Time Disappears So Easily!

I started out this morning with lots of time, but now I'm rather tight on it, so this might be a short post today. We'll see how my thoughts and fingers roam. 

A roaming mind is a terrible thing to 
waste - LOL. 

Yesterday actually turned into a very busy and accomplishment-heavy day. I made my tomato and pepper soup - it turned out REALLY tasty. It's in the refrigerator now ready to feed me for the next week. I also roasted the large squash I hadn't gotten around to cooking yet. It also turned out really good. It'll be an red-orange week between the squash and the tomato and pepper soup. 

I had a large butternut squash from last week's 
shop waiting for me to have time to cube and 
cook it. Yesterday was The Day and it turned out 
beautifully, as expected. It's hard to beat a good 
recipe, and one that's easy and quick in addition 
is only on the plus side. 

The appointment at the accountant (for the business income tax return) was all of ten minutes and we were back out and on our way home. Our personal taxes, which won't be as easy, will still have to be scheduled. We haven't received all of the statements, etc yet, so that one always gets pushed a bit. Plus, I know DH will want to talk with Paul about retirement income distributions, etc. 

I generally do three loads on Wednesday and one 
on Sunday, but added bedding to my loads 
yesterday. I don't have to wash my comforter 
often, but felt it needed a bit of TLC. 

I actually managed to get FOUR loads of laundry done yesterday instead of my usual three. I decided to start my day by washing the comforter I use on my "bed". It's been a while and I was sure it could use a good wash. It turned out beautifully, and was back on my "bed" in time for last night's sleep. In fact, my scheduling yesterday worked out well for everything, although I'm not quite finished with the reweave repair. Oh, the necklace restring repairs are 50% done, and will be complete by the end of today. I restrung the longer strand on Tuesday, but needed to double my thread thickness, so I had to pre-stretch another two lengths of silk for the second piece. I should be able to get to that today, if we're not super busy. 

By the end of the week I should have my two repairs 
completed. That'll be a wonderful thing because I don't 
like falling too far behind on things like that. 

So, by Friday I should (under ideal conditions) have all of my pending repairs completed. Then I can get back to other tasks once again. It's always fun for me to pick up a needle and thread to work with beads, though, and now that I had my cataract surgery, my vision is up to the task once again. WHOOT! 

Sometimes it seems as if we are drowning in quicksand. 
It's hard to get out, but it can be done. I find that sharing 
things through my blog helps me quite a bit, and reaching 
out to friends online also helps me pull myself out of 
sticky situations. May you have an un-sticky day today! 

I'm off to the swimming pool for my final swim of the week. This week's swims have been harder, for some unknown reason. I can't quite figure out why, but that's a fact. I'm not super happy about that, but I know that's not unusual. Maybe because I haven't been able to lose myself in my current audio book. I'm working my way down a long series and this particular volume is a bit "meh". Still, I'm in the pool, I'm getting in my laps, I'm seeing my friends, and it's actually a really good thing. So ... no complaints allowed - LOL. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

A Storm is Coming - Are You Ready?

As soon as I get into the shop and type a shipping label for the Federal tax forms, I'm done with that task. It's been the usual nightmare, but we pulled through. This is all of the end-of-year payroll numbers and forms that have to go to the government as well as the individual forms for each employee so that they can file their own income tax returns whenever they get around to ti. So they're rather important, and there's a time deadline of the end of the month according to Federal law. 

There are so many taxes to be dealing with, and payroll 
taxes are just one type. However, it's an important one, 
and can't be messed up, so we double and triple check 
everything. 

I haven't listened to the news today, nor have I paid attention to my phone for anything more than my daily morning meditation and routine, so I don't know for sure. But, I make an assumption that Trump won in the New Hampshire primary last night. I'm resigned to four more years of this geriatric blow-hard, but the thing that worries me is that he sees himself more as a Dictator than as a President. In that case, he might try and emulate Putin to become the "Great Leader for Life" - an essence totally opposed in any democracy. It's worrisome, but there's nothing that I as one individual vote can do about it. 

I never had any great desire to live in "interesting" times. I 
wanted to float below the radar and just live my life to 
the best of my ability, creating small ripples in a very large 
pond. But, despite my best intentions, I am living in VERY 
interesting times, and am finding it very uncomfortable. 

