Weekend Assignment #277: Your call is very important to us

First, I have to say that I missed last week's assignment by total accident. I was confused as to what day it was (it happens with my work schedule at times) and I thought I had another day to do it. Yes, I need a calendar in front of me at all times. Better yet, someone to just sit next to me and remind me what day it is.

Anyway, on with this week's assignment. Karen asks:

Weekend Assignment: #277: We've all become used to automated phone routers ("To continue in English, press 1"), long waits at government offices and other bureaucratic obstacles to getting something done. Have you any particular horror stories along these lines, or have you had mostly good experiences with government agencies?

Actually, mine haven't been too bad. It's very surprising since most of my phone dealings with government agencies were tax related. Those are never good. I get nervous just thinking about taxes and the IRS. (They are reading this now, aren't they? Crap.)

Anyway, a couple of years ago when I had our taxes done, the person preparing them asked if we wanted to file electronically. I said yes thinking we'd get our measly refund back quicker. So, when we got our packet of materials in the mail I opened them, gave them a quick once over, and put them to the side. My brother, as he usually does, called when he got his refund and asked if we had ours. We didn't, but I didn't think too much about it. Until it was about April 13th, or so, when I thought we should really have gotten the money since we filed so early.

So, I called the IRS to check on our filing. I was nervous just dialing them up. I was afraid I'd trigger some kind of audit by calling them. (Ha Ha! No need to audit, if you are still reading. Everything is cool here!) Surprisingly, I got a gentleman on the phone pretty quickly and he informed me that, no, we had nothing on file. That's when I decided to look more closely at the papers we had received about 6 weeks before that and noticed we had to send everything in. We still got our money, but not as early as we would have liked. At least the guy on the phone was nice.

This year was a little different. We tried to file our state return electronically ourselves but we needed a PIN number for some reason. Since we have someone else do our taxes usually, we had no PIN. And since I was being the typical me and waiting until the second-to-last day, when I tried to call the number I got the, "We are experiencing and unusually high call rate. Please try again later." Yeah, right. I ended up mailing it in. I did notice a short blurb in the local people about people not able to get through. They said they were overloaded by an unexpected number of calls. Really? How can it be unexpected at tax time? Everyone waits until the last day, surely they understand that! (This is a state matter, nothing to do with the national IRS system. No siree!)

The only other thing I have learned over time is to not wait until the day before you need to have a new village sticker on your car to go buy them. That was a long line!

Extra Credit: Does this problem seem to be getting better or worse?

Well, it seems it isn't getting any better. Maybe not worse though.

One way to make sure your family never forgets you

Personal Urns. Isn't it just better to keep pictures of your loved ones? This is super creepy.

It could scare the crap out of would-be burglars though, right?

It could also be a nice Christmas tree topper.

Any other suggestions?

In real life

I've been absent from here a few days, sorry about that. It's been a busy week. I've been on the afternoon shift at work, which always makes things a little more interesting, and we've been busy around the house too. I don't want to say why yet, if everything works out I'll let you know of course.

But, one fun thing did happen this weekend. I got to meet a blogger friend, in real life and everything! It was a little surreal to think about it at first. It's not like I know many people from here anyway, but actually meeting someone who I've never met yet, at the same time I know, was strange, cool and fun all wrapped up together.

See, Florinda was here in town for the BlogHer convention, so after several e-mails, and work tweaking, we got to meet downtown for lunch on Saturday before I had to go to work. It was fun, but way too short. I only had about 90 minutes before I had to fight traffic to make it back to work on time, but it was totally worth it. I had a good time, and since she hasn't blocked me from Twitter yet, I guess she did too. I did feel like I was talking at an extremely rapid pace, but sometimes I do that when I'm a tad nervous, and when I only have 90 minutes to tell my life story. Good thing I didn't have any caffeine to make it worse.

The funny part is that we would have had a little more time to talk, but I got a little lost. I don't drive downtown much, hate the traffic, but I did okay there since it was right off of Ohio street. For those of you not from Chicago, that is the street you get off the tollway from, in that area at least. I was fine there, the problem came after parking. It was one of those garages where you pull in on one street then come out somewhere else. Or so it seemed. All I know is I came out of the garage and I was totally turned around. I called Jenn for some help, but she couldn't help without seeing where I was. Then I remembered I had GPS on my phone! Somehow I got a decent signal, figured out which direction to go (the opposite of which I was heading) and started to jog to the restaurant. I'm sure I looked like a total goober. So, in short, the person who has lived in the Chicago all his life, was slightly late meeting the person who had never been there because he was a little lost.

