Missed Yesterday

It was a nice Father's Day.

Earlier in the day, my daughter and I pursued one of our hobbies -- garage "sailing"; and came back with some cute stuff. She got a couple pairs of shoes for a buck apiece, and some other small trinkets. I found another clipboard (can't get enough of 'em), and clock for the basement bathroom, and some picture frames.

Paula prepared a delicious BBQ'd turkey-lamb-burger dinner (wth asparagus and M&M salad (look it up). My mother came to visit, as did Paula's father, so it was a two-in-one. Paula had printed out and framed a picture I took on our Copalis River camping trip, Memorial Day weekend, for her father. She got me a fleece vest -- nice "green" one from REI. And we had strawberry rhubarb pie for desert.

On a different note, completed the requirements for obtaining an RMA for returning the two monitors, but no word back, yet, from NewEgg (other than the automated email acknowledgement of receipt of the request).

And it is now almost midnight, so I'm going to wrap this up before it becomes tomorrow.

Project Complete, er, partway...

Got everything put together today, and she's a screamer, but BOTH monitors have to go back -- bad pixels. One of them, I might just live with if it were for me, but this system is intended for photo editing, and they are simply not acceptable for that.

I guess I'll get to find out first hand just how good NewEgg is about returned merchandise.

Beautiful & Bureaucracy Have Only 4 Letters in Common

So, after waiting the absolute fullest "estimated wait time," I spoke to the "customer service" respresentative, who couldn't answer my question. She then tried to connect me to a different department, and managed to disconnect the call, so I had to call back and wait again...for the full "estimated wait time".

This next customer service representative was quite curt, and really didn't seem to have too much interest in listening to my questions, and all but rushed to hang up on me.

But the verdict is, to the best guess I can make, is that besides the increase in tax from the main tax table, they disallowed one of my more major deductions. May have to to an amended return and include deductions I previously chose to omit, as figuring them out took more time than I felt like spending, such as office space in the home.

Anyway, I'm just so happy that I get to do my taxes again, and pay even more money. Joy!

The Music Lies

Presently on the phone, on hold, waiting to talk to an IRS "customer" service representative. Listening to the light happy strains of the Nutcracker Suite, which belies the reputation of the agency; should be something more like a funeral dirge.

But "customer" service representative? Seems to me that if I'm a customer, I ought to be always right, as well as free to take my business elsewhere. Could that be a euphemism? Say it ain't so!

At least this time, the "anticipated wait time" is only 10 to 15 minutes.

Stalled Out

No progress on the new project, today, other than that the two LCD panels arrived today.

Got derailed by a call from the repair shop -- they want $4960 for transmission repair. ARGH!

And got a notice from the IRS today that I owe more than I paid on my taxes. I got one of my numbers wrong, but they got theirs wrong, too. Have to track it down and get the scoop, but I'm always told, when I call, that the wait time is 15 to 20 minutes.

They say I owe another $1400 -- I did make an error, but my revised figures indicate I owe considerably less than they say -- another $300 or so.

Sigh! Just what I wanted to do -- my taxes all over again!

New Project

But for the two wide-screen LCD panels, got all the parts for a new computer, today. This is a surprise birthday present for "Grandpa".

It consists of the following:


All-black (no chrome or bubbling lights) Lian Aluminum case
(LIAN LI PC-A05B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case)


ASUS motherboard
(ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard)


Nvidia video card
(XFX PVT84JYDF3 GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card)


450W power supply
(Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply)


3 Ghz Intel dual-core processor
(Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400)


4 gigs of dual channel RAM
(Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR667D2N5K2/4G)


Card reader
(SUPER TALENT INTAIN1MCR All-in-one Card Reader)


500 Gb hard drive
(Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive)


2 DVD RW drives
(PHILIPS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SPD2413BM/17)


And, yet to come, two 20.1-inch wide-screen LDC monitors
(SCEPTRE X20WG-1080P Black 20.1" 5ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor)


Got the motherboard and the power supply installed, but holding off on the rest, for the time being, as neighbor and I like to do this sort of thing, augmented by moderate (or slightly more) quantities of scotch.

Drat!

Not to be confused with "Dart!"

Still wrangling with the customization of this blog utility. Wanted to completely replace the header graphic with my own, but the interface insists on indenting my picture, so had to settle for a smaller one.

Guess I'll just have to investigate further. I fully intend to, at some point, completely change the look of the page, to suit my own taste.