So, the house next door sold, and out moved a family with kids about our kids ages.
In moved renters, with a dog, staked outside 24/7, who barks and growls every time we go outside.
His tie-out extends all the way to the property line, which he snaps taut every time I go outside with our dogs or kids.
We ask the landlord for a fence, to keep our kids from doing something a kid would do like chase a ball downhill, and wind up getting bitten.
We've wanted a fence for a while as the back of the yard ends in a cliff down to a ravine.
So far, the feedback we've got from the property manager is that the landlord's OK with it, as long as we pay for the fence he picks out, and our rent goes up because the property would now been improved with a fence and to cover maintenance for it.
On the other hand, we've got our own renters in the house we left behind in the relocation wanting improvements for their own lease extension/renewal.
I'm not only seeing both sides of the fence, I'm seeing it simultaneously and let me tell you; there isn't any green grass on either side.
We paid our State(s) & Federal Taxes for 2007 a few weeks ago using online software.
Easy-peasy even with being landlords now and a mid-year multi-state move and all.
Ended up with a small refund from the Feds, and we selected the electronic direct deposit option.
One week later, boom, there it is.
Compared with last week, when we got the letter from the IRS telling us to expect an economic stiumulus check from them sometime this Summer, whenever they get around to printing and mailing all of the checks out.
Now, since they already have our direct deposit bank routing and account numbers on file from our 2007 refund, wouldn't it have saved the postage of the expectation letter, the printing of a physical check, the stuffing of envelopes, and the mailing of the actual check; if they had simply direct deposited the funds to our account?
We'd have had the funds sooner to go a-stimulating with, and it would have been less costly to taxpayers (i.e. US) to get the funds (maybe they could have given us more to go stimulate the economy with instead).
But organizations above a certain size or with enough tenure protection seem to get inversely less sophisticated with regard to financial cleverness, or of any kind actually.
It's the coupon-clipping, comparison shopping stay-at-home domestic caretakers that we should employ to direct matters of government bureaucracy. The efficiency gains would, I believe, be astounding.
The Sax Rohmer book was good, but dated from its era.
The formality of the language made it a bit like research rather than a fun poof, nonetheless, it was intriguing.
Part of the interest/novelty for me was using the browser Google Books tool to consume it.
An advantage of using a browser is that I could always drop myself a short burst email of what page I was on when finishing a section.
I'm not sure all e-book readers have that "where I last left off" bookmark feature.
I could also use a burst email to log for myself where important page numbers were so I could bounce back on whim via the page number selector.
All in all, not quite as cumbersome as I had envisioned and I'm glad I've now had the experience of the text and the Google Books feature.
I've heard/read some of the controversy about this Google feature.
Funny though that I never used/looked at the product itself, just listened to the pros/cons swirling around it, then moved on.
Today though, while reading a mystery novel that referenced another mystery novel, I gave it a whirl, on accident.
It all began with "Design For Murder".
Carolyn G. Hart can go on at (sometimes too great) length about other mystery writers and their creations in her "Death On Demand" series.
They are American Cozy Mysteries, but she has me hooked anyway.
Her main character for this vehicle is the owner of a mystery genre bookstore and herself a fanatic.
So, it can be expected and forgiven (just barely) how often she will expound for paragraphs on the works of other writers inside her own works.
In the case of the reference to "Fire-Tongue" by Sax Rohmer, I was more intrigued than irritated.
Rohmer began this effort without having the solution in mind, and at the end, could not solve his own mystery to complete his manuscript. It was at this point that Rohmer sought the help of a friend, Harry Houdini, who was able to provide the solution and conclusion for the mystery.
I had left myself a Post-It in the book to go back and research that text to see if I could find a copy to experience myself.
So I Google it, and what do you know? The first result is the Google Books listing!
I have at this moment in my other browser pane, the very text of the novel I was interested in.
I can understand the copyright argument about Google scanning texts.
However, for me to use for hard to find or out of print texts, this will be one of those resources that you don't know how you lived without it.
Now, back to "Fire-Tongue".
Success.
Got the Notary cornered along with two of the tellers at the bank branch to act as my witnesses for my will.
One peculiarity in the process.
To determine if I was of sound mind, the Notary asked me a few questions.
First was, "So, you just moved here last summer?"
Easy one, "Yup."
It was the follow-up to that which threw me.
"Have you found a church yet?"
Recovering, quickly, well it felt quick to me, I reply, "Sure, yeah, we've looked around and settled on (fill in name here because it's where we got my eldest daughter into affordable preschool.)
Banker/Notary: "Well, that's fine, but if you ever feel like joining a community of passionate believers, my church is up on (local road name here) and we'd love to have you join our fellowship."
Not the kind of witnessing I thought I'd get to legalize my will.
I guess church attendance qualifies as exhibiting a sound mind in these parts.
"Uh, yeah, sure, I'll talk to the wife about it." One of the joys of marriage is being able to use the spousal-conference as a reason to not do anything immediately and be non-committal.
Then while the tellers fill out all their various info to make the will official and I'm a captive audience; he goes on about all the benefits about moving all of our funds to his bank and all the other various account add-ons he can push on me.
So, first he wants to save my soul; then he wants all my cold hard cash.
I shall keep both to my own counsel.
But I'm all legal, official, and fixed up to die.
Gimme an F...
Gimme an I...
Gimme an S...
Gimme an H...
What's that spell?
There are obstacles to overcome, skills to acquire, and bosses to trounce.
Today I feel like I've advanced one more level.
I finished my will.
One of those things that makes you feel officially grown up after you get married and have kids.
Now I just have to get it notarized.
Getting the actual notary appears to have become a mini-bonus-round.
The notary is free at my bank and it's on the way to preschool, so I figure hey, cake.
Ahh, not so. It's tricky.
There's only one notary, and he rotates branch offices, partial days.
I call ahead, to inquire when he'll be available and am told all day.
Being suspicious I want to re-confirm.
Well, they say, except for when he takes lunch.
Aha!
And when might that be? I counter. The usual around 12 to 1?
This then, would be when the teller on the phone puts on the slow, drawling, southern-belle accent.
"Sugar, why would I have any idea when that man might want to take his lunch?"
Gee thanks, glad I called ahead to get specific information before I drive over there.
Which means, that this round will be one of those where the opponent you're supposed to catch is running away from you erratically, and is just a few steps faster and more agile than your character.
I need a 1-up and a speed boost. Maybe if I start breaking some of these randomly placed box-crates or something.
