Weasel Of Doom

I am reasonably sure that my tax refund cannot be greater than the amount of taxes I actually paid. So, ummm, if I paid $1,400, I should NOT be getting a refund of $4,000, am I right? (Did some looking around online, and apparently, tax credits can indeed result in a refund that’s more than what I paid in taxes. Still, I am going to triple-check everything, because I don’t want to make any mistakes.) Also, how the hell do I end up owing taxes to the state of Wisconsin while getting a sizable refund from the feds? Color me even more confused. Also, color me NOT filing my taxes until I figure this mess out… *sigh*

Probably the best indicator of my mental health state is how much paperwork is sitting around the house. When I am doing well, there is usually at most a week’s worth of stuff waiting to be filed. When I am not doing well, mail starts piling up. I just checked, and the last time I filed a bill was [drum roll, please] April 2009. Not a typo. It’s been a year and three months.

So tonight, I went through five big diaper boxes filled with bills, kids artwork, notes from school and daycare, and junk mail (courtesy of a particularly rough April and May). Kids artwork is now in the pretty IKEA boxes. I put two 5-gallon garbage cans of junk mail into the recycling bin. What’s left is two diaper boxes – one with bills etc which need to be sorted and filed, and one with kid mementos which need to be put in their memory boxes. Guess what I will be doing for the next couple nights :-)

Yesterday I had a late dinner with Shannon, and today I went to her house; great time was had on both occasions, but I did get home on the late side.

I did manage to finish sorting kids’ toys (at least the ones I was able to find – our basement is a scary place, filled with a multitude of mysterious boxes). For some reason, I have absolutely no emotional reaction to the “older” toys – it’s only the infant ones (mr. star, an octopus, the bug, the mirror, mr. banana who disappeared one day (I blame OldestOne) and is still missed) that make me tear up. Maybe because we have relatively few infant toys, and LOTS of other toys. Maybe because the rest weren’t Baby’s First Toys. Maybe because I really enjoyed my kids during the first year of their lives, before my shortcomings as a parent became evident to the kids. And probably because it’s the hormonal time of the month, too.

Public service announcement: it is not a good idea to sort things with sentimental value while having your period. Stick to brain-numbing things like sorting bills and ironing curtains instead.

I spent the evening sorting kids’ toys. There are lots of toys to go through, and looking at all the baby ones made me so sad, because it is highly unlikely that we will have another baby. And I know that I am barely staying sane with three, that we can’t afford another baby, that it is just not a good idea, and yet… I am typing this and crying.

1. Bill and neighbor Ken took the brush-loaded trailer loaded trailer to the recycling center.
2. I made “patriotic fruit salad” (strawberries and blueberries, with bananas thrown in at the last minute). When shopping for ingredients earlier, I tried to estimate how much I would need, and so bought 4 containers of strawberries and 6 of blueberries. To make fruit salad for 8 people. Apparently, my subconscious mind was planning to feed an army platoon, instead.
3. After we got back from the family gathering, Bill put together the shelving unit and boxes that go into it. I supervised (and put the cardboard boxes into the recycling bin).
4. Made homeless the spiders in the front hallway and the upstairs bathroom.
5. Cleaned the blinds in the upstairs bathroom, and washed the window there. We have windows that tilt for easy washing; this time, I managed to get the lower window to fall out. Fortunately, I caught it right away (so no broken glass) and Bill managed to put it back in (so no need for a replacement window, even though the mechanism that lets the window tilt got a bit wrecked during its involuntary removal). Guess I should not be allowed to clean windows without adult supervision.

And now it’s off to bed to finish reading “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which is due back at the library tomorrow.

On the seventh day He rested, and since I was not feeling all that great, I decided to follow His example and spent as much time as possible in bed, curled up with a book.

However, no rest for the wicked, and some things did get done:

