A Ridiculous Notion

Anyway, I had fun picking out presents for them this year. When Tracy visited me last year, we stopped in a little custom jewelry store in Palo Alto, and I remembered it. So I went back this year and spent about half an hour looking at all their different earrings, which are very pretty. I might buy one myself if I wore earrings. (But all my faithful readers surely know by now that I'm far too straight-laced to have pierced ears...) I picked out some nice blue studs for Mom, and some gray-and-blue polished dangly ones for Katy. It's been years since I bought earrings for either of them. I remember as a teenager I'd buy somewhat plain gold studs for Mom for her birthday at times. It's nice to be in a position which I can afford to buy something and feel comfortable looking over earrings to pick ones I think she'll like.

All part of growing up, or something.

Speaking of growing up, over the last few days I've been thinking of pursuing something I never thought I'd go after:

I'm thinking of shopping for a house or condominium in the Bay Area.

My reasoning is simple: Thanks to working in Madison for five years at Bay Area wages, I have a decent amount of money saved up. Enough to make a good down-payment on a place out here. (If I hadn't bought a car a year ago, I could make a pretty darned impressive down-payment, actually.) With Apple stock like it is (seriously undervalued), and doubtful to go up very much in the near future (the next six months), it seems unlikely that my ability to buy something out here is going to get any better. So, what does it hurt for me to go look?

I know a few broad principles about buying a home, and my back-of-the-cranium calculation suggests I could afford a decent place out here, if I can find the right one. The trick will be affording the monthly payments. I estimate that at my current salary I can barely afford a better-than-minimum place. If I change my finances (such as, pull out of the Employee Stock Purchase Plan) or get a good raise this year, then I should be able to afford a place without too much trouble. (On the plus side, these calculations are purely based on raw monthly payments, and do not take the tax benefits of mortgage interest into account.)

I hope. This is the Bay Area. The rule of thumb is: Whatever you think you can afford for housing, you probably can't. So I may be disappointed. But, I have a few examples of people who have bought places this year, I think I could probably afford their places, and I actually don't want quite as much space as they have.

So, I'm thinking I should go figure out how much I could get for a mortgage, and if it's not a ridiculously small amount, then I should find a real estate agent and go look at places. Heck, Lucy and her husband looked at dozens of places before they found what they wanted.

The key for me will be finding a place in a location where I want to live. If I can find something on the peninsula that's not too far north, then that would work. If I can only afford places where I am now, then forget about it.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. I will pump a few friends for house-buying information, try to get some mortgage information soon, and then contemplate finding an agent. I'm thinking after the New Year, but Mom suggests I should start looking soon, just because the more places I see the better the chances of finding what I want.

So, we'll see.

I have a hard time believing I'm thinking about this, considering that a month ago I had basically given up the idea of buying anything here. Do I want to be locked in to living here for the next three years or however long it makes sense to be paying a mortgage? Well, I like my job, I like my friends out here, and if I can find a place I like in a good location, then sure, I can live here for several more years.

The other thing that made me start seriously considering this: I realized that the rental market around here has infinite potential for suckage, whereas if I buy something, I can lock myself into a set level of suckage for good. How can I lose?

(I'm trying not to think about earthquakes.)

I'll keep you posted, when there's something to post...

New West Wing tonight. It was pretty good, revolving mainly around a conservative pundit who slices-and-dices Sam on TV, and whom the White House then tries to hire. The pundit's back-and-forth with Leo as he offers her the job is priceless! There's also a sub-plot about an African president trying to get concessions from US drug companies on AIDS drugs.

I also was alerted to the criticism of Laura Schlessinger from which Bartlet's diatribe in last week's episode was probably based.

Are you a fan of old comics? Then be notified that a brand-new Marvel Masterworks hardcover collection, collecting Fantastic Four #51-60, has just come out. Cover price is $49.95.

It's especially important to know this for this reason: Marvel has essentially announced that the success or failure of this volume will determine whether there will be additional volumes in the series. Marvel is a financially-strapped company (there's a rumor going around that they might file for bankruptcy again), and unless they see enough success in this volume, they won't put in the large effort it takes to assemble and reproduce this archive material in a spiffy hardcover format. So if these volumes are important to you, buy it now. Not in three months, but now. Make your dealer sell out and force him to reorder (it is the Christmas season after all). That's the best way to tell Marvel that you want to see more volumes in the Masterworks series.