Taxes and Second Life

This year, for the first time in my life, someone else prepared our tax returns. It was so easy! We just provided the accountant with the W-2s, 1099s, and expenses - he prepared and filed the return within a few days - have no clue what he charged for the service, but it will be deductible next year, I bet. I used to take a week off from work and labor over the phone bills, the American Express annual reports, and checkbook. I could get used to paying someone else for that priviledge.

I've been exploring Second Life a little more, recently - my avatar is a goth female named "Annot8 Greatrex". I'm still getting used to controlling her movements with the mouse - my mouse is so sensitive, if I move it too much, either Annot8 spins around, or the world spins around. Funny, but if you're trying to go somewhere, you could be walking into walls or falling off roofs! Not great for first impressions. An interesting convention in Second Life is that your name floats in a balloon over your head, and when you're typing in the chat window, your avatar's hands click on an imaginary keyboard, so others can see you're about to say something!

I met some nice folks at the Alliance Second Life Library last night, and I'm going to attend my first event in Mystery Manor on Wednesday - "Dropping the other gumshoe," a mystery book discussion group. I haven't read the book, but I'm curious to see how the discussion goes.

SacTown Architecture

Lately, now that it's light when I go home from work, there have been some dramatic views of the buildings downtown with the late afternoon sun shining on them. Here are two photos I took this month. The pink one is the US Bank Building that shares the block and parking garage with the Central Library. I took it as I was waiting for Marty to pick me up after work. The photo on the right is the First Northern Bank building on the corner of 7th and J, where I catch the bus to go home.

These photos were taken with my cell phone; but even my digital camera could not do justice to the scenes. It's tough to photograph buildings in close quarters.

This 'n' That

I'm going to do my first adult program for Central Library on Thursday: "Use Your Library @ Home." It was conceived after my presentation to the Sacramento PC Users Group last month - my supervisor thought it would be a good program for the public. Publicity was sparse - fliers at the service desks, so I don't know what kind of response we'll have.

Laurel is making plans to attend a summer class at Sac State offered by the Academic Talent Search program. This program makes enrichment classes available to students in grades 6-9 during the summer and during Spring Break. Right now, she's looking at a class in Constitutional Law; if that doesn't work out, then her plan B is Beginning Latin. She will also be taking a lifeguarding course in April; we don't think she'll get a lifeguarding job this summer, because she waited too long to apply. But we are investigating a few long-term volunteer opportunities she can work at, to meet her 35-hour community service requirement.

Pat's Mitsubishi died. Rings, I think he said. He's looking for another car now, and will be VERY happy when he finds one. It's been hard for him to find transportation to and from work because his shift is 4 a.m to 9 a.m. I printed the Frequency-of-Repair record from the April Consumer Reports, along with the list of cars to avoid. We'll help him finance another car, with the understanding that he chooses one that has a reputation for reliability and will last him for a while.

Marty is working on a revision of Internet Gaming Law and preparing for more conferences abroad. Next one, I think, will be held in Ireland again - this time in Dublin proper, which will allow him to spend more time visiting the culturally significant sites in the city.

Little Plum Blossoms

This is what happens when you go away for a week: when I left Sacramento at the end of February, the daily temps were ranging from the low 30s to the low 60s. When I returned one week later, it was not only 15 degrees warmer generally, but all the blossoms had popped out! These are blossoming ornamental plum trees in the parking area of our townhome complex. The street side showcases white ornamental cherries, as does the area behind our unit. It's gorgeous! Folks are planting pansies and cyclamen, and the ornamental dogwoods ("orchid trees") are also in full blossom down the street.

There's something about all the color that comes after grey winter days that cheers the soul.

Home Again

The flight from Honolulu to Sacramento yesterday was mostly smooth, with a few bumps about halfway. My seat-mate was a nice young man who lives in Honolulu with his wife and son, and works in Redding. He builds fire trucks, and has a painting booth where he paints semis (Wal*Mart is one of his clients.) He is a weekly commuter!

Today was a nice soft entry to the working world - an all-day leadership workshop about planning for the future. Tomorrow I go back to my regular routine at Central Library. I think I forgot to buy my March bus pass, so I'll have to pay cash for my fare in the morning.

