A Taxing Week

Oh, lovely readers! It's been a week, you know? Just too much happening. Let's see...

I finished our taxes tonight. For various reasons involving IRAs and mistakes I made (and later rectified) last year, this year was a hair-pulling nightmare, tax-form wise. Problems with taxes are particularly distressing for me because, unlike most of the population, I love tax forms. My father was an accountant, with an office in the house, and nothing seems cozier to me than some sharpened pencils and a sheaf of IRS forms. When I look at a 1040, I can almost smell the cigar smoke that perfumed his office, courtesy of his clients and his assistant. Mmmm....

So even now, when I do the taxes online, I just...I don't know...I like them. And I also like that they always make sense. If they don't make sense, it's because I haven't figured it out correctly.  But the answer is there, and I know it. So if, like this year, it takes me a month to figure out, it almost drives me crazy. But a good sort of crazy, you know?

That said, I'm taking some accounting courses this year. I don't want to go quite this crazy next April, thanks.

And now, here's the KoolAid-dyed yarn I did last weekend:

Pretty, right? No idea what I'll use it for yet. Maybe I'll just hang it up for decoration in my soon-to-be yarn room. No hurry, Brian, with that moving-away-to-college thing, really. NO HURRY AT ALL.

And look at this!

The pad, not the NASA magnet

I went to Target the other day, and this was all I bought. It cost ONE DOLLAR. I think that must be some sort of a record, don't you?

Oh, and that bathroom paint decision? You know, where Susie and I had picked out a new shower curtain at IKEA for when the bathroom would be remodeled and now it's all happening and we wanted to pick out a paint color that would go with the new shower curtain and with the new tile and with the new vanity?

Yeah, that didn't go well. We ended up buying 3 sample cans of blue and none of them looked light enough and I was about to tear my hair out and start asking for custom colors, ALL BECAUSE OF A $5 SHOWER CURTAIN. That's when Larry stepped in and stopped the madness by saying, "You know, we could use the same color as we used in the basement bathroom, and you could find a different shower curtain."

Which is what we did. And everyone lived happily ever after. The End.

No, really, THE END. Because this was the last bathroom we had to redo, praise be to G-d. Haven't we all suffered enough, through all my tales of renovation? Well, it's over. We're done. I have no idea what Larry will do with all his spare time now, but it will not involve ripping apart my house. Maybe he could get a job doing couples counseling at the paint store?

Birthday balloons, because we do try to be festive

Oh, and Brian turned 18 last week. I'm almost too verklempt to write about it. Instead, here's what I wrote when he turned 13. It feels like yesterday, I swear it. Oh, and here I am, 6 years ago, already waxing sentimental about his little-boy smile. Oh, Lord, my heart hurts.

Despite my fears, he turned out to be a pretty nice teen, helping keep us up-to-date with technology and making sure we can find all our photos; and he even smiles at us from time to time, so I can't complain. But if any of you can figure out just where I misplaced, oh, 18 years, could you please let me know? They've gone missing somehow.