kmkat and her kneedles

It's World Women's Day.

Cheerfully stolen from my friend Jocelyn's blog.

For the record, I am treated quite well by pretty much everyone. I wish I could say the same for the rest of womenkind,

Life is random, why not me?

1. Baked :: Alaska.
2. Excited :: to go.
3. Print :: out of,
4. Obstruct :: -ionist.
5. Bladder :: full.
6. Matrimony :: wedding.
7. Car :: many.
8. Reconstruct :: Civil War.
9. Lenses :: contact.
10. Best for last :: save it.

* * * * *

I got to thinking about John Sandford and his Virgil Flowers novels because I noticed a new one had come out, Mad River. Love John Sandford, love Virgil Flowers. Maybe not quite as much as I love Lucas Davenport of the Prey series, but close. Couldn't remember which of the books I had already read so I requested all of them (five plus the newest one) from the library. Have been reading them one after the other, kinda like 350-page potato chips. Just started #4 AND got the email that the newest one is waiting for me at my local library.

Heaven.

Edited to add: the reason I like Sandford's novels and characters so much is that they are the most intelligent but down-to-earth ones I have read, amen.

* * * * *

Speaking of books.

I sit on the board of trustees of the regional library system, which is currently embarking on its [latest] long-range planning process. Members of the board were tasked with visiting all the libraries in their respective counties and chatting with the directors about the services they get from the regional system. On Friday the other board member from our county and I visited four municipal libraries and had four wildly varying discussions. Wildly varying in a good way, mind you -- their experience in the library system ranged from 1 to 29 years and their education/library size/community demographic varied almost as much.

It was an interesting and informative and fun way to spend a day. Which is good because next Wednesday we are going to do it again with four different libraries.

* * * * *

I liked the yarn I knitted the fingerless gloves out of so much (it's been sitting in my stash since 2007, why haven't I used it before?) that I decided to make myself a hat from it, the Twisted Toque from 60 Quick Knits. 

Fail.

Sorry, I should have taken a photo to show how terrible it looked. If you scan the projects in Ravelry you may notice that on some, the non-stockinette portion of the hat sort of... sticks out. Mine looked like the one in the link but much, much worse.

Ribbit.

In hindsight, I think the problem was that the pattern was written for Cascade 220, which is a light worsted, and I knitted it from a plump worsted. Perhaps if I had gone up a needle size all would have been well. 

But we shall never know because I am NOT knitting that pattern again.

So there.

Not that I am bitter or anything...

 * * * * *

(something I commented on another blog that seemed so revolutionary and astoundingly awesome that I had to include it here)

The possible long-term effects of global warming have been endlessly reported upon, but the day-to-day effects have been downplayed. I have concluded what the latter means for us in the northern latitudes is that our weather will change more quickly than we are used to. The past few weeks, with fronts blowing through seemingly every other day, are what have convinced me of this. Makes sense meteorologically, too -- globala warming is basically just more energy in the atmosphere = more volatile weather.

Kinda fun, actually. Every morning is a new surprise. Can I go into town minus hat/scarf/boots or will I need long underwear and three pairs of socks? 

* * * * *

Have any of you been watching House of Cards on Netflix? I started last night, got annoyed in the first 30 seconds*, so annoyed in the next three minutes* that I stopped watching. I eventually went back and am now ready to start episode 2.

But it is not nearly as good as the British original with Ian Richardson, imnsho. I blogged about that once twice before. When Kevin Spacey delivered that line -- You might very well think that. I could not possibly comment -- I actually groaned. He is a great actor, don't get me wrong, but this whole thing seems kinda flat compared to the original.

I will continue to suffer through it, though ;-)

* They broke a primary law of good writing/movie-making: show me, don't tell me. When FU kills the dog, that is showing; when he expounds to the camera to give every bit of background information we may need, that's telling.

 

Random thoughts on a Wednesday.

In the interest of full disclosure: I am writing this on Tuesday night.

* * * * *

I may not like the character of Lady Mary Crawley -- she is shallow, arrogant, and self-centered -- but if I were in trouble I would want her on my side. In addition to her less desirable qualities, she is also smart, tought, good in a crisis and exactly the person who could save my ass.

* * * * *

From the latest issue of Time magazine, in the article on guns and gun control:

"I'm not anti-gun. I'm just not pro-dumbass."

- Steve Mostyn, wealthy Houston trial lawyer, gun enthusiast, and friend of Gabriel Gifford.

* * * * *

The thermostat installed with our new ground-water heat pump does everything except wash windows. It reports on the outside temperature, the inside temperature, checks the forecast for imminent weather, and sends us emails if anything goes wrong.

