I was debtfree for a long time. It is so much easier to just save and buy what you need (such as a car) than to pay a note. Not to mention the money you can keep in your pocket; interest is an unbelievable evil. I do want to keep doing houses, just not the ones that need gutting, that was Ed's idea. I am one of those people, according to my realtor, that can see the diamond in the rough and bring it out. She's amazed by what I do and I've been through more than one house with her. For instance, the current house was cute as a button but the bathroom was set up all wrong, and the rest of the house had no closets to speak of. I made up a floor plan that moved the bathroom to another area, then used the bathroom to create two closets. Then, when we put the bathroom in the mostrous kitchen, we moved it forward three feet and it has a walk-in pantry. It basically fixed all the problems the house had. Storage is a huge issue in older homes (at least it is in Nashville because we never made homes with cellars or basements), so I've learned the best ways to make the use of the floor space. I can see where a bit of paint can completely change the feel of the home to restore it back to what it was meant to be. Or add a pergola because the house is out of balance. It's easy to see for me, but it must not be something everyone can do, because even Ed would fight me (in the beginning) to do what I wanted done, and he'd fall in love with whatever I designed. At the end, he just deferred to what I thought. I'd love to remake houses, but it's going to take awhile. I know I won't rent them out though, that's way too hard.

The idea of a double sink, I think, is that each side can be used for different tasks. Wash dishes in one, wash veggies in the other. Defrost meat in one, soak pots in the other. Etc. However, for me this is like saying two hands are better than one, because you can use one hand to rub your belly and the other to pat your head. It just isn't a common ''use case'', you see. In my so-called-life, a double sink always gets used as follows. Dirty dishes are piled in one side, and everything else gets done in the other. So, at the end of the day, it's like having a single sink plus a pile of dirty dishes. Now, dirty dishes are a fact of life, so maybe it's not the worst thing for them to have a snug, welcoming home. But I find that extending hospitality to detritus comes at a price, which is that the side of the sink that actually gets used is Just Too Small. Which is, too small to soak the half sheet pan that got black goober scorched all over it. Too small to wash two stockpots at once. Too small to bathe the new puppy. I would far prefer one Great Big Sink. You can always put a square plastic tub in it, should you ever really need a multi-chambered vessel. Better yet, a Great Big Sink and a Useful Little Sink somewhere else. Even better, my fantasy of a stainless steel darkroom sink, six feet long and two feet wide and only six inches deep, an endless counter that can be flooded with water and hosed down as needed. Add a deep end and a diving board, and Olympic Barbie has her swimming pool. On a perhaps more practical note, my friend has a sink I covet. It is a slab-built slate farmhouse sink extending all the way to the wall, with wall-mount faucet. Without taking up much counter width, it can swallow a half sheet pan with room to spare. Compared to a ''standard'' sink, she loses only the ledge of counter between sink and backsplash, which has to be the least useful part of a kitchen counter.

I don't know, I think people can be into math and numbers and also into words and reading and also into design and art. One can be an athlete as well as any of the above. I guess the questions try to put people in one camp or the other, but most people don't fit fully on either side, unless they have extreme personalities. I'd hate to be so predictable as to stick with one label. I pay attention to a lot of different areas, but also know I have a lot of blind spots. I can't fix a car, never got the complexities of chess and and not good at any games with ball throwing or worse, being thrown at. Ask me about world events and I do pretty well. Ask me about pro basketball/hockey/soccer/tennis and I am lost. Challenge me to a game of cards (canasta, pinochle or spades) and I will kick booty. No once can be great at everything, but one can be interested in a bunch of things. As much as I like numbers and have a talent for doing math in my head, I don't think of myself as a numbers person, per se. I can be analytical and I can also be emotional. Some decisions are driven by one and some the other. Hopefully, most include both areas. In any case, I like quirky and unexpected with design, so you won't see my kitchen in anyone else's house. I may have copied bits and pieces, but the total will be our own design (for better or worse, lol). Most of the design is from my imagination, but dh has had some input too and so it is a collaboration overall. I think our kitchen reflects our sensibilities a bit, so it can be a clue to our personalities in a way. I bet a profiler could deduce a lot from how people design their kitchens. Math has nothing to do with it....

In my opinion, Joseph Rotblats quotes should be the front page of the Sunday Newspapers and on the second page the Walter Cronkite quotes. Maybe I should have stopped reading after Will Rogers.