Day 54 - 04/15/2007

Taxes are due today.

Well, they would be, but it's Sunday, so they're due on the 17th. Yeah, that doesn't make sense to me, but Monday is a holiday in Massachusetts (where a regional IRS processing center exists), so the facility will be closed. Thus, this year taxes are due on the 17th. Not that that matters to me, I finished our taxes back in March. Of course, I didn't file them until last Thursday, so consider me somewhat of a procrastinator.

We're getting a pretty sizable refund this year and have decided to use it to pay tuition in advance in order to receive a 5% discount. In years past when we receive a large refund, I would have adjusted my W-4 to reduce the amount withheld over the course of the year. Now that we have the option of reducing the amount of tuition if paid up front, I might just keep the withholding the same so that we have a guaranteed lump sum coming in just before tuition is due. I know, I know, I should be paying into a fund throughout the year with the money and be earning interest, but sometimes I'm not that disciplined when it comes to managing the household finances. Overall we do a pretty good job, but we're also lucky (or is it because we've been conservative with our financial picture?) in that we only owe on our mortgage and have no other short-term debt (our credit cards are almost always paid in full each month).

Maybe I'll change it anyway and up the amount that we put into savings in order to earn interest on it. I'll have to sit down w/ D and discuss it further with her in the near future.

Monday is also the Boston Marathon. Of course, I won't be running in it this year (or maybe ever), but I just figured I'd toss that out there. You know, in case you cared. (Or even if you didn't; either way, it doesn't have any effect on me one iota!)

Now, on with the show...

After going to be early on Saturday night (well, early for a weekend night, at least), I was able to sleep in and enjoy a lazy Sunday morning. (Note: I did NOT say Lazy Sunday afternoon; that would entail us hitting the bakery for some cupcakes before heading to the cinema for "The Chronic- What?!? -cles of Narnia.) Pancakes were had by all and games of backgammon were played (M was recently introduced to this great game and so far she loves it). Since it was raining and winding and generally pretty nasty out, I decided that we should start organizing the basement. (Had we actually organized it when we moved in, we would be reorganizing it, but we just put stuff where there was an empty space and we're just now getting around to, well, organizing it.) D went to Mass at noon, but the kids and I plowed on through the afternoon, taking stuff off of shelves, sorting it into keep, yard sale or trash piles and finally moving the shelves to the back basement.

The previous owner made some pretty heavy duty shelves out of 2x4s and particle board shelving. There are two units, each measuring 8'w x 4'd x 6'h. They were originally installed in the front basement (under the dining room area) and you had to pass them by in order to get to the back basement (where the toy area had been designated). This didn't make any sense to me, so, after some brainstorming, we decided to move them to the back basement area (where the ping pong table resided) so that our storage area was out of the way.

Anyway, the units were finally moved (after two trips to Lowe's for some more studs for additional support) and I called it a night.