I dont understand...

Wow, that could be the title of a very lengthy post couldnt it? Cause there are so many things I dont understand.

But right now it is finances - financial institutions especially. You have a couple who have paid their mortgage monthly and they come to you with an issue. The issue being that they are being relocated because of their job - hey, a couple who both are employed! What a concept!
And what they would like to do is the responsible thing - they would like to rent their house - keep making their mortgage payments! Another unusual consept in this day and age - they have accepted responsibility and want to keep up with it. All they are asking for is a little help - to refinance so that they can make the house payments with the rent payment and yet still have a little extra money put aside for when/if the house needs something done to it.

Whew....dont know if I can handle this type of responsibility. I dont see much of it around me any more. People deciding not to meet their obligations and just walking away from the debt that they occured willingly.....and here is a couple who is embracing it but saying - can you help me out.

And guess what - you got it - they are turned down...
Why?
Well, let's see...
1. Because even tho both people are employed by a company who is not only continuing thier employment but also promoting one....they cant help them because they are NOT employeed by the military.....
2. They also cannot help them because they are NOT in financial hardship.....even tho helping them out could PREVENT hardship and yet be beneficial for the bank cause they will still be collecting monthly payments.....you know those payments, when they are strungout over a length of time and the bank walks away with 4 times what the original amount was....

So instead of rewarding RESPONSIBILITY the banks are rewarding those who chose NOT to accept responisbility....oh yeah, so sorry, you dont want to make those payments any more, ok....we'll just rack up one more mortgage loan loss to our account...add one more empty house to the area...decrease property tax income to the area...and hey - dont worry about it, you can EASILY get another mortgage in just months to years - WITHOUT EVER LEARNING A LESSON about it.....

But you want to keep that house out of the market? You want the area still to be able to collect property taxes? You want the bank to still collect monthly payments on a loan they gave you? Well, folks, basically, you are f**ked.

Like I said, I just dont understand finances...

Home Again Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

For once I did not grossly over pack. Came home with 2 clean tank tops, one clean pair of jeans, a new tshirt, one clean pair of underwear.....and all that means is I am doing a ****load of laundry today!

Just before we left I said to hubby - what are these shorts doin on the bed? To which he replied - oh, they need to go back in the drawer, I already packed all my shorts. I know all the ladies can see where this is going - yup, 1/2 way thru our trip we made a stop at K Mart to buy more shorts. Seems he only packed 2 pairs of shorts and left all the others home. And one of those pairs? Developed a potentially embarrassing hole in them....

Got in the house at 11:30 PM last night and we were wid awake by 6 AM today. Now I can barely keep my eyes open so am not the least bit able to download all the pix - those will come in a day or two!

It's The Little Things...

...in life that bring joy. The artichokes are all eaten (3 of them - I didnt even think we would get one this year), the birds got the majority of the blueberries, but the strawberries are still producing & our dwarf orange tree has teeny tiny itsy bitsy round green things on it....
Our eggplant has pretty flowers....

Our corn is growing!!!

All 3 tomato plants have tomatoes on them....

AND WE HAVE BEANS!!!!! Our beans last year had a few sparse flowers on them....this year they are growing and flowering and making beans!!!!!!

Our odd little pepper has peppers.....no photo but our maybe it is a cucumber plant is growing and so is our other what the heck plant is it out front - it is either a watermelon or a pumpkin (I am thinking pumpkin but we will see)

And our zuchini is flowering and making squash!!! YAY!!!!

County Fair

OK, I admit it.....I love the County Fair. And the Alameda County Fair is an awesome Fair - 99 years old this year! My only complaint is....the food. Not so good....

Grew up attending the Monterey County Fair. It was always so awesome to me. But sadly it has grown smaller and smaller over the years. USe to have the Horse Show with it - lots of big names appeared there - it was big (ok, so I was a little girl and it probably wasnt as big as it seemed to me). But the food was awesome and still is - altho I miss the Castroville HS fried artichoke trailer! Yummmmmmmm

So here are some shots from the Alameda Fair this year...


This is kinda how I felt at the end of the day. Done in. But it was a great day - the weather was perfect - the kids were great.


So I am partial to hairy animals cause I am a knitter. But ya gotta admit these area a great looking trio!

The baby goats in the Petting Zoo were so much fun. They were soft to pat. And this one kept falling asleep in the oddest positions!

Kaia got to feed a bottle to a baby!

And so did big brother Owen.

Actually got to pet a Wallaby - there were two and this one was the most shy but the most photogenic.

The llama was awesome. So patient. I dont think he ever moved more than open andshut his eyes (they don't drug them, do they???) I found something out. Right between the ears is THE softest lace to pat them. In the background you can see Connor, Owen, and Jack. Didnt have time to take many photos when I was in there alone with Luke.

Gosh - dont we often feel like everyone is just walking all over us??? All the baby goats seemed to think this pig was sleeping there just for them to play King of the Mountain on! And it was ok with him, all he did was open his eyes occasionally!

