The time of year is finally upon us where we must chose between one of those two. Me? I choose liver. “Why liver?” you may ask to which I reply, “Why not?” Actually, I meant to type “life” but my fingers got all tangled up and started arguing. Once that happens I just have to take a step back and let them finish. Sometimes the results are harsh. I just never know what’s going to happen.

Taxes – I was going down the path where I didn’t think my pitiful little contribution to our nations coffers was worth their time. So, I was just going to quit paying it and see how long it took for them to ferret me out. Then, I gave it another thought, and another, and finally came to the conclusion that not paying my taxes, which is my God given right to do, would not be beneficial to my hair, which I have precious little of now days. So I pondered a while about that, wondering what my hair had to do with taxes and decided that my spell checker worked, but didn’t benefit me at all. What I meant to say was it wouldn’t be beneficial to my heirs. The I.R.S. would just seize everything so they would have nothing. They would even lose their memories of me. Just because I decided to not pay taxes. So, you know what? I’m going to fool them this year and pay up like the good citizen I am, and have always been. I do this because I’m compelled to contribute my fair share to help support the lavish lifestyles of our elected officials. The alternative just isn’t worth the hassle.

Nexy year will be different because all of our income will be fixed. No more consulting for me. No sir. Doing that is just a trick for Uncle Sam to shove you into another tax bracket. I suppose I could have altered my donation to the government, and avoided the need to pay up for my 2011 defciency but that goes against my grain, too. I’m one of those guys that supports the “flat tax” concept where everyone just pays 10% of whatever they earn, except for retirement income, of course. There are no deductions in my plan. It would be like a national sales tax that we pay at the end of every year. Doing that, of course, would put millions of people out of work beause the IRS would only need about half the people they have now. Maybe less.

OK – enough of that. Sorry I went down that road. It’s late and I’m tired. We’ve been gone from the house most of the day and the dogs are demanding our attention. I guess they missed us a little. They were really good, too, because all the pillows are still on the couch. It’s not unusual to find one or two of them in the back yard, which isn’t easy for them to do. I have this vision of Ziva holding the pillow and swinging her head back and forth, letting go on the count of three to see how far out she can throw it. The pillows are never damaged. They’re just in the back yard. To avoid that we could leave the patio door shut, but then they’d have to find something else creative to do inside. I’d rather fetch the pillows from the yard than consider the alternatives.

We had a late lunch, or early dinner, with Mike & Kathie this afternoon. We went to McGrath’s Fish House, which is a favorite. We used to have dinner back and forth at each other’s homes about once a month, then they moved all the way over to Oregon City. It’s a hike. Kind of like driving from Mesa to Surprise, AZ. So, we lost touch for a while. Now that we’re cavorting again, they tell us they’re moving to California. We’re happy for them, because they’re happy, but we think it’s going to be very confusing for some of us to deal with two sets of Mike & Kathie’s in California. Makes my head hurt a ittle.

Just got an email that the IRS has accepted the electronical forms I sent and they’re prepared to raid our credit union for whatever excess cash they can find next Tuesday.

Now I can sleep peacefully knowing our government will be properly funded.

Hello! I’m a dog two, but i ain’t so gud a tiping lik ziva be caws my nales are two long. but i will do my best and ziva iz goin to hep me.

the day i waz born it was a dark n dreary night. It was rainin and the sun waz so brite I had to squint reel hard so I wudent go blind. Sumwhere n the dissanse a cat cried. Thin mom slapped at me with her tongue and I don’t member nuthin affer that ’til 2005 whin i got to go liv wiff ziva’s peeple. Really, they wer mi peeple first, not ziva’s, ’cause i was ther first. But, i came attached to a nother peeple who ignored me so when ziva showed up i picked sides and went with the best odds for survival. I new who bo8ght the fud.

Befor going to that house i lived in a cage by a house, in the mud, for about 2 yeers. so when they first got me to my new hom they wuddent let me in the house befor washing me. I had never been washed befor so it was a new an scary esperience, let me tell u! They put me in tha yard and turned loose with a high presser hose that ’bout knocked me down off my feet. Scared me a whole bunch. Then they scrubbed me wiff bubbly stuff that burned my eyes and tasted reel bad. Then thay hit me wiff the hose again. Then bubbled me again! I kept my eyes squished real tight that time, and didn’t lick anythin. After the secund hosing they let me go and I jumped right out of that yard to the patio and shook off all that water. Then they dried me and let me in the house. I vowed to NEVER go in that yard agin, but I only lasted 2 weeks before somethin caught my eye that I had to chase. I think it was a cat or maybee my friend, the little black dog, Ziggy. Ziggy was really, really old. Like 18 people years. Right after he left, ziva showed up.

Hey! I think I’m figuring out how to use this keyboard. That, and Ziva just showed me how to turn on the spell checker. How handy is that? I feel smarter already!

