not much.....

Wasn't sure if I would post anything today, but even with the work piling up, I still try to do some "normal" things for myself each day, on top of the "normal" family stuff I try not to neglect at this time of year. I read the paper everyday (and have done so for some 35 years). I do a 20 minute weight workout each morning before getting into the office at 6am. Two or three days a week I take Cassie to swimming and instead of working again, go for a 45 minute run (if my knees hold up, I want to complete more more half marathon now that I am over 40 and "post knee surgery") or walk. And lastly, I try to keep this site updated three to five times a week.

Had a North Carolina client come to the office today to have his tax return prepared. His mom lives in La Jolla, so he made it that he could come by and also have his return prepared while visiting. I have only know Bob for a couple of years, but he married two years ago a long time client of mine, so that's how he became a client. Today, he also brought me his two sons' returns to prepare, so even though they are "student" returns now, when they graduate in a few years, I hope they become full clients. It was nice to have a client in the office, to change things up.

One thing that is very tough this year is working in good weather. The last 21 tax season have been in New York and North Carolina. New York is cold until late March or April, while North Carolina starts getting nice about mid March. I can put up with 3 or 4 weeks of nice weather. Here, it has been nice for the past week, and will only get better. Ugh!

Looking at the pile on my desk, I better wrap this up so I can watch Lost, and then get to sleep. Looks like a full day tomorrow and Saturday. I have already promised Rock Band to Morgan and Cassie for Saturday night after church, so I need to get a good amount of work done tomorrow.

The Hurricanes lost to the New York Rangers 4-2 tonight at the RBC Center. The Canes were never really in it, as the New Yorkers jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period, and were up 3-0 before Erik Cole finally scored for the Canes. They got to within a goal, but then the Rangers put the game away.

- I paid $3.45 today for regular!
- Another cell phone deal.
- A few less Idols.

Until the next time.....

lack of time.....

Sorry about the lack of postings, but the business of tax season, plus the added activities of Cassie, just seem to keep me and Morgan constantly on the go. I mean, I get into the office at 6am, and I am still working right up until dinner at 7pm, and some days I don't think I did anything. Ugh!

Nothing too exciting around here except the Girl Scout Cookies have arrived. That means bundling them up for delivery, including a special mailing to Alabama for the Slinger. Enjoy the Thin Mints.

The Hurricanes traded away Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu from the Chicago Black Hawks earlier today. Unlike the earlier trade to get Corvo and Eaves. I am not in favor of this one. I personally think the Canes may regret this down the road. I know Ruutu is tough, but I think Ladd was going to be a big time power forward as he got older. There were a ton of trades throughout the NHL today before the 3pm trade deadline.

The Canes followed the trade tonight by continuing to play good hockey, and they beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in overtime. Sergei Samsonov scored both goals, and has been a very pleasant surprise since joining the team. They really seem to be getting it together at the right time. Plus all of this is with their captain, Rod Brind'Amour sidelined for the season.

- These two are everywhere. Good thing they are good people.
- Is there a doctor in the house?

Until the next time.....

free time.....

Don't have much of that during this time of year. I worked all day Friday and Saturday, but I am caught up for now. Have a new business return to start (current client who opened business), but everything else has been inputted. Bad thing is, the "pile of shame" I spoke about, now has about 15 or so returns in it.

Got this post started later than I intended this morning. Morgan's friend Chris, who is the voice on FOX and CBS television, as well as some movie trailers you hear, and has been "coaching" Morgan (she has a separate voice coach) on getting started with her voiceover business, decided to call at 10:45pm to see how his pupil was doing. Yes, that is 1:45am on the east coast where he lives. He is so busy with his work, it was the only free time he had to call. Well, the time the conversation ended at 12:45am, so that getting up early to take care of my posting, and other items around the house, got a later start than I wanted.

