stupid rain

by far one of my favorite commercials currently showing on TV...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KscChA1DxAk

not really sure I want to have a Heineken afterwards, but i'm not opposed.

Congrats to Scott & Sara on their new addition to the family, JJ, born yesterday. Andy, Dave and I cancelled our Cincy trip due to the weather...didn't feel like watching baseball in the rain. I suppose we could have just gone to the riverboat instead, but we chose to pass.

My trip to Oakmont on May 18th has been confirmed and the lucky winner who gets to go w/ me to play the 5th rated golf course in America (and possibly the most difficult) is my step-bro, Tad. Needless to say he was fairly excited as he's a big golf fanatic, not to mention a better player than I am. should be a nice road trip.

Got the PS3 now...it's awesome. And since it's rained for 3 straight days, that's about all i've done w/ myself this weekend Had Friday off of work, which was nice, but it rained all day. I also have next friday off, so hoping for better weather then.

In closing, Las Vegas (and Harrah's specifically) misses me so much they've offered me a free room for a 3-night stay at any of their hotels, excluding Caesers in June or July. Just planting that seed....let me know if you're interested

spring & summer fun

Now that i'm through my hell on earth time, I can begin to focus on the fun things in life. Should be a busy 2010 and I hope it's the best year ever. Here are a few of my plans for the upcoming 6 months:

• Pearl Jam concert - early May
• Playing Oakmont Golf Club (Pittsburgh) - May 18th
• Texas for 2-3 days in late May
• Myrtle Beach for a week - late June
• July - still up in the air...was considering going out west (Portland, Seattle), Vegas at some point, Jimtown golf outing. Somehow Scott and I have to come up w/ a plan for him to ditch his wedding anniversary to play in the outing w/ me (love ya Sara!).
• August - Vegas if I don't go in July
• October - third annual Georgia trip

At some point during the summer, i'll make my annual trip to Wrigley and catch a few games in Cincy.

Should be a great summer. Being around Broad Ripple these past few beautiful weather weeks reminded me why I love living in this area during the summer. Winter, not so much....but we'll take the good w/ the bad.

Let's see, some news. Matt & Abby got engaged last week. No immediate plans for when/where the wedding will be, but possible talks of a destination wedding. Six of us went to celebrate w/ them last night, going to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse - very tasty. Makes me wish I could cook like that!

I love this time of year for sports. NHL & NBA playoffs, MLB in full swing, NFL Draft, personally getting outside to start playing golf and tennis again. Last year I achieved my golf goal of breaking 80. I don't really have a goal for golf this year, but to continue to improve. It's been fun the past seven years or so to see us all get better at golf, except for Andy who has digressed so bad that he is now going to try and play opposite handed to see if it will help.

seriously, enough!

I'm sick of getting crap about not driving to Elkhart for Easter Sunday. I've been home for Easter a whole 1 time in the past 7 years, so this isn't something new. Despite working 70-75 hour weeks for the past month, throw in the fact that the Final Four is in Indy this weekend....no frickin way i'm leaving town. So seriously, family, enough w/ the subtle hints and quit asking.

Now, w/ that out of the way, my Easter plans hopefully include my quasi-Easter tradition - crashing Tad & Kimberly's plans and joining them for Church, lunch, and some quick visiting time before I eventually end up working that night. Yes, i'll work on Easter...it isn't anything new.

So my brackets turned out alright. 11 out of 16 of the Sweet 16, 4 Elite 8, and 2 Final Four. Good enough to be in the top 98.8% on ESPN and take the lead in my work bracket pool into the Final Four. Am I going to games?? who knows.... I actually turned down free rafter seats. Watching a basketball game from the top row of Lucas Oil Stadium does not really excite me. I'd rather hang out w/ friends at a bar or someone's house and enjoy it in High Def. But if some better offers come my way before Saturday, i'll consider going. I really think Butler can win this. One game at a time, but if they do get to the finals, I think they match up a little better against W.V. then Duke. Time will tell

Diddy and I once again did our annual March Madness challenge against one another. I've never won (0-2 or 0-3, however many years we've done it). This year, i trail by 2 games going into Saturday, so I need to sweep to force a winner take all national title game, which would be fairly exciting...can't get much closer than it is right now.

