twenty5

-=a facebook repost=-

1. I once, as a teenager, after having been pulled over, told the police officer that I didn't believe he had jurisdiction.
1b. I was not pulled from my car and beaten.
1c. I received only a warning.

2. I once, as a teenager, participated in T.P.ing someone's house, yard, car, basketball hoop, and driveway.
2b. The police showed up.
2c. My friend who lived there showed up and convinced the police that he didn't know who did it.
2d. My car was parked in the street at the time.
2e. With the doors open.
2f. With rolls of toilet paper sitting on the front and back seats.
2g. I remember hanging around in the light of the police car's headlights chatting with the cop.
2h. Some of my friends were sitting on the hood of the cop car.

3. I turned down several unsolicited calls from Disney to work for them.

4. Unfulfilled goals of mine at the end of my life will probably include: never traveling in space, never working for Disney, Microsoft or Google, not traveling as much as I'd have liked, never designing and building my own home.

5. I once got in trouble at school in fifth grade, was told to go sit in the hall, got bored and decided to walk home, walked 1.6 miles (just measured on gmap-pedometer.com), decided I probably wouldn't get a happy welcome when I got home, turned around and walked back. Got caught 20 feet from where I was supposed to be sitting and got in trouble for being out of my seat.
5b. It would take a 5th. grader a long time to walk over 3 miles.

6. I measure how successful my day was on whether I have less email at the end of the day than when I started or not.
6b. I went through (read, responded to, acted upon) over 260 pieces of email on Friday and ended the day with 50 fewer than when I started.
6c. That's an email every 90 seconds.
6d. People complain that they write to me on Facebook or Gmail and I never respond.
6e. I am starting to hate email.

7. Unrealized potential in others disappoints and frustrates me.

8. I don't remember Washington being this rural when I was growing up.
8b. And I lived in Bremerton!

9. I have too many pet peeves.

10. My resting weight is 190. If there is such a thing.
10b. The summer before last I lost 30 pounds.
10c. It all came back.
10d. I'm trying again.
10e. But I'm not very motivated.

11. I hate minivans and tiny cars.
11b. I secretly want a massive SUV.
11c. I'd never be able to park it.

12. I own an early draft of L.A. Story.
12b. My wife is a wonderful and thoughtful gift-giver.

13. The two-party political system has failed me.

14. I withhold extra money each year so I'll get a refund on my taxes.
14b. My dad says that's like a free loan to the government.
14c. I like to think of it as the government sending me on a free trip to the Embassy Suites in Bellevue while my parents watch the kids.

15. I'm thinking about joining a gym.
15b. I could make it come out in my favor just on the amount of hot water I'd use in the shower each day.

16. I believe I could run the company better than the current people running General Motors.

17. I believe I could successfully operate a car theft ring.

18. I usually read books late at night when I should be sleeping.
18b. I'm often tired and drink at least two cups of coffee a day.
18c. I get headaches around 5 pm on Saturday if I don't have coffee that morning.
18d. So many people get me Starbucks cards that I can usually go 2-3 times a month and I never have to pay.

19. I've maintained post office boxes almost continuously since 1989.

20. I'm leaving number 20 blank.

21. I've faked my way onto the NBC lot before.
21b. It was really easy, just needed a cell phone and acting like I was on a call. (Security's probably better now.)

22. I've only quit one job in my life.
22b. It was extremely liberating.

23. My iPod is socialist. Sort of.

24. I believe that Dairy Queen Blizzards are good for when you are sad, when you are celebrating, when you are marking a diet milestone, etc.

25. I never learned to read.

Lots of people have already commented.

Day Off

I'm over my vacation cap and taking Friday off. I've been looking forward to it all week, maybe even more than the new episode of LOST. Maybe. Even something that's normally on Wednesday was on Tuesday this week. So I'm halfway done with the week.

Powermat (Video)

Kinda cool if you can overlook the awful hosting job.

Blackboring

I'm sitting at a table listening to some people talk. Budget stuff and possibly politics. I don't have a vote. Not that I'm complaining - I'm not educated on the issue and it sounds like a rubber stamping is happening. I guess I also don't have an opinion.

So I'm playing on my Blackberry. And either the internet has run out of simple websites to view, or the crummy browser makes a lot of sites (like Facebook) pretty much useless.

Taxes

Blech. Had forgotten about them. Feel like I was much further along by now at this time last year.

When we lived in California, we used to have this guy named Vittorio do them for us. At H&R Block. The first year, he told us we needed to get a house and a baby. So, we went back the next year the house info. The year after that, some Russian woman who wasn't as helpful. The year after that, Vittorio was back and we introduced him to Rachel. He was quite happy with us for following his advice.

All along, though, we'd watch them click and type and click and click and boy, it sure looked easy. When we moved up here, wanted to cut costs (and life had simplified) and looked at the DIY options. Imagine my surprise to see how similar H&R Block's online offering looked to the ones that the tax advisors were walking us through. So now I'm a big fan of the H&R Block online option as a quick and relatively painless way to do our taxes. The system always shows you in the top right corner how much you'll owe or get back as a refund - as you move through the screens you can see the number change and see how each little thing affects the end result positively or negatively.

And because we always get a small refund, it's fun to watch the numbers grow as we add in stuff like property taxes and charitable giving. So it ends up being a happy experience as we anticipate that number. And at the end, it files them automatically and within days (because we file so early) the money's deposited directly into our checking account. (Sadly, this year, it's going straight to the credit card.)

Baaa

Just finished "Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story" - a really fun read. I'm going to compare it to The Matrix when I review it on Facebook.

Four Year-Old Logic

So, the four-year-old seems to taking a long time in the bathroom and for once has actually remembered to shut the door. I'm playing with the baby so I haven't noticed exactly how long, but I hear water splashing, so figure she's playing in the sink again, but I'd better check.

She admits that there's a problem but nothing seems amiss at first. She points out that the emergency-toy-recovery-tongs (bought at the dollar tree, to be used only in the bathroom, never to leave the bathroom) are wet but resting in their normal space on a piece of paper towel on the back of the toilet. The water in the toilet seems cloudy and almost to the brim. I notice a roll of paper towel on the counter and then see that the roll of toilet paper is empty and the pieces all start to fall into place... the paper towel wasn't flushing correctly so the tongs seemed like the perfect tool to force the paper down the drain. Thank God I demand that we buy select-a-size or it would have been much worse.

The baby into the crib, the 4yo into the shower for a quick scrubdown. Girl into pajamas, teeth brushed, quick prayer and hugs and kisses all around. The baby into a sleeper, lights off, back in the crib. The girl into bed, lights out. No devotion or Bible reading, just me back into the bathroom to work some more at the clog.

And that's how the kids were in bed at 7 pm and I didn't get to play with them very much and I feel bad about that.