Catherine

I love KC's advice. I was mainly thinking of using the phone (or kettle on the stove; mine is always there, too) for a colleague who calls to run stuff by me. Well, I do the same sometimes with her as we have different areas of specialty. She can get really long-winded, though, and just *has* to tell me the exact same story in the exact same words three times running. If it's a short story I let it run out but the longer ones... halfway through the 2nd iteration I excuse myself. She's a smart lady, a nice person, and is a good sounding board in a number of areas, but she also has poor social skills, not enough friends (as a result of the former), and has trouble knowing when to stop talking. She's the one I was thinking of.

Itzhak Perlman was playing a solo in front of an orchestra, when one of his strings broke. He swapped his fiddle for the concertmaster's, and kept going. Another string broke. So he kept going, making adjustments on the fly. When asked later on, he said, "Sometimes the point is to see how much music you can make with what you have left."

That's an *excellent* idea. You can be your own "save me" buddy if you have two lines and a cell phone. I could be desperate to ditch some leech, grab my cell and use it to call the house line.... oohh, NICE idea!! Thanks, MAS!

My husband just about went nuts the few years he lived in CA post-graduation. "Late night and early morning low clouds and fog" was the constant forecast. He says CA does NOT have weather; it has climate. (plus fires, earthquakes, and mudslides) lol

1. Sure; demand MORE money from people who already don't have it. That works. Not. 2. Taxed -- Shhh!!!!! Do NOT give them ideas!

Went to a CPE class last year some time, someone who specialized in complex back-tax issues, tax in bankruptcy issues, etc. Apparently a LOT of his business is repeats; folks who come in every 5-6 years with yet another mess on their hands. One of the folks in the group asked if he didn't get *incredibly* aggravated with these people who obviously do NOT follow advice and end up in hot water time after time. He replied that it did when he first started out. However, he changed his attitude, and now he *looks forward* to "the return of the son of tax problem part 17 the sequel" (my term, not his). The attitude change? Stop thinking of them as "problem clients" and instead see them as "walking annuities!" I am striving to make this change in my head, with sporadic success. lol.

Although once, long ago, with folks I had known for years before I started doing taxes, I scolded BOTH of them so hard they backed down and submitted a return as MFJ. Two years we did that (their case got filed late in year 1), until they were legally divorced. Don't do taxes for either of them any more (both eventually moved away) but both have stayed friendly with me. And both have (separately) thanked me for scolding them into behaving sensibly all those years ago. They got big refunds instead of owing; they both needed car repairs.... filing MFJ ensured both could get to their jobs (plus more)! Very special and rare case; your mileage WILL vary.

Jack must be on the same email list as my cousin Norma in NC; she sent this to me yesterday. My husband laughed out loud, too (as did both my girls).

In other news, it's been HUMID!!!! (dew points up to the mid-70's; blech) and either warm or downright hot. Torrential downpour on the way home yesterday noon-ish with visibility down very low even with the wipers on high. Going up a small hill a couple stones at the side of the road were throwing up 8" rooster tails! Radar shows more rain this way but I will be glad once the meandering front finally decides to go on past.

A friend of mine posted this... (I took out a couple of typed emoticons and replaced them with Eric's) Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day. The Summer is now officially over. From Pittsfield and the Berkshires, to Worcester, right across Boston and to the Cape and Islands, starting at midnight TONIGHT expect wind gusts up to 80 mph, ice and snow accumulations of 3 feet, a high tide that will flood the Lynnway, and your sweet little tootsie's better be covered up. LOL.

Which, in a way, will be more of a commentary on the culture than on anything she did. Sad, really. So many talented young people turn themselves into "meat" under a mistaken idea that it makes them important rather than pathetic.

I will have to ask her.

My older girl has the most wonderful way with words. She (at the grand old age of 23) is disgusted by the way people let their pre-teen and young teen girls dress. She has coined a new term for these girls: "prostitots" She also has a wonderful term for those super-short shorts the older teen girls wear, that have the pockets *longer* than the shorts themselves. "cargo panties" I love that girl.

My toddler is out on her own and my newborn is a junior in college. Blink three times and that five year old will be in high school!

Along with "just claim whatever is the maximum with no receipts -- that's $500, right?"

Moving: Smith Smith goes to see his supervisor in the front office. "Boss," he says, "we're doing some heavy house-cleaning at home tomorrow, and my wife needs me to help with the attic and the garage, moving and hauling stuff." "We're short-handed, Smith," the boss replies. "I can't give you the day off." "Thanks, boss," says Smith, "I knew I could count on you!"

I used to do that work and stopped years ago. The E&O insurance is filthy expensive (ten years ago it was over $5K/year); compliance paperwork requirements are onerous enough that you *must* have hired help to stay on top of it; you need a large "natural market" of sheep to fleece -- um, I mean clients to assist; and don't get aggravated by the multitudes of people who will simply not turn up for confirmed appointments (including not being at home when you show up to talk to them) -- I found it unworkable. At least as someone who (1) refused to do anything but what was right for the client even if it put not a nickel in my pocket, (2) without a large "natural market," (3) without funds to hire help (even though it was less onerous a decade-plus ago), and (4) far too busy to want to deal with multiple missed appointments for which one cannot charge. It also doesn't help that I am not a good salesman -- but then, I expected people to be grownups and able to make decisions, not to have to cajole and spoon-feed and pressure folks into taking action to protect themselves. It is true that every one of my clients back then was far better off for following my recommendations.

