The Fuzz Cometh

It was getting late, and I was thinking of heading off to bed.

I hear a siren approaching, it sounds like a police siren. Moments later, I hear a louder engine climbing the hill, and not long after I see the red and blue light splashes on the windows.

That's unusual around here, but not unheard of. Silence ensues for a while, then here comes the police helicopter, flying low and doing circles.

Not long after, another police car shows up, and pulls into the neighborhood across the canyon.

Of course, by this time it's got my attention. A little after, four more police cars show up. There's now two on the far side of the hillside behind the neighborhood across the street, and two that had headed to the top of the hill come back down. The first one goes past the street across the way, and then is backing up, and the other one comes down and turns into that street. As I figured, the one backing up turns down that street, too.

There's a wild area behind the houses across the canyon, and I imagine that whoever they were after is hiding out over there.

It's been more than an hour. That helicopter is going to have to refuel soon!!! I know how these things go, I'll probably never hear what happened. (I'll post an update in the comments if I actually do)

Anyway, here's some blurry pics for you!!!

The Man

As alluded to in the previous post, The Man, he do take his chunk!!! Here's the artwork I did to that effect, and I think I got the proportions just about right!!! I was less than pleased with the way the picture came out, making me once again think about a digital SLR camera.



It's really evident when you get a larger amount than usual, and it's a higher bracket. Seemed like it was nearing an even half that he was taking. I recently did the math. On my typical check, it ends up being just about a 1:5 ratio, or about 17%. A livable amount, even better if we weren't in a fiscally mismanaged state and country. The profit sharing check came out having around a 1:1.27 ratio, or around 44%!!! I'd be really disturbed by this, if I didn't end up getting most of it back!!!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dang, it's been a long time since I've made a post!!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a happy new year!!!



Now, what have I been doing in the interim??? Many things. My niece had her birthday. My company had their Christmas party, which was pretty cool. We tried out the mojito bar they had there and drank nothing else all evening after that. My wife and I stayed overnight, not at the hotel that it was held at but at a nice place up the road. Less than half the price, so even with cab rides both ways it still would have been less, and they had a complementary breakfast there.



Goody day was awesome. My trifle didn't come out exactly as planned, I accidentally (well, inadvertently, I didn't read the directions well) used water instead of milk in the pudding part, and it didn't seem to gel up quite right. I mixed a second pudding and put it on top of that, but still it wasn't right. Anyway, I think people were scared of it, only a few people tried it. I'd made two, so there would be some left by the time the third shift got around to eating. That was not necessary.

Got my gravy the Friday before Christmas. Once again, right around where I'd figured it to be, and once again, the man did take his chunk, albeit temporarily.



Christmas weekend... A lot going on!!! Saturday we went down to my parent's house for the family get-together. I took my spare trifle, but it was forgotten until it was too late. Not that there was any shortage of food!!! My parents got my oldest son several varieties of army men, and wrapped them in an authentic looking military duffel bag.



Before we went there, I stopped in at my bank and deposited my cash profit sharing check. I also asked about a fee on one of my accounts, and decided that I needed to change my account. The girl that sets those up was busy for about half an hour,so I made an appointment for Monday.



Sunday we went to Oinkster for a celebratory feast. Good times. Monday morning I went to the bank and set up my new accounts. I got a 9 month certificate of deposit with a fairly favorable rate, and a money market account for the remainder. I also moved the youngest's money from a standard custodial account into an actual mutual fund account. Naturally, there's no telling where the rates will go with that, but it's likely going to do better than even my certificate of deposit will do. Now the youngest member of the family has the most aggressive portfolio.



After that, I took the family to the movies. Across the Universe was playing at a theatre not far from my work, but the published times were wrong. We ended up getting there about 25 minutes into the movie. I was ready to bail, but the attendant said she'd give us two passes to come back some other time and catch it all. Way to sweeten the pot!!! Of course, we spent about twice as much on snacks as on admission, so way to turn a profit!!! My older boy and I both enjoyed it quite a bit, but neither my youngest or wife liked it as much.



