Not Notable News

The 2-4 inches of snow that was forecast for our region did not materialize yesterday. The folks in the Winter Storm Advisory counties acquired only two of their promised 5-7 inches. What up, weathermen?

I found four clean, crisp, crinkly dollars in the dryer this morning. That's after four loads of laundry. I suppose a small tip is better than none.

At the Trivia competition last night, our team took 3rd Place. That's a money position, people. Not bad for four adults and three teenagers. The Unwritten Book of Trivia Etiquette states that "Thou shalt cheerfully donate all proceeds back to the sponsor of the event." That is OH SO HARD for kids to understand. It was actually the #1 son's team, and he asked me and Basementia Buddy and she asked another Basementia denizen and then a former Basementian joined us when a child dropped out. The #1 son had said several weeks ago, "I'm so glad we have you guys on our team. Now we won't get the dead last sign on our table. If we win anything, we're not giving it back!" The other adults and I declared that we would give OUR part of any winning back, but the kids could do what they wanted. After it was over, I was handed an envelope with the winnings. I told the boys to divide $50 by seven, and that's how much they each would get. They came out of the money zone muttering, "We had the wrong envelope! We were only supposed to get $25 for 3rd place." I told them I looked in the envelope, and there were two twenties and a ten. After conferring with the head honcho, the boys went back to the money zone and gave back their portion, explaining the mix-up. They decided not to keep any money, because $3 wasn't worth it, and besides, it was a fundraiser. Somebody raised those boys right.

That's an issue I have with Trivia--the handing back of the winnings. Granted, our event was a small one. It's $10 per person to play. That's $80 per team if you have a full team, which everyone but us did. The prize money totaled $150. So there were still funds raised off the event. I would donate my winnings back anyway, because you don't even get back enough to cover your entry fee if you win 1st Place. But still...people should have a choice, and not feel obligated to give the money back. Same way with the 50-50 Drawing. The winner is pretty much expected to donate it back. What's the fun of winning if you have to give it back? That's why I stopped buying a 50-50 ticket. Why not just bring around a jar and ask, "Would you like to donate more money to our fundraiser?" Because that's all you are doing, really, and the ones who buy the tickets would still donate. The winner last night could have kept his $74, and the sponsor would still have had the other $74. This is where the Catholic Trivia event differs. They have oodles of teams. I don't know their prize distribution, having never won anything there, but they command winners to wait until people have left the building if they plan to donate their winnings back. Oh, and they sell beer, too!

On March 20, the Hillbilly family has tickets to see a Master Hypnotist. That's another fundraiser, at $10 per ticket. I'm hoping HH will volunteer to be hypnotized. Basementia Buddy and I would like to see him act like a chicken.

I hauled out the income tax info this morning. No need to rush to send it in. We have a regular Christmas here at the Mansion, not a Redneck Christmas on refund day. What I found was that the annoying new payroll company that HH's work uses has a major malfunction with the W-2 forms they sent out. You know how the instructions say 'Tear at perforation and attach to Federal Tax Return' or some such nonsense, like you wouldn't be able to figure that out? Be careful about following the directions. They had their printer set all funky, because if I tear at the perforation, the entire first line is left on the other half of the perforation. That is kind of an important first line, as it includes HH's social security number and wage info. I'll be using scissors to snip that bad boy. The ones lower down the form, especially the last one for employee records, are fine. Incompetency does not make the world go round. What a sorry lesson the world is learning lately.