 

Too bad the system doesn't keep the house warm. (Thermostat is set for 67˚, but the indoor temperature is 57˚. This is because it is -8˚ outside, and the system needs more ground water than the well can deliver.)

But at least it is significantly warmer inside than out...

If I'm feeling better, it must be Tuesday.

Let's start out with a bit of slothfulness. Sloths are slothful.

Trivia question of the day: for what delightful cartoon show on Nickelodeon did Mark Mothersbaugh compose music? (Answer buried in the linked Wikipedia article.) (I loved that show.)

* * * * *

I am feeling better today, having spent most of the last two days in bed and/or sleeping. Having an iPad makes lying in bed much less boring; just another wonder of the connected age.

On the hip situation, I am now confronted with this decision:

• Have the surgery in 2-3 weeks and probably not be able to work this tax season. Although I would be recovered enough to return to work by early March, it is really, really difficult to jump into the middle of tax season. The annual learning curve is just too steep.
  
  
• Work this tax season and have the surgery ASAP after April 15. A cortisone shot this week and another in early March would ensure relatively pain-free mobility, and working would give a pleasant boost to the checking account.

What would you do and why? Discuss.

* * * * *

The nurse that I talked to on the nurse line on Sunday ordered me to get a functioning fever thermometer. She wanted to know my temperature and I had to tell her our thermometer was not working properly. I bought that thermometer, an electronic one, last summer so that Elder Son and I could tell if Smokey had a serious infection or just a superficial one. Darned thing insists that everyone's temperature is in the range of 92.4˚F -- 94.2˚F. What with all the kerffluffle during Smokey's recovery, I no longer have the receipt. Damned Wal-Mart. Clearly, it's all their fault.

Yesterday Smokey went on a major errand-running and shopping trip to the Twin Cities. One of his tasks was to purchase a new thermometer. He reports that the traditional glass ones, which I had ordered him to procure, are apparently no longer available. WTF?

* * * * *

And now for a bit of fun knitting.

Yarn: Colorado Yarns Durango, 50/47/3 wool/acrylic/viscose, worsted weight (perhaps discontinued?), ecru and brown.
Pattern: I used Ann Budd's basic mitten pattern from A Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns* for the thumb gusset and did the mittens in 3x1 rib. Recipient's hand is same length as mine but slightly more substantial. Ribbing makes the fit more forgiving.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#7; #6 for contrasting end row and bindoff.

These are for an acquaintance who has a coffee kiosk on the highway in my teeny tiny town. Although she claims it is warm inside her 6'x8' building, she has to keep opening the window to take orders and hand out coffee and make change. I suspect that her hands might welcome these during January. I don't know her well, but I do know her well enough to know she deserves these. (She has the best coffee EVAH!)

A side benefit of making these is that I finally figured out what stash yarn -- the ecru Durango -- to use for a pair of long fingerless gloves for myself. I want them for when I am reading in bed; my hands and forearms get cold, and it is annoying to have to keep pulling my pajama sleeves down when I'm wearing regular fingerless gloves. Yeah, it's a real bitch, I tell ya...

* Do you have this book? If not, why not? It is a great resource when you want to make a basic [thing] and just need a little help on the shaping or the cast-on or something. Or, you can follow it blindly; no shame in that.

* * * * *

Last night I was on the Twitterer. I found it humorously ironic that the most plentiful tweets in my feed were, 1, Chuck Todd (NBC news) live-tweeting the Notre Dame-Alabama game, and b, Amanda Palmer and her followers tweeting about kindness and selflove and how to stop the bullying.

Maybe we should introduce Chuck and Amanda and let them educate each other. Or, really, let Amanda educate Chuck. (Nothing against Chuck Todd. He is one smart dude. But, srsly, which is a more important topic?)

* * * * *

Speaking of the Twitters, did you watch the season premier of Downton Abbey? Of course you did; we all did. Want to relive it through the eyes of a highly jaded but clever sheep? This guy preserved Dolores Van Hoofen's live-tweet of the premier. What a hoot baaaaah!

* * * * *

Today is the twelfth fourteenth day of Christmas so I unplugged the lights on the tree. I'd really like to make a tree cover out of a sheet and just store the whole thing somewhere out of sight until next December. But I will probably just let it sit in the *conservatory* until Christmas. Like I have done for X years.

Once the kids leave home all tradition and semblance of civilization go right out the window.

Joss Whedon endorses Romney. And the Greatest Generation tells you what they think (NSFW).

 

Downs syndrome man calls Ann Coulter on her slam.

But first, this week's mutterings.

