Jabober

For a couple of years, a long black box, entitled “Driveway Art”, has been shuffled around the house, waiting for its release. Today was the day. Today we filled our front walk with chalk paint masterpieces.

The box had chalk paint, chalk, brushes and stencils. The neighbor kids came over to help out. Here’s what the kids drew:



After this endeavor, the childrens’ hands were RED. I tried to wash it off with our normal handsoap, but it wouldn’t budge. It took some abrasive soap and some enthusiastic wash cloth rubbin’ to finally get it off. I suppose it is that new fandangle reinforced kind of chalk for industrial sidewalk painting.

The afternoon turned out to be a very nice day to play in the front yard. A soft breeze, not too hot, and the neighbors were out and about, most likely enjoying their last day of family before school starts tomorrow.

Oh, I’m so glad we don’t have to deal with that.

Posted by Tammy at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is my 34th birthday. Yoshi got up early and brought home bagels for breakfast. He so rocks.

My birthday makes me a Virgo. This is what Virgos are supposed to be like:

Virgo is the sixth Sign of the Zodiac. The first five Signs represent the growth of the individual, and Virgo brings their skills and talents together for the good of others. Virgo is the Sign of Service. Despite their inherent modesty, people born under Virgo are industrious and efficient when working for a good cause. They are neat and well organized.

This final description is so right on, at least from my own perspective:

The great strength of the Virgo-born is in their attention to detail and their desire to be of service. They pick up on the little things that most other people miss.

There is more here. I’d say that about 90% of that description is accurate. It’s absolutely amazing. What do you think?

Then, to add to the oddity of being pegged by an internet website, simply by my birthday, I had a strange experience in my yoga class this morning (that I teach BTW, with great enthusiasm). I announced to the class that my husband had made me breakfast, and they all chuckled and cheered, and then asked, “Why?”. I then told them it was my birthday. After saying, “Yay, happy birthday”, four out of the 25 or so people in the class piped up and said they too had a birthday soon (or just had one). One was August 23rd, one was August 31st, one was August 24th, and one was Sept. 20th. I asked if anyone else had a birthday soon. Nobody else replied.

Out of the 25 or so people in the class, who were basically sitting in a 4x6 grid, The four people who were in the front of the room, closest to me (and who always sit there), were the ones who said they were Virgos too.

All 5 of us are very different in many respects, but we all like to be in the front of the class (when I take Yoga, I sit in front too) and we all like to chat with the teacher (out of all my students, they are indeed the most chatty), talking to them on a personal level, rather than as a passive observer.

Oh, and by the way, according to the astrology signs, I’m supposed to have a really hard time getting along with Libras. I dunno, some of my favorite people are Libras.

Posted by Tammy at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This weekend I read the rest of the trilogy that started with The Giver by Lois Lowry. Gathering Blue and Messenger are actually two unique stories separate from the story in The Giver, although Messenger brings together the main characters from the first two books.

Each book examines a different societal issue, starting with the goal of a utopian society in The Giver. What does a utopia really mean? Is there such a thing? Is it sustainable? Is a utopia actually what we’re living right now, but we’re too busy looking at what’s wrong to appreciate it?

Gathering Blue takes a close look at the effect of judging people by their physical appearance, as well as discussing the quandary of being an artist if one is made to do someone else’s work. It also touches on how we make our own future; we are not trapped by our past if we want to change the future.

Messenger brings the characters of the first two books together, but looks at society from a completely different angle. In the first two books, the communities have a distinct feeling of “needing to be fixed.” In the third, the community represents the “good” society – where everyone gets along, and each person’s gifts are appreciated and everyone works together to live in harmony – but shows how easy it is to move away from the societal balance of need, want and altruism.

I also sensed a hint of parallelism to the sacrifice of Jesus for humanity. I'm not sure what it means, but that seemed to stick out as a possible theme.

The third book is also a bit more mystical, personifying nature, even giving it magic, allowing it to respond to the changes in the community.

This is another series of books that I hope my kids will read as they get older. I also hope they will appreciate the philosophical questions the books bring up, as well as the Lois’ ability to spin an engrossing story.

Posted by Tammy at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night, we went over to a friend’s BBQ, and we ended up staying until about 9:30, after an afternoon of running around in the back yard playing various outdoor games. Allison fell asleep on the way home, but when we arrived, she woke up and declared that she wasn’t tired and she wanted to read. After some back in forth, “You should go to bed, it’s late” – “I don’t want to”, we decided to let her stay up for a bit.

