Just a Monday, But Better Than Most

The month of January marches on, and as there has been for the preceding 24 days, the 25th day finds me posting about...nothing, as usual.

For a Monday, today wasn't too bad. Arriving at work, I managed to take care of all the niggling little tasks that had been haunting me over the weekend. This involved making 6-8 phone calls, sending multiple e-mails, checking in with some coworkers, and generally getting back into the flow of the office, after working at a remote office for the preceding week. Just the simple act of knocking so many individual entries off the work to-do list gave me a feeling of accomplishment that carried through the rest of the day.

Upon returning home this evening, I was able to make dinner for the kids and myself, entertain them, get them ready and put them to bed, clean up the first floor of the house (including the kitchen and living room), clean out the first floor closet, and start our taxes. My poor wife, who had been under siege all day from the three little ones, took our infant upstairs where the two of them got some much-needed rest in the relative peace and quiet of our room. While it wasn't the first choice on my list, I had a great time doing all of these things, again feeding off that feeling of accomplishment which started earlier in the day.

Starting the taxes brought the only disappointment. Considering that my wife was unable to work this year and we added our newest daughter to the fold, we were hoping to get more back this year than last. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case. The best I can figure is that, with the amount of overtime I worked during the middle part of the year, my salary must have crossed some threshold to move into a higher tax bracket. As it stands, we will receive somewhere near $300-500 less than in 2009. Considering we are getting a refund at all, there's not much to complain about, but since every little bit helps, it's somewhat disappointing.

All of this activity left little time for gaming, which I sadly miss. Tomorrow is the release of Mass Effect 2, and I won't be partaking in the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. There's not enough time and not enough money to justify the outlay of $50 or more, but so be it. I still haven't been able to get to any of the games I was really looking forward to over the past year, which leaves me with a healthy backlog to work through before I could even think about a new game. Of course, three great kids and a wife deserve my attention anyway, so I can't complain. On the upside, I've been able to find time to write every evening, and that is something of an accomplishment for me. Until tomorrow, and another serving of my mind in text, take care and enjoy!