Archive | February, 2010

Half marathon training update – blah

By on February 11, 2010 in Running, Uncategorized

Here’s what I’d like to tell you about my training for the Country Music Half Marathon:

  • My short 30 minute runs during the week are almost effortless. My lungs are strong and my legs feel like they’re getting tickled with marshmallows.
  • My long runs on the weekend are a bit of a struggle, but for some reason I magically hear the Chariots of Fire music in my head and it pushes me to try harder

I’d like to tell you that if you were to chart my progress on a graph, it would be a nice smooth upward slope.

I’d like to tell you those things, but if I did I wouldn’t be telling the truth.

Training is pretty miserable right now. It’s been this way for about two weeks.

On Monday night, for example, it was all I could do to keep myself moving in some combination of running and walking for 30 minutes. My body wasn’t with me, and I couldn’t will myself to run the full 30 minutes. I couldn’t will myself to run longer than six minutes at first.

If you were to actually chart my progress on a graph, you’d see peaks and valleys. Oh, the peaks and valleys.

I’m just hoping that being in a valley right now means there’s a peak waiting around the bend for me.

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Happy day in the Happiest Town on Earth

By on February 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

MC and I were watching Property Newby or Home Scavengers or something like that on HGTV the other night and the young couple settled on a house they wanted to buy.

The agent advised them that the house was a short sale, so they’d be negotiating with a bank instead of the owner. The agent also told the couple that a short sale takes a little longer than a normal sale.

When they asked how long the short sale might take, the agent said:

A short sale can take as long as 30 days.

When I heard that, I almost choked on my ice cream.

For whoknowshowmany months, my brother and sister-in-law have been trying to buy a short sale in Celebration, Fla. They put a contract on the place ages ago.

After months and months and months of waiting, they closed yesterday on their new house home.

Congrats, hermano!

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Where do you list your excess golden parachute income?

By on February 4, 2010 in Money, Uncategorized

I’m not an accountant, but sometimes I have to look at tax forms at work.

Today I looked at one called IRS form 1099 -MISC.

I think this is the form you use to report income that doesn’t get reported on any of the other forms. In other words, if you’ve got some cheese coming in that’s not from your job or interest or dividends, I think it goes on a 1099-MISC.

But don’t take my word for it, because like I said, I’m not an accountant.

Anyhow, I got tickled looking at the form because of some of the weird specificity the IRS form drafters used. For example, Box 5 gives you a place to report all the money you made when you sold your watercraft in 2009.

So if you turned a profit on a jet ski or a Hobie cat, I guess that’s where you list that income.

Wait…check that. Box 5 is reserved for fishing boat proceeds only. I guess I’ll have to list my paddleboat jack elsewhere.

My favorite spot on the form – hands down – is Box 13.

Down in Box 13 is where all of us who are plagued with excess golden parachute payments can list that income.

What cracks me up is that at some point someone at the IRS thought that there would be enough people receiving excess golden parachute payments that they made a whole box for it.

Have a look at what golden parachutes are and you’ll get a feel for just how small the pool of people getting these payments is. And then to think about the IRS freaking out about the four people getting excess golden parachute payments makes me laugh.

So consider yourself informed. If you turned a tidy profit on a fishing boat last year or made some crazy golden parachute bank, now you know what to do with that stuff when tax time rolls around.

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The words just aren’t happening

By on February 3, 2010 in Uncategorized

You ever have one of those dreams where you try to scream but you can’t? You try and try but no sound comes out of your mouth?

That’s kinda what’s been happening every time I’ve sat down to post something here at my blog. I’ll click the button to start a new post and then…nothing.

For about two weeks now that’s kept me from writing anything new, and by all accounts that should keep my silent for a while still since the problem hasn’t yet gone away. You see, if you listen to all the blogging gurus, they’ll tell you it’s better to not write anything at all than to write when you don’t have anything to say.

But let’s be honest. When has not having anything to say ever stopped me before?

So this is just a quick post to hopefully break the blockage and get things moving again.

In the meantime, how have you been?

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