Saturday, February 27, 2010

Dumping Flakey Clients


_MG_8933 copy, originally uploaded by rtsmithcpa.

I am officially half way through busy season so I figured it was time to celebrate for a few minutes. I haven't had time to take any pictures that were much beyond clicking the shutter button but this morning I decided to go all the way. In addition to having some camera fun I cleaned house and dumped some of my flakey clients so my time is now better spent with people I actually enjoy working with!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Sunset ... In Color!



I'm ok with winter because it keeps me inside working and not playing with my camera (quiet Andrea!) but I do grow weary of the gray dreary days with hardly any color. Fresh snow is always nice but by the end of February whatever snow is left is turning brown with mud and has lost the appeal it had on Christmas Eve. I was determined to suppress my temptation to look for things to photograph tonight and be a good boy and work on returns ... then I noticed this awesome sunset, with color from north to south in the western sky. This sunset brightened my whole day! I think I'll be able to do 3 more returns tonight after the mental energy boost the colors gave me.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Michael's Birthday Party


_MG_8841, originally uploaded by rtsmithcpa.

Ok, I know it was actually on Friday but I was out of town on the 19th so he was able to spread the celebration over 3 days. Yesterday we went to the diner in Oakley that the Christensen's claim ownership (or at least they should) and we had a great meal. Mrs Christensen (she wants me to call her that) had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich that made me envious, yum. My burger was pretty dang good but oh my that Philly looked good. Then tonight we had birthday cake for the brand new 23 year old. Score cake to be exact. Not exactly my favorite but it wasn't my birthday either. He got an i Phone as his present and that didn't make me jealous but we'll see, it might grow on me :) Michael is a good boy and I hope he had a great extended birthday. Happy birthday Michael!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Tax Season :(


_MG_8771, originally uploaded by rtsmithcpa.

It's Friday night and I'm doing taxes. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but when you couple it with the fact that on the Olympics tonight it's Ice Dancing ... oh beauty what a crappy night! At least they took a break to show Torah Bright from Australia receive her Gold Medal, but other than that and a hissy fit thrown by Russian ice skater and cry baby Evgeni Plushenko, the Olympics have been a little sleepy tonight. So I decided to do my annual cry baby tax season post. Too bad I don't have Vladimir Putin shouting Cold War Nikita Kruschev-esque type slogans in my favor!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Things Other Than Taxes







For the most part I enjoy my work and I only complain under my breath. I just wish I had more time to get things done but it's as much effort to worry about it as it is to just get the work done. Taking pictures is a perfect diversion for me and it helps tremendously to keep my mental state in shape if I can spend a little time each week taking photos and honing my photoshop skills. So when my friend Roslyn got promoted to Sergeant with the Salt Lake City Police Department I told her we needed to take some pictures of her in uniform. It happened that about the same time the Stake Presidency asked me to take some of them too. This was something I couldn't pass up, 2 solid hours of picture taking! The pictures don't need much explanation because they speak for themselves. JUMP, haha. It made for a great day doing things other than taxes.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day (or Hallmark ripoff?)


I'm a much bigger fan of holiday's like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day or even the 4th of July. They seem like legit holidays. Valentines Day ... I don't know. It was always fun in elementary school to get a Valentine from some mysterious little girl that you weren't sure you could beat up in a fair fight, but after the 6th grade I'm not convinced it's anything but another day to buy things that die in a few days, or make you fat the minute you consume them. Nevertheless, I know who butters my bread so until the Obama administration finds a way to tax or regulate roses out of existence I will let wisdom overrule cynicism. Happy Valentines Day Marsha, Kirsten and Kylie :)

Monday, February 8, 2010

An Old Friend


I know smoking is bad for you and has fallen out of grace with political correctness, but my Marine Corps branded Zippo lighter has been with me for a lot of years and actually brings back wonderful memories of times past. It has lit it's share of cigarettes but it has also started campfires, lit Coleman stoves, countless candles and even acted as toy keeping idle hands busy flipping the lid open and closed. If you've never had experience with these types of lighters you have to be careful after you filled the base with lighter fluid. If the lighter ended upside down in your pocket the fluid would seep out and soak your clothes, Before you realized it was wet, your leg would have an almost immediate burning sensation and you suddenly wished you had paid better attention to the orientation of the lighter in your pocket. It was worth the eventual liquid fire in your pocket to carry such a handy tool. With a Zippo and a mini-Leatherman you could survive in the wild. How cool is that? I need a new flint and some Zippo Lighter Fluid and mine would be good as new. I might need to run to the grocery store tomorrow.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

And February Begins










I'm looking forward to the Winter Olympics this month because the January blah's are hanging tough everywhere. When I got to Manti there was still 8 inches of snow on the ground, but it's all from the week before Christmas. I heard that this has been the longest cold stretch for 80 some years in Sanpete county and I believe it. The temperature peaks around 28 and then falls at night to as low as possible, depending on cloud cover or a clear sky. The result is crunching through the same snow we partied in nearly 6 weeks ago with nothing fresh whiten it up.

Salt Lake has had the worst air in the nation a couple of times this year and that sure isn't comforting. I'm not a hippy-tree-hugger and I love big American iron on the highways, screaming from 0 - 60 in 3.4 seconds, so hopefully the solution to bad air can come without all of us having to become vegans and card carrying PETA members riding long boards to work. But despite the winter blah's Sunday's Superbowl and next weeks Winter Olympic kickoff should jumpstart my attitude. I'm feeling the work load set in so I thought I would post a picture that fairly represented my week at the office, but my favorite shots of the week were from Thursday when the best peeps in the neighborhood let me take pictures of them jumping after their exercise class. I have the best neighbors on Earth, bar none! So let February begin and so what if the jumping pictures were taken on the only day the sun came out. I've been happy ever since!