I’ve been waiting for the Droid 2 to be released for 2 months. There were rumors all over the internet about when the release date was. Verizon finally announced on Aug. 10 that there would be a pre-sale on Aug. 11, and the phone would be available for purchase in stores on Aug. 12. I was one of those crazy people who got up just after midnight on Aug. 11 to get the phone during the pre-sale. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t sold out by the time I got a chance to buy it. Verizon ended up shipping my phone out (via FedEx) that same day, and they had free overnight shipping for internet orders, so it was to be delivered yesterday (Aug. 12).

I was pretty sure that they’d try to deliver it while I was at work. I was hopefully they might try when I was home on lunch, but I figured that with my luck, that wouldn’t be the case.

The following is a sequence of tweets that had me hopeful that I’d be home when they stopped (even if I had to take a late lunch).

At this point, I sent her an email with the information she requested. I hadn’t heard back from her by noon, so I headed home for lunch (with my fingers crossed ) Just as I turned on to the street in front of my apartment, I saw the FedEx truck at the stoplight up the street waiting to turn onto 13th Ave. Crap. That means I just missed him. The following is a sequence of tweets after I got into my apartment.

Just after I sent that last tweet, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but a little part of me hoped it might be FedEx. And to my surprise, it was. FedEx Robin called me to see if someone was going to be home for a while. She said she’d call dispatch and see if she could get the FedEx guy to come back to my place. She called back just a couple minutes later to let me know that the FedEx guy was coming back. Rock on.

Within 5 minutes of her calling me to let me know, the FedEx guy showed up. He said that I was lucky … if I had been 15 minutes later, he would have been out of the area. I was so happy that I didn’t have to go to the FedEx office that night to pick up my phone.

And to think … this all started with a random tweet where I said I was hoping they’d try to deliver my phone when I was home. To think that FedEx has employees with jobs where they search Twitter for tweets about the company is pretty awesome. I know that there are others who do it, but those seem to be bots or just tweets to get you to do something for the company. This was a case where they were trying to help me out. They were proactive with a customer and that is something that I wish more companies did.

I can honestly say that if I had to ship something, FedEx would be at the top of my list for shippers because of the experience that I had. I wish more companies would take notice.

So … thank you FedEx. Thank you FedEx Robin. Now I’m off to play with my shiny new Droid 2.

Cheesy Sauteed Corn [picture]

fresh corn (cut off the cob*)
green peppers
onions
butter or margarine
salt
pepper
parmesan cheese
feta cheese

Melt 1 or 2 Tbsp butter or margarine. Add corn, onions, and peppers (as much as you need for the number of people you’re feeding). Saute for 8-10 minutes (maybe a little longer if you have a lot of corn). Sprinkle on the cheeses and stir ‘em in. Eat and enjoy.

*An easy way to cut the corn off the cob (that I learned by watching the Food Channel): invert a small bowl inside a larger bowl; put the cob on top of the smaller bowl and cut the corn off. The bigger bowl catches the kernels.

I thought the best place to start was to mock up the new layout so I could figure out what I wanted to do before I started any coding. I’ve been doing that at work when starting new projects, and it really helps when it comes time to put fingers to keyboard and code my heart out. We had been using Mockingbird at work for wireframing, but they’re moving to a paid system in a little over a week. It’s not that we weren’t willing to pay for a service, we just weren’t happy with the plans that they came up with. My co-worker and I were both looking around for some alternatives. I ran across MockFlow. It looked like a really nice product. And their pricing wasn’t all that bad. And best of all, they have a desktop app that allows you to work offline if needed. I signed up for the free basic account to test it out. I also signed up for one at home so I could mock up the changes to this site. I really like how easy it is to create a mockup. They’ve got so many objects that you can drag onto your layout, and they’ve got a store where you can download components that other people have created. I’m definitely liking it (and I think we’re gonna start using it at work).

I’m not done with it yet, but here’s a sneak peek at what I’m thinking of doing for the layout for this place …

I’ve got a ways to go, but at least it’s a start. I hope to finish the wireframe up tomorrow so that I can start developing my own custom theme. I want to get it done ‘cuz I’ve got plans for my professional website. I’m gonna play with CodeIgniter on that one.

