Oh, yeah, taxes. I should do that soon. Hm.

I was sort of expecting our taxes to get better instead of worse this year (last year we owed $2000) since we bought a house and that means mortgage interest deductions! But I have more freelance income this year, and I think our (actually very small) raises might have kicked our income up a tax bracket.

Yes, I am complaining about being rich. I know. I will just imagine my tax dollars going to fund wonderful things like NEH projects and the Smithsonian.

I have to file an extension for my Dad. Today my sister & I are doing some banking (putting her on Dad's accounts so if I get hit by a bus she can still pay for things), and meeting with hospice.

Later I have to do a shit-ton of baking, or spend a bunch of money at TJ's. My chorus has a snack break during every rehearsal, and everyone gets assigned one session to provide snacks for. Mine is Monday, and we have about 50 people in the chorus, so it's a lot of food. And I don't know what the other person is bringing. I think I'll make a sheet cake and get hummus and pita and baby carrots.

I have had the flu all week, so I am just trying to make my house not look like the house of a person with the flu, and do basic things like groceries.

I don't know why, but the regular dose of the cold/cough syrup I took last night had me tripping balls all night, and I was still coughing. I between the cold medicine hangover and the lack of sleep, I am feeling pretty strung out.

Also, Oz has still not caught the mouse. I spend more time staring at the mouse hole than he does.

Come on, Oz, time to step up your game.

Decided to finish reading Cryoburn before diving into chores so now I'm mildly weepy. Should have expected that, I suppose, but for some reason I did not. Perhaps a cup of tea. now.

I got about $2000 as a refund from my taxes this year. I was technically unemployed for several months (old job ended at the end of May, and new job didn't officially start until the beginning of September, and I didn't get my first paycheck until October), and I had a ton of moving expenses to claim.

We owe...a staggering amount this year. Due partly to liquidating an investment fund for a down payment on a house we never bought, and partly to my working in a different state than where we live, and Audible not withholding any NYC local taxes.

I adulted so hard yesterday (signed a contract on a house! did taxes! called a mortgage broker on the phone!) that today I feel like I've earned a day of ice cream and video games. Sadly, there are chores and work and kids.

Signed a contract on a house, Jess??

you think you can sneak "signed a contract on a house" in there and we won't notice?

We did! Will probably be moving mid or late summer, depending on when the close date is, but after what happened last year I'm skittish about talking about it...still, we did sign the contract so I guess it's actually going to happen this time?

This is the house: [link]