Anyway, we had a nice lunch, talked a bit about the conference, family and the city. We didn't have enough time at all, but it was still great meeting Florinda. She said her and her husband plan to come back to town, so hopefully we can get together again. This time I'll have Jenn with to guide me.

One thing I wanted to do was take a picture with both of us in it to post here, but I forgot. See, goober. Want to know what pictures I did remember to take that day? Take a look:

Yes, I took pictures of in the parking garage so I could remember where I parked. Nerd!

Anyway, Florinda, thanks for taking time out from your convention to meet me for lunch. I hope I didn't talk your ear off.

ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #47: Patterns

This week it's all about patterns. Carly wants us to photograph some kinds of pattern.

I wasn't sure what to photograph at first, until I looked outside. Needless to say, we have some shadow work again.

Here is sunlight through the back of a patio chair.

Actually, now that I look at it there is two patterns. The pattern from the chair, and the pattern of the small rocks that make up the concrete in the patio.

This other is the pattern of the fake bricks on the kids old playhouse.

Nothing all that exciting this week. Maybe I'll post more if I see more around later this week.

Goodbye, old friend

Well, the old car is gone. It wasn't supposed to be this quick, but we left her at the dealership, gave her a hug and took our new car home last night.

What was supposed to happen, was Jenn and I go to the dealership last night, check out the car that came in, sign some of the papers to get some of that done, then come back today or tomorrow and pick it up. Somehow we ended up being there until after 10pm and came home with the new car. I didn't even have the title for the old car with me. I need to find that to bring it in. I'm pretty sure I know where it is. Maybe.

So, now we have a new car with the new car smell and no dings. Yet. See, that is the part I hate about a new car. Now we have to watch where we park, make sure we have room to open the doors, and enough room for the loser next to us to open his door without smacking it into our car. There is nothing worse than the first ding on new car. It always comes too soon. Am I right?

Anyway, before we traded the old car in I was able to witness this:

This is the first car we have owned that broke the 100,000 mile barrier. Every other car has bit the dust just before that mark. I found it fitting that it happened on the day we sold it. Don't you?

Okay, I need to go to work.

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #46: Seen in Summer

My post this week may be a bit different than the others. Most of it is because, as I said before, this summer has been very cool, so not much of your usual summer activities happen as often. Going to the pool is out most day since it is too cold, and I don't see as many kids running around outside. Who wants to wear long pants, or a light coat, in the middle of summer?

Anyway, Carly wants us to take some pictures of things seen in the summer, or what summer means to us.

Well, one thing that summer means to me is weeds. I don't like them, and I don't like removing them. What a pain?

Next, is bugs. There are way too many in the summer, and I don't like them at all. That is one reason I don't like to eat outside. I like to grill the food, then bring it in. I know, I sound like a wimp. But, one bug I have learned to loathe is the Japanese Beetle. We have a tree that became infested last summer, and they are back. Look at this guy gnawing on that leaf!

The biggest problem, besides the destruction of the tree, is the sap and debris that falls on the cars when they are parked under the tree.

This tree is right along the driveway so it is impossible to avoid.

Today I took control of things, bought some insecticide my brother recommended, and sprayed the tree. Here is the carnage I left behind. Warning, not for the squeamish, or the bug lover.

That's all for today. Go check out the other pictures at Carly's site.

Edited to add: I can't get into the comments on Carly's site so this may not be official. So I hope some of you guys get to see it.

Halfway to 80

I turned 40 a short time ago, as you may recall, but today we are going to a party for a couple of friends tonight. They decided to have a "halfway to 80" party to celebrate turning 40 a different way. Not a bad idea. Maybe it will make me feel a little less old for a short time.

I probably would have felt younger if I put a deposit down on a Corvette rather than a Camry today. Of course, I'd need a bit more money. Anyone want to lend me some? And a trailer to attach to the back to put the kids in?

Have a great Saturday!