H'ok So.....

Yay! No new trays for now! The dentist filed ever so slightly between a few teeth to create space, which should fix the one last ever so slightly crooked tooth in front. She also cut down my trays so now the only teeth that I have trays for at all are the front 6, from canine to canine. Apparently for some people, wearing the liners for so long can create and ever so slight gap in the bite. This is evident in that when my trays are out and I close my bite, my front teeth all touch but the molars on the sides don't. So by only having the trays in the front that will allow my back teeth to settle back down so that they're touching again. We'll see how that works out. So basically, I'm running through my last 3 sets of bottom trays (modified) again, but that just puts the top and bottom in alignment. If all goes well, I only have 4 more sets for both top and bottom so I'll be moving on to the retainer in about 2 months!!

Can't wait to get these damn buttons off my teeth!
 
Had our annual book and a movie version of book club last night! We all read Mystic River before hand and then last night for our meeting watched the movie and did a pot luck. The woman who hosts us has 4 shelter dogs that were adorable (I think she only had 2 of them last year). The movie was alright, but I liked the book better (though it could have been shorter). It's always great to see my book club peeps. We talked about how felt about both the book and movie and what we enjoyed or didn't like. Then, of course, we drifted into politics and talking about how terrible Trump is. DC life.

On to January's book: Crashed, by Timothy Hallinan. I've never read anything by him but apparently the book is meant to have some humor laced in, so I think I'll like it. Currently I've been reading several books a month though, so in between book club books I'm reading a few other series.


In other news, it sounds like Sudo and Peach have worked out a few more logistical details of her moving weekend and now she IS actually taking the dogs that weekend. On the one hand, it will mean that Sudo can stay with me immediately after so he can have some comfort if he needs it, but on the other hand, he's losing his nesting partner AND his beloved dogs all at the same time, so I know it's going to be tough.

He did go ahead and block off some time for a birthday dinner for me that evening though, and Joe will be up by then so we can do a group thing. I need to talk to my family and sis-in-law though. Her birthday is the day before mine and when we were up for thanksgiving, she mentioned that since our birthdays are on the weekend, we should make some plans. I imagine it will be quite a busy and crazy weekend with emotions all over the place.
 
Not all that much to report. Got some of my Christmas shopping done, so now I'm pretty much done with Sudo and my Grandpa. I got a gift for a friend and part of my mom's gift. I know what I'm getting my brother but just actually have to go get it from a store.

My sis-in-law, however, is now hard to shop for. Her and my bro don't really want "stuff" or anything that's not on lists or actually of need/useful. They're purging stuff already because they're building a house in NC and will move eventually, which means not wanting to move a bunch of knick knacks and crap that they don't use. So my SIL's list is like 2 things long. PJ pants and a target gift card. WHA?! lol. I was going to be a rebel and go off-list and maybe get her a cute outfit that was good for everyday but also good enough for work.... but when I asked my brother to stealthily look at her clothing sizes, he mentioned that they're hoping to start having kids soon, so since she might be preggers in the near future, clothes aren't a great option this year. That's actually why she listed the target gift card since she'd potentially buy some maternity clothes there (they do actually have some cute stuff these days). BLAST! I did at least pick up some chai tea for her since she loves that stuff. But I'll have to brain storm more. Of course, I'm going to have this same problem in a few more weeks since her birthday is the day before mine in Jan. Gah!

Poor Sudo was like "how do you do that?! You spent like 20 minutes online and got gifts for like 4 people!" He is just the absolute WORST gift giver. He totally stresses over it and never knows what to get anyone. I told him that he should just do like my mom does. She picks up gifts year round for people when she happens to see something that she thinks they'd like. Then she just stores the gift away in a closet for later.

This is going to be a busy week for me. Tonight is date night with Mr. Hyde. Tomorrow Sudo will be over and I'm hoping we can go to REI to pick up my brother's Christmas present. Wed night I have drinks with Ref (friendly, not a date). Thurs is another Sudo night and then we're both off Friday so we'll head up to his place for the weekend. We're babysitting RCT's kid for a few hours Fri evening because she'll get dropped off before he's back from a business trip, and then Sat we have to run errands in the morning before heading north to my family reunion (my maternal Grandma's side of the family does a reunion TWICE a year). After that, we're heading back to my place because we really don't want to be at Sudo's on Sat.... RCT is hosting kiddie Christmas for his kid and her friends, so it will be a sleepover. No thanks! Peach is heading to Joe's for the weekend because she doesn't want to be around for it either! Sunday morning, since we're in DC, we're heading to the monthly poly brunch that is down the street from my place. Somewhere in there I'd like to do more Christmas shopping and some things around my apt. Whew!
 
