What I’m Reading: The Real Answer is Actual Books on My Commute

It’s time for another round of What I’m Reading, except honestly, if I was posting what I’ve been reading most of, it would be books by Steven Brust (Drageara novles) and Joe Abercrombie (First Law series), not blogs. I am adapting to my new schedule that has me out of the house 12 hours a day, and very little time during the work day to read any blogs. But I still do my best to check blogs once or twice a week.

I am doing okay (so far) keeping my blogs updated, but sometimes content is just beyond me. On Life by Pets, I can get away with just posting pictures (if only my camera and my laptop were currently speaking). So our first bit of sharing today is someone else who mostly posts pictures, but pictures I love. Here’s Dog Tag at 2 Punk Dogs.

Speaking of pictures, I must agree that this one is Beautiful, from Dachshund Nola, the host of the Black & White Sunday we’re part of every week.

Monday was Blog the Change for Animals day, and I missed it- missed it completely. Didn’t even realize it had happened until later in the week when I finally had a chance to look at some blogs. At No Dog About It Blog, Mel posted some great tips to prevent your dog from getting lost. I’d actually been thinking about some other tips she’d written earlier this week when I noticed a lost dog sign with a picture too small for me to actually see as I drove by it. Hint: If your dog does get lost, make the picture on your signs big enough that people driving by can see something other than a blob.

Also Blogging the Change was Jodi at Heart Like A Dog. She wrote about the new law in Connecticut meant to prevent dogs from being tethered outside at all times. Our dogs sometimes get tethered outside, but usually only when we’re outside with them.

Our dogs are spoiled in many ways. But one of the most important ways is that when we go somewhere, their usual dog sitter is actually our roommate, J. The dogs barely notice we’re gone because J is still home with them, and their routine really doesn’t change. (J, on the other hand, will change his routine as much as possible to keep theirs the same). Because of this, I really loved Pamela’s Top 10 Traits of a Pet Sitter Who Won’t Kill Your Dog over at Something Wagging This Way Comes.

Our new to me blog this week is The Lazy Pit Bull, with Christina’s post (that wasn’t part of Blog the Change, but could have been) The Truth About Animal Shelters. And while I agree that it would be better if people could manage to find their new dog a home themselves, I do think shelters (especially no kill shelters) are a necessary option.

 

There’s a lot of movement going on over in personal finance blog land this summer, or at least it seems that way to me. Not only has my friend Joe moved over to Stacking Benjamins, but just this week,  one of my favorite people ever, Jana decided to end Daily Money Shot and replace it with Jana Says. And this is a good thing because this way, Jana gets to say a whole lot more, and she’s funny (funnier than I will ever be). Check out her post on why Candy Land is the best board game ever, and you’ll see what I mean.

In another kind of move, American Debt Project shared the good news that she got a new job! It sounds perfect for her and I am so excited. I think I might also start taking bets on how quickly she buys a house (knowing that’s been a dream of hers that she keeps putting off).

Speaking of moving, one of the things we’re pondering for the not too distant future (as in next summer) is moving- buying a new house but keeping the current one as a rental property. Paula at Afford Anything just bought house #4 as her 6th rental unit. You can bet I’ll be mining her posts for as much information as I can when we get ready to move and prep the current house to be a rental property.

Now that we’re on to real estate and home ownership, at Planting Our Pennies, Mrs PoP questions the conclusions of the recent NY Times article on Homeownership and Happiness, which said owning a home may not make people happy. In our case, home ownership does add to our happiness because we have dogs, and trying to rent with dogs is not fun. There’s much less stress when the carpet they are digging up actually belongs to me.

Len Penzo has been running a series called How I Live on Less than $40,000 Annually. This week’s entry is from Mary in New Mexico, and I think it’s a great example of figuring out your priorities and making the life you want.

And finally, the new to me personal finance blog this week is Money and Potatoes. Given how stretched I’ve felt lately, and short on content thoughts, I have to share this post 109 Great Blog Post Ideas.