(no subject)

[blinker]

I'm not so much with the updates lately, but I'm still alive and well. What's new?

I have started figuring out how to file taxes as a same-sex married couple. TurboTax is mostly up to the challenge, but I will have to enter all of our data twice if we want to do a joint state return. I'm getting stuck on the health insurance stuff because I can't figure out whether Kelly's school reported it properly. If I were smart, I would have found an accountant.

In addition to income tax hell, I have also been dealing with property tax hell. Somerville still has our property assessed as a single-family even though it's a two-unit condominium. We are supposed to split the property tax with the upstairs neighbors based on our percentage shares of the property, but their lender keeps paying the entire bill even though they ask them not to. This screws things up in a major way, but we'll get assessed separately in July and then everything should run more smoothly.

Kelly has officially been accepted into the Educational Leadership program at Simmons. She's going to start classes this summer. It's going to be a busy couple of years, but it'll be worth it. Someday, she'll be running a high school and I bet she'll be really good at it.

My job is going okay. My team got moved out of our dingy, restroom-less first-floor space and now we have sunny cubicles on the fifth floor. The first day after we moved, I managed to lock the keys to my desk inside one of the drawers. Don't ask how that happened. Fortunately, office furniture keys are very interchangeable.

Speaking of work stuff, I need to say thank you to stevenredux. When I lost my job last year, he suggested that I take the opportunity to do some writing and offered to introduce me to an editor. That opportunity didn't pan out, but I had an article published on another web site a few weeks ago and I'm starting work on a second one. If I can get three or four things published this year, that will be a good start. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction, Steven.

Morgan Lechat is doing pretty well. We got his medication straightened out and he's been energetic lately so I'm optimistic that he's no longer starving. Kelly's going to take him to get weighed while she's on vacation this week.

Kelly and I are going to New Mexico to see danger_chick over Memorial Day weekend. That is going to be totally fun. We are also investigating some summer vacation options, but we can't plan anything definite yet.

Speaking of planning, our commitment ceremony is doomed. We nixed the last weekend in June because Kelly will be starting school and it's the week after my cousin's bar mitzvah. So we were thinking about Columbus Day weekend, but then I looked at the calendar and realized that it's the weekend between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That's not a good weekend for a party. Since the high holidays are so late this year, we may have to find a random weekend in September. We haven't picked a Chinese restaurant yet either. We are so not the poster children for gay marriage.

Comments

[points.livejournal.com]

The offer for the use of my space is still open, should you want it. :)

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for the offer. I don't suppose you know how to cook Chinese food? :)

How's your work on the house coming along? I hope we can come out and meet the dogs sometime this summer.

[points.livejournal.com]

It isn't my best 'subject,' but I can pick it back up, or try and import some help. ;)

Visit anytime, the dogs don't mind. :)

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

Be sure to eat lots of green chile in New Mexico! I'm sure everyone will know all the best New Mexican restaurants to get your fill of tamales, sopaipillas, and chiles rellenos, but I will recommend that at least once you visit that paragon of New Mexican low culture, Blakes Lotaburger. A green chile hamburger, a cherry shake, and their special fries = bliss, especially if it's from a tiny restaurant off the highway in the middle of nowhere. I can't remember if you are vegetarian, though, which may pose a problem. :/

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

All I have heard about Lotaburger is that it should be renamed to Lotafoodpoisoning. If you know of any good restaurant recommendations, send them my way. I haven't done enough exploring in SF and ABQ for good restaurants.

My last guest tried the all Sonic Burger diet and I think it nearly killed him or his heart.

[missdimple.livejournal.com]

God! I haven't thought about Lotaburger and Sonic Burger for a long time. Well, that's not entirely true. I saw a Sonic Burger commercial up here, of all things. As I recall, though...they're both NASTY! Though, if you asked zz, he'd tell you that Sonic Burger rocks, if I remember correctly.

blech!

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I love green chiles. And hamburgers. Thanks for the tip. danger_chick still has a few months to scout out good restaurants and adventures for us. Kelly and I have never been to New Mexico, so we're both really excited to go.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I have never gotten food poisoning from Blake's but maybe the one in Los Alamos is unusually sucky. All my recommendations are going to be ten years old but for New Mexican food my parents still swear by Tomasita's in Santa Fe and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, which is also a good, well, cultural thing to go to, especially if they have dances scheduled.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I have never gotten food poisoning from Blake's but maybe the one in Los Alamos is unusually sucky.

For the record, there are next to no restaurants in LA. The closest Blake's is in SF.

I've heard that Tomasita's is good, but I haven't eaten there yet.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'm still perplexed that everyone I know seems to know danger_chick, everyone through some kind of different connection, and I don't! Was I absent that day or something?

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you haven't met her. I think you've been at some of the same parties (at least one of Bitty and Dennis' BBQ parties).

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize he was a friend of Dennis's.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

He went to Amherst.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

I know for a fact you were both at at least one party simultaneously, as I saw you both there.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I'm still perplexed that everyone I know seems to know danger_chick, everyone through some kind of different connection

Bwaahahahaha! I'm every where!

and I don't!

We have met and, apparently, you don't remember! I think the last time we talked we were holding a banner for GLADD and blowing bubbles at newly married same sex couples.

[stevenredux.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I have started figuring out how to file taxes as a same-sex married couple.

Oh, yeah, we have to deal with that one of these days too.

Somerville still has our property assessed as a single-family even though it's a two-unit condominium.

Crossed wire somewhere. Cambridge still has our house assessed as a two-family, even though it isn't. This costs us money.

Speaking of planning, our commitment ceremony is doomed.

Well, your planning is ahead of ours, in a sense -- we're not planning to have one.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Well, your planning is ahead of ours, in a sense -- we're not planning to have one.

I think that once you make that decision, you're done planning, so you two are ahead.

[lcohen]

labor day is no good? i have a sing that weekend but i would celebrate with you instead. (note me assuming i'd be invited.)

kelly will be excellent at running a high school--congrats to her on getting into the program!

NM will be so much fun--have a great trip and say hi from me!

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Kelly says to tell you hi and thanks!

Labor Day is a possibility, but we haven't really figured it out yet. Whenever we get our act together to schedule something, you'll totally be invited.