So, that old Chinese curse of  "May you live in interesting times" may well be coming true in the USA over the next few years, and I'll be missing my peace and tranquility. The only question is how will DH and I be doing in four years - well, five years actually?  We'll be in our 70's, and DH doesn't do well with change. He's a Republican, but despises Trump and refuses to vote for him (thank goodness). 

All I ever wanted was to live in peace and 
tranquility. Instead, I've lived in a world of 
war and war and more war, and now we're 
one small step away from fighting in the 
streets. I'm grateful I was adamant about not 
having children. I wouldn't want kids of mine 
born into this world. 

The people I feel sorriest for are the younger people in my country. They'll have to live through this upheaval, and it may well turn out to be the crux of the US Revolution or the US equivalent of Hitler's rise to power. It could be VERY bad, yeah. VERY bad indeed. Between all of those headaches, we're also focused on getting the store closed. We're not in total agreement about how to accomplish that either. It's going to be a VERY interesting year in many ways, and I think I'll be glad to see the end of it when we get to December 31st. 

May we all have our own peace amid the storm that 
is coming. 

However, today I'm off to the pool. I need to work out some of this angst in some serious laps. Have an excellent day. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

A Deal on My State Fair Tickets and A Topsy-Turvey Schedule Because of Thanksgiving

It's crunch time - the clock is running fast. Our annual After-Thanksgiving 2-Day Sale starts on Friday, and then we're totally into Holiday mode - my favorite and least favorite time of the year. Maybe I'll love the holidays once more after I'm not working retail, but right now, it's a definite love/hate relationship. I rely on the customers and their dollars over the Holiday season, but I dislike working the extra hours and days, and I get totally blown out by January 1st. 

The MN State Fair doesn't take place until the end of August, 
beginning of September. Why am I thinking about it so 
early? Well, getting a good deal on the admission tickets 
is one good reason, and the fact that I'm addicted to the 
State Fair is another - LOL. 

Chickie texted me yesterday - the MN State Fair had a one-day early ticket blow-out opportunity - the first time the 2024 tickets were available for sale, and at a great price. The page loaded at midnight, and I had my nine tickets purchased by 3:00 am. I'm totally set for the 2023 State Fair now, so Sharon ... start looking for good flights out - LOL. 

Generally, especially if you catch them early in 
the morning, the staff at the MN Department of 
Revenue are very pleasant and happy to help. 
It should be a relatively easy fix, I just need 
to know how to go about it. 

I need to contact the MN Department of Revenue when I get into the shop today. My brain was dead when I paid the sales tax for last month, and I paid it on ALL sales instead of just the taxable sales. That's a serious OOPS, and I'll need to file an amended return. I've never had to do that before, so I'll call them first thing this morning (they open at 7:30 am) and have them talk me through it. DH couldn't figure out why the amount was higher, and I missed that little detail completely. That's why he's the finance guy. But then he got all upset and angry - it was a simple mistake and could have happened to anyone. Well, I'll get it cleared up before we open today, and hopefully things will go smoothly from then on. 

NOT my grocery store, but rather typical of the end sections 
at any grocery store at this time of the year. Turkey is the 
#1 meat of choice on Thanksgiving, followed by ham. For 
Easter, it's reversed. We don't do an Easter ham (I don't 
think we do any specific meal for Easter Sunday), but we 
do always have a turkey for Thanksgiving. My bird is 
taking up a LOT of my refrigerator space, but only for 
a couple more days. 

I won't be posting on Thursday, but I will be grocery shopping on Wednesday (as usual), unfortunately. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day is usually a nightmare shopping day for groceries, but I have things like salad that absolutely can't be purchased too far ahead of time. Lettuce doesn't have a long shelf life. I think I'll be OK on Ogre Juice. Since I have to work on Friday this week, I made extra so I should be set (crossing my fingers). 

I shifted my schedule a bit and went to the pool yesterday. 
I'm ready to hit the water again in an hour or so right now, 
and I'll swim tomorrow. At least I'll get my three days in 
the water, despite the holiday and my lack of a second 
day off this week. 

