Penger

I used to have a pretty good handle on my personal finances. I worked really hard to educate myself about money and debt and how to handle them. I am lucky to have a naturally frugal personality, so after a few years of ignorance and sloppiness, it wasn't actually all that hard for me to get my act together. A series of books helped enormously (Amazon links):

• Your Money or Your Life (Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez: the classic and still best of the "get out of the rat race" books available. It is difficult to grok because it has such a radical message. I went through the 9 steps and it really was a life-changing experience)
• Simplify Your Life (Elaine St. James: This was the fluffiest of these books, but even so I learned a lot from it about making better choices regarding my possessions and my consumerism)
• 25 Myths You've Got to Avoid (Jonathan Clements: the least well know of this list, and actually one of the best. It really encourages independent critical thinking about finances, encouraging the reader not to do the expected thing, but rather what works for her specific situation)
• Smart Women Finish Rich (David Bach: a good workbook-y kind of book with a few simple but important points. The title itself was enough to shame me into getting my act together)

There was a time (nearly 10 years ago, actually) when I poured over these books, working with them intensely and writing in them and trying to forge a financial future for myself. It was incredibly empowering to discover that "money" wasn't the dirty word I was lead by my family to believe it was, and that I could use it as the tool it was always intended to be if I just learned and implemented the basics. By the time I met KE, I had a lot of good habits in place, and I'm sure one of the reasons I was attracted to him is that he had pretty much the same attitudes. We differ a little (he is less debt-averse, for example), but to all extents and purposes we're on the same page when it comes to money.

I cannot explain the beautiful feeling that reaching each one of my small financial goals back in my single days gave me. When I learned about snowballing debt and was able to pay off my car loan early, when I learned the habit of transferring the remaining balance in my checking account from the previous month to debt repayment (in the early days) or savings (after I was free of consumer debt), and when I set up my CD ladder I gained an enormous sense of pride. Seems silly, but really when so many other people out there are crashing and burning financially I do think it is something to be proud of, since it obviously isn't that easy after all.

The move to Norway, though, meant that our personal finances got very turned upside down, and I just haven't had the wherewithall to sit down and learn the new system(s). Suddenly KE was paying all our bills rather than me, and I didn't have access to our mortgage online to track it neurotically like I used to do in the US. One of the positive results of our recent vacation is that the time off has afforded me the headspace to revisit our finances and start (re)educating myself.

Don't get me wrong--it's not like we've suddenly racked up a bunch of debt. It's just that I haven't had a handle on exactly where we stand. Now I do. I have a nifty little spreadsheet with our sole liability (the mortgage) and various assets. The good news is that the assets outweigh our liability, and that's excluding what our house would be worth were we to sell it. This is very reassuring to me right now, especially as I have been so bummed out recently about the unlikelihood of getting hired for a permanent position.

We're still not even close to where I'd like to be (totally debt free with enough principle saved up that we could live frugally off the interest!). I think it's realistic to pay off the house, but I don't think we'll get to the next step, mostly because it's just not a priority for KE. So for now, I'm just going to start running the numbers on how quickly we can pay off the mortgage...

Arbeidsmoral

Something happened to my work ethic. I appear to have lost it somewhere. Instead of working, I felt compelled to unravel two of my thrift store sweaters yesterday. By this afternoon I find myself with what can only be described as a solid start on a striped raglan sweater for E:

That included both knitting a swatch (gasp!) and my false start where I was so enamored of the great indigo color that I decided to ditch the stripe idea and go for a solid sweater. When I got about 10 cm into the yoke I realized that was a little too minimalist, even for me, so I ripped it back and added the gray, which I'm much happier with.

I think part of my lack of motivation stems from the fact that I found out on Monday that my department has been placed under administration (we're in a budget crisis) and that means a hiring freeze for a minimum of the next four years. That more or less guarantees I'll be out of my field and unemployed when my fellowship runs out. The reality of no job prospects was just enough to tip my pouty indifference into full-blown rebellion.

Luckily, KE got a letter today saying he'd been accepted into the one-year pedagogical training course that he needs to qualify as a high school art/design/IT teacher. Apparently, it's very difficult to get into. I'm so excited for him, as he has been languishing without anything to focus on since he finished his bachelors degree last summer. It also means that in all likelihood he'll have a real job by the time I'm out of work, and I can go back to school for a masters degree in English literature. To celebrate, I broke out my newly-acquired copy of Raymond Carver's short story collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, which is an incredibly creepy book. It makes me feel dirty for reading it, in a vague, non-specific way. Love it!

Kranglefant

Before I forget I'm pasting in a link to Kritisk masse here, so that I won't forget where to find it. I'm excited to attend my first ever skeptics conference, and really my first ever "personal interest" (rather than work-related) conference ever.

Then, I just have to mention that I've been participating like crazy in a discussion thread called "A Free Pass to Disrespect" on Ravelry's Big Issues Debate forum about the degree to which we can and should show respect for beliefs that we fundamentally disagree with. It has been really interesting, but pretty depressing. It is so hard to find common ground. But it did prompt me to find this nice little critique of Pascal's Wager on Youtube:


And, even better I think, is this rebuttal of the criticism that the creator of the video received:



For an interview with him, click here. He has created a whole series of interesting skeptical videos.

Døgnvill

Jet lag does strange things. Here's what woke me up (inside my head) at 3 am:


We've seen 3 World Cup matches since coming home. Here's the tournament chart from the FIFA website.  I loved seeing Ghana win, even at the expense of the US. It was painful to watch Argentina clobber Mexico, though. Like everyone else I'm dismayed by all the problems with refereeing goals--legitimate goals are being called (England), and obviously illegitimate goals are being allowed (Argentina). Two in two games is a really poor statistic. Bummer.

