Jeff’s Journal

As of 12/31/2008, my former insurance company finally paid out the remaining amount of my wife’s gallbladder surgery.

You know, the surgery she had in February.

Stay classy, Benefit Concepts.

Pigeon, our cat, goes through phases. Usually they’re just that - phases. I’m about ready to murder her, though.

Occasionally, Pigeon thinks it’s a good idea to scratch the walls. She only does this in the early morning, and, for a while at least, it seemed to coincide with the lights from headlights and such. Lately, however, without question, she’s doing it every morning. Without fail. Typically, it’s between 5:00a and 5:30a, but sometimes as early as 4:00a or as late as 6:15a, such as this morning. Worse, it’s the same sound every time - climb on the hind legs, slide down with the claws.

Now, Pigeon is many things, and starved for attention is one of them. She always needs to be in our business, and we do our best to let her be in our business. It’s really why she’s such an awesome cat. The good news is that, when she did it yesterday morning at 4:30am (tellingly, a time I didn’t have to work), I was able to call her over and she snuggled with me for about 10 minutes before heading to the edge of the bed again. Then there are mornings like today, where she started in at 6:15am, didn’t stop until I woke up, meowed at me once, and then headed back to the edge of the bed where she stayed at least until I left. She’ll probably sit there until 2:00p or 3:00p, too.

I don’t want to hate my cat, but I swear. I’m not getting enough sleep these days as is, and one would think we could train her out of this, but ugh. On one hand, if she’s waking me up that early, 10 minutes of snuggle time won’t ruin anything, but on the other hand, do cats even understand reinforcing behavior, and if they do…

Blah.

1) I was invited out to a friend’s birthday, but it took me nearly 50 minutes to make the 20 minute drive home, and that’s before the snow picked up.

2) My wife has strep throat. This means that I’m probably going to get strep throat. Who has two thumbs and no interest in strep throat? THIS GUY.

3) Addiction of the moment? Good Old Games, which has two point-and-click adventure games for free for download. The whole site is awesome, and you should all feel pity on my financial situation and buy me some gift credits or something. I could spend $100 here, easy.

4) Christmas is six days away and I’m still not feeling it. That’s very depressing.

5) Karma’s frustrating. I reconnected with someone I wronged this year, and it’s been a very good thing. Unfortunately, I’ve lost a friend that I miss a bit too much sometimes, and I was having a nostalgic moment about the whole thing and I have no clue what happened for real, although I have suspicions. And no way to approach it. And that makes me sad.

6) I really, really don’t want strep throat.

7) I used an mp3 player for the first time ever today. I admit it - they are pretty neat. I bought a Sandisk for eventual voice-recording stuff, but pulled warehouse duty today and ended up using it while picking books. I will say this much, though - earbuds? Not cool. Very uncomfortable, very strange.

8) Seriously, throat - if you’re swollen and ridiculous in the next few days, I’m going to be very angry.

Tongiht, Ann’s laptop somehow contracted a virus. The scanner stuff thinks it’s the Zafi.B, buit that’s from 2004. Whatever nasty she’s contracted denies her access to virus scanning websites, which is incredibly dastardly.

I’m really looking forward to having one night at some point in the next few days where absolutely nothing happens. Please. I need it.

We may not get power back until Wednesday. We could get it back tonight, but the timeline is tonight and Wednesday.

Seriously?!

So, it’s nearly 2:00am on Saturday, and we’re in Massachusetts.

The storm you’ve likely heard something about knocked out power to about 220k New Hampshire residents, myself and Ann being two of them. We lost power sometime overnight, and have yet to get it back as of 11:30 Friday evening, which is ultra-annoying. Since we were coming down for the family Christmas party and other gatherings (BTW, Bill and Mandy, it appears we will be around after all Saturday night - can you fit two more?) over the weekend, we decided to go somewhere with heat and lights and such.