Chickie has today off because she worked on her day off last week while I was dealing with computer issues. So it's DH and I again today - never the smoothest arrangement, but the only choice we have with a three-person staff. When one person needs time off, the other two pitch in. I hope all of you have a terrific day, and I totally plan on being back to chat again tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Taxes Done, Everything Back in Place, Let's Wrap Up the Work Week

I was at the shop early, after shoveling 2 inches of snow off the driveway and sidewalks of the house. I carried in my standing Ott light, then brought in all of the paperwork, found a place to plug the light in, and started typing. It took most of the morning before I had enough acceptable typed sheets completed, proofread, separated and assembled. I then went home with a Priority Mail envelope to do a shipping label, dropped by the Post Office, and mailed the suckers. The government should have them by Monday, and either way, it will be postmarked with time to spare. Crisis averted once again. 

According to the SSA, the taxes are considered 
on time by the postmark. I shipped them Priority 
Mail anyway, and they should arrive at their 
location on Monday. 

I returned my Ott light to my crafting area where it resides and settled down for a nice lunch. I was in the mood for something a bit different, so decided to do a Mexican-based lunch of two Siete Almond Flour tortillas (my absolute favorite), a can of Siete refritos (refried beans) which are beautifully spiced and VERY tasty, half of a chicken breast shredded, shredded lettuce, some red sauce which was nice and spicy, and sliced black olives. An open-faced plate of deliciousness, and it was absolutely lovely! I wasn't finding my usual tea travel mug (I might have forgotten it at the shop), so I pulled my alternative travel mug from the cupboard for the day. I can't do without my tea - LOL. 

I adore my larger Ott light. It's certainly 
not as portable as the several fold-up models 
or the desk-lamp that I have on my computer 
desk, but the light is always superb and 
brilliant. Bringing it to the shop made all 
the difference. I'd probably STILL be there 
typing away if I hadn't brought it. 

I then caught up on some computer work, but I was exhausted, so sent DH a text that I was taking a nap, and I curled up with my blankets and pillow for an hour or so. I felt much better afterward, which makes sense since I operate on fumes more often than not. After my nap, DH suggested we start watching our "Vera" shows which I totally approved of. Great plan! 

We both love the show "Vera", and one of 
the best holiday gifts I got this year was 
Seasons 1-10 of the show. I'm looking forward  
to many wonderful nights watching them 
and catching up with the series. 

He got home late, but it was just fine. He brought me a lovely "Thank You" card and a carton of my Nada Moo frozen "iced cream" that I so love. He said he had wanted to buy me a single rose, but that they only had full dozens available and a dozen on our table is total overload (it isn't a large table). So we had a relaxing evening diving into Season 1, Episode 1 of "Vera". He bought seasons 1-10 for me as a holiday gift, so we have lots of watching ahead of us, since we both adore the show. 

All things worked out all right, although it was a 
bit dicey at times. Still, there's always more than one 
way to skin a cat, and the cat doesn't like any of them. 
Have a wonderful weekend! 

So, no immediate crisis hanging over my head today, what am I to do? LOL Well, I'm going to relax for another hour or so, then head over to the shop to work my Saturday, and then have a relaxed weekend with some (hopefully) good football games on Sunday. At least, that's the plan. I hope all of you also have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

It's always a downer when I can't sleep, and when both DH and I can't sleep, it can be a disaster. I awakened at 1:45 am this morning (that's 4-1/2 hours of sleep) and wasn't able to get back to anything close to good sleep until my alarm told me to get moving at 3:15 am. Yes - that's my normal wake-up time. I'm a 6-hour sleep person. But ... to not get too far off base ... 

I found this interesting. I've always been on the short
side of hours of sleep. I sleep almost 12 hours on
Saturday night into Sunday morning, and that makes up
for sleep lost during the work week. Supposedly
that's not good for me, but I've read things on
both sides of this. 

When I awakened at 1:45 am, I noticed the computer room had light coming from the door sill. That meant DH wasn't able to sleep, so he was up playing computer games - basically, "Lord of the Rings Online", our go-to game for almost twelve years now. When my alarm went off, he was still playing. In fact, he's still playing now. He knows it's worth his life to disturb me in the morning, so he's killing things and I'm writing and trying to catch up on emails. 

