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Our Daily Thread 3-27-14

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from me.

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On this day in 1794 Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Navy.   

In 1836, in Goliad, TX, about 350 Texan prisoners, including their commander James Fannin, were executed under orders from Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. An estimated 30 Texans escaped execution. 

In 1912 the first cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington, DC. The trees were a gift from Japan. 

In 1952 the U.S. Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.  

And in 1958 the U.S. announced a plan to explore space near the moon. 

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Quote of the Day

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”

Dr. Seuss

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Today is Robert “Junior” Lockwood’s birthday.

And it’s Tony Bank’s as well.

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Anyone have a QoD?

43 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-27-14”

  1. so the doll house is now a ktten house! What fun
    like the Dr. Seuss quote. My favorite is boooks you can sing – Baby Beluga especially. Two of my granddaughters would listen to me sing this to them while staring intently at the pictures at six months old or younger.

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  2. getting ready for my excursion to a sports of some sort that is two hours or more away. Prayers for safety on the roads appreciated. we do not take that for granted.
    I set up two flea bombs in my place today. Now I am wiping down surfaces wondering how much cleaning I need to do. another night on the coach.

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  3. It’a Mouse in the house! What an adorable picture, glowing eyes and all. And what a nice house your daughter has that has been taken over by a squatter. They have rights, you know!

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  4. A DOLL HOUSE!
    I was wondering what that was.
    The cherry blossoms should be blooming abut now. They are beautiful around the tidal basin.
    It’s always chilly when you go to see them.

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  7. MUMSEEE! Booooooooooooooooo

    😆

    I didn’t know that!
    I see in the Times-News that Boise State has a trademark on blue artificial turf.
    “Due to Brevard High School sharing its football field with Brevard College, Boise State University has denied the high school’s request to put down blue turf at Brevard Memorial Stadium”.

    OK. Make it green..

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  8. Chas, All the festivities were this week but due to the horrendous weather, they won’t actually bloom for another week or two (I heard on the news).

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  11. KBells, dunno.
    The uniforms are the deep blue like the Boise uniforms.
    I suspect Boise started that to intimidate opposing teams. But that only works so long.
    I’m sure all their opponents are over that now.

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  13. Question of the day?

    Have you ever felt harassed by the IRS or any governmental agency?

    Many years ago when I was a stay at home mom and husband had a regular
    job, he did income taxes on the side at our home in his office in our home. One day we received notice that we were being scheduled for an audit. Can you believe this? Our audit was scheduled for April 15th!!! It was always the worst day of tax season for us will last minute finishings of returns for people. But my husband went along with their request and we had our audit in home on April 15th. To top it off, the lady IRS agent told me she felt sorry for me being a stay at home mom. Don’t know how she could say such a thing seeing how adorable our son was. 🙂 And, by the way, she did not find one thing wrong with our return.

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  15. Mouse likes the doll house. She’s in the 3rd floor bedroom, and likes to go out on the deck. She’s been trying to figure out how to get to the attic, but hasn’t mastered it yet.

    I must say this little mouse has brought a great deal of joy to our house. 🙂

    And Peter, cats think they’re the masters of ALL domains. 🙂

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  16. Cute Princess Mouse 🙂 She does appear to be quite the Diva …. and much fun for certain 🙂
    Jo I sent a FB request too…in case you are wondering who that request is from…I’m not a stalker 🙂
    Where’s Kim?

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  17. I am alive and well.
    As a child I had cats and didn’t have a dog. I thought it was highly unfair that my cats didn’t have a home like dogs did. My grandfather built them one. My mother was highly embarrassed when I told any and all that I had a cathouse, I scored a dog soon after.

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  20. My husband and I were audited about six years ago. Congress had changed a law pertinent to military personnel and house sales, and we were able to recoup the capital gains taxes we’d paid in 1998. So we refiled.

    That triggered the audit.

    It was a surreal experience. We carried in our box of information, had to put it through a metal detector at the US government building and were sent to a room down the hall in a seemingly empty, echoing building.

    There we entered a reception area with white walls, a camera and a red phone on the wall. Signs ordered us to not take out our cell phones, pick up the red phone and announce ourselves.

    No one sat behind the counter. Through a security window, we saw people walking back and forth but no one looked our way.

    Silence. White walls. No people. No answer on the phone.

    We looked at each other and shrugged, wondering if the IRS was trying to intimidate us.

    Tried again on the phone and a distant voice advised us someone would come out. Just be patient.

    So we waited.

    When the plump middle aged woman finally joined us, she led us to a small dark room featuring the door we entered and a two-way security window. One desk, three chairs, one handheld calculator.

