We made a trip back to the east coast this month, which allowed Joey and Maggie to play in my mom’s backyard. Which, as far as the kids are concerned, is “the backyard”. We also managed to go to my great nephew Alex’s birthday party. Photos from the trip as well as [...]

This little piece from ABC News, animated by Odd Todd, explains how interest only loans work and the pitfalls associated with them:

The video doesn’t mention the option ARM type of mortgage, where you have the option of paying less than the interest each month resulting in negative amortization.

My wife and I have been looking to buy a home since we moved to Madison seven months ago. A small condominium/townhouse complex on the eastern edge of the city has had two units for sale for the past seven months. This photo is of an intersection near the complex:

Sadly, none of the [...]

Just read this humorous parody on an enworld forum posted by FireLance:

It’s Still D&D To Me
(with apologies to Billy Joel)
What’s the matter with the sword I’m swinging?
Can’t you tell that it’s too mundane?
Maybe I should buy some leather armor.
How much gold don’t you have anyway?
Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey?
You can’t fight [...]

I’ve been working on a new fantasy campaign setting over the past year, and given that I’m one of those “world builder” GMs, I’m currently in the process of plotting out historical population movements using multiple copies of the same map. Don’t judge me, I enjoy this type of stuff. Anyway, last night [...]

I was looking at some real estate posts on the Internet and ran across this story about a guy pulling down and stealing the open house signs of his neighbors. An excerpt:

It’s now 1:55, and the Open House starts in 5 minutes. I question whether or not I should go down and check the [...]

I just started reading Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore and thought I’d share this quote from the first chapter:
Success in America doesn’t require any special talent or any kind of extra effort. You just have to be consistent and not fuck up. That’s how most people fail. They [...]

I’m playing with my two kids and their Little People castle set and each of them has a dragon that they are using to menace the castle. Somehow, I ended up as the princess and her retinue of two identical knights, Bob 1 and Bob 2. Anyway, the princess and her escort happen [...]

Those little green Intellitxt double lines have really been annoying me lately. I tried a number of techniques, including editing my /etc/hosts file and installing a script using Firefox with GreaseMonkey.  Neither was very successful.  I was ready to start venting at the sites; You know, telling them that I won’t be visiting them [...]

This article in the New York Times describes periodic fluctuations in the Earth’s orbit that has resulted in mass extinctions of mammals in the past. And here’s the great news:

Dr. van Dam said the 2.5-million-year cycle “has entered the critical stage corresponding to a relatively circular orbit.” But any period of high turnover may [...]