1. Made pot roast for dinner. Got a whole new level of hate going for our slow cooker (Rival Smart crock pot). Whose bright idea was it to couple power level and timer together? Apparently, Smart means a choice of 4 hours on High, 6 hours on High, 8 hours on Low, or 10 hours on Low. If you want, say, 4 hours on Low, you are SoL. To add insult to injury, the Low temperature is actually pretty high, and if the cover is on tight (which is not as easy to accomplish as you think), whatever it is you are cooking starts bubbling. I felt like I had a cauldron, not a crock pot. The only solution to this is to carefully position the cover so that it is open a sliver, thus letting the extra heat escape. I am amazed the pot roast turned out at all. So, any suggestions for a better slow cooker?
2. Just in case, figured out what I wanted to buy at IKEA, and how to get there from O’Hare (Google maps totally suck at giving good directions to it, we know that from bitter experience, so the figuring out took a while).
3. Drove to Chicago to pick up Bill.
4. Bill was feeling up to it, so we stopped at IKEA on the way back – made it there 15 minutes before the store closed. After some mad dashing around, got all the items we wanted to buy: a shelving unit and some boxes for the entrance, two packs of cups for the kids, hand rings to add to the collection of things which hang from the ceiling in the family room, and two sets of paper boxes to store kids’ artwork and other mementos (in “blue” and “flower”). Good thing we didn’t have a lot of time to spend there, because there is so much stuff in IKEA that we would like to have….
5. Drove back to the Falls.
6. Unpacked Bill’s suitcases and took them to the basement.
7. Decided to do some laundry (not my brightest idea).
8. While waiting for the laundry to get done, wrote another book review, for N.K. Jemisin’s “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.”.

And now laundry is all done, and it is time to go snuggle up to my husband and fall asleep :-)

If all goes well, tomorrow evening I will be picking Bill up in Chicago. To celebrate my last day of being on my own, I

1. Mowed the lawn. It’s been dry most of the week, so the grass hasn’t exactly achieved new and exciting heights. Was not so much mowing as walking back and forth and wondering if I already did that spot before. The brush-filled trailer is in the side parking spot now, courtesy of neighbor Ron.
2. Talked to my family for three hours.
3. Annoyed a lot of spiders by destroying their webs in the great room, kitchen, and laundry room.
4. Took down and washed the great room’s curtains. Strongly suspect that they will need to be ironed tomorrow.
5. Gave one last cleaning to the great room windows, and put back the screens.
6. Went to Pick’n'Save and stocked up on dry goods, plus picked up more Diet Coke. Got a new Pick’n'Save card too. Apparently, it comes with fuel perks. Realized that Pick’n'Save and Copps are owned by the same company. No longer have to feel bad about all the deals Erica finds at Copps, since I should be getting very similar ones at Pick’n'Save.
7. Made another attempt at washing the windows on the Jetta. No matter what I do, they seem filmy. As long as I was at it, sprayed more WD40 on the squeaking passenger door. It still squeaks, but in a slightly quieter tone of voice.
8. Cleaned the upstairs guest/kids bathroom. Got ambitious and put down some liner inside the drawers. Then got even more ambitious and cleaned the kids’ step stools, as long as I was in the area.
9. Cleaned the master bathroom (always the dirtiest and the dustiest). Made note to self that it is festooned with spider webs. Must remember to piss off more spiders tomorrow.

And this brings us to 2 am. Considering I need to get up at 7 am, I am feeling slightly doomed :P

Can’t believe it’s been two weeks since the boys left to Russia. Feels like I should have had gotten a lot more done by now :-(

Today

1. Planted the daylilies I picked up yesterday and today. Got some bonus decorative grass, too!
2. Loaded the brush into the trailer. Neighbor Ron is going to help me move it into the side parking spot tomorrow morning.
3. Got gas for the lawn mower.
4. Did some grocery shopping.
5. Paid a couple medical bills.
6. Wrote a book review for “The Poisoner’s Handbook.” Took me over an hour, and still turned out kinda lame.

Time to go to bed. Need to get a lot done tomorrow!

Not what you think (though I suspect the neighbors sometimes wonder about us :-)

Our friend Andrew dropped off his trailer this afternoon, so now we can get rid of all the brush that’s been sitting around. Yay. Also, my iPod cover arrived, so it’s been encased. And I got to go have dinner and a walk with Shannon, which is always a good thing (even if today I almost got into an accident trying to make a “blind” left turn; well, at least we learned that my breaks did indeed work when I slam on them). Other than that, an “off” day today – woke up groggy and out of it, and pretty much stayed that way.

Despite that, a few things did get done:

1. Picked up some free daylilies on Milwaukee’s north side.
2. Went to Target and got some supplies I needed (WD-40 for the squeaky car door, OxyClean spray, scrub sponges, Centrum vitamins, calcium supplements, disposable gloves, Finish dishwasher gel packs, body wash, bath sponge) and a couple things for the kids from the dollar isles (“How to Catch Your Dragon” coloring books and alphabet stickers). It’s amazing how things add up.

Need to go to bed early today, have to plant daylilies tomorrow morning before going to work!