It was a strange day - a little icy, but nothing crazy. It was just enough to take down a ton of trees, which then took down a ton of power lines. Ann’s center got shut down, my new workplace shut down for the second time in nearly 20 years. We both got home for good between 11am and noon, and sat on the couch reading all afternoon because there wasn’t much else we could do.

Also stunning - we somehow neglected to ever own flashlights, so Ann was able to get two at Target, a store a mile down the road with power. We ran off candles, our fridge is no longer cold, and we’re practically the only area of Manchester still without power, which makes no sense to me.

So an annoying end to what was ultimately an annoying week, but I think we’ll manage, obviously. I owe people e-mails, I’ll get back to you Sunday. Assuming I can turn on my computer.

Yeah, real quiet around this neck of the woods lately. Why?

1) New job. It’s not bad, it’s still a job, it’s light years better than anything I interviewed for during my downtime, though. I’m chomping at the bit at this point to get really rolling, but whatever. Either way, it’s one of those unfortunate timesucks - 8 to 5 plus commutes, plus all the stuff around the edges.

2) Oh, edges:

a) My satellite radio is on the fritz, so I tried to get some stuff to un-fritz it. Instead of going past my place to the Circuit City on the southern side of Manchester, I thought I’d save time and hit the Circuit City in Concord. Dumb mistake, and I still haven’t fixed it. By the way, standard radio is crap. That was Monday.

b) Tuesday, I wanted to try and get a small boombox for my cube at work. Cheapest one is $20 - no thanks. I could have swore these cost $7 once. Fail.

c) Today, I wanted to go to the library. Too bad they close at 5:30 on Wednesday. Stupid me.

3) It isn’t all epic fail, I have found time to eat and play games and watch some shows, but I feel like my time is just completely gone. It’s a strange feeling.

4) What is epic fail is the current financial situation for us. We’ll make it through our spring plans, but it’s going to be one of those “I sure hope nothing big comes up in the next 3 months” type things. The current job just doesn’t pay enough, plain and simple. So we’ll figure it out.

Somehow.

Also, Christmas is in 14 days? So completely not ready.

Or at least until the polls close.

1) So, unemployment is fun. Again. I hit up the temp agency yesterday, and that’s looking promising, I have one job interview next week and hopefully a few more down the pike. Things that are crappy in no particular order:

a) The uselessness. I forgot how much I do generally like working.

b) The health insurance. Ann may work for the least worthwhile benefit package in existence.

c) The sleeping patterns. Mine are shot all to hell.

2) This past weekend wasn’t shabby, though - movies and an extremely fun D&D session, I got to bail from work early, drinking with friends, etc. I really can’t complain.

3) Things that have taken up too much of my time: Fallen Sword, a web-based MMORPG of sorts. A fun way to kill 30 minutes, and if you sign up under me, I benefit. So yeah.

4) More fun: Photoshopped fantasy novels.

I have a ton to say, but I’m antsy.

…that I have no clue as to whether I can remember everything.

1) So remember that short film I was in? It made its debut at Lumen Eclipse last weekend, and apparently to pretty good acclaim. I have a copy of it, there was one on DailyMotion that doesn’t exist anymore, and when I am able to share it with you all, I will, because I think it’s worth seeing - it’s offbeat, it’s a fun Nancy Drew homage, and if you hate it, well, it’s only 60 seconds out of your time. It’s worth noting that I’m on screen for roughly .75 seconds, which is a new record for any sort of film presentation, and thus makes my role as “The Pianist” of similar substance to Dame Judi Dench’s Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love. Just sayin’.

2) A couple weeks ago, Rick and Mark came up for a long weekend. It was essentially like old college times all over again, which was exactly what was needed and a good time. We hit the Anna Maria alumni weekend pub night - it’s my 5 year reunion this year, which is scary in so many ways. Saw a lot of people I didn’t expect, a few I did, and I’m honestly glad I went. The rest of the weekend went smoothly except for the amount of money I spent on food and the fact that my 360 hates EA games.

