Life and Taxes
Mar. 13th, 2006 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joflasherSaturday was wonderful. 65 degrees, sunny, slight wind ... absolutely gorgeous weather. My riding lesson went really well. My coach was impressed with how much more attentive Tisa was being thanks to the additional work during the week. My lessons lately have been almost entirely lunge line work. Coach has been making me do massive amounts of sitting trot and canter while doing weight lifting and stretches. She's insisting that I improve my seat/hand independence. Let me tell you, bending down to touch your ankle while sitting the trot is just HARD. If Tisa wasn't so good about stepping under me when I loose my balance, I would have been on my head the first time I tried it.
Tisa at least seems to enjoy these lessons. She seems to understand that I'm the one getting growled at now instead of her and takes pity on me. When I switch from rising to sitting trot, she rounds up and smooths out even though thats much harder for her to maintain. She can't do it very long but she tries. Of course, the warm weather means that all of her blankets are off and she can roll in the mud till her heart is content. I need to schedule at least double the normal amount of time for tacking up now but she's happy.
We spent Saturday afternoon grilling out at Hopkin State Park. That night, we went back to Mike and Margo's and played Texas Hold'em until past midnight. Out of eight players, I took 3rd. I should have done better but by 11, I was dead tired and just not able to count any more. Poker is much harder when you have no clue what your opponents might be holding and can't really remember what's in your own hand without constantly looking at it.
Sunday, my cold reasserted itself. I sat on the couch all day, drinking mint tea and watching Howl's Moving Castle. Spent the evening going over my art business books and starting in on my taxes. Of course, I ended up missing a piece (my ebay charges) so I couldn't finish the business taxes but its looking good. Once I finish the ebay expenses and finish up all the inventory, I think I'll actually have a profit this year. Not a lot, maybe a couple hundred dollars but still, its a profit in my second year of business. Does that mean I'm a professional now?
This year should be even better since I've made 3/4 of last year's original sales already just from Boskone. Assuming I don't purchase something huge, this year should be good. The only big thing I vaguely want is an Epson printer and, frankly, I'd rather just have Ellen print my stuff up. She does a wonderful job and its time I don't have to spend futzing with color matching and print quality. I'd so much rather pay her to do it than fight with the printers myself.
Speaking of art, the convention art people have just not been on the ball. I contacted six cons for March and April and so far only two have gotten back to me. Must go rant at them (by that I mean politely email them) and get some shows scheduled. Last year I had a 4 month break where I didn't show anything and I don't want to do that again this year.
Tisa at least seems to enjoy these lessons. She seems to understand that I'm the one getting growled at now instead of her and takes pity on me. When I switch from rising to sitting trot, she rounds up and smooths out even though thats much harder for her to maintain. She can't do it very long but she tries. Of course, the warm weather means that all of her blankets are off and she can roll in the mud till her heart is content. I need to schedule at least double the normal amount of time for tacking up now but she's happy.
We spent Saturday afternoon grilling out at Hopkin State Park. That night, we went back to Mike and Margo's and played Texas Hold'em until past midnight. Out of eight players, I took 3rd. I should have done better but by 11, I was dead tired and just not able to count any more. Poker is much harder when you have no clue what your opponents might be holding and can't really remember what's in your own hand without constantly looking at it.
Sunday, my cold reasserted itself. I sat on the couch all day, drinking mint tea and watching Howl's Moving Castle. Spent the evening going over my art business books and starting in on my taxes. Of course, I ended up missing a piece (my ebay charges) so I couldn't finish the business taxes but its looking good. Once I finish the ebay expenses and finish up all the inventory, I think I'll actually have a profit this year. Not a lot, maybe a couple hundred dollars but still, its a profit in my second year of business. Does that mean I'm a professional now?
This year should be even better since I've made 3/4 of last year's original sales already just from Boskone. Assuming I don't purchase something huge, this year should be good. The only big thing I vaguely want is an Epson printer and, frankly, I'd rather just have Ellen print my stuff up. She does a wonderful job and its time I don't have to spend futzing with color matching and print quality. I'd so much rather pay her to do it than fight with the printers myself.
Speaking of art, the convention art people have just not been on the ball. I contacted six cons for March and April and so far only two have gotten back to me. Must go rant at them (by that I mean politely email them) and get some shows scheduled. Last year I had a 4 month break where I didn't show anything and I don't want to do that again this year.