A few minutes later, Allison looked like this:


Well, I guess we were all tired last night, because we all slept in until at least 8. Then we lounged around the house, getting clothes on at around 10 or so.

Then, Yoshi got the idea of going to the beach. I'm not a fan of the beach, but everyone wanted to go, so we went to Santa Monica Pier. Although Yoshi doesn't tend to show tremendous emotion, I think he was actually gushing that he convinced me to go.

On the pier, we saw a juggler, looked out at the boats, checked out the roller coaster and helped Allison try to overcome her fear of the cracks between the wooden beams that make up the pier’s walkway.



We ventured down to the beach and Yoshi took the kids in the water while I sat on the beach blanket and vegged. The kids had a blast (this was their first time at the beach, believe it or not.) So did Yoshi. They were covered from head to toe with sand and salt. Cameron and Megan preferred chasing the waves, and Allison was happy to build a sand castle right at the water’s edge, running away when the waves splashed too closely.


And I sat on the blanket watching all of this, enjoying the breeze on my skin, the nearly thunderous sound of the crashing waves and the soft heat from the almost-setting sun. I didn’t have a book to read or a notebook to write in, but that was perfectly OK. It was a chance for me to breath in the subtley salty air and relish being alive. To my own surprise, I quite enjoyed myself.

For dinner, we had crappy pizza on the boardwalk, then we headed down to Muscle Beach. Did you know, there’s a Muscle Beach Jr., with all the same apparatus, except smaller? The kids played on the bars and balance beams and ropes for a while before we headed home.

On the way home, Yoshi gushed about what a wonderful time he had. I don’t think it will be long before the suggestion to go to the beach will come up again.

Posted by Tammy at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Not quite royal rainbow. But good enough for now. Suggestions are welcome. (But be gentle, I am color scheme disabled.)

Posted by Tammy at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my continued efforts to procrastinate, I found the website for VHEMT - Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

At first, I thought it was a kind of a kooky anti-people thing. I started reading it expecting to find crazy-making arguments and assertations. After a few minutes of going through their FAQ, I no longer had that expectation. In fact, they make a lot of really good points. And, funny enough, they don't sound crazy.

And ultimately, if we take their description literally, our family is part of the movement, because we've declared that we are not going to have any more children. But I don't think we'll go so far as to tattoo VHEMT on ourselves. There are some examples of tattoos on people around the world who are apparently quite involved with the movement.

I can see their points, and it's an interesting read. I recommend looking through the site, although I don't agree with it all. :) I just like things that make me think without trying to get me all riled up about something. It's rare these days that organizations or movements try to explain their perspective without appealing to people's reactive emotions. For that alone, the VHEMT website is worth reading.

Posted by Tammy at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yoshi installed MovableType 3.2 on his server, and now I have a whole new fancy blog interface. Nevermind that it's the default setup. Nevermind that I'm not using any of the advanced settings.

The features that I like so far are:
1) I can automatically approve or deny all comments. Maybe I could do that with the previous version, but I couldn't figure out how, and used an outside program to deal with spam.
2) If I OK a person's comments, and they use the same info later, their future comments are automatically approved.
3) The menu for adding entries, arranging comments and fixing settings is much easier to read and easier to figure out what do to where.
4) The menus on my blog page are easier to read and my text doesn't do weird stuff. Now, that might have been user error with the previous version. That doesn't negate the fact that I like the new way it's set up.

Tonight, I'm going to fiddle with colors, after Yoshi shows me what to change in the .css file. Maybe, just maybe, I'll make it look like a Royal Rainbow!

Posted by Tammy at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fark.com has started a new weekly Farktography contest. This week, the theme is, “what the fark is that?" abstract photography. Normally, I find this kind of thing interesting, but not noteworthy – I’ve never been able to appreciate art all that much, other than to say, “wow, that looks like it was impossahard to do.”

Well, this Fartography contest is really worth a look-see. I’m frankly amazed at some of the images. I was literally “oooh”ing and “aaah”ing over some of them. I’m in awe of anyone who can take photographs like this. I might even steal some for my desktop image.

I particularly like these pics: 8:05:56, 8:09:25, 8:14:45, 8:16:31, 9:35:08, 9:50:23, 10:41:38, 10:46:07 and 11:08:18. Which ones do you like?

On a side note, I’ve been considering becoming a TotalFarker for some time. I have to use PayPal to join. Do I want to do that? I can’t decide. Fark is one of my main sources for entertainment, especially now that I’m not playing WoW much anymore. I suppose, I owe them a little bit of thanks for making me laugh so much.

