Sometimes It's Roses, Sometimes It's Weeds

I was pleased to see artichokes "springing" to life in my garden in spite of my absence. As much as I love to get out and get dirt under my nails, lately I've been tasked with the taxes. I am no accountant and have always hated doing this though Turbo Tax generally gets me through the rough spots. Doing business taxes is a whole different ball game however and I have vowed never to do this again. I will find a CPA versed in the subtle nuances of vehicle repair and pay him whatever he wants to save me this pain again. It's keeping me out of my garden while the lemons are preparing to sacrifice their young for the sake of an alcoholic beverage.

The success of Mark's motorcycle shop is a good-news/bad-news thing in my book --more profit translates to more work to find the deductions I know are there (we're not livin' THAT large in this house so there must be deductions). And as good as he is at fixing bikes, my man is equally bad at organizing his record-keeping. He actually HAS the records, he just doesn't remember which bag, box or drawer they're in. It has become a regular thing over the last few weeks for me to present him with a post-it note list of items to locate so that I can enter them into the little boxes in hopes of bringing us closer to clear. Entering that initial "gross" amount in Turbo Tax incites an ugly number to appear in red in the "taxes owed" box on the top. Although I knew the number would go down as I progressed, it still yelled at me in a frightfully ugly red tone, taunting me, invoking the curse of the IRS.

Sure enough, I have managed to bring it down to a very quiet green color, indicating a refund, though marginal. After all that red, ANY green is good....which brings me back to the garden. I have earned it. I will grab a snack then head out with a tub to fill with weeds and bugs for the hens. After all, it is they who laid the Easter eggs.