She is such a gorgeous child! 
happy,
happy birthday Roxie! .
That would be me. Haven’t started yet. Yikes! I know better-this year I just didn’t do better. I have an appt with a younger friend late this afternoon for him to help me with it. Since my TBI such executive functioning has been very challenging and frustrating and my being a tech peasant doesn’t help. In exchange I’m going to be a guest speaker at a college class he is teaching-I talk much better than I compute.
Mrs W was getting panicky because we hadn’t had our taxes done by the end of February. Some of you folks really like to cut things close!
I’m almost always last minute. I actually had them 95% done in mid-March and then waited until this weekend for the last 5%.
How it started:
How it’s going:
Happy Gotcha Day Spot!
The usual heaving for a Monday. As far as snacks, I like frozen grapes. And popcorn.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROXSTAR
So say we all. 
Morning all. It’s a nice 66F heading to a summer-like 85F and not a chance of rain (at least until Wednesday). Caught another mouse last night after signing off, he was also released into the forest and I have deployed the “CatchMaster Multi-Catch” mouse trap with a big heap of peanut butter for bait. If I do get any more (or repeat business, mice do not provide ID) I may call an expert to check the house out, as I cannot find any trace of them or how they got in. Otherwise just another 5-S (shop-sammich-swim-sauna-soccer) Moanday here and see what the scale says the weight is at.
As for snacks, I am now eating two bananas a day Saturday-Monday and two apples a day Tuesday-Friday, so that is a plus. I am still trying to work other snacks into the mix, have small (100cal) bags of pretzels now, but am trying to stay away from the cheese balls and potato chips, as I have no self-control whatever around them.
As for family, I think my uncle traced my mother’s side of the family back to 17th century Germany, but on my Dad’s side I know they came over in the late 1800’s from Ireland and that’s about it. Have outlived just about everyone on both sides except for my brother.
And did my taxes last month with Turbo Tax and got a fairly nice refund, which I spent on plumbing and house repair.
FCM, a most happy birthday to Roxy, she is an absolute doll.
Wheelie, most of my overnight travels have been international, so a red-eye like you took is a rarity, glad you made it on-time and I hear Indianapolis has really grown and developed in the past couple of decades.
verwirrt, might be a bit of a line at the Post Office, a lot of people mail them off today, so my advice is go early and bring a snack… 
lucky, just googled and looks like Home Depot has anti-fatigue mats,. so in all probability so does Loew’s.
yankers, yeah, ‘don’t blink’ before they do something that is guaranteed to make any normal person blink. And good news on the pupper!
OK, it’s 9am so I need to finish the morning internetting and get ready for the new week. Have a good one all.
I had a chorizo-and-egg burrito for breakfast yesterday. I think I’ll have one for breakfast today too, but it will probably be too big to roll so I’ll just fold it like a taco.
Tried to connect to my PC this morning, but it didn’t wanna. Our credit manager gets into the office very early, but he telecommutes on Mondays. I had to wait for another person to get there, and she turned on my PC. So now I can irk.
Post Office was painless. Third in line for two clerks. They did open at 9:03 instead of 9 which was very mildly annoying.
Going to caffeinate one more time before doing some packing.
:::waves as hes up at this godforsaken hour :: I don’t get up before the crack o 10 am or noon if I wanna …
Is he holding his own back foot? Monkey snoozes like that a lot!
The chorizo is in the pan.
The red crow sings at midnight.
Wait - are we doing sign-countersign or what??
Back from grocerying and I remembered everything but MIL’s hot chocolate. The ice cream cake was stoopit expensive, but the smaller one I planned to buy was truly small. So now we’ll have leftovers. Alas…
The weather is gorgeous and the house is open. I don’t think I’ll be able to play in dirt today, but tomorrow, I will.
I was hoping someone would pick up on that! 
Seems to be the case with most Polish immigrants. My wife knows very little about her Polish ancestors, even after her sister traveled there and tried to dig up information. As for my DIL, she is from England, last name Jones, which is very common, but there is all this mystery surrounding the family about name changes and the like. It tires me out, frankly.
I appreciate the offer, but I’ve also got a subscription and I’ve tried Family Search, which has the largest database in the world. I’ve also been doing genealogy research for 30 years. This is just a full-stop dead end, I’m afraid.
FCD surprised me yesterday - he’s decided to sell his bike. He hasn’t ridden it in at least 5 years, and since his last spinal surgery, it was pretty clear he’d never ride again. I’m sorry for him because he loved to ride, but I’ll be glad to have it gone.
Coupla extra bucks won’t hurt, but I’m sorry he’s having to accept his new limitations like that.
Oh, speaking of popcorn … towards the end of the night, we had slowed way down, and it was just me, Sweet Manager and one of the Oven Masters sitting around swapping jokes and kickin’ it on our phones.
