Today it should be "Cranky"

Oh, how quickly the changes come! Actually, I'm not really that cranky. Just a little motivated when talking to my boss first thing this morning. Poor man. Went to get my taxes done last night. For the second year in a row, my W-2 is incorrect. Ackkk. Last year was minor; this year the problem is enough that we had to stop doing my taxes.

We entered everything in, and were reviewing the figures when my tax guy said to me "Is there some reason your Federal wages are more than your state wages?" Ummm, I don't know. That's why I go to him. I don't understand most of the tax rules, etc. "And why are the Federal wages more than the Social Security wages? They should be the same, or the Federal should be less if I have pre-tax deductions...."

Oh, bother (as Eyeore would say). So we couldn't file last night. With the corrected figures I owe $100 less than with the wrong figures. And my state refund more than covers it, so no money out of my pocket.

And I'm miffed - again - at all the witholding table manipulations. I never seem to see huge increases or decreases in my pay check, but if they hadn't implemented the $400 making work pay tax credit, I'd've owed another $400. WTF? And that's with having enough medical expenses to just exceed the 7.5% of adjusted gross income. So there was a few hundred more I could itemize this year. My pay didn't increase that much this year.

I have my withholding set so I don't get huge returns, but this is ridiculous. They don't really cut taxes; just manipulate things so we get more in our paychecks, but then owe more at the end of the year. That tax credit is only good for 2009 & 2010. So after that I'm owing at least that much at the end of the year (if not more because I won't have medical expenses to itemize). I wonder how many people out there are going to get screwed? It kind of forces you to have the maximum taken out so they get free loans. Argghhh. It's too damn complicated.

How am I supposed to keep up and understand these changes throughout the year so I can make sure my withholdings are correct? What happens when the Bush tax cuts expire? (Not that that showed up in my paycheck as extra money then - it didn't - but what do you want to bet it does when it expires and they take more taxes?)

I was cranky enough last night I didn't watch the State of the Union. I'll watch it online at some later time. I just need to keep focusing on my new iPod. And figure out what to get with that Amaz.on gift card. Oh, the choices!!!

Change my name to "Lucky"

Exercise Goal Status: 60 mins @ Gym = 1.14 miles on treadmill, 1 mile walking the track

I did win an iP.od. Actually, I won an 8GB i.P.od Touch. Whoo-hoo. And I got a compliment.

They said they picked my essay comment because it was "insightful and witty" and that they "loved" my opening line. (This was an IT professionals survey about my company's top business and technology concerns for the next twelve to twenty-four months. I'd made some crack about my ability to perform miracles being a concern. You know how it goes - do more with less, etc.)

I also received a $50 Am.a.z.on gift card yesterday for doing a live demo of a product I was already interested in demo-ing for work.

Double Whoo-hoo. I must have done something really, really good. Or I'm dreaming. Nobody pinch me. I don't want to wake up.

Weirdness Factor

Goal Report for Last Week: Helped move two bedrooms (teenage girl bedrooms - oh, the clothes - the furniture - the stuff!!!); dog training - heeling.

Today is going to be some kind of day, I think. Some moron called me at 1am for a prank/crank call. Did I mention he's a moron? Wish I'd been awake enough to give a more pithy reply than hanging up. But I never did think well on my feet. The moron couldn't even say my name correctly. Was my first clue it wasn't someone I knew, but it's also why I stayed on the phone longer than a minute. One a.m. phone calls aren't usually good news, so I thought it might be a cop or some other official, ya know?  Anyway. Once I'm jarred out of a sound sleep like that, it takes ages to get back to sleep. :( And the dogs were awakened and decided since I was up, it must be breakfast & outside time. [snort] Last time I checked the clock it was 2am.

I would have gotten coffee on the way to work, but it's the anniversary of a coworker (3 years here for her). They usually treat us to coffee. Only my coworker wants bagels instead since she stopped for coffee on the way in. Same with the other person in the office today. Not normal for this place; we're coffee fiends. So we're getting bagels instead. Not bad, but I really wanted coffee. :( Guess I'll have to settle for store brand brew in the coffee pot.

Oh, and I may (or may not) have won an iPod. Not sure what kind; probably a shuffle. But I might not be the one that won it. The winners were announced in a professinoal newsletter I get, and it's my first initial & last name exactly as I used them for this particular site. What are the odds there's someone else out of 600 entries with my first initial and last name and they used exactly that for the entry? I haven't received an email confirmation yet. 

It's just starting out as a weird day today.

Beeing Me

I guess I’m having a hard time being positive today. Although I’m sure if you look back at my entries that’s not a new trend. Sometimes I feel like I’m excessively negative/down. Oh well.

