Well, I think I’ve finally lost it. In the interests of saving a whole chunk of change in taxes, and to ride out the economy, I’m going to be buying a house in the QC area.

Yeah, I hate the Quad Cities, but this is about saving money, my friend. Since Becky is moving out to go to seminary soon, I realized my rent would shoot up to $575 a month. Gross. After a few preliminary calculations, I found that if I can get a 30 year mortgage on 70k, my monthly payments would end up being $400 - less than my car payments. Furthermore, after figuring in tax savings due to interest and property taxes being deductible, the adjusted monthly cost is about $290! That’s practically free!

Well, three torrid days of reading later, and I can say that the latest Harry Potter book has been quickly consumed. Now I just have to wait three years until the next one comes out. Hahaha.

On the DDR front, I’m going to have to stop for a couple weeks. It appears I’ve irritated a tendon in my right foot, and it hurts to walk now. I think what I’ll have to do when it heals, is build a metal DDR pad so I can wear shoes and play - so my feet don’t take so much direct impact. Well that, and not play for three or more hours at a stretch.

After a recent and invigorating game of paintball, I had decided to further punish my poor body by finding an arcade in the area that had a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Before I really get into this, let me say that I live in The Quad Cities. An otherwise average part of the Midwest, it’s also the home of more road construction than any city I’ve ever seen, even those with populations ranging in the millions. We’re on the Mississippi, and every single bridge across it is in some state of construction! This should give you some idea of the general level of idiocy around here, I hope I can move away before it infects me.

He crouched silently behind the tree, scanning the open spaces between scattered derelict barrels, dirty tractor tires jutting weirdly from the ground, and haphazard logs. The steady patpatpat of pressurized guns came from all directions. Suddenly the slim cover, peppered by a hail of incoming fire, became a liability; it was time to move.

So, somehow I got roped into a paintball game on Saturday. Never done it before, but it should be fun anyway. There’s going to be over a dozen of us on a few acres at a reserved paintball area, but I don’t really know much else. Hah.