Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tax Man


Its grade school, I'm in first grade, it's time for Math. The teacher is tall, the day is long, the kids noisy and the desk graphitized to death. Generations of students before me put their frustration into action and scribbled, etched, carved their sorrow into the desk.

Fast forward to fourth grade, the best and brightest are taught by royalty: The Principal. The group is spearheaded by the son of the shop owner from around the corner. He had lots of practice in algebra, taking our meager pocket money and exchanging it for toys, pencils, candy and the occasional birthday gift. I'm not in that group, I'm more of a shopper, you see.

Years go by and it's me who has a business, selling hand made, artfully designed scrapbook albums. I'm still lucking in Math but VERY good at shopping and so tax season is not my cup of tea. My coffee tucked safely at my side, the desktop smooth and gleaming, I'm having the gloomiest day ever. Excel charts carve their frustration into my brain, receipts are flying about, the different passwords I most creatively created at some point (beware thy hacker, you'll never get THIS combination!) are long forgotten and the effort of re-creating them is enormous. Hubby, AKA Numbers Man, refuses to help - after all, it's my business and I have to learn how to do it myself. Isn't there a quote about  'Thou Shalt Not teach a tired frustrated student'?

Almost midnight, I flex the numbers, stretch my spine, flex my feet, point them, to no avail: numbers stay the same and I have to jump in the receipts bin once again to find that long lost piece of paper that will save the day. Wish me luck...

How's your tax season and what do you think of Obama's efforts to kill the bourgeoisie in favor of social capitalism?

Be happy, get a CPA that does it for you,
Sara Brown.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

6 Golden Rules to Cellular Etiquette

  1. If you don't have anything to say but would like to pass the time, or if you don't have a piece of REALLY juicy gossip for us - take your phone and leave the room. We have our own to-do lists and boring tales, we don't need to hear yours.
  2. If WE are engaged in a conversation or past time, there's no room for your long lost friends and family unless you have them over and a proper, personal introduction is made.
  3. Texting hold the same rules. Yes, I can still see you texting under the table...
  4. If it's me calling and you have to accept the call (of course) let me know right at the start I'm on speaker phone in your car/office and am talking to all of your back seat  friends/kids/carpool mates.
  5. You have to take the call? Really have to? Excuse yourself and go out (I know it's freezing, you had to, remember?)
  6. Public domain is, as its name hints: PUBLIC. Have your PRIVET conversations in PRIVET.
You are not perceived as very important when you are constantly on the phone, just an arrogant nudge. Kapish?

Stay warm and in touch:)
Sara Brown.


Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Love Day


I know it's tomorrow, Being Jewish we celebrate the concept, so we started today.
I took Prince Charming to The Miracle Worker with the charming Abigale Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, remember?) as Helen Keller, Alison Pill as Helen's teacher, Annie Sullivan (also acted in one of the best movies ever, Dan in Real Life), and one of my favorites on House, as Helen's mother: the lovely Jennifer Morrison. The show took place in this gem of a theater, Circle in the Square, where the stage is circular, the theater small and you can see, sniff and feel the presence of the actors from every corner of it.
We later went for some coffee and Pizza (guess who ate what) and took the bus home - lot's of mother-son interactive time.

When we got home we found out there were surprises waiting for us. Father-daughter time proved to be no less exciting: Princess got her nails done (I was holding on not to do it because it is so un-educational), I got an assortment of body creams from the Body Shop, all pleasantly tried out by the house Princess, and an assortment of chocolates in flavors I really like from Godiva. In addition, I got this massager that looks like... well... it is a family blog, so I won't say, but you know what I mean...

It was all very educational really, so explained Hubby, as part of the campaign to stop Princess from sucking her royal thumb they got the NO liquid to put on the poor thumb and the nails done (highly effective reward part of the campaign).

We ended the day watching The Invention of Lying which has a great concept and a beautiful execution, plus I like Barbie like Jennifer Garner.

And the kitchen sink (had to peek) was clean. Yippee!

Feel free to tell us how you spent your Love Day!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

First Snow Day


A childish joy came over us this last Wednesday as the Snow Day was announced by the schools. It caught us getting ready to go to bed, so we all jumped around for a while. Hubby anticipated the snow storm so we had some real good lamb chops for lunch - yummy!
Surprisingly enough, my kids got off screens for awhile and we all enjoyed Candy Land, Uno and Tacki - great games even when your kids bit you! We called grandma and broad-casted breaking news about the snow levels throughout the day, checked on our friends and managed to shovel a bit in the late afternoon.
Here are some photos for you:

Donald finding his way in the snow

Donald is back from the cold

Our neighbors snowy fence

The plants became snow stands

Our sunny California outdoor table became a snow cake at 9am.

Our snow cake at noon

Our snow cake gets measured at noon

Our snow cake at 2pm

Our snow cake at around 4

Our snow cake at 5

Our snow cake at 6, about 12" of snow!

Our snow man is ready and the entryway is Finlay shoveled -Hooray!


Sentence of the day: A family that shovels together, gets massages together!

Stay warm,
Sara Brown.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

5 Reasons to Like Job Search


  1. You meet tons of interesting contacts on the way.
  2. One day all these contacts will be useful in a way you can't even imagine now.
  3. You get to check yourself out once more, figure who you are at this point and what you want to do, who you want to become. It's hard yet great to do every so often.
  4. You learn a lot about jobs, employment opportunities, job search and try to stay away from the Book of Job kinda' mood.
  5. Suits can be awesome. We should bring dress up back, it's fun!