    I’d worn a dress just in case, but the IRS worker had on jeans and tennis shoes. She was a Coast Guard wife.

    (Score!)

    Who had never heard of the law change, though she’d looked it up. She started going through our tax return from six or seven years before (the one we had refiled). She punched numbers into her calculator. My husband got one out of his pocket and they compared.

    I sat and prayed.

    “How did you do these taxes?” The auditor asked.

    “Turbo Tax.”

    She smiled. “No problem then.”

    By the time we finished, she had found an error–in our favor–and checked everything. We were home free.

    However, she needed to review some tax forms included in our return. THE IRS COULD NO LONGER ACCESS THEM, DID WE HAVE A COPY?

    We loved it. We went home, printed the empty forms from our 1998 Turbo Tax floppy disk and I dropped them off at the office the next day.

    We got all our money back, along with eight years of interest . . .

    Our feeling has always been, if you’re honest you have nothing to fear.

    I prayed anyway. 🙂

    And we always use Turbo Tax. 🙂

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  23. I don’t think it makes any difference, either, Michelle. I would think he was average, since we are told there was nothing remarkable about his physical looks. I am sure being very, very short or very, very tall would be commented on, at some point. There is no talk of his height intimidating anyone or anyone looking down on him. My husband always complains about that, himself. 😉

    We were audited many years ago, because of taking a deduction for driving my children to a private school. We considered that a reimbursement by the government for cost. The government considered it a business income. Of course, that meant we could deduct things also. An acquaintance, who did tax preparation, helped us fill out the forms and the IRS ended up owing us. It is intimidating to be audited at all.

    Karen–very wise about scheduling the carpet cleaning. I was praying about your situation and the story of Susanna Wesley came to my mind. I remembered how she used to put her apron over her head to alert the children she was not to be disturbed. Talk about not having a break! You have a lot on your plate right now, for sure. It will all be worth it someday. You will know you always tried your best to do what you believed was right.

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  24. Oh Kim..now that is funny…I could just imagine the look on a mother’s face as her sweet adorable little girl makes that announcement 🙂
    Never been audited…not yet anyway….we use Tax Act software…it’s interesting when you put in certain numbers…a warning will coming up telling you that you had better save your receipts! We will probably be audited one day…Paul is very meticulous about having all his ducks in a row to verify everything he enters on our forms…
    I guess I have always imagined Jesus as being average height…I don’t believe it really matters though…He is God after all…..

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  25. Michelle, some of those places look more impressive from the distance.
    Central Park, but that isn’t the only one.

    None at all. I suspect Jesus was shorter than 6′ because people were generally shorter then.

    I had a mail audit once. IRS questioned my charity donations and wanted verification. I sent copies of receipts. Never heard from them again.

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  26. I was thinking of people being shorter back then, too. Jesus was probably average in height for back in those days as others have guessed.

    Michelle, what you wrote about going in for the audit reminded me that the entry room when I did the tax auditor co-op position was very much like that. We had what was known as mass audit days when the recdptionist would call us to come oug front and get the taxpayer’s file at the same time we would get with the taxpayer. There was no time to review before we saw the person which could feel awkward. We had cubicle booths back then and security was not so tight. I was so young looking that one person thought I was an intern taking them to the auditor. They were relieved not to get some old crusty person. Many people did get refunds from going in for an audit. I enjoyed that.

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  27. Chas, you reminded me, too, that I had wanted to work with the correspondence auditing (mail audits). I was so shy and would have preferred not having to get with all those people. They all came in the door afraid, but I was afraid, too. It was a pretty responsible kind of job for a college student.

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  28. Hi all. It’s been busy, and I didn’t have a chance to read yesterday’s threads until today.

    AJ, thanks for the Beethoven yesterday. I love all five of his piano concertos.

    Today I got to practice my Beethoven sonata on the piano I’ll be performing on Saturday night. It’s a beautiful old Steinway grand. You’ll get to see and hear it if I can get my piece recorded in practice and uploaded to YouTube tomorrow, as I am hoping. And if you’re interested, you’ll also see me wearing those shoes several of you convinced me to buy last December. 😉

    The show organizer sent out an email to all the participants today with the tentative program attached, asking if we wanted any change in the order she determined. There are nine acts (two duos and seven soloists) doing approximately two dozen pieces. I play fifth of the nine, just before the intermission. I’m okay with that — anything but first or last! Too much pressure (in my opinion, anyway) to start or finish the program, but I can handle being the last one in the first half; in fact I think it’s one of the best positions I could have gotten. 🙂

    It looks like it will be a good show with a lot of variety — some spirituals, a couple Joplin rags, Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words”, “This Land Is Your Land”, “I’m Just a Poor Wayfaring Stranger”, and lots more. The last number (as the program now stands) is “All of Me”, by Jon Schmidt of PianoGuys fame. Can’t wait to hear that one!