Anyway, not long after Ziva appeared in my life, we all moved to a different house with a HUGE yard. It turned out that Ziva was a runner, and I tended to release my sheep persona with her, and followed. Consequently, I always got in trouble, but not as much as Ziva. I think my people knew that I went to make sure Ziva was never alone. Except for once when she got caught under a porch for a couple of days. I was kind of her “911” caller, like Diane is for the old guy that lives here.

Life has been really good right up until about 2 months ago when this stupid cat decided she wanted to live here, too. Our people even named her. And, they took her to the vet to have her fixed. I figured that would give us some quiet time because she’d be zonked on drugs for a few days, not able to get away from me. But, turns out, she was already neutered so all she got was shots. She was home the same day. I’ve been keeping a close eye on her since she was first allowed in the house and she really doesn’t like it. So, of course, I tend to follow her a lot more intensely than I normally would. Actually, I’m just daring her to run. It’s all about the chase because I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I caught her, which isn’t likely. Ziva told me to be careful because she’s got really sharp finger nails.

My favorite toy is my sock monkey. I’ve had my eye on him for a few months but didn’t pay him much attention because all he did was lay there. Then, someone squeezed him and he talked! Well, he didn’t really talk, he squeaked which is even better! I used to have a squirrel that squeaked, but I haven’t seen it in a long time and didn’t know I missed him until sock monkey squeaked for me. Now he’s my constant companion and is the only thing I’ll fetch for a person. I love my sock monkey. Here’s a picture of the two of us next to the bowl of food I dumped on the floor when I was moving my bowl to another room.

I move my food bowl around so Ziva won’t eat it. Then, when she doesn’t eat hers soon enough, I’ll just take her bowl, too. Things even out, though, because she eats everything I spill. I think she’s getting the better end of the food deal, but I don’t have to eat mine off the floor with dog and cat hair in it.

Now I’m sad because I got to thinking about my squirrel with the squeaker in it’s tail and wonder how I’m going to explain sock monkey if her ever shows up again. I suppose they would get along OK because they both live in trees, but you never know.

I think my brain is empty, and my feet are getting tired with all this typing so I’m going to quit.

It’s almost 9:00 pm and now that I think about it, the day has been pretty long, lazy, and I didn’t eat even one piece of chocolate. I did, however, have a cookie that had chocolate pieces in it, but that doesn’t count.

The day began at 5:30 am when we woke up so we could attend our church’s sunrise service in the cemetery. That didn’t happen until 7:00 am so we had plenty of time to grind up some beans and make coffee to get the day started. The dog thought that getting up that early was pretty cool, too, because they got to go outside earlier, and stay longer.

It was chilly during the service, but it wasn’t raining. Many sunrise services have been rained out in the past. We were all gathered near Diane’s Dad’s (Mel) grave, and not far from our son, Brad grave. During the service we Pastor tried to teach us a new song which didn’t work out so well. He’s always trying new songs on us but it’s difficult to figure them out when all we have are the words. But, it makes things kinda interesting.

After the early service we all retired to the church basement for breakfast which was provided by a number of folks including Jennifer. That’s Jennifer, our daughter. It was very good. Once that was over we brought Cedric & Jeran home with us. We didn’t know where Lydia was so we just left her figuring she would call if there was a problem. She is, after all, a teenager now. On the way home we got a call from her friend’s Mom saying they had hijacked Lydia for the day.

When we got home we chained Cedric and Jeran to chairs in front of the TV so they would have to watch, then we took naps. They also had a tray with cookies, sodas, chips and cheese so they wouldn’t go hungry. This worked well until it was time for us to go back to the late service at 10:25 am. Then we had to lock them up in the basement so they wouldn’t bother people walking by on the road. That’s why we have the dogs. That’s their job.

Like normal, we took Diane’s Mom, Jean, with us. Before we left we heated up the oven and stuffed in a tray of generic lasagna for lunch and set it to terminate at 11:30 am. The service ran a little late, as expected, and we had to stop by Safeway for french bread, and pick up the boys … oh … that’s right! Jennie took the boys with her when she left breakfast, not us. We picked them up on the way home after the late service. So, we didn’t tie them up, or lock them in the basement after all. That must have been on another day. I get them mixed up.

We didn’t get home until after noon-o’clock, but the lasagna was OK. Didn’t burn up or anything and was very tasty. After eating, we tied the boys up in front of the TV and took a nap. It’s true that Lydia was hijacked by her friend, and we didn’t see her until almost 5:00 pm. At 7:00 pm Diane picked Jennie up from work and brought her home to eat lasagna. By then the boys were hungry again, so they cleaned it up. Lydia had some too. While she was waiting for it to warm up she cooked a package of Ramen to tide her over. The way those kids eat, it’s a good thing Jennie works at Safeway. I had a ham sandwich. On french bread.

