We now have one new car so far. Well, a new used car, a '98 Toyota Corolla
that my wife bought from her mother.

Last night I made payments online, wiping out all outstanding debt. I am
utterly debt free! Except for the king size platform foundation for the
bed, and the dinner at the Chinese restaurant we bought last night. But the
funds for those are ready and waiting for the bill to arrive.

Actually that is offset by a small net credit. I returned the under-powered
humidifier this morning, and did the grocery shopping. The total for the
groceries was several dollars less than the credit for the return.

We now have one new car so far. Well, a new used car, a '98 Toyota Corolla
that my wife bought from her mother. It has only 57,000 miles, is grandma
driven, and she got it for $1,500 less than the Edmunds market value. My
wife is shy about spending.

I say live now! My new car will be a 2007 Dodge Charger SXT in Midnight
Blue. I still have to find out if they can install the 5.7L Hemi engine in
the SXT. If so, I'm going Hemi. If not, then I guess I'll go with the
standard 3.5L 6-banger. That's still 250HP, but I'm past the age of wanting
to race anybody anyway. Okay, not really, but I do have a little more sense
now so I don't do it.

The best part is that we still won't be in debt.

So what's next?

King size Tempur-Pedic mattress (Celebrity version.)

Lasik surgery for my wife. Here she isn't shy about spending money. She is
sick to death of contact lenses.

Laser skin resurfacing on my face and neck (acne scars are getting worse
with age, and I want laser hair removal on my neck also since every time I
shave my neck I get a rash.)

New dual-recliner love seat with center console, or a pair of recliners.
Preferably leather (old bomber jacket brown), but we are also looking at
the micro-fiber models. Does anyone know how micro-fiber fabric holds up
compared to leather?

6 dining table chairs. We never did get the chairs that go with the
beautiful table we have. Can't get them anymore either, so we are shopping
for something that nicely complements the table. We have picked out a nice
set at one store. The damn things will cost more than the table did. But we
have other stores to check yet to see if we find something nicer.

42" LCD HDTV, 1080i resolution (I'd love to go bigger, but we'd be sitting
too close which actually ruins the benefit of HD.)

Suitable home entertainment furniture to hold the new HDTV and the current
cable box, home theater DVD player, and stereo. We have lots of room on
that wall, so I'm looking at the center platform and side tower models.
That way we have extra storage for all the DVD's and the handful of VHS
tapes we still have. Plus some knick-knacks for decoration.

5 CD boom box for the bedroom, MP3 CD capable. Our old one has a bad disc
slot, and can't even play CD-RW's let alone MP3's. I'm going to go with
rather high wattage. We only use it for audio books, so we don't need
blasting volume. But I like the sound to be rich and the higher end units
with the subwoofers offer a greater range.

Sony MegaStorage CDP-CX455 400 Disc Changer, for the living room stereo.
I'm going to try it out with my old Pioneer receiver first. If it works
well, there's no need to buy a new receiver.

2006 Yamaha Majesty. It's designed like a scooter, but has 400cc's so it's
licensed as a motorcycle. The 2006 comes in a nice blue. For the life of me
I can't find what the color options will be on the 2007 model, but they
usually change from year to year and there are usually only two color
choices. I should get a good deal on this with winter coming on.

New Convertible Crib, with built-in changing table, for Buddha. Goes from
crib, to day bed, to a regular bed. My wife's mother talked her out of a
convertible because "What do you do when the next one comes?" Well, we
store the crib he's currently using and use that for the next one. The crib
isn't the problem really - we badly need a changing table. We were both
dumb in thinking the changing table that sits atop the playpen would be
fine. Sure it's fine, if you want a permanent back injury from hunching
over so much.

Possibly two 20" LCD monitors for the PC. I say possibly because of the
utter lack of advancement in the technology. They are all, I believe, still
Class 2 LCD devices, which, unlike the Class 1 LCD HDTV's, means that a few
burnt pixels are permissible. Not to me they aren't. Once I see a burnt
pixel, that is the only thing my eye will ever see on that monitor again.
And I mean subpixels also. Who the hell wants a permanent red, blue, or
green dot on their monitor? This would also include the equipment and
cables necessary to use my main system in dual monitor mode while also
having the option to switch monitor/keyboard/mouse to the other systems.
Really cool. I hope I can find decent monitors.

Lastly, due to my wife's endless pleading, a 25%-35% down payment on a
house. But we have just moved and I have told her that I am not moving
again for at least three years. This last move drove me into mania that I
thought was going to kill me. The time frame is okay with her. She likes
our current place. The down payment will be in CD's earning interest until
that time, so it will be even higher.

That's about it. It's been a long time coming, but our financial life is
just rosy now. Not rich, at least not by my standards, but very
comfortable.

No, it doesn't buy happiness. But comfort does help a little when unhappy.
Until you really go down the drain, that is. But nothing helps then, so why
not be comfortable in between crashes?

Last night I made payments online, wiping out all outstanding debt. I am
utterly debt free! Except for the king size platform foundation for the
bed, and the dinner at the Chinese restaurant we bought last night. But the
funds for those are ready and waiting for the bill to arrive.