OMG! New plan of action.... now that Peach is taking the dogs the weekend of her move, I can take my cats and the snake to Sudo's for the week of inauguration and rent out my apartment! I'm gonna see what I can do to make this happen, but I should be able to rent out my place for at least an entire month's rent plus a security deposit just for that week of inauguration. That Monday is a federal holiday and in the DC area administrative leave has been granted for Friday, so it's only 3 days of work and I'd probably request to telework that week anyway so I didn't have to be in the city at all. This could SOOOOOO work out!
 
I'm soooo ready for the holiday break to start! This past weekend I had my semiannual family reunion. It wasn't nearly the crowd we usually get, but the date was earlier than usual too. The winter reunion is usually the Saturday after Christmas, but the town fire hall was booked up so last sat was the only day available. I guess that means some of the usual relatives that are in town, weren't! It was still fun to visit with everyone and see the family that I often only see twice a year at the reunion. There was a sad moment when my Grandpa commented that he couldn't believe it's almost a year now since Grandma passed and he got all teary, which made me sad. It's actually her family reunion as she's one of 10 kids, so it's all of her siblings, their kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. Family reunions on my Grandpa's side don't really happen since the relatives are much more spread out. Usually we're more likely to mostly get together during a major birthday milestone where people will travel for the celebration.

Anyway, I just placed an order for what might be the last of my Christmas shopping. I already had a good bit done, and then last night I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked up a sheets set for my mom. Holy crap are sheets expensive! At least, ones that actually feel nice seem to be. I thought going there was going to be bad, but then I went next door to Target to get a pair of PJ pants and a gift card for my sis-in-law and holy shit! The lines were long and I managed to get in the line that had the SLOWEST check out clerk EVER! Which is only compounded by the fact that I spent years in high school and some summers in early college as a check out clerk at my local grocery store so I know how to check out with speed, efficiency, and to bag things appropriately. This woman though.... the lady in front of my had a basket full of mostly holiday junk food stuff. Probably for stockings or something for people since for many of the items she had 4-5 of each thing. But this woman would use the scan gun for EVERYTHING and not even use the base checkout scanner, and constantly set the hand scanner down to bag things. Bag 3 or 5 of an item in one bag and but the other 2 in another bag. Scan 4 of one time and then pick up a different item, but then go back and scan the 5th and last copy of a previous items. I was just mentally murdering this woman over and over again. Don't even get my started on how she would actually organize things (or really, not organize things) in the bags themselves!

Needless to say, I had zero patience left when I was metro-ing home and Sudo made a comment like "you better not work late tomorrow" that just set me off. He does this all the time and it irks me, but I've let it pass for far too long without speaking up. It might sound stupid to get upset over, but words and their meaning matter. First of all, I rarely work late, so constantly being told "you need to hurry home" or "don't work late" when for the last 2 years I've clearly demonstrated that I don't work late unless there's something urgent that needs to get done, or if I'm home alone that night so it makes no difference. Secondly, it implies that even if I don't have to work late, I'd rather work late than see him, which he knows isn't true. Also, it has this implication that my work isn't important. He works outside of normal business hours ALL THE DAMN TIME. And unless we're on vacation and he's carting his laptop with him, which does piss me off, any other time I say nothing. In fact, I gladly say "it's cool, do what you gotta do." So when I responded to his comment that I don't gripe when he works late I just got the "but that's different" response. No! It isn't! My work is just as important to me as yours is to you. And technically, one could argue that mine is more important since I manage the contracts for defense systems that protect soldiers in uniform and he just manages the IT for a non-profit that organizes meetings and journals for astronomers. My work actually impacts safety and lives, so yeah, it's different in the sense that I have a better excuse, damnit! Ahem, but anyway, that's besides the point. The whole point of this was that all he really means by the "don't work late" comments is that he really wants to see me and he misses me. And I TOTALLY get that! I do, and I feel the same way. But say THAT... not "you better not work late tomorrow."