As we get older, the amount of sleep we need becomes
less. I'm not really sure why that is, but I'll take it. 

I'm not really sure what happened to the great "Tax Reform" crap that passed with such hoopla through Congress. I think some people got more money up front - saw more in their paychecks. That's great. But we're all feeling the other part of this now. Instead of getting something back from the government for Income Tax refunds, we're not seeing squat. We're caught up in this too. We're probably not going to get anything back this year. 

A lot of people count on their income tax refunds to pay for
little extras, or just give them a bit of financial cushion.
This year, those cushions may have been thrown out into
the trash. 

Originally our tax return (DH picked it up on the way to work yesterday) showed we were getting a refund. It was smaller than other years, but still existed. However, DH went through the return in detail, and found a major error that originated from our investment firm. He contacted them, they said "Oops!" and the correction will basically wipe out the refund and may even leave us owing. *sigh* Such is the stuff of nightmares, not dreams. 

Oops! Looks like we're caught, just like so many others. We
won't be getting a tax refund either - but this is because of
a mistake added to the new Federal Tax structure. Sucks! 

So on that note - sleepy and broke - I'm going to wrap this up, get pictures plugged in, and call it a day. The machines are calling me to the gym, so I might as well drown myself in exercise, sweat and music for an hour. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow! 

Webinair Report Card ... Meh

So, I had that Webinare about the new sales tax regulations yesterday. I logged on about five minutes before the hour, and even though I hadn't done one of these in years (if ever, I can't recall for sure - but I have done web classes, if that counts), I jumped through all of the appropriate hoops quickly. I was one of the few, however, so the presentation itself started almost 15 minutes late while the moderators waited for everyone to log in. Microphone questions were not allowed, but text questions could be asked. Out of more than 300 of us logged in, there was only a single question - "Will a transcript of the presentation be available afterward for us to download?". Good question. Short answer, "Yes". 

Sales tax - it's assessed on almost every purchase made in
the USA, but when you pay it as a shopper, you don't
think about it very much. As a vendor, the tables turn
and suddenly it looms large in your thoughts. 

I was looking for information on how to determine appropriate sales tax for my out-of-state mail order sales, as well as mail order sales to jurisdictions other than my own within my state. I had already phoned the Dept of Revenue last week for help with an in-state issue, but I do have customers in other states who order and now I need to charge them sales tax for their jurisdiction as well as file sales tax reports in their states. As a small business, this is a royal PITA! 

It's not good to piss off government, especially the
Department of Revenue. They can make your life
hellaceous. I don't want to anger them, I just
want to find out how to comply with the new law. 

Unfortunately, the only information really offered that addressed my out-of-state questions were to refer us to a specific location on the MN Revenue website that would help us with that specific issue. Whoopie! I think I could have figured that out with another phone call and/or a bit of clicking on their home page. 

The entire experience was meh. There was an hour
I spent on this that I can never get back, and I'm
not sure it was an hour worth taking. 

Brass tacks review - the experience was totally "Meh". Although there was some good information in there, it just didn't go into enough depth to really address my needs, so I probably could have avoided it completely. I did learn a couple of things, so it wasn't a complete waste of my time, but ... yeah ... my review wasn't glowing. I was honest in my review and said the presentation just didn't have enough depth, especially for a long-time business just needing guidance in an area that had never been necessary in the past. 

The newest world-wide update for LOTRO is Number 23 which went
live on Tuesday. "Where Dragons Dwell" challenges us with new
Dwarven lands and more beasties. Of course, dragons in Tolkien
are few, but we're beyond the book tale now and into new areas. 

As a balance for the sales tax ridiculousness, however, Aearwen and I had a totally delightful chat late in the afternoon. As usual, our topics bounced across the board, from family to "Lord of the Rings Online" and everything in between. As a quick note to her - DH realized that the Scroll of Delving I wanted to use was a level too low for that weapon. I'll use it on a different one. I sent a followup email to the Devs explaining that my issue had been self-resolved and thanking them for a great game which has kept me occupied for more than eleven years. 

