Whee! Watch the economy slide! But do it with your friends.

Ah, the economic weirdness continues full-tilt, and everything just seems a tad...expensive, as we see friends get laid-off for no good reason.  We've been quite lucky, I realize, since (no whammies) software/IT seems to be doing just fine so far.  

But life continues in the world of make your own fun, and it's not so bad.  Playing board games with friends is much cheaper than going out drinking, and is quite fun.  Renting a DVD (or even better, getting one from the library) and watching it with friends is a zillion times cheaper than buying movie tickets.  And we cut off the cable two months ago ($79) and haven't much missed it (hooray for Daily Show on-line).  

There are great cookbooks at Goodwill on Grand Avenue (Joy of Cooking for $3) which is cheaper than cooking classes at Sur La Table ($75 per person per two hour class, holy crap, when did I ever think that was OK).   Portland is full of free or cheap live music.   Libraries are great for the latest books--and there's always the good used books at Powell's.  If you volunteer at Schoolhouse Supplies once a month, you get to help local teachers and get free random books too!  Playing poker at the M-in tournaments is pretty cheap ($5 buy-in) and an evening's worth of fun and drama (if you can control your urge to re-buy, or, in my case, my desire to go all-in on a pair of kings.  Darn that dude's pocket aces.)  The Portland Spelling Bee is every Monday night, and if you can spell, you might just get free Mississippi Pizza and drinks.  

Welcome to the new economy...where friends mean more, and 401Ks are worth less.