    I’m really excited to be a part of this program! If you’d like to start (or continue) prayers for me as I wind down my preparations and head into performing (recording tomorrow, and playing for a live audience Saturday), that I won’t be excessively nervous, and that I will keep in mind that in everything, God is to get the glory, I would be most grateful.

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  29. I should point out, in case it wasn’t clear, that “All of Me” was written by Jon Schmidt, but he won’t be there to actually play it. 😉 But if he were, then I would really not be able to wait to hear that!

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  30. French satellites.
    Japanese satellites
    Thai satellites
    Who puts all those satellites into orbit?
    If you can put a satellite into orbit, you have ICBM capability.

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  32. Misten has had a nice last 24 hours. First off, about this time last night she got to herd her deer (or at least she thought she did–I looked out to see her in the back corner, barking, and a couple of deer just heading into the woods; whether they moved because of her, I don’t know) and when my husband called her, she came galloping, full of her good deed for the day.

    This morning my husband fed her breakfast a couple minutes early and I fed her on time (a few minutes after the hour, but soon enough to her “feeding time” that I didn’t bother to doublecheck whether he’d fed her); when I found out about the duplication, she had happily chowed down more than half of her second breakfast in ten minutes. (I removed about half a cup, but she did get an extra cup, her biggest meal ever.)

    And then she got to visit with one of her very favorite people. And our whole family is home this week, which pleases her.

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  34. Misten was sharp in not giving away that she had Second Breakfast. Isn’t that what hobbits had in the Lord of the Rings?
    🙂

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  36. Well, I survived babysitting Forrest last night & then again this morning into this afternoon, though I was very tired.

    Tomorrow night, Emily & Chrissy are going to their cousin’s wedding, & then Emily has class all day on Saturday. R says he’ll be fine to have Forrest spend Friday night & Saturday with him, but I can’t quite trust him to follow through.

    Say a little prayer, please, that he doesn’t cancel on us again. (Actually, it is Forrest he cancels on.)

    The cousin that is getting married is my only & only niece (& I have no nephews), the one who cut off our relationship a year ago. She is marrying a “trans man”.

    Speaking of weddings, this is the second evening wedding I’ve heard of lately. Is this a new trend? Or have evening weddings been popular for a long time? The weddings I’ve attended have all been late morning or early afternoon weddings.

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  39. Karen, Misten isn’t particularly a fast eater (she doesn’t wolf her food), but she usually eats it until it’s gone. This morning she finished her first breakfast and left the kitchen before I knew she had been fed, and was halfway through her second one by the time I found out she’d already had one earlier–so she ate twice within ten minutes. (Yes, it occurred to me that “second breakfast” is very hobbit-like. The funny thing is, occasionally Misten turns down her breakfast, and she did so once this week. She’s more interested in supper, as a rule. Yet today she ate nearly all of two breakfasts, and that after having two treats a few minutes before that, when I had groomed her.)

    Evening weddings have always been an option. They just are more formal–more formal attire for those in the wedding, and an expectation that dinner will be served at the reception. I chose an afternoon wedding for both reasons–I didn’t want it ultra formal, nor could I afford to serve a meal. Two o’clock in the afternoon kept me from having any guest expecting a meal, and also allowed the bride and groom to leave the reception while it was still a reasonable hour. We weren’t having cocktails or dancing anyway, so it was able to be a simple reception.

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  40. My dogs ‘wolf,’ too, but I think it’s because there are two of them.

    We had a 2-hour “open house” for the public at the paper tonight — lots of very loyal readers showed up (early), with people pointing to our name tags & saying “Oh! I’ve read your name for years!” 🙂 Sweet. Most of them were on the older side, but we also had some city officials and politicians show up — maybe 100 in all? Good turnout at any rate. As I left the building, there was a woman, maybe 4-foot 10-inches, gray hair, trying to get in (I let her in) asking “Is it still going on!?” I pointed the way, said there was about 10 minutes left. 🙂

    michelle, what do you remember about the Navy housing on Western Avenue? I’m doing a story on people who grew up there and are heartbroken now that the homes are being demolished to make way for a large for-sale housing development.

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  41. I went to an evening wedding a lot of years ago, back when I was in college and my store department supervisor (from my part-time job) married another employee. It was very formal.

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  42. Good morning (evening to you) Jo.
    Good morning (or afternoon) Ajisuun.
    It’s Friday. I likely will be gone when today’s thread comes up. (To the Y, that is.)

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