Posted by Tammy at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I finished the fourth Artemis Fowl book (The Opal Deception) and another Eoin Colfer book, The Supernaturalists.

I liked both books. I was impressed how well Eoin was able to take the Artemis books to a fourth story and keep it interesting. One particular intriguing aspect of this book is a scene where Artemis, after having lost all memory of working with the faeries in the past three books, regains his memories in a few minutes time. All at once, his personality changes due to being able to see things in a different light.

It made me wonder how much of our understanding of the world and ourselves is based on our memories. If, somehow, I were to re-discover a large quantity of previously hidden memories, what kind of effect would it have on who I am and my nature? I think this kind of thing happens quite often, when our brains repress painful memories to protect us. And we can see how that sometimes will change people when their memories return to them.

But, what if the memories were neither catastrophic nor pleasant – just a lot of missing memories of our experiences; good, bad and neutral. A whole collection of knowledge, remembering people and places we’ve been that we had forgotten. What if we remembered it all in a very short period of time?

I believe that a lot of who we are comes from what we remember. If we didn’t remember anything, who are we? We are a collection of our memories. Yet, there is so much influence from our genes – can our experiences and memories change us all that much? I suppose this question has been around for a long time, considering how many twin studies that have been done, and how we find interesting the tales of adopted children being so much like (or different) than their parents who they didn’t grow up with.

After pondering about how memories serve us, The Supernaturalists had me thinking about how our current beliefs affect who we are. One of the main characters is defined by his one belief that his mother was killed by a supernatural being. But as the story unfolds, his understanding of what’s real and what’s a lie gets overturned again and again. I’m brought to wonder what would happen if I was to discover that the things I believe in as a certainty are actually not true, or that all the effort I was putting into something to do good for the world actually ended up being harmful.

I hope when my kids get older they will be interested in reading these books. Not only are they good stories, they make the reader think about his own life and what it means to be alive.

And there you have it, your psycho-metaphysical zen thought for the day – who are you if not your memories and your beliefs?

Posted by Tammy at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the primary reasons for purchasing my lappy was to be able to take it on trips like the one we went on this weekend. I used lappy to play music at my Yoga class, and to do some work in the hotel room (although I chose not to pay $10 a day to access my email.) I didn't use my lappy all that much, but just having access to my stuff at a moment's notice, well, was just awesome.

Before we left for our trip, I hadn't unplugged lappy from its internet connection, or moved it off my office table. I was nervous to bring it with me, for fear of it being dropped, or stolen, or having juice spilled on it. But I knew I had to give it freedom at some point - I mean, isn't that why I bought it?

So, lappy was free for almost five days. But as I brought it into the house and started to put all the familiar network plugs into their corresponding ports, I could almost hear lappy sigh in relief, similar to the soft sound of joy that crossed my lips as we pulled our car into our familiar driveway.

So lappy is hooked in now. And I could swear, that if I didn't know better, it looks as if lappy is grinning.

Posted by Tammy at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We just got back from our weekend trip. Click on the link to read all about it. We just got back from the HomeSchool Association of California’s conference in Sacramento. It was an amazing conference and a full weekend for all of us.

I met so many people that I lost count. Now, when I chat with people on the e-list and concerning the CHS magazine, I’ll have a face to match to the name. I presented with Richard Prystowsky, an amazing speaker, writer and just a great person. It was a fun presentation, with lots of good questions, and we were able to see the issues from various angles. They taped our talk and sold the CD in the vendor hall with the other presenter’s sessions. It was really neat to see our names so prominently displayed on the table!

I also spoke on the methods and styles panel, where I got to hear from some really amazing parents. And, it was here that I finally got to chat a little bit with Pam Sorooshian, a good friend from the e-list and a prominent voice in the unschooling community (as well as the homeschooling community in general). She’s an amazing person – smart, creative, inspiring and just lovable!

I also had a chance to meet many people from the e-mail list, see some local friends, see some friends that I met at last year’s conference, and talk with some of HSC’s writers that I’ve never met face to face. I also got a chance to have some long discussions with the HSC Board members, as well as with some other active volunteers.

There was so much to do, I had very little down time. I mostly used that down time to eat, swim and sleep. Yoshi watched the kids almost all day Saturday, so I took the kids to the play room for an hour or so to let him nap. Later that day, we met up with our good friend Jeff, and his daughter Tristan, and took a dip in the pool together. The dads then took the kids to dinner while I went to a volunteer reception.

