TurboTax

I've used TurboTax online for a number of years now to process our returns.  I really like that they import your previous data, and off you go.  (Worth not having to look up all the kids Social Security Numbers...)

Anyway, I got our taxes submitted last week, piece of cake.  The federal return was accepted in under the normal 48 hours, and now seven days later, the state return is still not accepted.  Just sitting there in a pending status.  As far as I can tell, Utah is already processing returns, I'm guessing some sort of transmission problem on the Turbotax or Utah Tax Commission side.

Tonight I got online and waited for 90 minutes for a support rep to join their chat tool.  Here is how things went:

10_Jon C: John, I do not know why your UT return is still pending. Hopefully, now that the IRS are processing Federal returns, that your tax return status for the UT will be accepted.
John Payne: Why would the one be dependent on the other?
John Payne: Utah appears to have been processing returns for several weeks from what I can tell.
10_Jon C: Usually, that is how it works.
John Payne: So the answer is to wait several more days?
10_Jon C: I would definiitely do so
John Payne: Ok, I will be back here Monday if no change has happened...

Now, I am sure the guy spent no time looking into the problem.  I am guessing he had 6-10 different chat windows up, answering questions in some rapid fire manner as they came up.  I haven't ever seen the state depend on the federal.  I don't even know how they would be connected.  It's just silly.  Why am I posting about this?  Because the end of the chat message made me laugh:

10_Jon C: Now, can you say that I have done everything in my power to resolve your issue today?
John Payne: I'm not sure about that, but I am willing to wait a few more days...
10_Jon C: I understand. hope that you are pleased with the level of customer service that you experienced today. I will send you a survey in 24 hours and will be about the customer service that I provided you today, it will ask you just a couple of questions. Can I count on you to fill this out for me?
John Payne: absolutely
10_Jon C: I definitely appreciate it. Thank you for using TurboTax, and have a great weekend!

Now, what exactly does he think I am going to say in his survey?  I can't wait to get it.  It's not like he actually did anything to make my 90 minutes worth anything at all.  Just gave an answer to get rid of me.  Oh well.  Guess we will see what happens.

Alphabet bingo

Look on the face: "Another letter I don't have..."

Food. Good food. Really good food.

I've talked here about my cookbook from Carmine's before.  Sadly, I haven't tried nearly enough recipes from it yet.  I've had Steak Contadina, I've made their meatballs, the Eggplant Parmigiana, and have made the Marinara sauce several times.  All very good stuff.

Today, we had targeted spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, I had some free time, and made marinara sauce for it.  It's so much better than anything you get out of a bottle.  Late afternoon, I pulled the cookbook out and start leafing through it again.  Here are some things that I need to make one of these days, hopefully soon:

• Stuffed Eggplant Rollitini
• Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms
• Pasta E Fagioli Soup
• Rustic Lentil Soup
• Sausage and Pepper Heroes
• Italian Cheesesteak Heroes
• Meatball Heroes
• Linguine with Red Shrimp Sauce
• Salmon Puttanesca
• Shrimp Scampi
• Porterhouse Steak Contadina (time to make it again)
• Pork Chops with Sweet and Hot vinegar peppers
• Chicken Scarpariello

Makes my mouth water thinking about it.  Who's coming over for dinner?

Back to preschool

Preschool has restarted for the semester.  We are told the collage Adam made includes pictures of things he likes.  I see a cat, a shark, a shoe, a coat, a tree, cereal, what looks like cookies, but mostly a big chicken.  Has Adam even met any chickens?  And where are the nuggets on that thing, anyway?

Hoping for interruptions...

PDPs are "Performance and Development plans", also know as year end reviews.  I lead a wild life...

Updates

I get notifications of updates from apps all the time on my iPad. 

 

Back in the days, I used to keep all my apps up to date on my android phone.  When the notification came, I would read through the release notes, then update the thing.  For some reason, in the IOS community, you tend to get the description of "various bug fixes" quite often with app updates.  I don't understand why they don't just explain the things they fixed.  Maybe they do, and I am looking in the wrong place.

Anyway, I tend to ignore the updates if one of the following are true:

• It's an app I rarely use
• The description of the update ticked me off
• The description involves functionality of the app that I don't care about
• I am in the mood where I've decided that I'm not doing it, simply because something told me I should.  (This act of rebellion happens a bit...)

Last month, I was up over 30 apps that needed updates.  I thought I was doing pretty good, especially since I don't tend to collect apps willy nilly, and like to delete unused apps from time to time.  Then I got sick, and went to update some game or something that was actually releasing new functionality.  I accidentally clicked the "update all" button.  I figure I must have been delirious or something from being sick.

Is this weird?  Should I be taking delight in not patching the apps on my iPad?  I certainly try to keep the systems up to date at work.  Is it perverse to want to try to get the unpatched app number over 50, without just installing a bunch of junk on the iPad?  Do other people do this, or is it just me?