So basically, I was in a grumpy mood and just couldn't shrug it off a single more time and messaged back and explained that to him. In a less ranty manner than described above. But after noting that I don't take issue when he works late, nor do I even work late often and wouldn't if it weren't important, I finally just said "remember that time when you said that RCT and I joking that we were going to get rid of the dogs upset you and you asked us not to say things like that anymore? Well I feel the same way about you say this about me working late and when you gripe about how often I see my family." (back-story, Sudo is like.... beta to the dogs instead of alpha and they have him wrapped around their little pinky paws, since he refuses to discipline them properly and train them better, so RCT and I would joke that we were getting rid of the dogs since Sudo couldn't handle them, but it turns out, it kinda hurt his feelings. But we stopped when he spoke up and we realized it). Anyway, he said he didn't realize and he wouldn't say it again. So it was done, or at least I think it should be done and I'm so glad. I'm sure my description of the whole thing sounds WAY more ranty and intense than the whole thing was since it was just a few messages back and forth. This is just me adding a ton of internal commentary on the whole issue. But sometimes things can just start to get under my skin until eventually I'm like, ok, enough. I know it's not a big deal, but no.

Ahem, anyway, moving on. The rest of my schedule is pretty normal. It's just sorta.... back to the routine grind until the actual weekend of Christmas!
 
Life, as usual, continues. SOOOO glad that once this 4 day week ends I'm off all next week. I need a break! I just wish I wasn't running around so much between places. I'm going to be spending almost my entire time off either at Sudo's or at my mom's. I really miss just having some time at my apartment! Not even alone time, I just want to be in my space with my stuff and my cats, whether other people are with me or not!

Of course, that will happen soon enough. Once Peach moves out with the dogs Sudo will probably spend most week nights at my place, and maybe even some weekends. I might need to figure out a clothing situation so that he has more space for clothes or something. Hmmmm. I have some ideas for that.

The biggest new happening is that it looks like now RCT won't be contributing toward the future house downpayment in exchange for living rent-free for some initial period. His work overpaid him by like $20k (for serious, it's crazy town there. They have a new reporting system in place so this won't happen in the future, but a new hire under RCT was made that impacted his commission structure or something, and it wasn't being accounted for correctly). Either way, it basically means that he's not expecting nearly as much money to come in at the end of this year, and he doesn't want the house downpayment to clean out too much of his savings. Realistically, this doesn't really change anything for us. I had looked at the numbers and even with him contributing we weren't going to have quite enough for a full 20% downpayment to avoid PMI, so it hardly matters whether we put down 10% or 15% or even 18%. The monthly payment will still be based on something that we can afford, no matter what. And now, RCT will just be paying rent right from the start, and we'll probably be feeding most, if not all, of that right back into extra mortgage payments to pay off the 2nd mortgage asap and then lose the PMI. Hell, the monthly payment even without RCT's rent money will still not be any more than what Sudo and I pay on our separate mortgages/rent combined. So it's not like this is some stretch of the finances.

Plus, this means that we can basically start looking whenever we want since we don't have to wait until RCT is done with all his tax and financial calculations. Normally I'd say there's no rush, but with the Fed looking to bump interest rates 2-3 times in 2017, I don't want to wait forever. Then again, we'll have to see what a Trump presidency REALLY does to the economy....

Either way, I've looked and right now there just isn't much worthwhile on the market in the few neighborhoods that we're interested in. The few places I liked are selling fast and nothing new is being listed. Not that I expect new listings right at the holidays. I would expect once we get into the new year that will slowly pick back up.
 
From what I've read, PMI is now there for the entire life of the loan, not just until you reach a certain payoff point. So to get rid of it, you'll have to refinance.
 
I'll have to talk to the lender about it, but when I was looking at things, I believe that change only applies to FHA loans. In those cases the MPI stays for the life of the loan, or under other circumstances, a minimum of at least 11 years. But for a conventional loan, I believe PMI still goes away when you'd paid off at least 22% of the value of the home. But depending on the lender, that also determines whether or not they automatically process early termination of PMI. Technically PMI is owed until the schedule date that only 78% of the value is left to be paid based on the amortization schedule. If you make extra payments and pay it down early, you can REQUEST that they end PMI. Apparently Fannie Mae has more flexibility in this than Freddie Mac. We'll definitely be discussing all of this in detail to make sure we have the best options before we sign up to anything. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay PMI on a loan once I no longer have the second mortgage and I own 20% or more of the home!!
 