1. Crying :: Shame.
2. Reluctant :: Debutante.
3. Decade :: Ten.
4. Mustache :: Ramble.
5. Water :: For Elephants.
6. March :: Hare.
7. Stripes :: Stars.
8. Friendship :: Ring.
9. Weirdo :: Harpo.
10. Contacts :: Eyes.

* * * * *

Ann Coulter referred to Obama as a "retard" following the last debate. This is what a young guy with Downs wrote to her afterwards. (Have a tissue handy; this may require one.)

 

http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/

 

He was then interviewed on the CBCs program "As It Happens" and you can listen to him in the next link.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/

Twitter scores again.

A few words on tax policy.

Note: This is a post I wrote in April, 2011. I had been away from tax work for two years and found that things had changed in the interim.

Tax policy may not be everyone's favorite topic. I'd rather talk merino and Magic Loop and the best way to pill a cat, but right now I am thinking about tax policy, and that is what you get.

I work on tax returns for what are euphemistically called "high net worth individuals",
  which is another way of saying "rich people". This means I am highly conversant with 1040s and the accompanying forms and schedules that are common among the rich. I can read a broker's year-end summary with aplomb, I know what goes where on a K-1, I have a passing knowledge of at-risk calculations, I rock the foreign tax credit and the haircut on dividend income from foreign mutual funds, and I used to be the recognized expert in our office on making the tax software do kiddie tax right. (We use different software now.) Rich people also tend to invest in a lot of partnerships of one kind or another and to set up trusts or some such for their kids and grandkids.

It is that last item that I want to talk about here.

Tax law has created an ever-growing and astonishisng number of vehicles for avoiding or minimizing taxes. Forget about tex benefits for the middle class. Tax law in the past 10 or 20 years has been all about the rich. A couple of well-established deduction-reducers that applied only to those whose income was north of $150,000 or so went away since 2009, the last year I did taxes. Every time I see a high-income person's itemized deductions and exemptions being subtracted 100% from their income I grit my teeth; they used to be scaled back the higher one's income was. No more.

What I see this year are trusts -- GRATs, GRITS, GSTs, CLUTs. CRTs. The "T" in each one stands for "'trust". There are grantor trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts and on and on ad nauseum.

Of the 37 tax returns I have worked on this year, 25 -- over 70% -- have been trusts. 

And every single solitary one of them was created for the sole purpose of avoiding or reducing inheritance taxes.

If the rest of this post makes your eyes glaze over -- and I cannot think of a single
reason why it wouldn't if you are not a tax accountant or attorney -- remember that one statistic. Over 70% of the tax returns I did this year were for entities that were created solely for tax avoidance or elimination.

The rich pay their attorneys and accountants thousands -- and tens of thousands -- of dollars rather than pay taxes. 

Do the attorneys and accountants create anything? Do they improve the quality of life in America? How is their labor adding to our national (or world-wide) well-being?

They do not. Their work is depleting it, in fact, because the dollars these people do not pay in taxes are therefore not available to fund schools, roads, national parks, the national debt, WIC, Head Start, public broadcasting, or anything else.

Grrrr. Maybe it is just because I am tired, or because Wisconsin is in the midst of an aggressibvel attack on unions and the middle class (Ed. note: remember, this was April, 2011), or because I am a born whiner, but right now I am fully disgusted with America.

Which is not to say I'll give up this job. It pays handsomely (some of those thousands that the rich pay their accountants trickles down to me) and, ethics aside, it is fun. I like to work with numbers and computers.

And I pay my own taxes more-or-less gladly.

 

Imaginary ad.

From the draft folder; November, 2011.

We got a letter awhile back from the [medical school's] Class of 2012 Yearbook Staff congratulating us on our [sic] "child's upcoming commencement".

More to the point, they implored entreated asked us to buy an ad in the yearbook in order to contribute to the $15,000 cost of producing it. 

Here's the ad I thought would be a hoot inappropriate (but completely true) to purchase ($200 for a quarter page, so this was all just imaginary):

On a related note, I found this a few weeks ago. It pretty much sums up medical school experience.

That's a couple hours I'll never get back.

I just spent two hours dealing with a hacked Visa card. I have nine monthly payments of one kind or another that are automatically charged to that card. That was nine phone trees to navigate to change to a different card.

Plus, the card I wanted to change to was a Target Visa card. But if one doesn't use her Target Visa card on a regular basis, which I do not, The Powers That Be automatically drop the credit limit to $500. This is not enough -- I use my credit card for everything. (I found out about this $500 limit when we were on vacation last summer and I thought I had lost my wallet; I switched to the Target card and had it declined after about 3 purchases. Grrr.)

