I owe what?

Currently Reading: Ju-On by Kei Ohishi

It's tax season. It officially starts right after the Super Bowl. That's when we no longer have any excuses to dodge those 1040's and W-2's.

Like every good citizen, I started working out our taxes. Ok, I did it because CC told me to, it had nothing to do with citizenship. Anyway, there I was, happily going down the page, checking off this, adding up that until I got down to the bottom of the page. There, for the first time ever for me, the wrong box had the higher number. Meaning what? Meaning we actually OWE money instead of getting a refund.

Needless to say this came as a total shock. It's not like we're rolling in dough here you know. We don't drive expensive cars, hell we only have ONE car in the first place. And yet, we owe taxes this year.

It's Uncle Sam's way of saying, "Welcome to the middle class. Pay up."


Training is going well. I'm working half a day on Tuesday and we've been spending that time reviewing everything. It's really not that hard. Sometimes it's actually pretty funny. Today, for example, we covered the section on bathing and brushing dogs. Now, I've been doing that for the past year so the questions they ask seem a bit silly. But you know, they ask these questions for a reason and there are plenty of real-life examples in the book of groomers who had a sudden attack of the stupids and messed up something important.

We also had a visit from the corporate offices in San Diego this morning. That was fun. It's always fun when the corporate guys come to visit. Everyone gets so tense and nervous for some reason. I've never been able to figure that part out. Really, the only one who should be nervous is the general manager because it's a test for THEM not for us. We're just the grunts who do the heavy lifting.

Today's visit featured one of the REALLY high up guys. How high up? Well, he's one of the two guys we see in our monthly videos. I forget if he's CEO or Vice President or what, but it's something way up there. He's one of those guys you never expect to see except for on the in-house videos. Pretty nice guy in fact. The whole group came into the salon, asked how we were doing, checked things out. They asked how the training was going, we said fine. Seems odd people would get nervous over a visit like that. I guess it really comes down to whether or not you have something to be nervous about. We're pretty transparent in the grooming salon. We don't have anything to hide. Whether you're customer or corporate, we'll show you anything in the salon you want to know about. That's just how we are.

Hey, did you catch that Super Bowl? Was that great or what? Ok, if you're not a Chicago Bears fan, was that great or what? Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning finally were able to prove to everyone that yes, they really are good. Both of them had a reputation for choking when it came to the big game. I thought that was a bit unfair. There are all sorts of things you have to take into account when you're playing a big game and it's really hard for just one person to blow the whole thing.

On the other hand, that quarterback from Chicago certainly went out of his way to TRY and mess things up for the whole team. I'd heard he was a sort of hit or miss kind of guy. Either he played brilliantly or he was just awful. I figured that was more a matter of opinion. Sportscasters like to blame the quarterback when the team loses. But you know, watching that game, he really WAY awful.

We were watching the game over at a friend's house. Good food, not a big crowd, just an informal gathering really. After a while, especially in the second half, the Bears would get the ball back and I'd ask, "Ok, how's Grossman going to mess it up this time? Interception? Fumble?" And sure enough, he'd mess it up.

Can't be too hard on him though. He wasn't the only guy on the team who didn't seem to be putting in 100%. In fact, the only guy who DID seem to be giving his all was Urlacher. He seemed to be just about everywhere on defense. You could tell he really wanted the win. Can't say the same for all the other guys.

And so we've reached the end of football season. Oh sure there's still the Pro Bowl next week. Right, stop laughing. Football season is over. Now begins the dead zone unless you like basketball or get decent hockey coverage. Me, I usually don't follow either basketball or hockey until the All Star Break and even then I don't follow it very closely until the last week or so of the season.

Instead I'll be waiting for the start of spring training and the opening of baseball season. Such a long way from now.