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Personal finance is one of my interests - i am subscribed to numerous financial blogs, i listen to Clark Howard whenever i can. This doesn’t make me qualified in anyway, i’m just sayin, i read a lot about personal finance.

One of the big “reforms” that President George W. Bush pushed through during his 8 wasted years in office was to abolish the death tax. Abolish the death tax!! Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

The phrase “Death Tax” contains two words Americans loathe. We hate death and taxes, those two unavoidable entities. So to abolish it *must* be good for the American people! Right?

Unfortunately, the American people are being mislead. The so-called Death Tax only affects a very small percentage of Americans. The current law is this: if your net assets at the time of your death, minus life insurance, is MORE THAN TWO MILLION DOLLARS (four million as a couple!), then you have to pay an extra tax on the amount exceeding the $1M.

Middle class Americans have two major assets: their homes and their retirement accounts. In fact, many do not even have retirement accounts, but that is a whole other post. In general, your average American family will not even come close to worrying about the dreaded Death Tax. It really is only taxing the upper class.

What does it mean to be “upper class”? It seems everyone wants to define themselves as “middle class.” I found a decent definition at Wikipedia of the super-rich (top .9%) as “Multi-millionaires whose incomes commonly exceed $350,000; includes celebrities and powerful executives/politicians. Ivy League education common.” The “rich” (top 5%) is defined as “Households with net worth of $1 million or more; largely in the form of home equity. Generally have college degrees.”

People in that category, the top 5%, will be affected by this Death Tax. Should it make the general public happy to abolish a tax for this small group of people?

Even if you just barely get over the $2M threshold, it’s a tax on the amount over that. That first two mil is yours, free and clear.

So the Death Tax really is a tax on the rich. But our buddy Bush talks about it in his speeches as if he’s done something good for “the people.” It’s only good for a few people, and those funds could do a lot of work if we collected them and added them to the budget.

The tax used to be on amounts over $1M. Bush’s repeal has the threshold amount rising gradually over a period of years, and then it disappears entirely in 2010. It will return again in 2011, i think back at the $1M threshold. There is a push to make it permanent.

I am 100% against its permanent repeal. As inflation rises, perhaps it’s reasonable to make adjustments to the threshold amount, but to get rid of it entirely benefits only a very small percentage of Americans, and those who least need it. If i’m lucky, maybe the death tax will apply to my estate when i die. However, i’m not planning on any of my kids being total bums. I consider any money i pass on to them to be gravy. I’m just not concerned that they won’t get “enough.”

Yesterday i was looking for an additional trash can to have an extra one upstairs.  I remembered seeing one in the garage.  Sure enough i found it.  The light was dim, and i looked in the bottom, and it was empty except for some laundry lint.  No big deal.  I grabbed the can and carried it toward the kitchen to put a garbage bag in it… and caught a whiff of something unpleasant.

The light was better in the kitchen, so i looked again, and still couldn’t see much, so i stuck my head partway down in the can.  THAT was a mistake.  Not only was the smell completely disgusting, i could now see that one of the pieces of laundry lint had a tail, and i had voluntarily put my head closer to it than necessary.

Involuntary shudders wracked my body.  Not wanting to deal with it, i went back into the garage and put the trash can back precisely where i had found it.  I’m not sure why - i think some part of my brain figured if i put it back exactly where it was, i could more easily pretend that i had not just smelled the aroma of dead mouse.

I then calmly went upstairs and asked Lance to please take care of it.  Which he did.  I think dealing with dead mice (or live ones!) is going to have to be one of “his” jobs.

At work, i am responsible for maintaining a testing environment for a group of testers.  This particular one has been problematic, and we’ve had problems, but yesterday i sent out an email that everything should be “fully operational.”

For the rest of the day, all i could think of was the Death Star from Star Wars.  It was always in various stages of being “fully operational.”

I think the next time i have to send an email of that nature, i will rephrase it to say, “Witness the Fire Power of this fully operational Death Star!… i mean, testing environment!”

Time left Raleigh: 8/15, 7 pm
Time back in Raleigh: 8/18, 12 noon
Total hours away from home: 60
Total hours driving: 22
Total hours playing bridge: 6
Total hours golfing: 4
Number of states we spotted license plates from: 32
(See map: green are states we first spotted on the way there, blue is in and about Columbus, pink is on the way home)

For her husband’s 40th and 50th birthdays, Lance’s mom has thrown a surprise golf tournament birthday party. So of course, she planned another one for his 60th. We decided to make the trek up to Ohio to join in the festivities. However, the tournament was Sunday at 2, and not near an airport. Thus, there were no reasonable (or reasonably priced) flights home that would me to work the next morning. So we drove.

Since we could not spoil the surprise by letting our presence be known, we had to kill time, so naturally we looked for the local bridge games. We found two - one at 1 pm and one at 7 pm. We planned to play in both.

But first, we had to get there. We left late, in no big hurry. We figured we’d just stop at a motel whenever we got tired (which wasn’t until 2:30 am that first night). It was a very chatty drive - we make very good driving companions. We talked about anything and everything it seemed, interrupting each other occasionally whenever we spotted new license plates, “ooh, there’s Arizona!” and coloring in the map (see picture). We had one scary moment when we told the GPS bitch to find us a hotel and she led us into a cornfield. “Quick! Lock the doors!” You just never know when you’ll find a cornfield cult lurking.

A leisurely morning drive revealed a few new states to color in on our map, and took us the rest of the way to Columbus, were Lance showed me around where he used to live and the places he used to hang out. We at lunch at Skyline Chili, one of his old favorites. Then it was about time for the bridge game.

