MIA

I've been missing in action. I think I burned through another monitor. I've borrowed Janett's laptop til I can get to BestBuy. I worked til 11PM Tuesday and went to bed early last night, but tonight I felt I was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms and some kind of isolation syndrome. I'll probably post a comment on everyone's blog tonight just because I Can.

I talked to Jose today. I haven't been able to get the bookkeeping thing on track due to my temp job. He's OK about that though because he's getting fired up for a big tax season. He asked today if Janett would like to get involved. I told him that the year I ran the tax service in Huntley, Janett was receptionist/office manager and did some returns too. He was happy to hear that. I told him maybe we'd be able to get together with Janett on Saturday to sound her out.

Speaking of Janett, she ran over to pick up Kim today and they came back to Elgin where Kim could vote. She hadn't registered in her new home town yet. Last week there was some intra-familial tension over our daughters favoring McCain and Janett favoring Obama. Our daughters are not really one issue voters - well, yes, I guess they are. I heard today that there are a million abortions a year in the US. (I guess that's about the rate at which Hitler was exterminating people in the camps.) So at least the girls won't have to feign ignorance when they stand before their Creator on judgement day.

I've shared with them my opinion that the Republicans cynically use the abortion issue to lock up Catholics and other Christian voters, and the last thing Bush or McCain really want is another million welfare babies on the rolls each year, and that the Republicans' idea of a conservative supreme court justice is one who protects the wealthy and powerful, and unborn babies need not apply. But the girl's have made a commitment that the blood of those innocents will not be on their heads, and I guess, even if it's just lip service, the Republicans are keeping the debate alive.

I guess it's kind of like me voting for Nader in previous elections.

Help!

My life is unharmonious at this time. Perhaps that's because I lack the energy or discipline to put things in order. I had a couple of future contracts expire out of the money last week. And I haven't opened up new positions. I figured the market was going to 8000 and now that it's there, even though the bad news continues to come out, and we haven't really had a selling panic to mark the bottom, something tells me the Dow's going to run up a couple thousand pretty quick . But I'd hate to go long and watch the index drop a couple thousand more instead.

Janett's still not doing all that well. She's fatigued and doesn't spring back after a couple days' rest. Maybe she has a cold coming on. Did you hear about her asking the landlord this week about the heat in the apartment? He said the thermostat in is the vacant first floor unit, and since the electricity was shut off, it's probably not working. Hmmm, Do you think maybe we should do something about that?

Mally's birthaday was celebrated yesterday. Steffy posted a couple pictures of her beautiful boys. Maybe there's more to come. If you go to her site to check them out, Owen doesn't really look like that. He's dressed in his Chew Baca outfit.

I'm still moving forward on the bookkeeping thing. Bad time to start a small business serving other small businesses. I mentioned to Jose, maybe we could offer a little bankruptcy filing service.

Getting back in the groove?

Posting 2 days in a row. How about it?

My temp assignment is dragging on. The plant is finished, up and running, all but a half dozen invoices have been received and paid. But the client isn't indicating I'll be released soon. I know there's more to be done, like reclassing the construction in process to assets placed in service and closing out the CIP account, but I think they're really keeping me around to deal with the auditors who will definitely scrutinize the project files.

And the corporate engineer, in a teleconference today, after confirming we'd committed all but a hundred thousand dollars on a 35 million dollar project, started talking about a few nice to have things that would run another half million. I've been worrying about coming in under budget (very important in these days of financial stress), and I got the feeling he can simply ask for another half million if he wants to.

Then this evening I met with my new neighbor, Jose Ramirez. Jose doesn't live next door. He's rented a little commercial space next door for his tax service. Our landlord told him that I'm an accountant and Jose would like to expand his tax service to include a bookkeeping service, so we're talking about me helping him out with that. I like the idea working part time getting a bookkeeping service going to supplement my retirement income, and I like Jose.

Last weekend Janett and I promised we'd make no plans for this weekend, and she could relax and not entertain. There's no Notre Dame game this week-end , which would normally be a social occasion for me, so maybe I'll have some time to investigate how to open up a bookkeeping service. We'll see what happens.

And here's another picture from last Sunday's walk in the park:

Love

Boy, oh boy, oh boy

Wow, it's been like a month since I posted anything. I should apologize to friends and family who occasionally drop by to see if I'm OK. Well, I guess I'm OK. About three weeks ago I was unsettled by Janett's health problems. A couple visits to the emergency room and an appointment with a new doctor seems to have gotten us through that crisis, but the stress and concern was fatiguing.
But I don't think that really kept me from posting. I think it's that feeling that people have described after having when involved in a major disaster, how time seems to stand still and you can look around at the horror filled expressions on peoples faces and hear crashing, tearing sounds and feel jolted and being tossed around, all in an instant that lasts a long time.
I think that's where I've been stuck for a month with the economic train wreck occurring.
But nice things always happen to me in the personal world. My birthday was the 28th and Janett and I went to Louie's for lunch and cake. Janett had prepared a nacho dish and it was good, but she was still in a lot of pain, and fearing she was going to run out of pain medication before she got in to see her new doctor she was self medicating with Miller Genuine Draft. So it was weird. Me, I'm kind of a celebratory drinker. If nothing else we can celebrate that we're having a drink. So Janett's drinking intently, purposefully seemed kind of like watching somebody cheat at crouquet. But anyway we put off the family celebration until this past Friday when Noah and Lauren were going to be in town. It was a family party, and very nice. Ross and Kim were there and Jase and Dee with Joey. Noah and Lauren, of course, and Steffy with her boys, and Mark showed up a little later. Janett ordered a bunch of Chinese food which we all enjoyed and there was a sufficient surplus that Janett was able to put leftovers in bags for people to take home.She also made a triple fudge layer cake and found chocolate mint meltaway ice cream at the store. Yumm.
Then Louie and Julie came over to watch ND lose to NC on Saturday. Too bad, but giving up 5 turnovers makes winning tough - and after last year, losing football games doesn't sting as much as it used to. Besides we're playing a lot of freshman and sophomores who are doing well, so there's real hope for the future.
Then on Sunday we drove down the river to Fabyan park in Batavia and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon walking around and taking pictures, like this one.

Love