Tuesday

I didn't have the stamina to make the end of the race last night.  I lost quite a bit of interest when the 24 blew his engine before the half-way mark, and then when I checked back in before heading to bed, they had the big fire going on with the service truck.  (A person shouldn't use jet fuel unnecessarily.)  Junior had a chance, but the Fords had the lead most of the night.

I had a small piece of good news at the office yesterday.  The IRS conceded on a late payment penalty for late payment of tax on a 2010 return filed in October.  It wasn't a lot of $$$'s, but it was an important client...LtPC personally!  The reviewer couldn't have been too experienced.  The reality is that I did a poor job on my extension calculation last April, and then didn't look at it again until October 15th.  At which time I had a "Holy Crap" moment, and had to write a substantial check.  As expected, the penalty notice came in December.

About the only argument that I had was that the preparer of a partnership return (ME!) didn't get the partnership return done in April and I was forced to rely on cash data that ultimately didn't properly reflect partnership profit due to some non-deductible uses of cash.  That was absolutely the truth, but there was no excuse for me not knowing my own profitability!  But my letter was well written and was accompanied by a check for the interest on the underpayment.  The reviewer punched out the abatement letter and LtPC can afford another bottle of vino (or two). 

And I received a positive indication that American Express will pay my claim on the broken window in the rental car in Spain last August.  I had kind of given up on their earlier promises, but I received one of their "robo" surveys in my Yahoo mail today asking how Amex was doing with my general credit needs, so I decided to call the claims adjuster again.   Long story short, she took some more information (a fax of the accident report) and thought that she could slide it through the system.  That might be worth a case of Tahoe vino!

My latest example of Sometimer's is a case of vanishing oranges.  I came home this evening anticipating a meal of leftover BBQ chicken (and a few grilled potato's) from the Sunday night experience...plus a couple of navel oranges that I picked up when I bought the steaks.  When I went to pull the oranges from the crisper...uh, no oranges!  Pretty sure that they were left at the check-out at Hy Vee.  I remember specifically sacking 4-5 when I went through the produce to the meat department.  I keep figuring out more things to forget!

Enjoyed coffee with 4 this morning after her shift.  She's now down to just three days at the local station.  Departure for NYC is  #03102012.

My pal Terry O is a Grandpa again.  Congrats to all the H's and O's!

And my pal Paige is officially recognized on the blog henceforth as MPP.

Make it a good Wednesday.  Tertiary RCL is due in for Act II.

BCOT

Sunday

Great weekend on Maplecrest.  Many thanks to all of the contributors to the concert tickets for Friday night in Des Moines.  As the Twitter universe is aware, we had a great time.  The moon and the stars were in good alignment for all aspects.  Travel, ingress and egress to the arena, seating and the performances all hit their marks.

Virtually all of the snow that came on Thursday night (and that was shown in that pic that I posted with the concert photos yesterday) is gone.  I bar-b-qued a steak tonight in 50+ temperatures.  The Iowa girls basketball tournament is this week in Des Moines, so I'm giving Winter one more week.  I mean, come Thursday, it will be March!  Which blessedly translates to only 20 or so more spin classes. 

The boys (and girl) didn't get to race today at Daytona.  I'm wondering how many of the folks who were there today will stick around for tomorrow?  If it were me, I would have given myself Monday as a return-travel day.  Do you call in sick for Tuesday?  If I had traveled from here to Florida for the event, I would be making every move to stay the additional day.  Would the airlines work with you?  (On the plus side, Danica didn't crash today.)

Tahoe Phil has issued his initial proclamation as Commish for the 2012 March Madness contest.  Two weeks to Selection Sunday.  Check your email.

My tertiary RCL did show on Thursday!  She definitely doesn't have the same attention to detail as the Real Deal, but if she can keep the dust under control, do the sheets and towels, and scrub here and there, I'll survive the next five weeks.  I do have a dependency on these services!

I sent the mini-digi Fuji camera back to the repair center.  For a second time.  The replacement unit had a shutter that wouldn't snap.  It was like you hold the "shoot" button down and nothing happens!  This has not been a good experience.  Fortunately, the cheapo Canon that I picked-up as a back-up for less than $100 has filled the gap.

Uh, no, I am not watching the Oscars.  Nor the NBA All-Star game.  In both areas, I have little knowledge or interest in the players (so to speak).  Since I haven't been to a theater movie in years, and won't watch the NBA, reruns of NCIS are suitable options.  (I think Star Trek with 4 in Lincoln may have been my most recently seen flick.  And I see where they are finally starting production of the next Star Trek film, with most of the cast returning.  I could be interested in seeing that one...next year when it is scheduled to be released.)

4 begins her last week with the local station tonight.  Come 0700 on Friday, her transition to NYC gets serious.  Sounds like a good reason for 1/2 price wine night at Bass Street, eh?  She came over here for a glass of wine last night and we were doing a little math on Tahoe.  #07282012 is getting down to the 150-day mark.  Which seems like quite a while, but with all the stuff on every one's schedule, 7/28 will get here in a hurry.  Lots of fun to be had between now and then.

