Take two lazy teenagers...
... a tour to admire some of the new additions at my sister's new home (new bar, the first landscaping)...
... one emotionally needy Golden Retriever...
... a lovely meal in the lovely new dining room, finally spacious enough to hold everyone comfortably...
... and Beth's after-dinner slap-fest with her Uncle Mike (hey, she started it!)...
... and you have a typical holiday dinner with our family, which was actually shy about 6-7 family members who live out of state. Oh, well, maybe we'll see them all at Thanksgiving.
In addition, I filed my taxes using TurboTax e-filing and then spent much of Sunday night and this morning arguing with the TurboTax people about why they charged 2 additional fees to my bank account as "authorization fees" for the e-filing. I've used TurboTax for at least a decade and e-filed every year since the IRS invented it, and never had the kind of problems with the fees that I've had this year. It's like, you just can't get a break with your taxes even when you do everything right and play by the rules.
On the plus side, as I called the New Jersey Division of Taxation to confirm whether or not I needed to send along any additional paperwork (because the TurboTax documentation wasn't clear enough about that, either), I got routed to the wrong office, but the person in that office took my name and number and said she would hand-deliver the message to the right person and I would get a call back today. I wasn't holding my breath about the call-back, but to my amazement I DID get a callback from a very stressed but hard-working tax department employee within 10 minutes! AND she was courteous and answered my question very professionally. So, I guess there are good people working for the Tax Man after all. It's got to be a tough job.