You're correct in that conventional loans may vary. It's FHA where it stays forever, so of course that's what we are going with. Sigh. We will only have one mortgage though.
 
Yeah, the rules that keep MPI in place on FHA loans are really the killer for why I wouldn't do it. that insurance would be several hundred dollars extra per month for us. So screw paying that any longer than I have to. With us paying down extra I expect to be able to drop PMI on a private loan within a few years, vs for years and years (and thousands and thousands) longer. Technically we could refinance... but I have no idea where the interest rates are going to be in a few years, so I'd rather not chance it!
 
Rules may be different where you are, or they may have changed in the ten years since we built our house, but we didn’t have to pay mortgage insurance because, even though we borrowed 95% of the value of our home, we did under 80% on the traditional mortgage and the rest on a home equity loan. This was before the huge real estate crash in 2008, so it is very possible that things have changed, but I just wanted to throw that out there in case they haven't and you can avoid pmi completely.
 
It is the start of a fantastic time!

Last night was date night with Mr. Hyde. Wonderful as always and we actually went out for a late dinner after we had some sexy times. Went to a place that neither of us had been to and food was super yummy! Got home and had even more sexy times. I wore some Christmas lingerie and showed him a new toy that I bought for future fun times. yay!

Today is my last day at work for about a week and a half! Plus, it's a short day since I used a few vacation hours. So I got to sleep in almost an hour and I'm leaving early too!

Once I get home, I'm going to rush to pack up my crap and my gifts to go to Sudo's, and then later tonight I have an appointment for us to take me to get some new piercings!! This is the main part of Sudo's gift to me and I've been wanting them for a while. Nervous, but excited!!

He's also getting some painting done in his house today and tomorrow to finish up the last of the painting that everyone else has just sorta given up on. We have to tape and it takes 20X longer than a professional. They're so good they don't have to tape and can get a ton done in just 2 days. Worth it to have it over with and not have the living room a disaster for who knows how long.

After that, it's holiday time!! I need to put the bows and ribbons on my gifts, and wrap a last gift or 2, but for the most part, I'm ready. I'm excited to do holiday stuff with family and see friends and just enjoy the time off. It's going to be so great! And this year, all of my work is done before the holidays so I'm not stuck working from home over what is supposed to be my vacation time. woooo!!

Now I just have to hope that I can get to Sudo's in time (and the painters are gone) that we can squeeze in a quickie before the piercing appointment since my lady bits might be a little too sore for sexy times right afterwards. :p On the plus side, I think everyone else is away for the whole weekend, so aside from my family stuff, we'll have some time alone at his place and can just be naked the whole time! well, ok, I wear a robe since it's winter. But the other day I was cuddling with Sudo and he has just had a rough time lately. Work stress, and all that jazz. But I just snuggled him and was like "but look, you slept great last night and slept in today, you got sexy times, you got to lay around half naked on the couch with me watching TV and playing with boobies. That's like a man's version of going to the spa!" And that prompted us having a new phrase that from now on we'll refer to us cuddling on the couch where he has boob access is "going to the spa."
 
What a busy time. Of course that means I have a million updates since I haven't blogged in a little bit.

The weekend leading up to Christmas was busy. Sudo had all the painting wrapped up and then we went and got me pierced!! OMG, I love them! The nipple piercings hurt and the pain lingered much longer, but I was expecting that. The clit piercing was HELLA intense, but lasted a split second and then was just done and over with. It didn't even really have any lingering pain and was just sensitive. By now, things are healed nicely. Everything is still sensitive to certain touch/pressure in different ways, but I was able to have sexy times by the next night, so no big deal.

The next day we had dinner with a friend and hung out for a while just chatting. We exchanged gifts and I was given this super awesome book about Tyrannosaurs, so I can't wait to read that!

It was Christmas Eve the next day, so Sudo and I spent the morning cuddling but then I left him at home to go join my family for church and a family get together afterwards, per our yearly custom. My great aunt (grandma's sister) wasn't in attendance for the first year ever, which is when I learned that she was in heart failure and just recently started hospice. Apparently what was originally a 6-9 month diagnosis when she first decided to stop treatment turned into her rapidly declining much faster. So that was kinda sad, but I think she was just tired of constant pain and struggling.

