wombat_socho

There wasn't much going on at work, but I spent an hour and a half doing it anyway, which got me a little over ten hours for the week. Sure hope it picks up in April. Hell, I hope it picks up NOW. ~~Where is everybody?~~

My regular clinician Julie is back from maternity leave (mom & baby doing well) and we talked a lot about my weird BP readings, which should have me passing out or at least being wobbly, but I'm not. We agreed that it would make more sense to take it sitting down at the desk instead of lying down in bed, so starting tomorrow, that's what I'll do.

Lost two out of three to the Royals tonight, which balances the 2-1 series against the Brewers earlier in the week.

This afternoon I had a couple Big Fish, O-rings, and Diet Coke at the BK before stopping at the post office, where I just found junk mail and the current StippleAPA but not the Ozempic the VA sent me. Gave the APA a cursory read-through and laughed at my fellow accountant going apeshit over comments I made that weren't directed to her. Welp. Got a couple weeks to think about it.

Picked up more tea, English muffins, some pistachios and tater tots, which I had originally intended to have with the popcorn shrimp, but after consuming the fish sammiches I felt that would be wretched excess. So I'll eat them next week.

Paid the Frontier bill and the Fission-chan credit card. Also, since I broke one of the latte cups I use for flax muffins, I hunted the original order down on Amazon, threw $50 from PenFed at the Synchrony card, and ordered replacements.

Chuck Norris died last night, and of course the jokes were all over X. So were the savage responses to a limp-dicked obituary in Variety.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Conelrad - Pluperfect Tense

Work has actually been picking up lately, which is nice because I was getting pretty depressed about not carrying my weight on the team. Been finishing roughly one return a day since Friday, a pace which I'm sure will pick up as we get into April.

Winamp had been acting more and more flaky of late, and today I decided I'd just delete it, download a fresh file, and reinstall. Well, that didn't work - it refuses to install except with Administrator permissions - but I have those! There are apparently ways to get around this problem, but they may as well be written in Chinese for all the sense they make to me. Fortunately, Windows Media Player still works, and I'll just have to fiddle with the playlists until I get them right.

In other technical matters, I'm giving up on Frontier's wretched DSL service and ordered a Starlink setup. I'll have to set it up in the bedroom looking out the window, I guess, since there's no good way to set it up otherwise.

Also looked at how much house I can afford given what I'm paying in rent, and it doesn't look too good. May have to wait until next year, pay down the credit cards, and put money away towards a down payment.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Conlrad - Cable Damage Committee

So I drove down to Las Vegas on Tuesday after spending a couple of hours on a massive return, stopped at the Skye Canyon McD's for baseball and burgers (beat the Red Sox two out of three) and eventually arrived at the Stratosphere early enough to knock out some blogging before I went to bed and slept most of the way through the night.

Got up, packed up, hit the McD's on Sahara & Paradise for breakfast, and was only a couple minutes late for my wound care appointment. Dr. Lal was very happy with the progress and strongly recommended that I call the lymphedema clinic and ask for more farrowwraps, since the Velcro on all but one of mine has died. I also took the time to stop by the VSO office where a helpful gent from the state veteran service department filed my claim for unemployability, which I have a good chance of getting since I haven't had full-time work since 2018 and my rating is at 60% already. If it's approved, my rating will go to 100% with a consequent boost in the VA disability pay, maybe as much as $4k a month before the deductions I have in place for insurance.

After that, I hit the Maverik on Tropical for E15 ($4.05 with Nitro, alas), an iced coffee, muffins, a burrito, and a couple bottles of Diet Coke, and after eating the burrito and one of the muffins I went back to the Stratosphere to get my hat, which I'd forgotten since it fell behind the desk last night and I overlooked it in the morning. The Strat was short of security people, so it took a while to get someone to take me up to the room and retrieve he errant hat.

Next on the checklist was getting the oil changed in the Kia, which I did at the Jiffy Lube on Craig & Decatur near the Sonic, where I got fluids and a pretzel after the oil. One stop at the Arby's on Rancho later, I was headed home. Managed not to stop anywhere along the way and finally got home a little after 2015. Finished the huge return I've been working on for most of the week, and now I'm going to call it a night.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - Velvet Voyage

The last couple of nights I've been going to bed very early, getting up early, and going back to bed for a few hours. Tonight I'm up later thanks to blogging, so I should be back to my normal sleep cycle tomorrow.