I'm over the half way point on the Bridgewater central square, and just finished the first of four skeins of yarn. That knitted on border must use a lot of yardage!

Need to see if I can get back to sleep after being up for almost two hours. First day back at work today. Ack. Erlend Loe and Norwegian cinema lectures to prepare for Wednesday, plus three grade justifications to write, plus everything else I've been avoiding. Double ack.

ETA: Okay. If I include George Jones, I'm pretty much obligated to add Loretta Lynn, Don Williams and Buck Owens:

"Ha-med-dag"

So we're home and horribly jet-lagged. Golly, it's fantastically gorgeous here on Nesodden. Unfortunately, we can barely keep our eyes open to enjoy it. I forget how divine it is here during the summer. And best of all, I'm not allergic to any of the pollens in the air. I was so miserable in Eugene.

Here are some freshly uploaded snaps of our various activities, adventures, and acquisitions on the trip. For example, the obligatory family-riding-on-the-cable-car shot from San Francisco:

Or perhaps you prefer the boy-in-the-bubble from the Aquarium of the Bay?

No? What about the (very tame) carousel ride at Fisherman's Wharf?

E was thrilled, KE, well, patient. 

Much to my chagrin, I find that I took hardly any pictures at all from Eugene or Seattle. Very strange, that. I guess I felt like I already know what those towns and those people look like, but I still should have done it. Rest assured, everything we saw and everyone we hung out with looked great. As a small example, this lemon meringue pie baked by my mom will have to serve as a pars pro toto for our time with her:

She had to make two of them while we were there. Yay mom. Yum.

Did I knit while I was on vacation? Why yes, and I crocheted too. I made two more of the linen dishcloths and gave them all to the friend I stayed with in Seattle. Didn't get a picture (too busy talking), unfortunately, but they made a neat little stack after I washed and dried them. I also brought along a skein and a half of the Zitron Trekking sock yarn in dark blue that I bought from a Raveler in the fall of 2008 and made two pairs of winter socks for E. None of them are the same size. After puzzling over that for a while I finally figured out that the gauge of the first one is significantly looser than the following three, which appears to be what makes it so much bigger. There's still enough left on the skein for at least another pair in this size. This picture was taken before weaving in ends or washing, but you get the idea:

I was also thrilled to find the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace yarn called for in Jared Flood's Bridgewater pattern. I got it at the Acorn Street Shop in Seattle (a nice little yarn store, and probably my new favorite in Seattle), and am so thrilled with it. It's slow going of course, but I'm making some progress on the center garter stitch square:

The other thing I made a special effort to do was shop for wool sweaters at the Eugene Goodwill. I was pleased to find three quite decent prospects for unraveling, especially given the season. I got all of them for about $10 total, and they are great colors and weights for making sweaters for E (since they're women's size M, there probably isn't enough to contemplate making anything for me). Here they are with labels showing:

They're all 100% wool, made by J.Crew, Old Navy, and the Gap. The dark blue and gray ones appear to be the same weight (probably worsted?), so I'm thinking a striped top-down raglan for E might be just the ticket. The other is lighter weight, maybe sport weight or even fingering? I'll obviously measure the gauges and do swatching before I start knitting on them. I also bought a beautiful floral Ralph Lauren skirt in 100% linen for $4. I've already taken out all the seams and plan to sew hand towels (from Akiko Mano Linen, Wool, Cotton) out of the fabric. Forgot to take a picture. More later...

Finally, I have to share a picture of our sleeping arrangement from my mom's house. It's kind of odd:

(Notice the fabulous quilt on the right, hand stitched and tied by my paternal grandmother). You see, I live in a family of highly active snorers. I readily admit to the fact that I snore too at times, though I insist that I don't do it as much as the rest of them. The head of the bed in the guest room adjoins the room where my mom was sleeping. It was a perfect storm of snoring. Add to that the facts that we're used to sleeping in a king sized bed and I'm totally neurotic about sleeping, and I had a big problem falling asleep. I tried withdrawing to the living room the first few nights, but that didn't really work either. Imagine my delight when I awoke from a restful, full night's sleep as a result of moving my head to the foot of the bed. D'oh! If I'd known about this trick earlier I could have spared myself ever so many nights of troubled (or isolated) sleep!

Viktige tall

I had no idea it would be this hard to blog while on vacation. And I guess I haven't really been trying either. Here it is so far, in Harper's Magazine style numbers:

Hours spent detained in the San Francisco International Airport Immigration Office: 3

Number of times E vomited on the trip from Oslo to San Francisco: 4

Number of suitcases lost: 1 (out of 2)

Number of trolley rides in San Francisco: 5

Number of carousel rides: 2

Number of World Cup Soccer matches watched while in Eugene: at least 10

Number of stores visited while on a whirlwind girl's overnight visit to Seattle: at least 10

Number of skeins of yarn purchased: 4

Maximum number of Eugene friends hung out with in the course of a single day: 6

Number of boxes of books packed while clearing out my old office: 15 (and counting)

Number of calories consumed while celebrating graduation with my Ph.D. student and his family at Ruthie B's in Springfield: probably around 3000 (still recovering a week later)

Number of sweaters purchased at Goodwill for reclaiming yarn: 3

Price for three sweaters at Goodwill: 10 dollars

Number of linen dishrags crocheted: 3

Number of socks knitted for E: 3 and a half

We've had a lot of fun. We're getting a little homesick. We'll be back in Norway on Saturday.

"Bestemorbyen"

We're here at my Mom's house, in what E calls "bestemorbyen." I didn't think we'd ever get here. It's a long story. Maybe I'll write it all down some time. For now, I'm just going to enjoy not being in transit!