I know how used coffee grounds must feel

In unrelated news:
The word of the day, as heard on audiobook, is solecistic.
The exercise has caught up with me, tackled me, and beat the crap out of me.
I realized I only signed up to do 200K words this year, not 250K, so I'm a little less behind.

crap crap crap crap crap crap crap crap Did I mention CRAP?

The mustang is dead. Or at least on life support. The motor will turn over but not start. On the up side, while it didn't die either at home or work (the two most convenient places), it did, at least, die at the library. So I can rant a little while watching for the tow truck and waiting for Mr. Smeddley to come pick me up.

I have no idea how much this is going to cost (well, the tow is covered by my insurance, but the repairs may hurt). Bugger.

On the up side, I do have an alternate car to drive (and they're not predicting snow, so...). Also on the up side, this means I don't have to wash it this weekend, like I was planning.

Somehow, those up sides aren't much of a comfort compared to a sick car. :/

Even the thought of having both Death Race and Babylon AD eye-candy thrillers to watch this weekend isn't cheering me up. Poor little mustang. He's too young to die!

And,... she sticks the landing! 10s all around!

What do you do when your car's just broken down and you've had a crap-tastic week? Why, you estimate* your taxes! Sounds like a rollicking good Friday night, doesn't it?

Now, I know a lot of people count on or really like big refunds. I don't (it just means they've had you money interest-free for the year!). On the other hand, I once owed over $3,000 and I don't like that, either. I like to try to get it as close as possible - ideal would be no money owed and no money received. That'll never happen, though, because there's no way for me to adjust my exemptions to get both the federal and state tax right because the state taxes me on the money I'm forced to put into the state retirement plan, and the federal government doesn't. But I can still get close.

I did pretty well last year, but it's looking like this year will take the cake. Currently (sans car tax), the federal government will send me a refund of $250, of which $241 will be sent from me to the state. Leaving me with a total refund of $9.

Beat that!


* Funny thing, I can't complete them yet because the piece of paper that tells me what the personal property tax on my car was is in my car, as it should be, but it's not like I can get my hands on it.