Still not getting a lot of work done at work. Today I finished

troika 's renter's credit return after finding out you had to enter the CRP in Blockworks to do the renter's credit, so at least I know that now in case another MN return comes across my desk, but that was it. I was scheduled 3-8, so I rescheduled my game with the Yankees until tomorrow, but then Lindsey posted the schedules and I'm on from 3-8 tomorrow too. Well, if tomorrow is anything like today, I'll be done well before game time. Meanwhile, everyone in the office seems to be busy but me. I'm starting to think I'm not going to get anywhere close to 100 returns this year unless everyone shows up in April.

The Frontier internet has been absolute shit this week. I think when my next paycheck from Block comes in (or maybe sooner) I'll shell out for a Starlink mini and stick it in the front window. Or maybe the kitchen/bedroom window.

Current Mood: busy

The Guest of Honor was Devon Eriksen, author of Theft of Fire, and instead of doing the normal reading, he played the first chapter of the audiobook version, which is actually more like a radio play, since he hired different voice actors for the three main characters. It was good. I already own the e-book, but I bought the hardback and had it autographed. Also came home with some books from the Baen Roadshow - for those of you who don’t know, this is a slideshow where publisher Toni Weisskopf talks about upcoming books, art, and the publishing business, and it’s usually a lot of fun even without the book giveaways – and a few books Mike was trying to get rid of from an estate sale.
As usual, I spent more time hanging out in the lobby and the consuite (better than the Worldcon and it’s not even close) talking to people than I did actually attending programming – in fact, the Baen Roadshow was the only programming item I actually attended, which isn’t the first time this has happened.

      I was going to try and be cheap because of an unexpected expense that cropped up at the beginning of the trip, but that didn’t happen. I ran afoul of Southwest’s new rule regarding extra seats for the overweight, which the website asks you about but the app doesn’t. Fortunately, Tawanda and her crew at McCarran managed to fix me up without charging me a kilobuck I didn’t have, and in fact, since all my flights were less than full, I did get the money for the extra seats back.
At the Nashville Airport, since I was tired and stupid, I forgot that payment for the rental car came at the end when I turned it in, so I got hit with extension charges on Friday when I called to extend my one-day reservation through Monday. Silly me. On the other hand, I did get a free upgrade from the Corolla I originally asked for to a GMC Terrain, which had a really weird gearshift mounted on the steering column. Unlike older column-mounted shifts, this one required you to pull the lever and flip it up or down depending on whether you were driving or backing up. Park required you to push the lever in. What a pain. Some time I’ll get a car that doesn’t require me to study the owner’s manual before I get going, but not this time.
     I didn’t go to O’Charley’s, the rather good fast casual place next to the hotel, but I did hit Whataburger, Waffle House, the Publix (their tuna subs aren’t as good as their cold cut subs, but their sushi is pretty good) and of course, after the convention ended on Sunday, I made the hajj unto Crossville and Buc-ee’s, where I got the barbeque (Carolina style pulled pork, which was meh, and the brisket, which was amazing as usual) along with large quantities of Diet Coke, entirely too many baked goods, a hat, a travel pillow, and some jerky. Because you can’t go to Buc-ee’s and not get the jerky.
I goofed up when I extended my Terrain rental, thinking my flight back to Vegas was at 1 PM, so I agreed to bring the car back at 11 AM. I had hoped to maybe go space available on an earlier flight, but thanks to my lowly economy ticket, I couldn’t do that, so I had to wait until 4:55 PM to check my bag and it was almost 9 by the time I finally boarded the flight home. Good thing I’d picked up a couple of Publix subs on the way to the airport.
     We got in to McCarran at 2 AM Central/midnight Pacific; I got my bag and made my way to the parking ramp, got my Kia out of hock, and decided against stopping at Jack in the Box or McD’s because I really wasn’t hungry but rather dog-tired.
Tuesday morning I made up for that by going to the Omelet House for a mile-high omelet before topping off the tank and going home, where I was so exhausted I went straight to bed and didn’t even drag the suitcase upstairs.

