A Week In Review - A Proud Mom.

Let's get the Mom stuff out of the way first. Lady Dr. there was still a lot of Mom stuff this week but not as much as last week so I am improving. Monday I took mom to the library, she already finished the four books we checked out last week, Tuesday we went to lunch, Thursday I did her grocery shopping, Friday I took her to the doctor for her six month checkup, and yesterday we went to lunch again. What really struck home this week is how proud my Mom is of me for taking the comedy class. The last time I remember Mom being this proud of me is when I won the Helen Keller award for charity work. After I sold my business the first time I donated my time to charity. I raised money to buy shoes for poor grade school kids, did a toy drive for the children's hospital, did another toy drive for one of the local abused women and children's shelter and spent time at a cancer research center that was investigating a cure for breast cancer. While it is really wonderful to have a parent proud of something that I've done, the way my mom does it is also very embarrassing because no matter what anyone says to her, the first answer is "my son." For instance, "This is the King City Police Department, the city is being overrun by locusts and if you don't evacuate your house in five minutes there will be certain death." "Did you know my son won the. " For two years after I won that award that is how my Mom was. I used to have dreams that I ended up standing at the North Pole when a dog sled came screeching to a halt, an Eskimo would get out and say "Aw, you the one. You won the. " Now, "My son won the " has been replaced by "My son is taking a comedy class." Friday when Mom came out of her doctor's appointment I asked what the doctor had to say, Mom said "I think Dr. B is interested in taking the comedy class." Huh? "I told her you were taking a comedy class to gain confidence and get over shyness. She wanted to know all about it. She thought it was neat that you recognized a weakness and wanted to improve yourself." I'm kind of stunned, I mean how does a conversation like that come up between a doctor and a Mom anyhow? "You need to strengthen your blood pressure medication." "My son is taking a." Now let us move ahead to the lunch on Saturday. A really nice couple with a young daughter was sitting next to us. I was kind of curious what kind of soup the lady had ordered so we struck up a conversation with them. Within seconds my mom said "I have to tell you my son is taking a comedy class." I've heard rumors now that there is a mass mailing going out this week so I want to apologize to the person in Outer Mongolia that is probably going to receive my picture from Mom with a note "this is my son, he is taking a."

On to the rest of the week. On Monday at my request I had lunch with the two fellows that bought my business. I wanted to be released out of one of the terms of the sales agreement. I had agreed basically to be on call for them seven days a week, so if a former client requested me to be at the interview between them and the new guys I would be able to do that. This resulted in making myself available all week for maybe 15 to 20 hours of work. This year during tax season I would like a lot more hours of work then that. Like the rest of the world I've taken a bit of a hit on my mutual funds and would like to recover some of the loss through work. We agreed that if I would make myself available to them to do some corporate returns then I could be free to explore other per diem work. Now I am doing a resume to send out to firms in a couple of cities for tax season support work. Tax season support work usually last ten weeks, from February 1 to April 15th. Right now with my care giving responsibilities the most time that I could get away from Portland is seven to ten days. Sis and her husband are considering moving here in January which would free me up to go to another city for ten weeks. Per diem pay in the LA area is twice what it is in Portland. Working in another city may be a pipe dream but I like to dream. At minimum I know I can get a job in the Portland area. That is more of a reality than a dream.

Wednesday I had lunch with Al. Also as part of the sales agreement I was allowed to keep five corporate clients. I kept the clients that had sold their businesses in 2008. Sales of businesses usually result in some very intricate transactions that have to be reported a certain way on the tax returns or the client ends up owing more than he should. Usually the best accountant to prepare the tax return of the sold business is the one that worked on the sales agreement. Al was the sole owner of a convenience store until this last September when he sold it for an astounding price. Their business year end is September 30. The purpose of the lunch was for me to pick up his books. Now on my to do list is the company's tax return. By the way Al is the one that I went to the Nike shareholder meeting with. He is a great guy and I always enjoy his company.

I'm really looking forward to next week and I will be reporting on the week ahead tomorrow.

What was your week like last week? What does the week on the horizon look like for you?