[Okay ... I know the title of this post is lame, but I'm still stuffed from the zeppoli I had for dessert at Olive Garden tonite. Bite me. ]

I’m trying to change that. I’ve deactivated my Facebook account, and I’m taking a break from Twitter for a while. I know I’ll eventually go back to Twitter, but as for Facebook, I’m not sure. I might reactivate my account and I might delete it completely … I just don’t know yet. Since I’m taking a break from social media, I’ll have more time on my hands, and I plan to use that time on my websites.

Tonite I put together a list of things that I want to do. They are (roughly in order that I want to accomplish them):

• Clean up the files I have on the server with my web host (get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Clean up my database (again, get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Decide what I want to do with the subdomains that I have set up (keep, redirect, or remove).
• Clean up my email accounts and forwarders (again, get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Redesign the layout for this website.
• Start this site over from scratch in WP3 and import the posts and comments I have to this point.
• Possibly redesign the layout for my professional website.
• Start my professional website over from scratch using CodeIgniter.
• Do further development on the weather script I wrote a few years back.
• Possibly write a WP plugin based on my weather script (once I complete it).
• Blog more about the stuff that I’ve been doing at work with CodeIgniter.

That list should keep me busy for a while. LOL Now I just need to get myself to turn off the tv so I don’t have any distractions.

Wish me luck.

The main reason I was waiting was because getting the phone would require me to get a data plan of at least $30/month. I wasn’t sure I could afford it since I was planning on buying a car, and I was close to being eligible for health insurance (so that would be taken out of my paycheck).

I bought my car toward the end of April and made my first car payment this month. We switched to a new insurance company at work with a cheaper premium. After working the numbers, it’s clear that I’ll easily be able to cover the data plan.

My intention was to order the Droid today. I usually get my phones online with Verizon because it ends up being cheaper than getting one in the store. I get a $50 discount for the New Every Two program, and there is a $100 online discount. The discounts brought the price of the Droid down to $149.99. That is until today. I was on the site looking at phones one last time before buying one, and the site was running ungodly slow. I couldn’t even load up the pages for the Droid or the Droid Incredible. Needless to say, I was getting pissed. I tried again about 10-15 minutes later and things were running like normal. So I pulled up the phones and looked at things. Then I took a look at the price for the Droid. It was down to $99.99. I was confused for a bit until Twitter and a Google search confirmed that Verizon dropped the price on the Droid today. I’m sure glad I didn’t order it earlier today or last nite.

Then @stevedrees told me the Droid 2 is rumored to come out next month. I had seen a couple articles earlier today about the Droid 2, but none mentioned a release date. The pictures in those articles showed a keyboard that caught my eye. It looks a lot nicer that the Droid’s keyboard (which I don’t really like). The articles didn’t really have a whole lot of additional info other than pretty much saying the Droid 2 is just the next generation Droid.

Now I’m torn. I want a new phone now, and I’ve decided on the Droid. But I’ve already waited a little over 2 months since I became eligible for an upgrade … what’s another month. But when the Droid 2 comes out, it’s gonna cost more than what the Droid dropped to today. But how much more? I don’t know what to do.

If you were in my situation, what would you do? Would you wait for the Droid 2, which has an unknown release date but is rumored to be released next month, or would you get the Droid right now?

I decided early this year that I was going to get a new car. I currently have a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am. I’ve had it for almost 9 years (I’d hit 9 in July). I can’t roll down the driver’s side window … the motor is pretty much dead (would cost $300 to fix). The wiper switch is screwed up (has been since last summer). If I hit a bump, it sets off the wipers. And if I do need to turn the wipers on, I have to fiddle with the damn switch to get them to turn back off (and it would be another $300 to fix).

Since I first decided I wanted a new car, I was sure I wanted a Chevy Impala. I think part of it had to do w/ NASCAR (yes, I’m a silly girl). My uncle has 2 Impalas (one personal and one work), and another aunt and uncle have one as well. Both said they loved theirs and that they were good cars. I was also considering a Dodge Stratus. Robin has one, and it’s a nice car (I’ve ridden in it a time or 2 or 3 or 50). The only problem with that choice is that there really aren’t any around the area (and I’ve been looking in Fargo/Moorhead, Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes, and Wahpeton). I recently started to consider the Honda Accord. You just can’t overlook the Honda’s reliability.

I got a subscription for Consumer Reports online for a month to research things. As I said, my search was focused on the Impala, Stratus, and Accord. It was when I looked at the reports that I started to no be sure sure about the Impala anymore and starting considering the Accord a little more. But then again … I had my heart set on an Impala. I was seeing them all over town.