I sent my zine and cover to Jeanne, who informed me that one of the other members was upset that I called them ignorant - which I hadn't, that was a different apahacker altogether - and eventually things got to point where I told her that considering my responsibilities to other APAs, the convention newsletter, and my perszine, that if she felt I wasn't being polite enough maybe I should just drop out. (Again.) We'll see what happens.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Tangerine Dream - Mysterious Semblance At The Strand of Nightmares

The pace of work has picked up a little bit, but I'm still not clocking more than an hour or two a day out of the four or five that I'm on call. Next week's check will at least include reimbursements for the useless Oregon certification, regarding which I'm tempted to sue Oregon for violating the Equal Protection Clause as well as illegal restraint of trade.

One of the door switches in the Kia has gone wonky, so the dome light won't shut off. I don't have the time or money to deal with it now, so I'll just have to hope it doesn't drain the battery while I'm in Nashville.

Weight shot up into the mid-390s after the NSSAB meeting (as usual) and again when I did laundry Monday night. I'm going to try and be moderate with the fressing while I'm at Confinement, but I'm not optimistic. So much to eat there, and so much of it is so bad for me.

Tonight's pre-flight hotel in Vegas is the Mardi Gras, which I've never stayed at before, but the price was right and it's reasonably close to the airport. Going to park the car at the airport and hope I don't get fucked too badly.

Everything is packed up except the insulin and my Kindle, so I'm going to clock in to see if I have any work, scrape my face, and then hit the road. Miles to go and all that.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: David Bowie - Station to Station

Work has been dribbling in, with four returns paid off and a couple more waiting for clients to send me documents or tell me they don't have them. So far the first peak has been a bust; last year I was fairly busy but this year not so much.

The problem with the VA travel reimbursement got sorted and I've collected all my pay for the January appointments; I'll probably get the check for last week's optometry appointment next week right before I leave for Nashville, which is to say around the same time the NSSAB check will drop. Also spoke to the pharmacy clinician and she agreed that Dr. Chow went off half-cocked with the Carvedilol so we're going to drop that back to a 6.25mg tablet and in the meantime, cut the current 12.5 mg tabs in half. She also offered to send a combined Metfprmin/Jardiance pill which if nothing else will reduce the number of pills I have to take. As for the optometry appointment, it looks like I'll be getting new glasses as my eyes continue to slowly deteriorate. No glaucoma or macular degeneration, though.

Before I head down 95 tomorrow I need to stop in briefly at the post office and pick up some prescriptions that have been waiting for me since last week, when I was blocked from getting them by late rising and work that unfortunately coincided with the hours the PO was open.

I am rereading Behold: Humanity! from the beginning, even though I have some other books I should be reading.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - Neuronengesang

I missed a lot of time on the clock last week since I had some kind of low-level ick going on, not that there was anything to do anyway. I did do up my return and fire it off; none of the stuff in the OBBB did anything for me since I basically made no money last year. Well, sure, I had about $4000 from Block and another $1400 for Fidelity, but when you add that all together it doesn't even come close to my standard deduction. So I'll get back what was taken out of my paychecks and the Fidelity withdrawal, and that's it. Lost less money on Son of Silvercon than I did last year, mainly because I didn't deduct the expenses of travel to Confinement, so there's that.

The SSDI dropped today, so I paid all my bills and threw a little more money at the credit cards. I also noted that the VA paid me for my stopover at the lab a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully the reimbursement for the appointment at NWPCC will show up soon. Still haven't heard back from them regarding the podiatry appointment, which they disallowed for some bogus reason; I bitched to the patient advocate and they said they'd have the travel boss call me. Still waiting on that. Next week it's down to Las Vegas again for an optometry appointment, the week after that I'll have the (now quarterly?) NSSAB meeting, and the week after that I'm off to Nashville for Confinement. Which reminds me, I need to call the hotel and get a room. It looks like the airfare will only be about $230 or so, which is a blessing. I just want to be able to manage things without having to stop by Rapid Cash again.