Liking the warm weather, but really it's just a tease too me until after April 15th. I intentionally leave my golf clubs in my basement until after tax season. I don't even want to be tempted to play right now. I need to restain my deck, so that's probably the first thing on my outside to do list. First time i've had to restain it, so I have no idea how long it'll take, but I assume it'll be a good afternoon's work since my deck isn't that big.

I've been bad about updating my taxable income tracker for 2009. I'm going to guess it's somewhere around $30-33 million. i need to go back and update it for the past 10 days worth of work or so.

I'm also looking forward to getting started on my culinary goal for 2010. Since my dinners are provided for me by the firm, i haven't cooked a real meal since mid-January. I'm starting to get the urge to cook though, so feel free to send me any recipes you think may be good for me.

If only our desks didn't weigh a ton at our office, Diddy and I could definitely do some damage like this. I really love The Office. It's about the only show i've been able to keep up on during tax season. every other show i'm watching is just sitting on my DVR, waiting for my return (24, Justified, Damages, The Pacific, 30 Rock, FlashForward)

Until next time...

March Madness Quickie

tax season, as usual, is getting the best of me. here are my picks (i know a day late, but this was my #1 bracket)

Sweet 16
Midwest - Kansas, Michigan St, Georgetown, Ohio St
West - Syracuse, Butler, Xavier, Kansas St.
East - Kentucky, Wisconsin, New Mexico, West Virginia
South - Duke, Purdue, Baylor, Villanova

Elite 8
Midwest - Kansas vs Georgetown
West - Syracuse vs Kansas State
East - Wisconsin vs West Virginia
South - Duke vs Baylor

Final Four - Kansas over Kansas State, West Virginia over Duke

Champ - Kansas over West Virginia.

Georgetown really screwed me already....oh well. I have saturday off this week, so big weekend of basketball w/ Scott, Andy and Dave. should be fun!

In Diddy's and I annual pick every game against the spread against one another, I jumped out to a 10-6 lead after Day 1. He has owned me in this rivalry (0-3 all time for me)...i'm pretty sure this is the first time i've ever had a lead after Day 1, so I'm fairly excited.

I'm out, more posts in the near future hopefully

Venting

Monday, March 8th....one week till the 1st deadline is past. Last week and it's 73 working hrs in 6 days can go to hell. I think that's the earliest in busy season I've ever worked a 70+ hour week. 5 more weeks total, w/ a slight breather week March 15-20th, where I become useless once the NCAA Tourney begins. Can't wait.

8am on monday morning and i'm sitting here waiting for the roofing/attic guys to show up. Getting the insulation in my attic doubled. Thought about doing that myself later this spring, but laziness and convenience got the best of me. It's the thought that counts. Got me thinking...in the past 2-3 years I've spent a decent amount of cash on my house just to "maintain" and basically my house is appraising for what I paid for it 5 years ago. I suppose that's better than the 25% less....but we all know that I probably couldn't sell it for the appraisal value. Typically I've always seemed to be in the right place at the right time when it comes to these kind of things, but not this time. If I could unload this house for what I paid for it and then go and buy a nicer/bigger house on the cheap all while lowering my monthly payments, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Problem......I can't sell this for what I paid for it, no question. Brand new deck, all new HVAC system, new roof, better insulation, it doesn't matter, too much of a buyer's market right now. Oh well

I'm looking forward to my next post - NCAA predictions! I did so well last year getting a whopping ZERO Final Four teams right, which was the first time ever I've never gotten at least one. I did get 4 of the Elite Eight teams right though. Can't wait, love the 3 weeks of the tourney, excluding the whole work thing.

My mom is on a cruise this week in the Caribbean and of course I took them to the airport Saturday. "Wish you could come w/ us...." she says....yeah, no kidding! Same ship we were on 18 months ago when Buell and I took the ultimate man-date w/ them. It was fun though!

