Accomplished this week: met with a CPA about our taxes. She seemed greatly pained at the news that Chad's book advance didn't have taxes withheld and doesn't come with a lot of deductible expenses, but we assured her that we knew we were facing a big bill no matter what deductions she found. Inspired by mucking about in our bills, I did up a tentative budget, while Chad continued his heroic work toward decluttering the garage and basement. We seem in good financial shape for the arrival of FutureBaby, which is a relief. On that note, I started making lists of stuff we'll need, and then purchased a copy of Baby Bargains; I've skimmed its general advice and already can see that it's going to be massively useful in wading through the plethora of options and information.
I also managed to have a net-positive clothes shopping experience. Even though I'm not scheduled to be in court until late May, a suit became a priority this week when a judge mistook me for a law student. (I was only sitting in the audience, so thought I was safe in business casual . . . ) Found a suit-weight skirt and a collared shirt that, together with an existing one-button jacket left open, make up a perfectly respectable suit (no-one but me will be able to tell that the skirt and jacket are different blacks). I also bought a BellaBand. On one hand, I felt kinda dumb paying $25 for what is basically a big elastic band. On the other, I can now wear partly unzipped pre-pregnancy jeans (flat inside seams! especially since I wasn't able to get bias tape this weekend), and keep two of my three pairs of maternity jeans from sliding down my hips, so it's worth it. I wish I'd found this earlier, it would have kept me from needing maternity jeans in such a hurry and settling for crappy ones. (I promise I'll stop talking about maternity clothes so much now.)
And I bought my first toy for FutureBaby, a really soft cuddly floppy stuffed puppy. (Yes, I know it can't be a bed toy, and that we will be inundated with toys, which is why we agreed to restrict ourselves to one each.) Eee, squooshy cuteness!
A few links:
lj_nifty: View All Journals And Communities In Your S2 Style
(tags: livejournal userjs)- Crayon Physics Deluxe, an ingenious video game that looks like it was designed by a third-grader. - By Chris Baker - Slate Magazine :: And discussion of casual / experimental games.
(tags: games)
- Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club - New York Times
- Every issue of Elfquest free -- oldest independent comic goes online - Boing Boing :: Never read it, perhaps now I'll start . . .
The dog is so sound asleep that her head just slid down off her paws and *thunked* on the floor. I hate to wake her for her last trip outside, but I'd like to try for a similar state soon . . .