Despite not being on the clock, I was a busy boy today. Before I paid the bills, I went and got sheared and then renewed my tabs at the DMV. Apparently they're now requiring appointments, but I lucked out and there was nobody else in the office. Got some breakfast at the Stage Stop and went home to pay bills after that, and around 8 I changed the toner cartridge on the printer, ran off my application for the Oregon state tax pro license and a copy of the Elucidator for Trish, and wrote checks to Oregon and Frontier, whose payment website was being balky. Dropped all that in the mail along with Jeanne's check after picking up tea, yogurt, eggs (you can't have too many eggs), cream, and English muffins. Forgot to get the fig bars, but I can do without those.

I'll finally get around to doing the laundry tomorrow night, I think.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic

So my new primary care doc (until he retires and I get a new one, which will apparently be happening later in the spring) doesn't like my BP or cholesterol, so he's upping my dose of Carvedilol and adding another med for the cholesterol, which I think I'll research before I blindly stuff it in my gob.

I checked into Boulder Station with no trouble but on getting to my room I remembered why it's my least favorite of the Station properties: the plug that I need for the nose hose is buried behind the bed and is already taken up by the nightstand lamp. Otherwise I slept well, and dined well at Tacos El Pastor Wednesday night even though they were out of suadero. Breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday both was at McD's, and I'm beginning to think the sugar-free vanilla iced coffee may not be for me, at least in the large size; both days I had a somewhat upset stomach for most of the morning.

Today I had the Oregon state tax preparer retest, this time at a place on South Rainbow, and this time I passed, even though I should have brought copies of schedules B and E along with the form 1040, A, C, and SE. Got a 77 and did much better on the final problem solving section because I had (most of) the needed forms. Now I have to shell out another $85 to Oregon for the actual license, the thieves. I'll do that tomorrow after the financial dust settles from the trip.

After the test, I doubled back to the Maverik on Lake Mead to fill up on E15 ($2.55 after the Nitro discount, huzzah) but first I stopped at the local Randy's Donuts (an outpost of the famous LA doughnut joint) and sampled their doughnuts, which are good. I saved the ham & cheese croissant for breakfast tomorrow. After Maverik, I used my BOGO on the Rally's app to get a Big Buford & a Baconzilla, which were smaller than I remembered but just as tasty. I got too many fries, and the drink was kinda small for an XL, but I was going to Sonic on the way out of town anyway. Also I stopped at Walmart and got more melatonin gummies since I'm almost out.

Then it was up 95 to home, stopping only in Amargosa Valley for garbage and Goldfield to urinate. Actually got home before 1800 but not before dark...but I'm really tired since I woke up at 0600 this morning long before my alarm was to go off, so I do believe I'll take my meds and insulin and call it a night.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: BTO - Away From Home

By Any Meme Necessary, 2025 Edition

1. Was 2025 a good year for you?

On balance, yes. It was definitely better than 2024 in a lot of ways.

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?

a) Son of Silvercon III with Maxwell Drake as our GoH

b) Hanging out with friends (not enough of them and not for long enough) on the annual Not-For-Balticon Excursion

c) The See Minesota & Die Tour in October.

c) Avoiding serious illness and hospitalization.

3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the year?

a) Finding out I wouldn't be going back to Reno for second peak because the regional manager threw a fit over my expenses.

b) Having to cancel my trip to Minnesota in October thanks to food poisoning.

4. What did you do in 2025 that you’d never done before?

Drove to Minnesota to hang out with #1 Son and saw parts of Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota (including Wall Drug), Southwest Minnesota, Nebraska, & Colorado I'd never seen before.

5. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't do New Year's resolutions because I suck at following through on them.

Having said that, I made serious attempts to:

a) stay rested and on track dietarily - Mostly I managed this, which is probably why I was generally healthier this year.

b) especially during tax season - Since I was home for all of tax season, this wasn't the problem it usually is.

c) keep better track of my money and put more of it away - I kept better track of it, but a lot of it went towards Son of Silvercon and the annual hajj unto Northern Virginia/Western Maryland.

6. Where were you when 2025 began?

At home in Tonopah

7. Who were you with?

Nobody

8. Where were you when 2025 ended?

At home in Tonopah

9. Who will you be with when 2025 ends?

Nobody

10. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2025?

