But I thought I had gone through all those papers!

In the seemingly never ending task of reducing our belongings in advance of our cross country move (Hubby retires in 21 months), I have been trying out the Konmari method of deciding what to keep.

My clothes were easy as they have had a lot of attention this year. My books - same deal. Then I got to papers excluding sentimental ones which are mostly my genealogical files. I thought this would be a breeze as at the beginning of each January I go through all of our files and remove unnecessary paper. Well, clearly I thought I was doing that!

It turns out I haven't really looked at each piece of paper but rather whizzed through each file. I'm almost done with the looking at each piece this round though.

What's left? I still need to go through our fire safe, a notebook of mine and our kitchen desk pile. But this morning Hubby asked what he should do with all of the papers in his office at work that represent his lifetime career achievement!!! I suggested scanning them and tossing. Hopefully he has multi-page scanning capability at work as our combo printer/scanner/fax will only do one page per file. I'd buy a new scanner rather than moving and storing all of his papers which will probably rarely, if ever, be looked at again.

Onward with papers I can deal with.

Hmmm, why do we tend to think more is better?

I am in the midst of listening to our CDs to decide which ones to keep and to bring music back into my life. I am finding ones that I hadn't listened to for years that I enjoy. I'm also finding that we have too many in different categories.

Yesterday I listened to 3 Frank Sinatra CDs. I enjoyed 2 of the 3 and found one to be of poor acoustic quality. The question that popped into my mind though was why did we have so many in the first place? Probably one would be enough but I kept the 2 good ones for now.

Today it is the 3 Cuban/Latin CDs. Tomorrow will be the 5 (!) Pancho Sanchez ones. I know why we have so many of those though. We went to an outdoor concert by him 25ish years ago and had a grand time so we loaded up on his music.

I've also been listening to the ones I brought home from the 100s recently donated to the Friends of the Library. Those are easier to make decisions on. If I don't like the first track then it goes back. So far I have only picked 3 to add to our collection and I am waffling on one of those LOL.

For me at least as far as music goes 1 or 2 is better than 3 or more. I am a person who like variety and at this time can't stand to listen to music that isn't uplifting.

I think that often we think more is better when we like the initial item a lot. How many times have you bought more colors of a top or shirt when the one that you really liked was the first one you selected. More wasn't better then either. The same can happen in other areas of our lives. I am trying to notice what I do automatically that doesn't add value for me and this is one of those things.

How many is too many? How many is enough?

This is one of my first world problems. How many of each type of thing if just the right amount?

So much has been written about how to declutter or reach the right balance point for your belongings. So many different approaches.

This is what I am trying right now.

I am following Mette's lead as she discusses in her post about creating a five year shopping calendar but I am trying to create a one year shopping calendar for my clothing and other useful things.

The first step is to decide how many of each type of garment is the "right" number. I managed to shed older tops using this approach while others had not helped me let go of them. Did they bring me joy per Marie Kondo? No, but they stayed in the closet. Had I worn them in the last year? Yes, but more because I felt I should wear them because they were hanging there. So 10 short sleeve/sleeveless casual knit tops is my number to try and I have 11 now plus 2 dressier ones. At the end of the summer if not sooner I will let the one go that is most worn out or least suited to me. I will not buy anymore until Spring 2016 when I will replace one or two.

As I continue to work on decluttering the office I have lots of these choices. Three exercise DVDs when I barely use one? Two are being donated.

Two books on colored pencil drawing when I took a class and then haven't drawn since? One will be donated but I am keeping the pencils and one book as I have realized that I like draw.

So my decluttering and therefore shopping questions for now are:

- How many is the right number to have?
- If I have too many should I let them wear out or remove them?
- If reducing the number I have, which ones of what I have are the best and/or most used?
- Do I need to add or replace in this category?
- We will see how it goes.

Moving talk

We are seeing For Sale signs popping up in front of houses around our neighborhood and we are at the 2 year countdown point for putting one up on ours. That assumes my husband retires at the end of May 2017 when in fact he may pick a later date in the year.

Regardless we are spending more time talking about the logistics of preparing for and accomplishing a cross country move.

A neighbor loaded stuff into a PODs container before putting their house up for sale. Should we consider that mode of moving our belongings vs. a rental truck vs. regular movers? Has anyone had experience with PODs for moving?

Who is likely to buy our house - someone who will live in it as is and slowly improve it, someone who will do a major renovation and/or addition before moving in, or a developer who will raze it and build a gigantic house on our big flat lot which is unusual in this part of town?

