I'm working at the library. The place is deserted. My job is to sit here and keep the lights on and be available in case anybody needs help finding information.But nobody's here, soooo I can play games on Facebook, right?Except that none of my Scrabulous opponents have taken their g.d. turn lately, and I can't get the Scramble application to work on this computer. GAH!Guess I'll have to go do something productive. ... (more)

Today I'm wearing my favorite dark red mary jane clogs. I love them, but when I look down while I'm walking, I see that in these shoes I walk the way my younger sister walks, a jerky heel-toe slapping walk. She always wears these impossible tiny shoes. I hate that I walk like her. I have always been the cute but dorky middle sister with two stunning and stylish sisters. I envy them but I also want to be different from them, so it makes me feel great and terrible at the same time when I find myself resembling one ... (more)

This morning I had an experience that was very unpleasant, but that is already starting to seem funny to me. If you're a regular reader, you'll know I lived through my second round of ovarian cancer a few months ago. Just this week I was marvelling that the human mind is incredibly resilient--already I can hardly remember parts of the experience. For the first couple of months, it was so strongly present in my mind that I couldn't get through a single conversation, even with strangers, without mentioning the cancer or something related to it. Now I go for days ... (more)

Which excuse do you want first?There are several things that are making me apathetic about this blog.Yet another friend discovered my blog recently (Hi, E.A.S.), so that makes, let's see, 5 people (that I know of) who know me In Real Life who read this blog. This is not counting my partner, who has known about it for a couple of years but rarely reads it. This is partly because he's busy and partly because he sort of gets that I told him about it so I wouldn't be keeping secrets from him but that the blog is actually my ... (more)

It could be a lot worse.$236,286, down from $236,842.The biggest loss was cash. We are doing some work on our house, but we've barely started it so that's no excuse for this big a drop in cash. I guess I did move some money into our retirement accounts, so that accounts for part of it. And there were some medical bills, etc.The rest--just plain overspending.The report is here. ... (more)

Good news, sports fans.Philadelphia's new soccer team may soon join Major League Soccer.I am very excited. I much prefer soccer to baseball, basketball and American football. This is just another sign that Philadelphia is coming up in the world. Southwest flies into Philly now. The local economy is finally recovering from massive losses of manufacturing jobs in the last century. And now, before long we'll have professional soccer. There's no stopping us.What should the team be called, do you think?M and I decided they should be the Philadelphia Scrapple. ... (more)

I'm practicing my answers to the following questions:"We'd love to have someone with your experience on this search committee.""Can you be here at 7 AM in time to catch the bus to the state capitol for a day of meetings with our Representatives?""Wow, that chest cough sounds awful. Could you help me rearrange the furniture in here? This futon is too heavy for me to lift.""I'm working late 3 nights this week. Oh, and could you go grocery shopping? We're out of those granola bars I like.""Will you make me a suit of armor out of this cardboard box?""After we ... (more)

...while I try to keep up all the balls in the air. ... (more)

I was doing a bit of research online for a friend this week, and I emailed a real estate listing to myself.Within a couple of days, I got a helpful email from the listing agent, offering to help me find the house of my dreams.Below her email was the message she'd received from her electronic system notifying her that I'd been looking at one of her listings.Here's the message from the electronic system to the agent:"Did You Know...You are able to view this visitor's website activities by accessing the Manage Prospects section of your Online Office.As prospects visit your website ... (more)

My editor friend called me this week and asked me if I'd be interested in writing a weekly column on a really cool topic for about a year. The pay is...definitely worth my while. She asked me to write 3 sample articles in the next few weeks, and if she likes them and her boss likes them, I can have the job.But I already work around 20 hours a week, plus volunteer work. My partner works full time. Our son spends only 24 hours a week at school, and he spends another 5 hours a week being babysat by friends ... (more)

Philadelphia was ranked the 5th most miserable city, according to Forbes.com.I thought it was pretty silly when Philadelphians got all into a snit last year when somebody or other (anybody remember this?) voted Philadelphians the ugliest city residents. I guess I figure the surveyors must have happened to run into the less attractive locals on the day they visited. I must have been out of town.But I confess, I resent being told I'm miserable.I'm not miserable. I'm f***ing ecstatic. ... (more)

Drop in housing sales means city's losing tax $The city of Philadelphia's budget is counting on $205 million in real estate transfer taxes this year, and now that the real estate market is well into a long slide, it's looking like that figure was wildy optimistic. I've been thinking again about buying a rental property, not because I want to do my part for the city coffers, but because it seems like I could have my pick of houses. However, I keep coming back to the same very real obstacle. My partern does NOT want to be a landlord. Most ... (more)

This morning, I was listening to the coverage of the democratic primary on NPR and making a quesadilla for my son's nursery school lunch.After a while I became aware of a little voice behind me singing, "Rock Obama, Rock Obama, Rock Obaaaaama."Me: Are you singing about Barack Obama, L?L (eating applesauce mixed with fiber powder): Yes.Me: Do you know who that is?L: No.Me: Barack Obama is one of the people running for President.L: What's a president?Me: The president is the leader of the government in our country. [pause, while I decide whether to tell him the part that will really ... (more)

