Early blog update

Yes, it's 5:15am, but no big deal since I've been up for about 2 hours already. Can't complain too much since I slept really well earlier this week and this whole waking up around 3 or 3:30 has been happening about once a week, and ends up being very productive time for me. What have I been doing with it? (warning, this is more of a property tax rant until the bolded line further down)

Well, right around the time the newspaper story came out in the Daily Herald, folks around here finally started to get together in an attempt to do something. I feel sort of like I'm starting a company, the main problem being I don't get to choose my employees. That translates into a pretty high level of frustration at times because while there are some people who are willing to put time & effort into things, they're also people who have been slower to catch on to the complexity of the situation and, in my opinion, have a level of optimism that's almost too high as a result (well, maybe we should wait a few more months to do anything, because sometimes if the county admits they made a mistake on your taxes, they'll just fix it on your second installment...sure.).

I guess at the very least, this is excellent management training. If and when I decide to start looking for a new job, I will be so much more marketable because of this experience. :-)

Our personal update: at this point we did pay the October mortgage bill because a) Trey's extra student loan money came through, and b) because someone in our group found a lawyer who seems to be willing, excited even, to take on our case. This has been the exact opposite of what we've been running across - if we can find an attorney willing to work with condo people, they won't touch us because we're not part of the Association. Never mind that we were supposed to take over the Association a month ago and so far the developer hasn't responded to anything.

I also need to take a moment to vent about some of the comments on the Daily Herald story. The one I like the most is the person who made some kind of comment about how I'm probably one of those stay at home moms who would rather lose her home than get a job. Then there's the whole slew of people who talk about the fact that people who purchase homes and don't plan for emergencies are irresponsible - I'd agree with them, except that I can't see how this would fall into that category.

I'm sorry, but double property taxes for two years in a row (2008 & 2009) and the high probability of having to pay at least 150% of my taxes for the foreseeable future is not an emergency. I would estimate that if this doesn't get fixed, it would translate into an extra $8,000 or so over a period of just a few years. Now, if I needed a new furnace, refrigerator, stove, etc., all at the time time it would be one thing, but having to shell out that kind of money because of someone else's screwup is just not acceptable.

Ok, I'm done with the tax rant - only I have to make it quick because it's time to go workout. :-)

Other than all of the property tax crap, life is pretty good. German Day this year was a ton of fun. Our bar did 310 kegs for the weekend, which was excellent according to our beer distributor guys - not sure if they just said that because they wanted me to go out with them Sunday night after the fest closed because I looked hot in my dirndls, but the weekend was really busy, and tons of fun regardless.

Other than selling beer - I sang for the opening on Friday & to start the program on Sunday, and I marched with the kids in the parade. Funny thing, too, is that I think this was the first year I actually had fun marching in the parade. We had the most kids ever (20 as opposed to an average of about 10 a year) and the ones we had were the squirrely & energetic but well-meaning ones, and that probably had something to do with it. :-)

Coming up this weekend is Trey's second concert with the Spring Valley Concert Band featuring me as a soloist. I'm doing my Adele aria and the Vilia-lied that I did for Sopranorama and for a performance at the Northbrook library last month - I figured that I worked so hard to get those under my belt I might as well get some more immediate use out of them. Next week, however, I'll get cracking on some new challenges, getting some arias ready for next summer.

Gotta go for now - hope everyone's doing well. I'll catch up on everyone else's blogs this weekend!