Tax season is here again. I actually did mine a few weeks ago. I filed the federal form online through Turbotax Online
I couldn’t e-file my state form because I was only a part-year resedent
of Massachusettes, and you can’t do that online. I already got my
federal refund back, and am waiting for the state. Who knows how long
that’ll take, MA is really slow with their taxes. I was hoping that by
doing it early I would get it back sooner, but who knows. I did ask for
direct deposit, so at least I don’t have to wait for a check. It is
somewhat satisfying to get a check in the mail from the government, but
I’d rather be surprised that my bank balance is higher than i expected.

I wouldn’t mind paying taxes if they didn’t make it so complicated.
I don’t see how the average person can do it without using an
accountant. The government must make a fortune off of people that don’t
take advantage of all the deductions and other ways of reducing your
taxes. It’s definately worth having someone that knows what they are
doing do your taxes for you. If you own a house, or make more than,
say, $30k/year, you shouldn’t do your own taxes. And really, people
that make less than $12k or so shouldn’t do their own either, because
they may be eligable for the Earned Income Credit, and that’s really
hard to figure out correctly for most people. At the very least, you
should use tax software such as TurboTax, or TaxCut, to do your taxes.
That’s much less expensive than a CPA, and can help save alot of money
in the long run. It knows what to ask and how to figure it all out for
you.

I’ve done all 3 (CPA, myself, and TurboTax) and I prefer TurboTax so
far. I’ll start using a CPA once I meet the requirements I said
earlier. I know that I don’t know enough to do a complex return as well
as it could be done. I could certainly do a good job, but I’m not
trained to get the most out of the tax code. I may not like the way it
is setup, or the complexity, but I’ll take advantage of it when I can.

A pretty slow day today. I bought some seeds to start a vegetable garden, as you may have seen on sabrina’s blog.
It’ll take quite a bit of work to get it going, since we’ll either have
to clear a big chunk of land, or make a raised garden. ‘m currently
planning an 8ft x 4ft plot. I’m going to put in cucumbers (potted, not
in the ground), radishes, a mesclun mix, and bibb lettuce. It’ll be
interesting to see how it goes, I’ve never tried to raise produce
before. We also seem to have a bunny living in the backyard, so it’ll
probably eat all my lettuce.

Clearing the land is going to be the hard part. If it is too
difficult, or the dirt isn’t rich enough, I’ll have to do the raised
garden. Either way we’ll have to buy a bunch of soil, and filling that
big a space is going to take alot of soil. I don’t know if we could
even put that much in the car in one trip. I think it could be fun
though, in a way. If everything grows well it’ll be nice having fresh
salad makings for the summer. It’ll be a month or two before anything
starts to be edible, but then the rest of the summer we can have stuff,
if I plant it right.

I also found a pretty good site
last night for learning various bits of web programming, such as html,
xml, vbscript, javascript, asp, etc. It’s hard to find sites that offer
lessons for free, that aren’t really poorly done. It’s even harder to
find one that has so many areas covered. I read through several of
them, and will keep it in mind for later reference. I’d like to learn
to do more with style sheets, and xml, but don’t really have any
usefull application in mind for it. Until I do, it’s hard to just read
through and get much out of it. I like to have a project to work on
while I learn, rather than just examples and lessons. It’s a worthwhile
site to look at for anyone interested in learning any kind of online
programming.

We sent to Olive Garden tonight to celebrate Sabrina losing 5 pounds
on her diet. We got there pretty early, and so we didn’t have to wait
for a table, which is a nice change. I think it’s only possible if you
get there before 5pm, I’ve never been to an Olive Garden that wasn’t
crowded.

I ordered Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli, which is
my current favorite dish. We had our salad and breadsticks, which were
good as always. Then we got our main dishes, which appeared fine at
first, but after the waiter left, I realized that there was no pasta on
my plate! There was chicken, and broccoli, and sauce, but no
orecchiettes (little pasta shaped similarly to hats). Up until that
point, the waiter had been over to the table to make sure we didn’t
need anything pretty frequently, but of course now that I had something
to say to him, he wasn’t anywhere to be found. I ate what I had and got
about half way through before he came back to see how we were doing. He
was chagrined to see what the problem was, which is a good thing.
There’s nothing worse than a waiter that acts like you are putting them
out because they messed up your food. Apparently someone else had
ordered the same dinner but asked for extra broccoli and no pasta (why
they would do that is beyond me). I’m not sure if I got theirs, or if
the kitchen just made 2 that way and we both got the same thing. He
didn’t seem to think the other person’s was wrong too, so its hard to
say. The other person may have gotten mine afterwards and he hadn’t
found out yet.

In any case, he brought out a bowl of orecchiettes a few
minutes later and I got to eat it with the other half of my chicken and
broccoli, so there wasn’t much harm done. It was fresh and hot too, so
it reheated the rest of my plate, which is nice too. Chilly oil/cream
sauce on pasta would be gross. As an added bonus, he gave us a free
dessert to make up for the mistake, so we got the Black Tie Mousse Cake afterwards.

It’s become a joke that no matter what I order at a restaurant,
there will be something they don’t have. This time I was missing pasta,
but I can’t remember how many times I’ve gone somewhere and they were
missing something else. Usually they are completely out of it and have
to make a substitution. It’s happened frequently at Olive Garden too.
I’ve ordered the same dish in the past, and had to substitute Alfredo
Sauce instead of the garlic cream sauce one time, and bowties for
orecchiette another time. I’ve most frequently had problems with
broccoli for some reason. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone
somewhere and not been able to get it. One time I went to a
restaurant/grill and they didn’t have hamburgers! How can you not have
hamburgers? They were right next to a supermarket too.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I really like the food at Olive
Garden, I don’t think we would ever go. The service is always ok, but
not great, and there seems to be too much staff with too little to do
most of the time. But at the same time, there is always a huge wait
while they stand around, even if there are tables open. Couldn’t they
stop yakking at eachother and clear a table? Waiting around must be
part of the Italian experience.

Why is it so hard to get a restaurant with good food and good
service? The food is generally good most places, but it’s become a
surprise when the service is anything better than mediocre, and usually
closer to poor. We’ve frequently (especially in Boston) had almost
hostile servers. They ask how you are, and if you don’t speak up and
act cheery, they get offended and look at you like you’re retarded or
something. Why do you have to be friends with the server? They’re there
to bring you food, not become your best friend.

Half the time they can’t even do their job properly. They
don’t pay attention, don’t bring your drinks and refills, are always
slow with the bills (you’d think they’d want their money). You have to
wait in a crowd to sit at a little table to have a hostile server bring
overpriced food. At least most places we go give generous portions, so
the price isn’t too offensive. I do enjoy eating out.

Someday I should open my own restaurant and do things the way
we like it. I realize that many people like the suckup service and
false-cheeriness of servers that are at trendy restaurants, but I’d be
much happier with service that is courteous, competent, and
unobtrusive… without having to go to a restaurant that is $150/person
for tiny food that is made to look pretty, and be trendy, rather than
satisfying. They really shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.

My favorite restaurant is Bugaboo Creek.
You get plentiful food, and good service, at a reasonable price. The
decor is a little weird, but despite that I like it. It’s hard to
believe that it is so hard to find somewhere to eat that fits our
style. At least there is one place to go.

As I suspected, we only got a couple inches of snow, I’m not
sure how much it actually is. It didn’t start until late yesterday, and
ended a few hours after midnight, but never was nearly as heavy as the
weather people said it would be. I think it mostly went south of us.
Schools were cancelled for nothing.