1. I took the "Which Hogwarts' House Do You Belong To?" quiz on facebook, and I'm a Hufflepuff. What?!? I'm brave. I'm smart. Hufflepuff? What a disappointment. Yeah, yeah, I make a great friend. Whatever.
2. Last weekend, I had an adventure. I went somewhere. Friday night and ALL day Saturday. Woo-hoo! The Yvil Sister and I went to Heidi Ashworth's book signing down in the East Bay. As expected, Heidi was a delight, her family and friends too. I had a fantastic time, and Yvil, the blog-hater, was a good sport.
Here's the one and only picture my sister took of the two of us. Yes, we are arm wrestling. At Applebee's. I won. Easily. Only to be expected given my weight advantage.
3. Having closely examined the above picture, I have made a surprising discovery. I need to lose some weight. 140 is a nice even number. Roughly half of me. And yet...
My car is currently stuffed with them, all waiting to be delivered to our cookie-loving neighbors, tempting me. (Oh, how they tempt me!) I am not good with temptation. (She types, munching a Samoa/Carmel Delight.) It may be time to attempt a second fake gastric bypass.
4. Do not buy the Daisy Go Round Girl Scout cookies. You have been warned.
5. I am getting an unholy amount of money from my tax return. Hate to give TMI, but for those of you who question the socialist nature of our government, ponder this:
My husband made roughly $24,000 last year. They took out $2,700 in federal income tax, a purposeful over-withholding. Our income tax return should be $2,700, what we paid. But no. The Earned Income Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit are both "refundable." In other words, if the tax credits are more than the taxes owed by a family, the family receives the difference added as a freebie to their tax return. To the tune of $6,000 additional dollars in the case of our family. That's $8,700 all together.
Wow, you say? Wow, indeed. Don't get me wrong; I'll spend it. It just doesn't seem especially fair to have you all support my family in this way. Yeah, I know you like me (I am a Hufflepuff, after all), but would you hand me the money out of your family's funds? Especially if I didn't even ask. Or say thank you. Anyhow...thank you. Sorry I didn't ask. I'll try to use better manners next year.
18 comments:
I have never even heard of that amount of a tax return! We have no kids so we own the government money this year. Boo.
This is a jewel of a post and I'm not just saying that b/c I'm in it or even b/c it is roughly one sixth of the length of my post today. You beat me at the arm wrestling b/c I am a total wuss! Does Hogwart's have a House of Pussywillow cause if they do, I would so be in. We once got that nice tax return and for all the same reasons but I felt not one jot guilty or one iota of responsibility towards my fellow man. I think that makes me more Yvil than your Yvil sister (who, turns out, isn't Yvil at all but tons of fun!) I had five days of wheat eating fun but I MUST stop today. I think I should print up that pic of the nearly-barfing girl scout and put it in my kitchen.
My mom and sister get eaten alive every year at tax time too, Kristina. It's all they can do to stop themselves from whacking me.
I am sooooo sad about our tax return. its really really small and lame.
oh and thanks for the heads up about the g s cookies. I ordered about 5 boxes but I don't remember what they are.
Heidi, I beat you because I cheated and started without giving you warning.
My Yvil sister is fun, isn't she?
BTW, that sick looking guy is "Officer Ugg" who was created to warn children not to drink poison.
I've hijacked him to warn of the dangers of Daisy Go Rounds. Ugg!
Oh Shellie. I'm sorry. It's because they are sending all of your money to me. It just seems wrong. You're nice. You could use money, right? Who decides? Eh, it all just makes my head spin.
Stupid Samoas.
And I'm definitely a Gryffindor, although I'm not taking the quiz in case I find out I'm wrong.
I want to meet Heidi!
Enjoy the tax return/refund. That's some seriously funky math.
We get nice tax refunds, from Earned Income Credit. I love it. It's one of my favorite times of the year. Sometimes I think, "I can speak well. I'm a good citizen, fairly aware, etc, etc - does the average person around me realize that I'm a black hole for their taxes? Mmm, probably not." We've never made enough to get the child tax credits, though (we're so poor the government doesn't like to encourage people like us to reproduce), but we will next year, which I'm very excited about.
Have fun with it! (or pay bills, or whatever. I love paying bills, especially debt. It's like a debt laser gun that goes, "Kapow! Kapow!" and vaporizes stuff.)
LOVE the arm wrestling photo.
I would have loved to have had a chicken fajita roll-up or wait...maybe an oriental chicken salad with the two of you!
Hufflepuff? I had you pegged for Slytheron. *evil grin*
The Earned Income Credit saved us a couple of years when I had been laid off and we were really struggling. Now, it's having six kids that saves us. *big grin*
I love me a box of thin mints!
OMGOSH!!!!! You are so cute! And so is Miss Heidi! Wow, I'm actually feeling intimidated by seeing you guys.
I can't believe you got to meet her. And she got to meet YOU.
aaahhhhhh, I'm so jealous!!!
I am totally laughing about the TMI over money you just gave us. WOW! HOLY HELK! Girlfriend! But I'm glad you get it seeing as your husband brought in only 24,000 last year. How do you do it?
And how does he feel about you sharing that info?
I love being the 13th comment!
Jami--you don't automatically delete the 13th comment, no matter who? Hmmmm. Hey! Stop feeling guilty about the money. I command you.
Hey, since you totally hurt my feelings by dropping me as a follower, maybe you could make up for it by passing along some of your stimulus $$$$~~! I'm thinking that you would love to share in the wealth, aren't you thinking it too!?
Ummm, I have to ask- what is wrong with the Daisy go Rounds? Just asking. Not that I EVER would buy anything other than 3 cases (yes, cases, not boxes) of Thin Mints, 1 case of Samoas and 1 case of Tagalongs. Really those are the only super-good GS cookies!
No fair! They are not selling GS cookies here yet!
Regarding item #3: I also think 140 is a nice even number. It was, until now, my unspoken goal. However, I just ate a huge quantity of m & ms, so the scale will not be kind tomorrow. I would, however, like a few brownie points for only eating one stack of my thin mints before donating the rest to my scrawny co-workers!
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