Friday, July 18th, 2008
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7:07 pm - Saga of the IRS: The plot thickens!
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Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3
Yesterday I got a letter from my bank with a copy of the tax check in it. First off, I did indeed make it out the US Treasury. Second, it was cashed on March 31st. Third, it was cashed in the correct town at... Bank of America? WTF? At this point BoA better hope that the IRS has an account with them or they are going to be explaining to Uncle Sam why they cashed a check made out to the US Treasury for someone else.
I should call the IRS tonight, but my brain is fried. It'll have to be Monday. Still at least now I have routing information from when the check was cashed (although I can't read the endorsement on the back because its a stamp and the copy I have is piss poor). I'm going to give that to the IRS and see what they have to say.
At this rate, I'll get my extra $30 back in about six months. -_-
current mood:  aggravated
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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9:17 am - o_O
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
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7:23 pm - Gardening babble
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Today I pruned the Cherokee purple tomato plant so it will hopefully produce more fruit. To be honest, I didn't realize I needed to prune it. I'm so use to growing determinate varieties (like my roma) that I didn't realize that the Cherokee purple was an indetermine variety that would benefit from pruning. Live and learn.
The roma is producing has about a dozen or so tomatoes on it right now. The first batch of four should be ready in another week or so. The others will ripen over the next month. I haven't lost a single fruit to blossom end rot, which is caused by calcium deficiency . Last year, I lost about half my crop to it. I managed this by finally finding tomato specific fertilizer which was actually tomato specific. You'd be amazed at the number of fertilizers promoted as being "for tomatoes" that have excessive amounts of nitrogen and little calcium. Never mind that calcium deficiency is one of the bigger problems with tomato plants.
I've got four tomatoes on the Cherokee purple. It's probably not going to produce as much fruit as the roma, but it'll produce fruit much longer than the roma. Maybe. Summers are shorter here in Indiana than in North Carolina. My roma was producing tomatoes up till the first frost last year. Then again, I also started it late. This year I started it early indoors. We'll see how that works out.
I'm going to record how much each plant produces in the lovely gardening diary ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) miome gave me. Then I can decide next year whether to grow both kinds again or stick to one.
I'm so looking forward to my first harvest!
current mood:  excited
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(comment on this)
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1:11 pm - Ranty McRanty pants
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Okay boys and girls, gather round. We're going to have an impromptu lesson about street addresses in the United States. Do you know what the components of a street address? Let me show you.
1313 Mockingbird Lane
^ ^
House number Street Name
Now I want you to focus on those numbers at the beginning of that address. Do you see that? That is what's called a house number. You don't need to actually be a house to have one. Businesses, parks, hell even empty lots all have one. The second part is the street name.
Why is this so important? Because if you don't give the house number it is impossible to find the damn location of a place with GIS. Do you realize how many damn green areas that may or may not be parks you can have along a street? I'll tell you how many. FUCKING LOTS. HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIGURE OUT WHICH PATCH OF TREES IN YOUR TOWN PWECIOUS CENTENNIAL PARK IF YOU DO NOT GIVE ME A FUCKING CORRECT STREET ADDRESS?!?!
I feel better now.
current mood: aggravated
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
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10:28 am - Sam and Dean in Indiana?
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miome and I were at the hospital cafeteria for lunch a couple weeks ago. We had just sat down at a table when the intercom system came on.
"Would the owners of the black Impala parked in front of the hospital please move your vehicle? You are blocking an entrance. Would the owners of a black Impala please move your vehicle. You are blocking the entrance."
Cue us cracking up.
current mood: amused
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, July 14th, 2008
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9:06 pm - The Guessing Game
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Sunday, July 13th, 2008
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12:55 pm - Kitties are displeased
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One of the things about our cats is they suffer from an excess of ear wax. It builds up really bad in their ears, makes them really cruddy looking, and irritates the cats, especially Nadia, who spends a large amount of time scratching and messing with her ears.
This isn't good because excessive scratching can cause blood vessels to burst in the ear at which point the ear blows up to three times it's normal size because of the blood pooling in it (I believe the technical term is hematoma). You then wind up taking the cat to the vet to get it drained, at which point their ear crumples and stays crumpled. I've had this happen with two cats who suffered from continual ear mite problems.
Our previous vet suggested cleaning their ears twice a week with mineral oil on a cotton ball. As you can imagine, the cats loved this. Not. I eventually stopped because it didn't seem to be stopping the build-up at all, the cats messed with their ears even more afterwards, and the whole procedure stressed the kitties out. When we went to the new vet a few weeks ago, I mentioned the problem. She prescribed a cleaning solution that would soften the wax, wouldn't be as greasy as the mineral oil, and would get farther into the ears where there was a problem.
I've been using that for the last couple of weeks and it is so much easier. I still have to wipe the ears out with a cotton ball, which the cats hate, but I can tell this irritates them less. Instead of bolting and hiding for an hour, both cats with trot about 4 feet away from me, sit down, and start grooming themselves. Heck, they'll even let me approach them and pet them afterwards. They don't mess with their ears nearly as much and it's much easier to catch them to do this.
Doesn't make them any happier about the whole thing. I am a terrible person for putting stuff in their ears and they let me know it.
current mood:  okay
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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8:50 am - Wanted: black kitten and spiderman mask
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velithya is writing a truly hilarious fic involving Tony Stark be transformed into a kitten over on the Captain America/Ironman community (part 1 |part 2 |part 3 |part 4). There's only one more part left.
I now really, really want a small black kitten and a spiderman mask so I can take a picture and make a cat macro just like the one in the story.
current mood: amused
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, July 11th, 2008
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1:35 pm - I'm glad I'm at home
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They've started shutting buildings down on campus due to excessive heat and the lack of air conditioning. At this point they don't even had an estimated time of when they'll restore service. I am really glad I'm at home with my working AC and my kitties.
