Frustrations Galore...

The past few weeks have been getting increasingly frustrating for me. First, I am covering a part of the office for the entire duration of the Christmas and New Year's holidays and, because they are not great at information sharing, everyone who calls to ask questions gets to hear me say "I don't know. I'll take a message and have {name} return your call."

Second, my truck battery fizzled on Christmas Eve, forcing me to interrupt my neighbor's family Christmas festivities to beg for someone to jump-start my engine. The first attempt resulted in 30 seconds of engine sputtering, but the second attempt was successful. I was able to make it to my parents' house without ending up stranded along the side of the road. My fabulous dad got a new battery for my truck and installed it the day after Christmas.

Third, I decided to refinance my mortgage because the bank I was using would only do a five-year balloon loan and I feel like my money is being wasted on interest-only payments. (Plus, I'm not terribly fond of the person I work with there and would feel more confident with a different lender -- she is quite ditzy and forgets what we discuss in our meetings despite taking notes, then thinks I'm lying when I follow-up on our discussions later--I have my own notes to prove I'm right!) However, because the previous owners made no effort to maintain the value of the property, I'm having problems with the appraisal process. I've been doing small bits of the needed improvements each year in order to not overextend myself but that may not have been enough to satisfy the appraiser. Grrrrr. This next year will be The Year of Hard Labor for me since I apparently have to shift my focus from internal improvements to external improvements. I'll have to scrape and paint the exterior when I had been planning for siding in a few years. Also, although I had planned to reshingle the Mansard roof (the vertical shingled second story), I had hoped to put it off another year. Nix that. I'll have to do that this spring. So much for new windows...I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for a good tax return. Argh. That's three layers of shingles to rip off and replace.

So....if anyone knows a good masseuse who will exchange services for room and board, let me know. I'll need one on permanent retainer!