Is it wrong for me to complain?

Probably yes. But I'm gonna do it anyway. I just logged onto our mortgage to find our escrow account in the red because our property tax has increased. Then I searched the county's property tax records to make sure that was correct. Apparently it is.

I'm a bit confused. Brad and I qualify (and have filed the paperwork) for the homeowners exemption, which takes a very large chunk of our assessment out of consideration. Then we pay a low amount per thousand on the remaining figure. The notice that we received from the county way back in February said that our assessment had actually gone down. So why are now paying almost triple (2.9x if I did the math correctly) what we paid last year? Did the county set a new minimum property tax rate (because we do fall into the minimum category) to make up for lost revenue? Did I missed this story?

I mean, yes, our property tax bill for the entire year is less than we pay in electricity for one month, but this still blows. I guarantee Bank of America will waste no time raising our monthly mortgage payments because of this. That just annoys the crap out of me. I had to fight with them for 4 months last year before they would even consider lowering it when our tax bill plummeted after our exemption being approved. (The previous owner paid a hefty property tax because he didn't actually live here.) Plus, I hate Bank of America in general.

Moving on. Deep breaths. Happy thoughts. . . .

Mac & cheese all done. Before the bread crumb scraping.

Dinner ... and a better look at the inside of the mac & cheese post-scraping. Maybe a yellow plate was not the best idea from a photography standpoint.

What is one of my favorite things in all the world? Mac & cheese. I came across a recipe in People magazine (of all places) that I decided to try out today. One pot cooking in my dutch oven ... how could I resist? It called for a touch of truffle oil for flavor but, at $23 a bottle, I decided to pass. The bread crumbs that I bought were maybe a little too fine, so I ended up scraping most of them off. A lot more work than the people at Kraft make you do or than Brad's infamous "wheels and cheese" calls for. :-) But once it was de-crumbed and pepper-ified, it was delicious. Good thing, since I've got tons of it. Maybe next time only half the recipe.

Strawberries for Brad.

What is another favorite thing? Bradley. Ahhhhh. :-) Our anniversary was Wednesday. I was incredibly cranky most of the week. In an effort to be nice to Brad (because he was bearing the brunt of my bitterness), I ran home Tuesday night and made chocolate-dipped strawberries for him. OK, there were a lot of them, so I may have helped him by eating half, but I think he appreciated the gesture.