Saturday, May 31, 2008

Long overdue France and Spain pictures

I keep telling myself I'm going to better organize or share the pics from our France and Spain trip last August, but let's be honest-- it's been almost a year. So here they are...most have captions, and most will only be interesting if you are a huge book nerd like me and my husband seeing as the point of the trip was chasing down Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and all the other American expatriates living in Europe in the 20's and 30's. Lots of uh, pictures of buildings and bridges and what have you...and you'll have to check with Mr. Ledyard for the download on the significance of bridges (and/or wait for his thesis to be done later this summer!)

Friday, May 9, 2008

Stimulate this, G dubs!

Our economic stimulus package hit the bank account today, which was a nice surprise on a rainy Friday. Brian says we're putting all $1200 in the bank just to spite the current administration (who obviously wants us to spend it), but then again sometimes he gets a crazy look in his eyes and says we're taking it to Atlantic City and putting it on RED. Any opinions on the ING orange account vs. the AC red account would be appreciated :)

All gambling jokes aside, I had a mild panic attack a week or so ago on the bus as I read the article in the NY Times called "Confidence Falls as Home Prices Decline" (though reading articles about confidence declining is probably a major factor in continuing confidence declines!). Turns out home prices peaked in July 2006 (appx one month before B and I purchased the casa Ledyard) and have proceeded to fall FIFTEEN PERCENT. Ugh. I can't help but feel like instead of $1200, somebody owes me more like $20 large as they say on the Wire.

I know worrying about the economy won't change it, and I'm not sure we would do it differently if we had it to do over again (I love our house!). And nobody likes a whiny blog post, and we're both incredibly lucky to have stable jobs and enough funds to cover the increased food and gas prices of late. BUT-- our timing could not have been worse, and it's our first house, and I'm starting to feel like we'll have to live in it until we're 50! Are there any other summer 2006 home buyers who want to start a support group and moan about our rotten luck?