2008 Income Taxes: Better Than Expected

Val and I trundled off to our tax preparer to get our 2008 income taxes done Monday, and the results were much better this year than last year.
We will be receiving a pretty decent federal income tax refund, as well as a not-so-shabby New York State income tax refund, a much higher total than last year, when we paid a small amount of federal tax and received a decent state income tax refund.
Very simply put, we spent less from areas that would have generated taxes, adjusted other areas of income and outcome and adapted to new laws and regulations. I also believe that we do a better job of keeping track of and documenting financial activities than we used to do.
Coming home to watch the Sabres lose to New Jersey and then watch North Carolina trounce Michigan State did not reduce our fiscal Snoopy dancing.