Ramblings of a pseudo intellectual

…and sometimes they, well, don’t.

Today has been one of those “don’t” days.

Got a call this morning from my friend Renee.  We’d visited them last weekend, during which there was a strong suspicion that Lane may or may not have accidentally or purposefully flushed a toy down their toilet.  She said something that sounded like she had flushed a toy down the toilet, but when asked to confirm, she denied.  So while we were there, the toilet flushed a few times and all seemed well.

Not so much.  They amassed a $200 plumber’s bill rectifying the situation.  Which of course I will completely pay back, but sigh.

Then, I had our New York State tax return to sign, and write a small check, and mail today.  I give it a once-over before signing and paying and mailing, and see something odd.  I’m being charged New York City income taxes on the return… but I don’t live or work in New York City.  Neither does Frank or the kids, as far as I know.  And as much as NYC thinks it is the center of the universe, I don’t think they have the power to tax us by sheer proximity.  There has been three phone conversations with the accountant and she still doesn’t seem to think anything’s amiss.  Does she even GET that we DON’T LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY?!?  And now since we’ll be out of the country the last week before the return is due, we may still have to pay, then file an amended return to get our money back.  Um, ARGH!!  The one redeeming thing here is that instead of owing $155 I’m pretty sure we’ll get back $17.  At least it mostly covers the plumbing problem.

Somewhere in there, Lane left the door to the bathroom open and Jake wet himself up to the shoulders in toilet water.

Since Lane is traveling out of the country with her grandparents, they need a notarized letter from us that they have our permission to take her out of the country.  I wrote the letter and arranged to have it notarized today.  Told Frank to sign it last night.  Guess what he forgot to do.  Lane and her grandparents leave on Sunday; luckily a close family friend is a notary public and was willing to notarize without Frank’s signature on the letter yet because she knows he fully intends to sign it and consents to the trip.

Got all the way to the store today and realized I’d left my purse at home.

Got a package, realized it was all wrong, had to send it back.

Consoled my son more times than should be necessary because his sister likes tackling, clotheslining, straight-arming, and otherwise knocking him on his keister.

But right now the kids are playing as cute as can be.  That helps.  And one of our errands today was to PetSmart to get dog food and they were having an adoption event, with some of the cutest, puppiest-smelling puppies you could imagine.  Hearing the kids giggle at the puppies and all those little puppy nibbles and puppy kisses is healing for the soul.  If we were in a house at this point, there was a puppy there who might have come home with us.  She was just sweet and calm and gorgeous and happy and the kids were just as smitten with her as I was.  She looked like maybe she was part yellow lab, and maybe part boxer?  I didn’t ask, maybe they knew.  But man, was she cute.

Hey all -

So I just finished doing our taxes — one federal, two states, and I’m about as witty as a wet noodle.  But I feel like I have to write SOMETHING!

Thus I will take this opportunity to blatantly beg you all to sponsor me for the March of Dimes walk I will be participating in, in late April.  You may have noticed a link to my sponsor page on the right-hand side of the page here.  I’m walking with a bunch of other women from my Moms’ group, and my personal fundraising goal is $250.  I’ve donated $25 and I dare you to match me!  Though no sweat, if $25 is too steep, I will gladly let you get off with a $5 or $10 donation, too.

March of Dimes is such a worthwhile charity, they do so much good work for babies and prematurity.  While both of my kids were happy to cook to full-term, Frank was born a month prematurely, and our friends who have twins also saw them come into the world early.  One of my mom’s best friends had twins who were born after 28 weeks back in 1979, and unfortunately only one of them survived.

It is a great charity, and worthwhile, and I do hope you’ll sponsor me.  Scroll down the page and give that banner ad for the March of Dimes a click, wontcha?!?

Thanks and good night!

Out of nothing more than sheer boredom, and my own desire to organize my feelings about some of the front-running presidential candidates, I thought I would take a little time to babble about each of them over the next few days.

So, Mike Huckabee.

There are certainly some things I like about this guy :

• I trust him implicitly, which is odd to me. Like most people, I have a knee-jerk distrust of most high-ranking politicians. Maybe getting into my 30s has made me able to relate more to these ‘old people’ who want to be president but I’m finding I trust more of them. Or maybe my brain is atrophying and I’m getting more ignorant and naive. But, I do trust Mike Huckabee that he means was he says and he says what he means, though he does seem, like a crafty politician, just as adept at sidestepping questions, changing the subject, etc. Some of his interactions with Mitt Romney during the recent forum proved that quite well.
• Fiscally, he’s really ‘out there’ for a Republican. I LOVE that there is finally a candidate that is a proponent of a federal consumption tax. Granted I’m no economist, but everything I learned in my undergrad economics classes tells me that taxing consumption vs. taxing income is just so much more economically sound. A basic economic tenet is that encouraging savings grows investment, which spurs economic growth. If a consumption tax can help discourage the rampant consumer culture we have, and encourage even a small percentage of the population to save more, it will do wonderful things for economic growth in our country. Opponents of a consumption tax say that a consumption tax will just encourage under-the-table transactions, but you know what? Income taxes do the same thing — who didn’t have at least one job in their lives that was paid under-the-table so that you, and your employer, could avoid paying income & employment taxes??
• That whole weight loss thing? That’s pretty cool.

But then, of course, there is lots of stuff that make me want to run to Canada if this guy’s elected:

• The whole thing with his son and the dog. If you’re disinclined to read a whole Newsweek article, let me sum up: when his son was 17, it seems he hanged a stray dog for the fun of it. It also seems Gov. Huckabee actively worked to ensure his son was not brought up on charges of animal cruelty. This whole thing leaves me feeling dirty for a couple of reasons - first, that his son could be capable of such behavior is at least a small reflection on his upbringing, and second, this is but one of multiple examples of Huckabee’s questionable actions in regard to criminal activity.
• Huckabee completely rejects the theory of evolution. Come ON.
• Huckabee’s stance on a vast number of issues, including but not limited to anti-abortion rights, anti-gay rights, anti-embryonic stem cell research, opposition to hate crime legislation, pro-gun, pro-display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, rejection of international law, anti-universal healthcare, are all in direct opposition to my own personal beliefs.

So it seems when it comes down to it, I really want to like the guy, but he and I will just have to agree to disagree.

Mike Huckabee, your stance on nearly every issue of importance to me makes me think you are close-minded and rely on only one source for your ‘wisdom’ - The Bible. I know for some people this is favorable, but in my mind it makes you blind, intolerant, and in blatant contradiction to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Our founding fathers were all about guaranteeing freedoms, not about restricting them. Thus, unless Charles Manson wins the Democratic nomination, you will not have my vote in November.

I don’t know.

But I have a question for every politico who wants to “protect a baby’s right to life”.

If abortion at some point does become illegal again, does that mean that the government will start issuing social security numbers to every baby as soon as a woman gets a positive pregnancy test?  Do women get to claim miscarriages as dependents for the year in which they were miscarried?   Because if life begins at conception, shouldn’t the tax benefits, too?