I talked to my bank to see what kind of rate I could get. It turns out they’ve got a special going on right now of 4.49%. I thought that was pretty damn good and didn’t think I could find a better rate at any dealership. The only bad thing about that is that they only financed 80% of the car. The other 20% would have to be a down payment and my trade in. I was planning on doing some sort of down payment, but I didn’t want to take that much out of savings.

I’ve been slowing researching things since the beginning of the month. I finally got down to business (last nite and this morning) with figuring my limit and my down payment limit and searching for a dealership that had the car I wanted on their lot. I was figuring things based on financing through my bank, and I didn’t even take into account any trade in (since I wasn’t sure what I’d get for my car). I put together a spreadsheet to figure out what I could afford. After figuring all that out, I was shopping online. I had already found some cars that I was interested in … mostly Impalas but a couple Accords.

The more that I looked at a 2007 Accord at Muscatell Kia, the more I wanted to at least check it out. I decided at about 4:15pm this afternoon that I would go over and check it out. I was just going to take a peek at it. I didn’t really plan to do much else. I wasn’t even sure I was going to do a test drive today, but I was at least considering doing so. As soon as I drove on the lot and got out of my car by the Accord, a salesman made a beeline for me (not surprising). He went and got the key and I sat down and checked things out … the fit of the driver’s seat, the trunk, the backseat (which folds down).

He then suggested a test drive, so we took it out. I went out on I-94 and then a little around the area of the dealership. The only thing I noticed was that there was a slight vibration at highway speeds. He said they’d check it out. Hopefully it’s just that a tire is out of balance or something simple like that. Otherwise it drove nice. I barely touched the accelerator and the thing took off … not used to that. Just as responsive with the brakes. Of course I had to check out the radio. Good sound. I’m not an audio geek, but it sounded good to me. It doesn’t have an auxiliary jack for my iPod, but it does have a 6 disc changer. I’ll look into some sort of FM transmitter thingy so I can use my iPod, but I having the ability to load 6 CDs should be good enough. The only other thing it’s missing is an auto start, but he said they could put that in and include it in the financed price. Of course he mentioned the ‘top of the line’ one … one that reports back if the car starts or not. I’m not sure I really need that. I might just go with the standard one that doesn’t report back. Either way, adding an auto start will add less than $10 to the monthly payments.

Speaking of the monthly payments … My intention was to go through my bank, but I agreed to let the dealer check things out so I could see what they could offer. It turns out they were actually able to beat my bank. If I went through my bank, the financing would have been for 48 months since it was a 2007. Through the dealer, I could get 60 months. With my bank, it would have been 4.49%, but through the dealer (and since my credit is so good) it was 4.25%. That really surprised me. I didn’t think a dealer would go so low. And they’re gonna give me $1000 for my car. I thought I’d be lucky to get $500 for it, so I was very please to hear them say $1000. The car went from being at the top of my price range, almost out of my comfort zone to being right in the middle of my comfort zone.

I left the dealership without buying it, but I told them that I would be back on Monday during my lunch hour with my decision. I said I was 90% certain I would be buying it. In actuality, I think I made the decision before I left, but I wasn’t gonna buy it today. I need to make sure it’s the right choice. I did a little more looking around tonite and wasn’t able to find another Accord that I liked that was any cheaper. And after taking a peek inside an Impala while I was there, I no longer wanted one of those. It just didn’t look like it fit me. I think I fell in lust with the Accord just by looking at the listing online. Oops.

Tomorrow after the race I’ll clean all my crap out of my Grand Am and get all my papers together. Monday morning I’m going to call my insurance agent to see how much it would cost to insure the Accord. Then on lunch, I’ll go to the dealership (luckily it’s just down the street from work) and finalize everything. I wanna take it out on another test drive if they’ll let me, especially since I wasn’t really ready for the one I took (I didn’t have my notes or checklist from Consumer Reports). I’m hoping that by the end of the day, I’ll have a new car. I’m not sure how long it will take for them to address the vibration, but hopefully it won’t be too long. And I’m sure I can schedule the auto start installation at a later date. I set a goal of having a new car by the end of this month … it looks like I will actually meet that goal.

This is what it looks like. I hope it’s the right one for me.

I did find a contract job that I started in December 2008, but being that it was a contract job, I couldn’t get health insurance through it. The job lasted 4 months, and then I was unemployed again. I found another contract job that I started in May 2009. As with the other one, since it was a contract job, there was no insurance. This position was supposed to be a contract-to-hire position (6 month contract), but the company ended my contract early (due to financial reasons … they laid off 15 people the day after my contract ended).

