deep in the heart of taxes

sorry i've been unpresent lately. i've also been unpleasant as i am every year at this time due to being buried neck-deep in tax receipts.

self-employment means keeping track of all your expenses so that you can deduct them. smart people log each receipt into the correct category in quicken each time it comes in. melissa is stupid... she waits until the last possible second to file, add and report deductions to the accountant. melissa was an ART MAJOR. melissa needs a business manager.

in other news, i've been scanning my gram's old photo albums so that she can have them back. she's been busy lately taking a trip down her 97 years of memory lane and i'm hogging 3 of her books. they're absolutely fascinating! i don't know about you, but family histories and geneaology fascinate the heck out of me. here's an example of what i've found...

this is a photo of my great-great grandparents with their 4 sons and one daughter who is my great-grandmother carrie (my mom's dad's mom). my great-great grandfather, david, was a union soldier in the civil war. it's crazy to me that this photo documentation even exists, and that my kids will be able to have a photo of their great-great-great grandparents.

here's another photo of carrie as a baby.

i just love looking at the details and the styles of the clothing and furniture. and check out that smirk on her little face! you don't imagine she was horribly spoiled being the youngest and only daughter of 5 children, do you?

other than those two things i've been up to, i'm packing for our trip to the d.r. since we're leaving on thursday. i can't wait to get the heck outta dodge! i think i need a break.

someday my prints will come...

unbelievably, our "home" computer printer has not worked since about june. i kept thinking i could uninstall and reinstall, or magically fix it with an update. i've uploaded, restarted, stood on my head, YOU NAME IT! but the printer still refused to work (although the attached scanner worked... odd...).

yesterday we threw in the towel while ordering much-needed ink for the work printer. we needed the package overnight, and to add a whole printer to the overnight order only added $2 to the shipping costs, so we bit.

now it's all prettily installed, and printing all the receipts and necessaries that have been awaiting printing for the past, oh, 6 months. yeeehaw! i'm so excited, i feel almost normal again.