OK.  Hope it's a good week for all.

BCOT

Saturday

Thursday

I am ready to pronounce Tiger Woods as just another player out there on the PGA tour.  The watershed moment for me was when he missed a relatively easy six-footer on the 18th green this afternoon, a miss that concluded his match as a loss against the very capable Nick Whatney.  It wasn't even a particularly "close" miss.  There was a time 2-3 years ago (and for the 10 years before that), when those six-foot testers were "money" for Tiger.

This pic from yesterday's round has him out in cactus country where the rest of us often play.  Note that he's swinging left-handed as he tries to advance the ball from a lie under a desert bush.  With all the very talented young players on the tour, Tiger's time has passed.

The replay of Danica's hard wreck on the last lap of today's first Gatorade Duel race has been all over the evening news.  From what I could see, she was cruising along on the low-line and some cars got together above her, came down and spun her out.  If it weren't for the "safer" walls that have "give" in them, she most likely would have had serious injuries.  I hope she has better luck on Sunday.

Keeping with the sports theme, the Augie boys got pasted, by 30(!!), on Tuesday night in Wheaton.  I thought I had misread the score initially.  My guess is that the game got ugly early and they decided to play the end of the bench for much of the second half to save the legs for the Friday tournament game.  They now play the conference champ in the semi's. If they don't win the two game tournament, I think they'll be done for the year.  Hard to believe for a season that had started with so much promise.

For the record, I was not on the published list of winners today from last weekend's writing contest.  No surprise.  While my effort had some redeeming qualities, it didn't do much with the prompt, and I'm sure more creative minds were able to incorporate "A Bridge will be written..." into something other than as a wrong title for a hit song.  In addition to content issues, I didn't do a word count, and I initially emailed it to the wrong email-box at The Writing Center.  Like Cub fans have been saying forever, wait'll next year!

Sad fact #2, the pinch-hitting, substitute RCL was a no-show yesterday.  My only hope is that maybe there was a mis-communication between RCL's and the schedule will actually start next week.   Hmmm.  Probably taking the Under on that one.

I have a DirecTV battle in my future.  The bill is automatically paid through my business American Express card.  I order no movies nor do I have any services that are variable on my contract.  The bill paid in February was $20 more than the January bill.  Periodically, I have had to call their Call Center to get billing adjustments to keep my total fee in an acceptable range.  I think the last of my "special deals" must have now expired and I again need to talk to someone in Mumbai about finding another promotional deal for me.

Still waiting on that 3-6 inches of snow that they were predicting.  It's okay by me if it stays away.

Finally, I hear word that the "strings" for cocktails and the DJ for dancing for #07282012 have been contracted.  Suite!

Maybe more later.

BCOT

Wednesday

Another Ash Wednesday on today's calendar.  I heard on the noon network radio broadcast that a minister at a church on the East coast had moved to the sidewalk and was administering ashes to motorists who would pull over in front of his church.  Is this the same as a drive-by Christian?  No such option at coffee this AM.

I've been struggling with thinking that this is Thursday all day today.  The PGA event's first round is today, rather than the normal Thursday tee-off, and I had in my mind that the Twin Gatorade 150 Duels at Daytona were going to be on this afternoon.  But they too are Thursday.  I'm confused.

The golf tournament held at a desert course near Tuscon is the only time of the year (other than The Ryder Cup or The President's Cup) where the golfer's play mano v. mano "match" play.  Usually the tournaments are "medal" play where the lowest total stokes over the four days wins.  In match play, each hole is a separate contest worth one point.  It really doesn't matter what your score is as long as you have one stroke less than your opponent on that hole.  If you are ahead by three points with only two holes to play, you win.  If you're tied through seventeen holes, but win the eighteenth, you win.  If you are tied after eighteen holes, you keep playing until somebody wins a hole.  And it's win or go home.

They start out on Wednesday with 64 guys, just like the NCAA tournament (after the play-in games).  They play 32 matches the first day, 16 the second, 8 the third, 6 on the fourth (quarters in the AM and semi's in the PM), and a single, 36-hole match on Sunday.  Saturday afternoon and Sunday can be a little boring for TV because there's just not that many guys playing.  But Wednesday can be good TV as there are always upsets in the seedings.

I didn't get on here yesterday to recognize the 11th anniversary of Mother's passing.  Hard to believe that it has been that long ago.  This pic was taken the day of my graduation from ND in 1971.  Do the math.  I couldn't quite get the focus as good as I wanted, but that is partly due to the original being of marginal quality.  (The skirt on the right belongs to the gal from New Orleans who faded into the sunset after graduation!)  Here's to Margaret of the Day.