I drove back to Sudo's late that night and 15 minutes into the hour drive, I went to crack my back window to circulate the air (passed a dead skunk) and the window broke off the track and fell down into the door. Ugh! So I spent the rest of the drive with windows down and was just glad that the temps were in the 40s and not freezing. Sudo helped me tape plastic over the window when I got home, but when we drove separately back up to my mom's (I was spending the night there Christmas night and he was going back with the dogs) the thin plastic wouldn't hold against the wind and started ripping after about 15 min again.... so I pulled over and ripped it off and was driving with windows down again. Damn. At least my mom had a thicker piece of plastic that I was able to tape up until the window was fixed later in the week. Well, by fixed I mean just fixed into place. The car is old enough that it wasn't worth the $400 to replace the motor and wires since I don't expect to have the car more than another year!

Anyway, Christmas was lovely. We had breakfast with the family, exchanged gifts, and just had a lovely visit. I got several of the items on my list including a new lunch box, a hanging flower vase for on the wall, gift card for clothes, money, wine, cider, and some other things! I had a laugh when my brother opened a gift that was a new set of sheets and it was the same brand and color as the sheets that I got my mom, so at first I thought he opened her gift! Looks like mom and I have the same taste in sheets! Grandpa was also really happy with his gift. The whole family chipped in and got him one of those fancy indoor hydroponic tower gardens. He stopped gardening a few years ago since he couldn't really handle all the weeding and physical work, but with this he won't have all that work and can still enjoy growing veggies!

So eventually Sudo, my brother and sis-in-law, and my grandpa all left and mom and I just hung out for the rest of the evening. I spent the night because the next day I had some girlfriends over for a girls day and to do our annual ornament making. We used to paint ceramic ornaments every year at those pottery places and put the year on it, but last year we decided to do a different craft, and this year we decided to make an ornament out of wine corks! So we had lunch and chatted and worked on the ornaments. 2 of the girls (there are 4 of us) both announced that they're pregnant and there were hugs and congrats all around! Then after the 2 preggo ones left, the other (my sis-in-law) stayed, my brother showed up, and some other friends came over with their 2 kids and we all hung out again to visit with them since the husband is getting ready to be deployed for the reserves (he works for my mom and is like an adopted little brother to me at this point).

By this point I was ready to get back to see Sudo. He was bummed that I was gone so much, and we actually had a bit of a discussion about this and are going to have to figure some things out for next year. We have different ideas about how we want to spend our holidays that will have to be resolved. He's used to barely ever seeing his family due to distance, I'm used to seeing mine all the time. He wants alone time around the holidays, and while I like alone time, I have a lifetime tradition of spending holiday time with family at get togethers. Especially since often those get together include extended family that I only see around then, or at most twice a year. He also didn't really like that he had to spend Christmas night alone at home. I want to respect his desire for some couples time for the holidays in the future, but family has always been and always will be important to me on the holidays too.... so I think it's going to be tough to figure out a good balance for that. I mean, in the future we would probably just commute back and forth each day so he wouldn't spend the night alone, that or we would just both stay at my mom's. So I definitely have some things that can change and that I can compromise on... but I'm not so sure about others.

Of course, the great aunt who wasn't there Christmas eve then passed away the morning of the 27th... so I'm not really sure how that is going to change holiday get togethers anyway. The Christmas eve get together was always done because my great aunt would have her kids and grandkids up visiting, so their whole group would visit with my grandparents and us. Well now that my grandma is gone, and now my great aunt (her husband died a few years ago), I'm not sure if that branch of cousins will still come up for Christmas eve or not! Plus, my brother and his wife are building a house a few states away and will probably be moved by next year, so I dunno what days they'd be coming up, so really everything could be different next year. Or not, I just don't know.

Anyway, so night after Christmas, Peach arrived back home and I ended up staying with them since my car window was still covered in plastic and I didn't want to park it in the city overnight. But I left first thing in the morning, took my car to the shop, and found out my shop was closed ALL WEEK. So I had to take it to a shop by Sudo when I was back at his place later in the week. Jeez!

Fast forward to later in the week after 2 nights at my place (1 with sudo and 1 on my own) and Thurs morning I had my car in the shop and then we went back up to my mom's for a family Christmas dinner. We had it later in the week because a whole different set of extended family (my aunt and uncle, cousins, and their kids) from Nashville came up after Christmas and we went out to dinner together and visited with them. So yeah, more family stuff, but again, I see them about once a year.... so.