And on this note, I'm wrapping up. It's cold today - in the mid-30's - so I grabbed my heavier leather coat from the closet last night. I'm not quite willing to grab the parka yet. Supposedly we'll have a late Indian Summer next week with some much higher temps. I'll believe it when I see it, but we'll have a lot of raking to do if that turns out to be the case. Have a great Thursday and do something wonderful for yourself today. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Knowledge - Is There Such a Thing As Too Much?

I have a Webinare on today's schedule - one dealing with the new sales tax laws. Oh joy! Still, I've already had to call the State Revenue department because of a sales tax question, so I'm hoping that spending an hour of time in this will make me more secure with the new sales tax laws. Frankly, I'd rather go to the dentist (and that's high on my ICK list) than deal with taxes of any kind, but as a businesswoman, I don't have a choice. 

I don't think today's Webinare is by these people, but the concept
is the same. It'll be a new experience for me. Too bad I can't use
my Bluetooth headphones for it - my main computer doesn't recognize
them. 

I've been looking through my store bookcases - my personal ones, not the "for sale" ones. There is no way I want to move all of the many volumes back home when I retire, and I shouldn't anyway. Aren't we supposed to be downsizing when we get older? Maybe if I had worked for another company, I'd only have a box to pack at my desk and then I'd be up, up and away. But no, I work for myself. I own and operate a store, and I have a backroom full of reference materials. When I finally retire, those materials have to go somewhere too. Home is not necessarily the answer. 

So many books are available in e-format now, but the reference
books I have are rare, sold-out, or were only in print for a short
time. They deal with specific beadwork stitches, history, trends
and historic use. It's a specialized audience, but there is an
audience out there for them. 

How do people who downsize manage it? We're both collectors - we have interests that are deep and varied, and we're asked to be knowledgeable about what we sell and collect. We're both trained in research and even though we don't have to be as in-depth as we were when we were professionals in the field or teaching, we still have the basic interest that drives us to find out more. I can cull a lot of things, and the physical stuff from the shop that I would take home from the shop are mostly craft components, but there's a TON of reference books - a TON! 

My reference library isn't quite this extensive, but it is deep
in my specific crafting areas. I've been involved in the
industry as a participant, teacher and vendor for almost
thirty years - plenty of time to accumulate reference materials. 

I'm giving myself a year to cull these. I want to sell most of them, and will have to start working out the best method to do that. I can photo them and list them on Ebay for personal sales, but I'm concerned about shipping. I'd like an easy way to ship printed materials without needing a stockpile of broken-down boxes or having to spend a fortune on padded envelopes. Businesses like Barnes & Noble and Amazon seal their books inside sealed cardboard that conforms to the various shapes and thicknesses easily. Is this something available to the more casual user? Have any of you used this kind of system to ship books? Any suggestions for me? 

It would be a lot less expensive to have rolls of corrugated
cardboard that I could cut to size than having to stock
different sizes of boxes for the variety of books I will
have to sell. I have to start some serious thinking. 

I have a feeling that I could relax a lot more if I could start moving out some of this material. I'm all for breathing - LOL - it's usually recommended for life, after all. Oh well, it's good to have goals, right? I think I'll call this an early "done" here, make sure I've got everything ready for the gym, and say "see you tomorrow and have a totally fabulous day" to all of you. Please leave me recommendations for book shipping if you have any, and Thanks! Enjoy your Wednesday. 

Sales Tax - Now It's Horribly Complex

Sometimes in my highly organized life, confusion reigns. Yes - all of us experience it now and again. Those times when we look at something and realize that it's just not enough - the cupboard needs a good clean-out, the room needs reorganization, or time deadlines that have been set up just aren't going to work. I'm diving into OOPS territory right now both at work and at home, and I've got to get myself into gear, focus, and streamline things that I can to make things work correctly. 

It should be easy for anyone to buy and sell an item. Suddenly
it's becoming quicksand for retail. 

My major bug-a-boo right now is sales tax. I'm sure all of you pay some sort of sales tax - whether it's an add-on at the point-of-sale, a small amount of extra money that goes to the city or state or nation as our "gift" unto Caesar. Carrying sales tax down the line, taxes are assessed on a statewide basis with smaller amounts for counties and even for cities. Normally this isn't a problem - cash registers are set up with a percent, it automatically gets added to items appropriate for taxation, the customer hands over the cash or credit card, and all is good. They get the product, and I get the monthly headache of filing taxes. 

