Thank you, condo

Thank you, condo, for that huge tax refund!  I really do appreciate it.  I still think you are a huge git for that whole incident with the floor, but I do appreciate the gesture you are making to reestablish what we once had.

As a result of this huge refund, I will officially be out of credit card debt for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long.  Woot!  Alarmingly, this only makes me want to spend money.  Damn this culture I live in!  More specifically, I want to go on a vacation.  Even more specifically, I want to go to Iceland.  It seems I won't be able to afford that in 2011.  2012 is also out because we're going back to Colombia with S, L and C for a reunion tour.  So, it's looking like 2013 is the soonest that will happen.

Note to J and Brian -- you have plenty of time to save for this trip so I will accept no excuses.  You both will be coming with us.  And since it's unlikely we'll ever go back to Iceland, it will be at least a 7-10 day excursion.  You've been warned.  Also, I have an Icelandic travel book that I will share with you when you visit in May.

So, I will do the responsible thing and save my money for future travel.  I'll be glad for it eventually.  I'll also make a responsible purchase -- we need to replace the windows in our bedroom.  Before this condo, I never would have thought buying windows would be exciting, but it is.  It's drafty in our bedroom and I hate paying high utility bills.  That and I'm hoping that we can still write a good chunk of them off in 2011.  We bought some last year for the living room and were able to write 30% of the cost off!

(I'm not sure when I became this boring, but it probably happened when I hit my 30s.)

The shed

Remember my blog about stuff? As in, too much of it? Behold: The Shed

BEFORE:










Ok, so I don't have an after. Let's just say Dave and I were at our wit's end what with all the stuff, we gave up on the idea of a garage sale and took it all to Goodwill. A "prime" example of too much stuff--the paint we uncovered under all the OTHER stuff in the shed:











In answer to your shock and wonder: I don't know how. I just don't know.


WHat our yard looked like after our shed threw up and before we went to Goodwill (as in, this is how our yard looked for a little over a week):


*This picture will be used for tax write-off purposes.