Nice Sunday

Annabel Lee is growing!  She's settled in quite nicely, I think, and has charmed Jack into ALMOST being her friend.

It's been a gorgeous weekend here, with a little rain in the middle of the night last night.  That storm brought very interesting thunder...it was a low, distant rumble that didn't stop.  Usually, thunder comes in "waves," but this was ongoing.  Strange.

We got a little bit of yard work done yesterday, but didn't get out on the bikes as hoped for, because the tire pump I brought from up north is having issues.

My car was recalled, and Dave took it in last week for the recall work, and they did an oil change and tire rotation for it, too.

Seems they also disconnected the a/c.  Yeah, it was warm enough here to need auto a/c for a couple of days. SO...Dave is taking my car BACK tomorrow to have them fix whatever it was they effed up.

That's not at all inconvenient... *rolling eyes*

The house two doors down from us has been renovated and is on the market.

They had an open house today, so we went to look.  It was definitely built at the same time as ours, with the exact same brick pattern on the faux fireplace.  Bigger rooms in general, and totally updated, they want $113K for it.

We were the only ones who showed up for today's open house.  It's horribly overpriced, compared to what we paid for this place. 

Next door, we have a new neighbor who has 2 dogs that now live in the back yard.  One of the dogs barks incessantly when she goes out at night. Which she does almost every night.  This has not been fun.  I haven't slept through the night for a full week now.

We have some dog bark deterrent devices coming from Amazon that should be here tomorrow.

We used one of those in the past for the dog on the OTHER side, and it seemed to help.  (that dog doesn't live there anymore)

It's activated by the sound of the bark, and it then makes a sound inaudible to humans that hurts the dog's ears.

It's easier to do that than to have to confront a new neighbor, and maybe have animosity between us.  She's not home, she doesn't KNOW he barks literally without ceasing....and hopefully, she won't know we've installed these devices.

My alarm goes off at 5:45 in the freakin a.m. every weekday.  I can't be kept awake until midnight every effing night by a barking dog right outside my bedroom.

Nothing much else is going on.

Finally cooking the last of the Christmas Eve ham into a big pot of soup today....it's Easter, so I guess it's appropriate.

We got a couple of quotes on what it would cost to put up about 50 feet of privacy fence.  Holy shit.  It's ABSURDLY expensive.  I had no idea.  Completely overpriced and out of range for us.

We'd LIKE to eventually be able to use our back yard, you know? It's one of the reasons we bought a freakin house!

A friend of Dave's son does concrete work, and he's going to pour a patio for us.  Eventually, we'd like to put a deck and a hot tub on the concrete pad.... and we'd like a little bit of fence to shield the area from that house next door with the 2 dogs...but jeez.

Gonna have to win a freakin lottery if we ever want to be able to use our back yard.

It's aggravating.  Can't have anything nice unless you have millions of dollars.

Yeah, I guess I am a little frustrated by what we learned from those quotes.  At least the concrete work will get done.  And the neighbor can watch us hang out on our new patio.... whatever!!

maybe friends?

 This past Thursday night, and it lasted for about 10 minutes.  Annabel started grooming herself, and she flopped over sideways and was actually UP AGAINST Jack for part of the time!

Friday afternoon.  I was off work Friday, and did some laundry.  TOO CUTE!  Didn't last very long,though.

You're Fired!!

We've been having the same H & R Block guy do our taxes since I moved down here.

I used them back home, because of all of my complicated stuff (investments my dad left me, I USED to have a business, which isn't a factor anymore, since I cannot get established here, plus the new complication of a rental property).

I asked Dave if we could continue, especially with the addition of a rental property to the complications, so he found us a local office that first time, and we've been going there ever since.

Our guy was just the guy we got that first time....but we've asked for him since then, thinking that we liked him.

He wasn't available this year...so we had someone else do our taxes yesterday....who discovered that our regular guy was completely mis-handling my rental property issues.

These guys are supposed to know everything there is to know about taxes, right?  That's why I pay them over $300 to do the work, and do it right.

Our guy was the first one to deal with my having a rental property, and apparently he just did it the same way every year as he did that first year, that only included 3 months of rent income.

I didn't know any better, and assumed he was a trained pro who knew what he was doing. Right?  Who wouldn't?

Anyway, apparently, there's a different form that's used for rental properties....a schedule E....that our original guy never used.

He just lumped my rent income into my regular income, and didn't allow for depreciation of the property value on a yearly basis, or the extra insurance I pay for on the place.

Hm.  Interesting.

SO, our new rep did this return correctly, and is going to amend the years that were done wrong, including that first year that only has 3 months on it....and I should be getting an additional refund.

Potentially, a fairly substantial additional refund, since my expenses to own the stupid condo are more than I bring in with rent.  The rent barely covers the mortgage payment, but I still have to pay the association dues, and the insurance, and the taxes, and the interest.

If nothing else, it will be like getting paid back for the taxes being done wrong for 3 years.

Since the taxes for 2012 have now been done properly, our refund this year will be bigger than expected, which is very, very good.

Another thing that's good?  H & R is doing the amendments on their dime, because it was their mistake.

Part of our tax refund this year is earmarked to pour a patio in the back yard.  We'll go ahead with that plan, just because it's been part of our plan since we bought the house.  Having usable outdoor space in the back will be very nice, so we're moving forward with that idea.

The rest of it will go into my stupid condo account...especially any extra refund that may come due to the amendments.

We've been trying to rebuild that since I moved down here and had to use my "condo emergency fund" money to pay Dave's hospital bills from the heart attack, and subsequent re-entries into the hospital for this and that.

It's high time I got that money back where it belongs, in case anything happens with that albatross around my neck.

Still no extra for a vacation....no trip to Chicago...no real pizza, no Greek food, no Portillo's, no Cubs games....no family and friends....gotta pay down that debt from Louie's ordeal....

But maybe we'll go to Dallas on a day trip so I can shop at a freakin' Trader Joe's!

In other news, Annabel Lee is settling in nicely.  She's too, too cute...so petite!

Jack is doing pretty well with her, too.  Way better than he was doing after a week with Louie, back when we adopted him!!

She goes to meet the vet this Wednesday evening, to get her next round of baby shots, and to establish care.

Nothing else to report.  Stayed home all this weekend, cooking, cleaning, laundry.  Whee.  Unfortunately, it went by just as fast as if I'd been busy the whole time.

I hate that.  I hate that Monday morning is also an hour closer than it should be. Daylight saving time is stupid.

Oh well. 

Off to see if the coconut lime custards are ready to come out of the oven!

Tiny intruder

She's 11 weeks old.  She's black with white markings. She's already spayed. She's utterly adorable. She's extremely petite.

Not sure of a name, yet.... she came from the Humane society, with the name Annabelle.  We might keep that...because I think it fits....but she might tell us her name is something different.

Jack is not happy.  Yet.  He stays his distance...because she gets pretty scared when he tries to check her out...but hopefully....they'll eventually be friends, like he and Lou were.

Welcome home, Annabelle...long, healthy, happy life to you!