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Is it the Swine Flu?

Oops, sorry all you darling little piggies. I should ask, "Is it the H1N1 Influenza Virus? I have had the most major headache all day. It's definitely a sinus headache. I hope that's all it is.

We did eat Mexican on Wednesday night, but it was at Moe's Southwest Grill and I don't think that anyone there had been to Mexico recently. Well, unless they went on spring break or something. If I die, REMEMBER THE ALAMO! No, there's no relevance. I just felt a battle cry would be nice at a time like this.

Trickster is having a lot of sinus issues today, too, but according to the American Veterinary Association website, cats don't get the swine flu.

In the meantime, I am easing my pain with the pleasant diversion of trying to win things. The prize du jour is a charm bracelet from Things Remembered. They have some beautiful charms that you can customize. Visit MommyGoggles and leave a post about your favorite charm from Things Remembered.

Did you ever do something really generous for someone...

And then they turn around and kick you in the butt and tell you that you didn't care enough?

That's basically what happened to me today.

I wish I could go back and retrieve those two months of my life that I gave up, when my dad was dying.

Don't Trust Online Tax Services

We came home Thursday to a big package from the IRS saying we didn't report some of our income last year and we owe a big chunk of back taxes and interest.

Last year, I filed my taxes through the government's Free File program, using eSmart Tax by Liberty Tax Service. Maybe they should call it eDumb tax. Apparently, it didn't include any of my 1099s when it totaled up my taxes.

Now, some people (including my husband) say that I should have realized that our wages and various incomes (a grand prize cash win among them) added up to more than the total on line 1. However, I worked two jobs for two months, I got a substantial raise at job #1, when I did my taxes I realized that job #2 had been paying me less than I was supposed to be paid, my husband went full time at his job for the first time. The final total was much more than the previous year, so it sounded right to me. I suck at math.

And besides: if I have to sit down with all the paperwork and add it up manually, why should I take the time to plug it all into the software? It's supposed to do it for me and get it right!

We went back to the Liberty Tax Service and looked at last year's returns, and I see in Step 6 where I filled out all the 1099 information. The software just didn't add it in.

Obviously we have to pay it; at least we still have some of the big win in the bank to cover it. I do plan to include a letter of explanations with printouts from the Liberty Tax site, and I also plan to send copies to Liberty Tax explaining just how much their "free" service ended up costing me. I've been told they have a guarantee and should cover the penalties, which makes me feel a little better.

Beware.....

Customer Service Kudos

When last I blogged about Lowe's, I was pretty irritated at my neighborhood store. After I blogged, I used the "contact us" form at Lowes.com to report my problem. Within a couple of days, I got a call from a manager at the local store wanting to try to figure out who the women were that gave me the problem. She looked up my cousin's name and printed out their gift registry, and she left that and a 10% off voucher at the customer service desk. I went in the next day, picked out a light fixture from the list and used the discount. The quick response and the discount went a long way to making me feel better about the store.

Then today, we had a message from PetSmart. We'd been in a couple of times over the last week or 10 days, only to find a big empty space where the Iams Digestive Care 16.5 pound bag should be. I sent an e-mail to Iams, to see if they discontinued the size, and they confirmed that they still make it. I also sent an email to PetSmart, to ask if they were still going to stock that size in the store, because the shipping charges on a heavy bag of cat food are pretty outrageous. Well, the message today said that the food had been ordered and to call the manager when I had a chance. She was very apologetic that they'd been out of stock, assured me that the food had been ordered on Monday and should be in by next Wednesday. She sounded very sincere when she said how sorry she was that the store had run out. So, I'm feeling pretty good about PetSmart, too.

A great classic of 20th century cinema....

Some movies are worth paying $20 for on DVD. Others I wouldn't buy for $20, but when I find them in the five dollar bin at Wal-mart, they're a must have. So it is with Smokey and the Bandit, the fun-lovin', free-wheelin' story of rebellion on the open road. When I saw the title, I thought surely it must be Smokey and the Bandit 2 or perhaps Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit. But no, it was the 1977 original, the first movie that made me think that it would be cool to jump a car over something (a goal I still hope to attain someday). You know what went wrong with Smokey and the Bandit 2, at least for me? It was that it didn't fulfill the promise delivered at the end of the first movie. The fellers (including Sally Field and Fred the basset hound) were headed to New England to bring back some lobsters. Instead of doing that story, though, they brought in the elephant and it was all downhill from there. The less said about Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit, the better.

Why are stores so stupid?

Or maybe I should say, why do they hire stupid, lazy people to work there? Or maybe the people weren't as stupid as they acted, and they really weren't given the proper tools to help the customer.

My story:

We stopped at Lowe's tonight and we decided to ask about my cousin's gift registry. I looked at it a couple of days ago at Lowes.com, but I'm out of ink. I thought the store could print it for me.

