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Greetings all

Happy Ground Hog day. Raining here. So be it.

Yep credit and assists are important. I used to do estate planning and advised on it often. I bought a car when I was 21 and thought I should have a credit card so I went to the bank where i had banked since I was a little kid and got a Bankamericard. No issues. This might have been before law changes and I have often wondered if I got that card with no other signature because my Dad's business was a big customer of that bank. I did not get married until I was 43 and before that I had purchased homes and bought cars on my own. 29 when I bought my first house. My mother always told me cautionary tales about women who married and turned over finances to husbands. I never did. DH and I maintain separate finances but each pay certain things. I pay more but I have more. It works. Joint ownership of assets is a good thing for married couples except in second marriages when each has kids. Probably my most hellacious estate was a second marriage for the man who had two adult kids. Sudden death of man. Big **** fight among the widow and his kids. I mean every clock and picture frame. So it is wise to have plans to accommodate kids from prior marriages. Don't forget about pay on death status for bank accounts. I have this. DH cannot access my accounts but they pay to him on my death. Ditto safety deposit box. Death certificate needs to be produced to access. It can be done with someone not a spouse. Don't forget that IRA accounts are income taxable to the beneficiary, unlike life insurance proceeds or most other inheritances. So much for this stuff.

So I did my walking today. The Four Tops and the Temptations. The Grammys are tonight and I am going to pay attention and make a point of listening to some new artists. My music tastes border on prehistoric.

Stopped in the studio and made a few things but feel uninspired.

Yay Liz on taking in clothes. Good plan.

Our wedding anniversary is on the 4th. Thirty years! I want to go eat at the Sushi place here in town even though I won't eat raw fish. Gotta see about convincing DH. They do have shrimp tempura which I think he will eat.

Well the dog is giving me the Death Stare.. Better go feed them.

Diane S

Ben and I had everything in both names which was really nice as nothing had to go to probate. DH and I have set up a trust that will be split equally among the 4 kids. DH has one life insurance policy that will go exclusively to DSD and I have some 401 Ks that will go exclusively to the boys. The rest goes to the estate. Actually, now that I think about it the house is in my name only. Probably should look into changing that. That was going to be solved with selling and buying new in Florida but now that we are staying here for a bit, will need to be looked at!

132.5. Stayed the same today! Hard to believe I'm only 2.5 lbs. to goal! I wouldn't be surprised if the weight went up a little as I start to eat my normal deficit calories instead of half of what I should be eating! Appetite is still not back to normal and Covid has attacked the GI system as well!

Overall I'm feeling much better! Weak and fatigued and the bathroom issues but most other symptoms have gone by the wayside!

Still plan on laying low (not sure my body would allow otherwise anyway).

Liz, I built credit when I was young the same way, except instead of Sears, it was a JC Penny's card. I remember charging a pillow, and then paying it off to get started.

It's really interesting how families set up finances. My MIL kept all the money she earned separate, and my FIL paid all the bills from his salary. My parents income came from their rental properties and their Veterinary Clinic. My Mom was business manager of both enterprises and they had nothing but joint accounts. Another friend saw her Mom left with nothing after a divorce, so she chooses to keep separate accounts. When DH and I got married, we had a joint account, and I had a separate account. I wanted it so I could buy things like a new pair of shoes without any discussion. I discovered that DH was never going to question my purchases, so eventually I closed it. When I was a stay at home Mom, and had no income, he never made me feel like I had no agency in our finances.

I prefer to have joint ownership of everything because when my MIL passed away, there was a certain amount of work for the executor of her estate to disperse the money she had in accounts with her name only. I wouldn't want DH to have to mess around with the title of my car for example, so even though it is "my car" his name is on it too. (This works for us, since we have the same "heirs" aka our children. I know they can't wait to inherit all the boxes in the basement filled with forgotten treasures.)

Remember long distance calls? My mother was hysterical about paying any of those fees. It was a mortal sin to call home collect. She would call me from a pay phone when she was shopping in the metro area, numerous shopping bags around her, rather than pay long distance fees from her house.

I panicked and ruminated unnecessarily it seems. My weight is now within my accepted range again. That is a big relief.

So today is laundry, paper reading, assorted other chores, and another attempt at booking airfare to Scotland.

I'm super-late posting today. It was a good day--warmer and looking like it'll hit nearly 70 degrees next week.

This morning I had a lovely at-home yoga session (by myself). And Liz, for the record from someone who has had a GREAT yoga teacher and years of instruction and yoga practice in classes and by myself, your substitute yoga teacher SUCKS! Nobody who's a good yoga teacher would EVER be judgmental or dismissive of anyone in their class. IMHO, that's grounds for her teacher decertification.

Having said that, I'm very glad you're enjoying your yoga class. Over ten years when I started studying yoga seriously (meaning merely that I joined a twice-a-week class and kept going for years and started doing yoga at home on several non-class days every week) I could barely stand up without falling over. I had terrible balance, wasn't strong, wasn't flexible, was definitely at the bottom of the class. In fact, I had to put my mat in a corner, so if I fell over (and I famously did fall over all the time) I had two walls to fall against, rather than the floor. Anyway, all I really did was just keeping coming to class. And wonder of wonders ... I gradually got better. And then I got more better. And more better. And eventually I even got good at it. And all the time I kept enjoying it more and more. For me it's just lovely and confidence-building. But the one thing it is NOT is competitive, except with myself. And even that's not the kind of competitiveness that ever makes me feel ashamed or self-conscious. I could wax on and on, but I'll end my paean to yoga here.

The rest of my day included a much-needed manicure, a trip to Kroger, lots of gin rummy with DH, and now watching a University of Kentucky basketball game against Arkansas, which is coached by the recent ex-Kentucky coach who took a lot of Kentucky's players to Arkansas with him. It's a close game, which makes it interesting.

That's all I got. Night-night!