Enjoying 80s Poolside

Today we got lost in the time and spent more than 2 1/2 hours by the pool at our apartment. We beat the rush and enjoyed the entire pool to ourselves at 11:30 for almost an hour.

Of course it started to fill up with kids and moms after lunch. There was snot everywhere down there! Tonight we are off to San Diego to visit with Derek, Chad, Katie and Derek's cousin Chris Lyles. Yep, the same guy I graduated high school with. Small world.

Nothing else to report, besides my killer tan! It's supposed to be high 80s tomorrow, so we think we'll enjoy another day at the beach. San Diieego, drink it in! "It's so damn hot. Milk was a bad choice."

Let's Play 60 Questions Shall We?

Today I made it over to the DMV at 2 p.m. with appointment in hand. Appointment is the only way to go at the CA DMV. The place was packed with antsy customers and crying kids. But I got in and out of there in an hours time. Thankfully! I don't know how the workers handle it for 8 hours straight.

Glad Tracy went first and filled me in on all the details regarding proper documentation etc. I took the standard driver license test and managed to pass without studying. Tracy has bragging rights though, as I got three wrong to her two.

I did look over the motorcycle handbook and aced the test, only getting one wrong. Unfortunately, I don't get the neat California ID card until I pass the motorcycle driving test on May 14. No biggie there. My tabs expire on my Minnesota plates at the end of the month, so I'll just risk it for two weeks and get my CA plates on the same date.

All in all, it was a pretty busy week capped off by a trip to the DMV. Tracy and I might head to the beach on Saturday ... temps in the high 80s are calling!

Minnesota, Ohio and California Oh My!

I guess I really shouldn't wait to file my taxes the evening of the deadline. Especially when I had to file in three separate states along with one federal return.

The good news is I was at least organized enough to have all of the necessary tax documents in the same location. The bad news is it took me more than two hours to file so big brother could keep tabs on me.

I started with federal and was OK with the $29.95 Turbo Tax fee. I'm used to that one. Next, I started on Minnesota and learned there was another $39.95 charge to e-File for state taxes. I figured it was an unlimited amount of states for one charge. Boy was I wrong.

After finishing up Minnesota, I moved on to Ohio. It was weird that I had to file in Ohio because I was kind of a vagrant there for six months. I never had a permanent residence and lived in a couple of cities moving from the hotel to apartment. That, and my pay stubs were going to my Minnesota address. Confusing nonetheless, but I guess I did live there so it was accurate. As soon as I was wrapping up Ohio, I learned Turbo Tax was hitting me up for another $39.95. Damn, I was thinking, this a fricken racket and Turbo Tax is the king of racketeering.

At this point I knew Turbo Tax would be digging in to my pants pocket again and bringing out more than lent when I filed for California. You guessed it, another $39.95 for three months in California. Turbo Tax was like my adopted kid from abroad for the year. For just 54 cents a day, you too could have a Turbo Tax to call all your own. It's only the cost of a cup of coffee. Yeah, it cost me $199 to file four returns last night. Not to mention there was a sales tax charge on filing my taxes. That just doesn't seem right.

Fortunately, I planned pretty well for my taxes and I don't have to pay in for any of the four returns. In fact, I broke exactly even for Minnesota. I didn't even know that was possible.

THE BEST NEWS IS: That lost frisbee sort of turned up. Tim surprised me yesterday when I met Tracy, Tim and Laura for lunch with an identical frisbee. Man was I happy. As a side note, Wal-Mart is better than Target for some stuff. Wal-Mart's price on the same frisbee: $8.98.

LOST: $9.99 Frisbee

After cutting out of work early to spend time with Tracy and her brother and mom on Monday, we headed over to Laguna Beach to enjoy the sunny skies, high 70s and the ocean. On our way, we purchased a sweet 175-gram Ultimate Frisbee disc. I had to go for the heaviest on the shelf, knowing how much ocean breezes can impact flight.

After an hour or so of discing with Tim and a little break, we decided to move down the beach to a better tossing location. This was a bad idea. Waves were at high tide and literally breaking at the 9 foot mark. Now, Tim blames me, and I blame him for what happened next. But, in reality, we are both partly to blame and the ocean takes most of the fault. Tim bombed the disc over my head and everybody knows how slow I run. Right as I started to make my break for the disc, a huge wave came crashing in. I normally look like I'm running in slow motion, but this was freeze frame. I missed the disc by a few feet and my two-inch vertical didn't help matters. Next thing I know the disc is rapidly getting sucked back into the great blue abyss. After 20 minutes scanning the massive waves hoping it would wash up, we finally gave up hope. It's probably floating along next to Wilson out there somewhere.

We got about 200 tosses in, so it was like throwing a nickel back and forth for an hour. You could say we really didn't get our monies worth on that one!

Angels Vs. BoSox

We're preparing to head over to Anaheim for the Angels vs. BoSox game today. This marks the fourth baseball park I've watched an MLB game at. Tim, being the hardcore baseball player he is, is pretty amped to watch his first game at an outdoor stadium.

So far I've seen a game at the Metrodome, Indians' Progressive Field and the Padres' Petco Park. We'll post some pictures of the fun. We're in Row C in the lower deck right field with four aisle seats. Maybe I'll catch a dinger from Torii with two iis. Or, maybe I'll have to fight Tracy, Laura and Tim for it!