5 things...

Ok, I'll add a few more as I sit here and think of them...
Following up on a post on my sister's blog (which she picked up from RevGal's blog)...

Name five things you used to hear your mother or father (or even a grandparent) say, especially things you might be surprised to hear coming out of your own mouth.

1) First one that popped into my head... "(insert name), Go to your Room!"
2) One that cracks my buddy up all the time, that my dad would say to me (often), "Quit playing pinchy grab-ass" (usually in reference to me just goofing off (and usually in school)).
3) Upon arriving home Mom used to say "home again, home again, jiggity - jig" - to this day I still don't know what that means!?
4) The dreaded... "Wait til your father get's home" - that was always a bad one.
5) And one I used to hear several times a day, usually yelled from the kitchen during a commercial on TV, "... STOP picking on your sister!" - Sorry sis... I never did listen to that one.

- but really... I wasn't that bad of a kid was I? :)
- Plus... My sister already picked the good ones! ;)

clafoutis and the IRS

First off a small post about clafoutis... I had never heard of this word before, and I had to ask the woman behind the counter how to pronounce it (not sure I heard her right either). I stopped at Wegman's supermarket last Saturday to get some dinner - I may have posted before about how Wegman's opened this new supermarket in our area. I wanted to check out two things while I was there, the prepared food section where you buy your meal there, and you can either eat it there (on a second floor separate area), or you can bring it home with you. They had quite a big selection, but I decided to go with a hoagie. I got a Danny Special (Genoa Salami, Capicola and spicy ham with provolone, black olives, sweet peppers, and vinegar on wheat bread - hungry now?) It was a great hoagie (huge too, I got a 14" large and could only eat half of it). The sweet peppers were a bit mild though, but other than that it was great! Then I thought while I was there I would pick up my lunchmeat for the week so I went to the deli section. On my way to the deli section I passed the specialty bakery, and they had these incredible desserts. They were small works of art (and a bit expensive too). I passed them buy. After getting my lunchmeat, I had to pass by the bakery once again... This time I caved in. I had to try one... So I got a Strawberry and Rhubarb Clafoutis. It was like a small 2.5" pie with a sort of creamy custard like filling (almost like cheesecake). With Rhubarb mixed in, with a cut strawberry on top. It was really good and at $4.50 it was worth it. I'll have to go around the bakery next time. :)
For a "dictionary" definition and pronunciation check here on Answer.com (though it doesn't do it justice).

IRS>
I've decided to post about my IRS troubles as well. I went online today to see if I could find information that might be helpful. It wasn't very good news. Most of what I found dealt with all the horror stories about IRS abuses, and some of the horrible things that people had to go through, not to mention some scary statistics on how often the IRS makes mistakes. I don't have much to report at this time, but I will post what I go through in the hopes that it may help someone else who is thrust into my predicament. At this stage I have confirmed that it was not a clerical error on the end of my employer, so It's one of two things now... Either my accountant made a mistake (I seriously doubt it) or the IRS did. Since the number the IRS supplied me does not match with any of the paperwork my employer and I have, it troubles me where they got this number. This is going to be the root of the problem I suspect. In reading through some of the web articles the "burden of proof" falls on ME to prove my innocence. It's such a glaring mistake that I HOPE I will be able to do this easily and quickly, but I am also preparing myself for this to carry on for the long term. From what I read these things are not solved easily. Ugh.
Just to recap... I got a letter the other day from the IRS claiming that I owed them an ungodly amount of money in the next 30 days. It appears as though they are claiming that I made DOUBLE my reported income for the year of 2004. My next step is to meet with my accountant this Monday, and hopefully will have more answers then.

One more thing... I think I'm going to go to a local photography meeting this coming Wednesday night. I enjoy taking (and looking at) photographs with my digital camera, and have been enjoying my watercolor classes so much that I'm going to try to expland this art thing to include photography. They have a monthly assignment to shoot a photo on the subject they give... this month it was "holes"... So I have been thinking about this and today took two photos that I like (not sure which one I'll pick though - leave a comment it you have a favorite).
See if you can guess what they are... It's a bit abstract...

and this one...




And the answer is...
My plastic colander from my kitchen. The second one is looking up at my kitchen flourescent light through the colander.

diabolical diebold

A few days ago, I posted about my mistrust of the deibold voting machines. While checking the digg website, I found this link about a UT county clerk who is fighting for his job, after questioning the recent delivery of diebold machines. Read about it here on the zdnet blog.

Pre-occupied

I'm a little pre-occupied these days... I came home the other night to a big bulky letter from the IRS... (dun-du-duunnn). Yep... I'm in trouble (sort of)... they claim I made DOUBLE my reported income for 2004, and that I owe over $20,000 dollars within 26 days! Yes, folks, thats twenty thousand plus! It's such an obvious mistake, that it troubles me that it could have even been made. Now I have to figure out how to prove that I didn't make all that money. (Isn't that like proving a negative?) My accountant assured me this would be a no-brainer, but I'm still worried that this will drag on. Ugh... fingers crossed on this one.