I read a little bit of USA Today news on my iPad this evening and learned that Kodak has filed for bankruptcy and requested permission to pay 300 or their 7600 employees $13.7 million in bonuses. That seems fair, doesn’t it? Reminds me of the Enron days when they owned PGE while I worked there. While our stock, and 401k’s were going down they drain the executives doled out millions to themselves to kinda clean up the loose cash they had laying around. Apparently most of that was legal which I don’t find surprising. the CEO of PGE was paid $900 thousand a year in bonus money for a few years to ensure she would stay on the job. Nice.

OK. Now I’m depressing myself so I’m getting off that subject.

I think I’ll just quit for today. Hope everyone had a pleasant Easter Sunday and, for those of you who hid eggs in the house, I hope you found all of them. They get pretty nasty after a couple of months.

Greetings and Happy Easter to all. I got to wondering about rabbits and Easter so did some research. Here’s one of many I found that gives some background. I selected it because I liked the pictures. Don’t, however, forget the resurrection while melted milk chocolate bunnies are escaping from the corners of your mouths. Diane’s favorites this time of year, actually all year long, are Peeps – only the yellow ones.

Analysis by Trace Dominguez
Fri Apr 6, 2012 03:55 PM ET

There’s no story in the Bible about a long-eared, cotton-tailed creature known as the Easter Bunny. Neither is there a passage about young children painting eggs or hunting for baskets overflowing with scrumptious Easter goodies.

And real rabbits certainly don’t lay eggs.

BRIEF: How the Moon Affects the Date of Easter

Why are these traditions so ingrained in Easter Sunday? And what do they have to do with the resurrection of Jesus?

Well, nothing.

Bunnies, eggs, Easter gifts and fluffy, yellow chicks in gardening hats all stem from pagan roots. These tropes were incorporated into the celebration of Easter separately from the Christian tradition of honoring the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

According to the University of Florida’s Center for Children’s Literature and Culture, the origin of the celebration — and the origin of the Easter Bunny — can be traced back to 13th-century, pre-Christian Germany, when people worshiped several gods and goddesses. The Teutonic deity Eostra was the goddess of spring and fertility, and feasts were held in her honor on the Vernal Equinox. Her symbol was the rabbit because of the animal’s high reproduction rate.

NEWS: Was the Last Supper a Day Earlier?

Spring also symbolized new life and rebirth; eggs were an ancient symbol of fertility. According to History.com, Easter eggs represent Jesus’ resurrection. However, this association came much later when Roman Catholicism became the dominant religion in Germany in the 15th century and merged with already ingrained pagan beliefs.

The first Easter Bunny legend was documented in the 1500s. By 1680, the first story about a rabbit laying eggs and hiding them in a garden was published. These legends were brought to the United States in the 1700s, when German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania Dutch country, according to the Center for Children’s Literature and Culture.

The tradition of making nests for the rabbit to lay its eggs in soon followed. Eventually, nests became decorated baskets and colorful eggs were swapped for candy, treats and other small gifts.

DISCOVERY NEWS: All About Easter

So, while you’re scarfing down chocolate bunnies (I hear chocolate is good for you!) and marshmallow chicks this Easter Sunday, think fondly of this holiday’s origins and maybe even impress your friends at your local Easter egg hunt.

Happy Easter!

Credits: Ian O’Neill, Library of Congress, Corbis

Panzee’s got a sock monkey. She wasn’t very impressed with it, and ignored it until she discovered that it squeaked. Now she carries it everywhere. I’m sure the reason for that is because she has no idea where her squirrel is. It squeaks, too, and she’s had that for years. Really. She just bites it enough to make it squeak but she doesn’t rip on it. Pretty amazing.

I had to fix the floor drain in the basement, again. You’d think fixing it once would be enough, but nooooo. Not this drain. It only runs over when the washing machine empties so I know for sure that what’s causing it is all the little tiny pieces of wet lint that gets sucked out by the washer. Either that, or some socks. Some of those are missing, like normal.

This evening Diane, me, and Diane’s Mom, Jean, went to the Warren Community Fellowship church to witness their presentation of “He’s More Than Just a Man” musical. There were 70+ people in costume for the event, and Jack sang two solos. Quite impressive. Jack was a Sanhedrin Man but I didn’t get any pictures on my camera because I used Jack’s for the performance. I gotta tell you that I never, ever thought Jack would look good in makeup, but he does. From the looks of tonight’s performance, he’s ready for Boogie (Bugis) Street in Singapore. I did get this shot of Diane’s socks before they turned out the lights. Nice, huh?

The steering wheel in the RV is still laying around in pieces waiting for the new blinker thingie. It’s supposed to be here on Monday. The new awning is supposed to show up on Wednesday.

Diane got the car washed because she heard it’s supposed to be nice all weekend. Guess what! She made it rain, and she knows better than to flaunt the weatherman by getting the car washed at the first little hint of blue sky. I have to admit, however, that it looks pretty nice.

Now I’m going to eat a snack and go to bed before it turns to fat.