Where's my refund?

Answered!

Our tax refund was electronically placed into our bank account where it belongs, even if it isn’t the correct amount.

Yep, you heard that right.

We filed when we received all necessary documents one needs to file, as we have done yearly since we had been working these forty plus years but these last eight were online due to Hubby being retired and it is for free online for us at our income level at IRS.gov.

Any-who, this year we found out that after several years without a refund, breaking even with not owing either, all of a sudden we were getting money back due to Healthcare.gov, nice.

And yes, they send a statement like all others do, and when I found a mistake I notified them and the IRS, but both insisted to file with the information that we had and so we did, foolishly. That was February fifth-ish I think (we only signed and dated the one mailed, oops!), by the middle of March the fourteenth, we received a corrected document stating a two hundred seventy-four dollar difference for that extra month of subsidy that I did not get and told them about, and they said to go online and find a certain form and fill that out and send that with their corrected form. Only problem was that the form was for people who OWED money, not people RECEIVING a REFUND!

Not going to go that route again with misinformation and so I sent the form to the IRS with a BIG notation on the envelope to the address that requested other info from us, earlier, "CORRECTION INFO ENCLOSED".

Over the weekend I checked on their site again to see where our refund was in processing, since it is way longer than they originally said, by the time it went in today it was two months, not the four to six weeks we were originally told.

And voila, it was being processed and sent and the date was today’s!

Hip, hip, hooray!

And sure enough it was for the wrong first amount I told them was a mistake, by Healthcare. Gov, stating that I had received twelve months of subsidies and I only had received eleven month’s worth, and Ta Da the correction form a couple of weeks ago stated that, and so……… once they check I am pretty sure it will change this tidy sum that we received today.

Yep, I am more than sure, so spending it is on hold until they figure it out; I did my part now they should do theirs, true?

So those monies will be on hold in our account by us, not by anyone else, since when they figure it out, they will want it back yesterday or charge us interest. I know this because it happened before!

Oh joy what a toy financial security can be, occasionally a broken one.

Huh?

Moving on…

Somehow my shoulders had been doing pretty darn good for a few months and then they started becoming an issue again.

Probably due to my lack of exercise, I know that is it…

Well, what do you do when you have no desire to use weights which only hurt more at the gym, and even at home I have 3, 5, 10 hand held dumbbells to use, but the best will be the pool!

Soon, even as soon as this weekend.

ROM, range of motion in warm water will do the trick, even for my spinal stenosis!

The docs finally agree all better than surgeries!

Today I was a bit more rambunctious in my house cleaning with removing the covers off of two of our three couches, one goes commando, but Gus doesn’t like it as much and it is a darker color, blue denim colored but soft like felt, and is fine without since Hubby took Gus in for a grooming.

Grooming did not go at all well, we were called to pick our little darling up a few minutes after he was dropped off and he was sent home with a bottle of pills, sedatives, not for us though ha, for him! (The pills were prescribed by his doctor)

He went berserk when Nina, the groomer, at our newest vet’s office, thankfully, put him in the sink and went to remove his collar, he bit into her bite glove and growled and snapped and would not allow them to muzzle him! Oh darn and for the type of dog he is that does not shed and needs regular grooming and haircuts this is scary for all concerned. His hair is nearly covering his eyes again and they become irritated when they are covered, his eyes that is… odd that he has been allowing me to bathe him, but not them… I suppose different people, lotsa lights, noises with trimmers around etc.

Nina did say she is not giving up on him, she does know his story as a rescue and I did warn her that he became aggressive with the first one who groomed him at the rescue we had been told after I called when he had bit me and asked more about his history of aggression. I told her everything and she still feels that with the sedation on Friday she would like to try again, wow, what a nice person.

Except for being clean he almost looks as bad as when animal control picked him up down in Collier County, since brushing him is an issue too.

If all goes according to plan he will be getting what is called a puppy cut on Friday, like when we got him, which is the best for him and lasts the longest!

