I wouldn't worry - your company is Julie's client, so she's going to be the one sending them temps. Doesn't necessarily have anything to do with you. [Or what Amych said.]

Plans are good, as is ibuprofen. I'm very sorry to hear about the Great Pants Rebellion of Aught 8.

I have hit stare-blanky-at-wall levels of tired. I need to seek coffee STAT.

Emeline has decided she does not like pants. She screamed and whined for a half hour this morning about her severe dislike of pants.

... and tomorrow, it could be severe dislike of the color orange. because, you know - toddler.

seriously. in our house this morning, it was the fact that the bagel was cut in pieces.

also strange night last night - sprog woke several times with nightmares (possibly related to last night's "hitting people is not good" discussion), and then the power went out at least on our block if not everywhere, and then this morning, DH's alarm did manage to go off, but somewhat left of the NPR station so it sounded like a jackhammer session conducted by jimi hendrix, with a few words from Fresh Air thrown in.

Sorry for all the sucky mornings y'all are having. Me? I just have knee pain. And a schedule which says I've got to be back at the house where I got clocked in the nose last week. What a life, what a life.

Could you wear pads and a catcher's mask? It IS getting to be baseball season.

Well, that would be good for a few laughs at least.

As I understand it, the cost basis is the worth of the stock the day your relative died. If it's now worth more, you'll pay long-term capital gains on the difference between the cost basis and the current value. Considering that the market is down, you might not have anything to pay, unless the amount of inheritance is high enough to be subject to inheritance taxes. If it is, congratulations!

That's our understanding, too--and the stock has, as of this point, gone down since she died in early January. But if the money does turn out to be there, we'll be sure to work with appropriate financial and legal professionals to sort out the tax ramifications.

As for keeping the money in stock and collecting dividends, that's certainly an option, but my gut is against it for two reasons: A) it's all in one company, and I'd feel safer with a more diversified portfolio, and B) it's in one of the major oil companies, and I don't really like them.

But don't congratulate us until we actually know it's there, you know? The will dates to 1997, and she was living off a combination of dividend income and selling off little pieces of her considerable stock portfolio all along, and we just really don't know yet. There may be nothing left. It may be smaller than we think. For now, it's frankly kinda stressful and crazy-making, because it's so hard not to think of what neighborhood we might buy a house in or what car we'd get to replace that damn '96 Contour when it's still possible this will all fall through.

ION, Emeline and Matilda's refusals to wear pants cracks me up, because we've got the opposite child at our house. We want Annabel to wear dresses for Easter because it's tradition and Palm Sunday because the kids process into the sanctuary at church waving palms, so it'd be kinda nice to not have her in jeans and a turtleneck for a change. So we got her three dresses--a moderately foofy yellow eyelet one DH found at Costco and two plainer ones I picked up at Target.

A few days ago DH started talking about Palm Sunday coming up and how she needed to wear a dress. He showed her the yellow one, which was hanging in her closet, and asked if she'd wear it. Her reply: "No, no. I will not. I say, 'No.' I don't like it."

So I brought in the Target bag and explained how sometimes we have to wear things that aren't necessarily our favorites because of where we're going or because it's a special day. I said that I liked jeans best too, but I can't wear them to work because it's against the rules, and that for Palm Sunday, Easter, weddings, and funerals, girls and women wear skirts and dresses and men wear nice shirts and neckties because those are the rules. And then I showed her the other dresses, and she immediately got excited about the one that's brown with tiny pink polkadots because she likes polkadots. She asked, "Does it have a bow?" I showed her its tiny self-fabric bow, and she decided it was OK because it's small. She was also OK with the third dress, a really simple red knit, especially after I took her to my closet and showed her the skirts I was planning to wear.

We'll see how she reacts Sunday morning, though...

one that's brown with tiny pink polkadots

LOVE that dress! Almost bought it for Em a couple of weeks ago.

Lillian, given the choice, would like to spend her time in a short sleeved shirt, socks, and shoes, with nothing in between but underwear or a diaper.

Pants are very hard to get her into. I mean, I wear pants 90% of the time, but this kid just doesn't like them. If she has to wear them, she insists on pulling them up over her knees.

She's going to be so happy when it warms up enough that we'll allow a dress and shorts combo, or a skirt without tights below it.