Thank God, no

12. Who did you miss?

Various friends and family members, most notably Holly & Oscar Bambolo and their kids,

who couldn't make it to Son of Silvercon again this year. Also my friend RH, who was too sick to meet up with in May.

Also also my blog boss Stacy McCain, who was off celebrating his daughter Reagan's college graduation.

13. Who was the best new person you met in 2025?

Maxwell Drake and his lovely wife.

14. What was your favorite month of 2025?

July, because Son of Silvercon.

15. Did you travel outside of the US in 2025?

No. What for?

16. How many different states did you travel to in 2025?

Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Virginia, and Maryland

17. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2022?

A new pancreas. A sugar mama. The usual.

18. What date from 2025 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

October 9th, my 66th birthday.

19. What were your biggest achievements of the year?

a) Not dying, and not even getting seriously ill.

b) Son of Silvercon

20. What was your biggest failure?

Amazingly, nothing went seriously wrong this year.

21. Did you suffer illness or injury?

This year I have been mercifully spared from either.

22. What was the best thing you bought?

I now have a really nice leather trench coat but have no idea when or where I'll actually wear it.

I also have a T-shirt commemorating Goetz von Berlichingen that I bought for Anime Fusion, but nobody got the jokes.

Finally, I came across a Colorado bakery that makes lebkuchen the way I remember them from Germany. I almost cried, they were that good.

23. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Maxwell Drake, who filled in for Tim Powers when Tim had to cancel on us.

24. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

My ex-wife. She can find somebody else's shoulder to cry on and help her with her taxes.

25. Where did most of your money go?

Son of Silvercon and the See Minnesota and Die tour.

26. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Son of Silvercon. I was also excited about seeing my son for the first time in almost ten years.

27. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2025?

No.

28. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2025?

More than in 2024. I had a lot more slack time this year.

29. Did you treat somebody badly in 2025?

I didn't think so...

30. Did somebody treat you badly in 2025?

The ex went off on me about a bunch of things in a phone call and an e-mail, most of which I'm pretty sure didn't happen.

I blocked her phone number and e-mail and washed my hands of her problems.

31. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? - I'm a bit happier. Things went moderately well for me.

ii. thinner or fatter? - A little heavier than last year.

iii. richer or poorer? - A bit richer. I acquired a new AmEx card from USAA (which I abused unmercifully for the Minnesota trip)

and some store credit from Amazon.

32. What do you wish you’d done more of in 2025?

Gone outside and touched grass, or the local equivalent of same.

33. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Video games are terribly addictive. So is Twitter.

I could stand to spend a lot less time on both of them.

I probably won't. (And I didn't.)

34. Did you fall in love in 2025?

No, but I lusted in my heart after a fair number of women, mostly of the 2d variety.

35. What was your favorite TV program(s)?

Kept meaning to watch the rest of Fallout before the new season started but never got around to it.

36. What song will always remind you of 2025?

There's no particular song that sums up the year, or even reminds me of a particular time this year.

37. How many concerts did you see in 2025?

None. Concerts are insanely expensive these days - like everything else, only worse.

38. Did you have a favorite concert in 2025?

See previous question.

39. What was your greatest musical discovery?

LoFi Girl on YouTube

40. What was the best book you read?

Didn't buy quite as many books as last year, but I came close. Best fiction was Ralts Bloodthorne's Bright White Light and Those Left Behind, the most recent books in His Behold! Humanity! saga.

Honorable mentions: John C. Wright's Starquest novels and Tom Kratman's 1919 - The Romanov Rising. Best non-fiction was The Last Winning Season, about the 1969 Senators.

41. What was your favorite film of this year?

Didn't actually see any movies, though I bought a copy of Rollerball.

42. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

The Pittman Room was closed for some reason, so I had my borthday steak at the Stage Stop.

43. What did you want and get?

I picked up a used Surface Pro tablet and a cover/keyboard, which were much lighter than Homeko, my HP laptop. It came in very handy on my two excursions to Washington and Minnesota.

Also got a Carhartt jacket which was heavier than I thought it would be and did not have a removable liner. Lastly, I got a really nice leather trenc coat from Secret Goth.

44. What did you want and not get?

A number of non-tangible things.

45. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

[REDACTED]

46. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2025?

