days in the life of a
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February 4, 2012
SATURDAY SNAPSHOTS AND SNIPPETS
Apparently I've been living in a cave......(or a cozy cabin), oblivious to what's happening in the REAL world.Unbeknownst to me, postage rates went upon January 22, 2 weeks ago.Since the stamps I have at home are of the"Forever" variety, I guess it didn't affect anymail I sent from home.It did, however, affect mail I sent from church.
We have a handy-dandy postage meter at the church office, where we buy postage online and meter it ourselves and it's all set to go. I love it...no more worry about keeping a supply of stamps in the office. I just type in the postage amount, stick my envelope in, and it stamps the postage right on the envelope. Very convenient.
Except when there's a postage increase that I don't know about.
I realized my mistake yesterday when I left 4 metered envelopes in the mailbox for the mailwoman to pick up. She left them in the box with a sticky-note that said "Postage is now 45 cents."
Huh??? Since when???
Apparently since January 22, when the rate went from 44 cents to 45 cents for a regular old letter. Four little letters, no big deal. Add a 1-cent stamp and forget it.
But...the BIG DEAL is that I had just dropped off 100 letters in the post office box the day before. Letters that really needed to be delivered by this coming Monday. When I realized what had happened, and that I'd probably be getting 100 letters returned to me with a big, old "Postage Due" stamped on the outside, I stopped by the post office to see what I could do to get them delivered on time.
Several of the letters had already been sent back and were there at the post office. I bought 31 one-cent stamps to fix those, but there are still MANY more out there somewhere. And no, there is no grace period when it comes to the US Postal Service.
But thankfully there is a wonderfully nice lady who works at our local post office who will intercept the returned letters, put a one-cent stamp on for me, and I'll pay her the $.69 or so that I owe the USPS next week.
Postage disaster averted. Whew!
Next time I must be more vigilant about checking for stamp increases.
Perhaps I need to get out of my cave/cabin more...
My cousin Sabine invited me to join Pinterest.
Being a little bit curious about this new internet phenom that I'd heard people chatting about on Facebook, I decided to take the Pinterest plunge.
So I set up my account and began browsing through the website.
I mistakenly thought Pinterest was a forum for people to share their own creativity for crafts and food, but I found out it is much more than that. While there is a little bit of that going on, it seems to be mostly the "repinning" of other people's ideas and things they've seen on the internet.
Not that any of that's bad, but it's just not what I thought it was. While I'd love to see the things my friends have actually made or created, I'm not all that thrilled with looking through "boards" and "boards" of things other people found on the internet that caught simply their eye.
So I'm not sure yet what I'm going to "do" with Pinterest. I did create one "board" this morning and "repinned" something (mainly so I could figure out just how this whole "repinning" and "pinning" thing works) I thought might be cool to make in the future. But other than that...I've yet to really DO anything else on my page.
But the funny thing is, I'd barely created my account when the email notifications began pouring in! Apparently, I've got LOTS of people "following" me.
People, THERE'S NOTHING TO FOLLOW!!! I have NO IDEA WHERE I'M GOING!
In this case, it's the blind leading the sighted. Doesn't make much sense....
The big family news this week is that Emily (and Zach too, I guess...) got a new vehicle!!!
She traded in her 10-year-old Chevy "Silver Bullet" for this brand-spanking-new GMC Terrain. (click here to check out her blog post about it)
While she says it's the base model, it's got lots of bells and whistles...very nice!
And that "new car smell"...there's nothing like it.
So happy for them! And glad she's got a reliable vehicle to drive.
PLUS...there's plenty of room for infant CARSEATS!!!
No, I'm NOT making an announcement. Just an astute observation from one who thinks about such things...
More exciting news...
This week, after months of fighting with the IRS...
...we finally got the letter we've been waiting for in the mail.
Back in July, right before we left for vacation and right when we were in the midst of the cabin-building project that was growing more over-budget every day, we got a letter from the IRS saying we owed over $17,000 in back taxes and interest from 2009.
YIKES!!! MAJOR, MAJOR YIKES!!!!!!
Kim knew immediately it was wrong, a mix-up in how his stock options had been reported. He had all the documentation and he knew we had paid the government every penny they were due.
In fact, we had actually overpaid by a few hundred dollars, but we were willing to let that go. But we definitely DID NOT owe them!
So back-and-forth the letters went, Kim meticulously documenting and explaining in detail all the discrepancies. Each time we'd get a letter back, the amount we owed went down...from $17,000+ to less than $10,000 until the last time I think it was around $3000.
I'm sure they were hoping we'd give up, just pay it, and be done. And I might have done just that.
But they don't know my Kimmie.
In the last letter he sent to them in December, Kim ended his detailed explanation by telling the IRS that they actually owe us money and "we look forward to receiving your payment."
That must have been what done it, because this week we got this letter.
What a relief! Like a $17,000 weight has been lifted off our backs....
Last weekend, we took Mama, Dad, Kristoffer, Karter, and Kaden (Dana was gone for the day) to Willie and Red's (formerly Welliver's) restaurant in Hagerstown.
Mama took these photos, and I thought they were pretty good (except for a few wild eyes!) so I thought I'd share them.
In case you haven't heard, tomorrow is the Super Bowl, just a few miles down the road in Indianapolis.
(I may be living in my cabin/cave, but I do at least know about that! It's been all the talk for the past month!)
Kristoffer and Dana are actually GOING to the game and the pregame reception and festivities, courtesy of one of Kristoffer's camera reps.
How exciting for them!
And exciting for us too, because Kim and I get to have the grandbabies for the whole entire day tomorrow!!!
It's sure to be an eventful/exhausting/fun day for ALL of us!
Wishing you all a great Super Bowl weekend too! (GO, ELI and the GIANTS!!!)
google image, newsfeed.time.com
