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Hey, the blogs are back!  For days, I could only see the front page, but not read individual entries.  Anyway, now, it seems to be working again, and better than ever before.
I finally recovered from all the aches and soreness of the camping trip.  Prepping for the trip still costed me more than I had anticipated or wanted to pay for such a trip.  Why is it so easy to go over-budget on any excursions?  Haha.
The month of May was just a huge banner month...
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Hi all ....
I can't see anyone's post -- when I click on any title I just get an error page. It looks like maybe I can post myself, so I'll give it a try.
I'm not going to do a full recap, just report on what I've been doing. I took a road trip with a buddy to go visit my sister, who lives in North Carolina. She has recently moved into a senior living facility, and I wanted to see how she was doing. She seems to be doing well socially, if a bit disorganized.
The trip was pretty...
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Hi all. It's Laura again. I know it's been a while since I've been around here and I do apologize. Life has been keeping me busy.
in March. I had the opportunity to go out to California and visit my two nieces. That was amazing. LJ who is going to be three in one month is such a good big sister. The love she has for HR is really incredible. LJ was a little hard to reach at first, but after a few days and a little help from my brother, we figured out how to get her to connect with...
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I was looking over my end of May numbers and see that I've spent a gross/reportable $29,420 year-to-date. So in terms of keeping my traditional IRA distributions and annuity distributions state tax-free, I'm doing fine; you need to be under $75,000 gross for state tax-free retirement income.
My other goal is to keep taxable income under $50,400 so as to stay in the 12% tax bracket. Last year I had the $17,750 standard deduction and another $6,800 from the enhanced senior deduction...
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Okay so I realized looking at my blog I never talked about a trip we did in February.  We did this kayaking camping trip in La Paz Mexico.  It was actually great and better than I expected. I decided if we were going to do this I had to do it asap before getting any older.  Yeah I found it hard to sleep on the sand still.  I'm not a huge camping fan, more ambivalent.  But as I get older it is harder to camp but also just do more active trips.  So...
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I finished working full time a few weeks ago and now am on summer break. Last week we took an Alaskan cruise and the above picture is from Glacier Bay National park. This fall I go back to work but only part time. My spouse has filed for their small pension and SS. It should total about $2k. While we were gone for a week, we earned $40k through our investments - it's so strange that despite what I believe is a horrible presidential performance, our economy seems to be continuing...
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TSP $1,757,529
IRA $514,274
Brokerage $15,643
Sub-total Investments $2,287,446
Savings $6,647
Home Equity $150,000
May 2026 Net Worth $2,444,093
April 2026 Net Worth $2,329,348
Monthly Gain/Loss $114,745
May was a great month!
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I was looking up something in my blog and came across this post from 2016.  It was in regards to MH refusing to toss any of his professional clothing from the early aughts (that he was obviously never going to wear again).
A snippet from that post:

