The I.R.S.

I haven’t talked much about this on the blog because it just sucks so much, but some of you have heard my sad story about trying to clean up the mess created by someone (who will remain nameless) who used my social security number to collect rental income in my name to avoid a tax levy. I was extremely hurt by this abuse of my trust, and it was SO FRUSTRATING to try to work through the situation with the IRS. Every time I’d fill out their form saying that it was not my income, they’d send me another one back saying, “OK…so you agree with adding this under-reported income to your gross income.” It was obvious that nobody read what I wrote, even though I made numerous calls and followed their instructions to the T.

Well, my patience paid off. Today I received a “Closing Notice” from the IRS. It says that I’m all set – it’s over – I’m done. I actually called the IRS when I received the letter because I wanted to make sure that I was all set for BOTH tax years that this fraud was committed. The representative told me that yes, I really was all set, and for both years. Yay.
.

WE ARE THE BIGGEST LOSERS!!!

We had the wrap-up meeting for the fitness challenge at the Y tonight and our team won! Between the 5 team members we lost 47 pounds. I haven’t been able to work out much in the last 2 weeks because either my ankle, knee, or back has been killing me and Dr. Bob keeps telling me to take it easy, so my expectations weren’t very high. I got on the scale tonight and flicked the little thingie to the right. The scale stayed firmly in the down position. I started moving it to the left pound by pound and the scale didn’t move until I got down to the next set of numbers. Even with the minor setback of the last 2 weeks and the fact that I had to weigh in at night, I’ve lost 10 pounds! Since last year at this time I’ve lost about 20 pounds, but I’ve only been serious about trying to lose weight for 2 periods of about 2 months each. I’m hoping that my new habits will stick this time and that my injuries will heal so I can actually get some good workouts in! I’m nowhere near where I want to be but at least I’m headed in the right direction. I’ll try to find some photos to post shortly.
.

Sign of the Times

Yesterday I stopped at the Bank of America on Needham Street in Newton – not exactly a high-crime district. I was really surprised to see an ARMED GUARD standing out in front eating a banana. There have been more bank robberies lately so I guess it’s becoming a necessity, but it was still surprising. Armed guards are much more common in other countries – we saw them everywhere when we were in Africa. Sometimes they have machine guns. Scary.

Speaking of the bank, the new ATM machines are so cool! You don’t need an envelope to make a deposit, and when you feed your checks into the slot, it scans them and figures out the amount of the checks. Be careful because the amount was incorrect on one of mine, but it’s still pretty amazing. I always get the receipt with the checks printed right on it, just in case.
.

Day 4 – Daddy’s Turn

I took the day off from school vacation today and Ben stayed home with the kids. I went to work and got a lot done. I came home to a broken window but that’s a small price to pay.

Up next, a trip to the zoo with Aliya and Adlani. It should be fun if I can keep Adlani out of the animal pens.
.

Day 3 – Almost Enjoyable

We started Day #3 with an appointment with Dr. Bob (chiropractor). I had serious lumbar issues but he fixed me all up (until the next time). Aliya read to Adlani during my adjustment and Dr. Bob commented that they were VERY well behaved.

We stopped at my office and the kids got another “atta-boy” from one of my coworkers, who also said they were being very good. The incentive for their good behavior was the chance to choose a snack from the snack-shelves at my office, but hey – whatever works.

After that we went to Drumlin Farms where we renewed our annual membership for $29…what a bargain! The weather was gorgeous at that point – sunny and about 60 degrees, so we went on a 1/2 mile walk on one of the trails. Aliya is really afraid of the woods – too much exposure to Ben’s Crime-TV I think. We visited the rescued crow, hawks, turkey vulture, quail, and owls, and we arrived at feeding time so not only did we get to see them eating their yummy rats and mice, we got to chat with the caretakers. I didn’t realize birds live so long! The turkey vulture was found as an injured adult in 1977!

Adlani was obsessed with going on the tractor ride so we went straight to the tractor stop but it was the tractor man’s lunch hour, so we sat and had a snack. At some point I realized that I was staring at one of the other moms because I knew her somehow. It turned out that she was the midwife who “helped Norah come out”. It was really great to see her except that 1) she was a witness to the IUD incident (see the post below), and 2) I had to confess that I took Norah to day care today because I was too lazy to chase her around and fight with her.

While waiting for the tractor ride we visited the tack shop, the cows, horse, pigs, chickens, goats & sheep including lots of babies, mice, and skunk. They also had some really cool solar sculptures and we saw 2 deer in the deer pen and heard some wild turkeys. We finally got on the first ride after lunch and the first raindrop fell as we got off the tractor. We stopped at Dairy Joy for lunch and the first soft-serve of the season, and headed home.

I’m so glad I finally broke down and ordered a new point-and-shoot camera last night. Something has been wrong with mine for a long time and you can clearly see the problem in the photo below. The left side of the image is always fuzzy. Annoying!


.