Number Crunching Blues

Can I just say now I hate income taxes. I've just finished working on our 2008 income taxes. I can't believe all the numbers.

We are simple salaried people so our taxes are pretty straight forward. We don't have anything complicated about our lives. No wind fall income from royalties or foreign investments. So Turbo Tax and I do the paperwork. I have on occasion called an accountant friend to make sure I've entered a thing or two correctly (which I always had when I asked) so for the most part I don't find this hard to do.

I have all the W-2s, the 1099-R, the 1099-Misc., and several other numbered forms sent to me by various persons with whom I receive money from or give money to. There is one form missing though that I have to find out about. A matter of winning a raffle and getting a nice little sum. The winning was at the beginning of the 2008 and the paper I think I got is no where to be found. I'll continue to search, but I have a feeling it isn't going to show up. Some one will be getting a phone call to find out what I should do.

We are healthy people so we don't have huge medical deductions, we got a good interest rate on a small home loan, and our property taxes aren't all that much. Our biggest deduction will be charitable contributions, and although it looks good on paper, it isn't even over the limit so that we have to kick part of it forward to next year.

For the past several years we have had to pay Uncle Sam a little more when all this paper work is done. This year isn't any different except the amount we underpaid through the year is considerably higher --- I'll figure on this a bit longer just to make sure I haven't overlooked something, but I have a feeling what I have in the computer is correct.

That said, Uncle Sam won't be hearing from me very soon. It will probably be more like April 14 before the *check* is in the mail.

Scattergories Shared

This is a little game that is going round on facebook right now. Thought I was share it with anyone who hasn't played it.

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own site, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question. HaveFun!

1. What is your name: Patsy
2. A four Letter Word: poem
3. A boy's Name: Paul
4. A girl's Name: Penny
5. An occupation: prostitute
6. A color: pink
7. Something you wear: panties
8. A food: pasta
9. Something found in the bathroom: powder
10. A place: Paris
11. A reason for being late: Piddling
12. Something you shout: PEOPLE GET QUIET!
13. A movie title: Pirates of the Caribbean
14. Something you drink: punch
15. A musical group: Pink Floyd (maybe not a group, but the best I could do)
16. An animal: panda
17. A street name: Palmetto
18. A type of car: Porsche
19. The title of a song: Patches (http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4612)

Not Aloud

Heads and the topic is LOUD. I have a little story about homophones -- those words that sound alike, but have very different meanings and spellings --which cause problems for non-native English speakers and native English speakers alike.

There is a Mexican food restaurant that we love to eat at whenever we are in Albuquerque. One evening as we drove up to the restaurant with its overflowing parking lot, we had to go around behind the building and we thought we spotted a place to park. However when we got the space there was a large sign written by hand stating *NO PARKING ALOUD*. We thought that if we just whispered it would be ok to park there. What do you think?

It Tickled Her Funny Bone & Unconscious Mutterings

I wouldn't say my life is dull, but it is very routine. We do much the same thing each day of the week. Monday through Friday is work with various things happening to keep us entertained, but nothing all that exciting. We share with each other many of the funny or cute things that happen and because I have shared with him I often forget that some of it would be stuff I could write about here. Here is one such story that I haven't shared with Robert. I'm not sure he would appreciate it.

Yesterday while at a meeting of the Women's Ministry Steering Committee, which I still can't figure out why I'm a member of, Carolyn our leader got a phone call. Now you need to know that Carolyn is a very quiet woman who has one of those sweet soft voices and who is lot of fun while being proper at all times.

When she gets off the phone she begins to laugh and I'm talking laughing to the point of crying. We were a little concerned. I've seen Carolyn laugh before but not like this.

It had been her husband on the phone. He just called to tell her he was going to the store to buy bread. That was it --- She looked at us and asked, "How was I to respond to that?" It tickled her funny bone and ours that he felt it necessary to let her know. We weren't sure if he was asking permission, letting her know he knew were the grocery store was, or if it was his way of chastising her for not having bought bread the day before.

Men -- and they say women are hard to figure out.

The I say :: You think meme

1. Unwanted :: News


2. You’d better :: do it now


3. Woman :: man


4. Weighed :: rejoice (the scales have gone down the past couple of weeks)
5. Upright :: piano


6. I feel :: pretty, oh so pretty and witty and bright
   (edited because I have friends who help)


7. Ill :: sick


8. It’s like :: you know


9. Poor man :: rich man


10. Great :: excellent

Give Me an *H*

Annie over at Hootin Anni's posted a little game that sounded like fun. Here is how it goes. You are assigned a random letter of the alphabet. You then post ten things you love that begin with that letter. If you read this blog and want to play leave a comment and I'll give you a random letter. Others read you and comment. You assign the letter and on and on it goes. That simple.