Could we do a For Sale by Owner? Not my preference but we are going to talk about it at least.

What should we repair or redecorate in the next two years based on how best to market our house for the least investment? We definitely are not going to remodel the baths of kitchen. We probably will have the exterior trim painted and some of the interior. We are fixing soon the retaining wall and stairs down the hill into our wooded area. It looks like we have found a reasonable approach and contractor for that. At the same time we will replace some dying but highly visible bushes so they have time to fill in.

How much of our stuff are we taking with us and how do we go about sorting and de-acquisitioning the rest? How far in advance do we need to start seriously doing this?

How do you transport a dog across the country without it getting lose or having a terrible trip?

Where will we live in California? What are the "must haves" for each of us? What can we afford? Will we want to rent the first year?

As you can imagine there is a lot to discuss and decide! Any resources or experiences that you can share would be most helpful.

California dreaming - lovely vacation & family visit plus scouting retirement location

We just returned home from an 11 day trip to California to visit family and take a short vacation on the coast. The weather, scenery and family were all perfect! Now as I sit here catching up on laundry, bills and planning a big grocery shop for later in the day I am contemplating what was so great about this trip beyond getting time with and hugs from my loved ones which was the main highlight to be sure.

The two day drive from Los Angeles up the coast to Santa Cruz was definitely a winner. My hubby used to be a surfer and we both love the ocean so the views and walks were perfect for us.

The realization as we took a coffee break in the Santa Barbara area that we would rather live there than in the hustle and bustle of Pasadena was a surprise. We don't know if it makes sense as the whole point of moving back is to be near our children and they are in Pasadena and Berkeley but finding a spot that felt right to both of us helps in thinking this through.

We really love the California lifestyle and diversity. We need to go back there for our next phase of life no matter how overwhelming the process and implementation seem at times.

So with those three points firmly in mind its on with our daily life here!

By the way, any of you who are aging in place in CA please tell me where and how it is working for you! So far we are considering South Pasadena, Santa Barbara and unknown parts of the East Bay in N. CA.

What to do with documents you have to keep?

I am determined not to move a lot of heavy paper back across the country. However there are things one has to keep - back tax returns come to mind as an example.

What are you all doing with those kinds of things. Scanning and putting the file in Dropbox or a similar secure cloud storage device? Keeping them in hard copy?

I'm a late adopter of technology but have set up a Dropbox location so our sons could access information in case we needed them to step in.

Very interested in your answers!

Starting to plan retirement and move

My husband is starting to think that he may retire on his 20 years of service anniversary in May 2017 rather than waiting until the end of 2017. This is starting to generate conversation about how to plan for this major life change which we intend to include a move back to the Los Angeles area. Whew!

So far we are trying to wrap our minds around the following:
- Would we rent or buy when we move?
- How much cash will we need for the move and first year?
- Should we leave the cash from my inheritance in a money market account in case we decide to buy?
- Where precisely would we look for a place to live and what are the criteria for making that decision?
- Is it possible to find a place we can afford that would allow us to age in place near family for 15 to 20 years with our budget?
- What repairs/upgrades do we need to make for our current home to sell it for top dollar?
- Would we try to time the sale and move to coincide with his retirement or start working on the sale after he retires?
- How and what would we move across the country?
- Would he look for work that requires being "in the office" or only do consulting work? This really would affect where we live?

We both spent a few hours yesterday looking through houses for sale sites to get a sense of what might work for us. We know it would be more expensive to buy there than what we can get for this house even though we will be downsizing. Moves are so much work that we really need to think through how to do this. When we moved here we rented an apartment on a month to month basis and stored our belongings. Hating living in the apartment drove us to buy a house too quickly I think.

2 1/2 years seems like a lot of time but with a change this big and wanting to be happy with our living circumstances means that we need to start thinking about it now.

If you have any words of wisdom based on experience please share them!

Comfort food, take out instead of eat out and trying to think of solutions

Hubby and I have spent several days talking on and off about how much we both like chicken pot pies and then bemoaning how unhealthy the frozen ones are and how he needs a non-dairy version. Today we decided to go to Whole Foods to see if we could meet our craving in a somewhat more healthy, non-dairy ready made frozen version - and we did! We bought 2 Blake's Chicken Pot Pies as the sodium and saturated fat levels were ok although higher than we normally eat. They solved our craving - pretty tasty.

