more work.....

Well, I thought I was caught up. Thursday night I was left with a long time client's (18 or 19 years) 7 tax returns (2 businesses, his return, his 3 kids, and his mom). Always late, but I always leave a day or two, and he is always waiting on information, so his goes on extension most years.

So with that, I wrote an email to those on my list who I had not heard from all year since our move. Got responses back from 2 more that went to other preparers (One thought it was too late to send me info. Ha! The other thought she was too difficult to do long distance), that wanted to know if I would still be willing to prepare their returns. One other wrote to say that he lied coming to the office too much, and just could not see doing it long distance. Fair enough. That was all Thursday night.

Friday, I finished the 6 "off shoot" returns, and left myself with nothing but the main return. Great. Don't work on Saturday, besides answering some email. As I am closing down at 3pm to get ready to go to Los Angeles for the game, 2 packages of information are sent over, and then an email from another client saying they "forgot", and will be sending the information over the weekend. Sunday morning brought one more package, and a note that their son is also sending his information. So I went from 1 (that I knew about), to 6 total in less than 15 hours on April 13th. Ugh! Not sure why I am surprised, as this happens every tax season. There will probably be 2 or 3 more that contact me tomorrow.

None of the above includes the few that contacted me about extension, but I had to tell them that with no information, the extension is worthless if they owe money, and don't have 90% of it paid in by April 15th. Now they are scrambling to get me "something" to get an idea for the extensions.

Again, I vent, but it is over in 48 more hours. I am just looking forward to some "normal" days. I'll actually be busy the rest of the month with the two, and maybe three new NC businesses that need to be set up, and then just have the normal "payroll tax month" work to do. (January, April, July, and October are when payroll tax reports are due, so I work on all my business clients, and the busiest these months.)

Enough about tax returns. Dodger Stadium was great. It was a real nice surprise and a great gift from Morgan & Cassie. It does not have all the "extras" of the modern ballparks, but you would never know it was 47 years old. It is very clean, and it was great to be able to sit there for one game during my life. I took a few pictures, but not too many. I was too busy just looking around.

That now makes five stadiums where I have seen games (Petco in SD, Dodger, Shea & Yankee in NY, and Camden Yards in Baltimore). The ride to LA was OK, but long. The three of us decided that we will probably take the train to the Kings/Hurricanes game next hockey season, instead of try to navigate LA highways and streets.

Cassie has moved up in her swimming team. They put the kids in lanes based on their speeds and times, and she was moved up from the last lane (6th), to the 3rd lane. Her told told Morgan that, "all of a sudden, Cassie started "getting it", and she is really performing well, so they challenged her to move up levels, and she did". We are proud of her. I really don't care how fast she is, we just want her to try her best, and have great technique. If that meant she swam "like a rock", so be it.

Cassie also received her acceptance letter to Maranatha Christian School. We are not too crazy on moving schools for her again, but Morgan and I think this is a "door" opened in front of us, and we need to take advantage of it. With the state budget cuts that are being talked about with regards to California schools, it scares us to keep her in the public schools, even if it is only a couple of years before we might move back east. That is too much time in her "schooling life", to not be giving her the best possible opportunities that are present for her.

Morgan has been doing fine, but just like the last 17 years, I am also sure she will be happy after the 15th goes by. It takes teamwork during tax season, and even with her busyness, she has been able to help me save some time here and there by doing different things. I could not get through these without her.

OK, way too long. Got to go. More frequent (and hopefully more interesting, not just taxes) posts coming very soon.

- 1st surprise Idol cut
- shower with your keyboard?
- I remember when she was a sports anchor at CNN
- Got to love Yanks-Sox. Hope it makes the Jimmy Fund a ton of $$$.

Until the next time.....