my father turned 58 today. in the evening i got a ride down to the cafe where i had dinner with my family along with suhan's mother. we had lamb roast and for dessert we ate the coconut peach cake my sister had made yesterday. as a joke my sister used candles that wouldn't blow out.

i downloaded taxcut yesterday and this morning punched in my big numbers. verdict: i owe the internal revenue service about 2 full mortgage payments. definitely more than what the H&R guy estimated for me; now i have to play with the figures, see what else i can deduct, but i think it won't matter too much, maybe a few hundred dollars difference at most. whatever the final numbers might be, it's still better than what i originally thought i'd pay (i figured 5 mortgage payments, enough to empty my bank account). hopefully i'll get everything done by this week and not have to worry about taxes until next year.