My glee at the new tax document was short lived. Turns out forgiven debts are considered income. So there's $18,000 of brand new income that's never had taxes paid on it that we got no benefit from.

I feel your pain, Connie. Almost literally. (down to the amount!) (I actually thought at first meara was responding to something I didn't remember posting.)

Turns out forgiven debts are considered income.

One hand giveth, one hand taketh away, and a foot kicks you in the behind.

It can wait till April. I have other things to spend my late winter/early Spring on.

Congrats to MM!

Bummer about the tax stuff, Connie.

Managed 45 minutes of sanding that didn't require tenting, just attaching the shopvac with filter to the sander. Minimal mess. But tomorrow after my morning (uhg) swim, I'm bubbling the stairs and hopefully getting 95% of the sanding DONE. As in, anything else left will have to be by hand. Then I shall clean my house.

And then, maybe THEN, I'll go out and get stain samples and some scrap wood and decide on a stain. Or maybe that will happen earlier, depending on timing. Anyway, this is going to get done this spring, damnit. Painting the spindles won't be too complicated, neither will staining. The big one is sealing the posts and rail. I'll have to keep the cats off them. They might have to go live at Anna's next door. I possibly should find out her travel schedule so I just sleep there* with them, cause I don't know if I'd wish that on the unsuspecting (I discovered a bunch of teeny scratches around my hairline where Pumpkin got a little too affectionate last night.)

Oh, and then I want to patch-finish parts of the stairs and upstairs landing, some of it casualty of this process, some just never done by the seller.

* I just realized that sounds crazy presumptuous. And also weirdly like a dream I had after just moving in, which I never would have guessed at the time. But it's been offered and dear god, I love my hood.

Taxes done! That was easy. The benefits of just having a job and no deductions, etc.

Congratulations, Joe!!!!!

I totally lied to the clerk last night and said it was all for my niece. My imaginary niece.

It was mental health spending. Totally.

Turns out my making a Home Depot purchase at 6 a.m. triggers a fraud alert. Dude, I couldn't reserve the truck. *I* didn't want to be there at that time either. But thanks for knowing me so well? Alls well that ends with a ten-minute phone call and access to my bank account again.

I have no idea how my violist friend stays sane doing her own taxes. At minimum 3 states, permanent resident, lots of freelance jobs, buys her own health insurance (which just got a lot more inclusive for a mere $12 more than what she used to get- she basically had catastrophic before, thanks to ACA.) And she does them herself.

Actually, I view her and other friends who are professional musicians with awe in general. I don't have the constitution for the gig-pursuit-feast-famine-non-salaried career. But it is what they know and they're good at it.

I'd love for one of the ice skating/dancing routines to be to "In These Shoes, I Don't Think So." I think it'd be fun.