Ms.PacMan

The title of my last blog entry, living on the edge, turned out to be eerily prophetic.

My backyard ends at a retaining wall with a 12 foot drop down into the backyard of my neighbor. A beautiful, rustic, hand laid stone retaining wall, circa 1921. Massive. 50 feet long with it's thinest point being 16" wide.

Barb is the 62 year old owner of the adjacent property. I would not characterize our relationship as friendly or even neighborly. She has over the years,...

My neighborhood is definitely on the edge. The edge of poverty, the edge of illegal activity, the edge of gentrification; but mostly on the edge of insanity.

The cast of characters that I call neighbors are, more often than not, better than a reality show. They are probably every reality show casting agent's dream come true!

I live at the top of a T intersection, a little to the right (literally and figuratively). The little girl who grew up in my house is a 20-something...

The original green, money!

Earlier this year I was searching for short term CD rates, bond rates or a decent savings account rate and ran across an article on high yield reward checking accounts.

It seems these high yield accounts have been around since 2005 but they had totally escaped my attention.

This site lists financial institutions by state and does a decent job of keeping it updated. I couldn't believe it when I saw my own credit union on that list...

I've decided to live without a dryer!

Eek, right?

My dryer broke in the middle of last peak and I was forced to wait until peak was over to purchase a new one. In the end I decided to get it repaired because it was just the thermostat (I think that was the name of the part) and I hated the idea of a washer and dryer that didn't match!

Fast forward four months and the dryer completely overheats and shrinks a load of clothes to unwearable sizes, then quits...