Also, I've had three emails from my internship asking me about a variety of issues. Sigh. Why is it always on Friday they decide to play with these files as opposed to Thursday when I'm actually on site and can answer their questions in person?
current mood:  contemplative
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(comment on this)
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9:49 am - The childbirth song
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Every time I listen to this I crack up. It's the Childbirth Song. NSFW because of minor language.
Favorite line? When you can poo a watermelon, I'll agree.
current mood: amused
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(comment on this)
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7:11 am
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AC is still out on campus, meaning miome and I are staying home today because she said yesterday was miserable.
I got dressed for nothing. -_-
current mood: annoyed
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(comment on this)
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Thursday, July 10th, 2008
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6:43 pm - Kind of glad for that commute
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Today is one of the days I drive one & a half hours to my internship. It's not great, but it's doable. I was rather glad to make the drive today because some idiots were doing construction and accidentally hit the chilled water pipe that feeds all of campus. What this boils down to is there was no AC on campus all day long in the middle of summer.
From what I understand, it was sweltering in the buildings.
Also, there's been a slight glitch in my summer research. Seems that the DNR has decided to foist the collection of the plants off onto a graduate student. Meaning that if I want to go out and see for myself what's going on in some of the satellite photos, I have to coordinate with him. Add to this that my internship is making noises about me going up to Northern Indiana to help with getting data for their project, and the last half of summer just got busier. Sigh. I can't believe school start on August 20th.
At least this means that I get to play with one of the departments very nice GPS units. Technology is shiiiiiny.
current mood: okay
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
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3:04 pm - DAMMIT!
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
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9:21 pm - Harem fragment, scene from hell
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7:57 pm - Motivation = dead
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Somebody poke me on AIM until I write something. Anything. I'll take suggestions.
current mood:  restless
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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7:45 am - Saga of the IRS
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Update from last night that I didn't make because after getting off the phone, I went to bed.
After 45 minutes on hold (talk about underestimating your wait time), I finally got to talk to someone at the IRS. The very nice lady listened to my explanation and then decided that she needed to bring up my account and see if she could find the payment in it. That's fine. So she puts me on hold as the account comes up.
Next is the verifying game. Now, I'm all for them making sure I am who I say I am before spouting off tax information. But holy rusted metal Batman, this was ridiculous. First I had to give my social security number. Then my first name. Then my last. Then I had to confirm what my middle initial was. Then I had to give them my complete mailing address. Then I had to give them the amount of taxes I paid for 2007 rounded to the nearest dollar. Once they confirmed that I was who I said I was they asked me how much was the payment I made last year on my taxes that they billed me twice for. Uh... see previous answer.
Using all that information, the lady searched my account. Nothing. So then I got my checkbook out and she searched on the bank's routing number. Zip. Nothing the IRS can do unless they can get some of the information on the back of the check, which for some reason was not scanned in and is not displayed on my account at my bank. Hopefully, my bank has a copy of the back of the check which will have tracking information on it from when the IRS cashed it.
I'd already called my bank and they are sending me a copy of the information about the check. When that gets here, I get to call the IRS again and see if they can use that information to track the check. At least now there's a note on my account that I'm disputing the bill and why.
Personally, I think my check probably got applied to someone else's account instead of mine. It's the only thing that makes sense.
Then again this is the IRS. Anything could happen.
Anyone want to start taking bets that this causes me to get audited next year?
current mood: aggravated
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, July 7th, 2008
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6:56 pm - Bureaucracy sucks
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I am beginning to loathe the IRS.
After waiting for months I finally got my "economic stimulus check." The problem? They took out the taxes that I supposedly owe them. The taxes I paid with a check that was cashed on March 31st. So I find the number on the paperwork they sent me so I can call and get this straightened out. It should be pretty simple, right? I have documentation that clearly shows that the taxes were paid or at the very least, someone cashed the check made out to the United State Treasury (and if it wasn't the IRS, then someone is in deep, deep doo-doo and it ain't me). Call up the number, go through phone tree hell, get transferred, and then get told that due to unexpected high volume they could not take my call please call back at another time or tomorrow.
*click* Dial-tone.
THE IRS FUCKING HUNG UP ON ME.
And they wonder why their customer service score is in the toilet.
EDIT: On hold this time. 20 minute wait time. We shall see.
EDIT2: Passed the 20 minute make about 10 minutes ago. At least they're playing Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi for their hold music. Though if I have to Waltz of the Flowers one more time I might snap.
current mood: infuriated
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, July 6th, 2008
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9:40 pm - Writer angst
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Why is this scene being such a pain in the butt to write?
Why do people ask so many questions when some random person crashes their harem for two months?
Why does my cat insist on walking across my boobs in order to get my attention, thereby blocking my computer screen?
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.
current mood: aggravated
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, July 5th, 2008
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9:40 pm - Vampires... IN SPACE
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8:03 pm - Annoyed am I
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I just got a notice from the IRS telling me I have been assessed penalties because I didn't pay my taxes. The problem? I paid my taxes. In fact, I can see the damn check on my bank's site and it was cashed on March 31st. Of course, I have 10 days from the time of notice to pay this and thanks to the USPS I got it seven days after it was sent giving me three days to pay it. And of course, the IRS offices aren't open until Monday giving me one day to get this straightened out.
The only good thing about it is that I didn't owe the IRS all that much to begin with and so I have a grand total of $.83 in penalties. Still need to harass them and figure out what the Hell is going on.
current mood: annoyed
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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working