GetSheila

Lack of planning on your part does not create an emergency on mine

I have always wanted to use that line. No such luck so far this year. Tax season is going surprisingly smoothly.

Of course, 'tis early yet. Three weeks to go until the corporate tax deadline. Two weeks after that, April Fool's Day, which usually brings out the crazy people who suddenly realize the tax deadline for individuals is a mere two weeks away.

"Omigod I have to file my taxes! Can you help me? Can you help me RIGHT NOW? You're not busy, are you? What do I need to bring you?"

Because having filed taxes every year for the past twenty years is apparently not enough practice to give them a clue what they might need for THIS year's taxes.

Then they are surprised to discover all of your available appointments have been booked by people who actually plan ahead and, though we do take mail-ins and will try very hard, there is no guarantee we can get it done by the deadline on such short notice and with all of the other returns that came in the door before theirs arrived.

But so far, no crazy people. Just a lot of Quickbooks backup files and many, many journal entries.

And a lot of hungry accountants spending way too much together.

Tags: tax follies

And the chili, it was good

It is this chili, found through this blog. Combined with Marie Calendar's cornbread - made from a mix where you just add water - it was perhaps the most perfect meal ever. I suppose I should have added a vegetable on the side but I am 43. Why start now?

I have never made chili before. It turns out it is pretty easy, except for the part where it took three hours and I sat down to dinner at 10:00pm. (Note to self: make chili in the crock pot or on the weekend or do half the prep the night before. Whatever you do, do NOT start it at 7:00pm at night and expect to actually eat that night.) I was so starving by the time I ate, I was not sure if the chili really was good or if I just thought so because I was so hungry.

Because the recipe makes a ginormous pot full and I am only one person, I took two thirds of it in to work today. (Note to self #2: never tell The Big Kahuna when you have left something out of a recipe for he shall tell you it would have been better with the missing ingredient.) I left out the jalapeno peppers because a) I am wimpy, b) several people at work are also wimpy, and c) I just don't like them. Even without them, it has a bit of a kick. The chili powder? The ground cumin? The quarter cup of minced garlic? I don't know but it sure was yummy. Turns out it WASN'T just because I was so hungry.

Verbatim's chili. Try it! (My only other substitution was half ground beef and half ground turkey instead of all ground turkey, but I only did that because I had some ground beef I needed to use up.) And I highly recommend the Marie Calendar cornbread mix if you are short on time or just don't feel like making cornbread from scratch. 'Tis quite yummy.

Hm...I wonder if eating chili at ten o'clock at night had anything to do with my upset stomach in the middle of the night and waking in the morning to dreams of being trapped in a house surrounded by flesh-eating zombies.

Tags: cornbread and chili

Home by 7:00!

I thought I would take the night off and come home early to make chili. I left work promptly at 6:00 and stopped by the grocery store to get absolutely everything I would need.

Did you know you need CHILI POWDER to make chili? You did? Huh. I actually knew that, too - sort of, in the back of my mind - but it was not on my shopping list so CLEARLY I thought I already had some. I mean, come on, who doesn't have a bottle of chili powder in a cabinet somewhere?

I am pretty sure I do actually have chili powder. It just happens to be in one of my other kitchen cabinets, the ones I left behind in my sister's house in Fresno.

But hey! I am home! With no homework! I have the entire evening to do ANYTHING I WANT.

Sadly, what I want is to wash my face, put on my PJ's, and climb into bed.

At 8:38pm.

The exciting life of the single gal.

Tags: tax follies

Sunday Ramblings

WARNING: I have had three glasses of ouzo. Liqueur glass, not high ball glasses, but three glasses nonetheless.

Someone's car alarm is going off. It has been going off every ten minutes for the past hour. I think it is the work of the neighborhood lothario, Dodger, a marmalade kitty who sleeps on my front porch and pees on my garage door. I know this because I came home while it was still light for the first time since I don't know when and was greeted by two pee spots with accompanying gravitational drippings down the front of my garage door. They were symmetrically placed, I will give him that.

I would be mad at Dodger but I used to BE the crazy cat lady with neutered Tom cats that roamed the neighborhood, leaving their marks wherever they went. It turns out he does not belong to the Crazy Cat Lady from two doors down, but rather to my next door neighbor who inherited him from a country cousin, where he was a barn cat so must stay outside (or some such.) Whatever. He lets me pet him, hence I must love him.

