He Rode In On A Hyundai

On the way out and back to the conference last week, I noticed my Pathfinder was riding rough - like it couldn't find the right gear to be in between 45-60 mph.  So I googled it and found that Nissan has had a BIG problem with my year Pathfinders (2006) so they extended the warranty to 80,000 miles.  Apparently the radiator leaks into the transmission and ruins them both.  All of they symptoms added up to just what I had.  I have 74,000 miles on it and the job, out of warranty, would be $7,000!  So I took it in on Monday and wouldn't ya know it, the problem was NOT the warrantied one - it was bad U joints and some other stuff.  Dang!  At least $800 worth of repairs.  I told them to go ahead and fix it.  They called me the next day and said they were wrong - the problem WAS the radiator/transmission one and they would fix it for free!  And that fix would cover the other things that needed fixing too (U joints, etc.)!  That was some good news.  Of course the parts are back ordered and will be shipped out sometime but that is OK - they gave me a free loaner car.  A 2011 Hyundai VeraCruz with 12 miles on it.  The best thing about it is the XM radio.  To the embarrassment of Elliott, Lucie and I were singing and rocking at the stoplights last night!

I finished my taxes today.  I usually buy the federal Turbo Tax disk (not the state one) but this year you could do it all online and then pay for the protram at the end when you submitted the return.  The federal one was pretty straightforward so I did that and e-filed.  Fine.  Meanwhile, they kept a running total for DE state taxes in the corner and offered to sell that program too.  DE offers free online tax filing so I figured I would just do that like I always do and save the Turbo Tax fee.  But when I finished the DE online taxes, it said I OWED money while Turbo Tax said I was due money back!  What?!  I compared both returns and the only difference was the tax amount from the table.  Turns out, I filed JOINT on the DE state form (like always) while Turbo Tax reviewed the best filing option and found that "married filing separately combined" was the best option!  Who would have guessed that?  So I went back to the DE online form and changed the filing status and sure enough, getting money back!  How "governmental" to have a filing status called "separate combined!"  Works for me...