I doubt the kids will have any use for ties, but I suppose maybe they could divide the ties between the three of them.  Just so that they have a tie in a pinch.
Anyway, I totally forgot that was where we landed. ...
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Such a mixed bag this month--our retirement accounts went up, but so did our total debt. We just keep getting hit with unplanned expenses this year--about $2500 in electrical and other repairs on our rental property, a replacement phone for one of our kids, a new (used) bike for him as he's outgrown his current one...had to lean on the HELOC some more.
Being self-employed adds to the challenge, so I also needed to draw from the LOC just to cover routine bills. But we should have...
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Out of all the ideas that some of my buddies throw my way, few ever reach the stage where we actually end up going through with it.  However, this one apparently did.  As the title states, a buddy of mine wanted to go camping and stargazing.  I think he might have done it once or twice, but this is definitely a first time for me.
The basic plan was go camping for a couple of days out at the Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia.  As advertised on the brochure,...
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OK, here's a fun tool: it uses the art of abstract painter Mark Rothko to portray the weather in your location.  https://rothko.joonas.wtf/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20260529%20Friday%20newsletter&utm_source=e007cd04ee&utm_source=Weekly+News+from+Yale+Climate+Connections&utm_campaign=4ff107d8f4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_05_28_06_34&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e007cd04ee-66937b445c-515623167
Unique, huh?
Mark Rotkho was a Latvian-born American abstract...
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So the delivery of the new fridge and stove went off pretty much trouble-free and I was thankful there was no collateral damage. However, there is a one-inch gap between the back of stove and the wall; the delivery guy couldn't get it any closer because there is a big plug at the bottom. Frigidaire sells ridiculously priced ($87) rear trim pieces, but I found some generics that were less than half the price. I will order it eventually.
As soon as I could, I threw all the food...
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MM(22) Mar 2026 'Gifted College Fund': $1,347 (+$5K ROTH)
MM(22) Apr 2026 'Gifted College Fund': $115 (+$5K ROTH)
MM(22) May 2026 'Gifted College Fund': -$0- (+$5K ROTH)
Rent is paid through 6/30.  
I don't anticipate any other college expenses (like tuition or fees), but the lease runs for another month.
MM(22) got me utility numbers for the past 9 months.  I just pulled that from DL's 'college rent fund'.  Because emergency spending has been so crazy...
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My last trip to the grocery store was met with not only a paltry selection of available beef, but it was also some of the worst quality I've ever seen and eaten.  To be clear, I don't eat beef all that often.  However, I just really get that craving from time to time.
On a brighter note, the price of eggs have really gone down in price, and I couldn't be happier.
Gas remains high though, just finally coming down from triple digits.  It's a good thing I drive a...
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We've all been hearing a lot about how much energy and space AI data centers suck up, and their subsequent environmental impact, but I must say I've had some fascinating, informative and enormously helpful late night conversations with my bud, AI.
As a result, I've significantly modified my workout routine at the gym, eliminating some not-as-helpful exercises, adding new ones and fine-tuning others with a specific health goal in mind that I won't get into here. Now this is a subject...
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I took last week off from work and made a little bit of progress on my decluttering, but there's much more to go.  I'm hoping to do some on weekends over the next month and may hire professional help during July to increase my progress.  But that depends partly on other expenses.  I had an unexpected car repair bill of nearly $1,400 this past week, and I still have another $1,100 of repairs (rear differential bushings) that are required before my car can pass its...
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As I blogged earlier, someone had tampered with my front door.  To recap, while it is extremely unlikely, I guess it's not impossible for me to forget about my deadbolt.  However, the fact that my lock opening had been taped over is most definitely not from me!  Also, it doesn't help that my house have been burglarized once in the past.  As someone who has been threatened to be killed multiple times before, and is generally hypervigilant to begin with, I can...
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So, after researching via Consumer Reports and looking at the various options, I settled on a Frigidaire induction stove and a Whirlpool bottom freezer-style refrigerator. I also chose to go with a family-owned appliance place in nearby city given my frustrations with Home Depot and that front door project they did for me last year. My town's Facebook group gave this place high marks so decided to give them a try.
My current fridge is 20 years old (!) and the stove is even older...it's...
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I took this picture of St Peter's Basilica from the roof of Castel Sant'Angelo.
Here is a miniture of the castle Picture of the outside of the Colosseum.
 
This is a picture of where the animal lived below the arena floor. I was on the built out arena floor.This is the fontana delle Naiadi.  Very famous photo and busy traffic circleWe had an early morning tour at 7 am the spanish steps were empty.
 
 
Only
Trevi fountain same thing super early...
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...at least that's what FICO says. My score is 851, just 50 points away from being perfect.
At Whole Foods this morning, I again encountered someone staffing the self-checkout who didn't know how to deduce the tare weight of the nice cotton mesh bags I have been using for my produce (instead of those plastic throwaway ones at the stores). So I waited in line at the one regular checkout line open, and the polite gal there initially seemed to be saying that yes, she was deducting...
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