Sunday

Looks like we could be in for a little more excitement than we need for the trip back to the QCA.  The Weather Channel has a freezing rain forecast for this afternoon. They actually have a reporter on live along 53rd street and I-74 in Davenport as I'm writing this entry.

They're calling this weather Winter Storm Luna.  When did they start naming winter storms (as they do hurricanes)?

I see where the singer Beyonce is picking up some heat for lip-syncing the National Anthem at the inauguration ceremonies last week.  As a press fav, the major outlets have been giving her a pass on the matter, but there's been some grumbling on the edges, mostly I think because people were lead to believe that it was a live performance. 

Personally, I could care less about her work being live or otherwise.  In Washington, rarely is anything said that's 100% real.  And the entertainment industry has little concern with anything but appearances.  If it looks good, then it must be good.

But it will be interesting to see how they prep the world for her Super Bowl halftime show.  Could it be the return of Milli-Vanilli?

The gas mileage in the Buick on this trip has been off-the-charts lousy.  I know that they modify the blend of gasolines for the Winter, and I seem to recall noting a similar result on trips up here last year.  But I'm guessing that I'll be topping-out at 17-18 miles per gallon for this trip.  Yuck!

For the record, score one for the Good Guys in LtPC vs. The IRS on Friday.  This was not a big battle, but when you have these things come up, you're never quite sure how it might play out.  In this case, there was a rookie agent, following his check-lists to the letter, and not that much meat on the bone of a 2010 individual return reporting a sole-proprietorship.  The taxpayer had very good records for documentation, and I was able to prepare schedules for the agent in advance of the appointment that greatly limited his own work.  The "no-change" result was the right outcome. 

We enjoyed some "Face-Time" chats with the girls in NYC this weekend.  More Star Trek becomes reality.  If it is this easy to do this real time stuff on the iPhone, do people still use Skype?  How do they make money?  And how much of this communication is kept on the big servers in some basement in Washington?  You are not below radar.

All for now.  If I get home in good order this evening, I'll try to give a report before hitting the hay on Maplecrest.

BCOT