Very good, Zen! Enjoy your time off!

OK, I"m off to taste local wines, only a half hour or so late...I don't think it will be a crucial loss out of the four hours I have allotted.

I'm filing my taxes, which are still not terribly difficult as a freelancer...except for the part where I didn't save a copy of my city tax return for 2014, so I'm unsure about the amount of estimated taxes I paid for 2015 (because when you do your city return, you pay any taxes due PLUS the estimated amount for the 1st quarter of the current year, so I don't know what amount I paid for the estimated 1st Q 2015 city taxes). At this point, it's time to just guess and if they want to come after me for less than $100 (possibly less than $50), they're welcome to and I will happily pay it.

Well, maybe not "happily", because man, the police response time for anything less than a shooting is horrendous, at least in my neighborhood. (I have no idea what it is in other neighborhoods.)

A neighbor had a drunk guy on her lawn yelling that he was going to break in, and the police took close to AN HOUR to respond even when -- I am not making this up -- the woman told the 911 dispatcher that she has a gun and would shoot the man if he entered her home. So I'm a little less enthused about paying taxes to the city when the police my taxes pay for ain't give a damn about my safety. (But I know my city taxes pay for other stuff, like the rec center I work out at, which runs programs for kids and whatnot, and I'm all in favor of that.)

Anyway, taxes, woo.

Can you look at bank statements from last year to get the amount? I do that a lot....

This is how it shook out: 2014's taxes were the first year I had to file with the city, and I hadn't realized I needed to pay estimated quarterly taxes. So when I filed last year, I had to pay a lump sum for all of 2014, and then 1st Q estimated 2015, all together on one check. Because I kept poor records, I only know that I paid the city $XXX (I have that in my check register), but I don't know how much was for 1st Q 2015.

So in the process of doing my 2015 taxes, I needed to enter how much I paid in estimated taxes. I have cancelled checks for Q2, Q3, and Q4 -- but because Q1 was folded in with the 2014 lump sum, I don't know how much of $XXX was the estimated Q1 payment. Does that make sense?

I ended up looking at my 2014 income, calculating the taxes off that, and subtracting the taxes from $XXX, and assuming the leftover amount was my Q1 payment. That's as close as I'm gonna get.

Needless to say, I made extra-sure I saved a PDF of this year's return.

If your overindulgence is contained to TJs, that's completely cromulent. Or maybe I'm so given to grocery store overindulgence that I'm no help in this regard.

So this weekend has been all about nursing Franny through her epic science homework this weekend, which included a test on DNA and genetics on Friday, a poster on nutrigenomics ALSO due Friday, and for tomorrow a 4-page paper on nutrigenomics and her DNA unit packet all ready to turn in. Crazy! That's like more homework than I had in all of 9th grade science.

Reward for getting through all of that is I am helping her redo the color in her hair since the blue and purple didn't really take. Life with a tween, y'all!

Jessica, what an adorable house! Congrats!

I need to say this somewhere, and FB isn't the place for it, and I know I'm just having a really miserable time right now, but seeing all the posts about Happy National Sibling Day is just really depressing for me right now. I think it's wonderful that people have those relationship with their siblings, and it's a lot of jealousy over that, and just all kinds of shit tied up in it.

Family is hard, yo.

It's so hard. And it's unfair that people have siblings who treat them like shit.

My thoughts are with you, Consuela.

Family is hard, yo.

What you said, and also, how much must this suck for people whose siblings aren't alive anymore? Sometimes life is such a minefield.

In other news, I also may have overindulged this weekend at TJs, the farmer's market, and the fancy supermarket. Including a hunk of roasted garlic loaf loaded with full cloves of garlic that I just crammed in my face.

I've got a pork bolognese going in the crock pot. I'm about to make a frittata with sweet Italian sausage. Maybe I'll put chard in that? And then we'll see about a stir fry if I'm still feeling ambitious.