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Fair warning...this is a bit of a rant.
We have grandchildren. Twenty five percent of said grandchildren thank us for Christmas, birthday, and whatever gifts whether it be graduation or something else. The others do not. 
Let me give a few details. For graduation, they get a sizeable check and usually another gift like an engraved pen or something like that. And when I say sizeable, I'm not talking a few dollars. For birthdays they get another sizeable check, a card, and...
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I was working out at the gym the other day when I noticed a young woman, maybe late teens or early 20s, working with a barbell lifting the exact same weight as me as I did my Romanian deadlift (94 lbs) but doing an overhead press at the squat rack. (All the barbells there are 44 lbs and I could easily see she had loaded it with two 25-lb plates.) 
I started up a conversation with her and she told me she was recovering from ACL tear surgery and her surgeon had encouraged her...
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Once you do your Ancestry DNA, like I did many years ago, you will get periodic updates to your DNA report that purportedly finetune the results each time. 
The latest...
Eastern Slovakia, 38%
Northern Ireland, 23%
Western Czechia, 15%
Ashkenazi Jews in Central & Southeastern Europe, 13%
Bavaria & Western Austria, 6%
A few other really small categories i won't mention here.
My maternal grandmother was Slovakian; my paternal grandmother was Irish.  I used...
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The leaves are starting to change and the days seem shorter as well as the temperatures are cooler. It means lots of little things to get ready for winter, while enjoying the fall. 
We haven't broken down and turned on the heat...yet...but we are wearing sweaters and jackets more. DH is hoping that he's mowed for the last time for the season. I pulled up the last of the garden, both vegetables and flowers. It's kind of sad to see the bare ground, but it needs to rest.
We...
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Finally, the weather has cooled.  I had to break out the long sleeves.  Fall definitely feels like it's underway, and not a moment too soon for my favorite holiday: Halloween!
Yesterday, I also decided to go vote early for the midterms, and wow, am I surprised at the turnout, which seemed rather numerous considering it's "only" the mid-terms.
Please bear with me, but I am really irritated at the GOP trying to, once again, control and dominate the opposition through...
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Today was the Methodists' annual craft show. I went first thing in the am so I could have my pick of their yummy quickbreads. I got a pumpkin loaf and also a small "bucket" of cookies of  my choice for just $5. They must have  had at least a dozen types of cookies, so it was fun picking out some favorites: peanut butter, molasses (rich in iron), cranberry-orange and a few others that now I can't recall, so it will be a surprise.
Saw dad after that, my first visit to...
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Well first of all, I still haven't turned on the heat. Depending on where you live, that might not seem like a big deal, but we've had some chilly nights here in the Northeast.  With the local pricing of heating oil at $5.29 a gallon, every precious drop counts. On a cool evening, I just throw on a sweater.
There is total knee replacement in my very near term future. My right knee has been problematic for a long time. What probably doesn't help is the untreated ACL tear I...
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Every day there is a lot to do. I'm glad in many ways because it keeps life interesting and also that I'm blessed to be healthy to do it.
Fall has arrived which means lots of little jobs to finish up before the first frost. One is picking Basil. I did that and washed it and dried it, then put it on low in the toaster oven. I then blended with salt to make Basil salt. I like to use it for some flavoring. Plus, I love the smell of Basil. I have made enough to give small containers...
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An old post I started but never finished...  I suppose mostly on the 'kid money' topic.  Adult kid money.
MM(23) came home last month to attend a movie premier.  It was a movie that MH worked on (and spent a lot of time on) but took about 10 years from start to finish.  
I told MH he had come full circle.  He had approached the producer/director at their last film screening (maybe 10 years ago) and offered to help on their next project.  Very...
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I actually have been spending our alaska miles like a drunken sailor.  I have 12k miles left after booking things for next year.  But i was curious how much have I spent and how much have I saved?  2026 has been an insanely busy travel year.  
Rome Mom $5805 for 400k miles
Cabo $8723 for 490k miles
Hawaii $3200 for 190k miles
Iceland $7096 for 245k miles
Japan $12160 for 500k miles
SFO $2000 for 75k milesSo what did i save for 2026?  $38986 and...
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This is turning into the year of major capital improvements.  I knew these things were coming up, but hadn't planned to do them all this year.  (And I'm not doing *everything* this year, just a major chunk of what I've planned to do.
So I already posted about the front door replacement, which is the only really visible change.  The back door was replaced the following week.  It's just a plain white door replacing another plain white door, so it didn't make...
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Not yet official, but here they are! Next year is my first year being eligible for catch-up contributions. I remember when 50 felt so very far off...now I'm almost there. It feels like it snuck up on me! It was hard to imagine being able to max out my retirement plans in my 20s yet here I am. 