While we were at the store I suggested we get some salmon for dinner. We ended up buying 2 pieces of cooked blackened salmon from the deli so it will almost feel like going out LOL. Just salad and veggies to cook.

We have also been trying to come up with a lower cost solution to the problem of removing 2 large trees down in our woods. I have emailed the arborist to see if they could leave tall "snags" that wouldn't hurt any property if they fell and how much that might reduce the cost. The lowest cost proposal so far involves a crane and will remove all of the wood but will also require some landscape repair/replacement work to be done. At least the need to remove the trees isn't urgent and we can explore alternatives.

Luckily we didn't have the problem a neighbor had yesterday. Squirrels chewed through the insulation on the power lines going into her house causing a power surge that destroyed some appliances, a tv and more as well as melting a surge protector and burning a hole in the rug where it sat. She came home in time to avoid a larger house fire. Yikes.

A lovely short walk after lunch and now a peaceful and sleeping dog beside me. 

Setting home repair/maintenance priorities

Update: We can get both trees removed and hauled away for $3,000 using a crane. There would also be some landscaping costs to create and repair the access path for the crane. Still less than the other estimate and the wood would be hauled away which is what we prefer (that was an additional cost with the other estimate).

________________________________________________________

I don't remember if I mentioned that, when I was outside right before our vacation convincing the neighbor's tree removal crew to remove the fallen tree from our property, I happened to look at a 100+ foot tree down in the woods and noticed a deep, long woodpecker cavity in its trunk. I had our arborist out to let me know how risky it was and we found another tree nearby that has significant rot around the base. Both are "moderate" risk of falling - whatever that means LOL. We feel we need to take both down to protect our house and our neighbor's house. The arborist's company wants nearly $4,000 to take both down, remove the brushy branches and stack the cut up trunks. Hmmm - time for a second bid. To be honest I have full faith in the first company that they would remove the trees very safely as they took down a similar one in the woods a few years ago.

Today we walked around in the woods to assess the damage done by the neighbor's tree removal to a retaining wall and relatively useless fence. We decided to have a go at removing the fence ourselves but I don't know if we can rebuild the retaining wall. I certainly can't lift the granite blocks. There is some trash (a tire, metal trash can, plastic seed trays, etc. behind the fence. The previous owners chucked things there instead of paying for removal. I'll be happy to have it all cleaned up but we haven't made it a priority as it is out of sight. We'll start the next good weather weekend.

Inside there are no urgent projects so everything is on hold until we find out what the trees are going to cost us. As you know, I'd rather spend the money on travel anyway!

I did get some great bargains at the grocery store & CVS today along with a discount on a gasoline gift card. I can't make up the cost of tree maintenance but every bit helps.

Retirement finances - decision making regarding Social Security benefits

I wrote some time ago about our plan for my husband to collect spousal Social Security benefits for a while until he starts collecting his own at 70. I am older than he is so it makes sense once he is old enough to not be penalized for his own earnings. Not definite dates for any of this yet however.

I was trying to explain this plan to my friends during our get away this past weekend and don't think I did a very good job. This morning I happened upon this article that, although written for women, applies to either gender - A woman's guide to Social Security spousal benefits

I have become aware after attending a Federal employee (Hubby is one) pre-retirement planning seminar that there are many decisions to make regarding retirement finances and they all seem to have long term consequences that need to be researched carefully. When and how to claim Social Security benefits is just one of those decisions. I hope this article help someone!

Decisions cubed! Pre-retirement seminar completed and streams of income issues

Today we attended a very informative pre-retirement seminar put on by the Federal government for employees. Contrary to what some people think, current civilian employees don't get pensions similar to military pensions. Instead they get a small pension based on years of service and salary, social security, and payouts from a retirement savings account similar to an IRA and dependent upon how much the employee contributed. A huge benefit though is the ability to keep participating in health insurance as long as you are willing to pay the employee part of the cost. Hubby is a federal employee so we are trying to learn about all of this and they suggested attending the first time when you are about 5 years from retirement. He has 4 1/2 years to go.

We learned that not only do you have a lot of decisions to make but many of them depend upon what kind of income you need to generate annually, whether or not you want to bet on a long life and buy annuities and what kind of spousal survivor benefits you think might be needed. We also have my social security and IRA savings and Hubby's IRA savings from prior employment. Ouija board anyone?

I'm not going to go into the details of what all we have to think through, but we will have to sit down with a counselor from where are IRAs are (educational employee program) as well to understand our options there. And I think one of us needs to get trained as a financial planner in the meantime LOL.