The word from Harvest Path is that 1.02 is "normal" for a two-month old, according to the pediatrician.  From my perspective, 1.02 is obviously above normal.  My guess is that he will get his sleep straightened out pretty soon and Mom will be able to get back on schedule as well.  It just takes a little time, Kiddo.

She put it out there on Twitter so I guess that it is fair game here: 4 has made the commitment to move to The Big Apple to seek the next phase of here career.  The preliminary plan is to depart in early March and camp at 3 and Herky's place until the clouds part and the path clears.  I think this officially qualifies as Taking the Risk.  At 25, single, and possessing some good skills, why wouldn't you?  Maybe we'll see the return of The Horani's blog to document the experience.

I think that I have the substitute RCL today.  The real RCL is back in Russia for five weeks, so I'm dealing with the second team for a while.  Actually, the pinch-hitter is not the regular substitute, so the verdict is still out.  If she doesn't show, I don't even have a phone number.  And, no offense 2, but with The W having been around for three days, the crib needs service!

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Monday

I had hoped to get a post up earlier today, but couldn't quite make it work.  In theory, with the markets closed today, Criterium should also be off-line.  But the accounting firm is going full-bore, so no rest for those on both sides of the fence!  Moderately slow day though with the banks closed.

The extended weekend with The Winniferous confirmed my hermit-tude.  I have a full time job just trying to keep myself between the ditches these days.

I did take advantage of a Gap President's Day sale and ordered some khaki's to freshen my non-jeans casual look.  After unsuccessfully trying to apply the 25% holiday discount to the pants that I wanted, I elected to call and see if I could convince a sales representative that the offer was a little deceptive.  Mission accomplished.  (It's a RevKev success story!)  Although my pants were marked down, they weren't under the "Sales" category so the automated check-out rejected today's code.  The rep agreed with my point, and over-rode the system, saving me $25 or so.  It was the right thing to do. 

Baseball is back in the news.  Pitchers and catchers were to report over the weekend, with position players coming in later this week.  Doesn't seem like that long ago the the Cards were winning the Series.

I'm actually a little more excited to have NASCAR back on the tube.  The race Saturday night was a real wreck-fest, with my fav the 24 car causing a late race melee that left him upside-down after a long skid on his side and a few barrel-rolls.  The new car specs have created a less-friendly environment for "bump-drafting".  If a guy pushes another guy's left rear through a corner, there will be an accident.

I made a brief visit to Century Heights Avenue yesterday to catch up with 4.  I'm never sure when she will be sleeping.  While there, I attempted to, and was successful at, firing up Margret after her three-month hibernation.  I didn't take her out of the garage, but the roar sounded good.  Maybe in another month or so.

Another on-going annoyance at the office:  renewals of technical and news publications.  I'm pretty sure that they do no cross-verification, constantly purchase new mailing lists, and continue to bombard subscribers with "Rush" offers with "Professional" discounts.  I think these folks went to the same School of Annoyance as the solicitors for Veterans of Foreign Wars and USO.  It's almost a mistake to subscribe or contribute.  A leak becomes a flood.

Hope everyone who enjoyed the day off had a good one. 

More later.

BCOT

Saturday

So this is a reprint of my submission for the writing contest.  Keep in mind that the off-the-wall promt was, "A Bridge will be written..."  It was a struggle to get started, and there was no time for revisions.  I wrote an outline of sorts, then went at it in long hand.  Then it was entry into the email system.  I had time to spell-check, and not a lot more.  That function was only 98% effective.  Sorry.  The time-stamp on Yahoo was 4:52 with a 5:00 PM deadline.  It was my best shot.
=======

The famous Diocese of Davenport annual crossword puzzle contest was initially held in 1985. Father Thomas Everson had come up with the idea as a fund-raiser for the retired Sisters of the Humility of Mary congregation who had made such great contributions over the years to the education of the Diocese's youth. The entry fee that first year was only $25 and prizes were to be awarded to three places in each of several age groups, including one for Over Age 75. 

Mother had turned 88 that Spring and was both an avid puzzler and a devout Catholic. She still lived on her own then and had yet to give up her driver's license (although that privilege would soon be a matter of history). I was living and working in Cedar Rapids at that time, so I was able to make frequent trips down to Iowa City to make sure that Mother was doing well and to help her with shopping or chores around her small house on Dumont Street just East of downtown. As fate would have it, I became a bit player in that initial crossword contest. 

The first thing that you need to know about Mother and her cross-wording is that she was a prolific cheat. I use that term with deep affection, but her methodology of solving puzzles was to use every outside source available, at any time, to solve a clue. I had become a "purist" at puzzle-solving over the years, preferring to "give up" rather than resort to research and outside investigation. Mother, on the other hand, had special crossword dictionaries, thesauruses and other "helper" books that she always used to assist with puzzle clues and solutions. If she had had a computer back then, she most certainly have had no hesitation to use search engines to solve her puzzles.