So I called Target customer service to have the credit line upped. Apparently their customer service reps are in some other country (not India, judging by the accents) and do not have the authority nor any way to adjust credit limits. That can only be done by Real Americans Who Work For Target In The USofA. And it is not done by customer request, only when the card reaches a certain level of activity. Then the RAWWFTITUSofA look at the account, decide what an appropriate line of credit it, change it, and send me a letter. By snail mail.

I told the rep very politely that that was not nearly fast enough to be acceptable. I know by last summer's experience that I would be resorting to still another card, possibly within days. She apologized but was adamant.

So I told her politely that Target cardservices had just lost a lot of business.

And switched everything to a delightful new Discover card I got a few weeks ago.

At least I don't live in Texas.

Wisconsin may have gone back to the 1950s, but Texas Republicans
want to take us back to the Dark Ages.

"Texas Republicans also believe 'controversial theories' such evolution and climate change — which aren’t controversial at all — 'should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced.' There’s more: the GOP also opposes the teaching of 'critical thinking skills' because they 'focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.' ”

The 5 Craziest Policies in Texas Republicans' 2012 Platform

My sympathies to anyone female, of color, of non-traditional sexual preference, intelligent, curious, or who engages in critical thinking in Texas. (Yes, I know that sentence makes a hash of parallel construction, but at least I spelled parallel right.)

Thanks to k for the links.

For sale to highest bidder. SOLD!

"Mid-sized Midwestern state with long history of progressive politics, bipartisan cooperation, and civil discourse. State considered key to sitting President's re-election strategy. No ethics required. Full benefit package, including fully funded legal defense fund. Ideal candidate will have photogenic face, willingness to abandon all integrity and kowtow to Big Money, including Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Koch Brothers; membership in ALEC a plus. Apply at www. wisconsin.gov*."

* Hover to see the real url.

Today.

My thanks to Chris for sending this to me.

One more thing. No, two more things. Well, actually, three more things.

This was me at the rally yesterday. We librarians* stand with the teachers whose vocation was disparaged and attacked and made to seem the enemy by the incumbent.

* Even former part-time librarians currently employed as tax accountants.

* * * * *

From Amanda Palmer's latest email update on her fantastically successful Kickstarter-funded album:

... to review the people-who've called list:

rolling stone called, the new york times called, time magazine called, the new yorker called, the wall street journal called, billboard called, and the economist called.

they want their media back.

i might give it to them to borrow, but first i want a picture of 24,883** people holding my naked body aloft on the cover of LIFE.

then we'll talk. 

I LOLed at that, and it was too good not to share.

** The number of people who donated to the Kickstarter project.

* * * * *

What I did on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend:

Yes, that's right, I hung out with my new BFF, Brenda Dayne. She is on a teaching / knitting / family visit / whatever tour of North America and taught several classes at The Yarnery*** in St. Paul. I took her class on how to design and construct a top-down raglan ("Basic Top-Down Daglan (With a Difference)").

And before you ask, no, I did not knit that gray alpaca lace shawl myself. I won it and blogged about it here (scroll down).

*** If you follow the link to The Yarnery, do watch the slide show of drool-worthy yarns on their front page. 

Hope.

 

 

Today I shook the hand of ::fingers and toes crossed, hoping:: the next governor of Wisconsin. He is Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, the tall white-haired gentleman in the blue plaid shirt in the photos above. The last photo is of Senator Herb Kohl, senior senator from Wisconsin, who accompanied him on his swing through northwest Wisconsin today. I also shook Mrs. Barrett's hand -- that's her in the fourth photo.

Three days to go, and the Barrett campaign's internal polling shows the two candidates are within half a percentage point of each other. The incumbent being recalled has raised over $30 million (MILLION!), 80% of it from out-of-state; the challenger has raised $3 million. The incumbent is the only governor in the country with a legal defense fund and absolutely refuses to reveal who is funding it. 

Word in the crowd was that the incumbent will be indicted on Monday.

We can only hope. And vote.

Just in case you thought he was the PEOPLE'S governor.

    

And he is only campaigning for governor of a relatively unimportant Midwestern state...

(graphics from http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/campaign-finance)

Tax chuckles.

In fourth quarter 2011, MNCPA [Minnesota Society of CPAs] surveyed members to identifythe most creative tax deductions proposed by clients. Survey results are being shared with the media as part of the MNCPA's tax campaign promoting hiring a CPA for tax preparation. Following is the MNCPA list of strange deductions for 2011. It's a good bet that many of these deductions would have triggered a letter from the IRS had a CPA not intervened and encouraged the tax filers to not include them on their returns.