Seriously, the whole stream of income issue is one every retiree will have to address if they have any sources of income available in addition to social security. I think the decision process has to go something like this.

- What are your annual pre-tax income needs based on your planned expenses?
- How long do you want to assume you will live?
- What inflation rate and investment return rates are you assuming?
- Do you want a fixed annual income or a gradually increasing one to take into account inflation?
- What kind of survivor benefits need to be in place to ensure the widow/widower is not economically strapped?
- What income streams do you have available and how much do you want to take from each annually?
- What do you need to do to set up these income streams? What are the tax implications?
- Who can help you figure this out?????

For those who have already set up their retirement income streams, I am very curious how you thought it through?

I am so glad I have tracked our income and expenses for years as that will help a lot. However, since we will move after retirement our expenses will change in unknown ways.

I did get one question answered. Since I will be eligible for Medicare in a little over a year, I should sign up for part A which is free. Hubby will continue to provide health insurance for both of us. When he retires I can sign up for Medicare Part B with no penalty so there is no need to sign up for it before then and pay the monthly fee.

Do you structure your time or not? I'm revamping my "retirement" activities and trying to decide what to do

I've spent quite a bit of time this weekend reconsidering a volunteer commitment I just started. I can't quite bring myself to spend the time required to prepare for a meeting about it on Wednesday but I care about the cause. I think I'm going to have to back out gracefully.

That has led me to wondering how do I have to and want to spend my time now that I have officially stopped working at my consulting business.

The "have to" list is pretty easy: (Please note that my Hubby still works full time and does a lot too but I'm picking up more than I did when I worked full time)

- Laundry, grocery shopping, dinner preparation, house cleaning
- Part of the pruning, raking, weeding, etc. required to maintain our too large property
- Dog care
- Manage finances including paying bills
- Most of the travel planning as needed

The "want to" list is harder:

- I volunteer one day a week with additional time required periodically
- I read - a lot
- I want to exercise more and join a gym - this requires a schedule LOL

I don't know what else I want to do.

I'm thinking though that blocking out time for activities is the way to go - perhaps 2 hour blocks during the day on weekdays.

I am very curious how others handle this - please start a conversation.

Rightsizing home improvement plans

As readers of this blog know, we only plan to stay in this house until Hubby retires in 4 1/2 years. However both of our bathrooms need total remodels and at least some improvement to make the house readily marketable. Several years ago we paid to have plans and estimates for redoing each of them and then were unwilling to pay the amount required. Part of the reason was that each realtor we have talked to has said our house will probably be bought by someone who will gut it and add on to it given the way the neighborhood is going.

So, I have resurrected the what to do about the bathrooms question this week. I started out wanting to replace everything in the downstairs bathroom, but do it on a budget. That doesn't look doable based on my research. We had a discussion tonight and came up with a plan that does seem doable in stages.

We are going to do the downstairs bathroom first.
1. Get the window replaced, the second door closed off and a new door for the linen closet with the work done by someone who has done similar projects for us before. I'm calling him today.
2. Get a company that refinishes tubs and counter tops out to see if they can successfully do that with the 1970's acrylic ones we have and what it would cost. If it is feasible then pick out the color and plan to do it after step 3. If it is not feasible then we will have to buy and have installed a new counter top, tub and surround. Cross your fingers for us!
3. Get a grout repair company to work on the tile floors in both bathrooms.
4. Paint a lovely new color, buy a window blind that can be installed to open at the top, and perhaps get new towels.

The master bath needs, in addition to the floor refreshing, the following.
1. A new sink and medicine cabinet. This will take some research as it is an awkward spot to find the right products for, but the man we are having do the window, etc. downstairs would be good for installing these.
2. The shower tile replaced and a bent pipe fixed. Not sure who we would hire to do the tile work, but we will start asking around for recommendations. And we will hope the shower has not leaked at all requiring repair under the shower pan.

So what are we not doing? We are not replacing either floor nor the upstairs bath windows. We are not changing out any light fixtures, getting new fans or moving electrical. We are using the existing relatively new toilets and the storage units already in the upstairs bath. We are not removing the whole house fan from the upstairs bathroom and raising the ceiling. We are not painting the upstairs bath. We are not widening the door of the downstairs bath and rearranging the floor plan which would require moving the window too. We are not rearranging the floor plan of the upstairs bath to put in double sinks. And hopefully we are not replacing the counter top, tub or surround in the downstairs bath.

