I got, not one, but two 1099 corrections in the mail from Ameritrade. The first one was dated February 21 and the second one was dated February 23. What I need from them is to highlight the differences between the two 1099s. I compared the two forms (8 pages each!) line by line and they are identical? Then again, both of them are out-of-date compared to the 1099 that I printed from the website. Oh, here's their latest innovation: The 1099s now have a color gradient! Who says financial institutions are boring? :)
I called the consulate of the old country this afternoon to find out what I needed to renew my passport. Aside from the laundry list of documentation and three passport photos (Why 3? Only 1 photo ends up in the passport. And besides, I thought they had already switched to digital imaging?) that I need to bring to their office in New York City, I also have to pay a US$80 processing fee. (Cash or money order only.) Thanks to Google's handy currency conversion feature, I see that US$80 = RM 280.77. From what I heard, it costs RM 300 to renew a passport back in the old country. I think the reason it is less than RM 300 to do it here has to do with the recent US dollar weakness. It used to be US$1 = RM 3.80, but the dollar has since fallen to US$1 = RM 3.51. Of course, no government likes letting people game the system. So my guess is they'll soon raise the processing fee here to compensate for the dollar weakness.
I received two Postcrossing postcards from the Netherlands today, bringing the total to 60 postcards received. (434899 Km total travel distance) I've also sent 63 postcards with a total travel distance of 449544 Km.