Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
This week, I’ve been gathering information for my 2004 taxes. My CPA has sent me a planner with a list of questions to answer. Now it’s my job to pull together the information from various sources.
I have a storage box under my desk. When I have a receipt, a paid bill or a deposit slip from the bank, I toss it into the box. In a good year, I might sift through the box once or twice, organizing the contents. And there are times when I ignore it for the entire year, and go through it in time for taxes. The documents for our taxes have come in earlier than usual, so it’s time to get busy and go through the box.
I sat on the floor with the box on Wednesday night and did my first shuffle. The papers were divided into several stacks: banking, paid bills, insurance, services, major purchases, mementos, and trash. Today, I worked on organizing some of the stacks. Once I’ve culled information for taxes from the stacks of papers, I’ll pull things from the Quicken program on the computer. Doctors, medicine, charitable giving, dues…all sorts of things will show up there.
It’s amazing what we learn from this activity. I have to do a little research, but I’ll be able to figure out whether Dear Husband spends more to sail, or I spend more to quilt. (Want to take any bets??) I’ll be able to determine how much of our net is spent on books or magazines, and what portion of our income goes to food, housing, vehicles or clothing.
I suspect that our household spends less on clothing, and more on food than the average household. I’m sure we spend more on books and magazines, but oddly, less on music and DVDs. I wonder if tax time encourages people to look into their budgets and make adjustments for the coming year? I’m sure I plan to cut back on chocolate purchases this year.
I hope you are all farther along than I am. I think I’m going to be at this for a while.

There have to be a LOT of women who have crossed being a “Borgata Babe” off their list as the goal of their life today. The Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in New Jersey announced that the women and men who work as cocktail waitresses and bartenders will now be limited to a weight gain of 7% of their total weight. Should they exceed that amount, they will either be put on a 90 day unpaid leave while they try to loose the weight, or they will be fired. Pregnant women, or those who have a medical condition will be given consideration, but will be required to wear a different costume.
Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has filed a grievance, but should this come before a judge, I doubt, in today’s economic climate, that they will win their case. Representatives for Borgata have stated that the look of the “Borgata Babes” is part of the marketing plan that has brought them considerable success over their competition. The Borgata chain was careful to include the male employees in the new requirements, to forestall claims of discrimination.
Sex sells. Too bad the requirement to keep a sexy shape is likely to harm Borgata’s employees as they deal with the stress of maintaining weight. Insurance statistics show that it’s normal to gain weight as you mature. Women in their thirties, who might be beautiful, and are certainly capable of doing the work required of cocktail waitressing, will have to starve themselves to avoid natural weight gain. Perhaps this could be looked at from the point of view of age discrimination.
Borgata is likely to get what they want, but I can tell you they won’t ever get my dollars.