Relocation, et al

I was offered a chuck of money as a relocation expense. Though I've moved with the company a couple of times before, I've never used the official, "Relocation Department" which does, I admit, have its perks.

Unfortunately, it also has its shortfalls.

Did you know Relocation Reimbursement is taxable income? I didn't. Until last night. I budgeted on the amount I was offered, not knowing that nearly a third of it would be taken in taxes. That's ONE-THIRD of what I spent I won't be getting back.

I need this right now like I need a hole in the head.

I'm going to have to use a CPA this year. I need to get my State Income Tax back from Missouri, get back what wasn't reimbursed through relo along with what I didn't get covered due to it being taxed, the house I sold, the house I bought...what a nightmare. I'm not going to do this again. I'm done gallivanting all over the world.

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I've been working on setting up my Solaris workstation at work for the past...I dunno, month? Its slow going because work keeps getting in the way. Its an aging Ultra-10 (read, IDE-bus) that I've put two 60GB ATA drives in and mirrored them. I put Solaris 10 on it and blastwave to gnu it up. I slapped a Raptor GFX framebuffer in it, doubled the RAM to 1024MB and installed a DVD-ROM (can't remember if I've mentioned any of this before) and replaced its 333MHz CPU with a 440MHz. I'm still not finished with it.

On the home office front, my beloved 68" Sun rack has lost one of its door panels (it had four). To fix the issue, a buddy at work removed a swing-door (which is nothing more than four panels held together by a frame, two cross-members and 64 screws) and the hardware from an Enterprise-6500 rack and gave it to me. Unfortunately, the 68" rack differs from the E-6500 rack insofar as the mounting brackets are on the right, rather than the left of the rack. This has caused me to re-engineer the door. First, I removed all 64 screws, reversed the frame, and reattached. Unfortunately, the 68" rack wasn't designed to accept the hinges. I mean, the size is the same, but not the holes. Still, I think I can get it to work with a little more effort. Awaiting my tools which are in the last P.O.D.S. which arrives today between 1400-1700.

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I'd also like to introduce to you texas_tangent; A neighbor who's just signed up with livejournal. I hope you'll give her the warm welcome I know you are all capable of.