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.

When hard things come flying at my face, I duck.

A natural impulse!

I hadn't gotten to the end of the shrines. I should note for the record that Kurt and Courtney have many young fans, and so does Florence Welch.

It worries me sometimes that I've trained myself out of any instinct to flinch when someone swings a sword at my head. And then I remember that nobody is actually going to do that.

Flying projectiles, though, scary

I don't flinch anywhere near enough. It definitely bothers me. I'm an idiot.

I tried to get into SCA heavy combat, but I froze at the first sword blow towards my head. Hubby was just thrilled that I gave it a shot and said normal people always react poorly to things being swung at their heads. I got through enough to qualify for light combat, ie, combat archery, where we shot golf tubes with tennis balls taped to the end at each other. I never objected to that, and for a while I was the terror of the battlefield with a bow. Good times.

I don't duck, I turn towards gunshots, I step forward when I should step back--I'd make the shortest lived action hero ever.

I'd make the shortest lived action hero ever.

"This is a job for... "

I am having chocolate bacon cookies. I was supposed to be saving them for breakfast, but I got distracted. Please let me stop at three...