The Ides Of April
Today is Tax Day, a day I used to view with great relief when I worked as a CPA, because it meant the end of Saturdays and evenings in the office, and also a gala party hosted by the firm where people might just get a little bit relaxed. One such party saw a woman admin manfully attempting to cure the gay male HR dude on the floor of a coat closet in the Space Needle. For more on Tax Day and my take on the CPA life, I refer you to one of my favorite posts from a couple of years ago.
I’ve actually been a little bit busy with tax stuff, even though I’m not “practicing tax”: I have to prepare data for a few of my clients for submission to their tax preparers; I also fire up Turbo Tax to prepare my MIL’s return, my mom’s, my own S corporation return, and I even finished our personal 1040. It’s been perhaps a decade since I’ve filed in April - I usually file an extension and then forget about it for the summer. This is the first year that I’ve e-filed my returns instead of printing and mailing them, mostly because TurboTax no longer charges a fee to e-file directly from their software. Before, I just couldn’t understand why I should pay a fee to do something that would save the IRS a hundred bucks or so on each return. So I didn’t, and now we have this deficit.
A number of businesses do tax day promotions, but one local business has a particularly creative promo (prolly NSFW). Hint: the come-on is “No Taxation Without Stimulation”. Finger it out for yourself.
In other news, I’ve decided to purchase the Canon SX1 IS camera, the successor to my current S3 IS. As I’ve related before, I was trying to choose between the SX1 IS and the SX10 IS. Both feature a 20x optical zoom and 10 megapixels, but the SX1 has a better processor and can take video in High Definition. It’s also $250 more, but I decided to go with it for the technological headroom, even though nothing in my house currently is capable of displaying HD, unless there’s something I don’t know about my toaster oven. I’m buying it from my camera store client, who hasn’t received their initial delivery of the cameras yet. Check back in a week for the awesome results.
And it’s swell not to have you living down at a CPA office for weeks at a time…
I remember, and still chuckle about that picture of ” the Box of the Damned”, Phil
And as the wife of a former “Tax Season Zombie”, I totally understand beatriz’ comment 
My own beloved still ends up doing a handful of family and Homeowner’s Association returns though too — most notably this year, the one for an elderly and recently-widowed aunt in NJ — the kind of elderly and recently-widowed person who lives in a house full of “memories” (junk/clutter/appalling chaos) and whose records, long-distance, no less, are not, shall we say “orderly”.
(Augh)
Sounds like you made a great decision on the camera — you’re sure to have a lot of fun with that
Looking forward to the fruits of that very classy piece of kit you’re purchasing!
new cameras are always exciting, congrats! will you be taking the new Canon underwater?
Beatriz - Yeah, I kinda felt like Persephone in those days.
Carroll - I saw the proprietor of The Box Of The Damned yesterday, dropping off last-minute extension checks for a client. He wasn’t all that personable.
Dick - “Piece of kit”? Can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Scott - Welcome! No, Canon doesn’t make a waterproof case for it. I have the Aquapac SLR bag, which I’ve used with the S3, but I find it very unsatisfactory in manipulating the camera’s controls, especially if it’s a bit cool and the bag is stiff. I use the Canon 720 IL and its waterproof case for kayak shooting, which includes the occasional underwater shot.