Get your hand out of my gift bag!

As a member of the middle income tax bracket, my heart swelled when I learned the IRS would be targeting the Hollywood set for the fair market value of their gift bag and the gifts it contains. However, as I conducted extensive research for this blog entry, I was intrigued to find that the IRS website has a link to "What's Hot" at the IRS. What the, huh?!?! My assumption that the IRS was a money hungry, bureaucratic blow-hard, squelching the meager earnings of the people has been incorrect all along. Instead, it seems the IRS web master has his finger on the pulse of the masses in regard to relevant tax pop culture. Now that I have come to terms with the hip, cool, trendy IRS - I'm adding a link to the hottest IRS news on the net.

Hamburgaled..a sordid tale

And the award for the world's most expensive 1/4 lb hamburger goes to..... Wendy's. My son and I unknowingly stopped there to pick-up a burger and fries after an eventful morning of shopping at Target. My husband and I had recently revamped our monthly budget and determined that we eat out entirely too much, so I thought I'd keep the cost down by ordering two single hamburgers and 2 medium fries. No drinks. No Frosty. Not even cheese. The offending total is circled on my receipt to the left. When I pulled up to the window, I explained to the young lady that I only ordered 2 hamburgers (in the event that they had erroneously charged me for 5 burgers or something) and 2 med fries. She proceeded to explain to my horror that each hamburger was $2.59 EACH!! Holy %$@&*! I said. She calmly referred me here and motioned for me to pull ahead to make way for the next unwitting patron.

58 things I like about you

In honor of the 58th annual Primetime Emmy Awards broadcasting on August 27, 2006, here's a little list to get this blog started:

• Actress Diana Muldaur was born 58 years ago today. For those of you not familiar with her work, she received two Emmy nominations for her portrayal of no-holds-barred attorney Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law. She also played thrice divorced Dr. Katherine Pulaski on season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You can purchase her as an action figure here. Better hurry, there's only one left.
• 58 members of the species/subspecies Felis silvestris catus and their corresponding rectal swabs were used to determine if cats posed a risk for transmission of Salmonella. And not just any ol' Salmonella; antimicrobial drug-resistant Salmonella. The resulting results of this study are:

1. Keep your cats litter box clean

2. Wash your hands

3. Sick cats are bad

For all you cat lovers out there, and I know there are millions of you, no cat was injured during the study (at least I don't think so). Needless to say, all of the 58 cats were dead on arrival at the CDC, and had previously signed waivers that upon their demise they would happily donate their potentially Salmonella infested bodies to science.

• And finally, please make someone very happy and go to ebay to bid on these 58 year old doctor stamps.