And yet, study after study shows that within two or three generations, the children, grand-children, and great-grand-children of the ultra-rich by and large ooze their way to the middle class. Dilution by generation, dilution of the work ethic and drive that their ancestor used to amass a fortune, a "spend spend spend!" mentality instead of a "save & invest!" mentality... the money ends up in the general economy, generating more tax receipts as it goes. For the oligarchs and oligarch-connected, even the estate tax doesn't work -- they have set up family foundations and trusts decades in advance. Can anyone say "Kennedy?" Rose Kennedy, who lived in MA all her life and was uber-rich, was found, upon her death, to actually be a legal resident of Florida. Not subject to Mass. estate tax. A cartoon in the New Yorker some years ago showed a couple of guys in suits in a high-rise office. One says to the other, "These new regulations are going to fundamentally alter the way we get around them." And that's about it for the oligarchs and their nepots.

What a beautiful garden!! And SaraEA I agree with you completely; deer are garden terrorists. It's also amazing the amount of damage chipmunks can do; they ate the roots of one of my roses out completely, from the *bottom* - I only discovered it (complete with teethmarks) when the rose died and I went to dig it up. There was nothing to dig; a skin of root only a 1/4" into the dirt - everything else was gone. My garden is mainly ornamental and this is the first year we've had really noticeable deer problems (last year just a tiny bit). Last year's problem was turkeys, so I put up a 4' fence around my veggie garden. Deer got in (it's only a hop for them) and ate most of my bean plants, squashed a heavy metal fence post like it was a toothpick, then got caught in the trellis and dragged the entire trellis and two of its three posts out into the front yard, where it finally got loose. Hasn't been back inside that garden but it (or another) did nibble some bean tendrils that got outside the fence a couple weeks later.

She's 20 now; older one is 23. Just a couple weeks ago all four of us went to dinner; server thought it was a dad and his three daughters. We had a good laugh over it. We also sound absolutely identical on the phone. Only my husband can tell our voices apart immediately -- and then only if he doesn't have background noise from wherever he is calling from. Drove me nuts when I was younger, as I was in my late 20's that one could tell just by looking at me that I was probably old enough to drive. Went out with some friends in my early 20's (only had one drink all night) and got carded (a) upon entry by the door guy, ( by the waitress, © by the bartender who didn't believe the waitress carded me, (d) by the manager walking by, and (e) by a cop who came in for some reason. By that time I had given up and just left my license out on the table. A couple other folks stopped to check as well; details are lost in the mists of time.

I have a *very* comfortable one-ear headset for the same reason. I have NEVER had good luck faxing in POA's; they seem never to actually make it IN to the system. So I call on one line and use the other to fax in the POA at the time. Yes, since they moved from paper faxes to e-faxed there have been additional delays. But 20+ minutes is still way better than two-plus WEEKS with no resolution. This has gone on, for me, for years and years. Sequestration has had absolutely no effect that I can see.

Two stories on me: 2007. Had taken my younger daughter (14 at the time) to a fiddle camp in CA and we were in the airport with others, waiting for the shuttle bus to go to camp. Lady driver for the shuttle company came in, saw my daughter and I standing together, and said, "Oh, cool -- twins!" Gwen is so wonderful that she wasn't even offended. That was when I decided the grey hair needed to go (for a time, anyway) and started coloring again. (I had a sunhat on; the driver couldn't see the grey.) And about two years ago, buying champagne for New Year's at a new store - got carded. Asked the clerk, "Do you mean it or are you just being nice?" and her response, "I just need to see ID." Saw my birth year (1958) and *scowled* at me! LOL.

Depends on what you want to do. When I am on the lecture circuit doing CPE presentations, it's easy and quick to run my powerpoint presentations from our netbook to the projector the group has (I have several types of cables, to be ready - some older projectors still use USB 1.0 and can't take the higher data rates of USB 2.0 or 3.0). They are good for browsing if you can stand using a trackpad (or have a USB or bluetooth mouse). Not very good for email; the keyboards usually have smaller keys and tighter spacings than a normal keyboard and that gets aggravating fast. There is usually not very much hard drive space, so be prepared to transfer files off frequently. They are highly unlikely to work well with large or complex programs like QuickBooks or ATX, in my opinion - even assuming you could stand the limitations of smaller keyboard and NO numeric keypad. All that said, they are great for travelling, for presentations, and other low-key usage.

One would think so, Taxed -- but CCH has yet to do much of anything substantive to their existing customers. So I don't advise holding your breath. I purchased Drake for 2013 months ago. That purchase is fully refundable to 12/31 -- and CCH/ATX has a *very* high hurdle to make to get me back as a paying customer. I signed up as a beta tester in part to give them that chance.

An *excellent* question. The answer will have to wait on what we do get for beta-testing and how much of a train wreck that it. If they can't even get editing client letters right, confidence will (rightfully) be really low. How far it might go in the other direction....??