Month: March 2007

Cross Country

EllenOur neighbor’s kid (well she’s no longer a kid, she’s in college) has been horsing around for for quite a while and we have been to see her do a few events in the area over the years. Today Ellen was competing in the cross-country portion of the 3 day event at Jumping Branch Farm in Montmorenci, where we had seen her show jump before a few years ago. Ellen’s mom invited us this morning to watch with her and she made an excellent guide, filling us equine novices in on the intricacies of 3-day eventing.

All that spectating made us hungry, so we stopped at Maria’s Mexican Restaurant on the way home. Carrnitas for me and two tacos for her. We both had agua helada to drink. Even though I list what we ordered separate, today, like last night, we pretty much divvy up each dish between us 60% what the person orders and 40% of the other’s item.

Meal Cost: $12.65
Tip: $2.35
Spent Today: $15.00
Year to Date: $616.99

I gave the Emperor a proper bath this afternoon. It was already needing it and after driving a mile or so of dirt road to see Ellen jump fences, it was really time. While washing, I noticed that I have a nice scrape on the lower portion of the front chin spoiler. Wonder how long it has been there? It is on the driver’s side, so I would see it each day as we walked back to the car after work, but… The only reason I probably haven’t noticed it before now is that the primer showing through is white and the parking lot lines are white and it must look like their reflection in the spoiler. Because I am forever parking in the farthest out spot and as close to the curb as possible to avoid door dings, I bet I scraped it ever so gently on one of those curbs. I think I have a bit of that spray can of car color left that I can use to touch it up.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 76

55,000 Calories

Although she wanted it yesterday, she got it today. Breakfast at Hardee’s. Biscuit and Gravy for Donna and I had a Sausage and Egg Biscuit. We split a small Hashrounds while I had OJ and she drank a water.

Meal Cost: $5.28
Tip: None
This Meal: $5.28
Year to Date: $563.99

To Dibble RoadThis week was our LDSW, so we were off this afternoon. Since we had breakfast out and knew we were eating dinner out, we opted to eat lunch at home. We were then going to go for a hike in Hitchcock Woods because we were unsure of this weekend’s weather and wanted to get in a little exercise to counter our huge caloric intake for this week. The immense gravitational force of our couch almost prevented the hike, she had a book, I had a book… In the end we did manage to reach escape velocity and get outside for our hike. Glad we did, as it was near perfect weather for it. A lot of other people thought it was a nice day to enjoy the woods too, we saw five folks on horseback, about twice that on foot and one red-tailed hawk gliding on thermals looking for an afternoon snack.

This evening we dined with a couple other couples at Rae’s Coastal Cafe in Augusta. Donna had the Coconut Shrimp and I had the Jerk Chicken. The food was great (as always) and may explain this place’s popularity. We got there a little after it opened and 5:30 and before we even got our salads the place was nearly full. By the time we were done eating the waiting patrons were packed two deep at the bar with spill over clogging the exit aisle.

Meal Cost: $32.28
Tip: $5.72
This Meal: $38.00
Year to Date: $601.99

On the way home from the “big city” the Emperor past through the 55k mile mark and not a single one was traveled through a food court at a mall. When they ask for a login, user billydwilliams with a password of thatsright.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 74

Looking For Rachel Wallace

Looking For Rachel WallaceResponding to some primal urge buried deep in her DNA to eat protein to help awaken from winter’s hibernation and prepare for the arrival of spring, Donna decided she wanted beef for dinner. We didn’t have any in house, so off we went to Moe’s. She ordered a John Coctostan with beef and pinto beans. I opted for a Joey Bag of Doughnuts with chicken and black beans. We split a bottled water. Because we had a buy one, get one free coupon dinner was major cheap.

Meal Cost: $6.97
Tip: Zip
Spent Today: $6.97
Year to Date: $558.71

After my last Spenser book quote I realized that it might be better if you had a little background first, so here’s the setup for today’s excerpt. Spenser is hired to protect radical feminist and lesbian author Rachel Wallace. Linda Smith is the publisher’s media rep and Shirley is the morning news talk host. This takes place partway through the interview where Shirley is busy trying to goad Rachel into a sensational quote about her sexual inclination instead of actually discussing her latest book:

The guy crouching below the camera lens made a gesture with his hand, and Shirley said, “We’ll be right back with more interesting revelations from Rachel Wallace after this message.”

