.

ION, space shuttle Discovery is launching soon....

link is more or less worksafe....

Dinner tonight: martini, ibuprofen

I aspire to be you. Mine was ibuprofen and wine. I can improve just a little, I think.