Try The Underwear Oracle

Im know that this is a total waste of time, but it is raining cats and dogs today and we are sitting around the house waiting to go to Mi Rancho for a Saturday night karaoke with the gang!

This was funny -

What Your Underwear Says About You

You like to think of yourself as innocent, even though you're not! You are childlike (or childish), and prone to run around in your underwear.

The Underwear Oracle

Have fun!

WH

Lottery, Schmottery

As many of you have read, seen, or heard, 8 Con-Agra workers cashed in on the biggest lottery pay out to date - $365 Million. Wouldn't you like to have that kind of money?

Think about it.

(Now, a personal disclaimer, I have, and will continue to play the lottery. When it gets big I usually buy $5 worth of tickets and talk about the "what-if's".)

The facts are not totally clear, but there has been some mention that many lottery winners end up broke and bankrupt. Here is a Google discussion that lists some facts, studies, and other links to various studies.

The gist of the issue is that if you are happy, you will be happy after winning the lottery. If you are miserable, you will be miserable after winning the lottery. Facts show that most lottery winners spend one third of their winnings in the first year - traveling, paying off bills, buying things, giving money away, etc. Then they tend to settle into a lifestyle that was similar to before they won the lottery.

The sad truth is that many winners have no idea what a windfall is and how much hassle the winning brings - "business offers", old friends, beggars, cons, temptations, stress, pressure, greed.

I hope that every one of these winners are happy, satisfied, and secure - and that they stay that way.

For me the personal issue is to be content NO MATTER WHAT and then life and the things that come at us will find a grounded and mature person - settled and stable.

WH

Father Daughter Dance

Here are the "girls" getting ready for the big dance - of course we don't want to stink and drive people away so we have to apply DEO to the old pits -


Deo Jen



Deo Jessie

We had a great time. The gala was at The Ritz at Amelia Island. Can you say "SWANKY"? And as always, staying with Bob and Jody is a blast. Even if it is a short and sweet.

WH

Engaged!!

I just talked to my son Jason (the Marine) and he told us that he has asked his girlfriend Candace to marry him on Valentines day! After the initial shock I was pretty excited. They are going to get all of the marriage and pre-marital courses that the Marines have to offer (more than they had a few years ago) and have also asked me to do their counseling.

(Now I know that Jody checks this blog and is going to totally freak out) - Take it easy Jody, they haven't set a date yet.


Jason and Candace

They will be visiting in early March and we will get to see them - we are looking forward to it.

WH

Ramblings...

I have a cold. Scratchy throat. Sniffles. Basic blah. So I drink stuff. I eat stuff. I should feel better by tomorrow - yeah! I don't usually stay sick for long so that is a big benefit.

I love the Olympics. Summer. Winter. It doesn't matter. I love sports and competition. The pure commitment of athletes that train and lay it all on the line for a once every few years event.

The possible business partners that I have been speaking with have set a date for the next, and hopefully final presentation, before we get to business - or should I say, build a business. March 7th is the date. One last push before the meeting and I will be ready. This is a great opportunity for us and our future - more later if all goes well.

This weekend will be fun. Jen, Jessie, and I are going with her Dad to a Father/Daughter Banquet at The Ritz! High living and high partying. I should have some pics posted during the weekend.

WH

The Tax Man Cometh

What fun! This past Thursday, my wonderful wife, in one of her "I'm bored!" moments declared, with sort of a question mark, "LET'S DO TAXES!?"

My simple response, "Hell no." I would rather be a recipient of Chinese Water Torture. Lick a toilet. Watch CSPAN. Anyway, you get the idea.

Guess what? We did taxes.

Now let me give you a bit of background so you don't feel sorry for me. For the past four years I have been a beta tester (shameless plug) for Intuit. I have tested Quicken, Quickbooks, and more recently Turbo-Tax Premium. So I had my complementary copy of Turbo-Tax at the house.

Now I don't totally trust the Turbo-Tax program (the dark side of beta testing) so of course I have to do the paper version of taxes and THEN use the program to see if they agree. Call me anal.

We dove in and we able to complete the Federal and South Carolina taxes with relative ease (about 2.5 hours). Then came the absolute DEVIL of tax returns - Georgia Non-Resident. You see, UPS is in Augusta, GA. I live in SC. The Georgia tax form is an absolute bitch. I worked on the stupid thing, actually ONE PAGE of the stupid thing for ONE solid hour. Not only is it confusing, it is very general and unspecific. Jen came home and I had her look at it too.

I have to admit that I giggled the whole time as she unleashed a tirade of unpublishable expletives. Jen is smart and very capable when it comes to this sort of thing - takes after her Dad. It was an exercise in futility for her.

After a few hours we both said, "That's seems right let's go with it." To check it I reloaded Turbo-Tax on the other computer, loaded my one free state (GA) and checked the result. Amazingly, we came to the same refund amount (Don't get excited for us, it was like $70 bucks) BUT there was an entirely different and additional form that we had missed!

Oh boy! We can't wait until next year. Another great reason to hope that my next business venture stays in SC. My heart goes out to all of you who live in GA and have to negotiate your way through that f*&%ing cesspool of a tax system and the accompanying returns.

I hope all of you have a great time doing your taxes too:)

WH

Why I Respect Bono

Maybe you didn't hear, but Bono, front man for U2, spoke at The National Prayer Breakfast this past week. Here is the video link from CNN. It's 20 minutes long, and I couldn't get the last few minutes to play, but the message is very worthwhile.

If you have the time, watch the video. If not, here is a transcript from USA Today.

Bono refuses to cater to either side of the isle in politics and stays focused on the real issues of poverty and injustice. We could all learn a lesson about the "positions" that we hold and promote.

WH