Hi Dave,

At one point this place was valued at almost triple what we paid for it but the market has shifted (again) and we're no longer valued so high.
We still get a lot of junk mail/calls "we want to buy your house" so
one time Steve told the caller that he'd sell--for half a million
dollars. Guy was somewhat taken aback, said he couldn't offer that
much, good bye.

I don't get calls like that any longer. What I see now is "SPAM and BLOCKED!" on my screen. I used to have fun with some of those callers. Lead them right along and agree to all of their"suggestions' for
add-on items to the point I could almost hear them salivating. And
when it came time to give payment information the call would
mysteriously get dropped.

And since they were using a robo-caller there was no way they could
call back. When I still had the land-line the teelemarketers were "spoofing" numbers. Once I looked at the caller ID and it said my
phone number was calling my actual phone number. Bv)= Needless to say ........

We've had nothing but cell phones since we moved back to the mainland in
fall of 2006. In Hawaii we dropped long distance from our land line the
last 2 or 3 years we were there as we could call for free on week ends
with our cells. And yes, even with the cells, we've gotten calls from
our own number a few times. W have Google Fi for our provider; until
recently they had a call screening service. When I upgraded phones in
June, I noticed it had been discontinued--I miss it, especially with
calls that come in with our local area code. It's ID'ed if in my contact
list but if it's a new to me, I have to answer (or let it go to voice
mail, not always the best option).

And rents? HAH! They're worse than .........

When we bought this house, the payment schedule worked out that we'd
pay a bit less than our (at the time) rent. We've added a good bit to
the principle each month so now, after almost 11 years, we've over half paid it off.

I put 20% down and made the monthly strokes plus U$50. Then in 2016
after the ballots were counted I figured the stock market was in for a very rough ride. So I cashed out my stock portfolio and paid off the mortgage. I wasn't totally correct in my guess about the market but
I've never regretted making that move.

We've debated it a few times but figured the payment is reasonable
enough now, we're not wiping out our savings for old age. With the VA
loan we didn't put anything down.

I told Dennis that the clear-out was gong to be a regular thing. And
if he stashed something to eat it (or share it with the mutts) within
two weeks or - into the bin with it. We'll see how that plays out.

Containers labeled for contents and dated, I presume? I'm better about that for the freezer than the fridge.

The ice box stuff is an see-thru containers and I've not dated and of
it. The stuff that gets sucky-bagged and frozen gets dated and
(usually) has a name or description on the package.

Unless it's something obvious, like the pizza Steve brought home from a meeting last night. We repackaged it into 2 slices/bag vaccuum bags and froze. It'll reheat quick on the convection cycle of the toaster oven
and a slice each, with a side of something else, will make an easy
lunch.

I nuke frozen (leftover) pizza. Lots quicker.

By doing it our way, the crust doesn't get soggy. We've tried it both
ways (nuking and rebaking) and personally prefer the other. Yesterday
Steve brought home from the farmer's market a different twist on
pizza--a roll up. Didn't really have any noticeable sauce, just
pepperoni and cheese, but it was good. One of the vendors has been
bringing them so Steve finally decided to give them a try--we may try
making our own version.

Steve's mom bought the real thing from time to time at the little
Italian store in Rochester that we shop at from time to time. She also used the green and red cans; I was raised on the green can. Once our finances eased a bit (and getting into the echo), I started buying the real thing and haven't looked back.

I'm more like Steve's mom then. I do both - depending. Hy-Vee sells a shaker-can of grated Parm w/black pepper and garlic added. Very nice
in some (many) applications.

Wegman's sells the fresh grated, usually in tubs. The black pepper and
garlic sounds like a nice addition; maybe I'll take some of our Parm,
now that it's grated (and frozen), add pepper & garlic to a small jar of
it. (We keep a pint sized glass jar with a shaker top in the fridge.)

Sometimes it just takes something simple to open your eyes. Steve
doesn't like black olives so some years (decades) ago I bought some kalamata olives. Big!!! hit, and they appear regularly in my cooking.

I alsways like the ripe olives better than the green guys. Although
I'll do the greenies as long as I can ditch the pimientos.

I don't mind the pimentoes so will eat them along with the olive. (G)


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28


... It works! Now, if only I could remember what I did.

--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)