Me and the Hubby spent the weekend thinking about what we would do if I had sold my mineral rights (Hah! right!) for the offered $312,000. Pay off the house we said. Buy me a new car. Buy the Hubby the Quigley rifle replica and travel to Montana to pick it up. It was nice to imagine for a bit being Jed Clampett. Of course, I'm not going to sell my mineral rights. I can almost hear Daddy telling me, "You better not!!"

But I am painfully ignorant of oil/gas lease/royalty...stuff. I've printed a pamphlet from the National Association of Royalty Owners on oil and gas leasing that's been helpful. But I still haven't found an answer to my question "Do royalties actually amount to anything?" Which is, right now, a counting-chickens-before-they're-hatched type of question. But if there's some schmo willing to pay me serious coin for my rights, royalties must amount to some serious coin, right?

Oh, I finished HP5, and have started HP6, but I'm not sure I'll finish. I might go on to Guns, Germs and Steel. It's still hard to think of Snape as all bad, and that Dumbledore was a fool for believing his lies. Snape may be more accomplished at what's-it-called, Occlumency, than Dumbledore. But there's something missing. And I won't learn for 2 years what!! Crap!!