Saturday was Kevin’s birthday so as a special treat we let him take all of us out to dinner 🙂 This time last year, we had only been dating for a few weeks and I had not met his kids yet. Understandably, they weren’t terribly interested in sharing their family celebration with dad’s new girlfriend. This year, they probably still weren’t interested, but they let us come along anyway.

And that, my friends, is what I like to call “Progress”.

I’m no big fan of football, but this is simply amazing…

“In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.” – H.L. Mencken

I just became the proud owner of the house I have lived in for the past eight years. I know…it seems pretty anticlimactic, doesn’t it? I was awarded the house in the divorce settlement. And when I say “awarded the house”, I mean legally obliged to make the mortgage payments for my ex until I was able to secure a loan in my own name. I made out like a bandit, didn’t I? Due to my incredible naivete when we originally bought the house, my name was on neither the deed nor the mortgage. In hindsight, this was a really dumb move. But, at the time, it never occurred to me to protect my assets for the day when I would be dumped for an old lady. Lesson learned.

So I closed last week and Ryan signed the deed over yesterday. And I feel overwhelming relief. This has been the last divorce thing that had to be settled and I have dreaded the process for years. Suprisingly, getting a mortgage was the easiest part of the whole divorce. It literally took two weeks from application to closing.

I loved my little house when we first looked at it eight years ago. I love my little house today. It’s too damn small. The appliances are almost as old as me. Every faucet leaks. Every drain is slow. But I am grateful because in just 30 short years, it will be all mine.