life hereafter

kilo tt

Originally uploaded by britoman.

New Toy

is only exciting when you don’t make enough to have to actually owe anything.

I finally filed my return on Friday. It was an extreme hassle this year. Basically the IRS has some silly little rule that says you can’t e-file if you worked in more than four states. Funny thing is, TurboTax doesn’t tell you that until after you have paid for the software and filled out all the forms.

This resulted in my printing over 57 pages of paper forms to file with the five states The Firm made me work in this past year.  I gathered together what I think was appropriately sized envelopes and a ridiculous number of stamps and placed the letters in the mail. Now I wait, hoping I don’t get any “return to senders,” and that the good ole’ USPS doesn’t lose what I sent to Uncle Sam. The only real way I will know that everything got where it should go is when I see that canceled check.

The new bike is finally on its way, and I’ll have it by Wednesday. Now I just need to order a new set of brakes and cables and my fixie will be complete by weeks end.

A good friend reminded me of the existence of foobooz.com, a site dedicated to food in Philadelphia. Upon perusing the site, I was pointed to this little gem, Dumpling House. A resturant in Chinatown dedicated solely to dumplings. AKA, heaven. I will have to find this place in my wanderings in the very near future.

So last night marked the first time I have ever ridden a SEPTA bus.

All I will say of this experience was that it reminded me more of riding the subway through New York or Paris.

I haven’t been indoor rock climbing since college, so when I got a call today asking if I wanted to check out a climbing gym in Oaks, PA I figured I’d check it out.

My main rational for not checking out the local climbing gym, Go Vertical, earlier was the $65 belaying lesson fee. I know how to belay and tie knots, I just needed a refresher :). So we resolved to be honest with this gym in Oaks. “We’ve climbed before, we know how to tie the knots, we are just a little rusty.” They guy there had no problems. He brings us over, we do the quick belay test and he basically reminds everyone how to do it properly. It only took a little more prodding about how to do it correctly and we were set! No crazy beginners fee. Woot!

So now that we are all set and have passed the test there, we can walk in any time and buy a day-pass. Hopefully because of the skills refresher I can walk into Go Vertical sometime soon and just take the test there. It will save the 30 minute drive out to Oaks, and the gym will be much bigger.

I didn’t do too badly for my first climb in two years. By the end of the day I was on the 5.8 class climbs. My fingers, arms, abs and legs are currently a bit too sore.