The "helper" books got their most use when puzzle themes ran toward music, theater and foreign words or phrases. Mother's formal education ended with her high school degree and her life was largely one of physical labor. Her daily experiences simply did not broaden her knowledge in the arts. 

So Father Everson had done one his most devout parishioners no favors when the puzzle for the contest was announced to be the daily New York Times puzzle appearing in the Friday, June 14th edition of the Des Moines Register. The Time's puzzles are progressively more challenging as the week goes on, making the Friday offering in at least the "difficult category. And the Times' puzzles always make liberal use of themes from the Fine Arts regularly on display and in production in New York City. 

There was also the small matter of contest rules which included; 1) no dictionaries, 2) no computers, and 3) no asking of others for help! The completed puzzle had to be mailed back to the Diocese office by 5PM on Friday evening and had to bear a postal cancellation stamp as matter of proof of the entry. The final statement in the rules sheet was the admonition; Honor the honor code." Mother was officially, and spiritually, on her own for this exercise. 

I had known in advance about this contest and had toyed with the idea of making an entry myself. However, I was scheduled for a session with my company's tax accountant in Iowa City that morning to review an IRS submission. I knew that I would have no time for a challenging crossword. I did take a quick peek at the puzzle while reading the Register over morning coffee at the Highlander Inn and I determined at a glance that Mother would find it hard to finish. 

The unstated theme of the puzzle was the movie, "The Graduate". Knowing that Mother rarely went to the movies, and did not own a record or tape player, she would most likely be completely lost without her "helper" books. People like Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Dustin Hoffman and Mrs. Robinson were simply not active players in her world. I would have taken a bet for any amount of money that she would not be able to identify "A Bridge Over Troubled Water" as the split solution between tow long "across" openings.

When I stopped by her house after lunch, you can imagine my surprise when I found her out front watering her patch of wild daisies. "I thought that you would still be at work on the puzzle", I said. "It looked pretty hard to me when I was reading the comics this morning".

"You know, Sonny", Mother said, "I was scared too when I first saw it, but I got started, and after a while, well, things just fell into place. I was done before As The World Turns started. I do those Hollywood clues a lot better after all these years. And I certainly didn't need to use any of those books of mine that you are always complaining about!" 

The great thing about being 88 years old and a little forgetful is that almost all questions have multiple answers, all also being equally correct. Who wants to argue with Grandma? Call it the Rights of Passage. Mother's puzzle was a gilded testimony to this concept. Paul Simon was actually Pete Haven. Dustin Hoffman had become Derwin Hallman, and Mrs. Robinson was Meg Calagton. Finally, one of my favorite tunes from the era was curiously titled' "A Bridge will be written..." 

I considered bringing up these obvious discrepancies to Mother, but thought better of it. In addition to being a violation of the rules of the contest, she seemed quite satisfied that she had correctly answered all of the clues. I had nothing to gain from suggesting that she might want to go over the puzzle "just one more time" to make sure that she was satisfied with her answers. Besides, I figured that the truth would be laid bare the next day when the solution was published in the Saturday paper. So I folded the puzzle, placed it in the envelope and licked the envelope shut. I stopped at the Post Office on my way home and mailed the entry, having also obtained that precious date-stamp for proof of timely mailing. 

Mother called me that next Thursday to let me know that she had won 2nd Place in her age group in the contest and Father Everson had sent along a personal note of congratulations, as well as a $10 coupon to the Knight of Columbus for their ice cream social on July 4th. After extending to her my own best wishes for her success, I asked if she had checked the solution to the puzzle in the Saturday paper. 

"Oh yes", she said. "But they sure misspelled a lot of the correct answers!"

=====================================

Not a bad exercise.  Always a challenge when you get under time pressure.

The W, 4  and I are safe and well on Maplecrest and Century Heights.  Hey to the fam on Harvest Path and in The Big Apple.

BCOT

Friday

I elected to change the Home Page pic to reflect a little less Winter.  Is that bad luck?  This is a pic from the top of the Col de Aspin, taken the day 4 and I rode the climb.

The local country radio station participated in a fund-raising event for St. Jude's Children's Hospital the last couple of days.  It reached the point where I had to keep changing the channel whenever I came back to it because of the constant solicitations, even in the middle of songs.  Recurrent sound-bites of grateful families and well-intended celebrities affirming their commitment to the cause.  I mean, when is enough enough?

I just received the prompt for the writing contest:  "A Bridge will be written..."  Say what?  Could be a long night.  Or a very short one.  Maybe The W will have some ideas.

More later.

BCOT

Thursday

I'm looking to have a final good night's sleep tonight in anticipation of The Winniferous visiting for the three-day weekend.  Another "person" in my house puts a ripple in the force here on Maplecrest.  But they tend to be good workout days...which is a big plus.

