An Update to the Progress

I've been told that there haven't been any new and interesting posts on my site to read, so I thought I'd try and entertain you guys with a few words this morning. There really isn't much to tell, but I'll go over what's happened in the past few days anyhow. It's a little mundane and filled with minor annoyances, but collectively they're a HUGE annoyance.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Mom and dad are still out of town. They called last night from Las Vegas, and although mom was dead-set on absolutely hating the place before she got there (a friend and neighbor went and hated it, therefore, she was gonna hate it, too), but she found that she actually thought it "pretty" and "interesting" and she was looking forward to going out last night and having dinner somewhere.

2. Tee ball remains to be a thorn in my side. Between trailor-trash parents and a coach who doesn't, I'm surprised that our team does anything at all out on the field. We've got one kid that's a total ball-hog (he'll be at shortstop and run all the way to first base to get a hit ball), two kids who are, at any given moment, either laying on the ground watching the clouds drift by or playing in the dirt, and another kid whose trailor-trash mom won't leave him alone long enough to let him actually play (he'll be "down and ready" and she'll scream his name until he turns around and then say, "Pay attention! Get ready!").

3. Tee-ball related - my parent t-shirt for our tee-ball team had one fan-freakin'-tastic feature I didn't count on - my son's name misspelled on the back. I paid my $10, spelled the name three times out loud and then wrote it down for the woman, and she still got it wrong. I waited 3 weeks for the shirt to get here, I suppose I'll have to wait 3 more weeks to get the new one. By then I suppose I can just have another t-shirt to wear, 'cause tee-ball will be almost over.

4. Since mom and dad are still out of town, my work schedule is still screwed up. I usually work Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but I've had to shift days so that there will always be someone here to take care of Conman. This week, I work Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Next week it's Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The week after that it's the ELC and I only work on Tuesday, which leads us to...

5. The ELC party prep is going exceptionally slow, which isn't a good thing considering there are only two more weekends for DH before the party. We still have no wood chopped / split for the fire pit, the lights in the patio aren't fixed (that's a money issue), the computer room is nowhere near clean, the bathroom is partially clean, the kitchen is partially clean (veering back toward "messy"), I managed to get the dining room area and table cleaned up, but the stuff in the "keep" boxes is still in the middle of the floor, Conman's "playroom" (i.e., our living room) is veering back toward messy, and I've decided there's no hope for Conman's room. What's more, our laundry room is also a hopeless mess. That's just the in-house stuff; the t-shirts, stickers and magnets made it in for the party (they arrived yesterday, as did my couch slip-cover), but I still have to pick up the "item" that's at the screen printers', order Conman's birthday cake, confirm the bowling alley for the birthday party (if that's what I wanna do for the party), finish buying food (meats, meats, meats!) and get myself a few outfits to wear. I think that's it...I'm probably missing something.

6. My game time has been a little curtailed (gee, I wonder why?) and when I am in-game, I'm bored lately. I can't really sign up for anything because I'm never sure if (1) I'll be able to be there or (2) if I am able, whether or not I'll feel like playing. Maybe once this crazy month is over, I'll be able to do a little more gaming. However...

7. My admin duties haven't lessened. I'm still doing my best to help out on that aspect through chat and stuff.

Well, I still have to go to work yet, so I'm gonna close out. Still gotta apply the warpaint and lacquer. Have a good day, blog-readers!

A Day of Complaints (Because I Can)

I'm sure the Don is getting tired of hearing me complain about oh, just about everything today, so I figured I'd make a blog post about it and have them all together here in one convenient spot. So therefore, without further adieu, I give you....

My List of Complaints for May 5, 2008.

1. It's way too freakin' cold in this house this morning.
2. I'm almost out of Splenda for my coffee.
3. I don't have anything to cook for dinner tonight.
4. The local channels satellite sits lower on the horizon than the other channels' satellite, so I don't have any local channels now that the leaves are on the trees.
5. My grill's propane cylinder ran out of gas last night.
6. DH forgot to gather half the garbage when he took it off yesterday.
7. My tummy's acting up today and I feel like I've been kicked in the gut.
8. I had to wait about half an hour for the photographer to show up for tee-ball pictures yesterday, and then I dreamed that the boy's pictures ended up being like, pictures of the telephone wires.

I guess that's all. I may have more complaints to register later. Maybe something I've ordered will show up today (a few days early) and it'll turn the day around.

WoW Update

Well, I haven't had much time to actually play WoW in about two weeks now, but That doesn't stop my mind from working. I'm thinking about lots of things in-game, and I've got a little tinge of jealousy forming.

I've been sitting behind Calli for a year-plus since the expansion watching others do the new raid instances, waiting patiently for the "new" to wear off and waiting for others to "learn" it well enough that If I go and screw up BIG TIME (which is liable to happen), we won't all die a horrible death and it be all my fault. Is that the wrong way to look at an raid instance? Probably - but one of the reasons I don't raid is because I don't like the pressure; if I wait until the raid instance is beat to death, a great portion of that pressure is taken away.

