Friday, May 15, 2009

visiting with the parents.....

Still have not gotten the "writing bug" back at full tilt yet, as the gap from my last post would indicate. I mentioned to Morgan tat I am doing what I need to do for work, around the house, and family, but nothing extra. Still sluggish from tax season. Ugh. Not like it will get any easier as I get older. :-)

I traveled on Wednesday down to Florida to see my mother and stepfather. And for those of you who know me, yes, I flew on a plane. Took something to relax me, but I don't seem to have same same anxiety about flying as I used to. They are healthy and look pretty good after the beating they both have taken these past two years. That makes me feel better.

Looking at their calender, it seems like each week has a day or two with doctor appointments to check on this or that, and to have different tests. Hopefully that will be ending soon.

At home, all is going well. As I said above, I still have not done too much "extra", but I did get to check a few things off the after tax season "to do" list.

One thing taking much of my time are the NHL Playoffs, as I watch every game on television. There is nothing better then playoff hockey.

Actually, there is one thing, and that is when your favorite team is part of those playoffs! The Hurricanes won their second straight Game 7 of this playoff season (and 4th straight series win in a Game 7) by beating the Boston Bruins 3-2 in overtime last night, while on Boston's home ice. I have seen many game 7s, and a few have gone into OT, but never have I watched my team in a Game 7 that went into OT. I was a wreck.

Now it is on to face Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals. Over in the West, it is a match-up of Original Six franchises as the Detroit Red Wings go against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Our friend Tony commented on my last post and mentioned that he and his wife, Alisa, are speaking at a marriage retreat in July through our San Diego church, CRB. It will be about the topic we studied in our first small group with them, Intimacy Ignited. He asked if we might be able to make it. We won't this year, but if they start asking Morgan to travel out there for work, we will try to make sure I tag along once and get to see all our friends from CRB. We miss ya.

Until the next time.....

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

OK, it has been forever.....

Yes it has. Hope all is well with all of you, your families, and loved ones.

My last post was the day after my birthday on March 22nd, so that is over 6 weeks ago. Of course I had the built in excuse of tax season, but that ended 3 weeks ago, so what happened? Plain ol' laziness. I was so constantly busy from March 1st forward, that I just wanted to do nothing with my brain after the 15th, and that is basically what I have done, or haven't done, based on your perspective.

Family time, church time, out on the motorcycle (when not raining), watching hockey, and video games have been pretty much it for my extra time since April 15th. Nothing "taxing" (pardon the pun). Usually by now, I have merged all the new client information from tax season into the existing information (mailing labels, labels for their folders, etc.), so that it is already done for next January, with any clients I receive from now on being merged one at a time, but I have not even wanted to do that type of stuff.

Looks like the final tally will be 319 returns for this year, with only 3 lost (2 women got married, and new husbands don't like using an accountant, and the other was a CA client I had for a while, but don't know what happened), so that ended up being a net increase of 51 clients. I feel truly blessed and even humbled (yes, I can actually be humbled), because that is all recommendations and "word of mouth" from existing clients and friends, as I do no advertising at all.

I was not prepared for that much of an increase, so I think that is why I got so "brain tired" towards the end. I'm just starting to get back into it, and hope to be caught up with all those little "loose ends" by the end of this month. That includes going back and reading over the blog posts I have bypassed from my day to day reading. I may not comment on your writings, but I will be reading those on my list. Luckily, Casey's are mostly pictures, so his won't take me as long as some of the others.

As for these pages, I hope to get back into a regular routine again. I like writing, so hopefully once I start again, I won't let time go between posts.

Otherwise in a nutshell, things are very good. Very, very good. I could not imagine being this happy with the woman I love as we approach 19 years together come June 2nd. On that same day, our "little girl" will be leaving elementary school, and getting ready for 6th grade this August. On top of that, she will be returning to Wake Christian Academy for her education. She, and we, are very excited and happy about her return to the school.

And just to add to all of this, the Carolina Hurricanes are making a playoff run, and as I write this are tied at 1 game apiece with the top seeded Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, with the next two at home in the very loud RBC Center.

So, that's it for now. Hope to get read and caught up on many of the blogs I have listed to the side, as my brain starts getting out of this "fuzz", and I start getting into a normal "of season" routine.

- Burt Reynolds' "sidekick", Dom DeLuise passed away.
- Josh Hamilton injured, and off to a slow start. Hope he gets healthy soon.

Until the next time.....