Mail order used to be simple, but it's suddenly
going to get VERY complex. 

You may not have heard about the latest, however. In the USA, recognizing that dollars passing through states without sales taxes meant a loss of revenue (well duh!), someone took someone else to court and now all of us - large to small - have to assess and pay sales tax on every sale no matter what. I, like many retailers, have an on-line mail order arm of my store. I'm seriously considering knocking it out, effective almost immediately. I don't get a lot of income from it, but now, just to make things truly horrid, I have to tax each sale no matter what. That wouldn't be horrid, except now I'm going to be required to tax based on their residence, not my own state's rate ... well, let's just say this. ARGH!!!!!

If my hair wasn't already grey, this might just turn
it that color. I'm hoping I'm misinterpreting some
aspects of the new law. I have to have it in
place by October 1st, and I'd better understand it
by then. 

In essence, just for my state, my tax is based on one of more than 25,000 individual city tax rates, all of which can be "...conveniently looked up" on a PDF form or in a link that I might be able to access from my smartphone at the point of sale. Not only that - but my interpretation is that I need to charge the appropriate sales tax for where my customers live - not where the sale is taking place. So, if Rosemary from Roseville and Albert from Albertville are in the store buying a few beads, I'm supposed to charge each of them differently because they have different tax rates, and then I'm supposed to file my sales tax reports based on those differing amounts so that each city gets their piece of the pie. 

If sales are dominated by a single vendor, what
happens to our variety of available products? 

I'm hoping that I'm misinterpreting this, but yesterday's email from the state Department of Revenue was confusing, to say the least. If I'm right, though, then the law may have finally succeeded in driving all of the mom-and-pop stores out of business and leaving the ocean empty except for the sharks like Amazon. If that's the case, it will be a terrible shame because we'll lose some serious marketplace diversity. 

In any case, have a great Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow, perhaps with a greater understanding of the new sales tax system ... or not. 

The Supreme Court's Decision May Kill Small On-line Retailers

The Supreme Court made a recent ruling in favor of states collecting sales tax from sales originating from outside of their own jurisdictions. That's simplifying a lot of gobble-de-gook, but in essence it means that all of my on-line sales, which were sales tax free if they were sold to customers outside of my own state, now require me to collect sales tax. 

This new sales tax directive could be a nightmare. I'd
almost rather have a national sales tax than have to
figure out the various amounts for each state individually. 

My major question is whether I'll have to file sales tax forms for each state that I sell to or not, and how I'm supposed to report those funds. Of course, the other major question is what rate of sales tax I'm supposed to collect? Each state has a different percentage amount, and I'm assuming it needs to be submitted to that state, not my own. This could be SUCH a mess for small businesses. I don't do a lot of mail order any more, but for what I do, this could be a total disaster. 

Amazon is the major reason for the ruling. Although there are
Amazon warehouses in many locations, a few large
warehouses coupled with third-party vendors can cover
a large geographic area. 

In the past, the directive for charging sales tax was a requirement for a physical presence in the state. So if I was sending something to California - one of my major on-line states for sales - I would have to have a warehouse or office or store front in California before I had to collect their sales tax. Now, by this new directive, having a physical presence won't matter any more. I think the whole thing comes down to Amazon and other large on-line retailers who were squeaking through the old loopholes. 

South Dakota is a beautiful state featuring large stretches of open farm
and range land in the east and the Badlands and Black Hills in the west.
It doesn't have a large population, but has a lot of tourists passing
through to see Mount Rushmore and other famous locations. 

The original filer of the lawsuit was the state of South Dakota - a state that doesn't have individual income tax, but relies on other taxes for their budget. Being able to collect sales tax from all sales, not just those made in-state only, opens up a large new revenue stream from all of those people ordering from Amazon on a daily basis. I can see the state's point of view. That's a large amount of possible dollars into their coffers that was floating just out of their reach. 

I'm making this photo a bit larger than usual, hoping you can
see it. The major thing I want you to see is that Amazon was
actually founded in 1995. It really hasn't been around for
that long, but it's become a giant in the retail world. 