Sunday was also busy, but Cameron had eaten too much popcorn the night before, so was feeling ill most of the day. While he was resting, after my morning panel, I took the girls to have lunch, walk the vendor hall and chat with friends, in particular Ann Zeise, the web guru behind A2Z Home’s Cool. At the vendor hall, we picked up this awesome game with 63 miniature doggies, as well as a cool drawing book that was perfect for Allison – a book of drawing discussion and exercises in the form of a comic book, her two favoritest things in the world.

Yoshi was pretty tired by the end of the weekend, and a little disappointed that he wasn’t able to do a lot of stuff with Cam. Yoshi had planned to do rock climbing and rocket making and the talent show, but Cam just wasn’t up to leaving the room. So, although our weekend was full and fun, we were a little bummed that it ended on a somber note.

Fortunately, by this morning, Cameron was feeling better, so our drive home was uneventful (that is, if you don’t count the brush fire next to the freeway, or the fact that we almost ran out of gas trying to find a gas station in Valencia).

When we got home, we all gravitated to our comfortable home activities: I put things away then unpacked my laptop, Yoshi checked his phone then went for a bike ride, Cameron read a short book then turned on Katamari Damacy, Allison had a snack, flopped on the floor, then turned on her preschool computer game, and Megan ran around the house crazy then climbed up onto the piano.

I learned a lot this weekend, and unexpectedly, very little of it had to do with homeschooling. I learned about the people I work with, I learned about juggling work and family, I learned about public speaking and I learned succinctly that everyone has a very unique personality, filling this world with a variety of thoughts and insights that make it a rich place to live. We’re fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people, with great minds, and lots and lots of love. The members and volunteers of HSC, the CHS writers, our friends and everyone we were fortunate to meet this weekend, every single one of them, rock!

Posted by Tammy at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This weekend is the HSC conference. We’re going to be incredibly busy, but I’m sure that we’ll find time to swim and watch T.V. I mean, that’s the most important reason for going, if I listen to the kids talk about it.

I’m excited about the conference because I’m going to see so many of the people that I’ve been working with all year via e-mail. Some I met at last year’s conference, but I was so brand spankin’ new at being the California HomeSchooler editor, that I still was trying to get my bearings. This year will be a whole new experience, and I’m hoping to have time to talk to everyone at some point over the weekend.

I am very fortunate to have such a supportive husband who is willing to cart the kids around to their various workshops, and keep them fed and clean and generally entertained while I do my thing. So, if you see him at the conference, go up to him and say ‘hi’, and thank him for me, cuz he rocks.

Posted by Tammy at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I set forth to read the fourth book in the Artemis Fowl series. I was surprised this weekend to find out that there was a fourth book, and that it has been out since April. Why wasn’t I notified?

The first three books in the series kept me reading late at night, unable to pull myself away. The story is about fairies and magical creatures, but it explores the topic from the unique perspective of a genius 12 year old evil mastermind, who wants nothing more than to steal all of their gold. It sounds kind of hokey at first, but Eoin Colfer does an amazing job sharing the story with us, so that it seems that perhaps there just might be a secret magical group of species living underground, watching us and effecting our lives right under our noses.

After three books full of running around knees bent business, a certain super fairy villain sets her wits against the young genius. He’s at a disadvantage this time around, since he doesn’t have any memory of his previous adventures, after the fairies mind-wiped him to keep their community secret.

Oh, but I don’t want to give too much of the plot away. Eoin’s writing style is relaxed and inviting, and even after three entire books of fairy adventures, never feels contrived. I’m impressed with Eoin as a writer due to his style, and as a storyteller due to his never ending stream of new ideas for his characters.

I’m about ½ way through the book, so I still have to hold out any final critique until I see how this all plays out. But, so far, I’m having a good time believing in fairies.

Posted by Tammy at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have another article in print. This one is in Parents' Monthly Magazine. Scroll down the page a little bit to find it.

Posted by Tammy at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our Honda Odyssey, the car that has been near and dear to us for nearly five years, is dismantling itself piece by piece, like a degenerative skin disease – rapid and grotesque.

It started quite innocuously, when the passenger side door started beeping at us, and not closing all the way after several attempts each time we loaded in passengers. We have taken the car in several times for that problem. Each time, the response was, “We don’t see anything wrong.”

Then, about a month ago, our air conditioner refused to respond to the automatic thermostat. That, was an electrical problem that took two weeks to fix, through many aggravating conversations with the mechanics.