Plus he is a real boy and gets dirty with his people daddy, Hubby helping him, he thinks.

And who knows if he might enjoy the pool like Skipper, Benji and Brandi his predecessors all did, and than short hair is best, truly!

On that note of a roller coaster day, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

The Ribs Are In!

Sometimes you gotta tell it as it is even if the words make one think of something else, hmm? Sorry about the slight mislead if you were thinking of pork or beef ones that is of ribs...ha!

The repeat pic from last night is to show what the heck I am talking about in the construction sense, and to be able to explain better. You see the ribs go all away across the entire eight foot expanse for the new "L", the additional rib you see might confuse you like it did me at first until Hubby explained it to me. The outer one facing you/me is actually just a temporary one attached to a PVC post that is not part of the new dock, but was part of the old one, got that? Hubby lay in the beginning boards to give the idea of where they will be going and nailed down, and yes, they are eight footers. The total width of the dock is twenty feet, and on the left side facing out it is still twenty-four feet in length out into the canal, but not totally over it, got that? Part of, several feet are actually over the seawall and yard as you can see in the last photo. This way the dock is quite secure.

                                    

Moving on…

I was thinking, and that can be dangerous, ha.

Nah, what I was thinking is how we all believe that certain access programs through Google or whatever you use are not as accurate as one would like.

Wiki, the free encyclopedia that I use here frequently has been given a bad rap due its accuracy.

And I have even been known to write my own disclaimer on where I receive my info stating that it might not be correct, but I too like Wiki and I am free, free as a bird! Sorry got carried away!

Sixty-Minutes did a lovely story this past Sunday on Wiki and its humble beginnings and that it is still not a billion dollar company since it is entirely a non-profit with it also being international and gaining so many different “Geeks”, the good, and very smart variety ones, of course, adding in the info daily, from wherever they can access it, and oops sure there have been mistakes and they are aware of them, and fix them when they see them or are informed about them, what-have-you. 

Personally, I have enjoyed reading online all that they offer on so many diverse topics it reminds me of my childhood looking up something in my own white and gold World Book Encyclopedias, and turning the page to something I had no idea about and reading that and the next thing that caught my fancy on the next page too and on and on I would go...

Oh joy, Wiki can have that affect of contagion of wanting to click on their additional info while learning more and more, and more that has more hot links within it, the time sure can fly with those goings on, true?

Come on, admit it that you too have submitted your curiosity to those additional links on Wiki.

The nice men who begun the seed of the idea of the online encyclopedia actually had tried something else first, but somehow and some way the now and forever Wiki was born, and I thank you, 

“The History of Wikipedia formally began with the launch of Wikipedia on Monday 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger; however, its technological and conceptual underpinnings predate this. The earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia was made by Rick Gates in 1993,^[2] but the concept of a free-as-in-freedom online encyclopedia (as distinct from mere open source or freemium)^[3] was proposed by Richard Stallman in December 2000.^[4]”

For more info goto; who else?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia

 On that note of not assuming all things are bad or good for that matter, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Another rough night...

Most people who are up half the night with digestive problems of either too much defecating or difficulty excreting their waste would be normal and take medication to deal with those issues and call it quits and fall back to sleep.

But here's the rub and I am so sorry for the picture that may have just bestowed in your brain, although my lack of decorum is subsidized by my honest enthusiasm to paint realistic pictures with as flowery words as I can muster, okay?

The whole bodily function of defecating is to remove waste that we do not need, from our system, correct? So why would one take a medication to stop or slow that process down, especially if that waste is most likely toxic or full full of toxins?

Let it go that song comes to mind at the oddest times, and so that is exactly what I did do last night about my, dare I say… nah, but you get the idea.

Why keep something that has more than likely toxic waste within its consistency, there’s that word again, “waste”.

