Our Long Weekend

Steve worked on shifting the ratio of wood putty to house. 

Patching dry rot in the siding: 

We were also able to assist my father-in-law with his discharge from the hospital on Saturday after a nine-day stay. Steve's siblings and their spouses (not to mention my amazing mother-in-law) really stepped up to help during this latest medical crisis, and we got the relatively easy job of settling Arnold back into his home the evening after discharge. We're hopeful that resting comfortably in his own environment will do wonders for his body and spirit. 

As for us, we keep puttering along with our projects. We're getting close to completion on a few big things, so June should be an exciting month for this humble blog. 

No Space Without Purpose

To keep our modest house from becoming a completely unmanageable chaotic mess, every single thing we own must have a designated place to live. Wanting to keep the kitchen open and airy, we also decided against upper cabinets, which has added to the challenge. I go through categories of belongings systematically and ponder placement possibilities. The most recent challenge was my small collection of flower vases. 

I wanted them to be out of the way yet accessible with minimal effort should any dashing suitor bring me flowers (which does happen on occasion, lucky lady that I am). 

I decided to focus on the small space above the passthrough between the kitchen and laundry room. I found my solution in two Bekvam (Ikea, of course) spice racks mounted to a spare piece of trim, which was then attached to the wall.

Vase home accomplished! (yes, I was excited enough to warrant an exclamation mark)

One more category of housewares down. Yeah, there's more to go, but such is life. And looking at these pictures makes me anxious to get the new laundry room windows installed (which is scheduled for June 5th) so we can move those plants from the passthrough to a designated plant shelf under the new window. 

Tax Observations and Gripes

The 2014 return year is/was my 8th tax season. I do taxes year-round, so April 15th does not mark the end of my season. However, things do slow quite a bit after tax day, so while I'm home sick today, I had some time to attempt to polish a gripe-y blog post I wrote last month with this years' reflections.

Disclaimer: This is of course my own anecdotal experience, so draw (or don't) whatever conclusions you wish about the broader population and experience of tax professionals. Do not take my use of "you" as personally attacking any of my loyal readers, it was simply the easiest way to express some of these points.

1. I've discovered the perfect song for driving to work on April 15th: Metallica, "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Realized it this year when it was randomly selected by my shuffled playlist. So perfect.

2. If you ask me how my season has been, I am legally obligated to reply with "taxing" and then chortle at my brilliant joke. 

3. When visiting (which is actually bothering, let's face facts) your tax preparer on or near April 15th, be polite and concise. I am nearing dangerous levels of burnout as 4/15 draws near and have literally a hundred better things to be doing than listening to you whine about your tax burden. 

4. Actually, don't ever whine about your tax burden. Tax rates are, historically speaking, ridiculously low. Seriously, stop complaining. 

5. I've noticed that complainers are never in the top tax bracket. Complainers also don't even know what the top Federal income tax bracket/percentage is (hint: the 15-25% you're paying is not it). 

6. With few exceptions, households who fall in the lower middle class ($40k-$60k here in California) are the most charitable, not just as a percentage of income, but in absolute dollars. Upper middle class households do their best to make me hate them by requiring me to itemize their Goodwill receipts (the only donations they make... which, yes, I judge them for).

7. Do not ask your preparer if they're going on vacation after April 15th. Every single client I talk to during tax season asks this question. I get really tired of answering it, even if I'm excited about my vacation (which won't actually happen until summer, after more of the returns on extension are done).

8. Taxes are complicated and there's a lot of jargon. Don't get pissy with me when I need to discuss things with you a bit to clarify. Pro tip: do not ask if you can "write off" something. That doesn't mean what you think it means. 

9. On a related point, "return" and "refund" are not interchangeable terms. Returns are those reports you turn in to the government stating your income and deductions. Refunds are interest-free loans you give the government when you don't claim the proper number of exemptions on your paychecks, and you receive repayment for once you file your returns. 

