Serendipity, or Answered Prayer

Out of the blue a few days ago I got an e-mail from a company I used to write and edit for way back when—they're putting out a revised edition of one of the encyclopedias I worked on and I get first dibs at revising the articles I wrote. They're paying $100 per article, and I wrote 29—so for a relatively simple job I'll earn $2900! I have no idea how they tracked down my current email address (score 1 for the Big Brother Paranoia Association), but I'm glad they did since this will bring me up to the amount I need to earn this year to keep us in groceries which Jo-Ann's has been falling short of. I really like my job at Jo-Ann's and don't want to have to find something else, so the extra from Eastword solves the problem!

And we're praising TurboTax these days, too, for making it thrillingly easy to fill out our forms and getting us hefty refunds from both AZ and MA while it was at it. We owe a little to the Feds, as always (clergy get soaked for Social Security), but not too much and the state refunds far outweigh the federal tax due. We were able to e-file with AZ and have already gotten that refund—of course, MA insists on having the paperwork mailed to them the old-fashioned way (it's not called "Taxachusetts" for nothing!), and since we lived in 2 different states this year, the Feds wanted the paper forms as well. But it was still WAY easier than I was dreading it would be, given our move and selling one house and buying another and each of us having 2 different jobs, etc., etc., etc. TurboTax just asked me a series of straightforward questions that I answered, and then it filled in all the appropriate forms with the appropriate information. Amazing! I love the 21st century!

Our oven timer has such a polite, understated beep that I almost forgot it had gone off—did I burn the eggplant pizza I'm making for supper? No. Whew. Fortunately the oven also stays below temperature so things tend to take longer to bake (even with the thermostat set 50˚ higher). This oven is definitely not from the 21st century. OK, now it's done—time to eat.