Family visits done, with, it was back to Sudo's and we finally had some time to ourselves (well, ok, we had Tues night at my place too). Friday was a blissful day of just being together at home alone, but then Sat for NYE I was back up to my hometown one last time for the celebration of life service for my great aunt. I cried so much during the service! I hadn't really expected to even though funerals do make me cry, but her and my grandma were so much alike, that hearing the stories and everything.... well it could have been my grandma's funeral all over again, so it just really hit me and made me miss her.

With the service ended, I said my goodbyes to the Nashville family and went back to Sudo's, where we spent the night in just binge watching Spartacus and not paying any attention at all to NYE related TV. At some point after midnight we said happy new year and kept on about our business! Probably the first year in a while that I haven't actually celebrated new years with people!

But NY day, we went back to my place and hung out there until it was time for Sudo to catch the train to the airport for a work trip. I rode with him most of the way since I was heading in the same direction to go to a birthday PJ party (yes, for an adult, but with cartoons and PJs). Had a great time there and actually met some of the other poly people in my poly FB group that I hadn't met yet, so it was great! There was even a topless wrestling match, lol. I didn't participate, just observed the entertainment.

So that brought me to the last day of my break, where I went out to Victoria's Secret for their semi-annual sale and to use some birthday coupons that I got in the mail. I, of course, spent way more than I anticipated since I really just wanted to at least get a basic black bra. Then I hit Target for a few items, and got some new shoes at payless (I'm cheap when it comes to shoes because I wear them out or scuff them, etc) and picked up frozen rats for Leonidas. I grocery shopped, cooked meatloaf for the week, started laundry, and was all sorts of productive!! The only thing I didn't get done that I wanted was to scrub the shower, which I finally did last night (oh man did it need it!).
 
..... Continued.





So now tonight I finally get a date night with Mr. Hyde, who is back from a family vacation to the Great North and I'm excited to reconnect with him! I'm bummed that Sudo is gone for the rest of the week and I won't see him until Monday, but at least we're both busy with work and errands and what-not as a distraction.

Let's see... what else? Oh, I had my performance review today at work and it went well and I'm getting a bigger raise than expected! Plus, I found out that this year's annual meeting is in Seattle in June, and I've never been, so I'm going to extend the trip so that I have the weekends before and after to sight see!

Wow, I'm sure there's more to write about but I think that's plenty for now!
 
Pretty exciting things happening and being talked about!

So I found out yesterday at work that I was selected to attend a week long leadership program at Duke's school of business down in NC for the first week in Feb!! Work pays for everything and it will look great on my performance review and resume for next year, so woo!

On top of that, as Sudo and Peach get closer and closer to fully separating their financial entaglements, Sudo and I talked more about the house. Peach wants to sell ASAP and assuming it's affordable, would rather pay out money since the house is under water. Sudo would rather rent it since he thinks he can at least break even with the mortgage and other expenses, and we don't want him to be spending money from his savings to pay off that mortgage when that's money we want to use toward the downpayment on future house.

Sudo and Peach have mentioned the idea that she might "buy her way out" and basically pay Sudo for her share of the under water part if they had to sell the house now, and then they would change everything to his name and call it a wash and the house would just be his to deal with and he could either sell it or rent it or whatever. I love this idea since it means him not spending the savings. But the idea popped into my head today that if the do that.... why sell the house once it breaks even? Seems to me like he should keep it for the long term, and then when the house is eventually paid off, it would basically be a secondary income stream. This would be especially good in later retirement years. But I know many people use real estate as an additional investment and income source, so as long as we didn't have a really shitty experience managing the rental, I'd love for him (us really since I would probably help manage the rental) to do this. Fortunately, he said that depending on the final amount, Peach is leaning toward this option of just buying her way out! Yay! I offered up that if she was concerned about having to pay out in a lump sum, more than she was comfortable with, they could probably make an agreement that she would pay out a portion of it, and in return Sudo wouldn't take on as high of a share of either her car payment or her student loans (he is helping with these because they were both together when they were both in grad school, so in a way it is shared debt, and they bought both their cars recently and paid off Sudo's but have a loan on hers, so it wouldn't be fair in the separation for her to be the only one that took on the car debt). Anyway, Sudo thought that was a great idea if the buy out amount was large enough to make Peach uncomfortable depleting too much savings. I think it sounds like a really fair compromise too and would let everyone get what they want out of it. Peach could walk away and not have to hassle with the house, Sudo could rent it out the way he wants to!

