Any tax consultants lurking out there?

So we met with our landlords yesterday re: advancing the end of our lease and getting started on the sale/purchase of the building. It didn't go well. Since they sold a property in AZ in the 2005-2006 (July to July) tax year, their tax consultant has told them to hold off selling our building. He told them they'd likely pay close to $70 000 in tax and it wouldn't be worth their while to sell until next year. ARRGH! It's so frustrating!

We've asked them to seek out a second opinion, and as they genuinely seem to want to sell to us, they are going to find out from another source if that's the best route to take. What I'm wondering is, should we find out as well from a tax consultant, if this is the real scoop? We don't have all of their background & tax details, but there has to be some creative solution to buying the building without the title changing hands until next year. Some kind of deferred thing? Like we are making mortgage payments to them, but the building wouldn't 'officially' be ours until 2007, or something?

They said we didn't have to feel pressured to stay after our lease is up, if we wanted to look elsewhere, they wouldn't hold us to anything...we dont' want to go anywhere!!! They did assure us that they wouldn't sell to anyone else as long as we were interested, even though they told us a realtor we may have trusted had offered to buy it from them. Scumbag! We have 5 realtors next door and I'm pretty sure I know which one it was.

Anyway, any guidance here would be much appreciated. Any creative financial solutions out there? Where could we go to find some other purchasing options? There has to be a way around this.

Brush With Fame

Yesterday as I walked up O'Connor Street towards Parliament Hill to catch my bus home Joe Clark walked by. I was looking at him to make sure it was indeed him and he looked at me, smiled and said "Hi".

MOM!

Stop deleting your posts!!!

awwww!

Aren't they lovely?
I don't know how to rotate the picture, which is unfortunate!!

This is Mom and Dad before the big work party. Daddy isn't looking at the camera because he says he gets red eye, but he gets it anyway. How silly of him!

Photo modifications courtesy of the Blog elves.

Mom brought her fish home, and last night, Marcie got very interested!














Jazz hands!!











All the grandkids.













Hi, Mook!

Last picture! I should figure out how to post them all in one post. Here's Steve boogie boarding. 

The water was quite rough, with waves up to 5 and 6 feet crashing. It was a little scary for me, but Steve loved the boogie boarding. 

I'm a sucker for a donkey...faux or otherwise! This was in a cigar museum. 

The locals were a little wooden off the start, but we really warmed up to them.  

Taken in the sugar cane fields.  

Just look at this beach! 

A man enters a bar and orders a drink. The bar has a robot bartender. the
robot serves him a perfectly prepared cocktail, and then asks him, "What's
your IQ?" The man replies "150" and the robot proceeds to make conversation
about global warming factors, quantum physics and spirituality, biomimicry,
environmental interconnectedness, string theory, nano-technology, and sexual
proclivities.

The customer is very impressed and thinks, "This is really cool." He decides
to test the robot. He walks out of the bar, turns around, and comes back in
for another drink. Again, the robot serves him the perfectly prepared drink
and asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man responds, "about a 100."
Immediately the robot starts talking, but this time, about football, NASCAR,
baseball, supermodels, favorite fast foods, guns, and women's breasts.

Really impressed, the man leaves the bar and decides to give the robot one
more test. He heads out and returns, the robot serves him and asks, "What's
your IQ?" The man replies, "Er, 50, I think." And the robot says... real
slowly... "So............... ya gon - na vote for the Liberals a - gain?

Happy Birthday Blaine!!

Have a great day!

hola all!

Hi everyone!
Well, after an epic long day on Wednesday, we arrived in Punta Cana to a gorgeous airport! We would have been happy just staying there, it was so nice!

Anyways, it's +32 and sunny every day we've been so far. Lots of lazing around, alternating from beach to pool. Neither is very crowded, easy to find comfy lounge chairs. The food is good, normal every day stuff with a few surprises thrown in (stuffed rabbit...octopus in its own tint) yumm! Our room is close to the beach and the ping pong tables. Important! Drinks are good, no complaints anywhere really, but it would have been nice to have a coffee maker in the room! We'll bring our own next time.

We are missing our Mook and hope that Grandma and Grandpa are giving her lots of cuddles and snuggles. Someone will have to pass that message along, because we didn't get a chance to hook up their computer before we left!

Hope all is well with everyone else...back to the holiday!
xoJessica and Steve

Free Ipods, Holy Cow

It's one of those things that sounds really too good to be true but indeed the facts speak for themselves. All you have to do is click on the link here, sign up for one of the trial offers, and presto-chango they send a free ipod to an undisclosed address in Ottawa.

Romeo and Juliet

I keep searching and searching to see what comments come up about the production last weekend and so far haven't seen a peep!!

Well?? Well??

Time to clue us in about everything. I'll bet you both were tired and just crashed in a corner somewhere.

Or are you helping your mom study for her big test tomorrow? That will be a relief to have that behind her. What a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Pumpkins in the Park!!

We just got back from a walk through Flumerfelt Park where they hold "Pumpkins in the Park", and man was it snowing! The snow started around 10:30 or 11 this morning and is still going strong at almost 9pm! It's heavy and wet so hopfully it wont stick around too long, I'm not done riding my bike yet! Mom and Dad were supposed to leave today for yet another trip to Woseley but..... lucky for us they are stuck! Looks like many more card games to be played!

Poor Diabetic Willow

Well, today we found out that Willow has developed feline diabetes. The weight blight that we unfortunately burdened her with finally caught up to her. She seems ok on the outside, she's dropped about 2kg since this time last year, but she drinks a lot of water. So we're off to the vet again on Thursday to learn about what we need to do to help Willow live comfortably. A change of food is the first step. I'm not sure if we'll need to give her insulin shots yet or if there is another option.

On another note I got an email from CBC News Sunday asking me to read an email comment I made so they can possibly broadcast it during their feedback segment.

Update:I spent about an hour at the vet last night getting all of the info on what we need to do for Willow. She will be getting one unit of insulin twice a day for the next while then we take her back in for testing and possible modification of the dose. The vet did a demonstration with saline on the office cat, a fairly cooperative cat. I tried to examine Willow tonight to get a grip on her skin the way I'll need to so I can inject her and at first got a nasty look then the teeth came out and she was having none of that. It looks like I'll be wrapping her up in a towel twice a day. It wasn't too expensive but this will be a lifetime thing unless someone comes up with an easier way of doing it. Looking on the bright side we won't have to test her blood every day (an unpleasant process of pricking the edge of her ear to get a blood sample).

Disposal

What's the recommended method of disposal for old cd's? I have a mountain of old technet and software cd's I would like to get rid of but don't want to burden the local landfill with yet more plastic and metal. Any thoughts on what I should be doing with this stuff?

SeatGuru.com - Your Enlightened Guide to Airplane Seating

Here's a little something to help with your flight to the DR. David might find this useful too. SeatGuru.