You know what I like about this house?

It has a roof, which is amazingly effective at keeping the weather away. I have to go to see the legal aid society, and it's freezing rain out there. FREEZING. RAIN. I don't wanna go out to see a lawyer...! (But I will. I am aware that that is the very smartest thing I can do right now.)

Siderea pointed out that the article about arrest records among blacks (not counting minor driving offenses) totally missed the concept of socioeconomic class. That's an excellent point, and she is asking for anecdata on how many people you or I or anybody might know who have been arrested.

http://siderea.livejournal.com/1103649.html

The War on Poverty: Not Just a Liberal Campaign

http://to.pbs.org/1fgu19g

Scientists call for global carnivore protections

http://bit.ly/1gpkXvg

FBI director defends counter-terrorism tool

http://usat.ly/KJ2HCs

Job growth weakest in 3 years; unemployment rate falls

http://nbcnews.to/1a6EaAS

Wind power kept the heaters working in Texas

I can understand the argument that "the sun and the winds can be unreliable", but it seems to me that that's all the more reason to move away from oil and coal and gas, and save those precious resources for emergencies.

http://grist.org/news/wind-power-kept-the-heaters-working-in-texas/

Republican assault on the American fabric a successful strategy so far

http://bit.ly/JZIvwh

The Ironic (and Surprising) Effects of Weight Stigma

http://bit.ly/1ktqUwS

Children believe the world is far more segregated by gender than it actually is, implies a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

http://bit.ly/1d7ntq9

It occurred to me that several of the people who wanted to help but couldn't due to lack of funds

might actually have funds in the form of gift cards elsewhere. We are looking into food stamps this week, but of course those only cover *food*, and not always completely. So I went and made an Amazon wish list with things we use up often. I focused on non-perishables that are reasonably cost effective. Like, beans are really, really marked up on Amazon, even when you take shipping into account. For most varieties it is only worth it to buy in 25 pound increments, and I'm not going to ask people to buy me 25 pounds worth of kidney beans! I'm not even sure what I'd do with that, swim around in them?

This was a quick, rough and ready list. It's doubtful I chose the cheapest items, and that's not even taking into account that you might get a better discount at another site. I'm just trying to save money wherever I can, put it into the house. (My sister wanted me to put new stove knobs on the list, and I see her point, but if we lose the house the issue is moot anyway. I don't want anybody buying new stove knobs to give them to the bank, and I'm certainly not intending to carry them around with me either!)

Obviously I do not expect *anybody* to get me *anything*. You've all been more than generous already, as you can see at the gofundme link, and I'm overflowing with eternal gratitude.

On that note, if you order anything from Amazon, for anybody, be sure to do it via smile.amazon.com. You get to pick a charity, and a teeny tiny portion of your spending goes to that charity. I chose Solar Cookers International (back when we had funds) because solar cookers are win-win-win-win all around. They are made of win. Currently, cook fires in Africa and Asia cause rampant deforestation, which is of course bad for global warming. Because of the deforestation people, often women, have to walk miles every day just to get wood to cook dinner. Time spent on this is time not being spent on work or education or, god forbid, simple leisure. Cook fires release toxic fumes which not only are hazardous to the lungs, but also are a contributor to global warming. And, of course, there is always the risk of people, especially small children, falling into the fire and getting burned. There is no way that solar cookers can't help.

When we are past this crisis, I will buy myself a Wonderbag, which is another method of saving people from cook fires. For every one purchased, another is donated.

It won't surprise you that the foreclosure notice didn't totally surprise us.

We've been worried about finances since early summer, of course.

And it makes me itchy. Literally itchy. I get stress hives. I have since middle school, but I also haven't since high school, if this makes sense. So I guess that's the barometer for how upsetting and stressful a situation is: I'm hivey, so this situation is at least as bad as high school, one of the two most miserable periods of my life (the other, of course, being middle school).

The trouble with stress hives is that they are, well, hives. So I kept getting these bumps on my hand or leg and then frantically searching all around. Were the bedbugs back???? You can imagine that this didn't help the stress.

Yet another reason I want this all to resolve quickly: I need to stop being so itchy. *scratchscratchscratch*

There is a house near me, on the corner of a street nearby.

It's been abandoned for a while, and sometime since the freeze, a pipe broke, one leading to the outside.

You can stand by the house and hear the water pouring down, and the ice goes halfway down the sidewalk, literally inches thick.

Naturally, that makes it a perfect sliding and skating rink for the girls! After we went to the library yesterday we spent a great 15 minutes there, with them gleefully pulling each other back and forth on the ice. I called 311 of course, but why not let them enjoy it?

In the morning I went by for a closer look. I should have taken a picture. The icicles coming down from the pipe make this drab, gray, square building look almost magical, like a palace instead of a warehouse of a house.