Ten Things That I love That Start with *H*

1. Home – I’m much like Dorothy form the Wizard of Oz who said “There’s no place like home.” The problem I have is deciding exactly where home is. Whenever I’m going to see my parents I say, “I’m going home.” But when I leave them I’m going home also. Home is where I’m comfortable, where I’m loved, where I can be myself.

2. Honey—This is nature’s perfect food. I don't eat honey often, but I do enjoy it with peanut butter on toast.

3. Hot Dogs—This is another favorite food that I don’t indulge in often. I can eat a hot dog any way you want to prepare it. It can be grilled, boiled, nuked, split open and fried (a favorite from my childhood) or even cold from the package (although that is no longer recommended according to the package). I will eat them with a bun or bread. I like mustard, sweet relish, and a bit of chopped onion. Chili and cheese are optional.

4. Honesty—The virtue I look for and expect in people. I don’t think “Honesty is the best policy “ is just a trite saying. I think if more people (especially those in high positions) would take that thought to heart then we all would be better off.

5. Hair—I have good hair, and I’m proud of my hair. I work hard to have stylish hair. Over the years I’ve had many different hair styles from long to short, curly to straight, bobbed to stacked and the current spiky do. Robert is willing to let me do whatever I want with my hair which is probably a good thing since I would have done it anyway.

6. Hope—The hope for the future is something we have heard a lot about lately from politicians, but I think the hope for the future lies with the children of our nation. That is one reason I do my job. The hope for us, for the world, is through education.

7. Happiness—The *H* word that makes me smile. I think that happiness is a state of mind. You can choose to be happy or unhappy. Except for the occasional day when I have a pity party I choose to be happy.

8. Health—I am lucky to have good health. Well, actually Robert and I both have good health and for that I praise God. I have many friends my age that take a handful of pills every morning to regulate all kinds of things from blood pressure to allergies. I do have to take a weekly Fosomax and Robert does take Crestor, but that is it for us. Sure we have slowed down little, heck we are 60 years old, not exactly spring chickens.

9. Helping – I can help. Just give me a call. I’ll offer, but until you ask I’ll pretty well leave you alone. I know there are people who just show up and get the job done. I wish I were one of them, but I’m not. I have tried to change, to become that person, but to no avail.

10. Hydrangeas—A beautiful flower that starts with *H*. I was given a beautiful hibiscus plant by a couple that I helped a couple of years ago. They were broken down on the side of the road, and were walking away from their vehicle. I knew it was a long way to town, they were nicely dressed in a new model vehicle and something in me just said stop. They had run out of gas, couldn’t believe that I had stopped and actually lectured me on the dangers of what I had done. I drove them to a service station where we got gas then back to their vehicle. Two days later a beautiful plant and thank you know were left sitting by my garage. I planted them in a flower bed there at the house and enjoyed them until we moved.

A Day in the Life

Every once in a while a student will say something that just tickles me. Such was the case on Tuesday.

I work with a group of second graders for about 30 minutes each day and have to rush from them back to a fifth grade group. When it was time for the boys to leave I was rushing them out explaining that I had to get back to the main building to teach a group of fifth graders. At this point on little looked at me and said, "You teach fifth grade too? You must be smart."

Yep, I'm smart enough to teach fifth grade too.

As I was nearing home today, driving through a school zone I saw light flashing behind me and then heard the sierne of a police car. I moved to the far right as he raced by. I pulled back into the left lane to make the turn to go home when I notice the police was turning just one block on up the road, so I did something I don't normally do. I went on down the street and turned behind him. I was curious about what had our local police in such a hurry. I soon found out. There had been a wreck at the corner I needed to turn on to get to my house. There was a car upside down in the ditch right at the corner. I'm not sure how the driver of the car had managed to accomplish that feat, but he had. I had to back track back up the street and take a long way around to the house. By the time I drove back by the ambulance was there. I have no idea if anyone was hurt but it did have all the neighbors out gawking. Gotta love small towns.

I would have walked down and gawked with them, but Robert called about that time and reminded me that I was supposed to be at the house closing. No, we didn't buy a new house, but we did refinance the one we are in. Talk about writer's cramps. I lost count of the number of times I signed my name or initialed but we did get a great rate 4.75 fixed for 20 years.

Then I cooked supper -- yes, I actually cooked a meal. Robert gets a meal at least once a week.
Then off to choir practice. Now a little TV and blogging. Life is good.