But I want to do my *taxes*!

My W-2 came in the mail on Monday, possibly the earliest that it has ever arrived. And neither bank has a TurboTax link up on its website yet. [Correction: SFBank does, but you have to have an actual account with them, and I closed mine when I shut down my MK business. Last year I was able to link to TurboTax because I have multiple lines of insurance; looks like that dog won’t hunt for tax year 2008. So I sent an email to my primary bank and will hear from them in the next day or so. You don’t ask, you don’t get.] I am not expecting a refund, not with the change in status from head of household to single, but I’d like to get my return done early so I know how bad it’s going to be, and budget for it.

In other financial news, I had the performance part of my PRT on Monday. I got a better rating than I expected, considering that I was volunteered for a number of committees that couldn’t or wouldn’t commit. And I know the approximate percentage by which my base salary is likely to increase: a smaller percentage than last year, but applied to a larger base salary, so still quite acceptable in my book; far better than a punch in the nose!

Especially since there are law firms in town where the staff has been told not to expect any raises this year. And I still have a job, and I like my job.

We will get the numbers for raises and bonuses in four to six weeks, after everybody’s PRT scores are fed into the computer at corporate and it spits out yet another report. And then I get to figure out how to divide the increase among a cost-of-living adjustment to my budget, my emergency fund, my 401K 101K, and debt reduction.

We are in the middle of an ice storm. When I got to the car last night, there was what looked like a quarter-inch of ice on it. I started scraping away with my dull plastic scraper that I bought a few years back. In a couple of minutes, a kind gentleman approached and asked if I would like a little help. He had a metal scraper, and we soon had Lorelai ready to roll. I called Middlest and told her I was heading straight for home. No Knit Night for us.

Note to self: add new scraper to shopping list for Friday.

I was supposed to have a dental checkup this morning at 8:00. They called me at work yesterday to provisionally confirm; she said she was taking our numbers home and might be calling to cancel. Which she did, about two minutes after I had settled in on the couch with my knitting and the second CD of To Kill a Mockingbird.

I just called the weather line for work; we are not opening until 10:00. Which means that I need to leap over to the website for the TRE and see when my train will run. It also means that I will have lots of happy knitting time this morning while listening to at least one CD of To Kill a Mockingbird, and will get to ride home on the TRE tonight and surprise Trainman. I told him I would probably be driving in today, because of my appointment and the commuting fiasco after my last one. And that I will definitely be driving in on Friday, because I have half a day of comp time.

Says he, “So I won’t see you until next week.”

To which I reply, “It’s good for you to miss me. Builds character.” And we both laughed.

He had a great time visiting his sister last weekend. [And no dinner with the leggy blonde. I did not turn cartwheels over that. I am much too ladylike. (Plus, I can’t turn cartwheels.)] We have fixed an evening for our field trip with DecoratorDude: three weeks from tonight.

There has been actual knitting progress. Red Fetching is done and tossed into a drawer. I put another inch or so of K3P1 ribbing on the cuff of one sock. Not feeling the love. Love the yarn, love the beads, thinking seriously about frogging back to the end of the beading and inserting more beads down the ribbing, if only to justify that second trip to the bead shop a few weeks ago.

Also racking my brain for what project to start next. Am toying with the idea of knitting a full Clapotis from the skein of silk laceweight I bought myself for my birthday last year. I already know that the pattern works well with handpainted yarn. And I know that if I go with a 20% for the increase portion, 60% for the straightaway, 20% for the decrease portion formula, I will be able to use up every scrap of yarn productively. [Thank you, Jeri, for doing the math for us. Would link to her blog, but she hasn’t updated it recently.] Not sure if it would work out to be a stole or a wide scarf like the one I have, but whatever it was, would be gorgeous.

Have a good day, everybody, and try to stay warm. Unless you are Ruth, in which case try to stay cool.