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

[pb4uski]

Mailed my tax returns. The guy ahead of me at post office was doing the same. We might be the last two people in town to actually file by mail. .....

I do my aunt's tax return (for free) and she insists on filing by mail because of a problem that she had years ago where the IRS claimed not to receive her return. It is a real PITA for me as I have to print out the return, assemble the forms that should accompany the return, and mail to her for her to sign and mail to the IRS. I'm really close to telling her that I'll continue to do it only if she agrees to efile.

 

[bbbamI]

Watched our very own Jeff Yeager aka Ultimate Cheapskate on TLC today.

...he certainly lives up to his name.

Hey Jeff...if you're ever in my Dallas 'burb, let me know. I'll put you up for the night and don't worry about bringing anything for supper. Salmon carcass is not my cup o' tea.

 

[grasshopper]

Ms G and I had a half-a-dozen folks over for dinner. Nothing fancy, just a lot of fresh vegetarian fare. Well we are done dinner sitting in the all purpose room, watching the dogs run and chase each other. So one guest says look the dogs are chasing a cat. I check about, no all the cats are accounted for (you know where this is going). No no I saw the dogs chase a black and white cat. Call the dogs in, not so fast the cat turns out to be a striped skunk. Party over Ms G and I have some dog washing to do.

 

[Rambler]

I put the roof on this:

I'll paint some tomorrow and more on Monday. Then later next week I will start on fencing on the back and side wall, the till some compost into the dirt in front of it, install the sprinkler system, lay some sod and will be done with this part of the yard. One bay of the shed will be for a kennel that will extend out onto the grass, two bays will be for firewood, and one bay for misc yard stuff. I'll cover the front of the firewood and yard stuff bays with a bamboo curtain.

DW helped with dumping concrete from the mixer trailers, and my dad advised on the framing. Given I've never done anything like this, I'm pretty proud of the accomplishment.

R

 

[FIREd]

The cats woke me up at 7:00 this morning but I stayed in bed until 9:00. Had breakfast, then opened the windows to aerate the apartment (love the fresh air). Paid a couple of bills, sent some money to Vanguard, had lunch. Took a half hour to enjoy a cup of great Taiwanese Oolong tea. Went for a walk along the bay. Sat in the sun for one hour. Came home with a 6' tall palm tree that I had to lug through the streets from the store. Looks great in our living room. Worked a bit on our taxes. Made some delicious pulled pork sandwiches for dinner (I had made a huge amount of pulled pork a few weeks ago and had some leftovers in the freezer).

 

[HighRoller]

After 38 years without a cigarette, I still miss smoking.

I can relate to that! It's only been about 29 years for me since my last cigarette but I still miss them. I don't miss them as much as I did the first few years but whenever I'm around someone that is smoking, I really miss it.

 

[Gumby]

Just got back from a high school production of The Sound of Music. One of my young wife's students was Maria, so we had to go watch. They were really quite good.

 

[freebird5825]

Despite my protests about trying to lose weight, Mr B twisted my arm and took me to a chinese buffet for dinner. I was very good and avoided anything fried.

We are watching an old Larry the Cable Guy standup comedy show on Netflix. He is too much. I've never seen him perform comedy with a guitar, while telling dirty jokes. He's only doing a few chords in between jokes but he seems to know how to play it properly.
Next up is Ron White, You Can't Fix Stupid.
Mr B loves comedy. We are getting our money's worth out of the recently ordered streaming Netflix subscription.

Tomorrow is a free day for me while Mr B goes to his PT tax prep job. I think I'll do some more seed planting. And exercise...

I am planning another road trip on Tuesday to the Lake Ontario beach camp to help my friends fully open it up for Spring. If it starts snowing and blowing, I'll just stay over an extra day.

T minus 8 days until my 6th anniversary of FIRE.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We went to a visitation for a 35-year-old. His father said to us, "We know there are no words." Sad sad day.

 

[DeborahB]

In no particular order (kind of like my usual days lately) I read about self-publishing a book, worked on my taxes, tried to find either of at least two pairs of headphones (found the older one... where is the new one, I ask?), washed the sheets and put them back on the bed, 2 other loads of laundry, tried to find lyrics to a (very vulgar) song on google and failed, and sat here avoiding doing my taxes. What next?

 

[Accidental Retiree]

I went to my annual wellness exam and before getting into the doctor's door, I hit some uneven pavement and went right down on hands and knees.

When I got in the door, I looked down and saw that I'd ripped the fabric right out of the left knee of my lightweight cotton capris. Bummer.

I admitted to the nurse who cleaned up and bandaged my skinned knee that although the pavement was quite uneven, the torn pants and skinned knee were really the fault of my own vanity.

I knew I was going to have to get on that scale, and I figured that lightweight capris were going to weigh less than my usual bellbottom jeans.

The good news is that I weighed 7 lbs less than last year.

Either the pants were lighter, or I sustained more blood loss on the skinned knee than I realized.

What a great start to the week!

 

[Meadbh]

Lol! Well, at least you were in the right place, "Accidental"!

 

[ls99]

I went to my annual wellness exam and before getting into the doctor's door, I hit some uneven pavement and went right down on hands and knees.

When I got in the door, I looked down and saw that I'd ripped the fabric right out of the left knee of my lightweight cotton capris. Bummer.

I admitted to the nurse who cleaned up and bandaged my skinned knee that although the pavement was quite uneven, the torn pants and skinned knee were really the fault of my own vanity.

I knew I was going to have to get on that scale, and I figured that lightweight capris were going to weigh less than my usual bellbottom jeans.