DirecTV has done some new software protocols that have altered the heretofore normal operation of my TV's.  Previously, I would just turn the TV set "off" at night and "on" in the morning.  There's now an automatic shut-down/sleep default to the receiver that requires both the TV set and the DirecTV receiver to be turned "on" in the morning.  Not sure why, but there's probably some "green" rationale out there.  Really just another example of Big Brother watching over you.  We are all Persons of Interest.

The local Writing Center has their annual writing contest this weekend.  They send out a "prompt" tomorrow afternoon at 1700 and you have 24 hours to complete a 2000 word entry.  I've signed up for fiction.  I mean, I am living a dream!  4 made some noise about entering the contest too.  We have theorized that in prior years, some of the contestants already have stories done, and they just tailor what they have already written to the topic provided.  Makes sense considering that one person actually "placed" last year with separate entries in both the fiction and non-fiction categories.

A stay-at-home-mom client with a small photography business was through the office today.  She uses an iPhone and an iPad for her on-the-move communications platforms.  She doesn't have her own studio and does most of her work on location.  She now has a device that she can plug into either of the Apple units and run client credit card payments straight to her PayPal account.  Slick.  For 2.5% of the transaction.  There's just no reason for a business, no matter how small, to not embrace technology.

The dentist this AM was relatively low-impact work with impressions for the cap on the implant...and routine cleaning.  (Is anything with someone actually manipulating a variety of pointy instruments at your teeth and gums routine/low-impact?)   The cap manufacturing is done off of the impression by an out-sourced lab...can you say China?..., and then I have to go back in a couple of weeks or so to get the cap "placed and fitted."   The dentist says that the caps "usually" fit.  If not, its return to "Go" and do another impression.  I'm really pretty much over this implant thing.

The W and I will get to enjoy the opening weekend of NASCAR together.  Things open with an All-Star race on Saturday night where there are no points up for grabs.  Just a trophy and some $$$'s.  Danica Patrick is running the second-tier series (Nationwide) full-time and will also run 10 Sprint Cup races.  She's locked-in to the starting field in the Daytona 500 a week from Sunday.  It is unlikely that she will win in either series this year, but she'll have good enough equipment in the Nationwide series to compete for the top ten each week.  I hope she does well.  NASCAR doesn't need it's own Anna Kournikova.

Finally, here's another shocker.  CBS has announced that it will be charging a $3.99 fee to people who want to watch any of the NCAA tournament on their smart phones or tablets.  Why wouldn't they?  Those kind of revenues are all profit.  Just like the hotel charging a fee to guests for Wi-Fi access.  Their marginal cost to add another user is a big nada. 

Selection Sunday is just three weeks away!  The Commish will need to dust off the rule book here shortly!

Hope everyone has a good TGIF.

BCOT

Wednesday

My RCL is out-sourcing her work for the next five weeks while she goes back to Russia to visit.  She says that her substitute, also Russian, is very good.  We'll see.  How difficult can it be to clean my place?

I bought my ticket earlier today for another visit to NYC...in May.  I had been keeping my eyes out for a seminar in the Big Apple that would fall into my technical needs at a good time.  With no other May travel scheduled, this program on the 17-18 in Manhattan on alternative investments came up a winner.  I'll go in to LGA on the evening of the 16th, have two days of sessions, and plenty of evening time (plus all of Saturday) for visiting.  Return on Sunday for a belated b'day party for 2!

Interesting dynamics on this ticket similar to the hassle we had on the Reno ticket last week.  When I checked fares yesterday, Delta had numerous options for the round trip from MLI for $285.  After confirming last night with 4 that she and Herky were definitely available for a visit that weekend, I jumped on the computer this AM to review my Delta options only to find that the $285 fare was only available for one LGA departure on Sunday...at oh-dark-hundred.  Funny how fares change, eh?

American Airlines had several options at the $285 price, so I booked the trip.

The NBA's latest phenom is a Chinese-American kid from California (and Harvard grad!) playing for the Knicks.  He won another game last night on a last-second trey.  You have to wonder if he's really that good, or if the other teams just still don't give him any respect.  He out-dueled Kobe last week.  The sports pages throughout the country are calling it "Linsanity".  Good for him.  I remain a non-fan of the NBA.

Augie is locked-in for the 4-team, end-of-season conference tourney.  They have two regular season league games yet to play, both on the road.  Win those two and at least one in the tourney, and I think they make the field in the D III tournament.  If their three seniors play like they can, another nice run to the Sweet Sixteen is possible.

USA Today had a story in the Business section talking about self-publishing books.  The technology has gone to the extent where these self-publisher's can adapt their books to Kindle's and the like.  And then they are able to market for small fees, that can add up.  Hmmm.  If I ever get over this life-long case of writer's block, I'll have to take a course at the community college to get the product of my imagination out into the cloud.  I'm already tired.

My Top Ten favorite desserts.  Not necessarily in order of importance.

