Lolling around when the shop is closed

Weekends like this past one always amuse me--when they're not driving me crazy about what I have to get accomplished.  My customers think that the shop is closed, so I'm sunbathing and going to the beach or hitting the mall when Needle Nicely is closed.  Wrong!!

I'm the typical small business owner who also happens to be a housewife.  Thank goodness my husband is retired and likes to do laundry and clean the kitchen floor!  He also loves the grocery store and goes about 3 times a week (he's from Manhattan so he was accustomed to grocery shopping every day or so there).  I'm in charge of the Big Box stores.

This past weekend I did take some "personal" time and go to the HD transmission of Cosi Fan Tutte from the Metropolitan Opera at my local movie theater.  It was a wonderful way to spend Saturday afternoon.  What a bargain for those of us who can't get to New York and see "the real thing"--and at a much reduced price.  In Vero the HD transmissions cost $25.  What a deal!

 So Saturday was my fun day and Sunday was my nose to the grindstone day.  First I had to start out reading the local mullet wrapper (what we fondly call the VB Press Journal--in case you wonder, mullet are trash fish, so something wrapping it is even lower than trash!!!).  Then I moved on to the NY Times.  After that I reminded myself that I had to do the week's sales, doing the bookkeeping and then producing the deposit.  I then did the recording in Quick Books.  I also realized that I hadn't done the quarterly reports for the 2014 first quarter.  That includes a report to the federal government of Needle Nicely's payroll, but it also entails doing what Florida calls the "Reemployment report".  That's unemployment by anyone else's name.  Sadly, governments have gone to the computer for their reports, but they neglect to send email reminders.  It used to be that your memory was nudged by receiving the paperwork in the mail.  That doesn't happen anymore and we're on our own.  I'm sure large businesses use large accounting firms to take care of details like that, but Needle Nicely is so small that I'm the accounting firm--on one of my Sundays "off". And I have to rely on my now somewhat suspect memory to remind myself of when the reports are due.  Like, you can't schedule a sales tax payment online if there is an intervening weekend--that is, if the tax is due on Monday, you must arrange to pay on the previous Friday, it can't be done on Saturday or Sunday to be withdrawn on Monday.  Sure, I'm right on it!!  I've tried leaving notes to remind myself, but they always manage to get buried.  My smart phone is almost pristine in that I have had it a year and have yet to install an app, so there's no reason for me to put something on a calendar there.