Projected 2027 Retirement Plan Limits



401(k), 403(b), and 457 plan employee deferrals: Projected at $25,500 (up from $24,500 in 2026).




Defined contribution...
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Investments $2,311,834
Savings $8,723
Home Equity $151,000
September 2026 Net Worth $2,471,557
August 2026 Net Worth $2,498,836
Monthly Gain/Loss -$27,279
The market was down slightly for the month. Once again $2.5 million alludes me, but what a problem to have!
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No preamble, let's get right into it...
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OK, start with current finances...
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My finances are doing ok but now in the back half of this year most of my pension is going to taxes, so my savings are slowly bleeding out.  I will need to sell some stock before year end, but it won't be too much.  And I had planned for this.  But I swear, even pinky swear, next year will be different.  
So...
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Today was a very warm day for October, reaching 80 degrees. It may be the last really warm day this season, so I decided to clean up my vegetable raised beds, harvesting all the green tomatoes and pulling up the plants.
For the entire season, I harvested 887 cherry tomatoes and 43 plum tomatoes, which got a very late start. I think that beats last year, though I did not check my post here a year ago. Most of the 300 or so cherry tomatoes I picked today were green, and I did not...
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Last Saturday was the big day...DH's daughter's wedding. At 10 p.m. Saturday night after all had left we looked at each other and said, "Glad that's over."
Fortunately the weather was nice and the farmers around us didn't chose that day to harvest the corn. The ceremony was meaningful and the bride was lovely. The party went well, but I don't think it went as was expected. I think the bridge and groom discovered a couple of things that marrying in one's 50s and having previous...
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Well, this was a meh month for net worth. We basically erased the $12K of gains from last month. I'll really be interested to see where this year ends vs where it began, because I don't feel like we've had too many great months. At least we're still in Coast status by both my future calculations, with the lower estimate being that we have a $280K surplus in retirement savings, so that's good.
Most of the loss was retirement accounts and a few grand was borrowing from the HELOC...
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While trying to fall asleep but failing to do so, I decided to write down my retrospective of this weekend's fishing and kayaking fiasco er festivities.
Unlike the camping trip, which took literally weeks if not months to plan out and prepare, this one kind of came together at the last minute, using nothing more than the proverbial duct tape and hopeful thinking.  However, it also helped that my adventure buddy was the one providing and transporting the kayaks.
I still had...
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I'm back from a wonderful waterfall trip in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
Together with two prior trips this year that included waterfalls, I can say I am hooked!
You might think it would get repetitive after a while, but that didn't happen, as each setting was unique. Some involved rigorous hikes of several hours, starting at the top and ending at the bottom (of course you had to climb back up to where your car was parked), while others could be seen from the road and...
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I never did an August update.  I thought we might be in the black in August.  We were, but it was a close breakeven month.  (Technically, +$400 in the black).  Looking through the details, this is clearly mostly because it was a one-income month.  But other budget busters were a $300 office chair purchase (long overdue) and $1,200 in impromptu vacation spending (priceless; taking advantage of some calm during a very terrible year.)  Though we almost...
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