I hope Lehane's dog comes back unscathed...it's just funny, mystery writer looking for something...

When were you supposed to get paid, tommyrot? I got the stub for today's paycheck yesterday or something, with the increased payroll tax accounted for.

Usually my boss submits the payroll on the 1st and I get paid the 4th or 5th. This month my boss couldn't submit payroll until just now (because folks at the payroll co were still figuring stuff out or something), and I get paid on the 8th.

Dunno why it took them three days. Originally they said the delay would be one day.

I am trying to figure out if the payroll tax is gonna be a big pain to me. I think it eats what I was about to start putting away each check to my IRA.

I wonder where I can re-claim that money? - Maybe I can sit with McPhee and see if we can cut down on cleaning supplies a bit
- since I just got several pairs of shoes and several dresses this fall, I can probably start another year of no new clothes shoes and limit any purchases to re-sell situations
- I need to ban myself from any new cosmetic purchases for a year, aside from foundation
- no new music or movies either (just looked at year-end entertainment spending)
- Dunkin once a week would cut that spending by more than half
- And bringing my lunch to work would help tremendously.

I feel a "use the food in my house" thing happening. Look out - my posts are gonna get real navel-gazey.

Illinois effectively never did have a payroll tax holiday because they instantly upped state taxes by the same amount when it was originally passed. But now I guess we get both.

It aggravated me mostly because, like all the state and local governments sloughing workers, it completely undercut the very premise of stimulus, and then people are all "stimulus didn't work!"

[Noting, of course, that that is the issue from my at-a-remove distance; obviously for people living closer to the edge or who were those state and local workers, the impact is far more immediate.]

I'm pretty sure DH and I are both making just enough money right now to be royally screwed by the payroll tax hike.

How so? It's a flat percentage, isn't it? So I wouldn't think income level would affect it differently. (Unless you hit the cap, where above roughly $110K it stops accumulating at all.)

I wonder if that cap is on AGI or net? AGI, I assume, but I haven't bothered to check.

In better payroll news, I just got my W-2s.

Weird. I make more than I thought I did.

The cap is on gross.

So are you guys ready for your big update?

The fly did not actually make it out the window. I only thought he did. He is now perched back in the same place, and the window is open and the blind is down and it's 28 degrees! He just flew between the top bits of the window, but cannot make it to the open half.

It's nothing ~ma!