I am cracking up at my mom. She texted me because she saw me post on FB that it's Tim's birthday. She said "I just saw your post about Tim's birthday -- I forgot but will put a card in the mail today. Remind me next year!"

And I texted back and said "Put it on your calendar, slacker!"

Her reply -- hand to god -- was "What's the date?"

O_o

~ma to erika and Anne (and frankly, to all of you who needed ~ma and brackets in the past few days, while I skipped to update).

Shir,

good grief. hang in there. You have buffistas with you across land and sea.

Shir, how are you?

{Shir} While I've only had to run to shelters for tornadoes, I do know the frustration of having my government be lethally stupid. May saner heads prevail.

I hope your appeal is successful, Erika. I am personally weary of discussing my finances with all and sundry.

Remind me to clean more than once a year, okay? I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. There's an appraiser coming this afternoon as part of the hugely annoying and time-consuming process of not having my house repossessed for a relatively small 10-year second mortgage that came due at the worst possible time. I'm trying to get a settlement, but times are so strange that a person like me, with a fair amount of equity, can't get a loan renegotiated, but someone upside down by $100,000 can. I think I actually want my house to appraise for less than it's actual value, so maybe its being infested with creatures made of dog fur is a plus. I'm living in looking-glass land.

A bit better, thanks. It's been a hard day. In about 20 minutes the Cabinet will start its meeting to decide if they're accepting the terms of the cease fire. Meanwhile, millions in Israel and Gaza are waiting to hear wtf they'll decide. This sums it up pretty well: [link]

So basically, waiting for the world to bitchslap Israel and Gaza all the way to cease fire. It's not getting easier not prettier, and I try to remind myself, over and over again and especially on days such as this, that it'll be easier for these governments if the tension and the anxiety I feel will thrive into hate (not necessarily of "the enemy", but mostly to idiots who don't have the same opinions as me). Because hate is never the answer. Just like Israel-Gaza wars and operations.

Oh, Shir. D was showing me some pictures of the violence yesterday and I just wanted to cry. I don't get it. I don't understand. It's awful and stupid and sad and so many people are caught up in it on all sides.

Glad it went well, Anne.

lots of appeal~ma, erika!!!

Can't wait to see cutie Ryan pics and new puppy pics when I get home.

Today's going pretty well for a Monday, here's hoping I didn't just jinx anything.

Ginger,

man I know what you mean. I actually think it is criminal that refinances cannot occur a bit more easily if all you want to do is refi the amount you owe. I tried to refi several times after the bottom dropped out of the housing market and I couldn't get a decent mortgage.

All I wanted was a 15- or 30-year fixed, decent rate. No dice unless I wanted to pay the difference in appraised rate and my mortgage.

Oh, Shir, you of all people don't need to apologize now. But thanks for your thoughts.

I almost forgot to look at the Ryan pictures, which would have been tragic! I saw the link this morning while I was browsing on my phone and decided I would wait until I was on my computer to look at them. Ryan continues to be a cutie pie!