Wednesday 11-17-2021

Marcus Westberg-ComedyWildlife-Forbes

I guess you can tell from the expression on my face above – it’s the height of being spoiled to admit that, when I’m lucky enough to have one of the best dentists on the planet with a full crew of good hygienists, I still HATE going there for our twice-a-year appointments.

Other than braces as a teenager, until this year I had never had a cavity or anything else done. One of the perks of getting to be older-than-dirt is that you start falling apart. Now I’ve had one cavity filled and one tooth pulled.

One of the things that scares me the most is the cancer check. My mom died of oral cancer. Hers, I think, was due to smoking. It still worries me that there MIGHT be a hereditary factor at play. Thankfully, my hygienist now does that screening for me first. (Did I tell you what wonderful people these are?)

I did the repainting of the greeter robot at the bottom of our driveway yesterday afternoon. He doesn’t look ‘new,’ but it definitely looks as if he is a treasured member of the family now. I’ll try to get a pic of him to show you later as we leave for the dentist this morning.

We’re due for thunderstorms and colder temperatures starting this afternoon, so I’m glad I got that little project finished.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Weird Cravings

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And NOOOOOO! I’m NOT pregnant. I’m 73 years old, and even with our modern medicine, I don’t think they can pull THAT off – AND wouldn’t want to!!!!

The thing I really don’t like about cooking is figuring out what to cook.

I was like this when I was young, too. When my friends wanted to go out to eat, we would try to figure out what we were hungry for. THEN we would try a process of elimination, trying to name things we DIDN’T want…

I was trying to figure out what to fix for dinner tonight, deciding I didn’t want to be cooking at 7:30 or 8 when I’m tired. Suddenly, beef stew popped into my head.

This is really weird because I consider beef stew a winter comfort food. The heat index today, after the rain, is supposed to get to 105. We still have doors open, but will close up soon, since the humidity is at 95%.

I love microwaves. I was able to get out a package of stew meat from the freezer, defrost it, and then brown it while getting the rest of the ingredients together in the slow cooker.

Now, dinner prep for tonight is done and the dishwasher is running!  AHHHHH!

Patting Myself on the Head – Just a Bit

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I’ve been a good girl today, doing some of the things I hate most – balancing checkbooks, filing, and tax prep for 2019.

I have the equivalent of a doctorate – plus in the fine art of procrastination. For years I have paid for it and the end of the year/beginning of the next year – being buried in receipts. I HATE tax prep and my husband calmly washed his hands of it years ago. He does bring me cups of coffee every once in a while, as encouragement, but that’s as involved as he gets.

When I finally could dump all of the organized receipts for 2018 on our wonderful CPA, I promised myself I would do things differently from now on. (Truth be told, I promise myself a LOT of things, only to procrastinate until the promises become meaningless.)

This year, though, I’m happy to tell you I have just finished

• balancing our checkbooks
• filing (I can see my desk!) – AND
• converting receipts of all types for the month of March into the spreadsheets for taxes for 2019 I started at the beginning of the year.

Instead of cramming all the monthly receipts into monthly folders and then trying to make sense of things at the end of the year, I am going through the monthly receipts, listing things on the proper spreadsheet, then putting the receipts into a folder labeled for that deduction. No monthly folder anymore once the month is over. This way, at the end of the year I can simply total each category on the various spreadsheets, print them, list the information on the tax form booklet our CPA provides, already having the receipts ready to take!

I have officially finished 1/4 of 2019 now – can you see my grin?

Bookkeeping Blues

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Have I mentioned that I HATE bookkeeping and tax prep? If not, picture me this afternoon pulling my hair out – while feeling hostile – while yawning and wishing I were almost anywhere else. My husband doesn’t want any part of this – and his part for years has been driving us to our CPA and waiting while I take the stuff in and leave it with the receptionist – and then driving us back when it’s time for me to write the checks.

Part of getting ready to pay taxes has been – for about 17 years – my bookkeeping for my Creative Artworks business. I’m very old-fashioned when it comes to bookkeeping, using the old style DOME Simplified Monthly Bookkeeping Record books. I tried using Quick Books, but couldn’t make things come out right. Details, such as selling my stuff through my website, as opposed to orders I got through Etsy or ArtFire, would throw me for a loop. The computer version bookkeeping also didn’t like the fact that I represented several other artists, getting checks, e-checks, Paypal payments, credit card payments, etc., and then turning around and paying the artists for their work. The computer version also HATED the situation where a refund was needed for any reason, or a freebie….

I closed Creative Artworks in June, and it took several months to be sure all was shut down, as far as the ability to take credit cards, and payments to all the entities involved in running a website. Now I’m trying to get all the details into my DOME book – the LAST time I’ll have to do it!

I’m thinking that, after the first of the year, I’ll pare down what I’m selling on ArtFire and Etsy, having big sales and just leaving up the things I still really love to create.

I will STILL hate trying to get our stuff together for our CPA, but not having to fight with the bookkeeping for my website will be a huge load off my shoulders. :0)