A new life; same as the old life?

We are on the move AGAIN!! When we first came to the US, we had grand plans to buy a nice house, settle in for the duration, then rent it out when we went home. That was before we really understood the market, rates, deposits, etc, and of course before we actually built a credit rating. Three years in, we are now in a strong position to buy a place from a credit standpoint, but we would still need to have a 20% deposit (or pay some sort of secondary insurance/loan) and the "lowest rate" ever deals are still running in the high 5-6% range. So the reality is that we can continue to rent for much cheaper than a mortgage/PMI would cost and get great places to stay, by trading up every few years. Hopefully this one will be our last one. It looks small from the front, but really it is a Tardis once inside. $1800 per month gets us this 4/5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, family room, living room, dining room and large fenced in yard with deck, house, with bigger rooms than we have today less t...

I thought this would be kinda cool for an international wordly person like me. Don't know if it works, so you will have to try it and tell me, but theoretically it gives you an opportunity to call me for free. Supposedly, you type your name and number and then it calls your phone for free and you then talk to me, leave me a message, etc. I just found out that it only works for US numbers, kinda crappy really! It is set to record a voicemail for now, but I can set it to call me at home too. Try it now, leave a voicemail, and let's see if it works first. Click on the blue button marked "Call Me" to the right of this post.

Nothing much to say here, just a bunch of pictures from the Vegas trip and some others I have been taking recently. Click on the links to go off to the album to see more if you like them. Click here for more pictures from Red Rock & the Vegas trip and here for more pictures of AJ.

In every way except one..I put back on 1.5lbs of the weight I had lost. I had expected to put some back on really, but I had been trying pretty hard not to snack, not to drink too much, to keep drinking the water, etc. Imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn't exercised control. Anyways, of course I cannot share much with you in terms of details, because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, however here goes. Day 1: Wednesday 6th The day started very early with a flight to Sin City leaving Chicago at 8:10am. A huge storm was expected that day, with snow of up to a foot, expected to seriously disrupt flights. We had prepared for this, AJ's first flight, by packing pretty much everything we thought we might need for a long airport stay. As it happens, the storm slowed down and our first bit of Vegas luck got us out bang on time. The flight was pretty uneventful, although there was some fun turbulence. AJ was an angel throughout. It turns out that the storm hit the Chicagola...

Vegas is calling my name, and it's Big Papi apparently. I will be there with Foxy Brown, Coco, Kitty Starlicious, Trip McLean, Frenchy, Johnny Bravo and Milky, our Vegas names. Assuming this snow storm lets us get out of here tomorrow, then by the time most of read this, I will be on the golf course. Thursday is the big day, the mighty 4 0 ! The diet will take a hit this week, although I am hoping to at least stay and not go back up, but we shall see..there's a lot of alcohol to be drunk. This is AJ's first plane ride and she has her very own US passport to accompany her. I hope she does OK and doesn't yell too much. Reports when I get back, although obviously only vanilla stuff, cos... Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.