I hope you visit the other blogs I have listed (not Hog's if you are on a diet :-) ), especially Kellie's and Casey's with their great photos. I am jealous of them. I know both have been taking pictures much, much longer than me, and it is not the quality of work, as I know I will get better with time. It is the fact that they "see" something and get a picture. I don't have that "eye" yet, and not sure if I will. Even last night on the way to church, Morgan pointed out the great sunset (of course no camera, but I am going to start carrying it everytime I leave the house), and said "what a great picture", and I didn't "see" it until she pointed it out. I just thought great sunset first, and not the picture. Again, that might come over time, but art and seeing items in different ways in not my strongest quality.

Speaking of strong qualities (that was smooth), that was the discussion at church last night. What are our spiritual gifts we can share and use with the church. There was a questionnaire we filled out that was supposed to tell us "what we are good at". I don't know about that, as many of the items I had to put down the lowest score as I am too new to all of this to really "score" any higher on many spiritual items. What I do know is that I always enjoyed helping the kids at WCA, for the years Cassie attended, and I also enjoyed coaching Upwards basketball through Colonial Baptist Church. I figure if our church has a car enthusiast club, and a motorcycle club, a kid's sports club or even game club could be a way for me to help. I will look more into it after tax season ends.

Otherwise, it is quiet here in San Diego. We have had steady rains all week, and I think we are a little over seven inches for our "season". The normal is ten inches for the whole year, but after only 4 inches last year, and only 2 inches the year before that, some out here are thinking of building an ark.

The Hurricanes won a big game last night against the division rival (and second place team) Washington Capitals 6-3 at the RBC Center. Eric Staal and new Hurricane Joe Corvo had a goal and two assists each, while one of Cassie's favorite players, Matt Cullen (along with Justin Williams, Ray Whitney, Cam Ward, and Staal), had two goals and an assist. Glad to see they are getting some momentum, and also glad that Eric Staal has seemed to step up his game with the absence of Rod Brind'Amour.

I am participating in a fantasy baseball league with some other from GeezerGamers over at Yahoo. Should be fun, although I have not done any fantasy baseball in at least ten years. I have been playing fantasy hockey and football, both on Yahoo, so I should be able to learn the "game" easy enough.

Have a good week ahead.

- Really, Ralph? Haven't we heard this before.
- I like Jon Stewart, but not awards shows.
- These don't seem like ways to increase business.

Until the next time.....

busy, so quicky.....

That could be the title line for quite a few of these over the next 7+ weeks. Staying consistently busy, but I am behind in the number of returns completed as compared to last year. I know with the move, I should not be trying to compare the years, but it is hard for me not to look back. I wonder if, besides the move, did I do something to make the clients want to leave. Of course none have officially left until April 15th passes, and it is only February 21st, but I sometimes do and think silly things. :-)

As of today, I have completed 59 returns, I have 8 waiting for me to start on my desk, and 9 more in the "dreaded pile of doom". That is the pile I tease my clients about if they happen to be in it. It means I have your return inputted, but am waiting on a question answered, or one more piece of information before I can complete the return. I hope to have good enough days working tomorrow and part of Saturday to be caught up with all clients that have sent in their information.

The MediFast PR people have contacted Morgan about the "before and after" pictures, and her personal story that she sent to them. It seems they are interested in her and her story. We shall see.

Cassie has moved up in her swimming to the "Red / competitive" group full time. She was slowly getting into it, but with her having the week off, I thought it was a good time to get it started. They work them hard in this group, but that is good for my princess, as a "kick in the rear" with some hard exercise will be good for her. It throws the family schedule into a loop, because practices Monday - Thursday are 5 - 6:30pm, while Fridays are 5-7pm, and Saturdays are 8-10am. We carpool with another girl's family a few days a week, and on the others I either stay and go for a run (if the knees are up to it), or drop her off and come back home to work.

The Hurricanes beat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-3 tonight at the RBC Center. The Canes have now opened up a four point lead in the division. A nice small winning streak would be nice to make a little gap between them and the rest of the division. But, I have to ask, where are the fans? Only 13,500, which is not even 75% full? That's terrible.