Meanwhile, I'm compiling the data to get started on my taxes. We get our W-2 forms crazy early, as in, I was grumping today about why I haven't gotten mine yet and it seems later than usual. LOL! But I always am ready to do my taxes long before my banks shell out the 1099 for interest earned, or things like that. So instead I go into my accounts and just add the numbers up myself so I can get on with it! I'm eager to get started and see what sort of return I'll have this year. While I know that financially it's better to have no return, or even to owe a little money because it means that instead of giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan, you're getting one..... I still prefer to at least get some sort of tax return. Mentally it just feels like an extra bonus that I can throw into savings or whatever vs getting a smidge extra in every paycheck and potentially see it get piddled away. I'm really excited to see what my new paycheck is gonna look like between the raise, changing my retirement distribution (more in regular TSP vs Roth TSP), and putting less into my FSA since I'm not anticipating any major medical expenses like I've had the last few years! Ok, time to go play with some spreadsheets and tax documentation!
 
cajero temple

I have W-2 envy! Mine don't usually arrive till the last possible second and this year I am expecting 3.
Interesting news on the house. Keeping it and renting it could be a great investment. Lots of number crunching for Sudo to do.
 
Rates aren't going to get any cheaper, so if he is going to refinance to get Peach's name off paperwork, now is the time to do it! 🙂
 
Atlantis, yes, I'm spoiled!! Just got my W-2 today and input stuff into H&R block. I'm pissed that they will no longer let me file the federal version for free due to my income, but I'm too far along to want to bother with mailing it. That always takes longer to process anyway, so I'm forking it out the $35 or whatever for them to just do it. At least they'll then do my state taxes for free, which I was doing on my own before and mailing in. So I guess it saves me a marginal amount of hassle. Ugh.

Bluebird, I definitely need to have Sudo check on that. He was saying that they did something weird when they bought the house so I think maybe the loan is in his name only and the deed is both, or the other way around, or I dunno what. He wasn't even entirely sure since it's been so long. But we need to get on it and look into that. I agree that with rates projected to go up, now is the best time to re-finance. It would be nice if that wasn't needed if the house loan happens to only be in his name, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I had a dentist apt today, and just as I figured, I had to get new molds and have a refinement of my invisalign. I dunno how much longer that will drag out this process, but I'd rather have it take longer and have my teeth be just right than have paid all this money and just be like "meh, close enough!" Especially since right now I couldn't possibly leave them the way they are. With no trays in I have just a tooth on the top and bottom that touch before everything else because of their position, so I just my bite just doesn't sit right. It's annoying. Now with my next set of trays in it's even more pronounced and annoying! But at least these trays and the future revision trays should be pushing the teeth where they need to be to get rid of that. My stupid teeth weren't even that crooked! But since the front of my bite is narrow, it's pushing those teeth out to widen my bite and having the back parts of the trays cut off for a while just allowed my teeth to shift back too much, I think. But it did seem to help with letting my bite close more, so I guess the dentist got the results she wanted. Now I guess I just have to move them around more in other ways. ugh. I was so looking forward to getting the damn buttons removed! Plus, my teeth are definitely achy today and probably for the next few days.
 
I had such a roller coaster weekend. Sat was my birthday, and that was a great day. But let me rewind and start with Fri.

I took Fri off work since it was my BFF/Sis-in-Law's birthday. She came to DC and we spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History checking out the temporary dino exhibit and the insects and gems, etc. Then we went to a cool lunch spot and ended up sitting at the bar just talking and having a few drinks. I posted a selfie on FB and a mutual friend that is in DC commented and we invited her out to join us, so then there were 3! We moved to another drink spot, then eventually went back to our friend's place to make a snack and talk more and just hang out. It was a great way to celebrate! At the end of the night, I took BFF back to my place so I could get my bag for the weekend and head to Sudo's place, and drop BFF at her car on the way out of DC.

When I got to Sudo's place there were 2 dozen roses, half red, half a pink white blend, waiting for me in a pitcher, since there were so many that they didn't fit in a vase! Sooooo pretty!

Sat was another good day. Joe arrived up from VA by train to help Peach with packing. Sudo and I picked up the Uhaul and first used it to get a mattress from a friend and take his old guest room mattress to the dump. Then We got Peach mostly packed up into the Uhaul and went out for some yummy dinner plans at a steak-house type place. RCT was even home with his daughter that weekend, and he picked me up an ice cream cake, my favorite!!

