We are starting to get back into a routine at the Stocking household. The girls are back in school catching up on the days they missed. KyKy is still trying to adjust to her Pre-China sleep schedule, somewhat successfully. The Other (Younger) Half is running around in the evenings doing school related stuff, and I am trying to hold down the fort at the Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters. Has everyone done their taxes yet? Our personal taxes were done a while back, but I get to deal with all the payroll, sales and use taxes for the bidnesses, here and at the Massage Parlour. Payroll taxes are a mess. Even the high tech accounting programs don't do a very good job of setting things up to get payroll to run smoothly. Because Jon is an owner, his are figured one way. Mine, as the sole employee, are different. Our HSAs are treated like health insurance premiums, but our program did not set them up correctly for 2006. Our accountant, who is a great guy by the way, doesn't even deal with payroll stuff. He has another service figure it out for him. When I was complaining to him how complicated this is, he laughed and said, "That's why I don't do them." The past couple of weeks have been filled with calls and emails to 2 different accountants, software customer service and a local so called "expert" on the program we use. I still don't know if they are being figured out correctly. Don't worry, we are still making payments to the gov'mint, and nobody I'm getting advice from goes on rants about the unconstitutional nature of the income tax. I just don't know if we're paying the right amount. Stay tuned till April of '08.
The weather? Anything but normal. After a cold (I'm talking teens) and windy weekend, we are expecting a couple of inches of snow in the next 24 hours. When I get home I'll have to pop some popcorn and watch the people on the teevee get all apopleptic about the snow. The civil defense severe weather sirens went off today for about 10 seconds. People in Maplewood must be getting twitchy about the weather or something. That or the Russkies are bombing us back to the stone age. If I have to get the snowblower out, I'll give you a full report. I know that's why you read this trash.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
About the sirens: it's Severe Weather Awareness week across all of Minnesota. Maplewood is just doing its civic duty by sounding the alarms today. All the kids at our schools get to take time out of class to assume the "give me a wedgie" position (kneeling head down, butt up, underwear and/or butt crack revealed by low-cut jeans) as practice for tornado survival. I still feel humiliated by the memory of tornado drill practice in elementary school and having my baggy, pink-flowered undies hanging out above my pants while assistant principal Chuck Niles looked on.
It's COIN SLOT not butt crack. Get with it.
BTW--I'm so old I don't remember even having tornado drills in school. But I do remember having to assume the position for AIR RAID drills.
Eeeeewww! Butt cracks? Coin slots? I don't see that stuff with my kids, but I do at times get to watch my nekkid son Christopher swing around, stick his rear end in my (and Francis's, sometimes) face and in a sing-songy voice say, "My butt, my butt, my poopy, poopy butt!". And butt is pronounced with 2 syllables, as in buh-utt.
I can confirm that your accountant is excellent, by the way. I completed our tax returns, using your excellent accountant's instructions for Schedule D, and, by golly, we are getting a bigger tax return this year than last year.
I thought we were going to get gouged, but only because Florence We're-Always-One-Step-Away-From-The-Poorhouse Stocking had me believing that the Feds were going to take all my money.
^That was a different accountant who helps us with the books for the Massage Parlour. He's an o.k. guy, good accountant though.
And Tracy, the sirens ran for about 10 seconds literally. If that's how Maplewood warns people of severe weather, millions will die.
Two thoughts:
1. Is the two syllable pronunciation of butt southern?
2. Regarding the "One step away from the poorhouse"--I grew up thinking we lived in the poorhouse. Seriously. Dad's standard response to begging (usually for a 10cent cone at the DQ) was "We can't afford it, we're too poor." So I grew up thinking that my current pair of shoes may be my last, so I'd better take good care of them. And we may not have food on the table next week.
Somehow it never occured to me until well into high school (or maybe even college) that people who live in the poorhouse usually don't build new houses or buy new cars.
I carry a lot of emotional baggage around because of the poverty stricken identity I had in my formative years.
Terri, you'll be happy to know that I am passing on that fine tradition to my children.
Hey, if it wasn't for Mom and Dad's frugality, we wouldn't be getting those nice little checks from the land that are helping to pay everyone's bills! Like the Stockings, we are carrying on the poorhouse mentality with our children. As Jeff says, we will need even more money in the future: to pay for Caleb's college tuition, to pay for Maren's wedding, and to pay to get Chase out of jail.
I'd call the land checks evidence of generosity, and not a result of frugality. These are people who were destined to be mortgage free & solvent, since the idea of change (i.e."Let's move into town! Let's do something different, even if it might cost a little money!") would never cross their minds, particularly Mom's!
And I, too, have begun to hear myself saying the exact words I heard from Mom on a regular basis growing up (sorry, Terri, Dad must luv me more, 'cuz I could usually get $$ from him), "We can't afford that, we're too poor," "Why waste money in a restaurant when we've got perfectly good food at home?" and my favorite, "I can make that for $5. I am not spending that kind of money on clothes for you!"-- even though John & Christopher know perfectly well that I can't sew anything.
Post a Comment