Happily, I found a normal job (i.e. not a contract job) in November 2009. But due to company policy, I’m not eligible for health insurance until I’ve been working there for 6 months. I’ll hit that mark in May, so hopefully I’ll have insurance again shortly after that. Unless the insurance company makes me wait even longer since I’ve been without insurance for so damn long.

Other than the fact that I haven’t seen a doctor in I don’t know how long, I have chronic dry eye which means I need to take prescription eye drops … Restasis to be exact. These eye drops are NOT cheap.

I was first prescribed these eye drops back when I had health insurance through Medica. I only had to pay a $30 co-payment for the eye drops … Medica covered the rest. That was acceptable. The company I worked for that I had the Medica insurance through closed their doors, but the client we had been working for hired me on directly. But that meant a lapse of 2 months in my insurance. Once I had insurance again, it was through Blue Cross Blue Shield of ND. With them, I had to pay a $60 co-payment for the same damn eye drops. I guess Blue Cross needed to pay for their corporate retreats somehow. But still … at least it wasn’t full price.

When I got laid on in October 2008, it was up to me to foot the entire bill for the eye drops. I couldn’t afford that, so I stopped refilling the prescription. I couldn’t take it anymore this past summer, so I went back to the eye doctor in July 2009 to get the prescription again. I called around town, and the cheapest I could find it was at White Drug in CashWise.

One refill (of 30 vials) was $108.94. The vials are single use vials, meaning I’m supposed to open them, put them in my eyes, and throw the rest away. And I’m supposed to do this twice a day. That means 2 vials per day … 2 refills a month … $217.88 A MONTH. Oh HELL NO. My eye doctor told me that I could stretch a single vial out over 2 days. That means I can stretch one refill for 2 months rather than half a month. There is definitely enough of the eye drops in a vial to cover 4 applications. So the drug company who makes these eye drops (Allergan) puts enough of the eye drops in one vial to last for 2 days, but they want me to use it one time and then toss the rest away and end up having to spend more than $200 a month out of my own pocket since I don’t have insurance. Screw you.

And if that’s not bad enough, the cost of the refill has been going up every 4 months, like clockwork. I checked my records today …

• July 2009 — $108.94
• September 2009 — $108.94
• November 2009 — $119.84
• January 2010 — $119.84
• March 2010 — $124.55

Are you fucking kidding me? $125 for a 15 day supply of eye drops (if you follow the recommended dosage instructions). That’s $250 a month … $250 a month. No wonder I stretch one vial out for 4 doses rather than 1.

From what I understand of the new health care bill that Congress passed yesterday, I will be fined if I don’t have health insurance. So if the bill was already in effect, I would have been fined ever since October 2008. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me. You’re going to make me pay a fine because I don’t have enough money to pay for health insurance? I’m sorry, but that’s fucked up. It’s a good thing that doesn’t go into effect right away. Hopefully within 2 months I’ll have health insurance. I don’t know what I’ll end up paying for these eye drops once I do get insurance again, but any little bit helps, especially when they keep raising the prices every 4 months.

One thing that I hope the health care bill will do is prevent the drug companies from raising the cost of prescriptions so damn often. Pretty soon, one refill is going to cost $200 if the drug company has their way. This is a prescription that I need. I went without it for several month only to have my eyes get so dry that it felt like I stuck my face in the sand with my eyes open. The eye drops are working. I was able to wear my contacts this weekend for the first time in over a year. I have to keep using them. The cost of them shouldn’t prohibit me from getting them.

I guess only time will tell if the health care bill is actually a good thing or not (I have my doubts), but I really hope it is. I know that there are people in worse situations health/insurance wise than I am. Something needs to be done. I just hope this bill helps more than it hurts.

I’ve been upset after a race before. I’ve been pissed at some driver or another or just at the dumb luck that has befallen one (or more) of my drivers. But I’ve NEVER in my life been so pissed off and worked up as I was after today’s race. At one point I was even in tears because I was so upset.

The incident in question: lap 323 … Carl Edwards turns Brad Keselowski and sends Brad airborne after 3 attempts to do so on previous laps. Here are some pics of what Brad’s car looked like after the wreck: pic 1, pic 2, pic 3. It was a scary wreck and it took a while before they said if Brad was okay or not. The FOX broadcast showed replays of Carl gunning for Brad on earlier laps but missing. I guess he connected all right.

