Recent content by Valen

Pet Peeve: That 9/10 of a cent added to gasoline prices. Get rid of it.

My favorite from the 70's: "Down with Hot Pants"

Woke up this morning about 3:20 a.m. to a strong earthquake. Big jolt and then rolling for awhile. We're about 40 miles from the epicenter. No damage at my house. DH slept through it.

I took a year off in my mid-20's to travel around North America with a girlfriend in her parents' motorhome (makes me smile just thinking about it). Other than that, I had steady employment until I retired at 54. Never used (or needed) unemployment benefits.

One of my fears about retiring was would I be able to start spending some of the money I had saved over all those years. Saving my money was always so natural for me, especially when I started thinking about retiring early. I knew my goal was to enjoy retirement but I didn't really know how to...

My pet peeve is people who can't return the shopping cart to the shopping cart stall and instead leave it in a parking space. There! I finally got that one off my chest!

My dad passed away in 2003. I cried every day the first year he was gone and now still get teary-eyed just thinking about him. He was a hard worker and a hard player, loved my mom and showed it, and his face lit up every time I came to visit (which was almost daily since they only lived a...

I start out with coffee, newspaper, tv news, & computer. After that my DH and I take the dog for a brisk 3-mile walk. Come home and have a bowl of cereal, shower and head over to check on my mom for an hour or two (take her for a short walk, pay her bills, check her meds, grocery shop, etc.)...

Next month we're flying to Frankfurt and taking a train to Trier, Germany. There we pick up our rental bikes and will spend a week biking the path along the Mosel River to the Rhine. It's a leisurely ride (15-25 miles/day) so we'll have plenty of time for wine tasting, beer drinking and castle...

In my 30's I thought I had all my ducks in a row for "us" to retire in 20 years or so but was thrown off course when my husband decided he didn't want to be married to me any more. Fifteen years later we reconnected, fell back in love, remarried and enjoying our retirement together. I have to...

When I'm really tired I'll sometimes wake up thinking I heard my doorbell ring. It always startles me and I used to get up, go downstairs and check my door. I wouldn't be able to hear my actual doorbell from my bedroom so I don't bother checking any more (but it still gives me the creeps when...

We've gone a couple of times and stayed at the Beach Villas at Kahalu’u. It's about 3 miles south of Kona and right across the street from Kahaluu Beach Park which has excellent snorkeling. We snorkeled almost every morning before breakfast, and sometimes again in the afternoon. We were also...

All of our assets are in our joint trust except our retirement accounts and we have each other as the beneficiary of those. However, we still have separate accounts. We've only been married for a little over 3 years so we both came into the union with separate (but fairly equal) assets. We...

We're taking my 15 year old nephew to New Orleans for 5 days in April. I asked him what city in the U.S. he'd most like to visit and he wants to see N.O. My DH and I were there a couple years ago and told him how much we enjoyed the food, music, architecture, culture, etc. (Before that, he'd...

At least 2 large mugs each morning with a little bit of fat-free milk while reading the newspaper. It's my routine and things don't go well if one of those things are missing. I will only go to Starbucks or other coffee houses in an emergency. Got a Keurig from my sister for Christmas this...