So worth waiting for...

My new office space rocks. We have a finished attic and it has been for 5 years H and I's office space, my sewing and craft area and random dumping ground. It has no closet space nor storage space - it was one large room! H and I filled it with random bits of cast off furniture and boxes and piles and more piles. Every so often we would get on a freaky cleaning binge and try to create some order - but with no where to actually store anything or put it away, it was a pointless struggle.

Ah - enter California Closets. I actually called 3 such companies and they won my business with their down to earth sales rep and their quality yet affordable product. Today the guys were here for a long long time - but I am so happy with their efforts. I have a corner desk unit, L has her very own craft desk, I have a craft/sewing desk and H has built in book shelfs and a cabinet!

We are missing three drawers for L's craft station which will come next week, but all in all it is beautiful and I am going to thoughtfully move my stuff back and restock.

We are selling the hodgepodge of furniture and on the other side of the room, we plan to create a nice reading nook and sitting area, an adult space. It is exciting, after 5 years we bit the bullet and now have a space that is bright, inviting and hopefully organized!

One must work...

very hard sometimes to get what is due them... I had my court date in smalls claims court. I did elect to sue my former client who skipped out and did not pay me. She failed to show up and well so did the magistrate. I guess he had bigger fish to fry - but I get my default judgment! Well half of it. The clerk of courts did not process the mail correctly so I will have to go back to get my judgment against the editor personally. Yipee. Either way I am not sure I have enough info about her or her banking to actually collect - but I will have the judgment - so it gives me some options.

Some random observations:

* getting the judgment does not actually get me anything. It gets me a piece of paper that I can take to the 3rd floor clerks office to get yet more paper - that I have to fill out and pay to have served or mailed or looked at. Then maybe I will get someone's attention. What I get is more work and still no pay!

* I was way way over dressed for my court appearance. I thought it was something serious - so I dressed in a nice summer black pants suit, a lovely tuxedo red blouse. - and for those interested in my shoes - I wore black platform sandals - they did not exactly match the outfit and I have some better shoes for the outfit - but they make me feel fierce and well I wanted put my best foot forward - not that it mattered! No one but me really showed up for today's little party. Next time maybe I will go for the gangsta chic that seemed to be the dress code of the day today. Maybe low hanging jean shorts and boxer brief peak a boos! Or wait - the white tub top minus a bra and a skirt so short as to show off the young ladies who-haw!

There was a time when one dressed up for events such as this! It is a matter of respect and well self respect I would humbly submit!

* When I arrived in the waiting area - there were at three dozen people there. Then at 12:45 pm - a woman called out that any one there to get their driving privileges reinstated - to follow her - everyone but me got up and followed her. May I say never in my life have I longed for more public transit options. Seriously 3 dozen people... some of whom I can see why driving might not be such a good idea.

At a minimum it highlights the need for more drivers ed and more frequent refresher courses I think. H has to do flight training every 6 months and there is way less traffic in the air than on our streets and freeways.

* I will go to court again and see this thru becasue it is the right thing to do. She owes me money for work I did and I cannot believe that the court screwed it up - by not following their own protocols - but I will carry on - I might get lucky and get my money before my kids go to college.

I need to try and do some more investigation to find out more about her... I am just not sure how. The phone number I have is dead. The email is dead and well her business filings with the State leave a bit to be desired.

No more funds...

Last month, the school board agreed to pay the superintendent an additional $1,800 a month for rent and utilities until his house in Chagrin Falls is sold. When Axner took over the position a year ago, he moved into an apartment in Dublin and his family stayed in Chagrin Falls so his son could complete his senior year. He spent weekdays here and tried to get home most weekends.

He put his home up for sale five months ago but it has not sold, board president Gwen Callender said. Axner moved his family into a rented home in Dublin two weeks ago and hopes to buy a house here once his Chagrin Falls home sells.

Kalson said everybody is "tightening their belts" in today's economy and she has a problem with the additional compensation. While she appreciates the $5.5-million in budget cuts Axner and district treasurer Steve Osborne found and the board approved, they included the elimination of elementary school library aides.

The $21,600 the board will pay Axner over the next year would pay for one aide, she told the board.

That is misleading, Callender said, because once the house sells the additional compensation stops.

After hearing from Kalson the board stands behind its decision, Callender said.

Nothing in Axner's contract required him to move here or move his family here, she said. The board recently gave Axner a near perfect evaluation, despite his commutes to see his family, "and we expect him to be even more effective as a leader now that he's moved them here É

"We will now have him down here full-time É which is a huge benefit for us," she said. The board plans to revisit the additional compensation issue next May if the house still has not sold.

(Read the full article here!)