And hooray to Blogger! They finally fixed the spell checker.

- Let these two argue all the way to the Democratic Convention.
- Talk about biting that hand that fed you. Or didn't feed you.
- Sometimes I think I have all these symptoms.
- A new Harley-Davidson jacket. Nice, but as usual, expensive.

Until the next time.....

Ok, I'll write.....

Was not going to post, as I have a pile of folders on my desk, but this will get my mind off tax returns for a while.

The airline pilots I mentioned a few days ago heard about me from a pilot's bulletin board. Seems they were "talking" on the boards, and a client of mine who is still associated with American Airlines, gave my name out on the board. This client now works in the Pentagon, and it's funny because when we speak while he is at work, I can hear the clicking in the line because we are being recorded. Guess the NSA has my golden tones on file.

Morgan sent in her "before and after" photos to the MediFast people. It is amazing to see the transformation she has gone through. I know I have mentioned this a bunch of times in my posts, but I will probably mention it forever. I am really proud of her, and her accomplishments, concerning her weight loss.

Seems the "big" story of the day is Fidel Castro resigning as President of Cuba. My first reaction was "so what". I understand this is history, but not a good history. The only spin I can see on this is if somehow the people of the country are allowed to live like real humans. Will we see that? I don't know.

The Hurricanes got blown away (ha ha) by the New Jersey Devils 5-1 on Monday afternoon. Not what was expected after two nice wins in a row. Sure seems like the Devils have the Canes' number this year.

Tonight the Canes hosted the Boston Bruins, and lost 3-2 in a shootout. The Canes were down 2-0 with 63 seconds to go in the game, before Ray Whitney and Erik Cole scored goals 20 seconds apart from each other. That sent the game into overtime, and at least gave the Canes a point, when it looked like none were coming.


- I know it is back up at $3.19 for regular here in San Diego.
- Eventually, there will be no more "minute counting".
- Martha and Emeril are a couple?
- Movie phrase game for you. I missed two.

Until the next time.....

mountain ride.....

I joined up with the church's motorcycle riding group, called The Eternal Riders this morning for their monthly ride. Pastor Harry was working this morning so he did not join us. He should be there next month, as the ride coincides with his weekend off. There must have been about two dozen of us. It was mostly Harleys, and yes, I did have the smallest bike in the group. We went about 35 miles up towards Julian and stopped for lunch. I stayed in the back portion of the group, but was much more comfortable today then I was last week with the cars. There is still some snow, from the freak storm that came through on Thursday, on some of the mountain sides. It was a nice viewing ride, and I really enjoyed it.

At lunch, I met a nice couple, Barry and Debbie, and we spoke about our moves to San Diego (they are from Boston and arrived here in 2003 after he sold a business he started to NEC), sports and the church. I had a real nice time with them, and hope to see them at church on Saturday evenings.

After lunch they were going to take a long route north and west on the way home, but I decided to head back home and just relax. After tax season, I will stay with them for the whole ride.

Seems I have a raspy voice and some head congestion. Morgan said I did not have it this morning, so it could have been from the ride, as it was cool, and I did not have my "neck glove" around my throat. Or between the farms and floral, some allergies. Of course, my mind is going back to the clients who were sick and came to the house on Wednesday night. I guess we will see.

Church service this week was about "God, My Giant Slayer". Pastor Harry spoke about Moses, and the three items needed to "help slay the giant". Those being the ability to make something from nothing, the power of prayer, the how two can do what one cannot. Harry spoke of Twinkies as his "giant", and the excuses he uses with his wife, Candance, concerning his eating habits. As always, Harry was able to get his message through to me loud and clear. That has been the greatest part of coming to these services, that I always feel that I am being spoken to. Morgan feels the same way.

After the service, Morgan went up to Pastor Harry, and introduced herself, and told over her story with her "giant". She told him how on the first day of 2007, before getting out of bed, that she prayed that she could start her weight loss, and keep her wight loss going, and finally slay her "giant". Pastor Harry was taken aback that she has lost over 120 pounds since last January. They prayed together, and then we all spoke for a little while. I am extremely proud Morgan, and the "giant" she has been able to defeat.

