Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Know what's worse than doing your taxes once? Doing them twice.
Know what's worse than doing your taxes twice? Doing them three times.
Know what's worse than doing your taxes three times? Doing them four times.
Know what's worse than doing your taxes four times? Doing them five times.
Know what's worse than doing your taxes five times? Doing them six times.

That's right. I did my taxes SIX times today. Part of it was TurboTax's fault, part of it was TurboTax's fault (again), part of it was mine(?), and who knows about the rest.

First time I did it, it looked perfect. I didn't have the issue I had last year: Somehow, though I LOST money on a retirement account, I had to pay $1,000 more in taxes -- I did my taxes without the retirement account form, did it with it, and the difference was $1,000 more I had to pay. However, I got all the way to the end before I noticed TurboTax now starts you in Premium (paid) even when you select free (you have to jump through a couple hoops to stay in free mode). The only way to downgrade to free was to clear your taxes and start over... So I did that.

And then last year's problem returned: That retirement account, which LOST money again this year, increased my taxes by nearly $1,000.

Thinking it was the free version of TurboTax that made the differences, I sighed and went to do it again. $60 to pay for TurboTax premium is still better than $1,000 higher taxes... But that didn't change anything, I still owed $1,000 more with that one form, even though I entered everything exactly the same.

So why stay on Premium if it wouldn't help? I cleared my data and started over again in free...

Then I started questioning myself -- why, when I entered the exact same data couldn't I reproduce the original results? So I switched back to Premium and carefully (so carefully) went through it all again. Yet I still owed the $1,000 more.

So... back to free once more for the final time.

During my first time doing it, when it was doing the final check before you can submit, it told me I had to check this box. Box 6, a:



And somehow checking that box made almost $1,000 difference. Notice the number listed ($5.35), somehow deducting that on Schedule A could make $1,000 difference? So I think maybe that first time I did it, I ran into some kind of a bug... So I'm trying not to kick myself for not just submitting it that first time, since maybe the IRS would have noticed the difference and that would have lead to trouble. Still, maybe it wouldn't have...

(It doesn't let you edit the forms directly unless it wants you to, so there's no way for me to just go back and check the box now.)

I'm so annoyed at that darned retirement account. It's done nothing but lose money -- I would have more money now by a lot if I had just left it sitting in a saving account. Hell, I'd have more money now if I kept it under my mattress. My mother pushed me hard to invest it, so finally I just gave in. While I know she was only trying to help me, that damned retirement account has been nothing but trouble since then, and if I take my money out now, I'll just lose even more...

Grump, grump, grrrr.

I did my taxes this morning. Usually I owe money, so there's never any drive to do it, and so most years it lurks over my head for months. I always say I'm going to do it, then never do until the last minute. It's always more dread and putting it off than work to actually get it done, so I kick myself for not just doing it. This year I did it nice and early.

Quite a nice surprise, this year I'm actually getting money back. Almost $900 from federal and state combined. Why? I have zero idea. Nothing has changed over the last couple years, yet usually I have to pay around $1,000, and this year the opposite. Such a mystery.

Also a mystery: Turbo Tax now charges nothing, no fees at all, to file federal or state. Their site makes it so easy to do, I have no idea how or why they now charge nothing at all. I've used them for many years, and I would have happily kept paying the $20 fee to use them.

Oh nice, as I'm typing this up, my state return was accepted. Wow, in less than 20 minutes! C'mon federal, you can do it too! (Edit: Woot, federal accepted within the first hour.)

In less related but cuter news, Ellie New Cat has decided my mouse pad is her new favorite bed.



The black and silver thing at her paws is my mouse. That makes gaming a challenge!

Yesterday I unfriended someone faster than I ever had before. She posted a GIANT close up illustration of a spread open vagina. Not LJ cut or linked, just displayed on her main page. Thankfully she posted it on a Saturday; if it had been on a weekday I would have had it on my screen at work...

I've always said everyone is free to post anything they like in their LJ, but it's everyone else's decision if they want to read or friend that LJ. If you post NWS stuff outside of a LJ cut, I'm going to have to remove you from my friends list.