So there you have it. Better "curb appeal" for much less than if we did the versions we really want. Still a major investment, but at least we can enjoy the results for the next 4 years and hopefully sell at a higher price when the time comes.

Choosing where to spend our "optional" money - what does it say about us?

Some of my friends have gotten very interested in helping me look as good as possible at my son's wedding in May. I had a makeup session with one friend, another has lent me a sparkly silver cardigan in case it is as chilly as I expect, and yet another is encouraging me to get a pedicure since my dress shoes are open toe. One of them wanted to lend me some beautiful earrings, but I don't have pierced ears. Such lovely friends!

Since I stopped wearing makeup years ago and have never paid for manicures/pedicures, the idea of spending on those on a regular basis caused me to pause and think about where we choose to spend the money we don't "need" to spend. Some big optional spending categories for us are travel (mostly to visit family), gifts, Pilates private sessions, the Poodle Princess' expenses, and eating out. Others are technology (cable package, buying a larger tv this week and a Kindle), wine/beer, art classes, and theatre/movie tickets. I guess I should add having two cars as I no longer work and we could manage with one although it would be a pain and seriously limit my mobility as there is poor public transportation here. We don't spend much on cell phones, clothing, home furnishings, or books/magazines although we do get the local newspaper and use the library a lot. We do max out our retirement accounts which is chunk of money in itself.

Apparently from our spending patterns we value time with family, experiences, having a pet, gift giving, staying fit, and saving money. In fact we would spend a lot more on some areas such as travel if we weren't concerned about saving for retirement and didn't have such a costly house to operate. I'm hoping that we can shift the proportion of money going to savings and housing vs. travel and fun once we retire and sell this house. I don't see us having one car though unless we can manage to live in a location with great public transportation and good services within walking distance.

The only short term change planned is to stop the Pilates private sessions and use the now extra tv and existing dvd player to set up an exercise space. I'm also planning to join a gym that has Pilates classes and is a bargain because our insurance offers a discount on membership - I have to commit to a 3 month membership and will do that soon. I'll spend some of the savings on therapeutic massages as I am no longer seeing the physical therapist for my "frozen" shoulder but it is healing very slowly and still hurts. We will also soon be finished paying for my orthodonture but I'm sure some other health care expense will pop up.

Have you ever looked at your spending in terms of what it says about your values?

Part 3: Preparing for Retirement continued - Still more about whether to continue life insurance in retirement

I just read an article about this very topic (I'm Retired - Do I Still Need Life Insurance? ) and it brought up a question I will be thinking about - How much income will the surviving spouse lose if the other dies? In case of the decision as to whether or not to continue my term life insurance, right now my husband would not lose any income. Once I start collecting SS and other retirement income he would lose the SS income only if I died.  We need to talk about whether or not he would need to replace that income. More thought required here.

Situations Where Life Insurance Is Needed

• Couples in their peak earning years, saving for retirement.
• Retirees who will lose a substantial portion of the family income when one spouse dies.
• Parents with non adult children.
• Families with a large, illiquid estate, who’s estate will be subject to estate tax.
• Business owners, business partners, and key employees employed by small businesses.

Part 3: Preparing for Retirement - What to do about long term care and life insurance?

I just received the quarterly bill for my term life insurance policy and recently my older brother announced that he is shopping for long term care insurance and he and his wife no longer have life insurance. I don't know what to do about these things.

My life insurance is reasonable and if I needed long term care for a terminal illness it would compensate for the expense either post hoc or, depending on the state I lived in at the time, we could tap into it for those expenses as they occurred. I no longer earn any significant income so it isn't needed to compensate for lost income and we don't have a mortgage or other debt to pay off. My slightly younger hubby however is the sole breadwinner for 5 more years and we will be keeping his life insurance.

We haven't shopped for long term care insurance being put off by our pre-existing health conditions, the cost, the ongoing changes in the industry, etc. I can't seem to wrap my usually analytical and decisive mind around this one. I am curious what my brother will learn and perhaps letting him do the research will help us make a decision.


What are your thoughts? What are you doing in these two areas once your children are grown?

What will you retire to? Lifestyle meets finances

Recently my brother asked me what hubby and I thought we would do when we retired.  I answered that we had a vary vague picture of that as it was 5 years out for hubby and until then we would be continuing along as we do now assuming no major unplanned life upheavals.  My brother and his wife are older than we are and have both officially retired.  They are just starting to think about how they will spend their time.  My SIL will do fine as she is high energy and highly social. My brother continues to work as a consultant. They both help my 91 year old mother a lot. They will figure it out although they didn't plan it in advance.

