No dents, 1K, the sad accountant

My replacement iPad Air arrived yesterday.  I was impressed how different the packaging was this time.  The smaller box I received the first time was now nestled inside of a much larger box stuffed with packing material.  I also received a brand new accessory pack with the cord and charger, something missing from the smashed iPad’s box.

The tablet itself looked to be in superior condition with not a mark on it.  I hit the power button and was treated to the retina display goodness the Air offers you.  During the night I did the initial configuration on it including loading the app that allows Cindy to access her trainer certification course ware on the iPad. Of course I also loaded Hearthstone which looks and plays fantastic on the device.

The one thing the iPad did not come with was a SIM card which I need in order to activate the LTE service for the device.  I am hoping to get that taken care of on my way home this evening.

As I was on the ATT site looking for info regarding tablet data plans they had information regarding their shared data plan, specifically the 10GB shared data plan.  I am one of those unlimited data customer holdouts that ATT has been trying to convert for several years.  I have clung onto my unlimited data status dearly, not wanting to have my data throttled or get dinged with overage penalties.  Seeing what I saw yesterday is softening that position.

First off it showed that I could slide into a 10gb shared data plan for $145, compared to the $159 I pay right now.  On top of that it seemed to indicate that $145 would be my cost BEFORE my 17% Florida state worker discount.   The shared plan also includes unlimited talk and texting as well as free hotspot service where your phone can serve as a Wi-fi hotspot.  They also now just started a data rollover plan where you can roll unused data from one month to the next which is awesome and makes sense.

When I looked at my data usage the last two months it topped out at between 4-5GB with well over 3GB of that being on Alison’s phone which is still on my plan.  I only had a little over 500 meg on my phone because I am hooked into wi-fi far more often than I’m not.   But even so, a 10GB plan should be more than sufficient when rollover data is factored in.  We will see what I come up with when I am in the store.

Last night I filled out my tax prep organizer for my accountant.  In the process I added up my Google AdSense dollars for the year, since Google is ridiculously slow in providing 1099’s.  I was surprised it added up to over $1000, a roughly %40 increase over the previous year.  I can only hope the acceleration continues this year.  I need to start cranking out some videos.

In addition to my taxes I fired up Turbo Tax online to do my mom’s final return.  As you can expect this was a rather sad process.  I recalled how each and every year mom would get excited when I would present her with her expected refund amount after I did her taxes. There was no excitement when I completed the process this year that showed a small refund as the last gasp of monetary activity tied to mom’s lifetime of work.

Filing a return for a deceased person requires an additional form to be filled out which I thought would preclude me from filing electronically.  TurboTax let me e-file still but I was rewarded with an error later saying the IRS did not accept the return.  I have to see if I can get that sorted out today.

This weekend will be Cindy and I doing what we want to do.  Part of that may include adopting some more chickens into the family.