- I got FFXIV installed. I had to use my work email address, which I really, really did not want to do, but the game is so pretty I can nearly forgive that. After playing WoW for so long, a pretty game makes me want to cry. I spent almost a half-hour customizing my character just right. Which is something of a joke -- which "Thistle" do I mean at this point? Anyway, I made him look as much like FFXI Thistle as I could, but there's a lot of WoW Thistle in his background/personality (mostly moot, since I'm unlikely to ever RP there).

- I got my review at work. Being new to the tech writing group, I was expected to get 'gaining competency', which is what all people new to a job/position get since they're ramping up to speed. Instead I got all meets or exceeds competency. o.O Woot! Thanks RP for all the writing/editing skills I picked up through the years. Kids, if parents tell you computer games are a waste of time, point this out! But seriously, it was because of my engineering background as well -- I'm a lot more technical than the other writers, so I'm handy in that way.

- The hospital sent me a bill for almost a thousand dollars ($992). While that's a lot better than $144,000, I'm still unhappy. I sent them a reply asking what/why my insurance wasn't covering.

- Toe is healing? It's still red, but my instructions say to gently scrub off the scab three times a day, so... that'd make anything red, I'd think. The swelling is gone and it only hurts a little now and then (see also: removing the scab three times a day). I still have two days left of the antibiotics though, so we'll see what happens after that.

- Way too many medical appointments next week. x.x Tuesday is the nutritionist, Wednesday the doctor for my leg/toe, Friday my car to the shop, then Monday is the dentist. My cat needs to go to the vet soon after (delaying that as much as I can), and two other new appointments for myself, along with that darned sleep study.

- Still need to do my taxes. Every year I have to pay hundreds of dollars, so I always drag my feet. Blah. I still want to get it done with though.

- I bought a panini maker. I debated for a week, since once I have my surgery I won't be eating sandwiches anymore (I think?), but it was only $30 so if I enjoy it for four months or so it should be worth it. Eventually I'll find a new home for it and the Soda Stream twins.

I buckled down and did my taxes today. On one hand, it wasn't as bad as last year. Last year I owed $600 federal and $250 state. This year I owed $400 federal and got back $100 state (but the Turbotax fees were $60, so...). I swear, last year Turbotax was free for federal and they just charged you for state. Oh well, at least it's done now... other than the forever worry that they'll audit me.

But before that, I started my day with an early trip to Sprouts (grocery store, like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's). I'm totally out of chicken for the coming week and have nothing to cook this weekend. Unfortunately I still have nothing to cook this weekend (nothing caught my eye), but I'm all shopped for the coming week.

WoW kept me busier than usual today. I use arcane dust in one of the items I make for money, and all of it was overpriced on the AH. I used to have a max level enchanter, but I dropped it off him (ugh!). Not wanting to pay for the overpriced dust, I decided to level a new one.

I paid more for the rods that enchanters need than I would have paid for dust for a year.

If I had remembered how annoying enchanting is to level, I don't think I would have dropped it. I only got up to 250 in a whole afternoon and I spent a crapton more than I would have liked to. (Thankfully I have a tailor who can make things to DE, but cloth is all so overpriced lately -- not enough people leveling and flooding the AH with it.)

RP: I swear, I think WoW knew I was serious about quitting. "What? You mean she really... she was serious about quitting? Had an application nearly finished? Was looking at other games? THROW RP AT HER NOW! NONSTOP!" Every night since then I've gotten RP. Knock on wood, I haven't come up empty one single night yet. And more than that, it's almost always good. Even yesterday, where the player had some... questionable... ideas (A DK so liked by the Lich King that he gave her the power to create purple-black fire from her bare hands!), she was still able to write a darned good post. And know what? I can live with that. She wrote well, so I was able to stretch myself and write well as well. I so often feel that RP is like a muscle -- it feels good to use it and stretch it and challenge it. Feels awful when I don't use it. (Says the person who can sit like a lump in front of the computer for twelve hours straight...)

Tonight I was able to catch two people I used to RP with at different times in the past. One used to RP with Haken a lot, the other RPed with Keen on and off. It was interesting to catch them both together on Thistle! The RP went really well, there was a nice connection. :)

So! Day: good. Hopefully tomorrow will be good as well!

I sure do wish LJ would fix its spellchecker. I worry I'm missing typos and errors! D:

Edit: Apparently I've joined the 'No LJ email notifications' club. Sorry if I'm slow replying to comments.