I was sitting at home last night wondering what I was going to watch on TV, and stumbled upon something that I blogged about a few days ago... the robot Darpa challenge! It was pretty cool, and I'm glad I did get to see it! After that show was another show on robots with Alan Alda, and that one was interesting, but I lost interest after a little while.

It's "hump day"!

oh, ps... I'm really enjoying the new book I started to read... Blue highways. It's a bit of a struggle to read in that it doesn't flow smoothly like a story, in that it's a bunch of short stories about this guy's road trip across the country using only the back roads (the old maps had secondary roads printed in blue ink, thus the title). The guy has a real knack for painting a picture with words, and every now and then he strings a sentence together that makes you just smile. I'm 'dog-earing' these pages, so maybe when I'm done I'll post a few of these gems.

Cool Robot

I found this link today regarding a robot competition in Japan. There was a video made that highlighted the winner, and I must say, it's pretty amazing what this machine can do. I remember a few years back, a TV show on I think NOVA that said that scientists were struggling with robots having balance. The idea of a bi-pedal machine walking, or even standing was a long way away... enter 2006. It seems this problem has been solved, and although the "running" looks a bit off, it's an amazing accomplishment.
Check out the video here on YOUTUBE.com
And check out the website:
robots-dreams.com

Lack of Compassion...

I have been sitting on this for some time because I wasn't sure if I wanted to post it or not. It's still fairly soon, and perhaps emotions can cloud judgement, but I have decided to post it anyway. I do not wish to give any more attention to this guy's point of view, so please do not email him on my account. I consider the matter dropped.
I have an alert on my google page for anything related to CPT.org in regards to the kidnapping. Basically any time the word cpt.org is mentioned in a news media outlet, I'll get an email, and link. The other day I got this link...

"American hostage killed in Iraq...well, you asked for it
American Daily - Stow,OH,USA
... You see, the Christian Peacemaker Teams' slogan (http://www.cpt.org/index.html) is "committed to reducing violence by getting in the way." The problem is, if ...

I clicked the link and read the article. And much to my dismay, I just could not understand this person's lack of compassion. I usually do not respond to items like this, but I felt I had to say something, so I saw the "feedback" link at the bottom of the page, and sent off an email. I tried to curb my anger, but I think some may have slipped in... here was my response:

I just read your article regarding the Christian Peacmaker who was tortured and murdered. I find it sad that there was no compassion in your article. Sure it's easy to sit back and say "well he got what he deserved." If two guys are pointing a gun at one another and you walk in between them and get shot, then that does sound kinda stupid on the surface of it. But if you think about it, don't you want to give a person credit for trying to break up that gunfight? Here's a person who believes so much that violence is wrong that he's willing to give his life for it, and your response is just "you got what you asked for"... Stay out of the way... he wasn't helping the "good guy" kill the "bad guy". This was a man who didn't want either the "good guy" or the "bad guy" to die. Maybe what he did was wrong by trying to break it up, but i think he at least earns some respect for all that he went through, and for trying to stop violence. It would not have hurt you to show compassion to his cause, his beliefs, or his friends and family who are grieving.

I was surprised but he did reply... and his response shocked me even more.
I simply "dont get it" and it surprises me how people's opinions can be so far apart.
Here is his reply (I'm removing his contact info):

I don't have compassion for hypocrisy and idiocy. If he were REALLY against violence (as the group claims to be) they would "get in the way" of everyone, not just us. Where's the "adopt a kidnapped hostage" link? There isn't one is there?
They're not against violence.

They're just against us.

So screw them. My only regret is that more of them don't get the same treatment.

Such pain and hurt in this email, and yet there is not talking to him.
I regretfully will put this in my "dropped issues" category, but this will continue to haunt me as to how people think.

2 things before bed...

Ok, It's late Sat night (technically early Sunday morning 1:23am) so forgive me for any typos of babble...
Just got back from a really good movie...
Inside Man (trailer) staring some big names like Denzel Washington, Jody Foster, Clive Owen, and it's a Spike Lee film too. It was really good. A second action adventure movie this year that I really enjoyed. It was well acted, intelligent yet not too complicated (I only got lost once), and moved along at a fairly good pace. I can't tell you anything about it so as not to spoil anything, other than it was good :) Go see it.

And before going to bed, I'm doing a little web surfing and came upon a link for a new NOVA special about the robotic car race. This really interests me (though the underlying war technology bothers me, but most science starts that way). From the people who brought you the internet, the DARPA people hosted a race through the desert in cars that were driven by robots/computers. Nova is airing a special about the race on March 28th... tune in, drop out... oh sorry that was a different quote... Tune in and check it out, should be interesting.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa/

PS> one of the trailers tonight before the movie was for the upcoming Davinci Code! Can't WAIT for this movie. The trailer was a little over the top, but still cool.