I think that for most people pre-retirement planning tends to focus on the finances and not on what you will be retiring to.  Leaving work means leaving structured days, possibly purposeful and rewarding activity, lots of social contact and perhaps intellectual stimulation.  How to prepare to replace all of that?

Our plans are vague for our official "retirement" in 5 years when hubby turns 65.  That is when hubby expects to leave his current job and his plan is to move somewhere and find a new job. In fact a few days ago he asked me if he would need to earn the same amount from 65 to 70 as he earns now! He does love his work and I do think part-time work will make him happy. I'd like the flexibility of his working part time or on a project basis so we could travel more as a couple but we'll see what happens. I am already semi-retired/working part-time and am experiencing some of the challenges of moving into a non-working lifestyle. I'm not alone - it was a topic of conversation at my book club this week.

So what will we be retiring to? It will have to be a combination of financial capability and desired or necessary lifestyle decisions.

I recently received an email from TIAA-CREF which contained the following key lifestyle questions as part of an article on financial planning checkups. As they said, it’s not easy, but you should factor lifestyle issues into your financial planning. To get started, here’s their suggested checklist of questions that you can copy and paste, and then modify with your own specific questions. Of course it is the answers that will matter the most!

__In addition to my retirement, what financial issues do I need to consider in balancing multiple goals over time, such as funding education for children and grandchildren, caring for elderly parents, and providing a legacy for my family and charitable organizations?

__What’s my target date for retiring? Will I be ready to leave my job? Will I work part time? Once I’m retired, if I underestimated my lifestyle needs, what next steps should I take?

__As I near retirement, are there questions I need to be asking about transitioning to healthcare coverage for retirement years, election dates, continuation of coverage for my spouse or other dependents, costs?

__Based on the lifestyle I want in retirement, what’s the best time to apply for Social Security and Medicare? How do I start that process?

__Where will I live, and do I want to downsize or upsize?

__What will I be doing once I retire, and what’s the cost associated with that? Can I actually afford to retire and do all that I want to do?

__What are my options for receiving income that best meet my lifestyle needs, including when to take required minimum distributions?

__What are the tax implications for the lifestyle I want to lead?

Upgrading our technology - What's a frugal late adopter/laggard to choose?

Despite my best efforts to ignore the advances in technology, it is time to consider make some updates to computer, phone and perhaps to add an E-reader or tablet. As usual I am relying on my technically adept son to help with advice but I am really starting at a low point of knowledge. For example, I had to ask him how you access wireless service if you get an E-reader. He says he has an extra wireless router he can ship me. Still not sure how that works with our internet service.

Anyway, here's what I am thinking.

Easy - Computer could use a new keyboard although the current one works fine. I've asked said technically savvy son to give me one for Christmas. At least all the keys would have readable letters on them then.

Middling Difficulty - I use TracFone for mobile service as I only use a cell phone when I am out of the house. My old cell is a very basic phone - no internet access or other smart phone services. I have lots of prepaid minutes I'd like to transfer to any new phone. I haven't sat through the interminable wait to talk to customer service yet to see if that is possible but I have asked same son to tell me if any of the phones they currently offer might be good for me. Step one at least.

Most Difficult - I like to read and listen to music when I travel. I hate spending money on books as I am an avid library fan. I do think that I would like to have some sort of device though that brings me reading material on the go. I've asked my book club for advice in choosing between a Kindle Fire and a Nook HD and so far don't have any clarity. My son threw in the Google Nexus 7 as another option. Oh my aching head (from pounding against the technological horn of plenty). UPDATE: My hubby found this great LINK to help think through this question.

Advice? Experience? Suggestions? Any and all help is appreciated!

VOTE!

It may be inconvenient or annoying to stand in line but its important to exercise this right. As a woman, I'm glad the suffragettes worked so diligently to get the law changed to provide me with this right. So much so that I vote even when I know my choice has little chance of winning. Make your voice heard!

Vote: Have you? Will you? I did today!

I always vote even when I know an election will not go to the candidate I support. I think about how long women struggled to get the vote. I think about all the people around the world who have died for the right to vote. So I head off and mark my choices and am happy to do so. Today I was especially happy as it only took 15 minutes at the early voting location I chose.