As great of a day as Fri and Sat were, Sunday sucked. I mean, it started out great with a going away sort of breakfast for Peach, and that was nice... but loading up her last few things.... and then loading up the dogs and saying goodbye.... god that sucked. Peach cried, Sudo cried, I cried. We were just a mess. Of course, it's not like we won't see each other again. She already said the next 2 times she'd be back in the office, and we talked about her coming up occasionally for an overnight so she can actually see all of us and not just see Sudo at work. And we've been talking about planning another group cabin trip in the spring. But it was still a painful parting. And more so for Sudo. He was a wreck the rest of the day, and rightly so. And I just felt useless, because what can I do other than remind him that they still love each other and will see each other, and that I'm sorry he's hurting, etc. I hurt knowing that he hurts.

We did try to do a few things to stay distracted. We made a Costco trip to pick up Sudo some additional winter work appropriate shirts since he's going to start keeping a few more clothing items at my house to minimize carting stuff around the metro in a backpack. But Peach also called while we were in Costco to let Sudo know that they got there safe and had the truck unloaded... so I could see him trying very hard not to get upset in the middle of a busy store. We did a little cleaning around the house to vacuum up dog fur since now the dogs won't be there to shed anymore. I moved my toiletries and such from the guest bath to the master so that RCT could fully take over the guest bath with his and his daughter's stuff, etc. It was something to do so that Sudo wouldn't just have to sit on the couch and feel depressed.

I was soooo glad that we had Monday off for the holiday. I feel like Sudo really needed that extra day to recover/adjust. So we went to my place on Monday and just watched a few movies and kept it low key. He's doing better, but obviously still depressed and it sorta comes and goes. This is just going to be a weird time that will take some adjustments. I like to think that they will both be happier in the long run, but right now, I wish I could make it all not hurt for Sudo so much.
 
Wow. Went to the Women's March in DC on Sat with Sudo and his brother and sis-in-law who drove up from NC. IT WAS AMAZING! Such an inspiring experience to see so many women and men out advocating for so many causes. It makes me want to be more involved in knowing what's going on with local politics and paying attention to smaller elections as well, not just presidential ones. And just getting out there and making my voice heard is important! Anyway, it was wall to wall people, but everyone was so upbeat and nice and it was just a good time. I got cool pics of the crowds and some of the signs and a cute selfie of me and Sudo in our pussy hats, plus somewhere we have one of the 4 of us.

Then yesterday I drove up to my mom's and she took me birthday clothing shopping and to a late lunch. We hit some nearby outlets and shopped sales so I'm actually wearing a cute outfit that I got today, since what I was mainly after was work clothes! It was just really nice to have a mother daughter day, and we hadn't been shopping together in forever.

Oh, before all of this, I had my Thurs night date night with Mr. Hyde. Since this was our night to celebrate my birthday, he brought over this really fancy but nice portable spanking bench and set it up and I got birthday spanks. I teased and said that I turned 19 in the hopes that I'd get fewer smacks.... but he didn't believe me! But he came walking in the door with this huge bag and the only time I've seen anyone carrying something big like that would be something like a massage table. So my brain was like "wow, does he own a massage table and is bringing this for my birthday?!" HA. WRONG! But after we had fantastic sexy times, he heated up a piece of chocolate pecan pie that he picked up from this crazy great place called Dangerously Delicious Pies. OMG, it was sooo good. Plus, it was a good compromise since neither of us is big on cake, and ice cream wouldn't have traveled well. He loves pie and I love chocolate (and I like pies too), so it was cute to just lay in bed and share a slice of pie while we talked and he played some music on his phone from a blue-grass artist that he just recorded an album for (he does a little music production on the side as a hobby). But after we had a chance to relax, I got tied up and had more birthday sex, so all-in-all, a great way to celebrate! I do need to go check out a Fet profile though since he's been talking to someone who's super new to kink and D/s and he was curious if I would mind if she reached out to me basically as a "reference" since I could speak to how it's been having my intro to D/s with him and how he has been as a partner. Which I'm all for, since I know that some Doms out there can be total assholes. So if she'd like to just get some additional perspective on things, I'm happy to help. We'll have to see how all that goes.

Only other thing on the agenda is that I'm hoping Sudo and I can reach out to a realtor this week to have them look at his place regarding rental potential and recommended market value, and also talk to them about starting our house hunt!
 
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