Well, at least I got one thing done

It's April, which means it's time for Camp NaNoWriMo, and so far I've been slacking. The weather has been nice, work has been really busy, and I just haven't been feeling motivated. But someone has finally been kidnapped (fictionally, of course), so maybe things will start going faster.

Here is the view from the outdoor writing area:


And the other direction:


The only drawback is bugs. How can the world support so many insects? It's crazy.

Anyhow, knowing that I'll be tired and writing until all hours of the night all week, I did my taxes today. That's three days early! They've only been kicked back to me once so far. And if anyone ever complains that my error messages are hard to understand, this was in the email I got from the IRS the first time through:

Here's the reason for the rejection:


Issue      : Business Rule X0000-005 - The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-enumeration-valid.  Value '0' is not facet-valid with respect to enumeration '[F4029, F4361, EXEMPT-NOTARY, EXEMPT COMMUNITY INCOME]'. It must be a value from the enumeration.

The following information may help you determine the form at issue:
Field/Xpath: /efile:Return[1]/efile:

ReturnData[1]/efile:IRS1040[1]/efile:SelfEmploymentTaxAmt[1]



If you are unable to fix the issue, you will have to print the return and file by mail.

Luckily I write software for a living and thus could extract the important information -- I needed to check the field on the form that had something to do with self-employment. (There was a field, I put a zero in it, and apparently it was supposed to be blank. Totally not obvious.)

Anyhow, I have finished my taxes, and that's the important thing.