Hm. This doesn’t look good.

Sales of existing homes tumbled more sharply than expected in June, pushing activity down to the lowest level in more than a decade.

With an already huge glut of homes on the market, median prices fell compared to a year ago and analysts predicted prices would keep falling until next spring as tighter credit, a slipping job market and rising foreclosures scare potential buyers away.

The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales dropped by 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units, the slowest sales pace since the first quarter of 1998.

Oh, wait. That must be the reason why when I put in an offer for a significant amount under the asking price for a condo, it was accepted. The worst market in ten years is actually good news for me. I’m getting out of these lousy apartments.

Hey, folks. I’m going to be a homeowner before Rosh Hashana. A new home, a new cat, and a new year for me. Life has really picked up these last few years, and I am happy and thankful.

There will be pictures galore come September. There’s a lot more room, and Gracie and Tig are learning how to play with each other. I expect a fair amount of cat-in-sun pictures. And in front of the fireplace, come wintertime.

You know, I haven’t written a lot about my finances, other than to mention my great new job lately, but you folks have no idea how far I’ve come over the past few years. I was beyond broke four years ago. I was struggling under a mountain of debt that accrued from under- and unemployment—not from buying shiny new things—that came close to smothering me. But it didn’t. The wolf had his snout through my door, and I kicked the bastard out and sent him yelping away.

Some of my longtime readers may remember I was working three jobs, seven days a week, and struggling to pay the bills. Well, hard work paid off. My credit score is incredible, and I’m going to own my own home in just a few weeks. I don’t need no stinking government bailout.

I just moved the closing date up a week. The condo is empty, and I want the extra time to move out of my apartment.

I can’t wait.

How is it that you bruise so much faster and easier the older you get?

I mean, I’m not that old, and I banged my shin and boom! Bump and bruise.

Icing.

This is the kind of news we heard regularly about a year ago:

Bomb blasts rocked a café and a Hamas politician’s home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in one of the biggest flare-ups in internal violence since Islamists seized the enclave a year ago.

Hamas blamed unidentified gunmen for the bombings, suggesting the involvement of a Palestinian faction.

They have no trouble taking out their own innocent either, it seems.

Hamas security forces said the first bomb went off outside a popular cafe in the centre of Gaza City, killing a passerby whose identity was not immediately known.

A few minutes later, a second bomb exploded outside the house of Hamas politician and leader Marwan Abu Rass. Nobody was injured in that blast.

And Reuters had no problem lying about Hamas’ intentions.

But the truce has stoked some tensions between Palestinian factions as Hamas has sought to prevent other groups from firing cross-border rockets at Israel.

Interesting how Hamas couldn’t stop the rockets until they wanted to improve the deal for Shalit. Funny how Hamas said they couldn’t stop the rocket fire, and yet, it has stopped these past few days. Of course, it will resume as soon as they get their prisoners freed. They’re preparing for war.

Diskin briefed the MKs on the improved rockets produced by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He said that Islamic Jihad has independently produced rockets with a 19-kilometer range and that Shin Bet had intelligence indicating that military-grade rockets, whose range is longer, have been smuggled into the territory. Some of those rockets, Diskin added, can reach Ashdod, 30 kilometers away.

Militant groups in the Gaza Strip have also obtained military-grade mortars from Iran, with a range of approximately nine kilometers, Diskin said.

And Egypt is helping them.

He said there has been no drastic change in Egyptian efforts to prevent arms from being smuggled into the strip. Diskin confirmed, however, that there has been some improvement, but argued that “Egypt accepts the fact that there is smuggling from its territory… [which] is part of the Middle Eastern theater of the absurd. We have asked the Egyptians to deal with the families of smugglers operating in Sinai.”

So, you think those British MPs still think we should “seize the opportunity” for that Fatah-Hamas reconciliation?

Shyeah.