Let’s look that up to get the true prospective: “The term is often subjective (because waste to one person is not necessarily waste to another) and sometimes objectively inaccurate (for example, to send scrap metals to a landfill is to inaccurately classify them as waste, because they are recyclable). Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.”

Thanks to Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste

So as the information does say it is all subject to personal interpretation, sort of like what is one person’s trash is another’s treasure, true? Nah.

I got up around four A.M. but tried hard to get back to sleep, oddly enough it was more like a sinus headache and my ears that have been behaving horrid these days with tinnitus, buzzing, swooshing and ringing and pressure as if flying in a plane, and then the dizziness, nausea, and vomiting… but I tough it out, nothing more than a couple of cotton balls with alcohol for my bi-lateral ears, a washcloth for my sinus and neck problem and okay one Pepcid for that tummy that just would not quiet…And just when I was able to settle back in bed, Hubby let out an ungodly sadly familiar sound of snoring! I got up at six for the day. With my bathroom arranged for any possibilities of my immediate necessities of fluid-ous outpourings, which called for my morning to NOT have coffee that I did not even really want but the idea of it was etched in my soul. I had to wait, same for morning medications, didn’t want to waste them, hmm there is that word again “waste”?

So I sat with my club soda and laptop and TV morning news shows, first local then national… and opened my three screens, plus one. And I was armed for my no not what to expect day to begun…

And so it did.

By ten-ish I was ready for a bit of oatmeal with honey liquefied by water. By lunch I had rye ends with chicken soup…by late afternoon my desires went rampant, and I know this is scary but Hubby and I both decided that we were ready, more than ready for our first take out of MEXICAN FOOD! Why we even had the menus in the car in the garage from our last months ago in house visit, BG, before Gus.

Hubby’s order was simple a burrito deluxe, two combination burritos, one chicken with beans and the other beef with beans. Topped with cheese dip lettuce tomato and sour cream.

And so I decided that I would order something vegetarian, and I did, but the ingredients included: a grilled tortilla sandwich with mushrooms, spinach, cheese, onions, tomatoes, chopped avocados and sliced jalapeño peppers, served with rice, it is called a Sincronizada. I had fat free Greek yogurt, to subdue the jalapeños,  at home and so I was happy!

And I wonder why I have stomach issues, hmm?

The best part is that we both ate only half of our dinners and so they were twofers with leftovers for tomorrow, good deals!

Plaza Mexico has a few other locations for you to check out, go here: http://www.plazamexicobarandgrill.com/

Moving on…

Hubby has made quite a bit of headway on his project as can be seen by the PICS below.

The floating raft under the part of the dock yet to be reconstructed was given to him, and previously used for a jet ski, but Hubby finds it to be beneficial for his scaffolding on all his water/dock/boat projects for these many years.

Unfortunately, the Muscovy ducks seem to find it a comfortable night roosting place and on many an occasion have left behind their waste, yep even them, ha…oh well.

On that note of who knows what allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night, and wish me one too, I need all the wishes I can get, and kindly count all your blessings, those please too, and share all those overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Happy Easter!

The history of Easter:

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-easter

Easter Bunny song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG5iEWE9cQw

Tonight we did have our ham steak with pineapples,cloves and brown sugar, just a smidgen as well as sweet potato, and California blend veggies: cauliflower, broccoli and carrots.

Unfortunately, my tummy lately, as you all know has been quite uncooperative so I did not finish. I needed my medications sooner rather than later.
But even with just a medium sized ham steak both Hubby and I have enough left overs for another small meal or for ham and EB eggs, probably tomorrow morning.

The pineapple too will see another day!
All the small canned fruit we get is in its natural juices, so sort of a twofer and healthier, but supposedly the cans themselves exude some type of toxicity, so I guess you just can't win these days, oh well.
Fresh fruit has its very special benefits but doesn't last for very long with that freshness.
I suppose we will have to buy more frozen fruit like we finally had to do with mushrooms, they would not last very long without going bad, frozen are convenient and work well with most all recipes, except for salads, oh well...

