| Sunday March 3rd, 2002 Today I do my patriotic duty to my country by completing my tax form to the best of my ability - hear ye, hear ye, Tax Day is officially open. Actually it was supposed to be thursday, but I went ice skating on the canal. Then it was supposed to be yesterday, but I went out to the movie. But TODAY WILL BE THE DAY! (I better print that out....) I've a friend who swears by the 'QuickTax' program; just load it on your computer, fill in the blanks and your taxes are done; it'll even help you find money you didn't know was coming to you, etc etc. The way he sees it, he saves 30 bucks vs paying someone 60 to do it; personally I figure he lost 30, and my taxes aren't going to be that complicated this year anyway. Normally I'm a save save save kind of guy, but that fell a bit by the wayside this year. Considering our divorce lawyer has quoted us a fee of $200 per hour, this would not be a good time to tie up cash in RRSPs. Next year I may take out a catch-up loan, I just hope the interest rates will be as good as they are now. My wife was handling all the finances up to now - more unexplored territory for me, yippee. But at the same time I'm finding it liberating to learn how to do all this stuff for myself. You gotta understand, I went straight from living with my parents to living with her - I've been pretty spoiled in life, that way. But I'm a quick study, and I'm finding this stuff pretty rewarding to figure out. I posted my first personal ad last night, on Yahoo Personals ('Objectively Yours'). I figure that's the easiest place for people to find it, but there's a bit of a fee involved. I'm going to try QuestPersonals next, since it's got a built-in chat and its 100% 'fee-less'. Two or three of my friends - now my wife too - have already posted ads there with lots of success. This is pretty creepy, calling myself single and still referring to her as my wife. What am I supposed to call her now? 'Roommate' would be pretty accurate, since that's basically what she's become at the point - at least as long as I'm living here with her, which hopefully isn't too much longer. For the record, I did go back and do a bit of my writing last night, finally. The sad part about 2nd drafts is, they're all work and no play. It's all about grammar, description, tightening things up. All the adventure's gone, all the fun stuff's already been decided. But I know if I don't do this, the1st draft isn't going to fly with anybody. So far I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along, it's just taking me so looooooooooooooooooooong to get it done.... For those of you who aren't aware, the big CanGames event is coming up here in Ottawa on May 17th to 19th. I just got my guide in the mail this weekend. It's a national gaming event (boardgames, miniature games, role-playing, vendors, etc etc) held annually here in town that gets a great turnout every year, between 100-200 people. I've been going since 97. Last year they changed the venue to the Rideau Curling Club (there again this year) and it must have caused some logistics problems for them; I wasn't quite as impressed. Judging from the schedule, this year should be better. I'll add a helpful link to them on my sidebar for ya. Later - gotta do taxes now.... |