1. Questionable dependents. One woman wanted to include the months she was pregnant, even though she relinquished rights upon the child's birth; another taxpayer wanted to claim his elected official because he "pays his salary;" and one taxpayer wanted to claim a former spouse.

2. Charitable donations? The market value of whole blood that the taxpayer donated; a $100,000 deduction for burning down an old cabin; gambling losses; private school tuition; and raffle tickets.

3. "Fido" as a business expense. Pets proved popular with taxpayers wanting to deduct everything from pet food to vet bills.

4. Inflated mileage calculations. A handyman proposed taking a $25,000 mileage deduction, even though he had only $10,000 in revenue. He justified it by saying he drove 50,000 business miles in one year.

5. Creative medical expenses. A rental house in Arizona; an in-ground swimming pool without a doctor's order; a spouse's drug habit; breast implants and tummy tucks.

6. Investment or not? An attorney's fees for a divorce, considered an "investment" by the former spouse.

7. Business travel and entertainment deductions. A personal luxury car; three country club memberships; a motor home; and the full cost of a wedding.

 

The saddest part? I didn't even find these funny. They all just sounded like part of a normal day's work...

Women.

"All my adult life, I’ve been pretty sure I’m a sentient, even semi-competent human being. I have a job and an apartment; I know how to read and vote; I make regular, mostly autonomous decisions about what to eat for lunch and which cat videos I will watch whilst eating my lunch. But in the past couple of months, certain powerful figures in media and politics have cracked open that certitude.

"You see, like most women, I was born with the chromosome abnormality known as 'XX,' a deviation of the normative 'XY' pattern. Symptoms of XX, which affects slightly more than half of the American population, include breasts, ovaries, a uterus, a menstrual cycle, and the potential to bear and nurse children. Now, many would argue even today that the lack of a Y chromosome should not affect my ability to make informed choices about what health care options and lunchtime cat videos are right for me. But others have posited, with increasing volume and intensity, that XX is a disability, even a roadblock on the evolutionary highway. This debate has reached critical mass, and leaves me uncertain of my legal and moral status. Am I a person? An object? A ward of the state? A 'prostitute'? (And if I’m the last of these, where do I drop off my W-2?)"

http://ideas.time.com/2012/03/07/subject-for-debate-are-women-people/

Who loves Rush? You will never guess...

email from ElderSon:

You know how Rush Limbaugh has lost more than 50 advertisers after
saying a vile, hateful thing that happily made a bigger splash than
all the previous vile, hateful things he's said?

(This is after all a guy who said:

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals
resemble Jesse Jackson?”

“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like
a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I
said it.”

[To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your
nose and call me back.”)

It's gotten to the point that today (now technically yesterday), the
commercial break at the end of the first hour of his show was a minute
of dead silence:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203080008

Anyway, what sort of a company would choose right now as the best time
to start buying ad time from Rush Limbaugh?  What sort of company
would think that Rush Limbaugh's listeners are a good market for what
they sell?  Ashleymadison.com, the dating site for married people who
wanna cheat on their spouses, that's who.  Since this all started with
Limbaugh slut shaming, I think that's kinda priceless.  Now Limbaugh
refused to run their ads, but they responded by saying,

"We are in the business of selling affairs...And our audience is
absolutely his audience."

omg, it just keeps getting worse.

Remember Glenn Grothman, the Republican idiot who introduced the bill in the Wisconsin state senate to repeal our state's equal-pay-for-equal-work law? He just keeps having one good idea after another.

From an email I received today from a local Democrat:

Republican Senator Glenn Grothman, of Wisconsin, Proposed Bill to Make Single Parenting Child Abuse

Senator Glenn Grothman (R-Wisconsin) apparently introduced Senate Bill 507, which would declare single parenting child abuse.

Grothman also proposes strict cuts in programs that assist single parents with caring for their children, including childcare. He recommended that children spend no more than 40 hours per week in a childcare setting.

According to an audio video on Fox Radio, he targets mothers, wanting to educate them about “abuse and single parenting”, encouraging them not to leave their abusive husbands and go on welfare, telling them they would risk abusing their children to do so. He states that children in two parent households are at lower risk of abuse and believes women know when they are getting into an abusive situation. He believes women purposely have children out of wedlock and abuse their children. He also believes his bill will become law in two years, due to single mothers abusing their children and having children out of wedlock. He even stated that this is not a good reason for birth control for women and believes all women have access to birth control. He also believes women do not become pregnant byaccident. He blames women for the change since the 60s and we should educate women that leaving abusive men and becoming single parents is a mistake.

Thank FSM he is not my senator. Well, maybe not; if he were I could have the unmitigated pleasure of voting against him.