**Talked to the mortgage broker who did our last refi. "Tell all your friends they only need 5% equity + no PMI!" Ugh. Doesn't matter much - either you are upside down or you have a lot of equity. Not much in between, around here. I know a few people barely upside down who are desparate to refi (& the really upside down). But have yet to come across anyone with just a wee bit of equity. I thought the FHA requirement was still only 3.5% down, anyway. MEaning, I don't think the 5% equity thing is that much of a surprise or novelty, all things considered.

**The school situation has been pretty sweet. There is a big push to walk to school and all that. That's fine and dandy, but by nature of the school (it's not the neighborhood school - it's a public charter - and kids come from all over), walking is only feasible for a very few.

So, ironically, we walk to/from school all the time. I suppose we are "weird," when we think of some of our neighbors who drive everywhere (like the couple of blocks to the pool? One neighbor behind us regularly drives one block, rather than walk.. ???)

Yes, if I think about it, we are weird.

BUT, anyway, I don't know whose bright idea this was, but since so many people can't walk, they just encourage everyone to drop their kids off at the corner shopping center, and walk to school from there. I imagine all this does is move the traffic mess from the school to the shopping center. One would wonder how the very small handful of businesses feel about this, but maybe it generates sales for the drug store over there - who knows.

As for me, I drive the kids to school, because it's on the way to work. I would avoid picking them up in the car at all costs - even if I have to park across the street and walk over. But morning isn't too bad, and it doesn't much matter. It's on the way, so I pull over a few seconds and toss them out the car.

But, the school is REALLY into this walking thing, so I had the passenger loading zone to myself today. Kind of funny. As stupid as I think it is, I guess I will just enjoy.

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**I saw this question recently posed in a blog: "If you could live anywhere, where would you live?" As replies poured in about tropical islands and exotic locales, all I Could think to answer was, "Close to my family." The events of the past year (almost losing my dad, facing dh's own mortality) have definitely sealed the deal on that answer. In fact, I have spent most of the past year thinking to myself, "Thing goodness we didn't move!" Because, we were pretty close to moving out of state just a few years back.