Tell me why it goes by these forms, when many people filing these forms are way below the AGI that is subject to the AMT? What kind of archaic system does the government use? You would think there would be an income cut off instead of just those forms. In this day and age a simple software update should take care of it, but then it is the government. Our only refund will be for education credit, so we are screwed. I'm sure H&R block will make mucho money off their loans for refunds from people who need their refund NOW!. This is why the whole tax system should be scrapped. It could be done with one form, X% times your income.

The first house I lived in was on the Salt River Indian Reservation in AZ, just a wooden cottage raised up on concrete footings. Some years later - my Mom and Dad bought a brand new rancher in Phoenix- this was late 50's when the 6 story Westward Ho Hotel was the tallest building in Phoenix. Our house, as most were in the area, was a pink cinderblock built on a polished concrete slab. No two story homes or basements. The older areas had a few 2 story homes but that wasnt the norm,that was old Phoenix money or the Wrigleys! We had vinyl tile, popcorn ceilings and wool avocado wall to wall in the living room.Later shag rugs in the bedrooms!( pink and red for me!) When I was a teen we had a decorator that chose traditional furniture with a mediterranean Spanish flair and used pecan wood tables.All of the windows had WTs that would keep the sun out. Some people used to foil over their windows.I never heard of a roller shade until we moved back east to MD. Also never encountered stairs, except in the old Montgomery Ward store which was a story and a half balcony! I think we leaned traditional with a Spanish flair because my Mom grew up in a huge Victorian with land in the Maryland countryside and my Dad grew up in a big house in Mass,in a clapboard center hall colonial. I still live in MD in a small colonial revival house built in 1923. My taste has changed from Colonial Williamsburg to "cottage whatever". I think it is more comfy for us. and vintage thrift stuff mixes well with family pieces -the real colonial antiques and the victorian antiques. My neighborhood is mostly colonial revivals, quite a few Queen Anne Victorians as well as some gothic victorians. There are also quite a few 4 squares. Most all of the houses were built in the 20s with a few in the 1880s. Traditional decor seems to be the norm and seems to be age related- Potterybarn-esque for the younger crowd to Wiiliamsburg traditional and a couple -make- you -gulp Victorians( and not in a good way) Unfortunately the trend here in the last 10 years has been huge great room add ons- so you have many houses built in late 1880s early 20's with monstrous things sticking out the back. Definitely not in keeping with the vintage of the house. Inside, these rooms are beautiful but lack the charm that is found in the rest of the house.Crossing into the great room is like entering another country, one that has little to do with the rest of the house.Looks like they all use the same floorplan. Predictible. Talk about stereotypes, Aunt Jane and Lynne no offense, but when I was growing up, to us Arizonians ya'll were Easterners to us! Bit of snobs we were. Still am as far as Mexican food! LOL I equate the Kokopelli Southwestern style of decor with the big hair of the 80s! Never saw any of it growing up in AZ, just in the East and thought who are they fooling with that fake stuff?

I'm going to speak plainly, and I mean no offense. Is he over 18? Shove him out the door and tell him he's on his own. The things you are doing are NOT helping him. You are hurting him because you are enabling him. Before retirement, I worked at a fairly large company. In the rear of my building was the HR department, and one day an older woman came down my hall looking for that office. Trailing behind her was a man of about 30. She told me she was taking her son to the HR office so he could apply for a custodial position we had open. I looked at him incredulously and he smirked at me. They were two of the most pitiful people I have ever seen in my life: Him - because he so obviously was trailing Mama just to appease her, and Her because she was being so foolish. That happened about 10 years ago and I imagine she is still supporting him. WE certainly didn't hire him.

When I was growing up in a small village in a small town, we only got 2.5 TV stations. Most TV programs bored me, but I used to watch Victory At Sea. It terrified me. My father was a good story teller. He’d create stories with vivid characters and fun names to tell us at bedtime. in later years he would tell me some of his history during the war. His ship was torpedoed two different times, The last time, when he and some of his crew members were in a row-lifeboat, the German U-boat sufaced next to them. The German commander came to the conning tower and called out to my father and fellow crew members, asking them if they needed medical attention, did they want to come aboard. My father said that he was a nice looking captain and spoke English well. You can bet that none of my father’s crew members were going to get onto that sub or even say they needed help. The U-boat captain asked for their captain or who was in charge. Some of the crewmembers were ducking down, trying to be invisible. One of them bravely claimed to be the captain and the U-boat captain gave them the coordinates and direction they should row to reach shore. Suddenly the German captain had to go and soon the sub descended and departed. Soon after my father heard loud explosions. The U-boat had hit an Australian ship a few miles away. (There was more info to this adventure.) I used to like hearing my father tell us about these times. He had had a lot of very close calls in his life. My father did not know (or seem interested) in anything about that German submarine captain. But because he had spared my father and his crew and helped them, I was impressed and grateful.