1.  Warm apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.
2.  Almost anything strawberry...ice cream, short cake, etc.
3.  Cherry pie with vanilla ice cream.
4.  Oatmeal-raisin cookies.
5.  Peanut M&M's.
6.  Cherry cheese cake.
7.  Root beer float.
8.  Peach cobbler.
9.  Carrot cake...with nuts, cinnamon, etc.
10.  Home made ice cream on the farm.

Hope everyone can make it through the rest of the week.  I have The W beginning Friday afternoon.  I'll be training her for next year's Westminster Kennel Club show.

BCOT

Tuesday

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!

Monday

A little bit of Winter in the QCA today.  Not a lot of snow, but the inch or so has covered the sidewalks and makes the streets slick in spots.  Of course, a year ago we had a storm of 15 inches or so.  Not sure if all those folks still have their power restored.

So the SI swimsuit issue must be headed to the stands.  The cover girl made the on-line headlines this evening.  As I have stated here in recent years, I've lost interest in this charade.  It would be nice if the models were old enough to vote.  Still, I'm not cancelling our subscription at the office.

I sent out the first of my clients' 2011 tax returns today.  Most of our smaller returns have been voluntarily "e-filed" with the IRS (and the states) these last several years.  This year, the IRS is requiring basic returns prepared by a firm filing 10 or more returns to be e-filed.  Interesting.  I don't have a big problem with that protocol, but it is another example of Big Brother looking over us.

The tax software that I utilize these days is like a thousand times more powerful than what I had access to in C-town a few lifetimes ago.  At that time, we actually filled out input sheets for each item on a return, handed them in to a "computer girl", who in turn bundled the day's collection, and put them in an over-night package to Fast Tax, Inc. in Dallas.  A couple days later, we'd get the processed returns in preliminary form, which we could edit.  The "computer girl" had a data entry machine that could make these small changes, and then issue the "Print" order.  To Dallas.  We'd get the printed returns a couple more days later.  For assembly. 

I suppose that most businesses that are data-dependent have had similar leaps in processing capabilities in the last 30 years.  The computer just changes everything.  Daily.

The key to the Federal budget...eat the rich.  Why wouldn't you?  Buffet's secretary most surely could be the key term in a new drinking game.

Am I missing something, or is there a "red carpet" awards show every month that the networks hype to the max?  And mostly, the award winners must be from another planet, or I live in The Twilight Zone.  Which is probable.

Happy Tax Valentine's Day to all.

BCOT


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Saturday

Throwing up a few lines here before 2, 4 and I head over to Augie for their last home game of the season.  I'm still learning about the ins-and-outs of  the use of the regular keyboard and monitor when feeding off of the laptop.  And I don't have a work surface other than my coffee table at this point.  But it is a lot less-frustrating than the laptop keyboard that sends the cursor all over the place.

Augie has under-achieved this year.  The loss of their center at Christmas-time seemed to destroy the team's chemistry (or substitution rotations), and they have struggled to score points in close games.  At this point, they are just trying to maintain their 4th place position in the league to qualify for the 4-team conference tournament.  If they get there, and win a game, they should make the D-III field.  Bottom line?  They were probably over-rated going into the season.

Great time last night for wine at Bass Street in Moline.  They have half-priced bottles on Friday night and the Oakville Cabernet that we drank is near the top of my current favorite list (that is affordable).  In Hy Vee, you can get it for $35-40, and it was $45 at it's 50% price from the Bass Street wine list.  2 and 4 agree to it's drinkability.  My pal Ron joined us too, and it was an excellent two hours.  (FYI 3, Ron finally got the save-the-date card in today's mail.)

The mini-digi Fuji arrived yesterday by FedEx.  The work order stated "replacement".  They included a new battery and camera strap that I must have include in the return box.  Bad news is that the memory card that I didn't return was/is bad and I had to buy a replacement.  And I bought another small case.  So my situation has been rectified, I'm back in business with a min-digi (and I have a cheapo back-up).  I feel better.

Aunt Martha, I think that the folks "assembled" their Wausau home in the mid '70's.  We were still in the old place when I graduated from ND in 1971, but I think that they had moved to the new one by the time we went to Chicago in 1976.  Funny how that big of a transition for them gets lost in our memories in 35+ years.

RevKev,the car show was our version of Detroit or Chicago's.  All new stuff.  The dealers do such meager business in the Winter months that they use the car shows as a way to get people out of their houses to check out the cars.  4 and I spent about an hour going through the local show.  Not much to get excited about.  You can spend a lot of $$$'s on some of 'em.  Sticking with my current stable of 3!

I came across a local example of the dangers of trying to enter the debate on current political
issues in the country.  A friend of mine who retired from the financial business a couple of years ago has written a few Letters to the Editor in our local fish-wrap.  He always had an above-average grasp of the machinations in the business and wrote a decent monthly news-letter to his clients.  Anyway, he recently submitted a letter that was published trying to explain the differences in taxation of ordinary income and capital gain income.  The few Comments on the post were largely negative, and not particularly civil. 