After we resolved that problem, within a week, the passenger side door that we had been having trouble with refused to open. We had to rush that into the shop, and they fixed it surprisingly quick. Their comment on the sheet was, “Advise customer not to let seatbelt get stuck in door jam.” I guess they didn’t notice that the seat belt is permanently trapped under and through Megan’s car seat.

We thought that perhaps this would fix the beeping problem we were having with the door. But not a few hours after coming home, it started beeping again. It’s still beeping to this day. I ignore it now.

A few days after we got the door fixed, I went to go unlock the car with my remote, and it didn’t do anything. We tried Yoshi’s remote. Nothing. We opened the door manually with the key, and tried unlocking the rest of the doors with the driver’s side switch. Nothing. So, we resigned ourselves to take the car back in as soon as possible (which was going to be in a few days.) By the time we returned the car to the dealer to fix the door locks, the “check engine” light came on (and stayed on) and the dashboard lights wouldn’t come on. (I never knew how important those lights are for driving at night until we had to drive in almost complete interior darkness.)

So, we took the car in today, and this is the prognosis: 1) the multiplex unit is bad (hence all the electrical problems). 2) the front motor mount needs to be replaced (that’s oh so comforting) and 3) the catalytic converter must be replaced (that does NOT sound good).

We’re planning on leaving Thursday for a five day trip to Sacramento. As the date of departure approaches, our car becomes sicker and sicker. What is in store for us this next week?

I asked Yoshi what he’s taking away from all of this, because, he’s the one who has been dealing with all the mechanics. His response – “Toyota”.

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This is the only picture I could find of our car in our archives. This is 2 years ago Easter, before Megan.

Posted by Tammy at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My blog has been translated into Japanese.

Kyoko Aizawa, one of the key activists for alternative education in Japan, has been posting some of my articles and e-mail list postings to her Japanese homeschooling website. Today, she emailed me to ask if she could translate my blog, and put up a picture of our children having fun as homeschoolers.

So, I can honestly say, that my blog is internationally renown. Thank you Kyoko.

Posted by Tammy at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight we went to Allison’s first soccer practice. Allison is in the U6 division. All the girls on her team are 4.5-5.5 years old.

She did fabulous! I was a little nervous, since in the past she has been hesitant to do group activities where she might be singled out, with everyone looking at her. But, she jumped right in, and only had trouble on a few of the drills towards the end of the hour when she was getting tired.

We realized during the practice that Allison is really good at soccer! She’s the youngest on the team, and she kept up with all the girls, and in some cases outran the whole group. She also has really good control of the ball. Who knows how this will translate in a game. But this is really exciting to me, because up to this point, she has turned her nose to organized physical activity, or anything that might be “hard”. Go Allison! That’s my girl!

I also noticed that every single girl on the team had a different style soccer ball. On Cam’s team, almost all the balls were black and white hexagons. On Allison’s team, they each have their own style ball. Allison’s is pink, another girl had a silver ball with a star, another had a yellow ball, another had a blue and white hexagon, and so on. How is it possible that when buying their balls, each girl picked a different style? I wonder if having seven girls with such distinct tastes will be an issue when deciding on a team name.

Stuff like this just doesn’t come into play with the boy’s teams. I have a feeling that Allison’s team will show us a whole different side to AYSO soccer.

Posted by Tammy at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. Although lacking some depth, the story brings into question how ensuring safety and consistency results in loss of freedom and uniqueness. It was written in 1994, but the story is so applicable today, it’s kind of scary. I suppose, this kind of thing has been a fear of humanity for a long time, hasn’t it? The desire to want to be safe and secure and not have to worry about things like hunger or suffering. Yet, we still want to be free and have choice.

Being entrenched in the alternative educational movement, I also see many parallels to NCLB and how the push for mediocracy in the form of standards moves us closer to loss of creativity. It seems to obvious to me, that in order for everyone to be "up to par" according to certain standards in certain subjects leaves little room for individual abilities and perspectives. Yet, the importance of standards and making sure everyone is "successful" according to a nationally set point of reference is nailed down in response to efforts to try and increase options for self expression.

We can’t have standards and creativity at the same time. We have to choose one or the other, just like in The Giver, they had to give up their feelings and uniqueness in order to be a perfectly safe society.

Is The Giver part of the reading list in schools nowadays? If it’s not, it should be. But I wonder, if the powers that be understood the parallels between the political push for sameness in our current educational perspective, and the greyness of the Community in The Giver, would they allow such a text to be included in the standards?

