I woke up this morning to an ominous text:

The FTB is the Franchise Tax Board, California’s version of the IRS. I couldn’t figure out why they’d be contacting me – I’d filed our taxes in time for the April July 15 deadline and they’d accepted my payment long ago.

I rushed to the computer, logged onto the ftb.ca.gov site (I did not click the link, thank you very much!), and found a notice of additional tax liability waiting for me. I’d underpaid our California estimated taxes for 2019, and now the state wanted its $37 in penalties and a horrifying 30 cents in interest. Fortunately, I had budgeted for this particular expense, so all should be well.

I was surprised when the paper copy of the notice arrived in today’s mail – I would have expected the text to beat the Post Office by several days, not just a few hours.

The Raspberry Pi, new RTL-SDR.COM dongle, and new antenna seem to be working reliably to capture the temperature from the outside thermomenter (in fact, it’s also getting the temperature from some neighbor’s thermometer, as well as occasional tire pressure readings from TPMS systems on passing cars), so I moved them off the kitchen desk and hid them behind the TV.

One project down, dozens to go!

I was born in Milwaukee; we moved away when I was less than two years old, and as far as I know, I’ve never been back. Despite that, I feel connected to Wisconsin. I was a Milwaukee Braves fan as a kid (the fact that the Richmond Braves were the Milwaukee Braves’ AAA farm club might have had something to do with it, too). I enjoyed the day we spent in Wisconsin in 2016 (and I recommend visiting the Peshtigo Fire Museum if you have the chance). I’ve even drunk beer from Wisconsin once or twice.

Today, I got an email from a Wisconsin-based spice merchant, Penzeys, urging me to support the Wisconsin Democrats by contributing a few dollars and watching a table read of The Princess Bride this afternoon.

I’ve read the book many times, but I’ve only seen movie twice – once when it came out and last year, in preparation for a trivia event – but I liked it and was interested in seeing a table reading. And I definitely liked the cause – I would be very happy if Wisconsin was one of the deciding states this year – on the Democratic side.

I made a contribution and Diane and I watched the event this evening – it was superb. We stayed glued to the TV the entire tine, including the after-reading Q&A – dinner was quite late tonight.

Mandy Patinkin was probably my favorite – he brought as much fire to the role of Inigo Montoya as he had to the original film. But everyone was fabulous, and the after-reading Q&A was interesting, to say the least.

Yes, there were technical glitches (especially in the Q&A), but that’s what live events are all about – and even though everyone was in their own home, you could see the chemistry among the cast.

There are rumors that WisDems will be making a replay available; I hope it’s true. They have already announced a Parks and Recreation townhall and Q&A for September 17th, which could be interesting.

On Wisconsin!