10. I detest the clients who think they're tricky. Examples: 

     "Can I write off [Author's note: Grrrrr... see #8 above] the car I gave to my friend?" 

     (um, no, why would the government subsidize that?) 

     "Why do I have to pay all these taxes? I must pay the most of anyone you see! Can't you come up with something?" 

     (um, no, I definitely don't like you enough to commit tax fraud, also see #5 above)

     4:59 pm On April 15th: "Here's my tax information, can you just do it real quick right now?"

     (um, no, I refuse to make your procrastination my problem)

11. Tax preparation is not magic. If you don't like the results a) adjust your exemptions with your employer or pay more in estimates so next year I won't have to hear you whine as much and/or b) contact your legislator. Neither I nor the IRS is responsible for the tax code. That's congress. Complain to them. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

A Local Adventure

For Steve's birthday (observed), my brother Jim and Jim's fiancee Brooke accompanied me and Steve on an exploration of a park so ridiculously close to us, it's absurd that we hadn't yet been. The Pogonip is a 640 acre park full of hiking and biking trails nestled in the hills near UC Santa Cruz. It's a five minute drive from our house to the trailhead we chose.

Steve on the Spring Trail:

Steve shows off the greatness that is the Banana Slug:

Steve watches koi swim in one of the concrete pools ("spring boxes") scattered throughout the park:

The spring boxes collect water from some of the streams and creeks that flow through the park. The park used to be a sports club (there is an abandoned clubhouse, pool and tennis courts that we did not visit on this trip) and water was probably gathered either for use in that endeavor, or possibly by ranchers dating back even earlier. Koi got dumped in the pond at some point, and there they swim beneath the redwoods.

Steve and Brooke are super excited about the Lime Kilns... Jim less so:

Another shot of the lime kilns:

The most fun hidden gem we discovered was the "forest" of stacked rocks near the Lime Kilns. It's a truly bizarre sight, and pictures don't really do it justice, but here's a couple anyway:

One of Jim and Brooke's gifts to Steve was unexpectedly apropos (and incredibly awesome):

If you can't tell from the picture, those are rocks that Jim and Brooke arranged on a little plate, glued in place, painted on eyes, and sealed. Whimsical and a little weird, it's absolutely perfect for Steve (and me).

The four of us then had a lovely dinner of Mediterranean Afghan cuisine at a local restaurant Steve really enjoys. A truly phenomenal meal, and a great way to end the day.

Family Portrait 2015

Back in 2008, I was amused by the idea of doing a family portrait with Steve and me surrounded by all of our rabbits. We took the picture at our first in-town (not the scary mountain garage-conversion we lived in for far too long) rental in Santa Cruz. The result:

(left to right: Kuipo (on back of couch), Demetri, SweetPea, Lola, Johnny and Buster)

Two years later, on the back deck of our new little rental house, we took this updated shot:

(left to right: Demetri, Violet, Lola, Johnny and Buster)

With the chaotic home buying and renovation process, we ended up delaying taking a new portrait for more than four years, until this past weekend. My parents were visiting and were very helpful in taking the photos and corralling unruly bunnies. The result:

(left to right: Violet, Kiwi (on Steve's shoulder), Bruce, White Rabbit and Sharky)

We enjoy that it looks like Violet was throwing up over the arm of the couch. Togetherness, it makes me sick! She's like that, so it was a perfect shot of her to use.

Sharky (standing on his back legs on far right) is a total ham, and gave us a ton a great shots to choose from. 

As with past portraits, Steve used photo editing software to stitch together several separate shots since the rabbits don't all get along and it's too challenging to get them all to hold still at once. However, I present the following in-process picture to prove that Kiwi was in fact trying to sit on Steve's shoulder (since her dark fur makes her look badly photoshopped even when she isn't):

I know I seem somewhat insane, given the whole half-a-dozen-rabbits-living-in-the-house thing (and Steve for putting up with it) but they bring me a lot of joy. If it means I'm known as the crazy rabbit lady, that works for me.