Luke wanted to "see a cow - see a cow - see a cow". So, shhh, dont tell him she wasnt real. As soon as he saw her and rang her bell, he was satisfied!

Saw this shortly after we got there. Meant to go back later and check to see if anyone was buying. I was disappointed - never did see the fried butter or the tacos on a stick (didnt look too hard either) and was curious to see what deep fried peaches were like but resisted...

They always find the lego table.... I had fun watching the solar powered cars and bugs!

Is this cake awesome or what???!!!! Kaia told her mom this is what she wanted for her birthday.....dont hold your breath Kaia! LOL

As always, lots of awesome quilts. And I didnt take photos of them all! Loved this one - if you look closely enough you will see the flower petals are actually embroidered words.

No prizes this year....sigh, I am slipping....well, except for the free fair ticket you get for entering! I wanted to spend more time looking cause I only saw one other pair of hand knit socks (and that one - rightly so - won a prize but not first prize). I am not sure about the judges this year. I saw a lot of things that justly won prizes but a lot of things that did not win. There were everal AWESOME knit hats - and the one that won as a plain stockinette knit but was kool aid dyed yarn - the ones that didnt win had cables, lace etc. Whats up with that????

This was what you saw as you walked in the front door. The sock monkey display with this huge monkey which appears to be hand knit!!! Kinda scarey.....

Blather

See this man? I am so proud of him! And aggravated too. He knew I have hated the color of our bedroom since it was last painted. I have been saying "let's repaint" for years now.....This spring he said ok, lets do it. Took a month but we finally found a color. Then we were going to get going but he got some respiratory crud that hung on forever. So finally this week we (he!) has been doing it. He gave me the respiratory crud somehow - weeks after he got rid of it. But till, we cleaned out and prepped the bedroom on Monday and Tuesday. Then I worked on Wed and he did the ceiling and he was ready to quit it killed his shoulders and neck so much. But - ah hem! - not too badly to play golf on Thursday!

So today I took a class and he has been finishing it up. It is a lot lighter than we both thought, and now he is kicking himself for not priming it as he knew he should but letting the people talk him into primer + paint in one....but it is getting done.

Now, I didnt think of this...but when he went to paint the ceiling he encased our closet doors in plastic. Which meant Thursday I had no way to get clean socks for work (thank goodness for my emergency pair in my locker) or any shoes except my decrepit house/yard birkies for class today!!!! Oh welll......

A week ago he was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. He was very suspicious for some time....Anyway, the MD has him checking his blood sugars 4x/day. Here is a man who is so deathly afraid of needles he cannot even watch them on TV...but he is manning up and sticking his finger 4 x every day!!! I talked to a dietician at work - and because of that talk we are watching our carbs, and since he is feeling better he is working out to the max. A week after his diagnosis - he has the majority of his blood sugars in the 90's!!!!!

The doc had already ordered pills for him but I told him not to take them with his sugars that low - he needs to talk to the MD about it first.

On our way to Nevada - did we take a wrong turn somewhere and end up back in PA???

My other handsome guy in my life....on our trip to (or from - I am not sure) to Nevada.

They Say Its Your Birthday....

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Happy 6th Birthday Owen!!!!

Blah Blah Blah

So today I dropped off my 2 lame projects for the County Fair. Oh well, it is all good cause it gets me a free ticket into the Fair! I scrapped the vest. I really hate knitting with cotton and dont know why I tried it.It came out to fit a short but very wide kiddo...

Hubby has been diagnosed with what is probably pre-diabetes. Even the dietitian wasnt sure why the MD has him testin ghis lood sugars......but he is. The MD also was supposed to call in some drugs - one of which I am curious to see cause I do not understand why for that - but there were none at the drugstore. So we are following the advice of the dietician - and we are counting carbs. I figure it cant hurt me since I so obviously need to lose weight too. Plus I cant pig out in front of him - just not fair. I will save my "cheating" for when I am at work! LOL

It was time that I could upgrade my phone. Remember, I drowned mine and was using hubby's. He convinced me to get a fancy one - I think he wants to use it too!!! So we talked and talked and talked with the guys at RadioShack.....and decided there is no way in hell I am spending several hundred dollars on a phone - utterly ridiculous. So decided the iPhone 3G was the way to go.....but turned out they did not have any in stock...neither did the other store or any around. So I got an Android.

They are Called Smart Phones for a reason - this one is outsmarting me! I have gotten phone numbers installed. And I discovered the calendar is much easier to use than any phone ones I have ever had before. Now I jsut need to sync my hands free device (finally found where to do it - had found it before and lost it - now hopefully I wont lose it again).

Hear a lot of talk about Apps. So I tried to download Kindle.....apparently AT&T doesnt support the Kindle - crap. So I was looking at other free apps - and I jsut cannot figure out how to do it. Gotta get someone savvy to show me how....

Went to see Super 8 today. Now we already went to the gym this AM but I got my workout watching tis movie - I jumped so many times I think hubby was hysterical!! But it was very good - very suspenseful.