Where there is a will there is always a way!

On that note of much hope and happiness on another lovely day in paradise and holiday, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too! 

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Full moon tonight, a blood moon.

And since we missed last month's half price sale at our Bocca Lupo pizza restaurant, tonight was the night; after all it's been two months. That is enough lapse time for it not to be a habit that with my body size would be considered culpable.

We get the plain cheese thin crust type, two, and with a small salad, which appears to be large, this time we chose an antipasti.

Hubby's packing up the leftovers now, an entire pie plus three more of our first pie slices. The second pie gets sectionally frozen in twos, while the odd pieces end up in the frig for lunch.

I had two slices while he had three.

The salad helpings filled me up, two fold, make that three.
Hubby had two helpings of salad as well.

I stayed away from too much cold cuts and cheeses and had very little, I instead ate mostly veggies and one mighty fine Greek pepper.

 I am rather a pepper fanatic, having them on everything from salads to sandwiches, which has gotten the best of me over the years, stomach-wise that is.
You name it, jalapenos, habenaros, Greek and all and consequently my tummy does ask me why at times, often.

And as stupid as that might seem to people who have chronic stomach problems I read two things years ago: peppers raise your metabolism and stomach cancer is very rare in Mexico due to mostly to the use of spicy foods containing hot peppers. Odd how some things stick in your head, so theoretically/actually I have been doing the right thing.

Sure I had to take my daily doses of Pepcid before dinner and my generic Nexium 40 mg. after, but oddly enough when I have not eaten them, peppers, I still need them, the medication that is. 

To read more about the health effects of peppers: http://www.jalapenomadness.com/chili-pepper-health-benefits.html http://www.healthguideinfo.com/nutrition-information/p88314/

Any-who, I did try an experiment of going without peppers for weeks even months but my need for my medication had not changed these last several years with either with or without.

Moving on…

I know to strict Jews who do adhere to the no bread during Passover what I ate was horrid (I did have a little bit of Matzo with breakfast), but I am not at all strict in my teachings of my childhood and with a husband being Catholic we are very liberal with our dietary choices.

Tomorrow, in fact for our personal Easter menu that will include ham, oh horrors I hear my family saying… oh well, some but not any who have eaten it themselves.

Yes, with sweet potato and yet to be disclosed additional vegetables, could be broccoli with cauliflower and carrots, our frozen California blend, with very likely fruit cocktail at one end or another of the meal; just us and a ham-steak causing no leftovers.

Enough about us, how are you spending this holiday weekend?

On that note of much TMI, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Happy Pesach and Good Friday to all who celebrate!

It is an auspicious occasion in the spring when two holidays once again overlap Passover and Easter; how truly wonderful!

Biblically there is of course a connection for Jews and Christians for the reasoning of this.

“Before Pharaoh let the people go, they put the blood of a lamb upon the doorposts of their houses.  The Old Testament states: "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.  And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it".  The lamb was to be roasted with fire, with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, and the household was to eat the lamb.  The people were to eat the lamb with haste and to be ready to leave Egypt that night.  At midnight that evening, death passed through the land.  Every house that did not have the blood on the doorpost suffered the judgement of God.  Passover literally means to "pass over".  Death passed over the doorposts covered with blood. Every Passover the Jewish people eat a meal called the Passover Seder.  The purpose of this meal is to remember their freedom from slavery in Egypt .  The night before Jesus was crucified, He ate the Last Supper with His disciples.  This was actually a Passover Seder.  During the meal, Jesus instructed them to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him.  The bread symbolized His broken body, and the wine symbolized His blood.  This is the purpose of Communion in the Christian church.”

Thanks to: http://www.identitynetwork.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=54200&columnid=

Moving on…

Many sites have information for these holidays and why we celebrate them, but if you are a member of any organized religions that meet at brick and mortar buildings for their services/masses you know this, that is the why.