Tomorrow I'll see about scanning some of the photos I brought back from Mom's collection. This time, I was concentrating on the Soutars; next September, when I go back, I'll pick up the Crosswells. I also need to burn a CD to send to Nicola for the book she's working on about the history of the theatre in Jamaica.

Tonight I installed skype on Marty's laptop and created a user account for him. That way, when he goes to Ireland, or Cancun, or Montreal, or Las Vegas, we can do the video thing. I installed it on David's laptop before I left Hawaii, and his daughter's eyes lit right up: her boyfriend lives in Australia!

Sackatomatoes .. and avos

I was doing some last-minute shopping this afternoon, and came across this display of avocados and tomatoes in Daiei. I've become accustomed to the tiny, dark, rough-skinned Hass avocados we have in Sacramento, so seeing these big-as-a papaya, smooth-skinned ones brought back memories for me. (But check out how pale the tomatoes are!)

The other thing I did today was go back to King Digital and pick up the photos and scrapbook pages and the shiny new gold archival CD with the scanned images. They were saved as HUGE .tiff files, so will probably have to be converted to .jpg or .pdf in order to be able to send them by e-mail or post to the web. The images are photos of Una Soutar, mostly, and her sisters Etta and Rita. They were actresses, and the photos show them costumed for their parts. I also had them scan ten pages from Grannie's scrapbook, with reviews of the plays. The photos and scrapbook pages are crumbling into dust, and I wanted to preserve them. Since I want to send some of the images to Nicola for the book about the history of theatre in Jamaica she is working on, the local photographer who took our family portrait four years ago recommended King Digital Photos as the best place to get them scanned for publication. The shop did a great job. I'll have to convert the files to another format in order to share them, though.

Hawaii, Day Seven

Today was my last full day in Hawaii. I leave around noon tomorrow to go back to winter in Sacramento, CA. Marty iand Laurel are eagerly awaiting my return - I'll get in to Sacramento around 9 p.m. Mom says she enjoyed my visit.

I was supposed to have lunch with Aunt Jo this afternoon, but she called early this morning to cancel, because she wasn't feeling well enough. We chatted a few minutes on the phone this evening, and I'll call her again before I leave tomorrow.

Dave, Lea, and Kathy returned this evening from their 6-day whirlwind tour of the east coast, and they are exhausted. No lights or sounds next door, so I think they're making it an early night. Lea will take me to the airport tomorrow.

I went to Kaiser this afternoon to have a sliver of glass removed from my foot - the doc thinks he got it, and my foot mostly doesn't hurt any more. It was so stupid! I was wearing slippers that were rubbing blisters on my toes, so after a walk on the beach on Saturday, I decided to go barefoot for one block to let the sand dry so I could brush it off and put the slippers back on. Somewhere in that block, I acquired a sliver of glass near my little toe in a spot that I couldn't see when I turned my foot up. So I limped around Saturday and Sunday, and went to Kaiser today. At least my tetanus shot is up to date.

Kailua Beach on Friday Morning

I've been walking on the beach every weekday morning - it's only two blocks away - and the weather's been cooperative. The first photo is the "for sale" sign on Punahou School's cottage. Have no idea what the asking price is, but for beachfront property, I'm betting it's a couple of million. The next two photos are of the beach - looking toward the Marine Corps Battalion Headqarters on the Mokapu Peninsula.

I can't tell you how many hours of my life I've spent lying on the sand, body surfing, and walking up and down this beach with my dogs. It's almost a ritual to do the sunrise walk.

Yesterday, though, I got a sliver of glass in my foot and I can't seem to get it out. It's in a place on the little-toe side of the ball of my foot, just where I can't see it. Lilly tried to fish it out yesterday, but I think she only succeeded in embedding it more deeply, so when Isy comes tomorrow, I think I'll trot down to the Kaiser clinic and have a professional take a look. Can't be limping in the airport tomorrow - too far to walk!

Mural, Mural on the Wall

My niece visited this afternoon about lunchtime and mentioned the mural she is painting on the front wall of her house next door. It's between the front door and the garage, and is based on a smaller work. I decided to take this photo and display it on the laptop for mom to see. Somehow Picasa thought I wanted to blog it, so I decided to oblige. I'll add some photos I took at the beach to my next post.