Exactly 6 months and 20 posts later...

Two milestones are better than one, they say. Well, actually I think I'm the only one who says it, but what the hell. Maybe if I'd actually put some effort into this blog I could get 50 by Christmas. Moving on...

- I've been getting the feeling lately that all is not right with Muriel. She's always been fickle and spoiled and sort of a brat, but a lot of her less pleasant tendencies have become exacerbated of late. Whenever she's with Victoria, sooner or later Muriel is going to scare her little buddy, but while before I thought Muriel was just being a bully trying to put the smaller pig in her place, the other day I actually sat and watched them together for a while. Eventually, the strangest thing happened- without warning, Muriel started running around and around in the cage, paying no mind to where Victoria was, and even at one point actually running over Victoria's butt, causing her to start squealing. The really odd thing was that Muriel didn't seem to be angry or annoyed with Victoria, but rather did it without knowing any better. So I'm wondering whether something might actually be wrong with Muriel- could it be an eye problem, perhaps, or is it simply possible that Muriel just isn't very smart, even by guinea pig standards?

- Ever since I've started doing my own tax returns, I've gotten used to the idea of getting a fairly healthy return. To wit, I paid for the computer I'm currently typing this on with my tax return from three years ago. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I completed my tax return this afternoon and discovered that not only was I only getting back $150 from the federal government, I actually OWE the State $125 dollars. Wow, a whole $25 overall. Big whoopdie doo fuckin' ding. I re-ran all the figures, and the result was the same. I really wish I would've known that the temp agency for whom I worked for the last six months of 2006 (a) didn't take out state tax, and (b) withheld less federal tax. Now, I'm not the sort of person who plans his spring expenditures around the money he anticipates getting back from Uncle Sam, but I always liked getting a nice big tax return. It always made me feel like I was getting something back for the taxes I paid, and besides, it's not like I ever saw the money that got withheld, much less missed it. Oh well... at least next year's will be better. Right?

- After the worrying over Muriel and annoyance over my tax return, you'd think that a punctured tire would just be the king of all pissers for the day. Well, actually... you'd be wrong. Under the circumstances, this is more or less the least inconvenient flat tire I could conceivably have had. This evening I made too tight a turn and ended up clipping a curb with my right rear tire a block from my apartment. I didn't even realize that anything was wrong until I pulled in, parked, and was walking away. It was that unmistakable whistling hiss that inevitably comes from air leaking out. So I was a little anxious about it, and I contemplated whether the local Goodyear store was open on Sunday (dad and mom are both employees, and they can get me a discount). However, after a few minutes I remembered that I have a full-sized spare in the trunk that was actually one of my old tires, replaced about two years ago. I made sure that it wasn't flat (it wasn't) and then came back inside at ease with the situation, resolved to change the tire tomorrow morning, when it'll be easier to see what I'm doing. See what happens when you heed the Boy Scout motto to "Be Prepared"?