More randomness

— The taxes are finished except for the convoluted Form 8801. We won’t be getting as much back as I thought because my wife made a profit from her business last year. Trust me, I’m not complaining at all. And even though she’s trying to wind down her practice, preparing to go out on maternity leave in a few months, she keeps getting new patients. (She’s good, I tell ya) As soon as TurboTax has the form ready—supposedly this Friday—we’re filing. I was planning on getting state and federal refunds this month. We’ll see if that is still possible.

— I have added a section on the right for current festivals. Hopefully this will be useful for people wanting to check out a particular festival later in the week, when notices of them have been pushed off most front pages.

— My wife’s grandmother gave us her Hartmann trunk several years ago (the logo looks similar to this):

The other day I noticed another sticker that said “Gibraltarized.”

Hmmm…nice term but what does it mean? I figured it had something to do with the sturdiness, alluding to the rock of Gibraltar. But was there more to it? An internet search yielded nothing, so I wrote the company. Here is part of the reply I received today:

The term "Gibraltarized" on the Hartmann trunk is a term used to
describe the method used to actually put the trunk together. The corners of the trunk are actually put together like pieces of a puzzle, locking into each other. And the term of course also refers to the strength this method gives the corners of the trunk.

Whatever they did, they did it right. The trunk is still holding up beautifully and we have it at the foot of our bed. More useless trivia for you at no charge…