A first for me

Ever since John and I have been married, we have never done our own taxes. I know it isnt that hard, but we jsut didnt feel like making a mistake and having to deal with the consequences. When we moved here, we bought our first home, our only home, and that presented a whole new issue in taxes. We found a lady to do them, and paid her to do them until this year. She moved to Washington, and would drive down and do everyones taxes, then go back home. She made pretty good money doing that, and she liked it. Well, she is getting along in years, so this year she decided to stay home and have her clients send the taxes to her. We decided to try and do them ourselves. By this I mean me doing them by myself.

So after breakfast, I headed off to my newly cleaned puter room and logged on to turbo tax and started putting in our information. What a pain in the fanny that was. it took me about three hours to finally finish and get everything printed out. While I was doing it, I had only put in Johns Information first, then i was going to go back and add my W-2 stuff. All was looking great. we were coming out ahead and getting cash back from both state and fed. then, as soon as I put in my info, everything dropped and we now owe state 307.00. that sucks. I even have extra money taken out of my paycheck to pay state, but I guess that is still not enough.

when I go back to work i will add a pint of blood to my state taxes. maybe that will help. I hope I did them right. It wasnt fun. then, everyonce ina while john stop in and ask ows it looking or ask me what i am doing with something else. and dont forget to add his tools or the donations. Duh! It wasnt him in there doing the taxes, but he had to remind me not to forget anything.

Well, I got them done. I efiled the fed and will mail the state when the fed pays us. so until next year and i have to tackle this again, i am done.

Getting it done!

I am having a very productive weekend. this doesnt happen very often, but I am happy it is finally taking place. Sometimes i have to wait for inspiration, or total bordom. What ever it was, it took place in in my house this weekend.

Before we went to Reno, I went shopping at Kohls. I bought enough using my 20%off coupon that I came home with $20.00 in Kohls cash. Now usually, I forget about this cash, but this time, I remembered and went to spend it. I was going to buy myself more clothes, but instead i looked for a seafood set to melt butter in for crab. They didnt have one, so I went over and searched out a new mattress cover for the bed. There was a lot to choose from, but i went for the middle of the price range and bought a very nice new cover. it sorta feels like a feather top and I only spent 27.00 for it. Pretty good if I must say so myself.

Next, I headed over to Wal Mart. Actually, I went to Target first, but I didnt like the choices there, so I left. I had to pick up a prescription at walmart anyway, so i while I was there, I looked for a new computer desk. I was pleasantly surprised to find one for only 49.00. I had one of the employees help me get one in my cart, and I was off to check out. I got my prescriptions and paid for everything at once then headed to the grocery store, then home.

last night i started putting the new desk together. I took out the old one, and set everything up on the bed to wait for the new arrangement. I got most of it done, then John said dinner was ready, so i stopped for the night. This morning I finished up the desk, and after we got back from Costco, I rearranged the room and removed a few things and now you can fit two people in there and not be forced to touch. It took me all day, and it looks good. I will have to take a pic and put it here. I also got the printer John bought me for christmas set up. I really like it, it's a lot faster than my other one.

While we were at Costco, I picked up an external hard drive. I have been wanting to get one to load my pictures on it and free up some space and possibly speed up the puter. It was 500 GB, with a docking station and for 20.00 0ff at the checkstand it was only 79.00. I think that was a good price. It didnt come with instructions, so I figured i would plug it in to my laptop and try to figure it out on my own. I must be missing something, cus I cant seem to figure this one out on my own. I can look up the online instructions, which  will have to do. I really need to unload some off the lappy.

On a different note. I got a jury summins today for March 22. I havent had one for a long time. I really dont mind doing this, i think its kind of interesting to watch the court system lumber along.

Anyway, I am happy to have the computer room cleaned up and all the pics and "Alex" stuff off the walls. I had put all of alex's team pics and awards on the wall. It really needed to be taken down and changed. I think I may paint the room a light green or maybe some shade of brown in the future. This start makes me happy though.

Hope your weekend is going as good as mine.

Another week has gone by........

Its Friday morning at 5:12. I got off work early and came home. There was still a cup of coffee in the pot, so I poured it for me. Yesterday we got our new uniform clothes we ordered last October, so I threw them all in the washer. I could wear them out of the plastic bag they came in, but I want the starch out of them. It makes me itch. So now I am sitting in bed with my lappy, typing to you and watching this weeks episode of 24. There is no way everything Jack Bauer does in a 24 hour day could realisticly happen. But hey, it's Jack. he can do anything. Its the magic of TV.

This week has been pretty uneventful. go to work, come home, sleep, repeat five times. Monday was my 52nd birthday and I got happy birthday wishes from so many of my wonderful friends. It was a great way to start the week. I even got balloons from Amber. Pretty cool huh!

