Nobody Willing to Impeach Obama

   
There has been a lot of talk recently, and even some vocal protesting, about Impeaching president Obama.  

But I submit to you that it will never happen....Not in a million years! 

And you know why?  

Because if he were impeached, we would be left with Joe Biden.....

And he is even worse.

   

Another Reason California Is Laughingstock

   

When I was a young boy in elementary school, we used to tease and play jokes on each other.  One common prank was to push one of our friends through the entrance door into the girls bathroom.  Of course there would follow screams from the girls inside as the boy ran through the bathroom and out the exit door at the other end.  It was kind of embarrassing for our friend, but that was what made it one of the pranks of choice.  And the reason that it was embarrassing was that a boy wasn’t supposed to be in a girl’s bathroom.

Now 50+ years later, there has been a change in the laws of California.  Under the new law, young boys and girls are allowed to go into each other’s bathrooms if they so desire.  What’s the fun in that?

    

LDS Provo City Center Temple Construction - 20 April 2013

 

As you approach the new temple site the overhead crane is easy to spot from miles away. It is situated on a solid base in the North-East corner of the temple lot where it can deliver equipment, material and supplies to most anywhere on the construction site.

       

   
        I spoke with a couple of the construction workers today and they told me they hit the water table at 18 feet below ground level, and since the hole is much deeper than that, it means they are continuously pumping water out of the huge hole in the ground. 

       They have an on-site water filtration system which removes sand, dirt and sediment from the water before it can be released in the city's storm drain system.

       When asked if they anticipated completing the basement walls soon, their response was a confident "Yes".  The foundation for the basement has already been poured and the next step is putting up the basement walls.

       All of the metal pipes will be removed, except for those portions of the pipes that are buried in cement, in which case they will be cut off flush with the cement.

       A single story parking structure will be built below ground to the south of the temple, and the structure will be covered with about 6 feet of soil which will then be beautifully landscaped.

   

TurboTax 2012 Is Worthless

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY

First let me say that I have used TurboTax for over a decade and previously found it to be easy and accurate.  Of course we did not own a business or rental property and few investments.  But, it was certainly easier than the old days when you went to the post office for forms to do your own taxes.

So this year I confidently bought my TurboTax 2012 software at our local Costco and started entering the data last night.  I ran into problems right away.  First they were simple problems like not enough digits for Utah's state payee ID number.  I tried to enter the numbers ending with WTH, but the problem persisted.  But then things got worse.  The software starting asking me if I had taken pretax money from my IRA and put it into a Roth IRA.  "No," I responded to the computer screen, "I needed to use it to live off as we are currently unemployed."  The program seemed to be mixing up pre-tax and after tax revenue.  "How odd," I said to my self, but I continued on into the night.  By midnight I was really sweating and I had a pain in my chest as Turbo Tax increased my Utah tax to over $3000.  The final straw was when the program asked me to enter the amount of tax that I was going to get back from the state of California.  "Why are you asking me?" I said to the computer screen, "That's why I have you.  I haven't even done my California return yet!"

A quick check on Google gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.  I saw dozens of people with the same problems as I was having with TurboTax 2012.  They were trying to help each other with advice on how to fix the same problems by entering the data a special way or by deleting and starting over.

I turned off the computer and went to bed.

The next day after I got home from work, I started off fresh again.  "So far so good," I admitted as I worked my way through a confusing Utah state presentation.  But quickly I realized that this certainly wasn't as easy as I had remembered from years past.  More pretax/after tax mix up and more missing ID numbers.  I was then told that I could not E-file and that I needed to include form TC-40S with my return.  Was TurboTax really telling me to find my own form TC-40S and fill it out myself?  Apparently so!  I was appalled, but I obediently found the form on line and started to fill it out.

What was I doing?!?#@*&%$#@

I sat back in my chair and calmly took inventory of my situation.  I bought the Premier version of Turbo Tax for about $60 at Costco.  Then I spent over $40 more to add another state to my return.  I had spent over $100 and all I had so far was emotional distress, loss of sleep, a pain in my chest, no chance of E-file, and a computer program telling me to get a form off-line and do it myself.

Just to let you know I have an appointment with a nice tax lady this Friday afternoon.  She comes highly recommended and best of all......

She doesn't use TurboTax.

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UPDATE - 30 March 2013

I drove to to the CPA's home and within 45 minutes she had completed my taxes.  She found a significant error in the draft Turbo Tax Federal Return....Turbo Tax had failed to identify and withhold a $500 fee for early withdrawal of money from an IRA.  That is a significant error!!!  But even though I had to pay additional tax, I will be getting a significant tax return this year.

The CPA charged me $85 for her work, which I gladly paid and I went home to wait for my checks to come from the IRS.

I count the $100 that I wasted on Turbo Tax to be a "Lesson Learned".  I will not use Turbo Tax ever again.  It is more expensive than a personal tax person and if I had used it to do my 2012 taxes there is a big chance that I would have been audited and had to pay back taxes, penalty as well as interest.

Provo City Center Temple - Crews Working Nights

This evening after dinner my wife and I stopped by the construction site of the Provo City Center Temple.  The place was all lit up and the work crews were hard at work even in the dark.  The crater underneath the brick temple is even deeper than before!

While we were there it was raining slightly, but not enough to account for the amount of water being pumped out of the giant crater beneath the brick temple.  I have no explanation for the water that is accumulating under the temple.  I will see what I can find out.

In addition, the multi-story parking structure that was once used by NuSkin employees next to the temple site is now just a pile of concrete rubble.  The new NuSkin parking structure is two blocks South West of the temple lot.  Apparently it is a bit too far from the NuSkin building for some lazy employees who are taking over parking spaces from other businesses closer to the NuSkin building than their new structure.  It will certainly mean trouble, so expect enforcement of parking permits in private structures in the surrounding area.
   

LDS Provo City Center Temple Progress - Feb 2013

With the construction site surrounded by a tall green fence, it is difficult to see the progress that is being made on the new LDS Temple in Provo, Utah.  This month I ventured into the four story NuSkin parking structure next to the construction site for a closer look.  I could't believe my eyes!  The old Provo Tabernacle is sitting on stilts about 25 feet off the ground!

A construction crew is hard at work underneath the old Tabernacle loading dirt into a large dump truck which them hauls the dirt to a temporary storage area nearby.  According to reliable sources, the plan is to haul out enough dirt to then construct two lower floors under the old Tabernacle at which time the shell of the old building will be set in place on top.

It is amazing to think that a building like this could be set on stilts while work is completed underneath, but work is going smoothly.  I will help keep you informed of the progress as I learn more.