3) Dodgeball started up this week. A solid W for The Ocho, and I didn’t play half bad, either. I forgot how much I missed it, too - good competition is fun, and the team’s a pretty solid good time, too. I wish I could be one of those people who can hit the gym 4 times a week or whatever, but I can’t even blog regularly. But I feel great tonight, even if the tops of my thighs are absolutely on fire from the running around.

4) With my time at the library coming to a close, I’ve been trying to get myself set up better at the Manchester Library, which means navigating through their new system and getting used to the kinks, especially from a patron side as opposed to the librarian side. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details without knowing the specifics, I’ll say this much - every so often, I’ll tell Ann how sad it makes me that I simply will never get to read all the books I want to. I’ve read over 100 this year alone, so it’s not as if I’m a reading slacker - it’s just that a) I know my list at Manchester is about 60 titles deep right now, b) it could be doubled if I wanted to take an hour and play around with it, and c) that doesn’t even start getting into the books that the library doesn’t have and, scarier, probably can’t get.

My literary holy grail at the moment is Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires. I’m not paying $44 for a used book on Amazon, and even weirder is that no library shows as having it on WorldCat. I may never even see this book in the, uh, paper flesh in my lifetime, never mind get to read it. It has apparently been optioned as a film (yeah, that’s right - not that anyone’s ever seen the book or anything), which bodes well, but still, this book is essentially the story of my life when it comes to books. Not that I won’t have hundreds of others to read instead, of course, but still.

5) Related to the above, I’ve tried LibraryThing and couldn’t really get into it. I tried the iRead application on Facebook and found it difficult. I did GoodReads and got annoyed. Finally, I’ve found a web-based book program I actually like - Shelfari! I know it doesn’t do much new with certain things as perhaps the others I’ve tried have, but I love the interface and this just feels easier. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it - after all, I’ve read over 400 books in the last 3 years, and I can’t normally remember what I read last week without keeping it written down somewhere - but if you’re unhappy with your other ones or whatever, friend me over there and check it out.

6) I feel like the only human being in the world who doesn’t understand Twitter.

7) At this point, I think the best move is to NOT talk about the Red Sox in fear that it might, like, bring Mike Timlin into a close game or something.

8) Finally, I can’t decide which one of these videos is more awesome, so enjoy them both:

…and I have a lot to look forward to this weekend, thankfully, but one appears to be falling through. The Manchester Library $5 paper bag book sale ($5 lets you fill a bag, etc) is this Saturday, and we were going to hit the library before hitting a housewarming party.

Once again, Barack Obama foils me, holding a rally with Biden down the street. Sigh.

I never lived in a dorm, and only spent a year in an apartment, so I never experienced the “fire alarm going off mere seconds before hopping into the shower” situation.

Fun times, really.

Thank you lady downstairs for burning your porkchops!

Ahhhhgfdgdfgdfgergbrbn.

1) Summer reading = over. A good summer, but also glad it’s over and I can somewhat relax again. I’m always amazed at how much I end up running on adrenaline rushes for a lot of stuff, and then I’m shocked when I’m exhausted at the end. I took Friday off, slept in, and pretty much stayed on the couch all day playing games.

2) Life doesn’t seem to want to slow down, either - we have a Red Sox game coming up, another weekend in Massachusetts, we still have to figure out when to see people we haven’t seen in a while, still house hunting. Why is life insane?

3) D&D was awesome on Sunday. We went Wyvern hunting, and did it well. Ann played her first week as a Dwarven Fighter, and was pulling action movie stunts almost immediately, and it was pretty awesome. Best battle I’ve been in since I’ve started playing, hands down.

4) Someone want to explain why Pac-Man: Championship Edition is so addicting? Anyone?

…it’s that we can never find non-frosted brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts anywhere. It’s like they just don’t distribute up here, forcing us to stock up on the rare occasions that the supermarket has a few, and always leaving me hungry on those Sunday mornings where I want breakfast, but there’s no milk or eggs or POP TARTS so I’m forced to go hungry until I get some clothes on and get out of the house.

Grr.

EDIT: OH MY GOD YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO POP TARTS.