Today's article in the New York Times, Economy Fitful, Americans Start to Pay as They Go, asks whether current economic woes could scare overspenders into living within their means.I really don't know the answer, but my guess is that it will take more than a bit of an economic downturn to make the tide flow in the other direction.I also saw an interesting ad in a subway this morning:Philadelphia Saves. You can build wealth.This local incarnation of the America Saves program is geared toward educating people about saving money. It seems like an interesting program. Does anybody know someone who ... (more)

My favorite way to cope with the ridiculous amount of volunteer commitments I have is to do my volunteer work at the same time I'm doing my paid work.How is this ethical or possible, you ask?If you've ever staffed a college library in the evening, you'll know that your main purpose is to keep the lights on so students can use the photocopier, the computers, and the study tables. I've been at work for four hours and I've answered 3 questions. Two of them were "where's the photocopier?"So, I spent my time preparing a report for a board meeting I ... (more)

If you're in the middle of a medical crisis, it may be tempting to spend money to make yourself feel better. Chances are you feel like crap. Maybe you're scared or depressed. Maybe it feels like your life will never be the same again.You deserve a treat. It's very easy to give yourself permission to overspend when things are not going well. Why not? you tell yourself. Life is too short.So you need to find a way to do something to make yourself feel better that won't deplete your resources too much.Accept gifts gracefully. If someone wants to help, LET ... (more)

A trouple is like a couple, except that there are 3 partners instead of 2.As for how they handle money--every family handles it differently, of course, but Queercents recently published an interesting account of a trouple in the midwest who is trying to pay down debt, save for retirement, and manage the complexities of legal marriage and illegal marriage.My own finances seem simple in comparison. My partner and I may not be married, but it's a no-brainer that I should name him as the beneficiary of my life insurance policy. We own our house together. We're both the legal parents ... (more)

This week I got hit with an unexpected medical expense. It's a medical expense because I incurred it while I was in the hospital, but I didn't know about it til this week, nearly 3 months after the event.We've been on a Cingular family plan for several years. We have 500 "anytime" minutes every month, and because we hardly ever use them all, we also have a rollover plan. That means we can save up unused minutes.After all this time, I've pretty much stopped checking my minutes balance, because we've never ever gone over. So I was shocked to see ... (more)

What is it about being parents that makes us think it's normal to do hours and hours of volunteer work every week?Maybe it's all that elbow grease that goes into keeping our offspring clean, fed, safe, and loved. It's arguably the hardest job we've ever done, and we do it without getting paid. When you spend most of your time on parenting, it seems easy to do other unpaid work. Yeah, that explains it.But I hope this is a passing phase, because I'm wearing myself out with all this volunteering. At least I don't belong to a church. That would ... (more)

I had to look.It's not all that bad, actually. My net worth is down 2.06% this month, or about $5000, for a total net worth of $236,842.We were hurt by the bucking bronco that is the stock market, but also by the fact that I was just getting back to work and so my regular retirement account contributions weren't coming into my retirement account. Also, my partner has been working part time. He goes back to full time next week, so next month we should see some more steady money coming into our retirement accounts.Credit card balances are up, and ... (more)

After over a year of planning and talking about it, my mother and her partner moved to Philadelphia this morning and they're living in my very neighborhood, a half a block from my house. Their red-eye flight got in, and they left their traumatized cat in the car for five minutes so they could run into our house and give us some quick hugs on their way from the airport to their new home.I've been thinking about the ways their presence will change my life. And of course, some of those things are financial. Here's a list of the ways ... (more)

After the Feds cut the interest rate on Tuesday, rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped as low as 5.125%. Now they're back up to 5.75, but that's still lower than they were this time a week ago.If you've got an adjustable rate mortgage, it might not be a bad time to refinance....Philadelphia Inquirer: Fed's rate cuts ignite a rush to refinance ... (more)

Like many people, I've been watching the stock market yo-yo this week and wondering, what does this mean for me? What does it really mean for any of us? I'm no economist. I'm just another working parent, making school lunches and going to work and paying my bills and trying not to let the headlines freak me out too much.I don't much care what the interest rates do. I have a fixed-rate mortgage, no credit card debt, and I don't really give a darn whether my emergency fund is earning 5% or 3%. I don't particularly want my friends and ... (more)

I got some scary news from my oncologist last week, so I've been busy coping with it and avoiding all the phone calls from concerned friends and family.But my visit to the oncologist today was very, very heartening. The thing they see on my liver is probably not more cancer after all. It's probably some damaged tissue from the surgery they did in November. They're going to scan again in April to make sure, but so far things are looking good.When I woke up this morning, I was positive that I was going to have a big chunk of ... (more)

I expected the new series on Queercents, called Pink and Green Parenting, to be mostly about the finances of being a gay parent. After all, Queercents is a personal finance blog for LGBTQ folks.But this new series has more to do with minimizing the environmental impact of having a baby. It's still on topic, because all the things they suggest doing to save the environment also save money.Check it out. Lost in the plastic rainforest: Greening your homeHow to REALLY reduce the expense and environmental impact of parentingSaving money and the planet (Even if you must use disposable diapers) ... (more)