There was on incident at work that set me off though. I work with a person that thinks the rules on the floor dont apply to her. She pretty much has done what she want to since she started there. She is taller and bigger than everyone on the floor, and refers to herself as "Queen Bitch". Yes, you read that right. Well guess what, I am not one bit intimidated by her and I confront her every time she pulls her crap on me. I am probably the only one that will say anything to her.

Anyway, she set her own rules on something and I told her she was wrong, she said she was doing things her way. I dont really want to go into the whole details of the situation, it would just sound stupid on here. Anyway, I went and told our resource he needed to talk to her and tell her she cant make her own rules. It makes a difference. He said he would talk to her, so I went back to my line and started doing my job again. A little later, I asked my resource if had talked to her. He said he was going to say something at the next preshift meeting. #$%^&^*&&%^*&^*)Y&_(*&_*(&! Those were the words that came out of my mouth.

I went off! I told him so now she gets to get away with doing whatever she wants again. She doesnt have to follow the rules because no one wants to confront her. I was yelling and swearing. it went on for about ten minutes. I am so sick of this lady. I am sick of being the only person willing to speak up about her. My next step is to file a personal complaint against her. If she even speaks to me in an off tone that will be it. For crying out loud, even the resource doesnt want to talk to her.

Wow! That felt really good. I am going to have to do this more often.  It doesnt solve the issue, but it made me feel better. On a brighter note, there was a job posting for a position out of the department. It includes a raise and is still my shift and days I work. I put in a bid for it and will find out next week if I get it. its based on seniority, so we will see who else applied for it. I will let you know.

So that is it for today. We have nothing planned for this weekend, so Im sure it will be play it by ear. I am going to post this and take a nap so I dont fall asleep at five today. have a great weekend.

I was going to put this in a blog, but I decided to put it here instead. On Tuesday I think I was, John told me I got a package in the mail, and I needed to get up and open it. What a pleasant surprise I had to find crab cakes in the box with a note from the Divine One. We had a conversation while she was here discussing the difference in east/west coast crab. We cooked up a couple of them and I loved them. I have never had crab cakes, so these were my first. OH YUMMMMMMMMM! We have two more to cook up, and I cant wait. John wants to have them with a nice steak, so for now they are waiting for us in the freezer. Thank you so very much Em. We will definatly have to head east to sample more of the east coast fare and visit with you again.

Finally found a minute, at 7 am

I have been trying to find a minute to update here again. It is getting more and more difficult to find the time when I am not too tired or doing something else, so I got up when John did this morning and got started. I finished  the quilt I started and now I am updating this one.

Let me start with Reno. We went to get away and also to cover Valentines Day and my birthday. I dont care why we get away, I just want to get away, anywhere. So John booked the last Grand Suite in the building I think. There was nothing left to book, oh darn. The trip up there was really uneventful. We did stop off at Boom town on the way up. For those of you that dont know what that is, its a little center that is a stopping point after you get into Nevada that ou can bring your family and also drop a few coins if you choose to. John did ok, and I doubled my money. I walked out with fourty in my pocket.

That was just a short stop and potty break, then off we went to our final destination. i took pictures on the way up there after we hit the snow line, and that was prewtty much the only ones I took. It was strange, there would be snow really deep on one side of the freeway, and none at all on the other. After i looked at all of them, there really wasnt much to look at. We finally go to out hotel, and it was really nice, much better than I expected. After we got settled in, we went down to the casino and did some more gambling and looking around. I found a penny machine that  was empty, so i sat down and put in my money. this machine started paying off, so i kept playing. Before the weekend was over, I won twice  on it and won 300 then 427.00 on it. We went swimming in really warm pools and a hot tub and ate some really really good food.

This weekend so far has been pretty booked. Friday I got off work and came straight home to make a carrot cake for a bake sale at the post friday night. there was a fish fry out there, and the bake sale was to make some extra cash. John called while I was in process of baking, and asked me if I would do the weekeley shopping, since he had to work OT and do an oill change on my car trhe next day. OK, I will grab a nap after that. I finally got to lay down at 2:30 until John woke me up at 5 to take off for the post. Then saturday I got up and cleaned my house, then worked on the quilt, I really wanted to get that one finished. We had a crab feed to go to at five. I worked on the qult till about 415 the worked on my face so we could leave.

that takes me to now. I woke up at 5 when john did and made coffee then went to finish the quilt and write this over do blog. I still need to write about the wonderful crabcakes I got in the mail. That will have to be all by itself though. OH yum.

