About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
My day job income increased a little, PiC’s increased a bit more. I’m annoyed that I’m still behind in our secret race but excited to hit an earnings milestone this year, and overall, no matter who’s winning, we both win with increases.
Unlike last year, we did end up with a jumbo loan for a new place, five years ahead of schedule. We’re safe and love our new home, so I’m going to call this as a good thing.
We maxed out PiC’s 401(k), my IRA, his IRA, and made big contributions to JB’s 529.
We increased our official deductible charitable giving by 50% but it’s still low. This is a work in progress.
Interesting: Hungarian mushroom soup. For completely random reasons (which I don’t remember), I was trying to think of Hungarian culinary specialties. Maybe it was floated as a possible vacation destination? That would make sense. I travel by stomach so the first thing I’d do is research the foods of the region to see if I must eat there.
Looks like neither Linda or we will be able to fully deduct our SALT and property taxes with the new cap. Neither of us deliberately chose our homes at the prices they were because we counted on the deductions, but having them did help relieve the sting of our HCOLAs.
GYM on finding happiness after heartbreak. In relationships, I think it’s always important to value yourself more than you worry about whether you can find someone else, lest you settle.
Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) This was well written but also profoundly disturbing. The lives during the Third Reich, the impunity with which Nazis tortured, maimed, and executed living beings, men, women, children, animals based on some belief of their superiority… it’s positively chilling to realize that there are still people today who endorse those appalling beliefs.
Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) I’ve read part of this series before but it’s been over a decade and it was a bit of fun light reading.
Hellcat Vol 1, Kate Leth.
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) Kate Leth is a fantastic writer but this is the first chance I’ve had to read her. Definitely recommend!
Any Witch Way You Can, Amanda M Lee.
(Borrowed from the Prime Reading membership program.) I objected to some minor inaccurate word use but this was light fun reading insofar as a story can be light when it involves a murder mystery. I enjoyed the mix of the supernatural, the everyday town, and the relatively simple mystery. (more…)
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, Happy nearly end of the year to everyone else!
I’m feeling pretty good about all the work I’ve put into getting our money wrapped up in 2017 and ready for 2018.
This series has been monumentally helpful to keeping me on track because my other constant feeling is being on edge with our current administration. Politics aside, the people we have in office are utterly abhorrent human beings who only believe women exist in a binary state of “would have sex with her / wouldn’t have sex with her” and it’s appalling. Then there’s all the egregiousness of Naziism and white supremacy gaining a public facing foothold, revelations of abuse of women and children over the years … it’s way too much for …
Wait. I was talking about money, wasn’t I? Sorry, got a bit off track there. Oh right, that’s because I started thinking about the tax code and all of THOSE implications. Right, back to my original train of thought here:
First glitter, now microfleece? Should we just assume that anything synthetic and manmade is going to make it’s way into the environment and our food? Seems like the safest bet. Also yuck.
Many thanks to Emily for sharing this article about Jolabokaflod. I’d love this to replace our Christmas gifting tradition, I’d even accept it in the face of my stocks-only rule.
Ew, no thank you: The principal’s words of praise were directed entirely at his adult listeners: If our children were prepared for Stuyvesant, he told us, it was because we had been “preparing them for academic excellence since they were in utero.”
We have had the best and worst month. We did lots of fun things together, and they were legitimately fun. But they were also punctuated by some of the worst tantrums I have ever seen. You know us, we’re not going to let zir get away with that. There were quite a few times ze pulled a Bratty Chihuahua and sat down in the middle of the street, so I’d toss zir over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and haul that hollering sack home.
The worst of this is knowing that kids pull the boneless act even when they’re much older. This has to stop!
Last year, I chalked these tantrums up to brain leaps, they were temporary but usually preceded some serious mental growth spurt. This year, I don’t know what it’s all about. Maybe this is preceding a parenting growth spurt because I have had to cultivate so much patience. (more…)
What I read
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, Happy nearly end of the year to everyone else!