bah, no pictures.
There has been too much occupying my brain lately to post much. I finally got my tax papers from my test proctoring job so that I could finish our taxes and complete the FAFSA information.
I didn't realize that the FAFSA site would spit out a number immediately to tell us what our expected contribution will be for Jake's first year of college. It's a lot of money but we will somehow manage it. The information is now forwarded to the schools he has applied to and they will let us know what can be put together to make up the difference between our expected contribution and student loans/grants/work study. Hopefully the numbers will work.
His first choice is by no means an inexpensive school so I will be holding my breath until we hear from them. He has applied to two other schools. One is a bit less and the other is much less. I just really, really hope everything works out for his first choice.
I do our taxes and use either TurboTax or TaxCut, depending on which way the wind blows. I love the way it figures everything out for me. I can't believe I did our taxes on paper for so many years, especially when I was a licensed daycare provider and had a gazillion more forms to fill out.
This year, however, there was some weird glitch with e-filing through TurboTax. To do an electronic signature, you have to input your last year's adjusted gross income. TurboTax was nice enough to grab that from our stored info and I sent it off, along with our state. Then I got an email saying the big guys had rejected our return because last year's agi number )for the electronic signature) didn't match up with what they have. Um. Well. It matches up with what I sent them last year.
I ended up calling the big guys and spoke to the nicest lady (thank you, Ms. Parrish, for being so friendly), whochecked their records of my life history looked at our 2005 return and pronounced that TurboTax had been smoking crack a glitch in their software and to call them to find out why they are so annoying when they're high how to correct the problem.
In the meantime, our state return was kicked back to, because if the big guys don't want to know us, they don't either. Let me tell you, this game is so much fun for someone with an abnormal fear of authority.
In the end I decided that the faster course of action would be to submit the return electronically and send in the signature on paper. Glory hallelujah, the return was accepted. I should have my refund in my hot littlehands bank account by February ninth.
In knitting news, I've now made six hats in Fig and Plum's pattern and have started a hat for Clara based on the Fake Isle pattern on Magknits. It's Kureyon and black, like the pattern, but has a skull motif around the main part (from Hello Yarn's We Call Them Pirates) instead of the diamond pattern in the original. Speaking of pirate hats, I finished Jake's pirate hat (love the lining--I used a milk chocolate brown cotton) in that pattern but, as I feared, it is too small. He can put it on but prefers to have blood circulating to his brain, so he won't be wearing it. It's adorable on Ben and Clara has worn it a few times. I'll have to knit it again using larger needles.
I've also started Sweater Babe's Beautiful Cabled Baby Jacket for Lydia for next year in (what else?) pink. The pattern cracks me up. It's written line-by-line with little boxes to check off beside each one. Idiot-proof. I'm just about down to the divide for the sleeves (it's knit from the top down) and it's going really quickly. I worked on it for a little while last night and a few times here and there today. Gotta love Cashmerino Aran on 9's.
I need to decide on what to knit for my sister's baby girl, due on April Fool's Day. I told her that she should aim for delivering at least a day late as she could have so much fun all day long on the first, telling people she is in labor.
Oh! And if you are in need of yarn stash organization, Costco has a cool shoe organizer right that is very cute for yarn. I'm not seeing it on their website, but it's very cute and about $23. I'll take a picture of mine when it's prettier. I'm in the process of addding yarn to it.
There is something else exciting going on but I have to check with someone to be sure I'm allowed to talk about it. Laura? Can I?
I didn't realize that the FAFSA site would spit out a number immediately to tell us what our expected contribution will be for Jake's first year of college. It's a lot of money but we will somehow manage it. The information is now forwarded to the schools he has applied to and they will let us know what can be put together to make up the difference between our expected contribution and student loans/grants/work study. Hopefully the numbers will work.
His first choice is by no means an inexpensive school so I will be holding my breath until we hear from them. He has applied to two other schools. One is a bit less and the other is much less. I just really, really hope everything works out for his first choice.
