Recycled

I just wish Wilders had cast a wider net and targeted fundamentalism in general. You could probably make the same movie about Hindu or Christian fundamentalism. There's no reasoning with people who think God is whispering in their ears.

Is it really time already for another REI bitch thread? I'm just waiting for the CDN$ to go down again so I can go to MEC in Hongcouver to replace all my old tattered crap.

A better and more common definition of "millionaire" is someone who has over $1m in net assets, excluding their principal residence. Or, in other words, someone who has $1m available to invest, independent of their home. There are more people in this category than many think and the ones I know drive 15 year old cars and live quite modestly. On the other hand, people who live in a $850k-$1m house with 100k equity and owe $ on their cars and credits cards to appear weathly are basically broke and will be the first to fall if things go south. Screw 'em.

If someone were to ask me, I'd just say to focus on the spread between rental rates and house prices. For years, Seattle rents for single family houses have been very low with foolishly low cap rates. In some cases, actual rents have returned 1-5% on investment. The main upside has been appreciation. That upside appears to be slowing or reversing in the short term. Until rents catch up or prices bottom, I think renting is a better idea, unless the psychological aspects of home ownership outweigh the financial calcs. In my own case, we just put out home on the market and had a full-price offer (with an unused $15k escalator clause no less) within 4 hours. We've passed the inspection and financing contingency and are cleared to close within 2 weeks. We're going to rent for a while and then probably live on a boat and travel. We priced our house fairly low (it is by far the cheapest house in the nicest neighborhood...), thus the no bullshit quick sale. We still have a couple rentals so we're still "in the market," but we've drastically reduced our exposure to housing market risk. If things really get ugly in the next few years, we're in a good cash position to snap up a few houses and take the upside again. The response I've typically gotten from people is that I'm crazy. However, at this stage in my life, I need a break from home ownership - particularly from the continuous maintenance, remodeling and other bullship involved with home ownership. I realize that some people love puttering around their house, but that's not where I am now. Every day I spend dealing with the roof, yard, plumbing, painting is a day I don't spend doing what I want to do. I'm making this point, because I think home ownership has been a cultural goal post in our society and that it has a real opportunity cost - particularly for people who would really prefer to spend time in the mountains, volunteering, traveling or just doing other things.

The desire for a "relationship" seems dangerous to me. I understand a kid/young adult wanting to know about a missing parent, but a potential meeting might be more about closure than the start of a new relationship. If there's a expectation that a meeting might turn into a relationship, then disappointment may very well follow, particularly with mental illness in the mix. I can't speak for others, but I know that my understanding of metal illness (and human psychology in general ) was very limited when I was in my early 20s, and I probably wouldn't not have really understood the situation. I've dealt with a similar issue and am OK with the outcome. I was adopted at birth and finally met my birth mother a few years ago when I was in my early 40s. I flew down to CA and met her in a hotel lobby (she was paranoid, due to emerging dementia, and wanted to meet in a public place - probably not a bad idea). We had a great conversation for about an hour, filled in a lot of details, then parted. I haven't seen or heard from her since, even though I've send xmas cards and followed-up on my offer to set up a meeting with her grandson. I think the dementia has probably progressed now to the point where she wouldn't know me anyway at this point. The point about all this is that I did not expect to get a second mom or establish a close relationship, and obviously neither did she. If I had built a lot of expectations on this, I would have had a hard time with the outcome. However, I'm really glad I had a chance to meet her and get a feel for who she is and what her circumstances were when she put me up for adoption. I also gained a lot of insight into what parts of me are nature versus nurture, but that's another topic. That meeting was the closure part of it for me. That might apply in this case too.

We're out there, but mostly taken. OMFG, you ARE a little bitch! The pure, dripping conceit of this statement....are you originally from Colorado? My tounge was firmly in cheek!

hmmmm.... i definitely don't care what you're spanking this morning. and i'm sorry that its disappointing. Well, I think he wants me to be his bitch, so he's hungry for action. Any takers to relieve his itch?

We're out there, but mostly taken. Now it's time to cue up the whole "why are women always attracted to 'bad boys,' while ignoring the good ones, and then complain because their hearts are broken."

I almost find myself agreeing with Tvash. It's really sad that so many people have such a negative view of long term relationships. I've been married to the wrong person and was divorced in my 20s. I could have drawn the conclusion that marriage was fundamentally a bad deal, but instead I met someone who is a great life partner and have been married to them since. There are a lot of benefits to having a good marriage, ranging from providing a stable home for raising children to being together with your best friend for the long haul. Our culture is making it harder for people to accept the compromises that make good marriages work, but I'm not so sure the alternative is going to lead to greater happiness when people look back over their lives at the end. I think the main point is that can work really well and there's no reason to damn the instutution just because some people get married to the wrong people, for the wrong reasons or have a problem with long term relationships. Contrary to Arch, I know a number of single women (and men) that are quite unhappy about not being in a long term relationship, particularly when they have hard times and not a lot of emotional support that they would get from a good partnership/marriage. They seem to cope and tell themselves that they are having a lot of fun with their "freedom," but I'm skeptical.

