Cookies?

Is it possible to be addicted to cookies? It took me a real force of will not to stop at the grocery store last night and by a small crate of them.

Slaying an IRS dragon

I got a happy little note from the IRS a couple months ago saying they thought I owed them about $7000. Fun, right? It had a whole packet of forms encouraging me to just go along with their findings, roll over and give them a wad of cash. It sounded wrong, so I did some hunting, called one of my brokerages and got a 1099 from 2007 which should have made the IRS leave me alone. I sent it off, assuming their humble apology letter would soon be on its way. Then I got another note from them that they couldn't calculate the cost basis of the stock based simply on a 1099, and I must immediately give them $1600 or be shipped off for water boarding camp. Could this tale get more riveting? I think not! I still have no idea how they came up with that number, but I had a secret weapon- a very friendly clerk at a brokerage firm clued me in to the mighty schedule D form. It had the full cost basis in black and white for the stock option exercise. I sent that, and a back up copy of the 1099 off to the IRS. Is the IRS dragon slain? Tune in next week when our intrepid hero refills his red Swingline stapler... of Death!

Bike update

I did a nice 10 mile ride on Sunday, which brings me up to 47 out of the 50 miles I'd planned for this month. The weird thing is, I'm putting on weight. It might all be in leg muscle.

Biking goal

I set myself a goal of 50 miles on the bike this month, and so far I'm well ahead of schedule. I've done 30 miles so far. Friday I bought a new set of wheels which makes the goal WAY easier to hit. It's sort of an old man bike maybe, since it's not quite a road bike, not quite a mountain bike, but a hybrid between the two. It should let me ride on all the trails around here, hop off a curb if need be, but still be light enough to get some serious speed. I managed to keep up with some of the hard core guys with the fancy-schamcy $1000 bikes without working too hard.

Brilliance

I hope my colleague doesn't mind me quoting him here, but the statement was too amazing not to share:
"Some people are so smart and know so much that they know things that aren't true." John Watters.

Jerks and decisions

My brother sent me a link to this. It's not particularly scientific, but it's food for thought.