It reminds me of a principle of conduct in sports:  Never get into a conversation with a loud-mouthed fan.  And don't even consider acknowledge the riding that might come from the opposing bench.  The folks on the other side have no interest in your position or thoughts.  Which pretty well describes the gulf between the aisle these days in Washington.

OK.  Maybe some more after the game.

BCOT

Thursday

Last night's 200th episode of NCIS wasn't much for the viewer except for an opportunity to try to identify all of the characters who passed through Gibbs' dream sequence.  It was a little like the Seinfeld ending two-parter where the four main characters were on trial for their apathy and the prosecution brought all those bit players from prior episodes to testify.

The one thing that did catch my interest, at least in retrospect, was the rapid montage of scenes from the 199 previous shows that they used as a special introduction to this show.  They always have a short montage at the start of each show as they introduce the stars with short clips from the past.  And they accelerate the pace at the end of the introductions.  This one was just longer and had many, many brief scenes or pictures from the old shows.  (The Big Bang Theory has a similar montage vehicle at the start of that show where they depict The Theory of Evolution in about 10 seconds!)

The thought I had this evening during spin class was, "What would be in the montage of  The Life of LtPC?"  The more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether a proper montage is just pictures of buildings, people and landscapes?  And who would be interested?  Tough questions.

Included in my montage would be scenes that capture at least theses things:

1.   St. Pat's grade school and church in Ottumwa.
2.  The old house on the farm. 
3.  The barn on the farm.
4.  Wapello County Courthouse.
5.  A shot of old downtown Ottumwa, including the bridges.
6.  Walsh High School.
7.  Vet's Auditorium in Des Moines.
8.  Evans Junior High Gymnasium in Ottumwa.
9.  The Eldon, Iowa fairgrounds.
10. The Golden Dome.
11.  The Loop in Chicago
12. Old Capital in IC.
13. Lake Macbride in Solon.
14. The train station in Arlington Heights.
15. The house on Scott Street in Davenport.

Obviously, I could go on, but who beside me would be interested?  And these are just a few of the places.  Add in the people and it gets pretty lengthy.  But you can control the time by speeding up the frames.  Hmmm.  I might do it elsewhere at another time.  I think that the long story can be told with just the visuals.  Filmmakers do it all the time.

Another thought while on the bike tonight: Top Ten best liquid refreshments in LtPC's history (not necessarily in order of grandeur):  And have I done this previously?  Whatever.

1.  Ice cold Coke after high school basketball games.  Chilled in the snow outside the locker room.
2.  Fresh-squeezed iced-lemonade at the county fair in Eldon.
3.  Blooy Mary's with Major Peters spicy mix.  Playboy Club Chicago.
4.  Rum-spiked lemonade-icey's at Wrigley.  We could carry in a cooler!!
5.  Ice water in Mason jars in the hay fields.
6.  Camus Select Cabernet..Jordan ain't bad either.
7.  Chilled grapefruit juice.   There once was fruit station at a Marriott in Orange County...
8.  Starbuck's Americano (as hot as they can make it).  It had to be on the list!
9.  Beefeater and tonic.  There was a time before I discovered wine...
10. Coor's Light on the deck at Gov's with @bcbison after a Summer ride.

Sorry if this was a repeat.  It's fun going through the archives of the frontal lobe.

Enjoy TGIF.  Looks like it could be the QC Car Show with 4 tomorrow afternoon, and maybe wine at Bass Street with 2 and 4 after 5.  They have a good wine list at Bass Street...and it should be 1/2 price bottle night.

BCOT

Wednesday

The new Home Page pic was taken just outside of the house on Harvest Path in Woodbury last weekend.  The early morning frost was so thick, you could almost measure it with a ruler.  Each branch of each tree was fully encapsulated.  Here's a pic of the small tree in the parking by the street.  Very cool.

This exercise also proved that the desktop tower has a workable entry-slot for the camera memory card.  Very slick.

I received email today that Fuji Film is sending back my mini-digi...supposedly repaired.  I gotta believe that they'll just send a new unit.  I mean, it has to be more efficient to confirm that the old unit was defective, and reach over for a new one off the shelf.  They don't "repair" tail light assemblies in cars anymore do they?  And those things are way more expensive than that camera.  Stay tuned.

The airfare algorithms have caught 1 and 1.1 with a bad case of the "gotchas" for #07282012.  While the Quad Cities contingent has secured round-trip fares to RNO in the $440 range (from MLI), 1 has encountered $600+ for the MSP to RNO flight...that is our connecting flight from MLI!!!  Truly the kind of pricing that creates the bad name for the airlines.  Hopefully, there will be a better resolution in the near future to this disconnection.

I had lunch today with my pal Terry O and we decided that the grocery stores' pricing of fruit followed some of the same principles as in the air fare business.  I mean, one day the price per pound for a type of apple might be $.99, and the next day, it could be $1.99.  I know that there is a shelf-life that applies here, but as a knowledgeable fruit buyer, I can attest that the pricing tends to be random.  No algorithm required.