To each his own. I'm going there tomorrow for a week, and have gone for many years. We love it.

Where's Darsius when you need her. I'm sure she would have some salient points here.

Beats turning them into golf courses. WM is very good at greenspin.

Dunno. There's nobody I'd rather be in the mountains with. My spouse = my best friend = good times on trips. If someone's having problems climbing with their SO, I suspect there are other problems unrelated to climbing.

Maybe hop over the border to Chamonix. I liked it far better than Zermatt and it seemed a lot less expensive. Better food too!

Judging from the content of your previous posts, I suspect that the home is priced to sell, and that you will walk away from - rather than to - the closing table with a check in your hand. Having said that - any idea what portion of the housing stock in Bellingham is priced at $400K or higher? Anything more than 5-10% of the homes in Bellingham going for north of $400K seems insane unless my sense that the median household income there is hovering around ~$45-50K per year is way too low. I realize that the average household and the average home-buying household aren't necessarily the same thing, Bellingham is supposedly a destination of choice for wealthy retirees, etc, but still... Bellingham's an odd market. The local employment doesn't seem to have a lot to do with house prices. We have a lot of retirees bringing a lot of cash in. When they sell their $500k house in Seattle or S. California, they come up here and want a "dream house" for the same money. Thus, there are a lot of 4-5,000 sq ft+ custom houses being built up there. At the mid-end of the market, there's more money here than you would think. A lot of people (myself included) live in B'ham, but telecommute with occasional meetings in the Seattle area. Thus, we earn Seattle area professional wages, but pay B'ham cost of living prices. That's been a real deal in the past, but is becoming less so as house prices have caught up. Rush hour in Bellingham in on southbound I-5 at 6:00 AM! At the lower end of the market, there are a lot of parents that buy condos or houses for their kids, with the intention of selling them in 4-5 years with enough profit to pay for the kid's education. That's worked very well in the past, I suspect less so in the future. We're selling the cheapest house (a cosmetic fixer) in the proverbial best neighborhood. It will be interesting to see where it goes. And no... no outstanding loans on the house.

We just signed the papers at 5:00 to put my house on the market. 4 br/3ba 2600 sq ft house on 1/2 acre in B'ham's best neighborhood for $395k. 3 yrs ago, similar houses around here were going for $475k+. Ouch.

I've never read any Rand... is it that... painful? Not really that painful, it's just that she goes on and on. It's like whacking yourself on the head with a board over and over. She's got some good points, but I can see Buckley's point. Regardless, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are worth reading on a long plane trip if for no other reason than to understand postwar conservative thought at a time when socialistic dictatorships were rapidly expanding.

I wish I would have known to try that when my kid was just starting school. I had always been health as a horse, but when he was 3-6 I was continually reeling from all the viruses. My immune system is just now recovering.

Hey, whats MY wife doing in that picture?

That looks really interesting. I think I'll try it too. Thanks for the tip Dru.

Hey, itty bitty titties are just fine. I don't think you want to give her any more issues to worry about - she's got enough already. This thread's really got legs. And other things.

There will be soon, maybe as soon as the 2009 models but maybe more likely in 2010. If I were in that market, I'd get something cheap to get by for now, then buy one when they arrive. It will be a lot different now then back in '80-84 when Nissan, Toyota, Isuzu and VW all marketed small diesel pickups. They were all underpowered and smoked. The newer ones will all be common rail/unit injector turbos with fuel efficiency and pulling power in a ligher weight chassis. The larger diesel pickups now are all 8000+ GVW tanks and actually are really bad on approaches due to the long wheel base on water bars and the drama involved in turning around on a narrow road. I always take my Trooper if I need a 4x4 instead of my diesel 4x4 pickup.

From what I've heard, that's now considered good personnel management. At least, that's what my brother-in-law, a HR-type says. I believe that the corporate view is now that one individual can easily do so much damage or data theft with computers, that they have no alternative but to meet someone at the door with a shoebox of personal stuff from their desk. I've never worked under those conditions, so I have a hard time imagining what that would be like. That kind of basic lack of respect for people who work with/for you is difficult for me to understand. I'd probably go postal, but only on the HR people who set that situation up.

'90 gas Trooper, 2.8 V6, 5 spd, 4WD hi/lo, auto hubs, 18 mpg average '92 diesel F250, 7.3 non turbo diesel, 5spd, 4WD hi/lo, manual hubs, 18 mpg average - including towing 10,000 pound trailers. And a couple TDI Jettas, but there's not AWD.

Come on folks, she's serious and want to know about food and climbing performance. Get on track here. The real trick is not what you eat, but an adequate number of herbal colonics. Peak performance comes from having a colonic after every two leads. It only takes about 5 minutes, but leaves you feeling ready for more. Ask any of the hardcore climbers here, they'll agree. As a matter of fact, a few minutes on this site will yield you pictures of shit on rock platters and many accounts of mid-lead elimination. Beer and cheap burritos the night before seems to lead to the most successful climbs. Any other questions?