And the old law was old - put into place more than twenty years ago when e-commerce hadn't really hit its' stride yet and computers weren't carried in everyone's hands, disguised as cell phones. The original law took e-tailers into account if they had a distribution warehouse in that state, but resellers and on-line listers such as Amazon's third-party vendors weren't really covered by it. A second black hole where state revenue could disappear. 

I run a small business. My on-line sales, although present, are
a very small percentage of my general sales. Still, I have some
very good customers who live in California, Texas, Arizona
and other states, and who order from me regularly. I might
be drowning in paperwork - enough of it to justify looking
very carefully at whether I want to continue an on-line
presence or now. 

So I understand the rationale and the reasoning. I understand the desperation to share in some of the huge sales numbers generated by on-line sales. For small, tiny, on-line vendors such as myself, it's one more reason to look carefully at my sales numbers and figure out whether the extra labor and reporting requirements will justify the amount of on-line sales that I make. 

Here's a Virtual Happy Birthday cake for my good friend, Aearwen.
No calories, no food issues, just something that looks wonderful
and very chocolate. Yum! Happy Birthday, Aearwen! 

On that note, I think it's time to get away from the negativity and concentrate on the pool instead. It was raining hard when I woke up, but there might be a small window between 5 and 6 am where the outdoor pool will be open. I think I'll play it safe and stay indoors today, though, claiming my lane. If the outdoor pool closes, the indoor pool will suddenly become very crowded. Have an excellent Tuesday, and a big SHOUT OUT to my friend Aearwen on her birthday today! Sending long distance *hugs* her direction. 

Oops, Catch-Up and Future Goals

Yesterday's clean-up day was a very good thing because I remembered I hadn't paid my property taxes for the first half of the year yet! That was a serious OOPS! I admit that I'm not used to this. We've been paying mortgage for 30+ years but it got paid off early this year and not having a mortgage changed a lot of things. One of those things is that I now have to pay the taxes that were paid through the escrow account before. Of course property taxes were due in mid-May and it's now mid-June. Damn! I'm sure they'll assess a late fee penalty and I'll totally deserve it. I've signed up for email reminders and I'll have to put the second payment onto my calendar. I can't mess this one up again! 

Our property taxes aren't massive, but they should be
paid on time. I really messed that one up! 

I didn't get everything done that I wanted, but I did clean up one very important bag. (The second bag can wait a week - it won't hurt anything because it's pretty recent stuff.) I did get the laundry done, and even had a chance to catch up with Aearwen. Last week's conversation ended up totally messed up because of my trip and things going on with her life, so we're back on track. What a relief - LOL. 

We have a lot of turquoise cabs that we've purchased
through the years. We're going through them,
getting them priced and ready to put out for sale. 

We've been going through a lot of drawers and unknown envelopes at the shop and have found a LOT of turquoise cabochons that we purchased years ago for repairs and for our own work. We've been weighing and reviewing them and I'm a bit shocked by today's prices on comparable stones. After a lot of discussion we decided the price point to put on ours and we're going to start getting them out onto the sales floor over the next week or two. There are some exceptional cabs in the group, so my jewelry makers will be quite happy. 

We've been sold out of the three most popular gauges in sterling silver
wire for several months. We're getting that back on order today and
we should have it back for sale by the end of the month. Yippee! 

We've also restocked our sheet metal selection and should have our sterling silver wire in the three most popular gauges back in stock within the next two weeks. We've been sold out of this since before the Holiday season, so it will be wonderful to have it back for our creative customers. 

I love Andy Cooperman's vision. He works in a variety
of metals with unusual combinations and joining methods. 

I've figured out that if I want to take Andy Cooperman's Master Class at next year's Bead & Button Show, I need to try and save $50/week just for that purpose. That's a lot, but I'm going to give it a good go. I'm hoping I get a lot of repairs through the shop's doors because those $20/minimum charges are an important way for me to earn a little extra. 

I've been wanting to work for a few days under the tutelage of
Andy Cooperman for more than a decade. I'm determined to
try and achieve this goal. 

It's Thursday, I'm slightly ahead of schedule (I awakened a bit early and decided to just dive into the day) and I'm looking forward to my morning swim. I'm listening to a good audio book in the pool, and the weather has been great. We're heading back into sauna weather for the weekend, which isn't as great, but I'll worry about that when it happens. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow!