Winter wonderland

Yes, it's a winter wonderland here, but I think it's that way all over the western US so don't get me wrong, I'm not whining. This is a picture I took out the window of Karen's office a little while ago as well as the current temperature here. You can't tell in the picture but it's snowing lightly which is something I wasn't used to when I moved here. I mean that when it's this cold out west it normally doesn't snow because it's too cold and the air is too dry, but back here it can snow it seems no matter what the temperature is.

So today Karen had to work and I need to get out and finish shoveling the walkways and go shopping. Once I get those chores done I'm just going to stay in and keep warm. I checked the pond in the backyard this morning and I had to chop a hole in the ice to see where the water level was. The ice is thick enough for me to walk on and I need to get the heater and aerator in there to keep the fish alive. Water stays solid this time of year here since it hardly ever gets above freezing during the winter. Did I say winter? It's still not officially winter but it's close enough for me.

Final exam!

Well, I finally took the final exam tonight and like I expected, I passed it. I only got an 86% overall for my final grade after all the tests were totaled but I'm happy to have gotten that good. Doing taxes is a stretch for me but now that I got through the textbook part of it I think I will be able to sharpen up some on the areas where I'm a little weak before tax season actually starts. It's a relief to have that part of this training over.

So I get a flier for Dave Molina's retirement in my email. I talked to him last summer and I'm surprised that he's retiring, I could have swore that he said he had several more years to go. Makes me wonder if he got in trouble or something, I guess I'll have to call Rene' and see what's going on. I won't be making it to the party since I have a class to attend and it's a fair piece from here, you might say. Oh well, maybe next time... But I'm done with my tax class! Yahoo!

Tomorrow's the final

Yep, tomorrow I take the final test in my tax class. I spent a couple of hours today going through my book refreshing my memory in preparation and I'll do the same tomorrow before class. I'm confident that I'll pass it unless I really screw it up, so I'll be taking my time to make sure I don't. Once that one is done then we have another couple of weeks of office/organizational training and then that will be it till tax season starts.

It still feels weird for me to be doing people's taxes instead of putting out their fires. Time will tell if I like it or not and if I don't I won't be doing it again next year. I'd rather find some piecework computer fixing jobs so maybe between now and after tax season I'll get a line on some work in that field. But then who knows, this job might turn out to be fun in it's own way, I'll just have to see how it goes.

The snow that fell over a week ago hasn't melted off in the shady spots so that tells you how cold it has been around here. I walked Karen down to the office where I'll be working (she had a meeting there today) and found it's about a 25 minute walk, 17 blocks. It was pretty cold but don't get me wrong, I'm not whining about the cold... not yet anyway, it was just nice to get back to Karen's nice warm house. And winter has not even started yet. Ya gotta love Idaho... I guess!

Time marches on

So they say! Well, I'm finally down to my last tax preparation class and all I have left to do is go take the final on December 1. I'm not worried about passing it but I still need to bone up some before the test. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Karen and I plan on staying in and having a nice day by ourselves. We were invited to have dinner with a couple of different friends but having it alone together seems like the best thing to do for both of us.

Karen's video card finally showed up this evening so tomorrow morning I'll spend a little time getting it installed and see how that nice big monitor she got is going to look. Since the cold has set in here, it's not very comfortable going out but if the sun is out we might take the dogs for a walk or something.

So time marches on and if you listen very close you can hear the footsteps.

Winter has arrived

Well, we drove to church on Saturday night on slippery icy roads. It snowed light snow showers throughout the day on Saturday and there were a couple of inches on the ground by evening. Just enough to make the roads really icy and indeed they were. I have to give it to folks that live around here, they know how to drive in that stuff and you don't see too many people spinning out or driving too fast like I used to see in Susanville all the time. But then we are in the cold white north here and since the winters start early and stay late, the fools who don't know how to drive in the snow and ice are soon separated from their vehicles.

So today the sun is out and it looks nice outside as long as you have your Nanook of the North uniform on... with gloves and long underwear. Maybe I'll stay inside since I really don't have any reason to go out anywhere.

Last night I ordered a new video card and 22" monitor for Karen's computer so we can upgrade hers a little. She has a puny 17" monitor now and her video card wasn't capable of running the right resolution for a nice big monitor so she will be good to go before the week is out. It cost less for both of those than I originally paid for my 22" monitor... prices come down on electronics, quite unlike food, gas and other commodities. Maybe it's time for me to build another system. Mmmmmmm.......

Mid Term Exam day!

Well, today I took the mid term exam for my tax class. I was a little disappointed that I missed 7 out of 42 questions but that still gave me an 81% for that test. Now if I can only get that good on the final and I'll be home free. The final is happening in the first part of December so I have a little less than a month to go. Today we had a chapter on business expenses and Schedule C. Man, talk about over my head! I didn't understand much of what I read today so I need to do a bunch more studying to get an idea what the hell they are talking about. At least I am feeling like I'm starting to get it, we had to do a tax return for today's exam and I got that right the first time. That one had sale of stock, dividend income, interest income and student loan payments. Ok, maybe I can do this... we'll see!

Having fun yet?

Yep I am, believe it or not. Yesterday Karen and I took a nice ride up in the hills east of here and had a wonderful drive on some dirt roads in the trees. I didn't get any pictures while we were up in the forest but along the way there are some windmill generators and I got this picture with the Tetons in the background.

As we were coming back into town we came across this beautiful canyon at the bottom of Wolverine Creek. You can see the Jeep there in the picture and get some idea of the perspective.


So weekend before last Krista and Curtis came up from Logan and we had a big breakfast on Sunday morning. I made waffles and Karen took this last picture that morning. I really enjoy seeing Krista and we had a nice visit with them.