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i've never been one to put off the filing of taxes. one year, i went with a boyfriend to the usps annex on milwaukee street before midnight so he could file.. i vowed there and then never to wait to file.
i'm happy to report that because we pay so darn much in interest and property taxes that it saved our butts from owing; in fact, we're getting twice as much back as we did last year (in total). nice.
wtf is wrong with me that i like compartmentalized food containers so much? i haven't brought lunch to work in months, but i want this.
i already have a laptop lunch and a zojirushi mr. bento and do you think i use them with any regularity? no. i don't.
i've been fairly blah lately. not feeling all that creative (knitting), or motivated to create well-crafted work-related documents (annotated wireframes, use-case flows, ui design), or wanting to do anything around the house (paint the bathroom, kitchen).
i think we need to get out of dodge for a weekend.
i'm happy to report that there is absolutely nothing on the menu of the new chain restaurant in middleton that i would even consider putting in my gullet. to be honest, it looks absolutely repulsive. i wonder why they opted to open in the middle of winter since they seem to cater to the ice-cream-malt-shake-slushy contingent.
in other news: i ordered another pair of boots to trek around in ... and an orange leatherman. :x
not surprising, but our home doesn't have the equity required in order to refinance to anyone's benefit. it's kinda frustrating cuz we were hoping to have a smaller monthly payment, but at least now we know. hopefully property values increase while interest rates stay low, but that's unlikely to happen any time soon.
unless we get a home equity loan and put that bathroom in upstairs... *idea*
i bought a new mattress and platform bed frame almost a year ago. well, the bed frame sucks. the supports in the middle have broken and the middle spine piece is practically splitting in half.
this is from normal wear and tear.
so, this weekend, we're attempting to repair the problem supports by replacing them with several 4x4s so i can sleep without my head being at a decline from my feet.
the blog looks rather boring with only one entry..
i guess i can tell you about a couple of our vacation plans... kurt's bday is in march and we might head to dubuque again for some festivities. we'll probably stay in the old hotel instead of the holiday inn. the rooms are about the same price but the one in the historic building is about twice the size. and they have a greasy spoon diner on the first floor which had a happenin' slew of regulars the last time we stayed.
i'll probably have to reign in the gamblin' budget tho; i can sit in front of a video poker machine for an amazing amount of time without realizing it.
i need a yarn swift. i understand why they're $80 but i don't want to spend that much because i don't need it with the frequency in which $80 is worth to me. a friend claims i should sit funny and wrap the hank around my knees to unwind, but i really don't see that working very well. perhaps i'll give it a try first.
i've successfully plotted all 120 hours of vacation for this year; ensuring that i go no more than 14 business days without a long weekend. except in december. they get kinda funny about using vacation after thanksgiving since we do 80% of our business in those 3.5 weeks.
i'm in meetings from 10-5:30 today (minus an hour and a half--not concurrent--which is too short of a span of time to get anything important started, let alone finished.
i have to get this out so i can understand what the heck happened...
so kurt had, as part of his cell plan, messaging 200. last month, just moments before he was about to go over, i upped it to the next option: messaging 1500 (for an additional $10 per month). imagine my surprise when his part of the bill was almost $25 more than it should have been.
there was a $3.50 credit for the second half of the month of which messaging 200 was canceled, and an $11 charge for the second half of the month of which messaging 1500 was active. there was also a surprising $12.70 charge for going over the cut-off point of messaging 200 (which i had initiated in order to avoid overages). so, basically, we got charged $23.70 for trying to avoid getting any overage charges.
so i emailed them (i hate waiting for customer service on the phone) and let them know there was an errant charge of $12.70. they emailed back to poorly explain (outright lie about) the situation and credited the account $13.40 "as a courtesy"... i have no idea how they came up with that amount.
so i emailed them back asking if they thought their customers shouldn't make changes to their messaging options mid-cycle, then they shouldn't have that option available.
so, the interest rate has dropped 2 percent since we got our mortgage. it behooves us to refinance, which should save us a negligible amount of money in the short run per month, but end up being quite a lot when it's all said and done (in 2039!).
kurt's a little strapped for cash, so he's looking forward to it.
in otther news: the start of our myriad of holidays begins this coming monday with the celebration of mlkjr.
apparently, i have one of the 30 best careers for 2009. let's hope that's true.
sorry, folks. i just haven't had anything interesting happen lately which would be worthy of penning. the lack of updates here is even further affected by my new facebook addiction.
i guess i could tell you about how i'm done with my chiropractic care from the accident a year ago and still haven't heard back from the state farm guy about closing the claim (it's been a week). i'll leave another message this evening if i don't hear from him today.
i'm moderately nervous about negotiating what my time is worth. obviously, it's worth more to me than to an insurance company. someone at work said i didn't seem to mind leaving early to go to the appointments, but i don't really think whether or not something was annoying should decrease my time's worth.
also, on a completely different topic: i wish i had the stylee design skillz of this lady.
i haven't had a whole lot to blab about lately. i've been back at work for four days and it hasn't been that bad, actually. a huge project was approved the day before our holiday break, so i'll have something new and fun to work on.
i ordered some more yarn from knitpicks, not sure what i'm gunna make.
sorry i don't have anything more interesting to share.
i want to try to recreate the cajun chicken pasta salad from gino's italian deli.
time to hunker down. lots of wireframes to create, usability tests to conduct, interactions to design. and of course, the annual self-evaluation which directly contributes to the % of raise we are eligible for.
they usually show up for me around 3pm on sunday afternoon. seeing as how i've been off work for 12 days, they're here a couple hours earlier.
my car is coated with a thick layer of ice, and we have to go rescue kurt's truck from the mickey's parking lot. it's battery terminal has corroded to the point where the connection no longer works... at least it's 31 degrees out and not 2.
we had our large family xmas last night at the residence inn in middleton, and i, of course forgot to take pics. it was really nice to see everyone and eat yummy foods.
and i'm forced to drink weak coffee because i didn't have enough to last me til my sunday trip to woodman's. :/
what a whirlwind of a year.. this is the first new year's that i'm up before noon, suffering only from mild sleepiness.
the year started out with a car accident, which resulted in my obtaining an iphone, a new car, and a remodeled (half) bathroom. i built my raised bed garden during a week off of work for my birthday. we built a deck and had a housewarming party. fended off some mosquitoes. invented knitting with joy. started dyeing my hair again. started having panic attacks again. someone ran into a car while on their bike cuz of staring at me. voted in a pinnacle election. dropped 10 pounds. ate more sushi than i should have.
it was a good year.