Blackberry Fun

Well, it all started Friday at work when my coworker (who has the same model phone as I) and I were talking about finding a St Patrick’s Day theme for our Blackberries.  We both had awesome Holiday themes for December and were ready for a new one, since are the kind of crazy person who likes to change out decorations every holiday season.  My coworker had transferred to a generic theme in January, while I had been holding on to my holiday one since it was snowflake-based and not Christmas-based (have you noticed we’ve gotten like 6feet of snow on the east coast?).  But since it’s getting just a little bit warmer, I have finally decided to remove the snowflake theme and find a good one for March.  Well, let me tell YOU!  St Patrick’s Day is not so popular that it warrants free themes for phones!  Christmas and Valentine’s Day are all over the internet, but nooooooo, not St Patrick’s Day.

I started the search immediately after I got home from the gym Friday afternoon … and finally got it working around 10pm!  I kid you not!  Over 5hrs.

The up-side is that I smile every time I see my phone theme, I have learned a bunch about downloading stuff to my phone (formats and all that), and I found about 5 more themes and half a dozen games as well!  A very frustrating 5hrs, but I came out with a good haul at the end of it.

Anne says, "Huh What?"

Is it a trap? Students push Admiral Ackbar for Ole Miss mascot  | ajc.com

Am I seeing this correctly? There is a student-led "rebellion" trying to instate Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars as the mascot for a college?  I mean, I get it:  Ole Miss Rebels... Admiral Ackbar led the Rebel Alliance... but really?!  (high squeaky voice)  Sigh.  Maybe I am just jealous that William and Mary didn't think of it first.  Haha.

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Rar! I am Beast!

I know you all haven’t gotten much updating of my adventures in the gym, but I feel it is necessary to post today because I hit a big milestone: I can dead-lift 205 lbs!  Woohoo! Now, in honesty, I lifted 205 a while ago, but fell over just a little bit.   :)   Fletcher said that it sort-of counted because I got it off the ground, but it was a bad pull.  But today I did three singles fairly easily!  Fletcher says that since I did three, if I exerted all my energy once, then I probably could pull 225lbs.   :0   Craziness!  Though, he laughs at me because I can pull 205, but I still cannot do a pull-up on my own (on the assist machine I only use like 25lbs of counter weight, but I totally fail on my own). Conclusion: If I were to fall down a hole, I wouldn't be able to pull myself out.  But if John collapses on the floor, I can carry him to the car.  Haha!

Best. Game. Ever!

Have you heard about what all the cool kids are playing?  It's only the best-est game ever.  It's RECEIPT UNDER THE DOOR!

I had a huge (HUGE!) grocery trip over the weekend and had the usual extra-long receipt ticket.  Somehow, it fell off the counter to the floor by the bathroom door.  Harvey already loves the What's Under the Door game and grew quite excited to see the second level, Receipt Under the Door.

He has gotten so into it that he has torn the original receipt into three pieces.  We have another in standby mode for when the first becomes totally decrepit.  Every morning with breakfast and in the evenings (during the "crazy time") we all pause to play a little Receipt Under the Door.  I hope to catch a vigorous session on video because Harvey Jones is so intent at getting the receipt that you will just laugh and laugh.

D is for...

D is for DELAYS! and DIATRIBES!  **ANGRY RANT WARNING**  **ANGRY RANT AHEAD**  In case people haven't heard, John and I applied for the New Home Buyer Credit ... since we bought a new house and all that.  :)  Needless to say, dealing with the IRS has made me a HUGE proponent of small government!  I mean, these people take forever to get anything accomplished!  And I am not whining because da gub'ment aint givin' me my moneys... I am irate because the government organization says that it can accomplish X in given Y time, but then it fails.  Miserably.  Let me give you the timeline:

• June 11, 2009 - Bought House
• July 10 - Amended 2008 Tax return to get New Home Buyer Credit

                   Tax forms said wait "8-12 weeks" to get the credit
                   .... waited ....

• Oct 22 - called IRS hotline for the 2nd time to check on status

                   Was told the wait was now "14-16weeks"
                   Told to call back after Nov 13 (which would be 16 weeks since our submittal)

• Nov 20 - The IRS wrote us a letter...
• Dec 1 - The IRS put that letter in the mail and we received it on Dec 3 (really? how does it take 10 days to put a piece of paper in an envelope and send it to the post office?)

