I call DH in the morning to make sure he made it to work (sometimes this takes several calls), and again in the afternoon to cover logistics and make sure he's actually looked at the calendar, and won't be blind-sided by something we've had set up for weeks. This also may take several calls, because we have an open office, and if he decides something is my fault I just have to hang up. None of these calls takes very long.

::points to bt and Hec, nods vigorously::

Not to pile on, Gud, but I just get a constant sense of despair from you, that you're either bent over with woe or trying painfully hard and frustrated that none of the trying works, and there's never a word from you that your wife is also despairing or trying or feeling anything but aggrieved at you for not doing everything right.

ION, frell frell frell. I just spent 2 1/2 hours going over our taxes on the online version of TurboTax, and I can't make it tell me anything except that we owe a total of nearly $700. How can that possibly be, when last year we didn't even claim Emmett and this year we do?

I'm kind of hating TurboTax right now. It's making me feel stupid and clueless and it's not explaining anything; the free program we used last year had a very clumsy, ugly, slow interface and took three tries to accept any information I gave it, but at least it showed me little mock-ups of every single line in our tax return and let me track everything I was doing as I did it.

TurboTax is just asking me things that don't seem to make any sense and absorbing my answers and then, after an endless string of irrelevant questions about my advertising and mining-related expenses for the lousy $200 I earned at Faire (which apparently bumped us up a tax bracket, as it instantly increased our federal taxes due by $150), abruptly says HA HA STUPID MATH-INEPT FUCKO, YOU OWE THE FEDS BIG FAT MONEY. EAT IT! OH, THAT'S RIGHT, YOU CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO EAT ANYTHING! HA HA!

It's possible that I am reading a bit much into the tone of its responses. But, really, I think not.

JZ -- ITurbo Tax made me feel stupid and computer illiterate and I was doing a simple 1040EZ form. I did get to the point where I found out how much I was getting back, but the website made me feel so stupid and useless I didn't trust it.

I finally gave up and tried HR Block -- it's much easier to use PLUS I got more money back.

JZ, I (just noticed that askye said the same thing) think it might be worth going in to H&R Block and seeing what they say. That doesn't sound right to me, and why drive yourself crazy figuring it out.

Oh! I had a very cool dream last night. Lots of interesting stuff, but the best part was that there were these three pikas (a fourth had died, sadly) that I had to take back to their home (in Alaska, which is apparently a short flight from Melbourne these days).

I slash my zeroes.

When I had easier access to a phone at work, Hubby would call me up just to tell me whatever silly joke had popped into his head. He always said that if he didn't get it out of his head it would fester and turn into something dreadful, and no one wanted that to happen.

Also, as he just said, climbing up on something and howling because you're lonely might work in the wolf world but is frowned upon in polite human society.

edit: Now he's afraid people are going to consider him sensitive and heartwarming. I think I'll tell him to belch or something.

I used to call Bec every day, usually more than once. And now I call the Wallybee pretty much every day, though I wait for lunchtime. And thanks to the marvels of modern technology, I also send her lots of text messages. Long ones. Often four tiny texty pages long. I had to enter "Penguin" into my phone's dictionary! That is all shades of wrong!

When Dave is at work we usually e-mail each other a few times a day. Usually just quick notes. When I was working or when I'm in school he usually sends an e-mail to my cellphone to make me laugh and let me know he is thinking of me.

I'm going to weigh in with Insane Troll Mom. Wacky.

ION, here's a blog that asks the question, "What if the cast of House played characters in Casablanca?"