A Wish for Wings That Work

A Miracle on 34th Street, A Charlie Brown Christmas for me, the George C. Scott Christmas Carol for Greg. The kids have no opinion as yet.

OMG you guys. My property tax bill for this year is two thousand dollars more than last year. I'm just sick.

OK, got something accomplished: under 1 minute/lap pace, which I kept up for a continuous 50 laps. Which is awesome, because my pace usually averages just over a minute when I'm not swimming as far. So I feel a little accomplished. Will do litterboxes and clean the sink, give M his shot and make a Target/TJs/new goggles run.

Not a total wasted day. I'd meant to do some clothes shopping...which is how I ended up on the couch all day, I suspect.

Ouch, brenda. Do you have to pay it up front, or is it factored into your mortgage payments ? (mine is, so part of my payment goes into a reserve that the bank pays out.)

It probably means my mortgage payments will go up a couple of hundred dollars. Which, in combination with the fact that my company is switching to a two-week pay schedule instead of bi-monthly, means budgeting next year is going to be a fucking nightmare. I'm going to have to discontinue most of my autopays, which I was already stressing about, but with whatever the adjusted payment will be is going to be way more of a challenge.

I'd almost rather pay it upfront. I suppose I can call them and see if I can do that. Fuck.

Ouch, brenda. Was the property reassessed? Can you appeal the assessment?

Or you could create your own $2K reserve in another account now (while challenging the assessment), and just set up auto transfers into the account your mortgage payment comes out of. That means you can still be earning interest on it, but in your head, the money is already gone.

Yes, I play head games with my money.

I totally play headgames. What I need is to figure out a way that I don't have to be fucking checking my balance all the time and shifting things around and letting balls drop. Right now, mortgage goes out on the first and all other bills are set for the 15th and I never ever have to think about it. I need to find a way to have that back. And I hate moving money out of savings because I'm not really good at that anyway. But if the mortgage payment is that much higher I'm not sure the best way to handle. I am sure the trip to Chile I was contemplating for Feb or March is off the table.

Anyway, I need recs for the pool. What are your must watch holiday movies?

Nightmare Before Christmas and Arsenic And Old Lace. Because the Christmas I was 10, my mom was in the hospital undergoing chemo. (What she and I didn't know at the time was that her oncologist told Dad that she probably only had about 2 months to live. She's been in remission for 30 years now, take that Dr. Straley!) The week before Christmas, my dad let me stay up until past 2AM one night to help decorate the tree and wrap presents. The midnight movie that night? Arsenic And Old Lace.