Funds, Food, Feminists… and other mostly positive F words

… because all the negative ones have been flying around all week since I have finally gotten around to do my business taxes. The Husband-of-Awesome delivered them while I made a dinner of paninis and spinach salad.

If you freelance or write, seriously, forget what I said in the interviews that will be coming out all this month…

GET AN ACCOUNTANT!!!!

My accountant is Made of Awesome.

Yes, I do a lot of work for prep… but if he hadn't guided me on how to make tax-friendly spreadsheets, my 10 or so hours of prep with no tears and minor headaches and jaw-clenching would have been 40 hours with major tears, screaming, stuck jaw, and God only knows what else.

And it's getting better every year. This year, I finally made a minor-yet-big change on my "Make Sure You Get Paid And Your 1099 Matches The Amount" spread sheets and added a "mileage" column. Sooo, when I update my pay info, I remember that I DO NOT want to spend 6-8 hours on Google maps next April as I count down hours until meeting my accountant.

Oh, and speaking of those "Make Sure You Get Paid And Your 1099 Matches The Amount" spread sheets, the super-fabulous award goes to Stephanie Sanders-Ferris, from whom I had a 1099 within the first week of January, and it perfectly matched my records, making the time-spent-for-taxes for my Massachusetts Horse work less than an 30 minutes - with 28 of said minutes being me looking up the mileage for where I drove for interviews.

Admittedly, I am blessed with a bunch of awesome editors for whom I work… but, < 30 minutes of tax reckoning means a lot to me this week.

So, perhaps, not only Get an Accountant, but get an accountant who will advise you on how to make it easier for when you will inevitably procrastinate calculating your earnings until the week in which you are scheduled to file with your accountant.

Did I mention I <3 my accountant?

I should bake him cookies…

… speaking of cookies, since it's Foodie Friday, the super Jaleta Clegg has this delicious sounding recipe I MUST TRY here.

And, you may notice, before you get to the recipe, that she has organized this WICKED COOL Blog Out for a bunch of us Broads!

Pauline Baird, who has the wonderfully titled "Perils of Pauline" blog, already has my interview up!

Here's the who-all of the lot of Broads throwing this crazy party. And I can't say I'm not doubly thrilled as it's in April - my favorite month of the year. Between mine and H-of-A's birthdays - along with most of our closest friends - and the Big-Arse Birthday Bash… Yeah, April rocks! Join us for this online party:

Jaleta Clegg, The Far Edge of Normal, http://jaletaclegg.blogspot.comLynn Flewelling, Talk in the Shadows, http://otterdance.livejournal.com/Brenna Lyons, The Lyons' Den, http://brennalyonsden.blogspot.com Trisha Wooldridge, A Novel Friend, http://www.anovelfriend.com/blog.htmTracy Morris, Rambling Roses, Purple Prose, and other Asinine Alliteration, http://writertracy.livejournal.com/Pauline Baird Jones, Perils of Pauline, http://paulinebjones.livejournal.com/
Kaz Augustin, Fusion Despatches, http://blog.ksaugustin.com/

Best part? It'll be damn near impossible for the rain to mess with this virtual party!