Thumpity thump thump. Thumpity thump thump. Look at furnace go.

We have a gas furnace. On occasion, that gas furnace says to itself, "Self, I would like to shut down and leave Matthew and Kimberly in the cold." And then Matthew and Kimberly are in the cold. On the first occasion, in February, Mr. Furnace Dude came out and said, "Oh, it's your Humdinger Blackmask Nelson RE493X Fallout Switch. I will switch it back where it belongs, and your indoor palm trees will not die." And they didn't. Mostly because we didn't have them. But still we had heat.

On the second occasion, which was Monday, a different dude from the same company came out and said, "Oh, it's your Humdinger Blackmask Nelson RE493X Fallout Switch again, and I have put it back where it belongs, but that's very suspicious that it would do the exact same thing that it did last time, so I am going come back tomorrow, and when I so, I will charge you $130 to take apart your entire furnace and see what the problem is." So he did, and he said, "Oh, your HD1300P Marino Duper Clayton Heat Compressor has some cells that are not performing their celling duties. Fortunately, your HD1300P Marino Duper Clayton Heat Compressor is under warranty, so you will only have to pay for labor, which will be $814." Yes, $814. That does not at all seem right to me, and as the furnace is currently working, we are ditching plan (a) (replace the HD1200P MDCHC through this company) and either going with plan (b) (get quotes on a HD1200P MDCHC through another company) or plan (c) (since the heat is working again, just let the system try to make it through summer, and then hope that it will get a nice tan and then be nicer in the cold autumn).

Owning a house is funner than fun.

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So you do not feel too sorry for us.

Last year, we vastly overpaid state and federal taxes and got a large refund. So Kim and I lowered the amount she was paying to the government every month, and we kinda assumed that this year we'd come close to breaking even (if probably still getting a slight refund). But instead, due to the Government liking married people who own houses (particularly if they pay points on their mortgages) and make charitable donations, we're getting back about a third of the money we paid Uncle Sam and about 15% back of what we paid Aunt Virginia. Yay free money. Even if some of it may have to go back to Mr. Furnace Dude.

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Tax tip number one.

If you do work for a government or charitable organization -- which apparently includes the community handbell group I am in -- you may deduct 14 cents per mile travelling to and fro.