No one has to tell you anything, right?

Sadly, although I started my young life going to Sunday school by age five and even going for a couple years to Hebrew school until the age of twelve and was a member of the B’nai Brith girls’ organization as a teen: http://www.bnaibrith.org/

I have forgotten nearly as much as I did learn,

OMG!

So I am definitely happy that the Internet has accessibility for my refresher courses on Judaism.

You see, Hubby is Catholic, but does not practice, and I never once asked him to convert and he never asked me either, as I never would ask him to have a vasectomy, but I did ask him after my third miss-carriage, two were four and half month ones, if it would be acceptable to have my tubes tied since we had two healthy happy sons by then, ha! I had wanted a girl/daughter too.

He is entitled to make his own decisions, as I am too but sometimes input out of respect for each other is very important, plus back then a doctor would not perform a Tubiligation without permission signatures from both the husband and the wife, at age thirty-one.

Life’s choices are bewildering at times but it is so much easier when you have a life partner who accepts you for who you are, since that is who he /she fell in love with to begin with, true?

Moving on once again…

Today Number One Son came for a visit and to attain some items for his sailboat that are happily stored here. NO excuses needed we love his visits!

So we had a quasi Seder with a brisket that I slow cooked for nearly four and half hours on a temperature of 325, with an old fashioned recipe with potatoes, carrots and parsnips. The recipe also called for rutabagas, but Hubby drew the line there; he wasn’t at first thrilled with the parsnips either, but he mellowed to them after he tried them. All was placed in a roasting pan after I browned the two pound flat of brisket that had been trimmed of most fat and the vegetables and spices were added, a bed of onions and garlic cloves were placed beneath with the carrots as were the parsnips and potatoes that were placed surrounding the meat sprinkled, which had been sprinkled with allspice, paprika, beef bouillon and added in as well were two bay leaves strategically placed on top. Uh oh, I just remember I forgot the thyme, oops! Oh well it turned out delish anyway!

And we have quite a bit left over although Hubby and Number One had seconds, I think.

I also had Hubby pick up coconut macaroons which we all enjoyed before and after.

And of course Hubby is already on his second bag shared of Jelly Beans!

Sunday we will celebrate a sort of Easter which is how we do it these days.

Unfortunately, Number One is on his way, but to his girlfriend’s home for the night and then he will be back on-board his floating home.

He took the week off and is not due back until this coming Wednesday; I miss him already.

He told Hubby he came down due to me not being able to get on or off his sailboat, sorrowfully; what a love and I do feel very guilty about my malady when anyone I love goes out of their way to accommodate me. I know it’s silly, but I really do just the same.

Any-who, on that note of any reasoning to see and be with family at this time of year, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask all of you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

So we call this throwback Thursday; do we?

How far do we throw back to? 

These PICS are from 7/1/10, not that far but far enough methinks. 

Leaving via our boat, Seas the Day, she is a Sea Hunt, bought new in 2003 and is a center console that has a small head/porta pot facility below, her length is just twenty feet long going peacefully down our canal on the Elkam waterway for a sunset cruise, going towards our harbor, Charlotte, time elapse approximately five minutes! Pretty nice here too, I'm just saying. We are nearly eighty-five miles south of our son's new home in Apollo Beach and one hundred miles from Tampa.

Our channel out and into the harbor.

More of the Beach Complex facilities. There is a nice swimming beach, and pool too, as well as tennis courts and volleyball courts, basketball and bocce court too and snack bar, if I recall. Launches four there, as well as canoe rentals etc. And this is all just around the corner from where we live.

Beach Complex's fishing pier.

Our dear Skipper! (3-18-04-11-02-14)

                                                    

Oh the sunsets!

Skipper always knew when we were almost home.

Our canal and we are the second dock on the left in this pic. But we are actually four houses from the outlet to the main waterway to the harbor.

On these once again pictorials of our home, called Florida, allow me to be the very first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask all of you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!
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