Monday

The start of another week. As expected, the pace of play here picked up a couple of notches today. Most clients get just a little more interested in their stuff as the tax deadlines approach. This is good because they tend to be more responsive to information requests, but sometimes they get a little over-anxious for an immediate answer. Over the years though, I've managed to mostly retain only those customers who can keep a lid on their anxieties. But there's lots to do in the next few weeks.

In all the basketball hoopla this past week, I neglected to keep up with NASCAR. They got rained out Sunday and ran the Atlanta race today. Only 20K of the original 80K from Sunday showed up to watch. Kasey Kahne took the checkered flag in a Dodge. He looks like he might be 14 years old.

Today is Mother's birthday. She would have been 98. As an adult, I always had to call Martha to keep track of Mother and Daddy's birthdays and their anniversary. They all occurred in March and April, but I could never keep straight which was which. I still have to consult a calendar, although I think I have Outlook hard-wired at this point.

Speaking of remembering things, I admit to being 100% male with the requisite defective memory gene. I'm pretty good with the girls' birthdays, and a couple of sibling birthdays, but after that, I'm pretty hopeless. (In an interesting piece of psychology, it did come out in a client tax return interview that I do remember my high school girlfriend's birthday. What's with that?) Anniversary's? Fagitaboutit! If I don't put a sticky note on the dash, I'll forget what I went to the grocery for.

Women's games are on tonight. For the Trivial Pursuit affectionados in the crowd, name the major college gym where the benches are at the ends of the court. Answer is below.

For the not-so-faint of heart, there were two 50+ age male runners in the LA marathon who literally didn't make it to the finish line. You might say they were finished out on the course. I have learned in these last few years that my body talks to me occasionally and tells me to take a break. I do. Not that a heart attack is caused by over-exertion, but there are times that backing off for health reasons is ok. I mean, its not like I'm getting paid to do any of that fitness stuff. Moderation is ok in drink, exercise and politics.

My clean desk is now producing a by-product that might be call piles-on-the-floor. I need a better system. I gather things up each night and set the stuff on the floor next to my desk. Then I have to go through the pile the next day and pull out the stuff that really needs to get looked at that day. The remainder goes back to the floor. I've now got 3 little (ok, not so little) piles that are all mixed up and I have lost mental contact of some of the "I'll get back to you on that" pieces of paper. I need to spend a couple hours this week and get things prioritized.

Good luck to all on your own (vanderbilt) daily things. Be careful out there.