Wednesday, April 20, 2011

WNBP: Long Overdue

I honestly didn't mean for a whole week to go by between posts.  Honestly!  However, it seems as though that is exactly what happened and I have no excuses for my poor behavior.  I could tell you all about how I'm on vacation this week and lazing around with no guilt whatsoever, but I'm not going to do that.  I'm just going to stand humbly before you with a hangdog face and hope for forgiveness.

And if that doesn't work, I'm going to do the Wednesday Night Bullet Post.  People seem to like it when I do that...

*I had a few things I wanted to do during this year's Spring Break.


*The first was keep up with blogging.


*I think we all know how that worked out.


*The second was to catch up on reading and commenting upon the blogs of others.


*Check your stats.  Read through your comments.


*I haven't quite met that goal either.


*The third was to get the taxes done and that one really took a chunk out of my will to do other things.


*Taxes are stupid and boring and they make my head hurt.


*Especially when I don't have all the information I need to finish them and all backup data seems to be MIA.


*And when I have to rely on facts and figures coming to me through the postal service.


*Taxes, as I may have already mentioned, are stupid and boring and they make my head hurt.


*I filed an extension before I got a big, fat aneurysm.


*Turns out Maine has a very interesting policy when it comes to filing taxes.  It goes something like this:

We here in the Department Of Revenue take taxes very seriously and you shouldn't mess with us.  Deadlines mean the world to us.  We revere deadlines.  You should make a note of them and meet every single one in a timely fashion.  Unless, of course, you don't owe us any money.  In that case, please feel free to take your time.  We honestly couldn't care less.  We are currently taxing everything anyway so there's no need to feel rushed.  Take six months.  Don't even bother to tell us that's the plan.  We are certain you'll get back to us when you can.  In fact, if six months won't do it for you then drop us a note.  We have all the time in the world here...

*The Federal Government is a little less forgiving, but not by much.  They don't care if you get bored with your taxes at the eleventh hour and file an extension.  


*I'm guessing that my refund status might have had some influence on that.


*Taxes will be filed on Friday.  Everyone gets what they want and no one has to get hurt.


*It is safe to say that I am not exactly "goal-driven" right now...


*I did manage to strip half a wall's worth of wallpaper.


*Almost half a wall...


*And the Very Complicated Kitty did a quarter of that during his nocturnal redecorating.


*But I'm still counting it as a task in progress because, really, what else do I have?


*Planned on working on the sock, but we probably shouldn't talk about that since I've been telling you how I haven't worked on the sock for weeks now.


*In my defense, the tax thing made my head hurt and it's been raining most of the week.


*I've spent a lot of time napping.


*Fun Fact:  Da Boyz get very excited when I cook chicken.


*Sometimes I take cooked chicken and smoosh it up with a little sweet potato and peas and they never know it this time it is for them.


*Looks gross after it comes out of the blender, but they love it and it's grain-free.


*We strive for the grain-free diet here.


*They love it.  They'll cut you for the smallest morsel.


*I have personally witnessed the Very Complicated Kitty smacking the Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty right on the head because he's already finished his food and wants more.


*The VCK loves his brother more than he loves me, but the chicken goop wins out every time.


*We don't do the goop very often since it is kind of a bother, causes sibling rivalry and makes me look like a Major Crazy Cat Lady...


*In between napping and not doing my taxes, I have managed to find time for some reading.


*I can't remember if I told you I'd finished Flutter (My Blood Approves, Book 3).


*A fun series.


*Looks as though the author self-published at the outset and sometimes the editing leaves a little bit to be desired, but it's still good stuff.


*And I love that authors now have a means for getting their work out there when traditional publishing isn't an option.


*More choices is good for everyone and the price is usually right.


*Then I took up Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1).


*Wow.


*This series is a prequel to an already existing line of novels. (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass)


*I don't know if I'm interested in those quite so much, but time will tell.


*I do know that  Clockwork Prince (Infernal Devices) will be on my To Read list just as soon as it's available.


*Now I'm back in the world of Felix Castor and eagerly learning how things worked out following the latest disaster.


*The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor)


*These are kind of like the Dresden Files (Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1)


*But with less of the angst and more of the London atmosphere.


*I'm not knocking the angst.  Angst makes Harry Dresden the compelling character he is, after all.


*But Felix somehow manages to keep things a little more upbeat.


*And it is entirely possible that he has more to feel badly about.


*Most of the books I want to read aren't out yet.


*This is causing me a great deal of stress.


*Less than taxes, more than stripping wallpaper.


*If that helps you to get a better picture.


*I'm sure that things will start to look up soon.


*They can't withhold these books from me forever.  I know they have them.  They'll crack any day now and make them available to me.


*Meanwhile, I'll have a tax refund in hand and will be well-rested after all my napping.


And that's all there is.  To summarize, I have done very little over the past week and have no excuse whatsoever for not blogging that fact.  Maybe I'll perk up a little bit for the last two days of vacation and then I'll catch up.  Or not.  It's kind of hard to tell at this point.

What are the limits to filing extensions?  Is it just for taxes or does it work for anything?

SA

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness you're back! I missed you! I keep reading the books you're suggesting! And loving them.
faithful reader: Ginnie

Anonymous said...

I am rather an expert on the filing of extensions for your taxes, but less so on extensions for other things. Never hurts to try, though ;-)

Lynne said...

Perhaps vacation is meant to be time to rest?

Jeanne said...

I filed my very first extension this year, because Mom's estate closed (FINALLY) and suddenly, my taxes became very complicated.

First, the estate tax returns have to be approved by us (me and my sister) then filed (and though filed in 2011, the estate is considered closed as of 2009, blame the impossible-to-get-ahold-of accountant) before we can claim the capital losses passed down to us on our 2009 returns (which are being amended) before we can claim the capital loss carryover on the 2010 returns.

For those of you who hate taxes, I see your glazed-over eyes and I'm sorry, I'll remember to preface that with Tylenol next time. For those of us who are weird like me, yippee! I get to file MORE tax returns? (Yes. I love playing with the forms and numbers. I'm weird that way.)

April said...

I read the first book in The Mortal Instruments series, City of Something. It was pretty good. I'll send it to you if you want.

catsmum said...

only you can write a post that length about having nothing to post about AND make it engrossing reading to boot :)

catsmum said...

just raced off to check the library database - they've got all the Cassandra Clares you mentioned :) but onlt one Mike Carey: The devil You know. I have no idea where it fits in the series but I've reserved it and the Clares anyway.
I always trust a SA recommendation.