The last eight days have been rough. Bad dreams/nightmares every night. Hard to get away from the Haiti earthquake, politics, and so on. Dreamt last night I was turned into a bee (trying to hide from someone or some group that was chasing me), then stung someone and was dying. But we (?) pulled the stinger out of the hand of the person I stung. It turned into some kind of tiny rock (looked like lava hardened in the ocean - ever seen that??) that was really my heart, and we went racing off to find the magician/wizard who turned me back into a person. Bee-zarre. (groan)

Most of my current angst has to do (you guessed it) with politics. I'm just so incredibly frustrated with the politics in this country. I know (and how!) that it can be – and often is – much worse in other countries. It’s just that I live here and what I see happening just drives me batty.

I’ve tried not to be too negative about the Republicans, because not everyone in my life believes as I do. But for Pete’s Sake. The past year has just seemed to me to be more of a churlish second-grade playground loser attitude of “I’m just going to make your life difficult” because I don’t like you. I hate to use the phrase, but “the party of no” seems to fit. From my perspective, if feels like the Reps in congress are obstructionist and blocking anything from moving forward just because they lost the election and don’t like not having control. Even the things experts for both sides agree on.

It’s petty, pandering to a select few, short-term personally motivated, and party thinking that’s just screwing us up over and over again.

Yes, the Dems are messing up. Maybe the prez should have been more forceful to start with. But considering he ran on the message of ending Dems Vs Reps, how could he do otherwise? The miscalculation was in thinking the other party would be grown-ups and come to the table.

The Dems aren’t perfect, I don’t agree with them 100%, but at least they are trying to do something. The Reps had eight years under Bush to address health care (including 6 with control of Congress). Yet they didn’t . And they blocked it under Clinton. I’m not saying that his was a good or bad plan. Just pointing out that when it comes to health care reform over the last 17 years they’ve shown no initiative other than to say “no”. They’ve had control of both houses of Congress from 1994-2006 (with the exception of the Senate 2001-2002), and the White House from 2001-2008.

When is it time to say enough is enough? To accept that not everything has a business free-market solution to it? Because free-market does not equal equality or fair access. Access to basic and preventative health care should not be based on income or luck of birth. It should not be a commodity with profitability as a factor.

I know; drastic words from someone with an economics degree and normally libertarian leanings. And it’s not like I’d be all that thrilled with our government running a program. But frankly, that has more to do with the way our society thinks/acts as a whole when it comes to money. We’ve been living on this spend more than we have mentality for decades and decades. It’s been a big driver of our economy, consumer spending. But we can only spend so much.

Anyway. I’d better stop this rant now before a blood vessel bursts in my head.

Geek Day

No surprise I've been reading up on techonology gadgets, what with the Consumer Electronics Show last week.

I have to admit I really want one of those tablet PCs. (They're calling them "slates" now.) Actually, I want a full-scale (not a netbook) laptop with tablet capabilities. I'd already have one if only they'd come out (in my price range) a little earlier. By the time I could afford one, I'd already replaced my desktop with my current laptop. And now it's at the point I hate getting on the computer at home because the thing is so darn slow it's painful.

But I digress. As usual. Besides the coolness factor of a laptop screen that rotates and closes with the screen facing out, I love the ability to "write" on the screen. It must be even better now with the new touch-screen technologies. I've been wanting to start keeping a journal again for a long time now. The drawback for me has been not wanting to have volumes of paper around. I already have a ton from when I started journaling at age twelve all the way through my Peace Corps years after college. They're hard to read as the ink is fading, etc.

I've tried keeping a journal on the computer, but don't get the same satisfaction as I do from the feeling of moving my hand with that pen across a clean page. I realized that when I wrote several letters a few months back. Yes, real letters with pen and paper that went through the postal service (gasp).

Anyway. My next laptop is going to have to do alot of things. Along with the Tablet function, I really want it to be a hard core media center. I've got to figure out how to work that one into the budget. ;) But I've already been pricing them. Maybe I should do a two-fer. A media center PC and a netbook slate/tablet. Small enough I can carry with me for reading ebooks? Some of the ones at CES looked pretty small. Hmmm. Now there's a dangerous thought...

Back Door Tax Increase?

So I got my first paycheck of the year and it's about $4.00 less than it should be. I know, I know, $4 isn't alot. Totals about $96.00 over the year. But that's $96.00 I had plans for...I'm a serious budgeter, and have every penny I earn allocated. It's the only way I can keep a handle on debt, saving for retirement, and saving a "rainy day" fund.