"The Festive Color Of My Tribe Is Black". This really hasn't changed; if anything, even more of my clothes are black than formerly.

47. What kept you sane?

I was honestly too busy to get anywhere near crazy this year.

48. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Most of the celebrities and public figures that came to my attention this year

were fairly appalling people, although Elon Musk continues to be an awesome person.

49. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025.

Nothing that's generally applicable, sorry.

50. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Nope, no joy here either.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Lofi Girl - Study With Me (YouTube)

So I rescheduled the Oregon state test for this Thursday, booked a room at Boulder Station, and I guess I'll download copies of the necessary forms to a thumb drive in the morning. Postponed laundry from Sunday to tonight, since I was busy thrashing the Dodgers Sunday night after getting my zines ready for StippleAPA. I'd lost track of #376, which was not in the stack with the rest of them next to the desktop, but it turned out to be buried under some office supplies in front of the secondary HP monitor, so I was able to bash out some minimal comments.

The Internet was being uncooperative this afternoon, so instead of knocking out the weekend substackery I had to do that tonight after getting back from doing laundry, and now I am very tired.

I suppose I should do some Obligatory Seriousness about the shit going down in Minneapolis, and crank out new issues of the convention newsletter & Tonopah Elucidator etc., but after spending part of the day gazing into the abyss of X, I just want to fire up Civ5 and get back to the business of conquering the world for King Artoria V and her Celtic Empire.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Lofi Girl - Study With Me (YouTube)

Well, that was $100 wasted (not counting gas money). Failed the Oregon state tax prep exam because PSI forgot to mention that copies of the 1040, Schedule A, and Schedule C would be needed for the final part of the exam, and of course I blew that section right out of my ass because I haven't done a return on paper since before I started working for H&R Block. Even with that, I missed passing by one fucking question, so I quoted Marshal Zhukov from The Death of Stalin at the test center staff and left.

The Linq was comfortable enough but a real pain in the ass to get around; much like the Strat, the check-in desk was at the other end of the hotel from the parking ramp. There wasn't enough room to slide the chair between the desk and one of the beds, so I didn't get any blogging done, but at least the parking was free.

Got up early enough to get breakfast at Dunkin and sit around for half an hour waiting for the Fedex to open so I could finish printing the rest of OR-17, which turned out to be less expensive than I feared. From there it was easy to get to Brainseed, but it was a pain in the ass finding parking, and I wound up walking 3/4 of the way around the building. After the test, I headed up to the VA to get my lab work done (and get partial reimbursement for the mileage) before heading over to the Maverik on Tropical for gas ($2.65 for E15, hurrah), Diet Coke, and a couple slices of pizza by way of lunch. Then I got more fluids at Sonic on Craig and got back on the '15 to head home by way of the Walmart at the other end of Tropical, because I needed to pick up ham, English muffins ($2.72 being better than $3.99) and a couple liter bottles of Diet Coke. I stopped at Indian Springs on the way back for fluids and munchies, but otherwise I just pushed straight on to home, because I'd only gotten six hours sleep at the Linq and was worried I'd nod out on the road.

Got home in the dark, unloaded the car, and decided the hell with blogging; just going to go to bed early. Time enough for that tomorrow...along with scheduling another go at the damned Oregon test, this time with the forms I didn't have today. Fuckers.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Lofi Girl - Jazz Lofi Mix (YouTube)

I spent most of the weekend and today grinding on the Oregon basic tax course, and finally passed it tonight. Think I might bite the bullet and print out the OR-17 for Thursday; I'm pretty confident that after all these years I have the federal stuff down. I also spent almost an hour on the clock today taking care of crap in Workday, submitting my New York registration, and taking a look at the schedule. I don't actually have anything to do yet, though I suppose I should start pulling together my tax documents and getting them organized. Carlos won't need my help this year since all his income is from SSI and VA disability, but I am expecting some documents from George, so I'll have a Massachusetts return to fiddle with.

So tomorrow I'll catch up on the blogging, maybe knock out my zines for N'APA and Stipple, and call the Tax Book to find out where my 2024 All States book is. Also I have baseball at 1700, so I want to duck out for some tea and munchies before that.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - C'est pas la meme chose

In a few minutes I'll be leaving to get pizza and post office stuff, and then stopping by Raley's for tea and other essentials. While there's a lot of stuff on sale, money is tight at the moment and I'll be going back to Las Vegas next week, so I'm not inclined to go overboard on sale items.

