We are in the final phases of selling my father-in-law's business - well, at least his inventory, customer list and business name.

Or so we thought...

We received a low but acceptable bid for said items and all was going smoothly...until The Lawyers got involved.

Seems that due to being DEAD and all, John never filed his Annual Report with the state along with the annual $100 filing fee. That means the corporation is not "in good standing" and the buyer won't sign on the dotted line until it is. So...I've spent all morning tracking down accountants, forms, and most annoying of all was constantly getting a busy signal when calling the Secretary of State's office in Springfield, IL>

I might be able to get this filing wrapped up by the end of the week but then its hold-our-breath time to see how long it takes the state to process everything and change the corporate status.

I hope we can get it wrapped up pronto as we want to be out of the rented warehouse space by the end of the month so we can turn the space over to the landlord and not have to pay rent for it anymore.

I've been feeling agitated, anxious, cranky, and tired lately.

Even an all-out 3.5 hour "spa day" on Wednesday(1 hr facial, 1 hr Swedish massage, manicure/pedicure) didn't seem to knock this cloudiness out of my system.

I woke up today feeling exhausted, even though I got 8 hours...

So I remembered that I HAD resolved to get back into regular Yoga practice again. I had let it slide much of the summer and boy, have I lost alot of flexibility. So I popped in my fave Rodney Yee power yoga DVD and today I did the "Power Yoga for Flexibilty" workout.

I am WIPED OUT from it. It was so intense, both phsycally and mentally, and now I feel ready for a nap but I have to pick up kiddo from the bus stop in 45 minutes so I'll just go take a bath for a few minutes to continue to unwind and to clean away the sweat I worked up duroing the workout!

 

During Sunday evening's Mass, our priest noted in his homily that he felt that oftentimes certain luxury car drivers have a tendency to think they own the road...it was not a political statement as much as a Seinfeld-esque observational opening to the point of his message.

Anyway...

I have been obsessing about cars lately and the good Father's story made me think: WWJD? What Would Jesus Drive?

After much pontification, I came up with two vibrant vehicular images of my Lord and Savior:

The most obvious is as a humble, scruffy guy on a rusty mountain bike in teva sandals, hair blowing in the breeze (why would HE need a helmet?!?!)

But somehow I'm more drawn to image #2: Him  totally owning the road and showing those Pharisees who is Boss in a SWEEEEEEEEET muscle car: the 1969 Pontiac GTO aptly named "The Judge"!!!!!




Two weeks ago, while on my way to CONFESSION, I was graced with the pleasure of driving alongside a convertible version of the above machine and although the paint appeared to be fading, the unmistakable "The Judge" decal badge was still prominently displayed. I took it as a witty and ironic joke between me and the Big JC.

Yesterday I opened my local weekly newspaper only to learn that next Wednesday, a national tour of garage/mod/60's revivial/oldies bands is playing at a venue out here in the burbs that is about 5 minutes from my home.

Although I truly dig a multitude of music genres, the whole paisely underground(80's and 90's) and "real" 60's garage/pop are among some of my favorites - my record collection is a testament in vinyl to my devotion.

Back-in-the-day (late 80's, early 90's), I used to dress up with a flip hairdo, big false eyelashes and winged black eyeliner, a cute paisely shift dress or hot a-line miniskirt, fishnets and vintage go-go boots and head to whatever venue was hosting a show that somehow incorporated farfisa organ, voxx guitar, and Brian Jones haircuts on the band members. In 2003 I  revived my go-go girl look and checked out the Mod Chicago celebration at the Empty Bottle and was thrilled that I still fit into one of my miniskirts!

After consulting my calendar, I solidified plans to head to the show next week. Then I began doing a bit of internet research and made some more startling, thrilling, and giggle-inspiring discoveries including the following:

-one of the deacons at my church is/was a founding member of a nationally-known Chicago 60's garage/pop band and he still plays in a revival version of the group (I KNEW my Church was cool!) Now I understand why this guy looking down at me from  the altar has a Brian Jones hairdo!