I do our taxes and use either TurboTax or TaxCut, depending on which way the wind blows. I love the way it figures everything out for me. I can't believe I did our taxes on paper for so many years, especially when I was a licensed daycare provider and had a gazillion more forms to fill out.
This year, however, there was some weird glitch with e-filing through TurboTax. To do an electronic signature, you have to input your last year's adjusted gross income. TurboTax was nice enough to grab that from our stored info and I sent it off, along with our state. Then I got an email saying the big guys had rejected our return because last year's agi number )for the electronic signature) didn't match up with what they have. Um. Well. It matches up with what I sent them last year.
I ended up calling the big guys and spoke to the nicest lady (thank you, Ms. Parrish, for being so friendly), who
In the meantime, our state return was kicked back to, because if the big guys don't want to know us, they don't either. Let me tell you, this game is so much fun for someone with an abnormal fear of authority.
In the end I decided that the faster course of action would be to submit the return electronically and send in the signature on paper. Glory hallelujah, the return was accepted. I should have my refund in my hot little
In knitting news, I've now made six hats in Fig and Plum's pattern and have started a hat for Clara based on the Fake Isle pattern on Magknits. It's Kureyon and black, like the pattern, but has a skull motif around the main part (from Hello Yarn's We Call Them Pirates) instead of the diamond pattern in the original. Speaking of pirate hats, I finished Jake's pirate hat (love the lining--I used a milk chocolate brown cotton) in that pattern but, as I feared, it is too small. He can put it on but prefers to have blood circulating to his brain, so he won't be wearing it. It's adorable on Ben and Clara has worn it a few times. I'll have to knit it again using larger needles.
I've also started Sweater Babe's Beautiful Cabled Baby Jacket for Lydia for next year in (what else?) pink. The pattern cracks me up. It's written line-by-line with little boxes to check off beside each one. Idiot-proof. I'm just about down to the divide for the sleeves (it's knit from the top down) and it's going really quickly. I worked on it for a little while last night and a few times here and there today. Gotta love Cashmerino Aran on 9's.
I need to decide on what to knit for my sister's baby girl, due on April Fool's Day. I told her that she should aim for delivering at least a day late as she could have so much fun all day long on the first, telling people she is in labor.
Oh! And if you are in need of yarn stash organization, Costco has a cool shoe organizer right that is very cute for yarn. I'm not seeing it on their website, but it's very cute and about $23. I'll take a picture of mine when it's prettier. I'm in the process of addding yarn to it.
There is something else exciting going on but I have to check with someone to be sure I'm allowed to talk about it. Laura? Can I?
Labels: college, family, knitting, something else
posted by Gretchen at 1:27 PM
4 Comments:
Yup, we had to do the whole 'last year's agi' thing too a couple years ago... what a pain - it booted ours too and we had to send it in like you did. And hey, the IRS scares the guts right out of me. I was in a panic thinking the auditor was gonna show up just any second JUST BECAUSE.
I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed that all the numbers work out for school #1 too!
We always have our taxes done, because dealing with all that stuff makes us both crazy. You are so good to do it yourself. I hope everything works out for Jake's first choice!
Love the April Fools' idea, but I'm sure those she fooled wouldn't think it was so funny! ;)
Love the cardigan. Wouldn't mind doing one of those myself, but have never knitted top down and don't really get it, do you knit the whole thing in one go and does it always have to be on circular needles.
Amanda.
Phew. Thanks, Erin. I'm glad to know ours wasn't the only one.
Thanks, jayjay, and Amanda--if you should give a top-down one a go. It's really straight-forward and in the end it's just the arms you need to seam. It's all knit as one piece. So, yeah, you will need to use circulars but just go step-by-step. Not difficult.
If you decide to do this pattern, let me know. There are a couple of wonky places in the directions, but I figured it out pretty easily having done this type before.
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