Goggles in the Ocean

So last night, along with the Cheerios I give Camille to keep her occupied while I get her dinner ready, I decide that I'd give her a couple pretzels to gum on as well.

I know the good mother thing is no sugar, no salt, au natural, etc., but we don't have saltless pretzels in the house. We have leftovers from people coming over and bringing beer. So I took a couple pretzels and stood over the sink and scraped the individual salt crystals off with my nails.

And I naturally managed to fling one in my eye.

From that point on, my train of thought went like this: Lovely. Now I've got something in my eye I've got to fish out. Rather annoying. Walk to a mirror OW, OW, OW, IT BURNS! IT BURNS! CRAP! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!

Which, of course, at that point it was too late. I was so slow on the uptake, it took me a second to realize there was nothing to be done and no terrible or lasting damage would come of it. Just had to let the dang thing disolve. So as my adventurous scuba friends know quite well - salt in the eyes, not a pleasant sensation. But you will live.

Happy 2nd!

Michael and I had our 2nd anniversary on October 8th! He was in the middle of papers and midterms and I was in the middle of tax busy season at the time. And so it shall be for the next few years.

But we did get to celebrate by going to dinner at Maggiano's. Oh, so yummy.

Nashville Drivers

As I was almost squashed the other day by a guy in his big truck and on his cell phone, who was turning left from a middle lane that's supposed to go straight (and naturally, no blinker for a warning), I was reminded that I found out a tid-bit of information related to my previous post on the appallingly bad Nashville drivers.

Michael created the most accurate term for them: Accidental Drivers. It's like they wake up to find that, 'Huh.....I guess I'm behind the wheel....Maybe I should do something.' He's now taken to smiling at those rare people who cut him off as they speed around him - because at least they're driving with purpose, and something about that warms the heart.

Yeah. And what I found out is that they don't have to take driver's ed before getting their licenses. If they do, it does lower their insurance, but there are most likely loads of Nashvillians out there who are unaware that there even ARE driving rules, safety tips, and such thing as good judgement.

I cannot even fathom.

War Stories

So another busy season has come and gone. This one……was a bit rough. And while every busy season has it's stories, I got the prize for this year.

I'm not talking about the client I have who has to file in every state possible (and each state has a different tax return and different rules), and whose return then flows to 3 other entities that also have to file in almost all the states, too. Nor am I talking about some of the peaches we have for clients who bring their information in Friday at 4 p.m. and demand their completed return Monday at noon, totally frantic even though they've had 6 months to get their stuff together and in our hands.

Sure thing. How about a swift kick to the head for a reality check?

Last year's prize went to a coworker who had an older gentleman ask her if she could hack into his credit card records to find out how much he had paid the IRS in estimated payments. He couldn't remember how much the amounts were, and he wouldn't be able to find the statements in time, so couldn't she just hack his information to find it? She had to tell him that while probably technically possible (by someone who knows how to do that), "we don't do that sort of thing here." Something about it being kinda illegal.

But this year, the prize belongs to me. Upon a client's request, I had to create an extra worksheet that gave them a breakdown of certain information in their return. This was purely for the client's purposes and it was something they asked me for specifically. A copy of it, however, was mistakenly put in the filing copy of the return that is mailed to the IRS. When they asked why it was in there, I explained repeatedly in our half-hour phone conversation that the worksheet wasn't supposed to be in there, so they should pull it out. No problem, just take it out. But they were so nervous about touching the return, they couldn't do it.

Instead, they made an appointment with me, and a special trip to the office, so I could take the staple out, remove the page, and staple the return again.

Yep. This is why I get paid the big bucks, folks.