turning points

I can feel it in the air, in my stomach, in my unsettled brain when I can't get to sleep.

Things are about to get really wacky around here.

Mike and I received purchase orders to build seven simulators. The first one needs to be complete by Sept. 8th, with more to follow by the beginning of October. We build them ourselves, in our garage (and living room, and dining room, and wherever we can fit things...) All of the parts and pieces will begin arriving in the next few weeks, so we can assemble things. So there's that.

We were just notified in a lovely letter from the State of MN that our business has randomly been selected for a sales tax audit. Having been through this once, with the City of Bloomington, I have a small idea of what to expect. Mostly just compiling lots and lots and lots of documentation of everything we do in our business. But while Bloomington randomly chose 14 days of detailed information to look at, the preliminary info from the state says they want to see THREE YEARS of stuff. And then sit down with me for a day, and see exactly how I come up with that huge number of money I send them every month. Golly gee, I can hardly wait.

It isn't that I am concerned they will find anything wrong, it is just a MAJOR PAIN to pull all of this info, and deal with the stress. And per the earlier paragraph, regarding the building of simulators, this isn't exactly the optimal time to be messing with this. In fact, all of this leaves me feeling just a little queasy at how hard we will have to work in the next few months.

But it is part of the responsibility of owning and running a business in MN, so I will give them a call tomorrow and see what kind of schedule we can come up with and what I specifically need to do.

Don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED that we are building simulators, and will be able to pay our bills, and keep things rolling out at our store. In these economic times, you do what you have to!

On a brighter note, the kitchen countertops are finally installed! For good! And I have a functioning sink/dishwasher/garbage disposal again. So when we can find a couple of days when we have nothing else to do, we can tile the backsplash, install all of the trim, and finish the floor. I am thinking maybe January?

So the only thing that is actually keeping me from collapsing into a sobbing mess on my unmade bed right now, (my mother always told me that I was so dramatic) is that last week we decided to sneak up to the North Shore for a few days this week. Posting all of those pictures really got me longing to just get away. And other than finishing the kitchen, or pulling reports and tax forms, or cleaning out the garage so we have room to build simulators, we are leaving town for the fresh, clean air of Lake Superior. And just a few days of family time, with no other distractions.

Who says we don't have our priorities in order?