My neighborhood wasn’t affected at all by the power outage that affected much of south Florida. My power blinked for less than a second, just enough to trip my UPS and knock my DSL modem offline.
Personal
Taxes don't end with death
When my mother died in 2005, I took over her checking account, which she had in both of our names to avoid probate issues. I kept a small balance just to keep it active, although I didn’t use it, since I use a different bank. I never bothered to switch it to my name only.
I never really thought about it until a few days ago when the statement showed that the entire balance (which was less than $100) was taken as a tax levy.
It turns out she had some taxable income in 2003 & 2004 from an annuity, although she didn’t file taxes for the last few years and her primary income was social security. When I got it closed out, it turns out she (which means me) also has to file taxes for 2005 and it has to be done within 30 days. This is going to be loads of fun – NOT.
Back to reality
The last few days I’ve been catching up with work and recovering from Macworld. This is the first Macworld where I didn’t come home with a cold, since I prepared by taking TriMune for the week leading up to it and I’ve continued to take it every day. I do have the post-Macworld blahs, though.
I miss hanging out with all of the industry people. Florida seems like another world, where nobody talks about the MacBook Air, and the rest of Apple’s announcements barely made a ripple.
Not off to a great start
When I got to SFO and tried to check in, I discovered that my flight was cancelled due to snow in Atlanta. They called me at my home phone to inform me, so of course I never got the message. After some begging, I got switched to a flight on a different airline going through Charlotte instead of Atlanta.
I was randomly selected for extra screening, which meant I was separated from my MacBook Pro for longer than I would like. Although I kept a close eye on it, having LoJack for Laptops installed gave me an extra sense of security.
My rescheduled flight is at 1PM instead of 11:30AM, so I have a few extra hours at the airport. I found an electric outlet so I can keep my MacBook Pro charged, and the one year of free T-Mobile I got with my OLPC is very handy.
I get home after midnight tonight, so unless I have some extra time during my layover in Charlotte, this will probably be my last post for today.
Going Home
I’m all packed and ready to go home. I still have about an hour before I have to leave.
I just deactivated WordPress on a few old domains (gp2x.macmegasite.com & xpresslinux.com) that I’m not actively maintaining since they’re still collecting comment spam even though I haven’t posted there in more than a year.
Road Trip
I’m on my way to San Francisco for Macworld Expo! I’m now sitting in the terminal at FLL waiting for my flight. The free wifi here is very fast.
I thought I lost my 80Gb iPod Video going through security, but it just fell out of the pocket and into the main compartment of my laptop case.
Catching up
I haven’t been able to post much the last few days, since I’ve been pretty sick with something like a stomach flu that has kept me, uh, indisposed much of the time.
I’m also working on a new WordPress MU site to host podcasts, which I’ll post more details about in the next few days.
I missed mom's Yahrzeit
Although I’m not religious, I still light a candle on the anniversary of my parents deaths. This year my mom’s yahrzeit came out on Nov. 29, when I was in Vancouver, so I wasn’t able to observe it.
Last day in Vancouver
Today was my last day in Vancouver. I’m leaving early tomorrow morning, so I’m already packed & ready.
I had my best (and cheapest) meal of the trip tonight at Hon’s on Robson street. They give huge portions and almost everything is less than $10. Most of the time I was here we had lots of rain, but today the weather was clear. I did some shopping and lots of walking around downtown. Unfortunately the high Canadian dollar made it a lot more expensive this trip than it was in the past.
My musical discovery for this trip was the Red Elvises. I had seen them in the movie Six-String Samurai, but this is the first time I’ve heard any of their music. They play surf music with a Russian flavor. Charlie’s Music City had a few of their CDs.