My plan is to head down to Geneva tonight for dinner.  There's a monthly minimum that members are supposed to spend in the dining room, and Wednesday evenings are usually well-attended.  Maybe see my pal Cal as well.

I used to have a daughter named 4.  Is she still around here?

BCOT

Monday

At least the Monday-morning-quarterbacking on the Super Bowl has a half-life of just a few hours compared to the the ceaseless coverage in the two weeks prior to the game.  I'm thinking that the post-game interest in Madonna or Gisele has already fizzled and there'll need to be a serious wardrobe malfunction to re-capture the imagination of the the collective sports/entertainment/voyeur world.  Let's hear it for the return of Big Monday basketball!

As a cycling enthusiast, I was disappointed to read of the two-year ban handed down by the Court of Arbitration de Sport in Geneva to TdF champion Alberto Contador.  Irrespective of whether you're a fan of the guy or not (I"m not), this is a bad result for the sport.  He's stripped of his 2010 title, and loses all of his placings since then.  And there's a money-thing that has yet to have been decided.

From what I've read, there's not a debate that a banned substance was found in his blood in a test during the 2010 Tour.  Contador tried to argue that the ingestion had occurred randomly from tainted food.  From afar, that sounds like a weak argument.  With no convincing position to explain it, the Court essentially had no place to go except for the penalties.

On a slightly related matter, the US Department of Justice has decided to walk away from it's fraud case involving Lance Armstrong.  I think that their appetite for high-profile cases has waned with their poor results in the Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons investigations.  Note that Contador's situation was on the doping itself, while the LA case was on deceit to the USPS who was the team sponsor at the time in question.

(The US Anti-doping Agency says that it will continue to look at LA on the doping-side.  There are definitely some folks in cycling who want to hang Lance out to dry.  A couple of his former teammates have fallen on their swords about their own doping, and feel like LA has gotten away with it, and profited greatly.  And, unlike their facts, his money has allowed him to fight the DOJ system with the lawyers and PR people experienced in such dog-fights.  Which raises one of my long-standing opinions about law: court cases aren't about determining right and wrong; its about winning, Baby!)

Speaking of something's half-life, when will the media be satiated of the sexual escapades of Camelot?  That pillar of hard news in broadcast television, nbc, (I refuse to capitalize it!) has the now-68 year-old former intern to JFK on their prime-time news(?) program.  I mean really.  Let's pull something salacious from 50 freakin' years ago and call it news-worthy!  I actually kind of liked Brian Williams at one point several years ago.  The cool aid really got to him.

One of the nice little features to my new laptop is a standard memory-card reader.  This allows me to just pull the card from either of my cameras and directly download the pics.  Very handy.  (Now I see that my new desk-top tower has a similar slot!)  This is in contrast to a corded download process originally, and then a USB port thingamabobber converter that I had used up through Christmas.  Makes you wonder about the technological half-lives of thingamabobber manufacturers.

More later.

BCOT

Sunday... Post Super Bowl!

Here's my first effort to hook up the regular monitor and keyboard to my laptop.  I just kept plugging in cords until it looked like everything was somehow connected.  Instructions?  Not even out of the sealed plastic envelopes!  For the long term, I'm going to have to find a small table for the monitor and the seat for the laptop that I can move easily toward the couch.  I really like having a full-sized keyboard for the blog work.

The weekend on the road was successful, but its always good to get back to my own space.  The folks on Harvest Path have their hands full at this point.  Here's a couple more pics from the weekend that didn't make it to Twitter.  1.02 is getting big!  He's still not on a regular schedule, and 1 doesn't get very good sleep.  Hope that changes as he gets just a little older.

1.01 is a pistol.  She's definitely in the Terrible Two's.  There's not a lot of changing her mind once she has her own idea.  Bribing only works so far. 

We did a JV game at 1's high school on Friday night, the library on Saturday, and the coffee shop this morning on my way out of town.  About a half hour or so each.  Reminds me of the times when the girls were all under 10 and we'd go to church.  We'd stay as long as the mayhem was below a small roar.  Then it was off to the real important stuff like the Quick Shop for soda, and the hardware store for chips!

The conference in Des Moines on Thursday was an update on some new Department of Labor rules that come into play for retirement plans later this year.  Investment advisors, service providers and plan administrators have so many ways to get in trouble, they might as well just surrender their licenses to the authorities now.  Very discouraging.

How many bikini shots in the SB ads?

A second page story in tomorrow's sports page will be that the kid who blew the big lead last Sunday won the PGA event today down in Phoenix.  Of course, the kid who lost gave up a six stroke lead, which keeps the story going, I guess.

No travel for me this week.  My goal is to get back to normal both at home and at the office.  We'll see how that works!

BCOT