Anyway...there was one thing that kept me from feeling "behind" in all this. The Don hadn't been to the big new raid instance, either, and therefore, I wasn't alone in my "I haven't done that yet" - ness. Well, last night, that changed. The Don went to Karazhan.

I'm not jealous of him per se, but of the ability that he (and a lot of other guildies have) to go in there and not worry about causing a wipe. That's my HUGE worry, and I don't want to make someone else's experience in the instance less because of my ineptitude. That's something I need to fix, not anyone else, but still...I dunno.

I wanna go. That's the bottom line. I'm willing to do the work, I just haven't had the time. My equipment's in pretty good shape, I just need a good, casual group who is willing to hold my hand through the instance who won't get mad when I screw up majorly (which will happen) and is in it for the fun of it and nothing else. Is that too much to ask?

Money, Money, Money.

Well, here's an update on the refund / rebate situation.

I sent in the "Injured Spouse Form" on Monday, and hopefully we'll get part of both the refund and the rebate...but...it'll be late gettin' here. Luckily, mom and dad came through with a little supplement to do until either of those checks arrive. We don't use direct deposit for our IRS stuff (although we should - I'm going to be sure to mention that next year), so we get to wait for a paper check. I'm figuring right about the end of June before we see either hide or hair of either of them.

That hasn't stopped me from spending money like my last name is Hilton, though. In the past couple of days, I've bought a patio set for $149 (granted it wasn't the one I wanted, but still), spent $321 on ELC t-shirts (only about $100 of that was my own money, though), bought a slipcover for my couch for $60, and I ain't done yet. I still have to go with DH to Lowe's sometime next week and buy lights for my patio (that'll run another $100 or so), $27 on a birthday cake, I need to buy my child SOMETHING for his birthday still yet, and....gah...there's about a million more things that I can't remember.

Don't get me wrong - I love holding this party every year. I enjoy seeing distant friends, meeting new people and having a weekend where I can sit back, relax, and just have a good time. I just wish I was a woman of more means so that it wasn't so tight getting it done. I wish it wasn't so tight so that I can offer more and do more when my friends are here. Basically, I just wish it wasn't so tight around here.

Anyway...we'll get it done, somehow, and we'll have a fantastic time, even if we do nothing more than sit around for four days and stare at one another. Hey, at least they'll be horseshoes to play...(another $25).

The Plot Thickens...

So, it turns out that not only can they take our tax return, but they can also confiscate our rebate, too.

Joy, joy.

There is an answer, though. I might even end up getting some of our rebate back. I have to file the "Injured Spouse Form" and send it in. It should have been sent when we filed our taxes, but somehow everyone overlooked that DH had an outstanding debt with child support. My dad (who is an accountant) and the preparer of my taxes (who is a CPA) didn't notice that I needed the form to get anything back, so now I have to send it out late, get my part of my refund, get part of the rebate, but exceptionally late.

It's a little better, but it still SUCKS ROYALLY. I don't think that someone else's mistake should make us suffer. That's just my opinion, of course. Thank goodness this obligation will be over soon. Don't get me wrong - I fully support the idea of child support - I just think the person who receives the support ought to be somehow accountable for the money they receive in order to continue getting that money. You know, to show that the KIDS are actually getting the cash and it's not getting spent on, oh, say, alcohol or illegal drugs.

Anyway, with the parental units going out of town on Tuesday, I have one day (today) to give the form to my dad and see if he can get anything done with it. I can't wait sixteen days for them to get back and get the form prepared. That on top of the "processing time" wait just isn't gonna cut it.

Curve Ball

So...the tax "check" came in the mail today....there's only one hitch...

There was no check.

Yep, that's right - all $1600+ went to back child support. Back child support that accrued not because DH didn't pay it, but because the Child Support people canceled DH's child support obligation for about a year, and then reinstated it, and charged him backpay.

Yep, you read that correctly. THEY canceled the payment, yet he's responsible for their mistake. Observe, my friends, your government at work.

Slight Update

Man, I'm too pooped to peep.

I like my job a lot, but these Fridays working 9am to 7pm really take it out of a girl. Got paid today, though, so that's good - $350 extra in my pocket that I didn't have when I started. That'll go a long way towards finishing up my ELC order and some other stuff that I'm trying to get done.

Missed Conman's tee-ball game today, and I'll miss the one tomorrow, too. That's the only bad thing about the job - the late evenings cause me to miss his games. Oh well - hopefully when my schedule is shuffled around in the next 3 weeks because of my parents' vacation I'll catch more than one a week.

Anyway, that's about all I got for y'all tonight. Work again in the morning, but it's the short day, so I'm out by 5pm.

Ciao!