Apparently there's been a big change in the 2010 Witholding Tables. Changes across the board. Not a nice litte surprise this morning. From what I've been reading, I've been affected the least. It appears some people will be affected to the tune of several hundred dollars a month. Yikes. I feel for them.

I'm now bringing home less than I was before my most recent miniscule pay raise, although I'm in the same tax bracket.

It would have been nice of our CPA to let us know this prior to January 1. Like when I was in her office in late December going over the impact to my bottom line with various changes to my Flex plan witholding eff Jan 2010. She acts like it's out of her control; how is she supposed to know? Frankly, it's on the IRS website. She should know this, and I think she should tell us this. She should have been using the updated tables when calculating for 2010.
The group of us were talking, and I mentioned how it's frustrating & it just would have been nice to know (not meaning from her, from the media, from the pols) so I could adjust my flex/budget accordingly and not be surprised, she snarled "I'll give you four dollars". What a bitch. Not all of us make her near 6 figures, and not all of us have investment banker sons that pay our mortgage and finance all our home remodels and any other whim of ours. I should have said "Great, thanks, that's $96 for the year." Wonder what she would have said then?

Anyway. It isn't her fault. It's the government. And I truly don't mind so much paying more taxes. It's just something we're going to have to do. I just want to know before hand so I can plan! I hate surprises!

On a good note, I won another contest! 3rd place in a Teleflora contest. I won a baking cookbook. Whoo-hoo. That's three wins now. Wonder if that's the end of it? Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket...

Bits & Pieces

Goal Status: 1x Exercise (30 mins - NYC Ballet Workout 1, excercises 1-5)

My mind is jumping around like it's the star in a game of hot potato. The last two nights my dreams have been filled with natural disasters. (Thank you news media for endless coverage of the Haiti quake). I guess my brain retained enough sensory info from the 8.0 I experienced as a child in the Azores to vividly fill my night time hours.

It's also been a really busy week; the issue with my friends 15 yo relative (she has been removed from her home during CPS investigation & is now living with an aunt) taking center stage, with two nights at dog training class, and Mom having outpatient surgery on her hand, rounding it out.

Mom is doing well at last report.

Max did well at training last night, relaxing enough to take treats from me. He wouldn't do anything that required he leave my side, though. Hopefully that'll get better. By the end of the hour, he was laying on the floor with his head on my shoe, exhausted. Poor fella.

Have a bone to pick with my Dad. He got me addicted to Kell.ogg's Cra.cklin O.at Bra.n cereal. I eat this stuff like it's candy. While it makes a good snack, the way I scarf it down can't be healthy. Thanks, Dad. ;)

Tuesday I tried a new workout. New York City Ballet Workout. I saw it at Has.t.ings and it intrigued me. There are times I just feel like doing pirouettes across the room. Don't ask me why. Sometimes for no reason I'm in a good mood and just feel like doing so. Of course, it having been 25 plus years  since I took ballet lessons, I can't really remember how to do pirouettes. Interesting side note: I was in the Azores when I took ballet. Sheesh. Two reminders of the Azores in a week is a bit odd. Wonder what's up with that?

But I digress. I rented the first DVD through Ne.tfl.ix (best subscription I've ever had!). Watched it through once. Then tried the first 5 excercises. One through three are warm-ups, four is stretches and five is abdominals/leg darts. One of the reviewers on Ama.z.on said there was no cardio; don't know what DVD they did. My heart was beating pretty hard. And that was on the warmups. Guess I'm just too out of shape.

Like any workout, there's a learning curve to getting the sequence of steps right. For me, I just am not coordinated enough to watch and do arms & feet at the same time. So I go through focusing on feet first, and then once I have that down I'll figure out the arms.

I do like it. Especially being able to select from two different sound tracks: Classical or contemporary. Best workout music I've ever heard! Love that classical. Definitely felt my abs right away, and the arms/shoulders. One drawback: audio recording not balanced. Music is as loud if not louder than the narrator giving instructions.

I'm going to keep trying this one, alternating with Perfect Cardio. Should be fun. I'd like to be more graceful, like a ballerina. Maybe I'll even be able to do those pirouettes.

It's Raining Dogs and, well, Dogs

I'm sure you can guess today's post is about dogs! This week begins the 9 week dog-training classes for Leia and Max. Leia went to her first class last night. She did great. A bit overwhelmed at first, but interested in what was around us. Actively looking around. After a few minutes sitting in my lap she stopped trembling, so I put her on the floor by my feet. She moved around, looked at the other dogs. Her tail wasn't completely up, but it wasn't tucked underneath her, either.