- a garage revival band I saw and enjoyed many years ago is still kicking around in their homebase of Springfield, MO. Better yet, I found the myspace page for this cute guy who played tambourine with them at that show...a guy i shared an innocent smooch with at an after-party. After reading his blog, I surmised that he is totally NUTS. Eeek! Well at least he's still pretty cute...

Now I'm heading into the attic to dig up some kind of groovy togs that will still cover my 30-something suburban mom ass!

 

 

 

Well...I lost the ebay auction for the black boots HOWEVER...

I totally scored some awesome items (at bargain prices!) for fall at my new favorite store: Burlington Coat Factory. It used to be an awful, cheesy store with terrible policies( no returns, awful dressing rooms, etc.) and then last year they did a total remodel of the store, brought in a new manager (and apparently new buyers) and now the store is gorgeous, clean, organized, has normal returns, decent dressing rooms, and AMAZING selection of better department store (Macy's Bloomingdales, etc.) type of merchandise - not to mention their prices just cannot be beat.

Examples:

First bargain of the day was a super-soft chocolate brown cashmere v-neck sweater (something that was on my radar for a few weeks as brown is my new fave color!) for $24.99!

I then snagged an adorable and flattering fitted dark brown cord jacket (blazer?) to pop on over tanks, tees, etc. as a dressier option to a cardigan. Its the first jacket I've found that fit really well - most are too wide in the shoulder or too long in the sleeve. It was reduced to a mere $12.99.

To my shopping bag, I added some kickass-cool costume jewlery: (again, all brands/quality that you see at dept. stores) some cute silvertone dangly earrings for $3.99, awesome multi-hued (bronze, teal, gold) stretchy beaded bracelets for 4.99 for a dozen, and a pretty glass bead multistrand necklace in teal and brown and matching earrings for $7.99.

Then I also picked up a cute below-the-knee tiered/full/prairie-style soft babywhale corduroy skirt in a luscious teal color for $9.99. I matched it up with a sleeveless brown ribbed turtleneck top for $12.99 and even got a purse to match.

This is the best of the bunch: a medium-size, teal with sliver hardware structured hobo/half-moon shape bag made of good leather (NOT pleather!) that had the original tags on it for $125.00 - I paid $14.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently it was last year's model but WHO CARES! It is a great fall style and I dig that its not black but something more unique. I think the teal looks so gorgeous with brown - thus it will hook up well with my new sweater, jacket, etc.

CHOCOLATE BROWN seems to be a dominant theme for my closet for Fall '06...well now I know I made the right choice when I ordered some water-resistant perfect-for-Chicago-weather dark brown scrunch boots from, of all places, QVC. I happened to see these when I was channel surfing and I swear I NEVER order crap on TV but somehow these spoke to me. I just got them, slipped em' on  and WOW - they are comfortable AND totally hook up with my new outfits for fall. Check it out:

I must confess I spent too much of my weekend scanning Ebay listings for women's boots: specifically size 8.5,  black, leather (no vinyl for me!), mid-heel, mid-calf style. Not a square toe, not too pointy, not a super-blocky heel nor stiletto nor wedge. I have been searching for the *perfect* all-occassion (cropped pants, jeans, skirts) black boot for a few seasons to no avail. Finally last night i put in a bid in for what could be the light at the end of my footwear tunnel. In 1 day and 5hours I will know for sure...

 

    I am FINALLY taking a breather to sit and read my email, blog, etc.

I spent most of the day at my father-in-law's clearing out closets and packing up items in good shape to be donated. I took the Van down to his place with the intent of packing it with boxes and bags of items to drop off at a donation truck near our house. However, after hefting some 25 large bags of trash into the garbage chute at his building my back was crying out for mercy adn I left all the donate-ables boxed up for another time. Which will probably be this weekend, I guess...

All I know is that my family and I aren't planning anything "fun" except perhaps one night 's dinner at a cheap diner or something for a break in the action. We have to re-org our garage (ugh!) in order to accomodate tools and supplies that hubby is moving here from his dad's. Lots more moving, cleaning, more moving and more cleaning. I can't wait until things are finnaly in shape to get his condo on the market and get that chapter closed.

