THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

M and A in Atlanta

As noted in the previous post, we were there for some estate stuff and for Ann's mother's 92nd birthday.

One of the things we did was visit the Atlanta Aquarium.

We were taken there in a Lincoln Towncar (the car belonged to the place that Ann's mom lives in). We then got picked up after our aquarium visit by the same vehicle. Yes it is a nice car to ride in but personally I prefer to drive small cars because, among other things, sooner or later there will be a parking problem with the big ones.

One of the interesting things at the aquarium is a tank that visitors can sort of walk through.

posted by Martin Weiss # 4:17 PM

Sunday, October 26, 2008

M Continues the Breakage

A and M are in Atlanta for a few days to visit Ann's mom and do some estate work.

Ann's mom had provided us with, among other things, a nice jar of Smucker's jam. Within a few hours of placing the jar near the refrigerator in the guest room, M knocked the jar on the floor and it broke.

This makes 5 items broken or spilled in 3 days.

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:55 PM

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Some Spillage;
some Breakage

I spilled wine twice this shabbath. Once was during supper on Friday. I was reaching for the salad dressing and knocked over Ann's half filled glass. Then during Havdalah, I knocked over a smaller glass.

While cleaning the second spill, Ann knocked over one of our crystal candlesticks (I got those as a 35 year service award). Then putting the plastic salad serving tongs, she broke those.

Oh well.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:38 PM

Friday, October 24, 2008

Annual Leave Credit

I always wondered how long it would take to get paid for the unused annual leave I had accumulated.

The HR person in charge had said it would take 6 weeks and they would make the credit on a pay date. Instead they made the credit at the end of a pay period (the week between pay dates).

Whatever. It's very nice to see it show up in the account balance.

posted by Martin Weiss # 9:53 AM

Monday, October 20, 2008

A Lemon Basil Story

I have a patch of lemon basil growing in the front yard at the base of a telephone pole.

We are now in the 3rd week of utility work on our street.

Today I was speaking with one of the utility company workers. He asked me what the plant was that was growing around the base of the telephone pole. I told him it was lemon basil. He told me that it smells really good and the hispanic workers who are with the construction company that is actually doing the work (the utility company workers are supervising and monitoring) say that this plant is good medicine. I told him I use it in soup and stews.

He asked me if I had ever used it for tea. I answered "no" and told him that he had my permission to remove some and take it home and rout it in his yard. I did warn him that the plant is aggressive and will force out and choke off small annuals.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:53 AM

Friday, October 17, 2008

Can a Dream Be Covert

I dreamt that I had been hired by the CIA to facilitate a discussion between Michail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

For some reason I had a 3-ring binder I had to carry around. I was driven in a limo to a hotel (similar to the Washington Marriot near DuPont Circle) to pick up all three and then we were driven to some meeting place.

The three of them began speaking in the limo and I had to shuush them because they weren't supposed to speak until we got to where ever the discussion was to take place. I did discover there was some chocolate in the limo and I passed the chocolate to the three.

Then I woke up.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:23 PM

Friday, October 10, 2008

The Repentance of the Raincoat

My wife borrowed a raincoat on Rosh Hashanah as we were having an unexpected rain on the way home from the morning service.

The day before Yom Kippur, G and I returned the raincoat. We knocked at the door and said the raincoat was doing T'Shuvah.

This is a pun because the route of the word "to return" and "to repent" is the same word.

The people who lent us the raincoat got the pun.

I'm told (by G) that there are a number of normative legends (Midrash) which deal with inanimate objects somehow finding their way to the proper owner.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:45 AM

Friday, October 03, 2008

Another Successful Traffic related Court Appearance for George

Some time ago, G went to the grocery store 1 mile away to get some plastic cup. He was in a rush and got a traffic ticket.

After first contesting the ticket and losing, G appealed to the circuit court, then pleaded guilty and received a probation before judgement (a.k.a., a PBJ which is also the acronym for Peanut Butter and Jelly) which means it won't appear on the traffic record which goes to the insurance company.

G has 'gamed the system' a few other times (see the entries in this blog for Mar 6, 2006, Sept 26, 2006 and Jan 30, 2008).

Upon his return home with the news, he said, "Well the lesson here is that the next time I get a traffic ticket, I'm going to...."

I responded, "but you could just drive more carefully and not get a ticket."

G then said, "Yeah, but there are so many traffic laws that you are sure to break them....".

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:28 AM

The Saga Ends

We received a notice dated Sept 29 from the IRS conceding (but not in so many words) that we were correct and not the IRS regarding the notice we received in July saying that the IRS owed us $380 (based on correspondence between us and the IRS going back to March 2008 on this issue (there have been other issues).

We responded in Aug that we were not owed money but the IRS was. They recalculated and agreed we owed them $126.

Next step will be revising my 2006 Maryland return; then I'll have to redo my 2007 returns (because of some capital gains stuff).

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:20 AM