Well, first the dumb girls behind the counter discussed the ending of the registry program and how they thought it was already over. They finally figured out that I was right, and the program is still alive. Then they looked up my cousin's name on one of the registers and found the listing, but they couldn't print it. So, they go back to the desktop and ask me for my cousin's phone number. I don't have her phone number. So I say, "I don't have her phone number. I looked it up online under her name." Then the lady smarts off at me, saying, "Well our system is different than the website." So, get online, bitch. I didn't say that. I just said that we'd have to buy them something somewhere else, and we left. I know they have a garden hose on their wish list, so I'll just look up the specs and buy one someplace else. From the very beginning with those chicks, it was like I was interrupting them, and they just didn't want to help me. That's the attitude I got, anyway. In this economy, they ought to have been falling all over themselves to try to make a sale and keep the customer happy.

But on to more pleasant topics, like the chance to win a 8GB iPod Shuffle. It's a promotion over at Debt Relief Place. It's a company that's in the business of helping people get their debt under control. They also have a handy debt calculator. Check it out and enter to win!

Movies at Home

DH and I have always loved movies. We've been film buffs since we were kids. Unfortunately, it's hardly worth going to the movies anymore. People take unruly or bored children to see films that are way over their heads, they get phone calls, they even make phone calls during the movie. They converse like they're at home on the couch instead of in a theatre full of people who paid good money to hear what the actors have to say.

That's why we stay home. We watch movies at Hulu or on DVD. We watch TV shows at the network websites. Oh, I guess I didn't mention that we dropped our satellite service in 2004, because it had gotten so expensive. You can get packages cheaper than $70 a month, but they're designed for people who like sports and home shopping.

That's why I was really excited today to learn about the Roku, a device that lets you download movies from Netflix and watch them on your TV. Of course, I'm always a bit skeptical of new technology and monthly fees. I want to try things out first, and 5 Minutes for Giveaways might just be giving me that chance. They are, as you might have guessed from their name, having a giveaway, and the winner gets a Roku and a six-month membership to Netflix. How cool is that? Visit 5 Minutes for Giveaways if you want to put your name in the pot. Or just wish me luck!

Since when did silver kill a vampire?

Growing up, I watched all the old Universal horror movies and I read a lot of books about creatures of the night. You killed vampires by staking them with a wooden stake. You can keep someone from returning as a vampire by cutting his or her head off and stuffing the mouth full of garlic. You can repel a vampire with a cross (although I will accept Fright Night's premise that you have to believe).

Werewolves were killed with silver. Shoot it with a silver bullet. Bludgeon it with the silver head of a walking stick (as Lawrence Talbot did, but not before he got bitten). I believe I saw one film where a silver candlestick was involved.

At some point, I think it was in the '90s, the two myths got intertwined somehow. Now silver is associated with killing vamps. At least in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, a silver bullet only slows down a vampire; it won't kill one.

It's just kind of irritating.

Scroll down a little bit...

A little ways down the page, you'll see a banner for writer Annette Blair. I made the banner and posted it here as part of a contest Annette is running on her site, and in the first drawing, I WON!

Here's the good part for you -- you still have a chance to enter and win. Just visit AnnetteBlair.com. If you don't have the ability to create a banner, you can still enter to win, so visit the site, check out the details, and while you're there, get the scoop on all her delightful books!

Do you save your receipts?

I do. It comes in handy when you find something on sale or clearance a few weeks after you pay full price. I also try to save all the receipts from purchases of Star Wars collectibles. Someday, my goal is to get everything catalogued (I started once, then the program crashed on me; I think I overloaded it) with price paid, current value, etc. Unfortunately, many stores use thermal paper now, and the receipts end up fading until you're left with a stack of blank pieces of paper. Paper that isn't even useful to write notes on, because pens don't tend to like thermal paper. Now there is a way!

Check out ChicShopperChick for a review of Neat Receipts, a scanner and software specifically designed to make sense of all your receipts. You can also register for a chance to win one (wish me luck!).

Introductions

This HP Magic Giveaway has introduced me to a lot of interesting new blogs, like Geeks!, where I have found a lot of new friends. I've even learned about some Spanish language blogs, which I normally wouldn't go to, but thanks to Google's Translation page, I'm able to check them out for the contest and find some cool discussions.

On CiberPrensa, I found a great discussion about Twitter vs. RSS feeds. I've heard a lot about RSS feeds, and I'm still not entirely sure how they work. Maybe you have to have special software. Twitter, I'm using at work and some in my personal life. It is kind of fun to be able to post a quick update about something special going on. A lot of people use it as a moment-to-moment diary, which I still find kind of strange. I don't need to know that you just went to the bathroom or had a snack. I hope I can get some more Twitter followers, both for PLT and for my personal account, so I can reach more people when I have something of some kind of importance to say.

I do agree with the article, which says that it's easier to carry on a conversation via Twitter, instead of just referring people to a post or having a one-way conversation via a feed or a blog.

Here's the link to the CiberPrensa article in its original Spanish.

Here's the information on how to participate in CiberPrensa's HP Magic Giveaway. You can take part whether you have a blog or not.

