A free day

Today is antiquing day.

I am also going to run to the Target, and perhaps Ulta, and probably get lunch out. And do "big" grocery shopping.

Yesterday, I got a good bit of data analysis done and the rest of the materials and methods written, and even part of the results. (The results are not as clear as I thought they might be, but that's science: you go with what you get). So I feel a bit better about this paper now. Tomorrow I do have to write that exam and perhaps do a bit on the new coursework, but I figure I can take today off to go antiquing, leave the option of Friday open to go to the quilt and yarn shops, and maybe leave Saturday open to stay home and sew or knit. (Sunday afternoon is already spoken for: I am doing homebound communion, which I admit the Elders have been unfortunately lax on of late. I know one couple is expecting us, don't know about the other - someone else is doing the calling because I hate and fear the telephone and I finally came out about that to the elders, and begged someone else to do it. Going to the houses of people I don't know that well is effortful enough for me.)

I also went out to the tax place. My taxes have been submitted which is a good feeling. Yes, it is expensive to have a preparer do it, but it is worth it to me, because (a) someone who knows their stuff is doing it (this year I had a schedule K-1, which I can't even about, so it's good to hand it off to someone who knows*), (b) it saves wear and tear on me, and saves me from having to devote a day or two of Spring Break to working on taxes, and (c) if the IRS has a question, the preparer will back me up, and I assume that the IRS is less likely to question one done by a professional. (And (d): I feel more comfortable doing the itemized deduction thing; back when I was doing them by hand I didn't do a schedule A out of fear of an audit, so I probably paid a good bit more than I legally had to)

I'm getting a decent federal refund (I have a lot of charitable donations - I essentially tithe to my church, and I also give a bit to some disaster-relief agencies and some scholarship funds, and I can write off things like my property tax, and this year I was able to write off what I had to pay for my ER visit in January 2016). There was a small state refund ($40) but Oklahoma has the option of donating that to the regional food banks, and I decided to do that - because last year's state refund was taxed on my federal taxes, and I assume if I give away that $40 I won't be taxed on it (I hope that's right. Not because of the tax savings so much but saving the hassle). And anyway, our food banks need help.

The federal refund will help fund my summer-without-a-paycheck, so that's good. (Not teaching this summer, which is going to be different. I'm actually kind of looking forward to JUST doing research and teaching-prep for the fall.)

(*Yes, I realize the privilege inherent in that statement. I have investments, some of them inherited from my paternal grandfather; he also used to buy stock in our names when I was a kid - I have a little note he wrote when I was about 5 with a sketch of a car on it and the note that he had bought a certain number of shares of Chrysler stock in my name. I don't think that stock is in my portfolio any more, but it's kind of nice to have the note. Small-scale investing was one of my grandfather's hobbies, I guess. Anyway, the stock account is supposed to be part of my retirement - so far, I've only tapped into it to help pay for the house, but I could see in a year with a good gain using it to help buy a new car if needed.... though anymore, I'm going to go with "certified pre-owned" to save the few bucks)

I got a bit more done on Celestarium. Perhaps this is one project I take tons of in-progress photos of because it's big and will be slow and it will be good to me to be able to scan back through here and see the progress I'm making on it. I can already see Ursa Minor starting to emerge in the beading and that's cool.