Saturday, April 16, 2011

IN A TOUGH WEEK A FEW PHOTO OPS MADE ME SMILE


It's been a very tough week, but who doesn't have them?  Not going to post much today, but two things happened yesterday that made me reach for my camera.  Cooper, my resident backyard squirrel is a thief of hearts.  He does silly tricks in my back yard.  I often catch him on my balcony, rooting around planter boxes, probably looking for a place to hide nuts.  He plays very aggressive games of tag with his fellow squirrels, but he will boldly, if cautiously take a peanut from my hand.  I think he appreciate my leaving spent jars of peanut butter for him.  Cooper loves peanut butter as my photos of his inside the jar will attest.


I happened to look outside my dining room window and there was Cooper in the middle of my new hanging fuchsia looking around for something. My camera was close to hand and I grabbed these two quick shots of him before he flew off the pot and onto the support beam and lowered himself to the ground and scurried away.


My friend, Elena Ferretti arrived with her daughter Eliot and Portland friend, Kelly for breakfast yesterday.  They brought with them this lovely batch to tulips, which of course, made me think of Easter.  They are lovely and our visit was wonderful.


The carpet people arrived and finally fixed my new stair carpet, it it now looks symmetrical.


The final bit of good news was to pick up my taxes.  I got a small refund from the IRS, which is being applied to my first quarterly tax.  I don't owe any quarterly tax to the state of Oregon until next September.  There's some dumb transportation tax, but it was only $279. and the fee for this year's tax preparation was just over one third of what I normally paid in New York City. All in all, a quiet and nice coda to what began as a bit of a nightmare.  I thank and love my friends who rallied round offering their support.  

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