1) Stimulus check arrived and deposited. Of course, $1000 of it was spent already on bills and taxes, so there’s $200 left - oh, whoops, Ann’s starter in her car went. Starter + tow + labor = a hair more than $200, for sure.

Sigh.

2) Even with that minor setback, this looks very, very enticing.

With all the stuff flying through my head, I wish I wasn’t so hot and lethargic. Eventually I’ll catch up on the personal front. Quick hits:

1) It’s the kind of hot where you take a shower at 7:20, look in the mirror at 8:30, and you’d never know you actually showered by looking, and you feel all gross and sweaty already. I usually have good heat tolerance - not today.

2) Firefox 3 Beta is nice, but the sooner they can get the session recovery working on it, the better.

3) Massachusetts folks - in the off chance you’re not working this Friday, or even get an hour for lunch, Ann & I will be in Central Mass for the morning to the mid-afternoon. Let us know if you’re around/available/whatever.

4) As excited as I am for this week, it’s going to be way too busy - a tough short work week, followed by the Sox game, followed by R.E.M. in Mansfield, followed by an Irace-side family party, followed by Sunday work. Gah!

5) Healing teeth = weird.

1) First, a meme. Don’t feel like tagging, but list 8 things people may not know. These are always hard for me because I lay so much out there as is, but it’s been a while, so…

a) For a long time, I couldn’t stop a book after starting it. My tolerance level has shifted dramatically in a short time - if a book doesn’t hook me in quickly, I’m generally not going to finish it. I have no clue what caused that shift.

b) I’m currently looking at my desk at home (it’s 10pm on Tuesday) and I’m shocked - I cleaned this before my wisdom teeth thing, and within 7 days, it’s possibly worse than it was before. Unopened mail, CDs to listen to and mail out, etc. It’s incredible, my ability to accumulate stuff.

c) I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, and I feel like I’m making some minor breakthroughs in ability. Not so much where I’m going to be more than above competent, but better than I’ve ever felt in the 10 years I’ve been playing now.

d) I find it odd that I have so much nostalgia for 1990s alt rock, yet dislike most grunge and was a little too young to truly appreciate it.

e) One of the best things I’ve done for myself the last few years is fully embracing my inner nerd. I wish I had done it in high school - it couldn’t have gotten much worse for me socially as a whole anyway, and it would have saved me a lot of strife in college.

f) I have no clue why I’m so bad at e-mailing.

g) As bad as I am at e-mailing, I’m worse with the phone. Still.

h) I still regret too much. I think I always will, no matter how happy I am with my lot in life.

2) My first day back to work was interesting on a number of levels, but keeping it on a health note - wow. I was wiped by the end of the day. It’s amazing how something so small as this can really throw you off your game. My jaw was really killing me by the end of the day, my voice was really ragged and shaky beyond the compensating and the remnants of the cold/allergy battle, and yeah. Wow. If I wasn’t so damn busy with summer stuff, I might have considered going home, but I barely convinced myself to stay home on Monday. Working through things is good, I suppose.

3) I’ve been following R.E.M. setlists since the tour started and since my show is next week - the lists are VERY impressive. plenty of Accelerate, of course, but they’re pulling out a lot of great old stuff. “Heron House,” “Ignoreland,” “Circus Envy,” and “Pretty Persusion” are all songs I’ve wanted to hear live and that have shown up on lists, “Ignoreland” being a staple thus far. I’m still pulling for “Auctioneer” and now perhaps wishing for “9-9″ isn’t completely out of the question. One week! ONE WEEK!

4) So I was, uh, able to see the 4th edition D&D player’s manual. They’ve done a LOT of streamlining, but I can’t say I miss too much from what I knew of 3.0/3.5. I still wish I could play as a multiclassed bard, but I think my understanding of things has opened up a decent idea for a character. If I have any real disappointment with it early, it’s that the alignment structure has changed - if i’m reading this correctly, no more chaotic good? We’re stuck on only neutral (or, in 4e terms, “unaligned”)? That’s kind of crappy, but it also fits in with some of the said streamlining. Regardless, I find it difficult to work off of PDF files, and I hope once I get the book in my hand, I can work some other stuff out on my own.