Joy of Giving

HP is giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars of computer equipment this Christmas. Some of the sites that has a giveaway going on now are Stop, Drop, and Blog, Living in Theory, and Geeks Room.

My husband and I are very blessed. We both have decent jobs (so far, at least), and we’re only in debt for the house and our single car. I'm lucky enough to be working in a community theatre, which touches the lives of patrons, volunteers, and students every day. Tim and I can afford to buy Christmas gifts, go out to eat, and take very good care of our eight rescue cats. We cannot afford to buy, or at least we can’t justify buying, a laptop computer. That’s the main reason that I am trying to win one of these HP Magic packages. Also the Media Connect would be really cool to have.

I would like to give one of the computers to my in-laws, who don’t have a computer at all. Maybe it would be the desktop or maybe the HP mini would be enough for them. I figure they will mainly use it for e-mail with their three children and only granddaughter, and perhaps they’ll occasionally check out a website. They have complained that companies, organizers and the news media just assume everyone has internet access and they can’t follow the links to get more information or fill out forms. I’ll give them the printer, too, so they can print photos that are e-mailed to them. It would be so nice to be able to e-mail them information about a recall, or a promising cancer treatment (FIL has cancer), or just to send photos. They live in a small town, sort of near their oldest son, but hours away from DH and his sister.

One of the computers I will donate to Pensacola Little Theatre. It’s a non-profit organization, and I happen to work there. The computers we have are decent, but they are slow and sometimes lock-up. A laptop computer could also be used to run sound effects for the traveling shows we take to schools and the productions we do in our black box theatre. It would give a lot more control to the sound operator than trying to hit the cues just right on a portable CD player.

The fourth computer in the package, I will give to a deserving young person. I will ask around at the theatre and contact friends who work at other non-profit organizations. I would like to find a young person who does well in school, is respectful and a contributing member of his or her community, someone whose family just doesn’t have the money to provide a home computer. Not only will the gift help that person, but it might show others that being a good person can lead to rewards “just because.”

When I was a child, Christmas was all about what I got. Now, I buy for myself most of what I want. I enjoy the pleasure of watching someone else receive something special. As I said, we’re doing okay financially, but I’m not really in a position to surprise total strangers with really nice gifts, especially not something like a computer. This competition would allow me to play Santa and give someone else a very special Christmas. You can’t buy joy like that.

Toys for Christmas

If you live in modern America, religious teachings aside, Christmas is all about Santa Claus and presents. Geeks!, Chris Pirillo, and Sears are teaming up to give away bundles of Christmas toys, which you can keep or give away. Choose from a LEGO package, a Star Wars package, or a Games package. Just visit the site and comment on the giveaway and which package you'd like best -- that's one entry. Tweet about the giveaway for entry #2. Blog about it (like I'm doing right now) for entry #3. It's a random drawing. What have you got to lose? Visit the site today to sign up.

I'm dreaming of an HP Magic Christmas.

Seriously, I keep having dreams about the various HP Magic Giveaways going on. They all have different rules and regulations for the entry, and my dreams are always the same. I'm trying to read through the blog to make sure I'm doing everything correctly to get my entry, and my cats won't leave me alone so I can concentrate, and then I wake up, and Wicket and Kali are tag-teaming on my head to wake me up for a midnight snack.

It really is a magical promotion. When it's all over, I'm going to have to find someone from HP to come speak to my chapter of the FPRA. Hopefully they'll be agreeable, because it's a really fascinating promotion and I'd love to know more about how they pulled it together.

A Star Wars Camera! This I've gotta have!

I've never made any secret of the fact I'm a major Star Wars fan and collector. When I first saw the adorable Star Wars digital camera, I wanted it desperately. Of course, my husband points out we already have a digital camera, and the Star Wars one would not be carried around anywhere it might be damaged, so what's the point? He's very cynical about the Star Wars collection. So, now there's a chance to WIN a Star Wars Camera, thanks to the lovely folks at Sakar (the manufacturer) and MommaFindings. So, head over and check out the giveaway, but don't covet the camera too much, because it's mine!

The Holiday Season

My husband brought up a news story about a woman who was going out of her way to say "Merry Christmas" to people at stores in order to see what they replied. My mom responded that she was going to say "Merry Christmas" to people, and she doesn't care what religion they are. See, I think that's just rude. Of course, it would help if people wore buttons that indicated what holiday(s) they celebrate. If someone is wearing a Christmas Tree pin or sweater, I feel confident in saying "Merry Christmas." If someone says "Happy Holidays" to me, I appreciate the sentiment. Heck, I'm happy if my sales clerk thanks me for my business or asks me to come back again, rather than just grunting and moving on to the next customer.

Businesswomen and Bitches

Here's an interesting story about a woman who started a business and bilked a lot of moms out of their hard-earned money. Did she deliberately rip them off? Or was she just following standard business practice? The discussion is on Composite: thoughts of poetics and tech

From the same blog: a discussion of bitchiness. I think the attitude is overrated. What do you think?

Finally, is the businesswoman in the first post a bitch to be condemned or a bitch to be admired for her bitchiness?