Kat, doesn't Noah already do soccer?

I need to find a handyman.

Lee does your Angie's list membership allow you to search in other areas, or is it limited?

He does indeed do soccer and loves it. But he would love to play baseball once he got around to the playing. In fact, he plays it in the backyard ALL THE TIME (and hockey, without the ice). He loves to play catch. He loves to bat. He just really enjoys it.

Plus, this year at this age is totally low everything -- risk, stress, you name it. A classmate's dad is coaching and our friend Sarah has her son on the team too. It's sponsored by his preschool.

K thinks he is too young to play and she HATES LL parents.

It's limited to the local area, unfortunately.

At Noah's age, it's probably T-ball, though, which really reduces the risk of injury.

And some Little League parents aren't bad! Especially the ones who hate the obnoxious Little League parents.

No way could I handle more than one sport for mac. 1 non-school, non-church activity each semester.

Oh, msbelle, sorry, lack of clarity. Soccer ended in November.

Though really we should just continue swim lessons. Sigh. But he doesn't get a consistency of kids that a team would have.

ah, gotcha. fall soccer ends in Nov here too, but then spring starts up in Feb.

And some Little League parents aren't bad!

Standing right here.

I still need a decent handyman. The last two I hired were not up to my standards, which include not fucking up the thing you were hired to fix.

I was always scared of baseball. When hard things come flying at my face, I duck.

I know - outside of here - three couples who had to move out of their houses and are now underwater on their old mortgages, can't sell the places, and can't rent them for enough to cover the mortgage. It's an insane situation. I swear I don't know why they don't just let it go into foreclosure. I would, honestly. It dicks your credit rating, but fuck, how can anyone prosper financially that way? The situation isn't their fault, and it's just insane to expect people to pay a mortgage on an empty house AND rent/mortgage on their current place. Of course there are reasons why foreclosure isn't an option sometimes - one of them would lose his security clearance if he lost his good credit rating, and thus lose his job - but barring a specific reason like that to need good credit? I'd walk away. I believe in paying my debts, but sometimes you just get dicked by circumstances you couldn't predict or control, and I don't believe in letting my own life get fucked over by trying to pay a debt to a giant ultra-rich corporation that won't even notice the difference if I pay it or not. You can come back from bad credit, but money gone is money gone - it's missed opportunities for savings and life-enriching experiences like travel, or just more stress in an already stressful existence.

I have anger too. I got very very lucky with this house, but people I care about are getting screwed. I'm so mad at the banks for fucking up the one investment everyone could count on. It's the American dream and they betrayed us so bad, people are never going to believe in it again.

I thank my lucky stars that a combination of (1) lack of handiness about home repairs, (2) unwillingness to buy property unless/until I have a significant other, and (3) observing my parents sink beacoup $ into their money pit—and occasionally having to help bail them out—have conspired to drive me away from home ownership and getting screwed over by the housing bubble.