The Hurricanes beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 on Saturday night at the RBC Center. The Canes scored 3 goals in the third period to comeback and win the game. Cam Ward got pulled in the second period after the Panthers pulled ahead 3-2, but John Grahame only allowed one goal the rest of the way. Cam had started the last 13 games, so I don't blame him for having an off night. They really need to reduce his load, and keep him fresh. Two in a row for the boys without their Captain.

- Think I'll have the chicken.
- I'm very happy for Ryan Newman.
- Please pick me, Mr. Edwards.
- Train your husband?

Until the next time.....

better pictures.....

OK, here are some better pictures of the view from around the corner of the house. I brought my camera with me when I went to the bank Friday morning, and took these on the way back to the house. This of course got some looks from the people living on the that part of the street.

Not much going on except work and more work. What a surprise for an accountant in February. So far, I have not caught any of the variety of different "bugs" my clients brought over to the house on Wednesday night.

It seems somebody saw my ad who is a pilot. They sent an email with some questions, which I answered. Next thing I know, he gave my name to another pilot, and that gentleman sent an email asking about my services. That works for me, but neither has set an appointment yet. That happens, though. I will get a phone call asking about my services, and it may be 2 or 3 weeks later before they set up the appointment.

I have prepared returns for other pilots, and they have some different expenses because of their overnight stays in different cities, but nothing too complicated. Funny thing is I asked both where they saw my ad (either the monthly local, or through HOG), and neither answered that question. Strange.

One of my clients in Atlanta who has a rental beach house in Virginia, has convinced a friend who has two rentals to use me for income taxes. Supposedly, this gentleman has complained to my client about his accountant for the past couple of years, but would not switch. I hope I don't have clients who don't like my services, but keep coming back anyway.

The big news on the Carolina Hurricanes front, is the season (hopefully not career) ending injurt to our Captain, Rod Brind'Amour. He tore up his ACL, and has at least 6 months of recovery in front of him. It is the same injury that happened to Justin Williams back in November. With Cory Stillman traded, and Glen Wesley not being too vocal of a guy, I am hoping that Eric Staal will take it personally and help lead the team on its playoff drive.

Have my first motorcycle ride with the church group, Eternal Riders, tomorrow morning. They are planning a nice long ride to take advantage of the weather. We had some mudslides after Thursday's rains, so they might have to change the route they had planned.

Have to get ready for church services soon, so I need to wrap up.

- I am surprised this does not happen more often.
- Aquaman's car
- I want them and U2 (and Tom Petty, and Bon Jovi, etc.) in Rock Band, not just Guitar Hero.

Until the next time.....

Valentine's Day 2008.....

This Valentine's Day is the first that Morgan and I have spent together in a "normal" fashion since 2002.
2007 - Morgan in San Diego / Sal in NC
2006 - Sal has knee surgery on February 13th
2005 - Morgan in San Diego / Sal in NC
2004 - Have family visit and tell them about Morgan's job in SD
2003 - Sal has diverticulitis and is on antibiotics and can barely move

We are doing nothing overly special. I got her some nice flowers and we exchanged cards. Cassie has swim practice, but we will all eat dinner together. To me, the most important part is that we are together.

This is one of those reasons why people keep telling me that I will never leave San Diego after being here for a while. And who knows, they might be right. Living in an area where it can be 90 minutes from the top of a mountain to the beach is amazing. I was able to go 1/4 mile from the house and get this picture. Literally around the corner from where we live. Pretty amazing what God creates for us.

My buddy, Mike, had the real tough choice of choosing between two motorcycles. This only made Casey hate him more. :-)

Speaking of Casey. Things seem to be settling down around the Gavette household. We don't get to speak or text as much as normal during this time of the year, but I am happy to see on his blog that everything is going well.