Why did Carl intentionally wreck Brad? Well, no one really knows except for Carl. But I’m pretty sure the incident on lap 40 had something to do with it. In that incident, Carl drifted down in front of Brad, Brad tapped Carl, and it sent Carl into Joey Logano and messing up both of their cars pretty bad while Brad kept going. Yes … I admit that Brad made contact with Carl, but it was a racing incident. Brad was pretty much on the yellow line. He held his line as Carl came down on him. Perhaps Brad could have let off the throttle and let Carl in, but you can’t stop a stock car going over 190 mph on a dime. Brad said he tried to let off the throttle, but he just wasn’t quick enough. Besides, Bobby Labonte was behind Brad. If Brad had let up, who’s to say that Labonte wouldn’t have run into him? Yes, it was early in the race, but Carl could have not tried to put his car where there was no room for it just as much as Brad could have let off the throttle and let Carl in. Neither were to blame or innocent.

NASCAR did park Carl for the rest of the race, but that didn’t really matter. There weren’t many laps left in the race and Carl was over 150 laps down. Carl didn’t deny that he wrecked Brad on purpose. Carl’s exact words:

Brad knows the deal between him and I. The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. I have a lot of respect for people’s safety. I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK.

Carl … the cars are going over 190mph at times around Atlanta. How can you not expect something bad is going to happen. And just because you didn’t “expect” him to go airborne, you still shouldn’t have hit him in the first damn place.

After the first incident, it almost sounded like (to me anyway) that Carl thought he was entitled or something … that Brad should have just rolled over and let him in because Brad is a rookie and Carl is a “seasoned veteran”. I don’t care who you are (even Dale Jr), no one is “entitled”. No one should have to move over and let another driver in a spot or let them pass without fighting for position as long as both cars are on the lead lap. Now, if you’re a lap car, yeah … get your ass out of the way. But Brad and Carl were on the same lap during the first incident. Why should Brad roll over for Carl?

Before anyone decides to flame me because I said that I am a Keselowski fan, I never said I wasn’t a Carl Edwards fan. No, he isn’t on my list of favorite drivers, but I didn’t hate him. I have actually cheered for him in a race or two. Not any more. His actions on the track today and his statements after the race have made me lose all respect for him. He had plenty of time to cool down after the first incident, and I believe the FOX pit reporter showed him a replay of what happened before they interviewed him. He consciously made the decision to go out and find Brad on the track and deliberately take him out (the replays showed that fact).

Now … if the tables had been turned … if Brad was the one who wrecked Carl intentionally, I’d be pissed at Brad. Same thing if Dale Jr or Martin Truex or any other driver did that to anyone else on the track (even Kyle Busch). When you’re going the speeds that they go at Atlanta, doing what Carl did was a very poor judgment call.

The other thing that has me pissed about all of this is the fact that there are a lot of people out there who say that Brad deserved what he got … that Brad had it coming … that Brad has taken out drivers in the past at other races. Some have even brought up Talladega last year when Carl flipped after Brad got into him and Brad when on to win (in that situation, Carl tried to block Brad and Brad held his line … Carl would have done the same if the situations had been reversed). I’ll admit that Brad is an aggressive driver. That’s one of the things I like about him. He had to be aggressive last year in the Nationwide series in order to be noticed with all the damn Cup drivers running full seasons (don’t even get me started on that front). But you can’t tell me that Brad is any more aggressive than Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin. The incidents that people have been mentioning have been “racing deals”. I can’t remember any incidents where Brad intentionally took out another driver (I could be wrong, but I’m sure if there have been any, they are few and far between).

We should find out Tuesday or Wednesday if NASCAR will penalize Carl any more than parking him for the rest of the race. Initially I was calling for NASCAR to park him. Now I’m backing off that. I do still think he should receive some sort of penalty. He should definitely lose some points and be fined some money … something harsh enough to prevent him (and any other driver) from doing something that stupid again. I have a feeling that NASCAR won’t do a damn thing though. If that’s the case, this will happen again, I guarantee it. It will keep happening until someone (driver, crew member, or fan in the stands) gets seriously hurt.

Since I’m back working again (just over 4 months at the new place) and coding every day, I have ideas race through my head for things I want to do with my own websites. Unfortunately, those ideas are racing while I’m at work, and by the time I get home, they’re gone. I need to start writing ‘em down I think. I’ve been using the CodeIgniter framework a lot. I keep trying to think of things I could do with it.