The first game was a pathetic 2-table game. It was fun and we won, but the most interesting thing about it was this amazing 94-year old woman. I believe her name was Faye. They had a special table for her with low, bright lights. And she had a funny sort of hat that she wore, that lowered a magnifying glass so she could see better. She had trouble forming her words; her speech was a little slurred. The motor skills were failing a bit, but her brain was ALL there. She played very intelligently and joked and laughed with us. I was just so impressed with her. I hope i’m like her if i live to be 94.

After the game, we went to J Alexander’s, the restaurant where Lance’s sister Frith works. We had some beers (my favorite, Yuengling, hasn’t made it to Columbus yet) and some good food, and visited with Frith. Then it was off to the 2nd bridge game.

The second game more than doubled the number of tables; now we were up to 4.5. They didn’t even want to let us play at first - we are rated too highly. But, it was an “open” game, so they let us play. We scored 2nd. They were pleasant for the most part, and made us feel welcome.

After that, we went back to Frith & Will’s place for the night. Slept in a bit, and then the four of us met one of Lance’s brothers, Kevin, for breakfast at this awesome diner. By then, it was time to head to the golf place, which was about 90 minutes away. The only notable thing about that little trip was coloring in a few more states on our map.

At the golf course, we were the first ones to arrive. We got several buckets of balls for driving while we waited for others. Soon the whole gang was there, nearly 40 people. Ken (Lance’s dad) was somehow surprised, despite this being the 3rd such event held in his honor.

We played a scramble format - everyone hits a ball, then you pick the best ball. Then everyone hit their 2nd shot from that location, and you pick the best ball again. Pretty fun. Our foursome was me, Lance, Kevin and Lance’s other sister, Emily. (He is the oldest of 3 boys and 2 girls.) We had 2 pars, 6 bogeys and 1 double-bogey. I thought we did pretty well, and we would have won if the goal was to have the highest score. I posted a few of the golf pictures on my Facebook page.

Next stop was the reception, at a small church in Hillsboro, Ohio. Good food, and good company. There were pictures from Ken’s 60 years of life scattered all over the tables (what a neat idea!). We mingled, i met some of the extended family. When it was time for the cake, 5 of us worked together to try to light all 60 candles. (Tip to anyone else who has to do this in the future: light the interior candles FIRST. 59 candles create a lot of heat.) Ken blew out the candles and after that, it was 8 pm and time for us to get back on the road.

We were both getting pretty tired after a weekend of lots of driving and nonstop action. We only made it 4.5 hours that night before we knew we needed to stop. And we didn’t short ourselves on sleep either. Didn’t get on the road until 9 am. So, i didn’t get to work until after noon. But, i have cool peeps at work and they understood. Somehow i made it through the day and when i got home, i gave myself permission to flop (ie, do nothing).

It was a damn fun weekend.

Update: Kerry also went on a road trip recently and has a similar map to keep track of license plates.  I like her color-coding system better, allowing her to keep track of states seen on both legs of their trip.

Two promised presents, that have until recently been unobtainable, have recently been acquired. Mario Kart and Wii Fit.

Mario Kart is extremely fun. We even have the optional steering wheel accessories (it makes it better, don’t ask me why!). So far we’ve just played the Vs. setting. We need to play the Solo game, in order to unlock more tracks. I predict lots of Mario Kart at the beach next week.

Wii Fit is something we’re both hoping will help motivate us to be more active. There are four categories of exercises: aerobic, strength, yoga and balance. So far, i find the balance games to be the most fun, but the others are good too. My only complaint so far is that each mini-game, or exercise, is only 1-3 minutes in length. Maybe the more difficult settings do it for longer periods, i’m not sure yet. But for many games, the overhead of clicking OK, OK, and listening to the trainer, takes as long as (or longer than) the actual exercise.

Both games are way fun, though (-:

At a dinner party to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  Wearing a sleeveless shirt.  Conversing, laughing.  Lance sitting next to me, casually reaching over to slip my bra strap back up underneath my shirt.

Last month our book club decided to attempt Duma Key.  It is by far the largest book we have attempted in a one month period — we read Pillars of the Earth also, but as an optional selection, and gave ourselves 3 months to read it.

Duma Key follows Edgar Freemantle after a terrible accident, which results in the loss of his right arm (he’s a lefty, so he’s at least got his good arm remaining) and a serious blow to the head.  He has a difficult recovery, and before it’s all over, his marriage falls apart.  He retreats to one of the Florida keys, Duma, to start his second life.

On Duma, he starts painting.  And he is eerily good at it.  He also strikes up a friendship with Wireman, the man who lives down the beach taking care of an elderly woman who has lived on Duma Key most of her life.

Soon, strange things start happening with his painting, and he finds he can predict things that are happening or that will happen.  And then, a spooky ship starts showing up in his paintings.  The old lady down the beach warns him that the paintings are dangerous.  To figure out why, we have to figure out what happened in her childhood.

That’s all i’ll say about the plot.  It’s very well written, and i enjoyed it very much.  It’s quite spooky in places.  I have read a few Stephen King books in my life, but perhaps i’ll pick up a few more.

I definitely recommend it.  It won’t change your life, but it’s a good read.

I’ve been incredibly busy at work, so when at home, the last thing i want to do is get on the computer and blog.  But, if anyone is *looking* for more stuff to read, here are some of my favorite blogs:

Brazen Careerist - Penelope Trunk has her finger on the pulse of the job market and the attitudes of Gen X and Gen Y.  She also has good advice for just about any job culture you find yourself in.

Friendly Atheist - Very frequent posts, and most of the content is interesting.  Focus is on atheism in our culture and how it is perceived.  Secondarily pokes fun at the some of the ridiculousness in various religions.

Doodaddy - a stay-at-home dad talks about his adventures with his daughter.  He is kind of a goofball, and has an interesting perspective as a dad in a typically female role.