Then a mere few weeks later the school board decides to discuss and vote to put a levy and bond issue on the November ballot. (full story here!)

Then I read the lengths some school distracts are going to to save money. (story here)

*****

Are you kidding me? The superintendent should have to pay his own living costs. I can see making the deal to let his child finish his senior year of high school - but it was HIS choice to take a new job and WHO I ask is going to foot the cost of living increases all of us face. Groceries are more expensive, gas prices thru the roof, goods are costing more thanks to a weak dollar!

Why should I have to pay the superintendent's housing costs and pay for his 3% wage increase. Excuse me - but times are tough and he should have to eat it in his pocket book like everyone else. H is a pilot and I betcha when contract talks come around - the company will be looking for concessions again.

I plan to vote no on the levy - becasue I just do not think that the board has the best interests of the community at heart and I think it takes alot of nerve to come to us - asking for yet more money when they are willing to just give in and pay the superintendent more money. I am sorry his house has not sold - but that is a fact of life - sometimes things just do not work out as planned. If his contract stipulated that he had to move to Dublin - they maybe - but it does not - so he made this choice of his own free will and it should be on his own dime!

I moved here for good schools and they are great schools - but I also expect the school board to make solid business decisions and coming to voters asking for money in a down economic climate is irresponsible and unreasonable. Giving the superintendent a 3% raise and a cushy housing allowance when the rest of us are counting our pennies and tightening our belts is JUST WRONG.

While I do not want to see the students in this distract using old and out dated materials and not having enough enrichment activities - I think that some belt tightening would not hurt. Beside the levy and bond issue are all for the building of more classrooms and improvements to existing buildings. While this might impact the students down the road and I am sure the distract may at some point grow - growth in the next 5 years is not horribly likely with the downturn in the economy and the tightening of credit in the area of home mortgages.

I question the boards projections and I question their judgment asking us for these funds - becasue one thing is for sure - if funds are available they will spend it - as evidenced by their misguided decision to give the superintendent more money when in fact he does not deserve more money on top of his 3% raise. We should all be that lucky.

Heaven in a Pint

I think I am in love! Ice Cream, which seems to agree with me and which tastes very much like ice cream should. Goat's Milk. A local ice cream shop had some goat's milk ice cream which I tried and liked very much. Theirs was a bit tangier.

LaLoo's is perfect and creamy and sweet and just perfect with berries. I will admit that I miss cold and creamy things. I can stand my new eating regimen most of the time, but of late I have been craving smooth and creamy and sweet and something - anything to eat with my berries.

I tried making a panacotta type thing with Rice Milk. Um yeah - not so much. I think sometimes I just crave certain things and the alternative sometimes falls short.

I have tried their chocolate and well it was ok. This round I tried the vanilla snowflake and well - I am in love. It is absolutely perfect. I will admit to eating the pint in less than the 4 servings - but seriously - it has been years since I have had ice cream (aside from my taste test of the locally produced goat's milk ice cream.) I have been craving something and wow - I discovered this gem in the freezer case at Whole Foods.

If I were to have one wish - it would be that they tone down the sugar just a tad. As afore mentioned - when eats nothing sweetened with corn syrup - well most things taste uber sweet. This is just on the ok side of being too sweet.

"If only or could" or...

"better yet I could do it better than X." I heard this sort of sentiment routinely while working at Firm X during the tech boom. Everyone including the stray cat thought they could out fox Wall Street. If they could just get access to after hours trading, if they could just get access to more money to plow into tech stocks. If they could watch more CNBC.

Everyone fancied themselves as an investment whiz. Until the bubble burst and all these "daytraders" these tech geniuses lost the entire balance in their E*trade account if not their house. It did not matter if you were a well educated neurosurgeon or a hard working middle level manager or a factory worker - the market won and won big time.

Today I was reading the Wall Street Journal from this past weekend. There is an interesting article about "distressed debt" (Vulture Investors Won't Have It Easy.) I was shaking my head. First of all "distressed debt" is NOT an investment it is a gamble. It is speculation. It is not a vehicle for funding retirement.

I would submit that most of us do not have the excess capital nor the know how to play in this areana - nor should we.


Part of the problem with Wall Street is we as a society have lost focus. We are all about quick bucks and fast profits. There is no Investment anymore. No forethought. No thinking about what is best for everyone - and not just the the executive committee & shareholders (the largest ones anyway.)

The best way to be prepared for the future is to plan. To have a plan and stick to it. I am not saying park it all and let it ride - but I am saying that the time invested should be on careful forethought and careful planning. Chasing the next quick dollar sign is a race that I will gladly lose.

Just like with ingredients on the food label - if I cannot pronounce it - I will not eat it. With my investment decisions - if I cannot wrap my head around it - I will not buy it!