Me: "I think I found a way to deal with my assessment."
Him: "Assessment? What assessment?"
Me: "Didn't I tell you? I got a really painful assessment on my condo last week. It's going to make my mortgage payment really ugly. Ugly but doable. However, last night, I remembered I had a bunch of stock from Microsoft buying PlaceWare at a seriously reduced rate. I checked it out this morning and found that it finishes vesting in July of 2005. If I buy then sell it all at that time, minus the taxes, I think I can pay off almost all of the assessment in one go and save my bacon."
Him: "I'm glad you have a bacon-saving plan."
Me: *pause* thinking.o(Assessment, mortgage, stocks, vesting, taxes...) "Shit. I sound like a grown up."
Him: "Ok. Let's talk about cartoons, milkshakes, pop music and movies!"