Me: Michigan, Michigan How about you?

I'm taking a tax prep class at my local H&R block office. It doesn't start until Aug 29 but I just signed up so now I'm thinking about taxes. In Michigan a tax preparer doesn't have to have any type of official training or state certification. I'm taking the class because I'm lost for a career. My answer: I always did my own taxes until I got married. Now my husband does them with the help of TurboTax. How about you?

I'm a credit card user. I like the convenience and I pay off the bill every month. My only problem has been that I occasionally (once every three years or so) forget to pay the bill and get the dreaded late fee. My first husband had the cards maxed. They don't hesitate to give you an over the limit fee when you're late fee puts you over the limit!!!!

My husband and I have 1300sq ft. Two bedrooms, two baths with a full (unfinished) basement. His office is upstairs. Downstairs I have all my stuff set up. Our perfect setup would be 2500 sq ft with: four bedrooms or three bedrooms and a four season room two bathrooms great room chef's kitchen a REAL laundry room oh, almost forgot my husbands three car garage How about you?

Mine: White chocolate Easter bunnies from my Grandma HUGE McIntosh apples from Grandma Birthday presents wrapped in the Sunday "funnies" My mutt named Patience Having lots of different types of pets Traipsing through the woods with my dogs Me and my friend Beth playing with my miniature doll's house Swimming in the backyard pool Melting crayons in my Easy Bake oven My Paddington Bear (from Grandma too) How about you?

My husband and I split things up pretty fairly and evenly: His chores: laundry (he does it better than I do) cooking (ditto) vacuuming (because it makes my back hurt) getting the mail Ironing - mostly for himself but he'll do mine when I ask My chores: Washing the Dishes Cleaning the bathrooms Mopping the floors dusting Houw about you? What's the division of labor in your household?

I HATE my basement...sometimes... especially when the big black hole in the corner starts gurgling. The sump pump was replaced a month or so ago. Today's rain is the first good one since then. Heavy rains and stong thunder (so strong that the dog won't go out for his evening dump). So what happens just before bed? The high water alarm in the sump goes off. I go down to check it and find that the level switch is stuck. I give it a little poke and it starts pump. I've been st...

The other day I was at the library using a computer. The computers are scattered around the library so there's no separate lab. There were two little girls playing on a computer near me. They were the cutest things and just full of giggles. The got up and walked away from the computer. A few minutes later they came running by me and one of them bumped into me. I said, "Girls, please no running." The slowed down and quited down. But then, I thought, do I have the right to say anythin...

I'm back in California for a few months.  In my last entry I shared that my MIL died here so now we have a house and we've decided to stay - Nuts I know.  Who wants to live in CA?  The politics and laws are all screwed up (I'll write more about this another time.)  But we have a house on some land in a very nice little community so we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Besides, my husband has been wanting to move west for more than five years now.  I've been doin...