Mason's World

It's tax time in the United States. For me, it is a particularly confusing year. First off, I got married. I also bought a house. These are two things that greatly affect the taxes I will have to pay. 

The cool thing is that I bought my home in time to take advantage of a big tax credit offered by the government. I will get some money back. But it is still very complicated. I use software to help simplify the process, but some people use special accountants to do the work for them.

I really have no idea what taxes are like in other countries. I know that Canada has a very high tax rate, but those taxes go to fund lots of free or cheap social services like health care or college. But what about where you live? What are taxes like there?

I missed the last month's video session because I was in Europe for my honeymoon. I know I asked you guys for advice a while ago on where we should go (Thanks, by the way). We ended up going to London, UK, and to a few places in southern Croatia

We were gone for a full 2 weeks - not including the days we had to fly. Of course, you can never have too much time on vacation, but it was a nice amount of time. We spent 4 days in London and the rest in Croatia.  In London, we saw lots of the famous sights: Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Globe Theater and the British Museum. We also went to the National Library.

Now, I know it might not sound super fun to go hang out at a library (but it should), this library is more like a museum. They have some amazing historical things, like the Magna Carta, the original art woodcuts from "Alice in Wonderland," sheetmusic Mozart wrote... it just keeps going.

What's the coolest thing you've seen while travelling?

After months of planning, the wedding is finally over. There was a lot of panic in the last few weeks - mostly from my now wife. It's still weird to call her "wife" - that'll take a bit to get used to. You might remember her from her short roll on the Ebaby! soap opera as John's ex-girlfriend Kathy. 

The wedding ceremony itself was fantastic. We didn't get married by a priest or a judge - instead we got married by our best friend. He got ordained by the Universal Life Church, so I guess he technically is a minister now. All I know is that the great state of Oregon recognizes it as legal, which is all I care about.

Because we did not do a traditional ceremony, our parents were originally concerned that we were turning the wedding into a joke. Well, we did laugh a lot at the wedding - but in a good way. Many of our friends came up to us during the reception party and said it was the most fun and beautiful wedding they had ever been to. And all our parents admitted they had nothing to worry about.

In your country, do parents usually plan the wedding or do the bride and groom plan it? How long does a wedding usually go (our ceremony was about 30 minutes)? What other traditions do you follow?