...and in the news

American news, that is:

• One in 8 Americans is being fed via food stamps.

• Black Friday (US version of Canada's boxing day only just after their Thanksgiving) saw sales of $10.66 BILLION! No indication of how much of that was cash or credit.
  
  
• A 13 year old girl committed suicide after her "sext" to a friend was circulated throughout her school, wrote prior... "I'm what they call the inbetween. I'm not pretty enough, ugly enough, smart enough, dumb enough, good enough, bad enough, nice enough, or even mean enough." (Sexting is like texting only usually with an image of a sexual nature, i.e., nude.) How use of technology seems to enhance bullying...sad.
  
  

• Think you have a problem with "stuff"? Watch A&E this Monday @ 10pm to see if you really do have a problem!



• Poor Tiger Woods...so many jokes about his driving (his car, that is)...but if you check on Twitter, very, very few expressed any concern for the man himself. Instead they all jumped on the scandal wagon. Makes you wonder about people...whatever happened to caring...even the teensiest bit?
  

• And in the good news corner, despite it still being NOVEMBER!! & all the radio stations are cramming Christmas tunes down our throats ad nauseum, here are truly glad tidings:

Tarpon Turtle

Yesterday was the American Thanksgiving so what hungry Canadian could resist also celebrating? Off to the Tarpon Turtle for dins. I decided to forego the turkey and opted for shrimp primavera. Everyone else, hubby included, ordered the turkey, some including ham!

What a feast! Each plate had enough on it to feed two people! Beans, stuffing, potato with gravy, turkey, ham, squash, cranberries plus choice of two desserts, one pumpkin, the other apple. Some of us jumped at the chance to taste their wonderful key lime pie, certainly not a disappointment.

The Tarpon Turtle is located on the north end of Lake Tarpon and offers a marvelous view from its dock. We chose to sit inside as it was a little chilly last night. The server was very attentive and the food tasted great. Meal cost was in the $70 range for two, that is, if you also had wine. We had a marvelous time and headed home more stuffed than the turkey had been.

Regrettably, I didn't fare too well later as my discomfort moved from that of mildly full to awfully sick. Might have been the shrimp, or something else - who knows? But hubby wasn't sick nor were any of the others so I surmise something I'd eaten strongly disagreed with me. It happens. I'm a-ok now but I'll call the restaurant tomorrow to let them know.

Still, it was a very nice evening in a very nice location, not far from home. Guess you have to chalk it up to "you win some, you lose some."

Mortgage Hunting

We've pretty much made up our minds to go for the fixer upper! But that means, apart from our down payment, finding a bank to lend us the difference. So...what do we learn?

Bankers down here are very nervous. And given the recession, rightly so. First question:

• are you American? No.
• do you have a social insurance number? Yes, but it's a Canadian SIN.
• what type of house are you buying? We're interested in a condo.

Well, that won't do! Doesn't matter what your assets, what your credit history, what your down payment, we don't want to touch you.

Many investors (speculators) have dropped their investments and left the banks hanging. Banks are particulately not interested in mortgaging condos (which is what we're trying to buy) because condos are in a bad position given the incidence of foreclosures and a lack of condo owners paying monthly condo fees. The whole structure is in a downward spiral.

So, right now attitude is key. Are we positive, forward-looking people or pessimists? Well, I'd like to think we're the former so damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

On the plus side, we're not investors per se. We're not looking to make money, only to have a second home, a home-away-from-home, one we plan on living in for repeating six months stints over the next umpteen years, God willing.

We'll keep you posted on our progress. In the meantime, other condo offerings just keep coming our way. Just this minute, a friend called to say her next-door neighbour is selling her upper floor unit. Would we like to look?

Decisions, decisions.

The Dilemma Begins Again!

Yet again, I have real estate fever. Several options have presented themselves:

1. a fixer upper which we could reno, live in and eventually flip (means sweat equity and lots of it!) but then we could more easily obtain a nice place on the water; or
2. an all-done walk-in-with-your-toothbrush & on the water place (means a mortgage and lots of it).
3. do nothing and stick with our rental
4. look around to see if there are other bargains...

Decisions, decisions!

When you have too many decisions and it's hurting your head, whaddya do? Go dancing. Having a great time dancing at the Starlight Studio in Dunedin...wish you were here.