New York Renovator

I had guests a week ago and got another compliment about my upstairs bathroom. Everytime I show a guest the bathroom, they touch the wall and ask, “Is that wallpaper or paint?” I just love it when they ask that.

Click the photo for a larger view.

I love stripes on walls. But I don’t like wallpaper too much because it’s so difficult to install and so expensive. And in a bathroom, a room where moisture builds up, wallpaper would not stay very long. So I decided to paint stripes on my walls. If you are interested in reading about how I did it, see my post here. It’s not hard, but it is more time consuming than rolling plain old paint on the walls. But I think it has made all the difference. It gives my bathroom a really classy look.

You can go with big fat stripes or stripes that look like they’ve been on diet pills, heh heh. (Good one, huh?) The technique is basically the same. And you’ll never have to worry about curling or peeling wallpaper again!

Hey I thought aliens were voting for Obama, ha ha!

I read in the news that a farmer from Ohio made a corn maze with Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s image. See for yourself!

A corn maze is made for people to walk around in, kind of like a country bumpkin rat race. I’ve never been in one, but I hope to do it someday. This one looks neat. The news story says it took eight hours to make Palin’s image in the cornfield. That’s it?!

OMG!! I have found it! I’ve discovered it! The hilarity of LOLCats at I Can Haz Cheezeburgers! These are just TOO funny! This one is my new favorite.

more animals

ROFL!!!!!

I was on the phone with a friend yesterday, a woman old enough to be my mom (she’s a Baby Boomer and has recently retired with her husband). They had very good, high-paying jobs and a great pension and retirement investment plan 15 years ago. But with all the recent financial market crises and increasing taxation, she and her husband are seeing their investments go up in smoke. When they retired, they were told that their investments (done through their employers) would be close to a million dollars when they retired. Sadly, with inflation, the devaluation of the dollar, and taxation, she and her husband are not even close to that number anymore.

The beneficent, generous corporations of the 1950s to 1980s are long gone. Retirement plan? What’s that? Nope, we have had to take financial matters into our own hands, and judging by the economy, it hasn’t been that successful. And we have always known that Social Security will not be there for us. We have to do things ourselves.

So here come the innovations. One such group is called Inner 8. They are the next generation of personal investing, and amazingly enough, they work something akin to a social network (the new modus operandus of Gen X).

This is from their website, which I think explains what’s happening in the financial world today:

We don’t think professional stock brokers and money managers have a lock on investment talent. Or that they should reap all the rewards of investment success. Only Inner8 makes it easy to build your own smart, private, inner-circle of trusted investors powered by our new proprietary analytics. You get profitable investment ideas, demonstrate your own expertise and save a bundle on investment suggestions. It’s a rewarding experience.

What great timing! At a time when wealthy Wall Street crooks are asking the government to bail them out of their bad investments- leaving the average American shafted and penniless- it’s high time we took our own matters into our own hands.

Inner8 is the brainchild of some veterans of E*TRADE. They connect similarly-minded investors and give analytical data, real-time stock market ideas, and tips on best picks, better investments, and better money management.

Gen X’ers have always been wary of placing our hard-earned money in the hands of bureaucrats, corporation retirement plans, and slick investors. We prefer to manage ourselves, and gather advice where needed. Inner8 looks like a great way to do this. If you are interested, check out their website for more.

Well, we did pitifully this year. I’m assessing our projects, and regretablly, there weren’t many. We did try some new things in the garden (Adirondack Red potatoes and a grapevine). But my hydrangeas didn’t bloom, and we got no apples this year –weird! Not even any blossoms. I have no idea what happened. Insects?!

Anyway, the renovations were at a standstill, due to money (lack thereof) and my back going out twice this year. Materials costs have exploded in prices– a wall of sheetrock now costs close to $18 with the tax. This blows my mind- is it this high where you live?

My dreams of renovating my kitchen disappeared. I’m not sure when I can get that done. My husband hasn’t had reliable work in about 9 months. We’re waiting for some old guys to finally retire so some positions will open up. But these guys are taking FOREVER to retire. I think once we have steady income again, I can use my blogging incoem for renovations.

Anyway.. I have a new kitty and the kids have schoolwork, so we’ll be busy for the winter. But I’m still going to plan for that new kitchen.