Good news, and bad news

First, the bad news: Anne Arundel County and Annapolis have decided to increase the 'assessed' value of my house by about $50,000 (evidently based on the purchase price I paid??) Anyway, that's causing my annual property taxes to go up almost $1200 (our rate is about 1.3 every 100 of value... quite high!). To compensate, and build my escrow account back up to minimum statutory levels, my monthly mortgage payment is going up nearly $200/month! Ouch.

Now the good news: I expect a hefty tax refund this year, partially owing to all these taxes I'm paying I guess. I know the adage is to not give the government an interest-free loan... but I'm reluctant to change my witholdings before establishing a baseline (and it takes at least a year to do that...) Anyway, with savings accounts earning a whopping %1/year, I'm not out too much.

Also, I heard back from the editor of Journal of Hydrometeorology- my first true USNA first-author paper has been accepted for publication (it was already accepted back in Dec., subject to major revisions... the revisions were accepted today, with only 3 small minor comments to address)!! I have two other paper ideas in the works with my current students; this is shaping up to be an exciting research semester.