Restaurant Review

Las Glorias
Orem Utah

Saturday night, we went to a place up in Orem called Las Glorias.  It's a Mexican restaurant about 330 paces away from 5 guys.

When we got there, the place wasn't packed, but it wasn't empty, either.  The waitress tried seating us over near the back door, where they have two booths between the restrooms and the door, in a fairly narrow area.  It's freezing out here, I think we were near ten degrees when we went in, I didn't want to get frozen out every time someone new came in.  We got them to seat us at the other end of the place, which was much more open.

I'm not sure what was going on in the kitchen that night, but the service was very slow.  I'm not sure if this was just that night, or if they are always like that, I can't imagine they are always that slow, but we were there almost 15 minutes before they took our order, and 45 minutes before our food came out.  Several sets of people just up and left the place, they had been sitting so long.  (This restaurant is near movie theaters, which doesn't really mix well with slow service, I am sure.)

I ordered their combo plate that included a tamale, burrito, and enchilada.  I mostly ordered it because of the tamale.  I like a really good tamale, but they are really hard to find sometimes around here.  I made some once, but it took all day, and they were fantastic.  Should have made 100 more and froze the extras or something. 

Anyway, when our food managed to show, (we were not headed to the movies, just hiding from the kids, so waiting for the food was ok...) we had to ask for silverware.  I think the waitress was having a bad night, likey due to food not coming out of the kitchen.  My plate was covered in sauce.  It would have been a bad thing had my tamale not been dry.  (Dry as in no sauce, not dry as in dried out.)  I'm not sure if having the sauce filling the plate, and not in the tamale was an intended feature of the dish, it turned out ok.  I would have been disappointed if I got the tamale without the extra sauce.

The food tasted good.  It wasn't super expensive, but I'm not sure I would go back, solely based on the speed of the service we got.  (Really the lack there of.)  Guess it's time to keep exploring...

Another clean bill of health

I went for a follow up with my hand surgeon today.  He took another X-ray, and decided the wrist looks great now.  Looks like a single bone, with a big strip of metal and screws in it.  He was pretty happy with it.

He doesn't want to see me again.  Well, he said he did, because he kind of likes to follow surgeries this big, but he said he would be ok if I didn't come back at all, because it means things are good.  Maybe we'll pass on the street and say hello.

I've gotten enough motion and strength back, that he's happy to let me go without any 'formal' physical therapy.  It's not my first time around the block, after all.

Good news for the beginning of the year.  Still waiting on the news from the car I backed into on Saturday, but that's 2012 baggage...

2013 Goals

It's been a while since I posted here, but I can type again, so there really isn't any excuse for it.  It's also been a while since I've set goals for the year.  At this point, I haven't been doing much of anything, so I kind of need get motivated.  Here's what I will try to stay busy with this year:

• Start reading again.  I used to read.  At some point, I got burned out a bit.  I think it was too many biographies in a row that did me in.  This year, I would like to read at least twelve books.  Not sure the genre, likely mixed, likely will include Star Wars and Doctor Who.  I've read a couple of books in the past couple of months, I need to post them here.
• Speaking of which, I would like to start posting regularly here again.  That surgery on my wrist kind of did me in a bit, I thought I was doing ok for a bit in the Fall.  When I post here regularly, I am generally able to do better writing at work as well, and I have plenty of things I need to write at work this year.
• Plant a garden, keep the yard watered, and keep things weeded and trimmed.  Last I bagged the better part of the whole thing, with so many trips across country.  The entire yard needs some attention at thing point, and I likely can use some time outside, really, even when it's hot out there.  I also need to clean out all the gutters and above the carport.
• Finish six projects.  I have some in the build phase, some in the design phase, and a couple that are just ideas.  Might as well get some of them done.  Some of them will help with getting the right arm strong again...
• Clean up the shed and the carport.  Plenty to do there, I wouldn't say lots at this point, it's not like it's an episode of Hoarders, but it needs to get cleaned up one of these days.
• Lose five pounds.  I have lost about 20 pounds over the past three years or so, but I have this thyroid doctor.  He's a retired Army doctor.  He recently said "You are as normal as I can make you.  You should still lose some weight."  I've been pretty stable for 18 months or so, at about 214, and my next appointment is in October, I'd like to not have any kind of lecture from a retired Army doctor.  Maybe five pounds would do it.
• Continue 'Free Form Friday'.  We've been a bit slow at the rotation in the past few months, but the kids seem to like it.
• Rebuild savings, and continue to be aggressive paying down debt.  Between my hand surgery and some major car repairs in the past two months, we are a bit tapped.  I've been keeping track of how we are doing on our debt load (I include our mortgage here), we've done pretty good lately.  I want to rebuilt some savings, and increase the debt reduction be doable, depending on what surprises we've got coming this year.  You never know.  We will need a new roof in a few years, I want to pay it down in cash.   Student loan is gone in March, and on we go.

Seems like not tons of stuff, but it's certainly more stuff than I've done in the past three months or so...