marriage has its perks.

so while it may suck that miyuki wasn't able to start working right away and all that due to immigration stuff, it's still proved to be financially lucrative to import my li'l mail order bride. we're looking at an income tax refund of about two grand, thanks to the "married filing jointly" deduction andher complete lack of US income (she'll still need to do her canadian taxes).

this is good, because we desperately need some stuff. like a new mattress. the antique brass bed we inherited from my grandfather came with a shitty ass mattress, thing probably cost $100. it's uncomfortable as hell. we don't sleep well, and I wake up every morning stiff and sore. so we'll put half our return towards a new mattress and actually get restful sleep.

the other half will go towards a new computer. my circa 2000 powerbook pismo just doesn't cut it anymore. the 6gb hard drive is at its limits, and the 400mhz G3 processor just sucks balls... I'm eyeing the new imac. so that'll take care of the other half and then some.

this, of course, is all contigent of miyuki having a regular paycheque by the time the refund arrives. which should be about two weeks after I get all my tax info back (I estimated based on unofficial paystubs and whatnot), which will be no later than january 31. I expect to see it sometime next week. seeing as miyuki has two more job interviews next week (monday and tuesday), and is also supposed to hear back about that REALLY sweet insurance job (it's down to her and one other person), she has pretty good odds of being gainfully employed by the end of the month.

things should really start looking up come february. we can make an extra effort to pay off debt and save for a house downpayment. oh yeah, and maybe I'll be able to afford a vespa for my birthday!

now we just need that green card so I can go get me some chineefoo...