The good news is that I weighed 7 lbs less than last year.

Either the pants were lighter, or I sustained more blood loss on the skinned knee than I realized.

What a great start to the week!

Pictures please.

 

[ls99]

Yesterday I picked up a Dell 2400 something. $20.- Today I backed up ---finally --for the first time in years---- my main 'puter. to the $20 'puter's hard drive.. Took a bit of effort as the windoze backup program refused to make the requisite floppy for restore.

Ended up usin Clonezilla. Macine runs fine, but, since it is an clone they both can not be on the network at the same time.

Yet it is OK. Just wanted a full backup in case of disaster. Shut it off and parked on a shelf in the basement. Now I can easyly do the routine once a month or so. Yep, I am lazy and cheap.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Pictures please.

Sorry, but the 2 men who watched the whole thing didn't have their cameras on at the time.

 

[Meadbh]

Met with my accountant to review my personal tax return. An accountant is essential if you also have a corporation, but those tax returns will be done later.

The bad news is that I had to pay some tax on top of the instalments I was making. The good news is that the cause of the extra tax was better return on investments in 2012. The other bad news is that I will need to pay almost as much in 2013 as I have budgeted for income taxes. The other good news is that my personal tax rate in 2012 was 7.99%.

 

[MBAustin]

Enjoyed my morning 2-mile walk despite the fact it was still in the mid-30s (I'm not complaining as I know it is really winter up north still). Headed out for two volunteer activities and fit in a quick stop at a store that is normally out of the way. Back in time for lunch - I decided to fix myself a spiffy tuna salad with a chopped scallion, fresh cilantro, chopped carrot, a little fresh jalapeno and a little light mayo. Yum, especially with a side of award-winning pickles from the farmer's market Your *Pickle Matters - Home. Caught up with e-mails and some computer maintenance. Then finally completed a task for one of my volunteer roles that I had procrastinated on for more than 3 weeks. Sigh - feels good to have knocked that one out though. And my reward is to check out what the other ER folks have been doing!

 

[freebird5825]

I sorted out spices (given to me as payment for organizing a friend's kitchen) and divvied them up in half to give to a guy who w*rks PT as a cook at a restaurant in Old Forge NY (Adirondacks). I am going to visit him on Thursday to help him do some spring cleaning at his camp. My reward will be a free seafood dinner and some free milk to make homemade cheese curds. Bonus will be invitations to go hang out at the lake across the street from his camp nearby during the summer.
I'm going to learn lake canoeing this summer. This oughta be good.
Mr B is still w*rking PT doing taxes until April 15th, so I have his blessing to go do some exporing and adventuring.

I finally got this picture from a friend who took it when I was in a rather silly mood.
The thing on my head is a fabric flower that was handed out by a DJ at a local hometown bar, running around in a leapord loincloth. I'm not kidding.

 

[Dawg52]

Spent some time going through my Mother's house today, trying to figure out what can go to the dump and what can be given away or sold. Going to be a tough task getting rid of enough items so I can move into her house. And I have some old stuff to get rid of out of my aunt's old house(where I have been living). Plus a face lift is needed in both houses. Getting prices now on kitchen counter tops, flooring and paint for my Mom's house. I want to do that before moving in and will have to do similar stuff to my house before I can sell it.

Going to be a fun few months. But I'm playing golf tomorrow.

 

[ohyes]

Full moon, not a great sleeping night last night. Weird dreams with tossing & turning.

DH and i picked up some frozen Meals on Wheels to deliver to a hospice couple. Wife has been my patient for several months; her husband was just added last week and he is declining rapidly. They live in a double wide mobile home way out in the boonies. It is sobering.

Lunch was leftovers. Tried to take nap, but gave up (happens too often, the actual falling asleep for the nap days are more fun). Stumbled to gym for a pretty good hour workout.

Independent bible study, then pizza and beer with friends. Tuesday night at this pizza place is a longstanding date that DH and I enjoy very much. Great conversation.

 

[FIYes]

Dawg..your post hit home with me. I have been cleaning out my mother's house so that my sister and I can sell it. My mother passed away last fall And this is a tough process for me. I keep finding items of sentimental value that I can't keep...all ready have way too much clutter in my house. I will keep some small things but realize that I need to let the rest go. My sister is less sentimental and much better about keeping clutter out of her house, so it is limited what I can get her to take.

 

[MichaelB]

Not at all easy to clean out after a family member leaves. It is intrusive and heartbreaking at the same time.

 

[REWahoo]

Not at all easy to clean out after a family member leaves. It is intrusive and heartbreaking at the same time.

+1

Had to do it for my parents and DW's parents. A tough task.

 

[Meadbh]

Not at all easy to clean out after a family member leaves. It is intrusive and heartbreaking at the same time.

+2

And it really doesn't help when you have relatives and friends who insist that "you really should keep that". Better to do a surgical strike. Good memories are lighter to carry.

 

[W2R]

+2

And it really doesn't help when you have relatives and friends who insist that "you really should keep that". Better to do a surgical strike. Good memories are lighter to carry.

When my father died, I helped my mother dispose of his things. Mostly all I did was remind her that she had no obligation to my father or anybody else to keep anything of his she did not truly want. It is all too easy for a widow or widower to create a shrine of sorts for the deceased by keeping everything as it always was. So, I "gave her permission" (repeatedly) to send various items of his clothing or other personal items to Goodwill if she didn't want them for nostalgic or other reasons. She said that helped a lot more than I knew. In the process we took frequent breaks to reminisce over old photos and memorabilia and such, so that it wouldn't seem too harsh.