I plan on a weekend filled with ibuprofen, cheap wine, and a Homedics back massage mat/heating pad!

I know its not September yet, but my daughter had her first week of FIRST GRADE this past week! I know I was more nervous than she was! But it seems as if she is settling into the routine of all-day school, although no homework has been assigned yet so I'll be curious to see how that goes.

I spent my 2 days post-vacation/pre-school, cleaning and setting up a nice, organized, well-lit "homework space" for her to use - its my old desk in our basement home office. I cleared out two drawers, cleared off all bills and papers from the top and made room on the built-in bookshelf for her dictionary, atlas, encyclopedia, etc.

Despite her being out of the house all day, I find myself running short on time to complete the various home improvement projects, shopping chores, and workout routines I planned for my "alone time". Clearly I will have to scale back on these plans.

Beginning in September, I plunk some training sessions into my evening schedule. I am signed up to be a "greeter" (not much to learn, just some "house rules", etc.) at Church, which should be fun and pretty easy. The more intensive "training" is actually for the process of becoming an extraordinary minister/eucharistic minister in the Ministry of Care. This means that I'll be taking Holy Communion to the sick/homebound, and to those in nursing homes and hospitals. The Ministry of Care training is organized by the Archdiocese but luckily they are holding the sessions at our Parish this year, likely because we have the facilities to host such an event series.

I'm still happily surprised that I find myself drawn to this ministry. I knew it was for me when over the past few years, I have found great solace in receiving communion at the hospital during my various unfortunate stays there. All of the volunteers from  other parishes that ministered to me were so incredibly warm, caring, and kind. I really do believe those experiences aided my healing process. Since I am comfortable with the elderly, sick, handicapped, (I used to work in a nursing home - one of the best jobs I ever had!) I think I'm a good match for this volunteer opportunity. My only worry is driving around with "Jesus" (consecrated host) in the car! Do I put a seatbelt on the host container?!?!?! Lord knows I won't be hauling the host around in my rockin' van!!!! heheheheh.

 

 

 

In case you were wondering...

I've been on vacation in beautiful Brigantine, NJ since the 5th. Will be returning next week. Wish you were here :)

 

 

Since the passing of my father-in-law in June, our household has gotten larger - not merely with our new fab-u-maxi-van, but also thanks to our adoption of a darling almost-three-year old Scottish Terrier named Megan. Megan was my dad-in-law's dog, and as such she had to endure the horrible situation of her master dead on the floor, no food or person to walk her for days until his body was found. She was, to be honest, a basket case when we got her. I wasn't sure how we'd manage - she was peeing and pooping all over our house, then our beagle, Annie, was ALSO peeing and pooping all over in protest and our cats were terrified.

But I worked with Meg to figure our what "schedule" she was used to for being walked. We did one night of crate-training and then moved to quasi-crating which is basically keeping her in my bedroom with me all night, and she barks to wake me up to go out. At first it was tough - she was used to living with a senior citizen and thus was demanding to be walked at 6am, whcih is probably a few hours after he was awake anyway! Now, we have come to a more civilized compromise of both doggies cheerfully (and "successfuly" - i.e. they pee and poop all in the same trip!) being escorted on leash and harness at 8am and then another few trips in afternoon and evening.

She has calmed considerably and I have even taught her some manners and "house rules". Unlike Annie who is calm but enjoys her treats and cuddles, Megan loves playing fetch with squeaky toys and tennis balls but doesn't care to sit on a lap. I splurged and got her the "As Seen On TV" Doggie Steps so that she can scramble up into bed with me when she wants to - otherwise she sleeps on the floor next to my side of the bed. Luckily she was used to going to the groomer and so  her most recent trip for a proper Scottie cut garnered rave reviews from the grooming technicians who noted how beautifully behaved she was.

She is sitting here at my feet as I type late tonight - she refuses to go to bed with out me.

Without further adieu, here are our sweet "girls", Annie and Megan: