Lunar New Year [with tax update]

Not only is it Valentine's Day, it is the Lunar New Year. Tom and I went to Portage to a Chinese restaurant that had been recommended, but they were closed. Not sure if it is for the holiday (or both holidays?) or just because it is Sunday. At any rate, we wound up eating at La Tolteca, an interesting Mexican restaurant. Tom had beef flautas and I had enchiladas Poblanas -- chicken enchiladas in a mole sauce.

[For those unfamiliar with mole -- pronounced moe-lay -- it is a chocolate-based spicy sauce from Puebla. It is not sweet, but the thought of the chocolate part does frighten some people away. The recipe was allegedly revealed to a nun in Puebla by an angel back in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.]

Then we made a quick stop at Goodwill for me to pick up three ties -- one covered with computers, one with a Winnie the Pooh theme and another with Warner Brothers cartoon characters.

Then home for me to gather info for my income taxes so Tom can start putting that together. Also some housecleaning and other not-so-Valentine's-Day activities.

I hope Riley and Brooke had great birthdays this weekend!

And, although we did not get Chinese food, here is a fortune cookie message for you: Money doesn't always bring happiness. People with ten million dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.

UPDATE: It looks like I will get a small refund from the federal income tax -- every little bit helps. Now we will have to see about the state income tax. I could get more back, but because the IRS considers the work I do for the Carmelite Institute and my book sales as self-employment -- nothing is withheld during the year -- , I need to leave some money in to cover for that next year.

In any case, I will have neither nine nor ten million dollars.