My accomplishments for this Sunday:

1. I did laundry. All laundry. Including sheets, towels, bath mats, and the mystery sheet that showed up in my garden, which I subsequently found out belonged to my gardener, who uses it to kneel on when weeding. Strangely, he did not claim it at first. People are weird.
2. I worked for 7.2 hours, albeit from home. Ooh. The excitement.
3. I made liver and onions for dinner. Oh. God. I know liver is bad. I know bacon plus onions fried in bacon grease plus liver fried in the same bacon grease and subsequently covered in said bacon and onions is bad, but I am pretty sure I do not care. Besides, I need the iron.
4. I swept the floors because, clearly, the floor-sweeping faeries are somehow tied into the writer's guild and are still...STILL...on strike. (Where does all the dust come from? I must inspect the vents, uh, in the Spring. Yeah, in the Spring.)
5. I turned the power to my spa back on and took it out of "power save" mode so it actually heats the water now. To hell with the utility bill. It is tax season. Why  have a spa if not to immerse one's stiff body into the healing waters?
6. I moved the ironing board, stacked high with weeks of ironing, to my bedroom, where I can iron while I watch TV. Kind of like I put the treadmill in there so I can power-walk while I watch TV. It is getting awfully crowded in there. Meanwhile, nothing is getting ironed and my ass is still expanding. ::sigh::

Digression: Page Davis is back on Trading Spaces. I hate her hair. Does that make me a bad person?

So what did you do this weekend?

Tags: tax follies

Well for heaven's sake, where does the time go?

When last we spoke, I was experiencing weird episodes of dizziness. Luckily, they have disappeared. I can only assume the alien crystals that took up residence in my ear canal have been reabsorbed into the greater entity. Whatever. I am just happy the world no longer spins.

The Mom

Today I accompanied my 80 year old mother to the doctor where she took a stress test. I thought the test should consist of me sitting her down to say, "Guess what? I am pregnant. And single. And the baby and I will be moving in with you for the next 20 years!" But no, they just made her walk on a treadmill for as long as she could stand it. That turned out to be all of about 3 minutes, which was perfectly fine because the doctor pronounced her heart healthy and strong.

She has been experiencing "fluttering" when she is very still, like at night before she drops off to sleep. There is no pain. The doc says it may be extra heart beats, which are nothing to be concerned about. He says it is definitely not angina. Or as definite as doctors will get these days, which I translate as the equivalent of the accountant's "more probable than not" argument for taking a tax position. He actually said he is 98% sure it is not angina so, hey, I believe him. Could be because he was so personable and attentive to my mom.

The Yoga

Have I mentioned I have been doing morning yoga for about two months now? Speaking of my mother makes me think of it because she is NOT bendy, as in "Wayne Newton on Dancing with the Stars" Not Bendy. Worse, actually. I am more along the lines of "former cheerleader who has been sitting on her ass behind a desk for 25 years and has not roller bladed since 1995" Not Bendy. If you are a yoga person, you will scoff at the notion that Rodney Yee's AM Yoga can possibly benefit anyone. (If that is you, shut up, you bendy slut.) I am here to say, oh yes, AM Yoga rocks! I can do it in 5-10 minutes in the morning, after the hair and makeup and before the putting on of the clothes.

As M. Yee says in the video (which I no longer watch because I just can't be bothered now that I have the routine down and who has time for pre-yoga "centering" and post yoga "meditation" anyway?), "In the beginning, the benefits of these exercises may seem small." I thought so, too, but I did feel the stretches so I continued every morning and, guess what? I no longer get neck aches and stress headaches from sitting at my desk all day. And I can reach just that much farther each day, and stretch my legs just that much more. Yes, the benefits are small, but they are tangible and I do love them so.

The Tax Season

Dear god, it has only begun and all I can think of is, "When will it end?" I have been working 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day for the past month and I DO NOT LIKE IT. It is an interesting contrast to last year, though. Let's see, this time last year I was:

• Commuting 2 hours a day, 3 days a week
• Telecommuting to that same job 2 days a week
• Blogging professionally a minimum of one post per day, because it was required in my contract
• Blogging on my personal blog one post per day, because I was obsessed
• Caring for an aging, ailing cat with daily subcutaneous fluid injections and periodic trips to the vet
• Living with another person and trying to pretend I did not want to live alone (as was she)

This year, I am living in my own home with two young, healthy kitties and commuting all of 5 minutes to work each day, with no extracurricular blogging duties (except for this, my personal blog, which I have lately shunned in the name of mental health and making more money from my day job.)

I suppose I should not complain but, really, I do not know why I chose this profession. WHAT WAS I THINKING? It certainly was not "Accounting is sexy!" Oh wait, I DIDN'T choose this profession. It just sort of happened, like everything else in my life.

Hm.

Gosh, look at the time. I brought work home but it is already 9:00pm. I just don't think I am going to get to it tonight. Only an 8 hour day today. What a slacker.

Tags: mom, tax follies, yoga