I whispered to Linda Smith, who stood in neat tweeds beside me, “Shirley doesn’t listen to the answers.”

A lot of them don’t,” Linda said. “They are busy looking ahead to the next question.”

“And she hasn’t read the book.”

Linda smiled and shook her head, “Almost none of them ever do. You can’t blame them. Sometimes you get several authors a week plus all the other stuff.”

“The pressure must be fearful,” I said. “To spend your working life never knowing what you are talking about.”

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 72

Save Radio Paradise

..and all the other smaller Internet Radio Stations. No money required, just a little bit of your computer time.

The US Copyright Office has released their new set of rates for the payment of royalties by Internet Radio — royalty rates so high that they will put Radio Paradise and every other US-based indie webcaster out of business.

What can you do? Sign the online petition and open letter to the US Congress. My signature number is #10423. Then please send an email message to your Congressmembers. You can use the suggested text, change it, or write your own message. I also suggest that you print your email (you’ll get a copy) and mail it to your Representative and Senators and, to show them that you really are a committed geek boy, call their offices. You can look up their addresses and phone numbers here.

Cold Service

Quirk glanced at Hawk and turned slowly and looked at me. His back was to the window now.

“Being a veteran police investigator, and a deep student of human character, I’m going to hazard a guess. You went to see Boots.”

“Incredible,” Hawk said.

“Yeah, it is,” Quirk said. “You hang him out a window.”

“Nope,” Hawk said. “I put a gun to his head.”

“Jesus Chirst,” Quirk said. “Boots Podolak?”

“That sort of how he felt,” Hawk said.

You know, now that I look at that, it would be a lot better in the whole context of the book. So go read “Cold Service” by Robert B. Parker.

Pretty sad huh, came here here looking for entertaining stories of my trials and tribulations and all you get is a book quote. Better luck tomorrow.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 70

Ischial Tuberosites

After work today I went out into the garage and removed the cobwebs from the tandem, aired up the tires and rolled it into the sunshine. That’s right, for the first time this year, we went for a bike ride. Just cruised around a bit before ending up at the Municipal Building where we paid our water bill.

At about seven miles there came a call from the back seat to start heading home because the ischial tuberosites were starting to bother her. Mine had been letting me know I hadn’t been on a bike in a while for a few minutes already, but being a man I didn’t complain, verbally anyway.

As a reward for burning a couple hundred calories cycling, we went out to Outback and promptly consumed 4 or 5 times that many for dinner. Twin lobster tails with mashed potatoes and a salad, water to drink was what Donna had. I opted for the grilled salmon with broccoli and a salad, which I washed down with iced tea.

Meal Cost: $41.62
Tip: $6.38
Spent Today: $48.00
Year to Date: $551.74

Routing Transit Number

When I filed this year’s taxes like I have for the past several, I filed electronically. I also have what I owe or my refund automatically transfered to or from my savings account. This year our state refund was about twice what we owed Uncle Sam, so I had the state money go into savings and scheduled my payment to the IRS for April 2nd, figuring that would be enough time for the refund to get there first.

Today, in the mail, was a refund check from the State of South Carolina. What? I logged into my bank and checked to see if a refund had been deposited and I was getting double refunded. Nope. I broke out my copy of the state return and looked to see if I messed up the account number. Nope. What about the Routing Transit Number? I remember looking up on the web what my banks RTN was, maybe I mistyped it. Nope, I typed in the right RTN for Carolina First, but unfortunately I used the one for the North Carolina region, not South Carolina. Great, what is going to happen when George Bush wants his money on the 2nd of April?

I called up the toll free IRS Help Line and after about 4-5 minutes listening to classical music on hold I spoke with a very helpful lady and she told me that I messed up. There isn’t any policy to amend an electronically submitted return. When the IRS attempts to get their money, the bank will rebuff them because I don’t have an account there. In essence I will have bounced a check to the federal government. When I asked her what would happen then, she replied I would get a bill in the mail for taxes due and a $15 fee for the bouncing. That doesn’t sound to bad, I just hope it doesn’t land me on some “Let’s Audit This Bozo” list.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 68