I do think, however, that it's about damn time I started reading Skulduggery Pleasant.

Oh, please do! I would be so happy to have more people to geeble about it with!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth doesn't have a fundamentally bleak view of human nature.

That's true. I just have a hard time with all the gutwrenching loss. I read it a couple of years ago and was fine; I don't think I could read it now and be okay. Possibly I need better drugs.

has anyone watched The Pioneer Woman tv show yet?

Damn, she has a TV SHOW?

Their ranch is one of the biggest in cattle ranching in the country, or part of it, and his family has owned most of Oklahoma since its statehood or something. So, it's not quite as romantic, and she's got a lot of help.

Back when I read her blog regularly, it always seemed like it was just Marlboro Man and 1 or 2 other cattle hands (or whatever they're called), and occasionally their children, who worked the ranch all day, every day. And then I realized that that would be literally impossible.

Those are WAY more depressing because they force me to realize I'm 40 and I'll never own a house.

I'm starting to hate living in a house that Tim owns (I still don't feel right saying "we own"), rather than rents. They're fucking money pits. There's always some goddamn thing that needs to be repaired or replaced and it's nothing but fucking debt. (Latest problems: big plumbing leaks and mold that I can't even THINK about, much less talk about.) I seriously wish we just rented. I think the money we saved in repairs/maintenance/taxes/etc. would be better off invested and we'd be better in the long run instead of continually putting money into fixing up this tiny no-closet-having money pit.

So, grass, greener, other side, etc.

I mean, it would probably be different if we had a McMansion, but we don't and never could. I actually don't understand what kind of salaries people must have to earn to have homes larger than our tiny money pit.

I am perhaps a little stressed because I have to take my car to an exhaust/muffler shop after work because it's making Very Bad Noises and I'm starting to worry that maybe I'm slowly killing myself with carbon monoxide.

The dealer told me in May that the whole exhaust system needs to be replaced, even though the problem is a hole in one pipe. I think that's bullshit, and that the dealer would rather replace the whole exhaust system rather than cut out a pipe and weld in a replacement because it's easier -- and more profitable -- for them to replace the entire exhaust system.

Several people have told me to NEVER take my car to the dealer for exhaust work, that they just farm it out to other shops anyway. So I finally found an independent exhaust shop that seems on the up and up, so I'm taking it in after work. But I'm still afraid they're going to tell me the whole thing needs replacing. Which -- if it does, it does. But I'm more inclined to trust a shop that only does exhaust, rather than a dealer who doesn't really want to do exhaust work at all.

Gah. I'm just tense and ridiculous today.

I really don't know how people with insomnia and/or kids do it.

After a while your brain adjusts so you don't feel tired anymore. You still show all the signs of sleep-dep impairment, but you feel like you're doing just fine.

Another theater major, French-studying it-getter here.

Also, peeps looking for houses could move to West Sacramento--close to a UC (undergrad, grad, law school and med school, so always some kind of jobs available), Hec's oldest friend and his family (the guy who needed a kidney and it turned out that of all the people in the world, his longtime partner was the best donor match for him, so now they not only share a home, life and child but vital organs) live there, my cousin the cute little babybat who charmed Jilli and Pete at our wedding lives there, and, at least for California, it's crazy dirt cheap.

Plus, traffic permitting, about a 90-minute drive to all the Bayistas (probably less to -t, a bit more to Perkins).

So, clearly, an excellent spot for a new Buffista colony.

This post brought to you by last weekend's random This Housing Market Is Nuts conversation with my dad, whose best friend just bought a 4BR in West Sacto for something like $75,000.

Usually, people talking about giving their heart ....

This post brought to you by last weekend's random This Housing Market Is Nuts conversation with my dad, whose best friend just bought a 4BR in West Sacto for something like $75,000.

Daaaaaamn.

After a while your brain adjusts so you don't feel tired anymore. You still show all the signs of sleep-dep impairment, but you feel like you're doing just fine.

Awesome. (Yikes!)

Daaaaaamn.

I'm sayin'!

And, yeah, the kidney-sharing couple and their supercutiepie daughter (and, I think now, two adopted babies) would make awesome neighbors for, well, anyone. The kidney recipient also has a music collection that rivals Hec's and plays a mean game of Scrabble (including trash-talking, if that's what you're into).

JZ,

don't tempt me. $75K might be just about all the equity I have in my house right now (she says without crying - mostly) so I am tempted to max out my credit cards and buy a house right now!

After a while your brain adjusts so you don't feel tired anymore.

When does that happen? I've been tired for months.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I see $75k and think "handyman special"