As to the actual training, she did great considering! She distracted easily if someone got too close/walked by, or another dog barked. But overall paid attention. Loves the treats, naturally! Since we've already worked on "sit", how to walk on a leash, and she's learned I go through the door first, we were ahead in that respect. Just need some practice. We're also learning "come", "come-sit", and responding to her name.

There were 24 dogs in class (not including her.) At least half of them small dogs.

There was this one dog, very adorable. I had to ask what it was. It's a Biewer Yorkshire Terrier (or Biewer Terrier, depending on who you talk to.)

<------Here's a pic I found online. The cutest dog I think I've ever seen. The one in class is pretty similar, just has a bit longer coat. I was surprised to hear it's bred from a Yorkie...didn't look like one to me.

Anyway. Tomorrow night is Max' night. I'm a bit more nervous about how he'll do.

There Are No Words

Exercise: 45 minutes total  snow shoveling this week over 2 days.

I found out last night that someone I know has a relative being sexually molested by their stepfather. It's not my little or any of her siblings or any of my blood/marriage related family. A friend's 15 year old female relative. Someone I know, but haven't mentioned in this blog.

BEFORE ANYONE FREAKS OUT THE POLICE HAVE BEEN CALLED.

It's not sexual intercourse; not yet. It's not oral sex; not yet. But it's innapropriate touching, and innapropriate speech/attitude. The stepfather admitted to touching her, removing her bra and fondling her breasts. His fifteen year old step-daughter. And he has several daughters of his own almost her age.

A huge family meeting last night with their pastor resulted in the following:

1) The 15 year old was lectured on chastity and flirtatiousness (WTF?)
2) The step-father is accusing her of "tempting" him. (yada yada yada)
2) The 15 year old was supposedly called a "skinny minnie temptress" by her own mother (WTF?)
3) The mother supposedly stated (in an oh-woe-is-me way) that she can't compete with her daughter for her husband's affections (WTF?)
4) The 15 year old girl wasn't allowed to leave the house to go back to the relatives' she's been staying with the last few days (where she finally told what was going on).
5) The counseling session scheduled for the 15 year old has been cancelled (natch - all that mandatory reporting, don't you know!)

He has admitted it. Yet she keeps him in the house. Absolves him of the guilt and responsibility. Why the hell would anyone do that? This is an educated, employed woman. She can take care of her kids on her own. She's only been with this SOB four years or so. And he has admitted it. Does anyone else out there believe he'll stop? That it won't progress? He's basically been given the green light.

Supposedly the mother is going to quit her job (she's on night shift) so the girls won't be left alone with him at night. Yes, that's plural. There's another (younger) step-daughter in the house. And he has primary custody of his daughters. Like her being home is going to remove any chance of anything happening. For Pete's Sake.

My friend is very upset. Furious at how the girl is being treated. And terrified of what will happen next. To the girl, to the family, to his daughters (he has primary custody, fighting for sole - his ex is a drug addicted looney). She's also terrified of what will happen to her. Because the mother of this girl is her own sister. She's terrified her sister won't ever speak to her again. I told her I'd report it. Not a problem. And if they blamed her, I'd fess up and tell them I reported it. I don't care. They can't hurt me.

Well, she called me just a little while ago to let me know that she called the police. God. What a messed up situation. Something is very, very wrong in that house.

2010 is Starting Out Right

Exercise: ~30 minutes snow shoveling

In spite of suffering through the most bizarre cold/flu bug over the last days of 2009 and into the New Year (it stole my voice!), 2010 really is starting out on a really positive note. In the past 24 hours:

1. I won a gift card to B&N
2. I won a free grooming at Petco (Max goes in this morning)
3. I learned the next book in the "Deadly" series by Brenda Joyce is going to be published in 2011. In fact, the publisher wants her to write another THREE books in the series. Finally. (Guess those emails paid off!)

So really. For it barely being January 6th, this has been a really good month so far. :) It's snowing, and I love snow. Since the snowfall has been so consistent the last month or so, there might even be enough to go sledding this weekend. Whoo-hoo. Maybe I can talk Shanni into helping me make a snowman in my front yard. There's enough for that!!!

Pretty briefly, here are my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Paint laundry room & kitchen
2. Exercise 2 times a week. And by exercise, I mean at least 30 minutes of activity.  So far so good. If the snow keeps coming I'll have nothing but exercise!
3. Create a list of things I want to do this year, post it to my fridge & cross them off as I do them. You know what I mean, those things that come up in conversation with friends/family and you say "we should do that this year/summer" etc. Those things!
   

Happy Belated New Year, everyone.