Almost Christmas

I'm such a blog slacker. Let me say some things, I'm using my credit card for Christmas, so that debt repay thing is on hold for now. I'm knitting my first sweater and it's coming out great so far. I'm using this very soft purple alpaca I bought in New Paltz and I love it. Frank thinks he's getting an Xbox AND a laptop for Christmas. NO. (He also still believes in Santa, even though I told him there isn't one). Here's a few pics to keep you busy...

Frank on a first trip to Baltimore.


On the day we returned from Baltimore we saw Mariano Rivera at the Cracker Barrel in Fishkill, NY. He was totally gracious. He spoke with anyone who wanted to speak with him and he gave autographs and let me snap this picture. We didn't get an autograph because by the time Frank asked they were already eating and I didn't want to be pushy.


Here are the NY Yankee socks I knit for Mike. They came out okay. I can see how you would want to intarsia with straight needles only. And stranding just sucks. I think he likes them. He says he does, but he hasn't worn them yet. It's such a gamble when you knit something for a guy. He always wears the scarf I made him, and he's not a big fan of socks to start, so maybe he's just saving them for a special occasion.

On our second trip to Baltimore we were there to see the play that my artistic sister designed the sets for. She's a bit of a complainer (hee, hee, just kidding), but she did a fantastic job. There's no way any pics of the sets would've done any justice, so just take my word for it that they were awesome!

A trip to NYC to see Canstruction. All donated foods go to City Harvest.

Getting out of Debt

One of the biggest goals on my list is to pay down at least 50% of my credit card debt. This would be a heck of a lot easier if I had a full-time job, but if I wait for conditions to be ideal I'll drowning in debt.

The course of action I've chosen to take is three-fold. First, stop using my credit cards. Second, pay as much as possible on every card each month. Third, full disclosure.

Stop using my credit cards: I stopped using the cards about a month ago. It's been a very difficult adjustment because since grad school I'd been using them for things like gas and groceries, so now trying to budget those items impacts my entire family.

Pay off as much as possible each month: I've been paying about $800 a month on three different accounts. Two of them have a 0% rate, so I see a noticeable decrease every month. The third card is my "working card", the one I was using {daily} and it has an interest rate of 12%. As credit offers come in I transfer balances off this card onto lower rate cards.

Full disclosure: There are mixed thoughts about this step, but I think it's good for two reasons. It helps me to stay honest about my spending and it opens dialog with others about spending. Credit debt can be a shameful thing, the more open I am about it the more likely I am to receive encouragement to war against it. My current total debt is $35,436.66. A year ago it was $21,322.64. As of today I have 783 days to pay down $17,718.33. That's a little over 2 years and if I continue to pay $800 per month I can pay off $19,200 in that time, that should cover finance charges as well.

I'll let you know how it's going.

Fox, Goose, Corn

Below is the illustrated solution handed in by one of my students. Of course she will get FULL credit!

A farmer has to get a fox, a goose, and a bag of corn across a river in a boat that is only large enough for her and one of these three items. She does not want to leave the fox alone with the goose nor the goose alone with the corn. How can she get all these items across the river?

Bipartisan BBQ

Here's a nice picture of the senators enjoying some shish-ka-bob.