Open and shut

First it took a month to get a door, then it took 2 months to get the funding for a/v equipment, then coyotes moved in across the street, and now I've been informed that I need to apply for funding for the a/v equipment -- which is sitting in boxes on my office floor -- retroactively, by sending the funding committee seven copies of the application forms. But -- and this is perhaps paramount -- I shouldn't tell the funding committee that I already have the a/v equipment sitting in boxes on my office floor.

Why? Because I have to apply for the funding to pay for the a/v equipment I already have. Duh.