Posted by Tammy at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went to get gas today, and the price was 2.75 a gallon!!! What is this world coming to? When will it end? How high do the prices have to go before people will revolt? Gas in LA is more important than food. We're gonna have an uprising soon.

I also noticed, that the gas station near our house has brand spankin' new gas pumps, with fancy displays and push button selection. Coincidence?

Posted by Tammy at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It took me about 4 days to read the latest Harry Potter book. I was really impressed with this one. The story leads the reader on a consistent journey of interesting twists from beginning to end, unlike Rowling's last two books which had lots of lead up time before getting to the compelling material.

Harry is growing up. I like him better now. And I liked him before. For the first time after reading a Harry Potter book, I can’t wait until the next one comes out. Although, I’m convinced that Harry’s going to die at the end of the last book. It just seems like the natural way of things.

Now I’m reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. It has a very 1984esque feel to it. Or, maybe, more like Logan’s Run. This story, however, is told from the point of view of a 12 year old.

Posted by Tammy at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is my most recently published article. This one was a last-minute rush job to promote the HSC conference next week. I was flattered that they asked me to write it.

Posted by Tammy at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comments are working. Feel free to go back and retro-comment.

Come on... you know you want to!

Here's a picture of Yoshi with his new bike.

Posted by Tammy at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Somehow, it feels just wrong to be writing on my blog when my comments aren’t working.

A few days ago, Yoshi mentioned that he needed to fix our friend’s blog because his comments weren’t working. It occurred to me at this point, that I had yet to receive any comments on my own blog in the past month of renewed blogging practice. Although I don’t expect a great many people to be reading my blog, I thought I might go ahead and check to see if my comments were indeed accessible.

Well, they aren’t. And I can’t believe how attached I am to the idea that I need to have them fixed in order to add new blog material.

What is the value of a blog if one cannot receive comments? See! You can’t even leave me a comment to let me know what you think of this question.

I hope Yoshi fixes my comments soon. Even though there are probably only a handful of people reading my random thoughts here, it sure would be nice to have at least a, “great story, love dad” comment here and there.

Speaking of Yoshi, he’s at his motorcycle class tonight. The last of three nights in a row that he’s been away. After this, he’ll be able to go get his permanent motorcycle license.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.

Posted by Tammy at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We recently refinanced our house through DiTech.com. The experience was really easy and we got a good deal. We’re happy.

But ever since, we’ve been getting a stifling amount of offers to refinance our house – again. I’m assuming there is a master list somewhere of all the people who have mortgages and who have refinanced their homes. I’m wondering though, why banks and finance companies think that we’d have any interest in refinancing again, just a week after we signed the papers for this loan? Not to mention that the rates they are offering us are higher, with more points, than the loan that we have.

Doesn’t that master list also have our mortgage rates and refinance date? Wouldn’t it be wise of these companies to exclude recent re-financers and low rate financers from their mailing lists? I guess, the fact that I do not at all understand this, is a very good reason why I’m not involved in advertising or marketing.

We’ve also been getting a lot of offers for something called "mortgage accelerators". Basically, they say, we pay twice a month instead of once, splitting our payments in half, and by some miraculous mathematical equation, we end up paying off our mortgage faster. My feeble math brain just doesn’t get the logic of this assessment. If I pay the same payment, but in two installments, I’m still paying off the same amount of principle, and I’m still being charge the same amount of interest.

So, I did some research on the internet to find out how this program can help me – exactly. I wanted to see some numbers, some clear explanation. What I found was company after company advertising this service as a “money saver” for their clients. In order to be in this program, the client pays a "modest" fee of $15 a month (or in very rare cases, it’s a free service.) The client also has to choose automatic payments, which makes it much harder to add one’s one additional payment.

What I did not find was a non-involved investment website that touted this program. Pretty much across the board, the approach of adding principal to each monthly payment, or to make a “13th” payment for principal only was the most popular. I found only one reference to the mortgage accelerator program, in a column, and it basically listed the down sides, not the benefits.

Does this mean the program is not good? Not necessarily. But the websites that tout the program seem hauntingly close to those “make money in your sleep” websites that make big claims and sound like they are saying a lot, but don’t explain how it exactly works. I’m supposed to be pumped up by the promise of "more money" and "paying off my debt sooner" without really understanding how it works. In fact, I feel like I’m not supposed to really understand how it works. And, to me, that’s not a good sign.

Posted by Tammy at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)