PSA: tax credit money in AZ

We take this break from our cancer programming to bring you this message.

If you (or someone you know) live in and pay state taxes in Arizona, you are able to receive a tax credit of up to $200 ($400 if married filing jointly) when you make a donation to a public school.

I am soliciting tax credit donations for the instrumental music program at my school. If you are able and willing to give us some of your tax money, follow these steps:

1- Download the form here. Print it out.

2- Fill in the information.

3- Check the box, and on the line underneath of it, write "Bethune Instrumental Music"

4- Mail the form to the address given, along with a check in the amount of your choice.

About a year from now, I will get a list of all of the people who donated money to my program. I'll send you a thank you note written by me, and some thank you notes written by kids. So you give us "free money" and get thanked for it — what could be easier?

If you are unsure as to how the tax credit program works, ask me and I'll give you more details.

this is dang expensive...

I received an e-mail from my health insurance company, asking me to look at something on their website, so I logged in. While I was there, I checked out "claim history." Of course, it is extensive. I downloaded it and used the "sum" function, just to see... Now, before I give you my partial running total, a detail: My insurance changed last summer, so this total is for the last 12 months. It does not include my 3 trips to the ER, my hospital stays, my first two (three?) chemo treatments. I am thinking about contacting my previous insurer to get numbers for all of that.

OK, that said, the total for July '07 to July '08 was $136,111.77. Chemo, radiation, doc's appointments, blood draws, PET scans, PICC lines. I expected it to be more than that, but that's still not chump change.


And I haven't forgotten about the hair project pic. I should have it up later today. If not, definitely tomorrow.