Given that the 4e book has leaked, we did work with it more in our game on Sunday, and to great result. It, again, helps that we have a really great group going, but everything moves incredibly smoothly with it, and yeah. I’m gushing a bit, I suppose - we’re halting the pre-made campaign after this weekend, and then two weeks off before we dive into the long-term. I can’t wait.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Enough outta me.

Apparently, my e-mail address gets to be the “sent” address in a variety of spam today. Thus, I’ve gotten roughly 400 undeliverable bouncebacks since 8am this morning with no end in sight.

Ugh.

1) Tiff’s wedding was this weekend. Between the whole “blast from the past” wedding mass with Fr. Madden (former High School headmaster) presiding and the somewhat sketchball wedding band, it was a very nice wedding and a good time. I wish I had more to say about the wedding/ceremony than I do, but I don’t - congrats to Tiff and Rob in any regard.

2) We ended up crashing at my old place last night, and Ann & I slept nearly 11 hours on a futon. I can’t remember the last time I slept 11 hours period, but there you have it. We rushed out to Maxwell Silverman’s in Worcester for a pricey-but-worth-every-penny brunch with Julia, Danielle, Steph and Steph’s sister, where I ate more bacon than I should have, but what else is new? It’s good to see people, anyway.

3) Annoying guitar note - I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, in part because I’m somewhat obsessed with getting a cover version floating in my head onto some sort of recording, but a problem that I forgot about has been picking itself back up as of late - cramping. My hands are small, but not THAT small, and yet whenever I do any non-open chords, my hand invariably cramps up. Part of it may be that I’m simply using too much force in holding the frets down or whatever, but it’s crazy frustrating.

4) My face hurts. I’m very apprehensive about the removal of the wisdom teeth, but damn will I appreciate not having face/headaches almost daily from them.

All for now…

1) The Manchester City Library held a book sale today. Needless to say, I wish I could have spent a little more time there - fill a paper bag for $5? I wish I could have dug out some eBay fodder. Alas, I still came out with quite a haul:

Among the really good grabs:

* Stranger in a Strange Land hardcover, which replaces the copy I gave away many years ago. I’ve been meaning to reread this as well as have Ann read it.

* My Grandfather’s Son, Clarence Thomas. In a donation pile. At the library. If I didn’t know that the Manchester Library had a copy of this, I’d be pissed.

* Two Barry Goldwater-penned books: Conscience of a Majority and Where I Stand.

* The Story of Scientology, a coffee table book about Scientology. I did it for the lulz, or something.

* French Furniture Under Louis XIV. Because it was there.

A bunch of theatre books and some quirky US history tomes filled out the bag. Total haul was over 20 for $5 - I would have paid $20 for the Clarence Thomas and Robert Heinlein alone. Not too bad.

And Pigeon approves

2) Ann & I are fairly well addicted to the John Adams miniseries on HBO. It’s fun to engage in historical geekery with her - she’s become quite enamored with Ben Franklin.

3) Hung out with Steph, Mandy, and her husband, Bill, for a bit on Saturday. Dinner at the Outback, good times had. I’ve been friendly with Mandy through Steph for a couple years now, and this was the first time we’ve actually hung out in the real world, and she’s quite charming. With the dissolution of my D&D group, it looks like I’ll be joining them (and Mike, I understand?) in June for some Sunday gaming once the Fourth Edition Players Guide comes out. I’m pretty stoked.

4) Flag football started this weekend. I played fairly crappy, all things being equal, but I did have a couple receptions and got outleaped on an out pattern because I’m short. It’s a different feel than dodgeball (obviously) and I’m not sure I love it, but it’s still good to be active and I generally like my teammates, so good stuff.

