Weekend Update

Well, my nephews got lucky; there was no snow, it didn't rain, and it wasn't that cold. In fact, one could say it was perfect weather for yard work. They didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but they did ok. I'm guessing they're not quite 1/3 of the way there.

They aren't mowing the lawn; they're clearing out weeds in my "dead" zones (which are more green then dead at this point) and removing the blackberry 'bushes' that have grown over into my yard from the neighbors. And since it doesn't look like the neighbors are going to remove them from their yard, this is battle I'll have to fight every year.

Not that I dislike blackberries, but if left un-checked, they'll take over everything in short order. I didn't even HAVE blackberry 'bushes' two years ago. And now they're threatening to grow over the fence into my other neighbor's yard. So something needs to be done to stop them.

Just not by me personally.
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Pssst...Hcatty...that's five-up. ;-)

More Spring Snow Possible

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Two posts in the same week? Unbelievable!" And you're right, of course. Rarely do I find myself posting more than one post a week (or even sometimes, a month), but it happened this week.

Which puts me 4-up, Miss Hcatty, my dear, busy, busy, busy friend. You're really lagging now. ;-)

So now that my taunting is done (for now...maybe), what could possibly make me put up two posts in one week? Well, truthfully...nothing. There is no Earth-shattering news that I'm dying to spill, there's no family woes worth a special mention (just the same ol', every day, "everyone has the same family woes" going on here), there's no freakishly strange weather happening (though my title may imply differently, but more on that latter)...there really is nothing extraordinary. So why?

Why not?

It's a valid answer, but few actually like to hear it. Too bad for them.

I'm just sitting here in my office, waiting for my sister to drop off a couple of my nephews so I can take them home and put them to work in my yard this weekend. Since she's got an hour+ trip, here I am.

I hate yard work. But it's got to be done. So why not hire family to do it instead of strangers? So I have. It may not be the best weekend for yard work, though. "They" say it's going to be cold...and wet; with the possibility of some snow, though it's not expected to stick around long (hence, my title). Of course, if my nephew has done it earlier, he wouldn't have to do it now. Nor would he have to share the money I was going to pay him with his brother. Oh well; his choice - he had several weeks to get it done and he didn't.

But it won't be all work. We'll watch some DVDs, eat way too much food and who knows what else.

I just hope they get everything done, though that might be a tall order. We'll see. They are hard workers.

When they put their minds to it.

Most Dispised Day in USA

If from my title you guessed "Tax Day", you are correct. For the first time ever, I actually had to pay taxes (both Federal and State) because of the infamous "Capital Gains Tax". As you may recall from an earlier post (last November, I believe), I bought some 'raw land' back in 2003 and sold it late last year (Nov. 2007) for a "nice" profit. Since I did make a profit on the sale, Uncle Sam stuck-out his grubby little paws and said "Give me nearly half of your profit."

I'd call them "children of un-wed mothers", but I'm nicer than that. Usually.

My CPA did a rough calculation of the difference in taxes for me if I had not sold the land and I would have received a REFUND in an amount nearly the same as what I ended up having to pay. Which is why I loathe the Capital Gains Tax and believe it should be abolished. Or at least severely overhauled to be less punitive.

Now, my good and dear friend Hcatty (who happens to know a little bit about real estate, having been heavily involved in a realtor-ship with her family [and now that she has her own tanning salon business with her sister Giggles, I don't know how involved she may still be with the realtor-ship]) left a response on my original tirade post that I could have deferred the tax by re-investing. Which is true. Sort of.

From what I understand, the re-investment must be of "like kind"; meaning, in this instance, since the original property was "raw land", my re-investment would have needed to also be "raw land". I could not, for instance, re-invest it in an apartment building or house and still defer the taxes.

So while I appreciate her letting me know about re-investing (which I did know, but I still thank you, my friend), it didn't really apply in my case.

Not to mention that the sale actually happened pretty fast, once the buyer and I got together (which was a good thing), so I didn't really have the time to re-invest as I wasn't even looking when the sale occurred.

Ah well.

So no refund for me this year. Bummer. But I didn't have to pay as much as I feared, so I still have some profit left over. And I already bought my new, 46-inch LCD big-screen TV last year, so I'm not sure what I would have done with it except put it in savings (at least for a while) anyway.

Now if I could only find a good non-subscription required DVR system...
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PS Hcatty ('cuz I know you will [eventually] read this): I'm now "3-up" on you. Better get cracking. Hehehe.