                   The IRS requests documentation proving that we 1) bought the house and 2) it is our primary residence, but they only accept certain forms:  driver's license, car registration, bank statement, or paycheck.  Now, as the rude man on the hotline informed me, "Well, don't you want your W-2 to come to your new house?"  No, dipstick, I want it to go to my "old" address which remains our mailing address and is where we get all our important papers.  Same with the license and registration-- I paid $10 to get a new license and (drumroll, please) tada! the address that appears on your license is your mailing address, even though the online form delineates between "mailing" and "residence" addresses.  I paid money to get a card that looks exactly like my old one.  What a load of crap, DMV.  Then I called my employer, who is outsmarted by their own payroll computer system and can't print anything unless it's a paycheck.  No re-prints, no year-to-dates, nothing until the ONE time a month we get a paycheck.  All I have left is the bank statements, and I still have to wait until the end of the month for those to clear.  (sigh)  Why don't they ask for things that are TRULY based on your residence?  Like utility bills?  Or maybe your voter card?  No mailing address accepted on voter cards, and they can force people to register to vote... and don't you hear the government fussing all the time that no one is registered to vote?  Get two birds with one stone, IRS!
                   Needless to say, it was a long few weeks waiting for all my monthly statements to finalize and for us to gather the necessary documents to mail off.  (Did I mention that the man working the hotline was as spiteful and rude as I-can't-think-of-something-without-reverting-to-profanity? Yeeeeahhhhhh, he made the whole process really smooth and stress-free)

• Jan 1, 2010 - Mailed needed documents back to IRS within the 30day request 
• Jan 5 - IRS wrote us another letter....
• Jan 22 - We received that letter (Did you notice their mail system is getting slower?).  

                   Letter states that we have been rejected due to us not mailing the necessary documents, please mail back this form if you agree with this rejection.

• Jan 25 - Called IRS to question why we were rejected when we HAD mailed them the forms and to definitively state that we did NOT agree with the rejection.

                   Was informed by a much nicer hotline lady that ...(are you sitting down? you need to be sitting down for this)... that the IRS takes 45-60days to process incoming mail!  Did I hear that correctly? That means that my mail from Jan1 won't even be seen until after Valentine's Day?! Maybe not even until March1?!  This does not mean that it will be read and we will get a response, just that someone recognizes that we mailed something.  Sheesh!  I am glad to report that by this point, I was just "done."  No longer angry or upset, just tired of fighting and D.O.N.E.  So, I ask the lady what I can do.  She says to fax a letter stating why we reject their rejection... and for good measure I re-submitted the 15pages of documents just to prove my point.

• Feb 8 - IRS wrote letter: "Thank you for your correspondence, which was received 01/04/2010.  We will review your response and you should receive a reply from us in the next 30days.  If we are unable to complete our review of the information you sent within that time we will contact you again providing a date when to expect a response."

                   They wrote us a letter telling us to expect a letter within 30days... and if we don't get a letter, they will send a letter with the date of when they will mail a letter. As weird as that sounds, I do appreciate the communication.  I would be a stressful wreck if I had to wait this long with no word from them.

• Feb 16 - IRS wrote a letter: "We are reviewing your response dated 01/04/2010. You should receive a reply from us by 03/20/2010."  WOOHOO!

And that is where we are now... still waiting... We are at 32 weeks currently, on a process that was originally supposed to take 8-12 weeks.  And we still have 6 weeks to go.  (quiet sobbing to myself)  The real kicker came from a college friend who was visiting.  She and her husband bought a house the April before we did and they filed for the New Home Buyer Credit on their original 2008 taxes.  We were talking about it, and she very seriously tells me, "Oh, just be prepared to wait 12 weeks for the money."  Sigh.  I wish it only took 12 weeks.  I'm not sure if tons of people falsely amended their taxes just before we truthfully applied, and now the IRS is super-bogged down.... or if they just hate me.  :(

Finished #2! On a Freaking Roll!

Presenting the Koolhaas Headband!  Originally a hat in Interweave Knits a few years ago, I made the hat and love the design.  The other day, I was walking to the gym and nearly lost my ears to frostbite!  It wasn't that cold (my torso was comfortable in just a fleece over my t-shirt), but the wind was whipping so much that my ears almost fell off my head before I made it the 3minute to the gym!!  Brrrr  That got me thinking that I need a warm ear band to stuff in my pocket on chilly days heading to work out.  I didn't want to crack open a new skein of yarn for just a head band, so I went stash-diving (a lot like dumpster-diving, but much more pleasant!)