When S.M. sits around, you know she’s either feeling really sick, or ain’t shit to do.
I started making noises about the popcorn bucket in my car & wanting a refill. (Wesco, a local gas station chain, does this thing where they fresh-pop all day, and if you buy a bucket, you get free refills for a year.)
Once I said, “I’d be willing to shaaaaaaare …” S.M. was like, “Go. Just go.”
Me: “Ferrealz?”
S.M. “Yes. Just go.”
(Place is maybe five minutes away, mind you.)
I had that apron untied & my keys in my hand so fast … !
… and yes, I did share.
Okay, I think I have all my documents together, to shove across the accountant’s desk & politely say, “Here. YOU make sense of it.”
There are two documents that did not turn up in a semi-thorough search of my back junk mail, though.
Since both involve {sigh} debt settlement, I assume maybe they’re handled differently. Somehow? I have the paperwork for the original setup with each outfit - hopefully that will provide sufficient data for the accountant to piece something together sufficient to satisfy the IRS.
But in brighter news, the same scavenger hunt through my mail turned up a modest check from the state - along with the self-congratulatory verbiage one expects from politicians - so imma save that on my coffee table for when I get home.
Hopefully depositing it will soothe me a bit.
… and maybe TODAY I’ll remember to swing by for that BLT. I’m hungry again! (… but way too jangled to eat. Yet.)
Okay, I need to get somewhat sheveled.
I so rarely wear non-work clothes these days. What sort of outfit says, “I have my shit together. No, really, I totally do!”
Man, I’m about to make all of you feel better about your snacking habits! We have what’s come to be known as “the chocolate drawer,” a bin full of candy snacks (mostly chocolate) that’s right by the doorway from the living room to the kitchen, and I dip my hand in there all too frequently. The drawer right next to it contains commercial cookies (I’m with you on the Tate’s, WetOne, only I get the ones with walnuts and chocolate chips). Under that one is yet another that contains microwave popcorn singles and various crackers. Sometimes I’ll get a plate of whole wheat Ritz crackers with cheese and salsa on top and call it lunch.
We have the same, except this, the coldest day in the week, is predicted to go to 67F. Then it’s back up to the high 70s and low 80s. I should be out getting yard work done before the winds crank up to 40 mph this afternoon.
Oh, I love it when babies sleep like that! But six is such a good age, isn’t it? And what a lucky girl, to have her grandma throwing her party!
This reminds me of one of my favorite jokes: “I asked someone where they’d like to go on a date, and they said, ‘I want you to buy me the most expensive meal in town.’ So I took them for breakfast at the airport!”
I must say, by the time we were buying our fourth airport meal in the space of a week, I didn’t even blink an eye at the prices. Fifteen dollars for a grilled cheese sandwich? Sounds about right to me.
That must be why Cat Roxy isn’t hollering to go out on the leash! (Actually, it’s because her person finally came home last night, and she’s not letting her out of sight. She thought she was dead!)
Poor thing! I’ve been doing PT for mine for the past six months or so, and I think it helps? If nothing else, the therapist was able to change the location and intensity of the pain. I hope she gets some relief!
I’m starting to realize just how complicated taxes are about to get once we start taking distributions from our various retirement accounts. But paying quarterly is really not hard once you get in the swing of it. You can set up an EFTPS account with the IRS and pay directly from your bank account on the 15th of January, April, June (because dividing 12 months by 4 is apparently too complex for the government), and September. We used to just kind of toss them whatever amount we thought would keep us from penalty territory.
I’ve taken to doing under an hour or so at a time or else the next day has to be a full rest day. Although that’s not the worst thing on earth!
The older I get, the harder it is for me to understand new electronics. I’m about ready to head for the senior center to cash in some of the karma I earned showing my FIL how to use cellphones and computers.
What a handsome baby and what precious toesies!
Mice are kind of like that. As everyone kept telling me when we had our infestation, they can fit through holes the size of a dime! Ours stopped coming in after I stuffed steel wool around the spaces where the baseboard heat pipes come in from the utility room (use thick rubber gloves if you do that).
So it looks like I haven’t dawdled quite long enough for the wind to pick up. This must be A Sign for me to go trim and rake and water and generally batten down the hatches before it starts.
Happy Moanday!
Edit: I don’t remember if I actually posted it in last week’s thread, but Mr. L says thank you for all your kind wishes!
My sister’s husband bought full-sized candy bars by the box and had them neatly lined up on a shelf right next to his bed in the basement. I was impressed with his dedication to snacking if not with the man himself, who was a world class asshole.
My public library offers tech help with computers and cellphones~a kind service associate finds a quiet corner and sits down with you and works one to one with you til you’ve won the battle-of-the-binary, all without shaming or snark, my tax dollars at work! If only my wretchedly ungrateful IT wizards that I gave birth to hadn’t moved to NC or Colorado….