Back to the Sox game…

1) I feel like a whiny little brat because of this head cold, but my goodness is it kicking my behind. I somehow survived the winter without as much as a sniffle - a few exhausted days, but nothing legitimately sickly, so yeah. Crappy, but what can you do?

2) Saturday night was fun - Lee Anne and Steve came up and came to a hockey game with us and then we did a little drinkin’. It’s always good to see them, and the hockey game was good as well.

3) Dodgeball is done for the time being - my team ended up with the 8 seed and nearly ousted the top team in the first round of the playoffs. Final record? 1-7, but a really fun season. I’m doing flag football starting this week, which should be…interesting. I’m short and my hands are too small to grip a football, so…

4) You’ll recall an entry a while back about the old friend I treated rather badly and recently got back in contact with. I met her for dinner this week, and it was a really great experience - aired out a lot of stuff, worked the awkwardness out a bit, and it was a good thing overall. Glad we’re making progress.

5) A belated and general thank you for the birthday well-wishes and gifts and whatnot. My 27th was a pleasant one, in no small part due to everyone in my life, so thanks!

6) Upcoming stuff in no particular order - R.E.M., Tiff’s wedding…life in general. For how crazy busy I tend to get, there’s really not a whole lot happening yet a ton happening all at once.

Ah well…

When you’ve had second row seats for your favorite band, nothing will ever reach that again, so I should consider myself blessed that I’ve been in the front ten rows twice when I’ve seen R.E.M.. But getting bounced out for a server error during the fan club presale when you had second row seats ready is annoying as hell, and when Ticketmaster blasts you out now when you’re reloading to find out when tickets go on sale is just wrong.

So, needless to say, I have a spare pair of tickets for the R.E.M. show in June. Face value for the two (ticket + service charges) is $140 for Row H in section 4 - not terrible seats by any stretch, although a bit further in the corner than I’d like compared to the ones I got that are further back but closer to the center.

So if anyone reading this wants them, let me know. Grr.

Easter is my favorite time of year for candy. I’m not a huge candy person overall - a few cookies after lunch is good, the occasional candy bar, but I’m not a big sweets person. With that said, Easter means SweetTarts and the Easter version is “Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies.” They’re a tiny bit more chalky than their round cousins, but are also larger and thus more flavorful. I love them.

This bowl pictured represents the contents of my bag of chicks, ducks, and bunnies today. ALL blue, orange/red, and purple. No green. No yellow. I don’t even like the blue ones, and my two favorite flavors didn’t even make the bag. Absolutely ridiculous.

I hate today.

The Good: My health insurance (read: not my dental) will pay 100% for wisdom teeth extraction. Even better, they’ll pay for all of them to be removed, not just the three impacted. I’m not going to say I’m excited to have them tear some stuff out of my face, but it’s nice to know I won’t have to worry about it.

The Bad: Vehicle registration this year - about $275 combined state and local. The annoyances of a new car, I suppose.

The Ugly: It turns out that we won’t be getting a refund from Massachusetts, and that we actually owe around $250. Annoying as hell, although I should have expected this.

Combine that with the federal tax we owe (around $330) and that’s over $800 we have to lay out in the next 6 weeks. Doable, but ugh.

1) I love tax season, really.

Usually, I’ll do my taxes online. Takes 30 minutes, just a lot of number plugging and not getting distracted. Of course, when you a) get married, and b) move to a new state because of c) a new job that d) doesn’t deduct state taxes for the arbitrary amount of time your primary residence is in your old state, it’s almost worth saving the hassle and paying other people to do it.

The key word of this exchange is “hassle.” As in, I don’t want one.

You’ll recall my noting that I scheduled our taxes to be done by H & R Block this year, since they’re 3 minutes away from the condo and they’re H & R Block. What you won’t recall is my own distaste with the whole affair to begin with. I like being self-sufficient in these areas, and something didn’t sit well with me, but I was able to brush it aside as a residual from my whole issue with paying people $100 to do something I can do myself. Frankly, I should have listened to myself.

