Death and Taxes and Russia, Oh My!

My income taxes are finished and I'll be picking them up this morning. This is very much a good news/bad news situation. Good news - we'll probably be getting a refund back, unlike last year when we didn't because we had sold the little house and that killed our tax status. The bad news - my accountant is expensive - worth it, but still expensive. Still, the saying is "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes". Benjamin Franklin was a wise man.

Benjamin Franklin said a lot of pithy sayings that have come down and
are still said today. This is yet another one, and it's still true. 

Then there is Will Rogers, an equally wise man with a twist of humor, who said: "The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets". Yes - Will Rogers was also a very wise man.

Nonetheless, I'll be at my accountant's door when they open at 8:30 am to pick the taxes up and I'll get them a check by the end of the week so that they can file these miserable electronic pages as quickly as possible. Then DH and I can start debating how much of the refund we can put toward household expenses and how much towards savings. It's always a bit of tug-of-war.

DH and I will discuss where our refund should go. I'm
all for putting it towards our monthly household
expenses, he'll probably want to put some of it towards
this year's expenses for redoing the patio and finishing
the castle walls. Also, he wants a shed built. 

Also, it seems I now owe my life to Russia. Ack! Live Journal, of course, although it had been Russian in the background, officially moved their operations to Russia late last year, causing a stir in the mix and some defections to Dreamwidth. Like many of my friends, I use Dreamwidth too, but my main to-go is Live Journal. LJ is where my friends and my communities are. Yesterday's update seemed to revolve around a new User's Agreement. I read through the agreement legal language and, even though I'm not that happy with it, I still hit the "I Agree" button. Meh! I haven't seen any other app that suits me as well in friends and in fiction, so I am now an American e-Russian. Oy!

I looked through hundreds of photos of Russia, but ended up with this
one. Why? Because St Basil's is always beautiful, and sometimes
it's good to remember that beauty exists everywhere, even in Russia. 

Lots of birthdays today, which I'll be posting separately. I'm going to slap in my photos for the day and get going on those so I won't be late for the pool. Here's hoping everyone had a fantastic Tuesday. I'd better get going on my SWG story for the month - the clock is ticking....