what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[winger]

The a/c in our truck hasn't been working well- only blowing out the defrost vents. I had chosen to ignore it, but DW mentioed it several times. Did research on an online board that is all about Ford Diesel trucks. It is a common problem, truck has an electric vacuum pump that eventually fails.
I almost went to the dealer to get a replacement, but since it was early I did some internet price shopping. Wow!! Dealer price= $366. Best internet price= $65, Amazon Prime.

Dreaming of ways to spend my savings......

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Worked on 2010 income tax. Having trouble with Turbo Tax this year. Since we don't itemize (have used standard deduction for a long time), we cannot deduct property taxes. Feds eliminated this deduction unless you itemize. However, Turbo Tax software still allows me to post the property taxes. If this is wrong, what else have they screwed up. Now I don't trust it. Anyone else have a problem like this?

 

[REWahoo]

Johnnie, TurboTax allows you to enter all possible deductible expenses, then recommends whether you should take the std deduction or itemize.

 

[W2R]

Johnnie, REWahoo is right but still, I feel your pain! I did my taxes yesterday with TurboTax. For some reason it seemed like it was fighting back more than in previous years, and even did so when I tried to do simple things sometimes. I was so aggravated. Luckily after a valiant battle I won, and ended up with unexpected refunds.

 

[Walt34]

Finally, some decent weather! 200+ miles on the motorcycle on WV back roads yesterday.

I feel much better now.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Thanks you for the replies. I was not aware that Turbo Tax allowed you to enter ALL the possible tax deductions and then not allow it in final calculation. You would think they would have some kind of notification since the g'mnt just disallowed it at year end by not extending that tax break. Also, as far as Turbo Tax is concerned, I went to their help site with this and never got a reply. W2R, I also find Turbo Tax not too "user friendly" this year. I fought them a lot on rental property. In my situation, we bought a new home on 12-30-2009, rented our old house in April 2010 and sold it to the renters 12-1-2010. It was not easy navigating this scenario through Turbo Tax. I'm still not sure it is correct.

 

[REWahoo]

Thanks you for the replies. I was not aware that Turbo Tax allowed you to enter ALL the possible tax deductions and then not allow it in final calculation.

After entering all my possible deductions (medical expenses, property taxes, charitable contributions, etc), my version of Turbo Tax showed me whether the standard deduction or itemizing was the best way to go - then it let me choose which I preferred.

I think too many people, me included in the past, try to "outhink" the program. I've learned the best approach is simply answer the questions and input the information when the software asks for it...

 

[East Texas]

We planted 250 long leaf pine seedlings by hand today. Only 500 to go.

Got the tractor out and ran the disc over three sections of the hay meadow to cut up the coastal bermuda. Then ran the tiller over the strips where the seedlings will be planted. We decided to put in a Silvopasture (strips of trees across a hay meadow) in three areas of the hay meadow. We have to get the rest of the long-leaf seedlings planted tomorrow or we're going to have a high mortality rate.

Sure am glad we're retired so we have time for unscheduled projects such as this!

 

[East Texas]

Worked on 2010 income tax. Having trouble with Turbo Tax this year. Since we don't itemize (have used standard deduction for a long time), we cannot deduct property taxes. Feds eliminated this deduction unless you itemize. However, Turbo Tax software still allows me to post the property taxes. If this is wrong, what else have they screwed up. Now I don't trust it. Anyone else have a problem like this?

I agree with the others, especially since we had the same situation. I input property taxes and the program ignored them for final calcuations. As it did our charitable contributions.

We got our refund direct deposited in our bank account today. This is the first year we've had a refund in years!

 

[TromboneAl]

Inspired by the clay pot cooker post that someone made, I cooked a chicken in our Dutch oven, inside the regular oven. Added a lot of good spices.

The result was not good. I was essentially boiled chicken.

 

[freebird5825]

I did my taxes yesterday also. I am still able to itemize by a comfortable margin over the standard deduction for a single filer. I will get a refund of just over $1.4K It doesn't take much to amuse me.
I will do one more sanity check on my figures tomorrow and then e-file my federal and snail mail my state taxes. No NYS tax due. Only someone who has lived here can appreciate that miracle of miracles.

 

[Moemg]

I did my taxes yesterday also. I am still able to itemize by a comfortable margin over the standard deduction for a single filer. I will get a refund of just over $1.4K It doesn't take much to amuse me.
I will do one more sanity check on my figures tomorrow and then e-file my federal and snail mail my state taxes. No NYS tax due. Only someone who has lived here can appreciate that miracle of miracles.

Congratulations ! So what are you going to do with your mad money ?

 

[freebird5825]

Congratulations ! So what are you going to do with your mad money ?