While I was at the VA I stopped by the travel section to find out where my (almost) month old reimbursement was at, and was told that due to the shutdown and the holidays they were hideously behind. So I guess I'll stop checking PenFed until week after next, by which time I'll have two more reimbursements in the system: one for the podiatry appointment this week and one for the lab work I'm going to get done next week after the Oregon state tax exam. Which I will finally start preparing for today...

Feedly was working properly again today so I did a quick link dump for blogs like EBL and Legal Insurrection that I couldn't access yesterday.

It's a little warmer than it was Thursday, but I think I'll still wear the ushanka instead of the watch cap.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - Mental Door

So I'd originally planned to go down for my Wednesday podiatry appointment on Tuesday, do the Oregon state tax exam Thursday morning, and come back that afternoon, but I wasn't ready for the exam and rescheduled that for the following week. Too late to cancel the extra day at Main Street Brewery, though, and unfortunately I didn't make good use of my time there, which meant when I got back to Tonopah I had to do two days worth of double-posting to get caught up.

Why Main Street Brewery? Well, CES was in town, and rooms at the Strat were $insane per night, so...this was the best option. Or maybe the Cannery would have been cheaper, but I didn't look. Anyway, the room was nice, the brewpub was good (I ate more than I should have) and the breakfast buffet on Thursday was excessive. Refueled at the Maverik on Lake Mead ($2.55 for E15!), got fluids at the Sonic on Decatur, and then picked up a few things at the nearby Walmart neighborhood market. They were out of english muffins, and I forgot the ham, but the heavy cream was marked down and I got plenty of water enhancers. I also consulted with Lindsay about the ex's tax problems, and I'll be sending her a letter outlining what she needs to do.

Lost two out of three to the Cardinals on Wednesday, beat the Tribe twice tonight, and that's the way it was.

I'll hit the post office tomorrow and get started on the damn Oregon tax course tomorrow.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - Neuronengesang

I started doing a post over the weekend but got distracted by the annual By Any Meme Necessary post and a list of books I've read this year (most of which I actually finished) and of course Civicrack.

I cooked up a mess of food for Christmas, including a turkey loaf that was much bigger than I thought it would be, sausage stuffing (meh), a sweet potato, and some instant mashed potatoes along with an eggnog fruit cocktail pie that was interesting (and because I didn't get deep-dish pie crusts, I had far more filling than would fit in the crust) and a ham & egg quiche that was okay. I am still going to make the corn casserole and the breakfast pizza sometime in the next couple of days. Despite all this eating, my weight is slightly down from the beginning of the month.

I was really lethargic over the weekend; went out for pizza & post office on Saturday, and stayed in for the rest of the weekend until going out this evening for tea, bread, dishwashing liquid, and a chance loot drop of Quest protein bars marked down to 50 cents each. I have $20 on the Emerald Card if I run out of something essential, but right now I can't think of anything that can't wait for New Year's Day and the VA disability.

Haven't started the Oregon state class on Block Academy yet. I might push my luck and wait until the new year is underway.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Blank & Jones - Flowtation

So the Brotbox was good, by and large, except for the rye bread which was tough to slice, and I probably won't be re-ordering that.

I took the week off from studying for the Oregon state exam, which turns out to be open book, but I don't think they'll allow me to take a tablet with Publication 17 and the Oregon equivalent into the test area, and the Tax Book is probably iffy too - but I'll ask. I'll have to see if I can get hardcopies of both publications before the test next month, and in the meantime call the Oregon state office in charge of the test to pay my fee and make the necessary arrangements.

Thanksgiving dinner went all right. The breast cooked up like it was supposed to, I fixed two kinds of stuffing, scalloped potatoes, a sweet potato, butternut squash, and it was all good. Between all the food and the desserts (Tillamook vanilla ice cream & a mini Marie Callender peach pie) I put on a little less than six pounds but lost half of it on Saturday so that this morning's weight was 391.8. That will probably tick up a bit on account of dinner at the Stage Stop, but I'm still way under the 400+ I came back from Minnesota with.

