Looks like my any apprehension I had about getting a new crib may have been answered Saturday night: I found out that John, Jill's fiance, still has a mortgage on the house, which wouldn't be bad iff'n Miller didn't get butt-raped in the great property tax fiasco of 2004 (tm). I don't know what his taxes are, but I did hear him tell someone we were talking to that one of the reasons he and Jill are moving is because he was insulted by the taxes. (History: This year, because of a long history of lawsuits by big industry and this dude that I'm surprised hasn't been killed in a drive-by yet, the state of Indiana decided that Lake County should be assessed by an independent firm, because it was the only county not using a fair-market formula. When that happened, many homeowners' property taxes more than doubled and, in many cases in Miller, went from like $6,000 to $22,000 -- kind of like going from 0-60 in 30 seconds without a crash helmet.) So, unless his mortgage is, like, $200 a month, I can't imagine him renting it to me for anything less than $700 or $800 to cover the tax bill, and I can't afford it. Again, things could change between now and a year, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Of course, I found out all this after Jill and I decided that I would paint the kitchen apple green to stand out with the white cabinetry and appliances. Crap.

Meanwhile, the one guy made an appearance Friday night/Saturday morning, drunk and all fired up about something or other. (He was also exhausted, because he'd been up since he got off work at some ungodly hour.) One thing he talked about was going after the "insurmountable challenge," because even if it doesn't work out -- and it very rarely, if ever, does -- the one time that it does will be worth it. Mm-hmmm. Make of that what you will; I've already drawn my own conslusions. Anyway, Saturday I spent the afternoon with Jill at Customs, and then we went to a Christmas carole sing-along at the Gallery, where much wine and even some tequila (heh -- it was Patron, which is smoooooooove) was consumed. I begged off early, though, because I was tired.

Today was spent taking Mother to the mall, which didn't suck nearly as bad as it could've. She bought her Christmas present (for which I'll give her money when I get paid Thursday): a short, pink leather jacket, which I'm sure I'll have to borrow for dress-up.