We refinanced our house which turned out quite well. We were able to get the mortgage interest way down to 3.5, keep the payment scheme and cash out quite a bit of money for things like a new bathroom which desperately needs to be done since it doesn't even have a floor in parts.

I can't believe that in 2012, the process of signing mortgage documents is still so paper intensive. It seems like such a waste. They have so many new papers since the last time too. The stack was about three inches high. We even had to sign a waiver that our house was not damaged by Hurricane Sandy. I mean, were any houses in Buffalo damaged by the hurricane? Maybe they should just make people in damage zones sign that.

Anyways, its over and I can hopefully 2013 will be a good year.

(e:mike) and I went shopping at Kmart on Sunday at 10:30 pm because at christmas time thats an option. It was honestly the best time I've ever had at a Kmart because there were almost no other customers. I never realized just how vast their offerings were.

I got to shop very slow and look at everything so for once I remember that I actually needed electric tape and got it.

Then I found Jesus. He looked like he had been through a rough time.

I chopped it off the bone and added blueberry and cranberry sauce with grapfruit and stringbeans.

The organic lamb was so fresh I had to literally chop some fur off that they left on.

For dinner I ate the best clams there are. They were inky $0.49 each at wegmans. I got 12 and paired it with fries and some chopped salad.

I've switched from ketchup to mustard with fries. Not sure how it happen but one day I just realized I liked it better that way.

I had been hording so much scrap metal in the basement over the last 5 years. Today I decided enough was enough and it was all going out. The old car dashboard that came with the house, the old furnace and tons of broken fixtures and pipes.

It was back breaking work. I managed to move 440lbs of metal into the truck and then drive the stickshift pickup to Twin city Recycling on Broadway in Depew.

Driving a stick shift was quite an ordeal but I only stalled once trying to turn around in our driveway. The last time I drove stick was in 1999.

In the end I made $118. The 22 lbs of copper was almost half of it. The rest doesn't seem worth it for 5 years of collecting and 4 hours of back breaking work. I think next rime I have scrap its going out with the regular recyclables so the scavengers can get it along with the beer bottles.

Still it feels good to have the basement clear. Eventually I would like to refinish part of it to put a little gym in.

I was totally amazed at all the stuff in the scrap pile. People basically bring anything that contains metal and then they way your car coming in and going out. The give you the price of the difference in weight for scrap. Precious metals go in a different area where they are sorted and weighed individually.