Finally sent out my perszine to all the friends I could find e-mail addresses for, and much to my amazement only one bounced. Actually got a few e-mail responses back. Forgot to send copies to Nic and Garth, though.

Made a fair amount of progress on cleaning up the apartment, at least as far as bagging up garbage goes. I guess I'll spend a lot of tomorrow hauling out those bags, filling more bags, and hauling those out as well so the place is merely cluttered and not looking (too much) like a hoarder lives here.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: David Bowie - Jump They Say

Well, I didn't make it to the post office, but I did make it to Raley's, where they didn't have any of the salad I was looking for, but they did have tea and Gatorade and Celsius, which I kind of needed since I was running out of oomph.

The order from Brot Box showed up this afternoon, and I held out about half of it from the freezer since I ordered way too much. So I baked up most of the rolls and two of the loaves while managing not to go face first into them; it was all really good and caused me to pick up some whipped butter and cream cheese spread on my run to Raley's. Went a little over on the calories today, but all my other numbers except fat and sodium were good, so I am hoping the weight stays level or goes down in the morning.

Caught up on the blogging, thanks to a can of Celsius. Sent off another appeal/threat to X. Willing to do it another 30x times, or maybe find an attorney in town.

Stayed up way too late re-imagining WW2 cruisers and carriers with Grok. Off to bed now.

Current Mood: dorky
Current Music: Crystal Method - Busy Child

I took the day off from blogging, but I had to get up at 0900 (after not getting to sleep until almost 0400) to renew my PTIN and do a fonecon with Jeannette in Reno about renewing my state registration Also talked to Jeanette about the dual screen issue and she said she'd talk to her team about it, so maybe I'll be able to extend my screens this year. We finished the online paperwork; I had a protein shake & English muffin for breakfast, and went back to bed. In other work-related news, I passed the AFSP on the first try over the weekend, and will be pitching into the Oregon basic course tomorrow in between running to the post office and picking up more tea at Raley's...speaking of which, I went in Monday and for once took advantage of the $5 sale to pick up a bunch of chicken for salads and a couple of Marie Callendar bowls that were 2/$5.

Woke up at 1630, lost two out of three to the Phillies at Shibe Park, and grilled the rest of the pork chops for dinner after noshing on a Caesar salad during baseball. The MyFitnessPal app has definitely helped me get the weight down (mostly) and I'm sitting at a little above 393 as of this morning. Unsurprisingly, the back pain has mostly gone away.

The video call with my clinician went pretty well despite the connection going to shit halfway through. My numbers have been so good since coming back from Minnesota that she agreed to back off the Lantus from 45 2x daily to 40 2x daily. We'll see how that works out.

Got registered for Confinement and this time bought the T-shirt at the same time.

Thought about taking all my stuff down from e2 but decided I didn't care enough to bother.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Klaus Schulze - C'est pas la meme chose

I dropped off a check to Jeanne for StippleAPA franking, dropped off a check with NSB to cover a sudden hole in my account, and bought almost $200 of groceries at Raley's, taking full advantage of my first Tuesday discounts, including some frozen Italian stuff, a Butterball turkey breast, laundry detergent, and other necessities.

Then I came home, scanned everything and put it away, and got swept by the Yankees at the Polo Grounds. Not one goddamn homer in three games, and that goddamn Bucky Dent committed an error in every game.

Did catchup blogging tonight, will double up tomorrow so I don't have to do more than one post a day for the rest of the week.

Sent in my membership for Confinement and my T-shirt order; also sent in an order to the Brot Box. That will surely end well. On the other hand, I've restarted MyFitnessPal.com and it's helping me peel off the weight.

Liquidated the Cardboard Box fund so I can pay down some of these damn credit cards. Makes no sense to be collecting 5% dividends on one hand while paying 25% interest (minimum) with the other.

Been waking up earlier in the morning and (of course) getting tired earlier in the evening.

Apparently it was a pretty horrible night for Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia, to say nothing of NYC. Welp.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Lofi hip hop radio on YT

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Recent Entries

A rather busy Friday

Farewell to Winamp, hello to Starlink

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Confinement VII

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By Any Meme Necessary, 2025 edition

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