I’ve also dabbled in writing a Facebook app for a project at work. It’s a relatively simple one, as far as Facebook apps go … no interaction with the user or anything like that. I still had issues getting things set up initially, but that’s probably because I jumped in with both feet rather than reading documentation first. Oh well. I learn best by doing anyway. I’d love to come up with a Facebook app on my own, but I’m not sure what to do. The only thing that I can come up with is a weather widget. I started laying one out for my own websites already. I could create a script that can be plugged in to a regular website, a WordPress plugin, and a Facebook app. I just need to get my butt in gear. It’s hard to get motivated to work on my own websites after working on other people’s sites all day at work. But then again, I am usually sitting at the computer all nite anyway. I might as well do something useful rather than reading Twitter and Facebook and other mindless surfing.

We use WordPress quite a bit at work. I don’t deal with it since I’m the programming geek (php & MySQL), but I see what is being done by my co-workers. It makes me want to work on this place again. One thing I’ve never dabbled with is widgets. I usually just hard code the stuff I want in the sidebar since I’m just doing the site for myself. But I’ve seen what can be done with widgets and it makes me wanna give it a try.

There was a time where I was doing a lot of WP development. Yeah, it was just for myself, but I knew what was going on and what I could do. It’s been so long since I’ve done anything serious with WP. Even when I redesigned last, I didn’t delve into things I could have. I really wanna dive back in, but I feel so far behind. So many advances have been made to the core. I happened run across a site for a WordCamp in the cities. I’m seriously considering going. I think one of my co-workers wants to as well. It’s not until November, so we’ve got a while to make a decision. Anyone else considering going to it?

I’ve got a pretty sweet setup going on now (well, considering what I’ve had in the past anyway). I added memory to my laptop (from 1GB to 4GB), and I upgraded to Windows 7 (which I LOVE). I even got a new monitor that’s hooked up to my laptop (21.5″ widescreen). The dual monitor setup is perfect for development (I wish I had dual monitors at work). I still use WAMP server for local development. I even found out about a program (from my boss) that gives me a GUI for my local MySQL databases (HeidiSQL). I have no excuse not to work on my own websites (other than the fact that I’ve turned into a lazy ass).

So … be on the lookout (I’ve said that before, haven’t I ). I really will try to post more here. As with the ideas I have for my websites during the day, I have ideas for posts that never materialize (I think I need to carry a notebook with me to work … or just use Google Docs). I need to be better about that. I need to stop procrastinating and being lazy. I really hope I can follow through.

I was wondering why the refund estimate that TurboTax was showing me was higher than what I estimated when I went through things before (based on paystubs since I was still waiting for tax docs). At one point, TurboTax told me about the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. ‘Scuse me … WTF is that? I didn’t see anything on the forms when I did my estimate. So I did some searching on the IRS website and found this information. I was still confused after reading it. I did some searching online, but that didn’t really clear anything up either. But I trusted TurboTax, so I forged ahead. If TurboTax was telling me I was getting a refund that was $400 more than I expected, I wasn’t going to question it. TurboTax is supposed to be accurate, so they must be right.

I did go back and look at the form I did my estimate on, and it turns out it was on there … line 40 of the 1040A. I usually skim over the section on credits since I never have any. I don’t have any kids or own any property or anything like that. That’ll teach me to skim over the tax forms based on how previous years have been. But then again, it was just an estimate. And that’s why I use a site like TurboTax so I can find out about things I might miss or not know about.

I don’t remember ever hearing about the “Making Work Pay Credit”. Where the hell have I been? But in my defense, I was more concerned with finding a permanent job around the time that this credit was announced. For a good part of the year, my career was in limbo since I was working contract jobs. Now that I have a permanent job again, I can pay more attention to stuff like that.

So … what am I going to do with that extra refund money? I was already planning on getting a monitor and a Windows 7 upgrade. I’ve been thinking about getting more memory for my laptop too (since I’m getting the Win7 upgrade). I was gonna go with 2GB of memory to keep the costs down, but now that I’m getting that extra money back, I might ramp it up to 4GB. I’m not convinced that I need that much memory though. The rest of the refund … well, that will go towards a down payment on a car that I’m planning to shop for in the spring. The more I can put down at the beginning, the lower the payments will be (and I doubt I’ll get much money for trading in my current car).