Wine tasting at Murphy's with Em

I had made plans to spend the day up in the foothills wine tasting with Em. We all know she enjoys good wine, as some of us also do, and i happen to think we have really good wine here. I love going to Murphy's, cus there are 23 different wineries you can taste at up and down one block. Most of them are free to taste, and the wine is generally very good. It has been raining here off and on and we had heard there was snow in the foothills, and I don't know how to drive in the snow. John told me I should stay in this area, but I really had my heart set on Murphy's.

So, Friday morning I woke up to dry sky's. I checked the weather for Murphy's online and it showed a little rain, but no snow. I made up my mind, we were heading to the foothills. As planned the day before, Em showed up right around ten. It was so exciting to walk out and meet here in front of my house. The strange thing about meeting an online friend, we already know each other, its the personal meeting that is so cool. Touching and knowing the other person is really real. We hugged in the front yard and she came into the house for a short look around, then we were off on a fun trip.

I showed her the little Bistro we sometimes go to in the shopping center, where John works around the corner, then headed of in the direction of the mountains to enjoy a fun day. Actually, I didn't know how to really get there, I knew the general way, but I have never actually driven there, so Em fired up her GPS, just in case. As it turns out, I went straight there without getting lost. It was just different from the way John usually drives it. We talked like old friends all the way there, I guess because we are old friends. I never even got worried about being lost, and I always get lost. I don't think we stopped talking all day.

Anyway, we found our way to the main street, and found the perfect parking spot right in front of a cute little shop that looked like a house. it was a little chilly, but not enough to keep us from having a great time. We went in and had our first taste of the day. It was good, not good enough to buy so we took off on our next stop. We were both hungry, and it just isn't a good idea to taste on an empty stomach, so our next stop was at the local grille. After a hearty lunch, we started again.

 

At the first place we stopped at, the lady gave us a map of the wineries and told us to try and fill it out. We would have to get the paper stamped at the places we went to and then turn in the card to the last place that that got stamped. It would put us in a drawing to win something. Em was so good at this, she made it like a treasure hunt to find the correct wineries in just one of the blocks. There is no way we could hit every winery in one day and be able to drive home. With her insistence, we got the west part of the map stamped, and turned in. we were told not many people turn the papers in, so we have a pretty good chance of winning.

We had to finally head back home. But first I had to show her this huge gold piece at Ironstone Vineyards. It was found in the area and is now stored in a safe behind three inch glass case inside a huge vault, open to the public for display. it really is pretty cool.

I better wrap this up, it getting kinda long and I know you are busy. We met John for dinner, then headed back to the house. Em had to head back to her hotel and it was getting late. I hated that she had to drive back in the dark, but she got there safely. This wasn't all the fun stuff of the day, but the highlights. What a great day it was. Thank you so much Em for leaving for your vacation a few days early and spending time with your west coast friends.

Subject: FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY Smart Judge, we need more like him!!! Brilliant!!! For a change, a proper decision was made by the courts!! In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case Against Christians, Jews and the observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized Days. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate Presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring,"Case Dismissed!" The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, How can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet My client and all other atheists have no such holidays." The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your Client,counsel, is woefully ignorant." The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we Are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists." The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is The opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then He is a fool.. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned. You gotta love a Judge that knows his scripture! This is too good not to forward

Like I said on facebook,

I dont have to work tonight!

I love it when I dont have to work. I took tonight off so I could get some good sleep before tomorrow. I get to meet the Divine One, Ms. Em. some of you know this. She flew out here to catch a cruise from LA, but she is spending a few days with some of her online friends. I am so happy to be one she is going to meet.

so many of us go online and write these blogs, respond to other blogs and meet new people. We dont really meet each other though. We talk online, become friends, share happy times and painfull times, but not many of us really get to meet. Its not like we may not want to. But Im sure there is a lot going on in most of our lives that prevent us from taking off and meeting the people we talk to here. I know the restrictive three weeks vacation I have keeps me from hopping on a plane to meet you. I would love to meet some of you, have a party and celebrate the friendships we have made here.

Every once in a while the planets align and some of us get to meet. Last year John and I met Amber and her Husband Chris in Vegas. We had the best time and became even better friends than we were online. It was like we had known each other for years and met up again, rather than for the first time. We are going to meet them again this year in Vegas. I am really hoping to make it to the UK some time and see life on that side of the planet.

since my son is on the other side of the states, I now have more reason to hop on  a plane and head to the east coast. I am thinking maybe next year, heading out that way. John doesnt know that yet. I figure if I can get out that way, I can see a bunch of people. Oh what fun that would be. I may have to call in sick for a week, but it would be worth it.

I will take a bunch of pics of our visit tomorrow. Not sure exactly what the plans will be, it depends on how bad the weather is. there is supposed to be a pretty bad storm, with high winds. I have a back up plan doing some local stuff and dinner with John and Em at a local resteraunt. in any case, it will be fun and I cant wait.