Busy Season

I am well aware that posts have been painfully slow since the end of December. Unfortunately, I am in the midst of what we accountants affectionately call "busy season", and wouldn't be able to talk about much besides deferred tax assets, valuation allowances, and the like. For anyone who is interested in the inner workings of accountancy (and even for those of you who aren't), here's a rough breakdown of how our world operates.

Every year, my company provides me with an estimated annual "quota" of hours. This varies from firm to firm, obviously, but it is around 2,500 hours each year. A quick calculation will tell you that this is a good deal more than 40 hours a week - after all 40 hours a week times 52 weeks a year is 2,080 hours. Admittedly, my 2,500 hours includes my vacation, but in essence, the accountant is expected to put in another 2 1/2 months of work in excess of a regular schedule during the year. Most of this extra time comes between the end of December and the end of March - which results in horrendous hours for about a quarter of the year (keep in mind, we're trying to cram roughly 5 months of work into 3 months), and a reasonable life most of the rest of the year. This period from January to March is known throughout the accounting practice as "busy season" - and there's no doubt that it is.

So, my life has consisted of getting up early, leaving work late, and having little else to talk about. As you might imagine, this leaves little time for blogging - and even now, having written all of the above, I've come to the terrible (yet true) conclusion, that I have now spent even more time focusing on work.

The above being said, I'm not aware of anything newsworthy that has happened to report on. Other than Maggie starting school the prior week (which she has thoroughly enjoyed, and has fit in wonderfully - despite any concerns we may have had) - it's been pretty quiet. Admittedly, Mich might disagree, seeing as how tonight is basically the first time I've had to talk to her since last weekend, but I personally don't know of anything to say. We did pass the 100 day mark on the 21st, which means that we now have less than 100 days before we come back. I'm trying hard not to count down, but it is difficult when you are yearning to be home. Nothing against the UK, but it simply isn't home - and I would thoroughly anticipate that a Londoner, or someone from the UK would feel the same about the US. No news yet of where we're coming back to, of course, but I will let everyone know when we know. Right now, we just don't know - which makes all of our preparations to return a bit difficult, but still, we'll get through it.

I promise to try and flip through the photos from the past month or so and post some this weekend. I'll also get a complete update from Mich and post anything else worth posting. Until then...