Mike and Music

In October, I hosted a CMC Alumni Association event at a local bar, called Hamilton’s.  I put together an Evite that was sent to people in the area to invite them to this event.  After the event, I began getting calls on my cell phone:

“Is this Hamilton’s?”  “Nope.”

“Did I leave my credit card there?”  “Nope.”

“What time do you open?”  “Nope.”

I got on the Internet and discovered that the Evite was public, so when people Googled “Hamilton’s,” my Evite came up as one of the responses.   I quickly sent off a note to Evite, who took the invite down, and I thought the problem was solved.  Until I got another call:

“Are you showing the Bulls game?”  “Who is this?”  “Isn’t this Hamilton’s?”  “Nope.”

The calls died down and I have only been getting them occasionally.  When I got one this afternoon (come on people!  it’s the afternoon!  why are you calling a bar?!?) , I exasperatedly asked the guy where he got my number.  The answer?  Google Maps.  Apparently Google, while crawling the Internet, found my phone number associated with the bar and decided that it was the bar’s phone number.  There on Google Maps was the name of the bar, the address, a map, a link to the bar’s website (hamiltonstavern.com, which I helpfully gave to the guy who called me), and my cell phone number!

I shared this story with Mike, who sent off a note to Google noting the error.  Hopefully that will be corrected soon and I can go back to using my cell phone minutes for important things, like talking to my  girlfriends.

This morning, I ‘d planned to write about how much wedding planning sucks.  Then my computer went crazy and I was going to tackle the topic of how much Dell sucks.  When Mike fixed the problem, I planned to write a post about how wonderful it is I can depend on him for things large and small.  But this post isn’t about any of those things.

Today a friend accompanied me to the Bridal Bazaar.  Held at the convention center here in town, the bazaar is pretty, well, bizarre.  Put a ton of engaged women, plus their moms and friends (and even the occasional fiancee), in a room full of tulle and cake and poofy dresses, and chaos ensues.  That said, I’m really glad I went.  Elyse is the one who told me about the event, and when she agreed to go, I was really pleased.  It’s nice to have someone to help me through the stress of planning a wedding, especially someone who has been through the process and who seems to genuinely enjoy it.  I am very thankful for Elyse’s positive attitude, sage advice, and good sense of humor, and wanted to send a mikeandmusic.com shout out to her (especially since I know she reads the blog.  Hi Elyse!).  Can’t wait for you and Jeff to join us at the wedding.

Ah, 2008.  Another year.  Crazy to think that by the time 2009 rolls around, we’ll be married!  I’ve been working on sorting our receipts and various tax documents and as much of a pain in the butt as it is, I’m curious to know if it will be better or worse next year.  We’ll still have a million receipts floating around, still have two W-2s, plus various other forms and papers, so maybe it will just be the same…  Maybe (since from what I hear, the process of changing your name is such a huge pain in the butt) the gods will take pity on me and make the tax process easier.  (What’re the chances?)

I have an appointment next week to meet with our new accountant.  The one we consulted last year, when we were thinking about buying the house, came recommended by a friend, but wasn’t anything stellar.  She was nice enough (in a bland, Midwestern kind of way), but I didn’t leave feeling, “wow, that’s a woman who knows her tax stuff!”  Not how you want to feel about a CPA.  We got notice this year that she’d merged her practice with that of another CPA, and now he’s our guy.  I’m hoping he’s a tax genius, who is also personable and reassuring.  (Again, what’re the chances?)

In the meantime, I sit with my Google spreadsheet, ruining my eyes by pouring over months old receipts in faded black ink, trying to remember is the”23W PAR38″ from Costco is a light bulb, light fixture, or 300-pack of toilet paper (fyi, it’s a light bulb– thanks Google!).  We have 130 receipts relating to home renovation items, and I’m itemizing each thing on each receipt so they can then be divided into things that are write off-able all at once and those that are taken on the basis of depreciation.  Fascinating, huh?

Enough procrastinating.  Back to itemizing.