TY
Put it in the bank for now.
I feel a Cape Cod adventure coming on in late spring or early summer before the summer hordes show up there.
We have to wait and see if Mr B is going to be taking courses full or part time, in classroom or online, through the VA VR&E program. We will know the answer by early March.

 

[Gumby]

Changed the oil in 2 of our cars. Went to lunch with the young wife. Bought a big bag of cat food and took it to the animal shelter.

 

[Nodak]

Helped a friend work on restoring a 1951 John Deere Model B tractor.

 

[TromboneAl]

Speaking of meatballs (Swedish this time):

 

[grasshopper]

I did my taxes yesterday. seems like the Fed 0% LTCG works nicely. But Arizona treats LTCG same as any CG. BOO HOO.

 

[Dreamer]

We survived our first day of having our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter alone. Her mama left last night driving from WV to CA. She is currently in TX. DH is going to fly her home to CA 3/6/11. Her daddy is supposed to leave Afghanistan on Monday and hopefully be in CA 2/28/11. DD and DGD have been living with us since 08/10 and we are going to miss them, but glad they can be a family again.

 

[DangerMouse]

Speaking of meatballs (Swedish this time):

View attachment 11245

Got a recipe you would care to share? BTW how do they compare to the meatballs at Ikea? Must admit in years gone past we have gone to Ikea just to eat at their cafe.

 

[kyounge1956]

Pruned the parental rosebushes. It was good weather for the time of year. Clear dry & sunny, and not too cold to work in the garden for a few hours.

 

[obgyn65]

Took care of patients at a free clinic. Made contact with the guys who are going to Guatemala in April to build a free clinic there for us to see patients.

 

[Walt34]

Made an "emergency food run" for DW who has a bad cold and yesterday was hating life, one of those days when you feel like "Dear God, can I just die and get this over with please?" type days. She wanted chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, crackers and cough drops. Got that stuff and planted her in front of the TV with a blanket and that's about all I could do.

I looked around for a few hours for a medium-range scanner for film and slides. Turns out it's a complicated subject, to do it right one needs IT8 calibration sheets for different films and slides, Kodachrome being one of the more problematic. There are a couple of books on the subject I want to read first though.

I'm probably gonna do it, that looks like a fascinating activity and I've done what a couple of relatives called "miracles" restoring photos with just the 1200 dpi scanner on the printer and Photoshop Elements.

 

[missionfinder]

Today I'm going to stop by Goodwill and donate about 100 books. Then plan to organize things for an upcoming garage sale. Planning dinner already, "porcupine meatballs" (meatballs with rice in them).

 

[TromboneAl]

Got a recipe you would care to share? BTW how do they compare to the meatballs at Ikea? Must admit in years gone past we have gone to Ikea just to eat at their cafe.

These are much better than those you get at Ikea.

The recipe was in Lena's head, but I had her recite it to me. There was a lot of

Lena: Oh, I don't know how much, I just...
Al: Well, estimate
Lena: Oh, I guess a deciliter
Al: OK, so a half cup
Lena: Yeah, I guess.

Also, she usually puts 1 tsp of salt per pound of ground meat, but this last batch seemed too salty. Perhaps our tastes have changed?

Swedish Meatballs

.3 cup carbquick (or .3 cup breadcrumbs)
.75 cup heavy whipping cream (HWC)
2 lbs ground beef (or ground moose meat if in Sweden)
.5 medium onion chopped very very finely
1 tsp salt
.25 tsp ground white pepper
1 egg
Butter (see below)

Mix carbquik (or breadcrumbs) with about .5 cup of HWC until it’s the consistency of thick pancake batter.

Mix this with remaining ingredients (except butter). Form 1 inch meatballs.

1. Put 2 TBS butter in cast iron skillet
2. Brown 10 meatballs at a time in very hot cast iron skillet (well-browned)
3. Lower heat
4. Scrape pan drippings into saucepan, put meatballs in saucepan

Add half cup of heavy whipping cream to saucepan.
Simmer saucepan on low heat
Repeat steps 1-3 until all meatballs are in the saucepan.

 

[W2R]

The bigger parades of Carnival season (Mardi Gras season) are beginning. A big parade will be passing within 1/2 block of F.'s house today. It starts at noon but probably will last until late afternoon. Kind of a PITA for him since he feels very blocked in. Often cars block his driveway during parades, and the street, but he can walk a few blocks to where I can pick him up and extract him from the area. He will probably have numerous strands of beads on his lawn in the morning.

Having parades that close does make it easy for us to enjoy Mardi Gras. Don't know if we will go to this parade, or not. There will be many parades from now until March 8th (Mardi Gras), so we will pick and choose.