I'm finally seeing eye to eye with the Taxman

Not that we agree on anything, of course. I would like to see the entire tax system as we know it collapsed and replaced with a national sales tax. It's just that I'm finally doing my taxes - I owe returns for 2002-2005 and, I was told by the IRS rep on the phone, "We've been looking for 2003."

So, I'm right on time, as late comers go, anyway.

I have 30 days to get these in, I was told. I'll update you on the progress.

Today is Saturday and I started off with a writer's meeting, myself, Ken Oster and Angela Pancella. Ken, you may recall, is a dear friend of mine who looks like Ghandi with ZZTops' beard. He doesn't speak much, due to his disability, but if he did, he'd surely have one of the most riotous mouths around. His blog is here

Angela is new to the Vineyard Central Community. She's from St.ouis and moved here to develop her writing career. Recently, she did some work for me on Citybeat's Swizzle bar guide and she crafted an excellent story on local drag nights. The Dock's Friday night lipstick review is a lot of fun, by the way.

So today I'm trying to wrap up some loose ends with regards to the week's work, sending Citybeat ideas for the Best of Cincinnati issue and getting a new query out to a San Francisco publication (more on that later). I need to ramp up my work and get a lot of things going and done, relationships built before the baby comes.

We're due in August, in case you don't know. If it's a girl, we're thinking the name would be Abbey Delores. We'll see, if it's a boy.

The baby is sharpening our focus in a lot of ways. We both feel a sense of purpose, like we have to hurry and prepare the way for this little person. This means things like getting back taxes done so daddy doesn't have to do jail time (this is a joke, by the way. They don't jail you when they owe YOU money. Still, I want to get it done), getting chores around the house in order, completed on a regular basis, getting healthier and refusing to tolerate any bullshit. What I mean by this is, bad behavior, by friends and relatives, drunkeness and disorderly conduct is not going to happen in front of our child. Or in our home. It has to be a place of sanctity, not lawlessness.

My disdain for authority hasn't waned, by the way, it's just that you can do whatever you want...OUTSIDE of our home. (and I don't mean in the front yard) This came into play with a relative yesterday. He left after about 15 minutes.

Our car also broke down yesterday. I pushed while Becky steered and we moved it, by gravity and muscle power more than a mile from the Montgomery Rd. Exit off of I-71 north to Ashland and Montgomery - Here's the map if you'd like to marvel at the chore.

Most of this was downhill and a nice teacher from Woodward HS, Kwesi and his wife Phyllis stopped to help. It wasn't that bad and I laughed my head off (as I'm sure others did, too, when I fell (almost!) under the car.

I pushed the car and got it moving and was running along side of it, opening the door, trying to jump in. I had the door open and grabbed the handle above the passenger window and tried and fell down on my ass. Yikes! Beck thought I was a goner. (though it wasn't the first time. I'll tell you about the train on our honeymoon later...getting your show stuck in the path of an oncoming freight train is no fun. She would have been a widow and only married less than a week!

If anybody wants to help replace the fuel pump, let me know. ;)

Beck's out walking with Angela in French Park, Eric Falstrom's favorite. I'm here at the brown house typing away.

Not much more to report for now.

Steve