The first strike was late Friday night. Late being around 6:45ish - I get a call from the H & R Block people saying that the person I scheduled with doesn’t work Sundays even though the website form claimed she did and allowed me to set an appointment. Now, I didn’t care that much - the differences between the folks on the website that were listed (we’ll get to that) were minimal for me, I just wanted to get my taxes done. But anyway, the person I’m scheduled with doesn’t exist on Sundays, so do I want to switch to a day she’ll be there or what? Well, I tell them I want the Sunday for a reason (the reason being that Ann goes away this coming weekend, she goes in for surgery next weekend, and then it’s February vacation), and to just swap me to someone who’s there. Okay then.

So we fast-forward to today, we head there a little early to a near-empty office. Two “tax professionals” in cubes with their clients finishing up, and that’s it. So we take a seat in front of reception and wait. One of the people there poke their head out and see us with a semi-bewildered look on her face, and we tell her we have an appointment scheduled. She seems unaware. Great.

Our preparing protagonist takes another 10 or 15 minutes, finishes up with the young couple she had, and talks to us. We tell her the situation (new marriage, new state, no withholding at the new job for me, odd investment income, etc), and, well…she pawns us off on the other woman working. Since, you know, she doesn’t have that much experience with that many complex schedules and doesn’t want to screw it up. On one hand, I can accept that - if you’re not 100%, hand it off to someone who knows. On the other hand, you work at H & R Block. This isn’t “I don’t know what the best book for your 60 year old grandmother is, let me ask the other clerk,” this is “You are a paid tax professional who doesn’t know how to deal with a new marriage in a state where people move from Massachusetts all the time.” So now I’m angry, but hey, I really want to get this out of the way. So we sit back down and wait for the other woman.

Another 5 or 10 minutes pass by, and nothing’s finishing up yet, but our new woman comes out of her cubicle looking at us funny. Tells us (paraphrased) “so this is going a while, and I don’t want to hold you guys for lunch or anything, so we’ll hold your spot for you until you get back.” I tell her that we had an appointment for 1:00pm, and her response is that she can’t get to us for “at least another half hour or so.” Strike three. I tell her to cancel the appointment, and I tell Ann that we’re leaving. She gave me an extremely odd look as if it was absurd of me to not want to be held up further because her co-worker doesn’t know how to do what they’re paying her for, and that was that.

A little overboard? Perhaps. But as I expect even a basic level of competence, the fact that I walked into a business who’s entire existence is to deal with tax returns and I a) couldn’t find more than two people on a weekend during tax season, and b) of those two people, half of them didn’t know how to deal with my “complex” return, enough is enough. Was I going to wait 30 more minutes to find out that this person couldn’t do our return properly and have wasted an entire afternoon in the process? And, hello, H & R Block? YOU DO TAXES. THAT IS YOUR VALUE TO SOCIETY. That’s the part that irritated me the most.

So now our taxes will have to wait until March. That’s annoying, but that’s life. Granted, we won’t be going to H & R Block for it, but yeah. At least I know I won’t be blowing my money on something I’m uncomfortable with who can’t even do my return because it’s apparently too hard.

2) Enough bad stuff, here’s some questions for people:

a) I’m still plugging away at the book (I’m hoping to take a HUGE step this weekend if I can make it work out), but part of my goal in terms of getting a Real Life Publisher is proving that I can write and actually having some sort of consistent writing schedule to show for it. Sure, blogging’s a very informal medium by nature, but since I’m not a journalist and more of an enthusiast, it’s a bit of an uphill climb. Essentially, I want to run a film blog of sorts for really bad movies like the kind Kroger made his millions on. Anyone have an idea as to what a good name for it would be? Anything I come up with sounds lame.

b) Related to a, anyone want to help contribute on it? Flesh things out a bit? Chelsea, Mike, Stacey, I’m looking in your general directions, I wouldn’t be looking for more than a post a week or something. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll give you more information vision-wise.

3) Dustin Pedroia cracks me up. I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a baseball season in 4 years.

And another week begins…