Hey there friends. I hope that Presidents' Day has been treating you well.

We have had a good day here at our house. The first thing that I did when I woke up is get working on my income taxes. A few weeks ago, I bought "Turbo Tax" to do my taxes on my computer. I think that it took a little bit longer than if I had just done it like I usually do, but it was really good at helping me get deductions that would be too complicated to find otherwise. Word to the wise: if you haven't done your taxes yet, spend the $20 and pick up a tax program for your computer.

I wonder whether the proliferation of home-income tax preparation software has had a negative effect on the government's ability to get money from us. It seems that obfuscation is part of the strategy that the government uses to raise funds. The more Byzantine the tax laws get, the more likely people are to overpay. Simplifying the deduction process (with this sort of software) may lead to the government needing to find a way to raise taxes to compensate for this. Likely? Who knows...

After doing the taxes, Kazuko and I got working on the igloo that we started yesterday. Once again, we brought the baby monitor outside while Kenny was taking a nap, and we got to work. The snow was a lot harder-packed than it was yesterday, making for a more stable igloo. (But harder digging.)

Once we got it done, we grabbed a blanket for the floor, got the baby, and enjoyed some tea inside of our igloo. That was a fun way to spend the day. Scroll down to see our finished product.


Here is what the igloo ended up looking like.






Entering, you can see Daddy and Kenny inside of the igloo.






Mom and Kenny inside the igloo.






Dad and Kenny in the igloo.






Kenny seems to be enjoying himself in the igloo.