AtomicMrX

Shannon and I ran around looking at stuff in stores and had a horrible time finding what we wanted to look at and price. We wanted to look at a bathroom shower caddy made of plastic so it wouldn’t rust in the shower - could not find any to look at and price. We looked at dishes and found a set we both liked and it turned out to be on sale for $15 off! Good timing there!

We ate at Holihan’s for lunch and Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. I paid for lunch and Shannon covered dinner. Both were great and very filling.

We spent the afternoon thrift store shopping and I managed to get three nice shirts to wear this Spring/Summer. Shannon (of course) picked up several pieces of clothing. The basement is turning into a gigantic walk in closet for him.

I called the tax guy and asked again if they were ready. This time they were and I went to sign the paper and pay them for doing the taxes. The price went up again! I thought the jump in price last year was bad - this year it was worse. Last year I paid $135 to get my taxes done - this year $150. I am not going back. I will do them myself with Turbo Tax next year! I’m getting ripped off with the tax guy doing them.

So here’s the sad part. I didn’t get as much back this year as last year. I even have to pay Missouri $27.00 because of the “side” business I do (SadlerDesign). I was hoping for as much as last year or more so I could buy the computer of my dreams. Well, that will be a tough one to do now. I think I will be able to go through with the dream computer but I will have to sell one week of vacation and take some of the Bonus money to make it happen. If I decide to go with the “lesser” dream computer then I would still need to sell one week of vacation but I would have about $135.00 left over to spend on something else and I would be able to use the Bonus money for other things.

I do have to pay for my new glasses out of the Bonus money and that will be around $450.00 so I don’t want to cause any trouble there by dipping into the Bonus to help pay for the dream computer.

I will know better next weekend. We are suppose to get the Bonus pay this coming Friday.

In either case, I will have to wait at least two weeks for the income tax return money to show up in my account (automatic deposit).

Shannon and I were close to the Plaza after dinner so we went to the Apple Store and checked out in person the 20″ (lesser computer) and 24″ (dream computer). It really makes me want the 24″ if at all possible. The 20″ is barely larger in screen real estate than the current 19″ monitor we are using. The 24″ would be larger and better than the computer monitors we use at work (20″). I had to explain to Shannon that the money was for a whole computer - not just a monitor. He didn’t realize that the “monitor” was everything (computer, hard drive, disk drive, and monitor) all rolled into a nice thin 1.5″ thick design. I also told him how much better it will be when we get the new computer compared to what we have currently. We will be going from a 30 GB hard drive to a 250 GB hard drive, an 800 MhZ processor to a 2.16 GhZ processor (that will be a very noticeable difference), and an 19″ monitor (about 18″ viewable) to either a 20″ or 24″ monitor. There also won’t be a tower on the floor next to our feet. It will all be on top of the desk in a small tight package.

Time will tell which computer I get. I can’t wait for next weekend to know how much my Bonus check is and to decide on which computer package to get.

I took today off work because Shannon’s folks where coming up from Bolivar, Missouri. Well, I find out late Thursday night that they canceled because of the “rain” we were to get today. By the way the sun is shinning right now and it only lightly misted this morning when I got the paper off the lawn. Missouri weather is so hard to predict.

At least the house got a good Spring cleaning for their arrival. Now it will be easier to maintain. I mean, I scrubbed the floors and walls, ceiling fans, you name it! By the way I love Pine-Sol!

So they didn’t show up and I’m off work. I enjoyed sleeping in and I think Shannon and I will be going out for lunch or dinner and maybe some looking at some shops. I’m broke so unless I use a gift card I ain’t buying nothin’. We need a new shower caddy and I have a $40 gift card for Bed Bath & Beyond so hopefully we make it into there and look around.

Next week we are suppose to get our Bonus and our paychecks should reflect our salary increase. I sure hope so. I want to use the Bonus money for the new glasses/frames.

I still haven’t heard from my income tax guy and today is the last of the window they told me to expect a call. I hope they call today and I can go down and sign and pay for doing my taxes. I am definitely doing my own next year with TurboTax! I would already have my money if I had done so this year.

I helped my friends Greg and Ron move today. They had some crap happen at the old apartment they moved into just nine months ago. So they are now in a duplex over on the west side of town. Actually very close to my friend Bense (about a block away).

They had scheduled the move yesterday but when we woke up it was a blizzard out side. It didn’t accumulate and did get into the low 40’s later in the afternoon but moving was postponed until this morning. Greg and Ron did get a lot of stuff moved on their own Saturday but the bulk was moved today. I even broke in the Honda Element and moved all the delicate electronic equipment and lamps. I flipped the two back seats up and made a nice deck to load all the stuff onto.

It took about an hour to load everything up at their old apartment and then only about a half hour to unload it into the new duplex. Greg and Ron graciously took me out to lunch for helping. I didn’t really help as much as I would like to have. I have to watch the heavy lifting because of my back. So I stuck to the light stuff.

They have a lot of stairs in the Duplex. This will be like a workout for them just living there. And Ruffus and Fiona will have to be careful till they get used to hard wood floors. They have only known carpet so it will be a surprise to them. Here is a picture of Rufus and Fiona. Click on it to see a larger view.

Ruffus

Fiona