The finished band.  A little thin (it barely covers my ears), but you have to accept that when you are using remnant yarn.  :)

In the midst of my stash, I stumbled across the Sublime cashmere that I made into the original Koolhaas hat (if you don't remember that episode, look here, here, and here) back a while ago.  I was thinking both 1) how gorgeous the cashmere looked in the hat, and 2) what was I going to do with this snubbin' of yarn leftover?  So, I decided to make a shortened hat, a.k.a. an earband!  I knew that I would be TOTALLY making things up as I went along (how much ribbing for edging? how many pattern repeats? will I still have enough to bind off?  should I hold in some sock yarn for flair/ added thickness?  again, how much yarn do I really have?), but I was okay with that because it really is a quick little project.

This is the test-run.  I knew I would have to knit this thing twice... unless I was going to be touched with Divine Intervention, making my guesswork freakishly accurate.  :)

John is super-cute when I have to pull something apart.  I think it started as a joke:  he would exaggerate my (usual) frustration over having to rip out stitches in order to make me laugh and not be so angry at the knitting.  But I am not sure if he knows that a lot of times it is ok to rip out stitches.  He gets very distressed when I have to start over, even something simple like a long-tailed cast on that is natural to try several times before getting right!  When I ripped out the trial head band, he looked at me like I was crazy.   :)

In case you care, I ended up only doing 2 rows of 2x2 rib on the edges, I used a US6 instead of an 8, and I did 1.5 patterns repeats from the original hat pattern.  Told you I was short on yarn!   :) 

Football FO

It's official: my first Finished Object of 2010, completed in the Super Bowl.  John's NeverEnding Sock-Yarn Scarf is finished!!  Woot Woot!  I only started the thing a year ago (at least)... though, to be fair, I put it down for several... several months.  Picked it back up a month or so ago as a "knitting thoughtlessly" project, the kind where my hands can keep going with no need to consult a pattern.  I am happy that I have finally finished something; it's always a nice boost to actually complete something!  Especially me, who has severe "new project ADHD" and has difficulty focusing on a single project long enough to finish before starting on something new. 

 This is him with his hat, gloves, and new matching scarf!  (I apologize for quality, it was taken on my phone because I was too lazy to find my camera and take a real picture)

C is for...

 The Ref had to step in-- possibly for a "foul" play or Unnecessary Ruff-ruff-roughness.

C is for CUTE!!  Brace yourself for the adorable-overload!! Iiiiiiit'ssss PUPPY BOWL!!!  Animal Planet started a show to run on Super Bowl Sunday that would be just too cute to be ignored.  The premise is part silly, part humanitarian:  Animal shelter puppies playing in a football "arena" in order to raise awareness of adopting puppies from shelters.  It is a starting line-up of cute!  As Animal Planet describes:

About the Game ...
If your favorite team is on the bench instead of in the playoffs this year, it’s time to forget that post season slump. Some very special rookies are ready to take the field with a winning combination of tackles, fumbles and even a few tumbles, for their shot at the end zone —or a tug toy—in Animal Planet’s PUPPY BOWL VI. This annual canine battle is back as a new pack of pups mix it up on the grand gridiron of Animal Planet Stadium.

On Sunday, February 7 from 3-5PM e/p an all-star lineup of rambunctious, rescue pups competes in the ultimate showdown full of dogged defense, puppy penalties and fido first downs. Animal Planet has also booked a bevy of frolicking felines for an all-new edition of the Kitty Half-time Show. 

This year, they say there will be Bunny cheerleaders and a "rogue hamster" camera crew providing aerial shots from a blimp.  HAHAHAHA!!  What is better than the Puppy Bowl?  Mom and I stumbled across the Puppy Bowl a few years ago, and have been hooked ever since.  It's totally ridiculous and totally cute!  (and it repeats itself all afternoon in case you miss some of the action!)

If you want video clips from past years, go here; I can't embed anything due to copyright concerns.  Do a little browsing yourself and check out the cuteness if you can!  :)

Snow...

I am so ready to have the snow stop falling.  News channels are calling it "Snowmaggedon."  (sigh)  I'm tired of digging out my car every day.