The Universe is a Prankster

So today I finally decided that it's been more than long enough since I applied for my Enrolled Agent status with the IRS. I called the Enrolled Agent hotline this morning and the first thing I hear is a recording stating that everyone with a March 31 renewal date has had their existing license extended indefinitely due to the IRS being backed up processing renewals. That sounded hopeful. When I did the "press one to speak with a representative" thing, instead of being put into a queue I was dumped into some anonymous IRS drone's voice mail. Not expecting that, I managed to mumble some barely coherent message as to why I was calling. Not that it mattered; a couple hours later, I walked down to our mailbox to find this:

Sweet. If I had procrastinated just a whee bit longer, I could have saved myself a phone call. Now I get to make a second call telling whoever, "Never mind!" I also like how it is a violation of federal law for me to use the word "certified" when I describe myself, but not only did the IRS send me a "certificate" that I am required, by that same law, to have on display, the certificate says that it is to "certify" that I am enrolled to practice before the IRS. Nothing like having the right hand clueless as to what the left hand is up to.

In less happy news, I got a phone call a couple days ago from my parents to let me know that one of my "mom's" from the church I grew up in passed away. She's been in severe pain for years, and at the last, she was essentially kept in a coma with pain meds. But it's over now; rest in peace Aretha. And I'm sure the donuts are fantastic and are served all cut up into small pieces.

In other news, it is a near-certainty that we will be moving. We made an offer on a new place that we were sure would be rejected. It wasn't. So the next few months are going to be busy while we figure out what to pack, what to toss, what to sell and what to give away. The new place will be significantly smaller that our current place, so we need to do some serious downsizing once again. I'm OK with that; we can never have too little stuff. The nice thing is we will finally be in a place that we own instead of rent, so we can make changes. We'll also have a small patch of dirt we can play in for the first time since 2006. It's nothing fantastic and will likely end up in the Gulf of Mexico the next time a hurricane blows through, but if we can make it for two years and a bit without a major catastrophe, we'll be ahead of the rent-vs.-own game. In addition, it has the distinct advantage of not being anywhere near here. Nothing is final until two weeks from now, so there is still plenty of time for monkeys and wrenches to go flying, but at least the finish line is in sight.

Things will likely remain quiet here until we get settled.