Christmas was great fun. The boys liked all their swag. I got the oldest, among other things, new components for his computer to give it a makeover. It wouldn't run XP for some reason before, so I got him a new motherboard with PCI-E slots and a dual core processor, as well as a 160 gig hard drive and a gig of memory, and a copy of XP. A cool thing that I found for him is a new mouse that looks like a pistol, good for use with those first person shooter games he usually plays. Both boys got new, compact keyboards (desk space is at a premium), as well as Lego sets and many Hot Wheels cars. My wife got me some cool, toasty Dr. Pepper pajamas. For my wife, I wrapped up a cigar and a $100 bill for her with instructions to light the former with the latter. She didn't. I had requested the Counting Crows' re-release of August and Everything After with bonus tracks and second live disc. My parents got me the right disc, but not the re-release. My wife was shopping without the list she had insisted I make her, and found the greatest hits "Films About Ghosts" CD instead. Ummm, I've already got every song on that disc, kind of no point to that. Ah well, it's the thought that counts. And the exchange credit.



After a morning of wrapping shredding, we headed up to Mount Baldy to frolic in the snow. The youngest has never been to the snow before. I had no idea what the conditions were going to be up there, but I figured that Christmas day might be less crowded than usual. In the crowds respect, it wasn't bad. In the snow respect, it wasn't good. The snow was patchy, and what was there had melted and re-frozen into icy surfaces. Good for sliding down, though, just watch out for those rocks!!! It didn't matter much to the boys, they had a great time. They slid a few times, and then collected icy snow chunks for a snowball fight. I took some video which I may post in the future. My favorite is of the older sliding down a slope and bowling over a little girl. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera before they both started getting up laughing. Good times!!!

Give It Back!!!

I always procrastinate. I don't know why, it always ends up good for me. OK, not much time left, time to get to it. All the stuff is over there on the counter, let's see... Damit, I'm missing one of my W2 forms. Dig, dig, dig... minor setback, but I finally found it. Starts off easy, then comes line 6C, gotta put in the kids SSN's in there. I don't know what that number is, I'll have to find that. I'll be back for that. Line 7, add up my income. 8A, add in the pittance that I get in my meager savings interest. 10, add in my refund from the state last year. Not a whole lot more for that section, managed to dodge having to fill in line 19 for unemployment compensation. Add it all up for line 22.

Lines 23 to 36. Adjusted gross income. Nope, nothing in there for me, move the sum from 22 down to 37. While I'm at it, flip the form over and put that same number on 38. Line 39 has a place that says to check this box if you are blind. I consider putting a check mark a few inches away, and decide against it. Line 40, now things start looking good. Time to break out the Schedule A for more line filling fun.

Lines 1 through 3 on Schedule A are all about medical. Being as I'm nicely insured, it's usually under the threshold of 7.5% of my gross income, so I've not kept track of that. Possibly I should start, but I'd have to start doing that. From the beginning of the year. Not real likely to happen. Lines 5 and 6, state and property tax. A little preview of what I can look for from the state. Not bad. Skip down to line 10 for the interest on the mortgage. Down to 15 and 16 for gifts to charity. Gifts other than cash. How much do those old clothes and appliances I gave to Goodwill rate??? Probably they get considerably more for 'em than I'll claim. Call it $85 to keep from raising any flags. No job expenses, no casualty or theft losses, I don't even know what other miscellaneous deductions would be. Add it all up for line 28. Nice.

Back to the 1040. Line 41, take out the Schedule A deductions. YES!!! Line 42, multiply the number of deductions on line 6D by $3,300, then subtract that for line 43. Even better!!! Line 44, go to the tax tables and see how much they'd like to get out of me. Not bad. No alternative minimum tax for me, so blank 45 and move 44 down to 46. Nothing for me on lines 47 through 52, but at 53 things start looking good again. Child tax credit, see page 42. $1,000 per kid, or the amount on line 46 of the 1040, whichever is less. Haha, THAT'S where I break even!!! C'mere and gimme a hug, my little deductions!!! Could this get better??? Less than zero taxes??? Well, lets see, taxes minus credits is only line 57, this goes all the way to 76.

From there to line 63 is blank for me. Line 64 is what they withheld, how much I could ask for, nay, will ask for back. Line 66a, earned income credit. What could this be??? Flip to page 46 and check it out. Nope, apparently I make more than enough to be less than eligible for that. Line 68, additional child tax credit. Hmmm, I'll be needing a for 8812 for that. Subtract the difference between the child tax credit I already took and the $1,000 per kid. Takes it from the tax table amount to the full $2,000. Not bad. Not a huge amount, but made it worth my while to spend a few hours working this all out.

Didn't I tell you before??? I don't mind The Man taking his chunk. I'll have it back come April 15th, and then some!!!