Just Venting…

Posted under Ex's, How I See It

Because let’s face it, this is why we have blogs in the first place…

Once again the ugly head of my past divorce has come to haunt me.  An email (what no phone call?) from my ex has got me really pissed off. 

I’m going to have to go sit in a corner and mutter my mantra: “It could be worse, we could still be married” until I calm down.

 

We divorce about nine years ago and in our divorce decree we agreed that as tax deductions we would swap our daughters (two of them) back and forth.  She would have my oldest on odd years and I would have the youngest.  On even years she would have the youngest and I would take the oldest. 

 

Fair enough.  For 2008 I have the oldest. 

 

A recent email from my ex came to me “asking” if she could use my oldest as a tax deduction this year.  Her reasoning was that she felt she contributed more to her in financial support.  This would give her both kids to write off.

 

I replied that I need to decline her request (yes, I was very cordial).  I said that you may be contributing more to her financial support now; but I have contributed much more in the past and have not made the same request to you.

 

I also explained that my accountant and I discuss the upcoming year and make our decisions based on who and what can be deducted.  If she wanted this to happen, she should have talked to me months ago, not just before she’s seeing her accountant.

 

Her reply was that she was going to do whatever she damn well pleased. 

 

Now she’s really pissed me off. 

 

I told her good luck on getting an accountant to change our divorce agreement.  I also told her that if she wasn’t careful we might both be audited for trying to deduct the same child.  I have an agreement on my side. 

 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go sit in the corner for awhile…

 

“It could be worse, we could still be married”

 

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…

Posted under How I See It, Work

For those who have kids or are kids at heart, you all know this book very well.  My kids’ loved it along with “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and the follow up “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” 

 

Something about animals and food always draws our attention, why is that?

 

The title of this post came to me as I was pondering the last couple of days.  Too much idle time is a dangerous thing, just ask my wife. 

 

Work is slow because of the company takeover and there just isn’t enough to do.  So being the “geeky” tech that likes to tinker with things, I decided I’d screw around with my blog site.

 

The last time I did that back in December; I blew up the whole thing.  You do one thing wrong and it sometimes just spirals out of control. 

Welcome to my world.

 

Back to the analogy with the book.  In the story the mouse is given a cookie then he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw; and then so on and so on.

 

Give a “teckie” a blog site and he’ll want to change the format.  Then he’ll want to change widgets.  Then he’ll ask for more plug-ins.

 

So, as you see I’ve got a new site up and running. 

 

So far….

 

 

But She’s Just A Dog!

Posted under How I See It

 

Just like many of you, our dog is a part of the family.  She’s there when I need her with unconditional love and affection.  Our pets come when their called, don’t complain when you neglect them, they stay out of your way when told to; they go sit in the corner and don’t ask a million questions. 

 

Damn, if only I could get my kids would do that…

 

After a month of trying to deal with our dogs’ ear infection ourselves without much success, we decided to head to the veterinarian clinic.  After a brief ear inspection, three shots, and some ear drops, we walked out with a $191 bill. 

 

A few weeks ago my wife and I spent countless hours pouring over our health insurance options for us and our daughters.  A frustrating process that I can guarantee caused me to lose more of my precious hairline.  As the dog is a part of our family, why can’t I list her as a dependent on our health insurance? 

 

I feed her (nothing but the best canned food for her)

I clothe her (ok, so they’re doggie sweaters)

I bath her (special oatmeal doggie soap)

I walk her (so that she gets the exercise she needs to keep that girlish figure)

I pickup her doggie poo (because who else will?)

I groom her (you never know when the Westminster Dog Show will come calling)

I provide a roof (woof?) over her head

 

I’m not sure the girls get this much attention…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Posted under Daughters

Actually this happens twice a year.  If you’re lucky they all have it on the same week.  I’m not that lucky.  One daughter this week, the other daughter the next week. 

 

As a parent of teenagers you hate this experience.  Not only does it involve late nights, causing for exhausted kids, but the drama that it induces usually sends me screaming into my pillow.

 

I am of course talking about high school finals.  That twice a year ritual our school system uses to torture our children over facts and figures taught to them months ago.  An experiment I’m sure that was conjured up by some evil school administrator to test what brain cells would be left after months of teacher’s lectures. 

 

I feel for the kids.  We’ve all been there.  The late nights, the cramming sessions, living off of Twinkies and soda (they’d probably do that any ways).  It’s just not a pretty sight. 

 

As parents we just have to run, duck and cover during this whole ordeal.  I wouldn’t begin to attempt to do either of my high school kids’ homework.  Hell, they passed me up back in the 8^th grade. 

 

Looking over my daughter’s algebra homework I’m pretty sure I saw the formulas to a WMD (ask George Bush).  And English, who knew you, could conjugate that many verbs, adverbs, personal pronouns and possessive adjectives.  Did Shakespeare really have to go through all this?

 

Thankfully in my house we only have to deal with this twice a year.  It could be worse.  We could be dealing with the drama every month. 

 

Oh yeah, we do… 

 

 

 

Too Much Time On My Hands…

Posted under How I See It

 

As I’ve alluded in some of my recent posts, I soon will be out of a job.  No longer workin’ for the man, no longer stuck in fabric walled boxes, no longer punchin’ the time clock.  Yep, no longer gainfully employed.

 

However, I am one of the lucky ones who will be offered a severance and some monetary compensation for helping the new company take over my old one.  This brings me to the question that all newly unemployed zombies ask themselves. 

 

What will I do with all my spare time?

 

So as not to drive myself (or my wife) crazy, I thought I’d start jotting down a few ideas to fill out my spare time.

 

• I could start sorting my sock drawer (I’m tired of the white socks mingling with the black ones).
• Organize the kitchen cabinets (why is the hot chocolate next to the cans of tuna?)
• Teach the cats how to use the toilet (and flush).
• Learn a new language, (how about Norwegian).
• Get back into reading more (been neglecting my romance novels).
• Go through my change jar (just need two more state quarters to complete the collection).
• Clean up middle-child’s room (if you don’t hear from me, send a search party).
• Run for PTA President (at both daughters’ different high schools).
• Check up on my oldest daughter in college (I’m still paying her bills).
• Volunteer at the Palin in 2012 campaign office (because I’m a Maverick, too!)
• Pick up a new hobby (maybe knitting, maybe not).
• Fill out the Publisher’s Clearing House entry forms (does Ed still drop by?)
• Visit the AAA office daily for “TripTicks” (I’m not going anywhere, but isn’t fun to map it out anyways?)
• Alphabetize the CD and DVD collections (because, that’s just fun).
• Catch up on what’s happening on the Soaps (has anything really changed in the past 15 years?)

 

Or I could just hang out, drink beer and smoke cigars. 

 

Any suggestions, anyone?  Anyone?