Also, a friend of Casey, Mike and myself, Will (Hogw1ld), who writes mostly about his cooking (smoking and BBQing), blogged about smoking eggs a couple of weeks back. I love breakfast, and may need to try that at some time.

OK, that is it for today.

- When will this stop?

- Um, OK. If that's what you want to call your city.

- Dale, Jr. seems to like his new team.

- This never happened with my man, Bobby Knight around.

Until the next time.....

please stay home.....

So, I have my first San Diego clients coming to the office for an income tax return. They were scheduled for Saturday, but asked if I was free prior to that time. I explained, that just like them, I only moved here a short time ago, so they would be my first "sit down" appointment, so anytime was good. They show up today, and what happens? All of them are sick. The husband just got over a cold, the wife has a scratchy throat, and the child could have been the poster boy for Kleenex. I could not finish the return fast enough. They were nice people, but what were they thinking? It never fails, as I always seem to get one a year that is sick, and for some reason will not move the appointment. What are the odds, that it would be my first client in San Diego?

As you can tell, I am frustrated and annoyed. Now I will think about it until Friday or Saturday, and hope I don't feel any symptoms. Luckily, neither Cassie or Morgan met any of them, so they should be OK. Just call and say, "I'm sick". That is OK. We will reschedule. Ugh!

Got an e-mail from the church group concerning our ride this Sunday. Because of the great weather, and this being the first ride, they are going to make it a long one. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm game for it (as long as I'm not sick!), and am looking forward to it.

I'm tired and cranky, so it's time to go.

- Prayers for Rev. Graham
- I prefer Pepsi
- Bet you they ask him to buy the beer.

Until the next time.....

windshield and helmet.....

My buddy, Mike (Th3Guns1ing3r) has posted on his site some pictures of the new bike he is about to purchase. It's a 2004 Kawasaki Vulcan Classic, and besides being a Japanesse bike (you know I had to kid you being a Harley owner), it is real nice. I wish him the best of luck with it.

He mentioned in a comment note from Saturday's blog that he has never had a windshield before, and was going to buy a full face and skull cap helmet. I love the windshield, and think he will like it, and so will his wife if she rides along. As for the helmet, I only have worn a full face, but I get the itch every once in a while to get a skull cap. Then I get hit with a rock, or debris, and am happy I have the full face helmet.

Morgan is going to start a blog page soon concerning food. It will have recipes, and other items. It should be very interesting with her new perspective on food. I am sure she will do very well with it. As soon as she gets it off the ground, I'll have a link on the side.

Speaking of Morgan, she was extremely happy to get into another size lower of jeans. Actually it was a size 8, and she did a "happy dance" around the house because of it. She is now at about 120 pounds lost, and something less then 20 pounds away from her goal. She looks great, and I am proud of her.

If she doesn't do it on her site, I will eventually (after tax season) get into all that she has gone through with the weight loss. And, I don't mean only physical. There has been a tremendous mental aspect to this as well, and that includes how people have treated her all along the way.

Poor new on the stepfather front. My mother was able to call me earlier today because Lou was at treatment, and she had the house to herself. A friend of the family, who is a doctor, is very concerned about the size and type of the tumor. I am hoping they are wrong with their concerns and timetable.

The Hurricanes traded away Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore today to the Ottawa Senators for Joe Corvo and Patrick Eaves. At first I thought the Canes may be giving up on the season, but after after having some time to think about it, this might be a pretty good deal. The Canes get younger, and more speed. Both are important for this team.

If you did not see or hear about what happened to Florida Panther, Richard Zednik Sunday night, it is an amazing and very scary play. Luckily, he is now in stable condition. The incident happened almost 19 years to the day, that it last happened, and that one also took place in Buffalo. That time is was goalie, Clint Malarcuck who got cut with an accidental skate.

- Cold War II?
- How's that fancy Blackberry?
- Sure looks like Blu-Ray is the winner.
- Hope you bought the "forever" stamp.

Until the next time.....