Friday, October 31, 2014

3992 Slumber party!

Friday, October 31, 2014

War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.

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The Nugget:


The Nugget is three-and-a-half now. 

Last Saturday night, her parents were going to a party, and I had agreed to babysit.  Daughter asked how late they could stay out, and I said as late as you like, I have my book, and there's the couch, don't worry about time.  But Daughter still fussed, so I had a Great Idea - how 'bout Nugget just stays overnight at my house?  We asked Nugget, and she was all for it.

By Saturday morning I was having second thoughts.  Nugget has stayed in hotels and various relatives' homes many times, but always with her Mommy.  As far as I know, she'd never slept away from her Mommy.  I had visions of her waking at 3 am with "I want my Mommy!", and nothing ever cures that but the production of her mommy, immediately.  Daughter said that Nugget was excited about staying over at Gramma's, and there's no turning back now.

So, she came over at 7 pm.  Bedtime was supposed to be 9 pm.  I think she finally fell asleep at 11 pm.  We had a good time, arranging hair, telling stories (I do a really good job with The Three Billy Goats Gruff and the ogre) and generally giggling.

I think there's a particular time when kids start sleeping with their head at the top of the bed and their feet pointing toward the foot of the bed.  She's not there yet.  Several times during the night I had to move her legs off my back.  And among the eight stuffed animals and dolls in the bed with us was a bear that  talked when squeezed, and he happened to be between us and I kept leaning on him ("I looooove when you hug meeeee").  And then there was the usual checking every half hour to make sure she was still breathing.  I got no sleep at all, but she slept very well --- until 3 am.

She woke me, near tears. "Gramma, I had a monster dream."
"Oooo.  I bet it was scary."
"Yes.  It was berry scary."
"But you know it was a dream, right?"
"Yes."
"And you're not dreaming now?"
"No."
"Are there any monsters around now?"
"No.  There's no monsters now."
"Monster dreams are very scary.  But they're just dreams.  They're not real.  They go poof when you wake up."
"Yeah.  Ok."  And she was back to sleep almost immediately.  No "I want my mommy".
I was so proud of her, and so grateful.

We got up about 9 am, two hours later than usual for her.  She said, "Mommy says wake up, go potty, brush teeth, take a bath, get dressed, then eat breakfast."  Only Mommy had forgotten to pack her toothbrush and I had no extras, so she decided to skip the whole routine and just get dressed so breakfast would happen sooner.  After breakfast, her Daddy noticed we were up and came to get her.

And I went back to bed for two hours.

Later, Daughter says she asked Nugget if she liked staying at Gramma's.   Nugget said no.  Then she threw her arms up in the air and said, "I don't like it, I LOVE IT!"


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Monday, October 27, 2014

3991 Freakout continued

Monday, October 27, 2014

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
- -Steven Wright--

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Well, it's been a little over a week since that Friday I received the letter from the IRS insisting that I owed over $61K in taxes for 2012.

The letter had a lot of detail as to how they arrived at that figure, and over the weekend I dug out the tax filings and forms from 2011 and 2012 and compared my figures to the IRS's figures.  It looks like the IRS never received my 1040 etc filing.  For example, I had a refund from 2011, $2K of which I "rolled over" toward the 2012 taxes, and one of my income sources does withhold taxes.  The IRS says that only that amount withheld was paid, they don't show the $2K rollover.  They also show none of my deductions.  AND, the major error is that they show all the stock, bond, and fund trades that Piper had done on my behalf as pure profit - there was no cost basis deducted for those trades.

Yup.  Looks like they never received my 1040 filing for 2012.

The next Monday I overnighted (a "verbed" word if I ever saw one) copies of the IRS letter to Piper the money guy, and Angel the CPA.  They went to work on it.  I don't much care how it gets handled, just so it does get handled.

Angel called me last Friday and said we would re-file the 2012 taxes, and he'd be overnighting me the completed 1040s etc, which I should sign and send to the IRS. He didn't mention the New Jersey taxes.

I found his use of the word "re-file" very interesting.  I strongly suspect that he never filed the originals.  Every year I gather all the info, make copies of the 1099s and real estate tax receipts and so on, and send him the packet.  He does my taxes, then sends it all to me, I review it and either make corrections or approve it as is, and then he e-files it for me.  If there's any tax due, I mail the check separately, but usually there's a small refund which we "wrap" toward the next year.  I'll bet you a gazillion dollars he forgot to e-file my taxes.

I didn't challenge him on it.

He startled me a little when he said that not only do I not owe any money, I'm going to get a refund of a few hundred dollars.

Well, it's Monday afternoon, about 2:30 pm, and the forms that were going to be overnighted Friday have not yet arrived.  I'm very anxious to see them.

You know, I'm afraid this might not be over yet....
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