"My" Ritter alumni bball team earned the #1 seed for the tourney and we won yesterday to move into the semifinals. I would say there are 3 other "good" teams, besides us, that have a legit chance of winning the league, and all 3 of those teams are on the opposite side of the bracket. We were basically given the draw that we would have picked ourselves if we were running the tournament. To put in 2010 NBA terms, it's basically the equivalent of the Cavs playing the Nets, Knicks, and Pacers to get to the NBA Finals

7 more days till the first one has passed, breathe, breathe

I'm an idiot

I'm writing this on my phone, so this is my first mobile blog post.  Awesome right?  The reason I'm doing from my phone is because I'm sitting in my car, in my driveway, locked out of my house.  Yep, keys on my dresser... So I also don't have my car keys.  Thank God for cell phones and my savior, my old roommate Matt.  He still has a key to my house, so he is driving up here to let me in...then I'm taking him and his girlfriend to lunch!  Better than paying a locksmith, on a sunday.  

Tax season sucks, but that's nothing new.  Buell and I's Ritter alumni team pulled off a miraculous victory this morning over a team that probably should have beat us.  It was a 3 point onslaught by us with yours truly draining at least 5 of them.  Good times.  

Wish I could have been with Craig and Adam this weekend in Vegas for a bachelor party...I'm starting to get that itch again.  

Played about 3 hrs of ping-pong two weekends ago at my stepbros house.  Lots of fun and we had some epic showdowns...very similar to the fresh out of college days with our fusbol rivalries with the old roommates at The Plex.  

2009 Taxable Income Reviewed to date - approx $8 million.  I'm not in front of my computer, ya know, SINCE I'm LOCKED OUT OF MY DAMN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!  I always knew this day would come...  

the first real event in the Winter Olympics that I'm excited for is tonight.  USA vs Canada in mens ice hockey.  Well Matt should be here any minute.  Fiest mobile blog post...out.  Over/under on number of typos is probably at least 20

early tax season blues

So the Colts sucked in the Super Bowl. Well, we didn't play horrible, just had a few bonehead plays and a few "hindsight is 20/20" coaching moments. Also the Saints played a great game and deserved to win. Onwards.... Finished 27-24 on the year for NFL bets for a less than inspiring 53%. Not great, but it always comes back to being better than Scott's 0-6 showing in Vegas.

9:55 on a Wednesday night, early February, and I just got to sit down on my couch. Ahh, the joys of being a public accountant during tax season. I'm still a month away from the corporate deadline (2 months from individual deadline) and I'm already starting to feel the invisible force of my client's needs/expectations pulling me in all different directions. Don't get me wrong, I love my job most of the time and would recommend a public accounting career to incoming college students, however, it does have it's negatives. On a positive note, I've been exposed to a few unique tax situations that has taught me a lot in the past few months, so I'm a better CPA today than I was 6 months ago....and I'd like to think I didn't suck at my job 6 months ago....

Valentines Day...not a huge fan, but this year should be fun. Going to a "put the SIN back in SINGLE" party. Sounds more scandalous than I'm sure it'll be, but it'll be fun. Basically just an excuse to get together w/ some friends, not all of whom are single, to drink. Nothing too crazy though since the Ritter Alumni Bball league started up a few weeks ago and we play on Sunday mornings, so don't want to be hungover for that. We are 2-0 having outscored our opponents by 75 points over two games....but we've also played the two worst teams, I'm sure.

That reminds me, I'm hoping I there is a shitty table at this party so me and few other friends can try out this (your video of the week, courtesy of Club Tril). Seriously, of all the years that I've dominated people (along w/ the occasional loss) at beer pong, i've never seen anyone do this...NOR do I recall it ever being discussed. I'm very excited to witness or partake in beer pong dunk live.

On another note, has anyone else noticed that the Pacers current two point guards are Earl Watson & AJ Price...who? exactly....the Pacers are awful. I don't understand how a team in Indiana can be this bad. Wait, IU isn't good either? Jesus, what the hell is going? At least Purdue is a legitimate Final Four threat, Butler is solid, and ND is making a push for the tourney...so the state isn't all bad.

For my long-time readers, you may remember that I kept track of the cumulative taxable income (netted w/ losses) for the clients that I was responsible for during tax season. I think last year ended up around $50 million of net taxable income. I'll keep a tally again this year and am guessing the year will end up around $48 million...we'll see how accurate i am. last year I guessed $103M...so surely I'll be much closer this year!

2009 Taxable Income Reviewed to Date - $2,721,521 (it's early in the year, obviously. not the mention the economy sucked in 2009)