the continuing saga

First, a confession. The camera, alas, is "a little bit broken" as John would put it. That's kind of why there hasn't been a new photo in a while. The cover has come off the battery area. I'm still working on it. In a pinch, I'm thinking duct tape will do the job.

I'm hoping to have it up and running by Saturday - I'm taking the kids to a family expo thing that sounds pretty fun. There's a petting zoo, story time inside a whale, inflatable bouncers, a potting shed, a craft corner, and all sorts of other interactive stuff for kids. It's all free - it's paid by exhibiters trying to lure parents to enroll their kids into summer programs. Everyone who has anything for kids will be there, from schools to the library. Should be a good source of inspiration on things to do with John. We've found lots of things, but no perfect fit yet. What he really needs is preschool, but it's expesive and we're not willing to give into that route just yet. But he does need some more stimulation in his life. He's so incredibly bright and social. Seems a shame to have him out of school. I so wish they had JK here!

More good news for Joan - I got a call from the physio clinic! It was a therapist who phoned, to asses what kind of services she's going to need. She gave me some neat new ideas to try, to entice Joan to crawl - the ones from the old crew just frustrate her to no end. Haven't tried hers yet, but they sound a little more friendly. She agreed she'll need both a hand and foot brace, and is trying to set her up with both physio and occupational therapists. However, they also want her to enrol in a research study, which requires her to start therapy next week! They can't guaruntee her whole team will be assembled by then, but she was pretty sure she could get an appointment with at least her physiotherapist for the first week, which would make the family eligible for the study. If not, they'll have to start probably the week after. Either way works for me! The study is to look at the effects that communication between baby and parent have on success. They've found anectotally that parents who are "in tune" with what their kids are wanting have kids who perform significantly better in therapy. So they've formed a little study, with a six-week parental class, to see if it's true. Half will get both the class and the therapy, the control will get therapy only. (Hopefully, we get the class!)

On the Mike front, we've decided to go ahead and go contract. I've been in charge of research, and spent a lot of time on the phone with revenue canada, and various other beaurocratic agencies, and it doesn't sound too hard, even for an incorperation. The added work to have an incorperation over a sole proprietership is pretty minimal. We only registered as an Alberta company, so apparently, they send out a pre-filled-in form once each year, we make any changes, answer a few questions, fire it back and that's that. The revenue canada stuff we'd have to do anyway - we need a business number and a GST number, no matter what kind of business it is. We're just tacking on payroll stuff, which doesn't sound like too much fun, but it doesn't sound hard, either. It's a monthly payment to the government - which they may ask us to do quarterly, if it's too small - and an annual summary. GST is just a cheque each year. There's the extra tax return for the company, but there's small business tax software. We're such a minuscule little business, we just can't see it being that complicated, as long as we keep meticulous records. It's really just an invoice out, a payment in, and a couple of paycheques back out. It should be pretty basic to keep track of everything, as long as we keep good records and keep track of all the due dates. Mike took accounting in university. I'm sure I can pick up enough to keep us out of trouble. I can add and subtract. How hard can it be? (Famous last words, I know.) Chances are, I won't qualify for EI after all. Mike will be sole shareholder, at least to start, so he's automatically out. And apparently, they're a bit sticky about wives working as assistants to their husbands in these little micro-businesses, according to the Revenue Canada Guy. He gave me the number of a form to fill out, which goes to a board of sorts. They'll give us a ruling on whether they would honour a claim, and if they say no, we just don't pay that deduction - but everyone qualifies for CPP. He gave me some tips to keep things simple, and told me some of Revenue Canada's small business pet peeves so we don't annoy them too much. He was pretty frank, and had lots of info. He said they try to keep it pretty user-friendly, ad we'll get all the forms and handbooks we need when we apply for our numbers.

We incorperated on Friday - it was only a couple hundred bucks. There was only one "legalese" section, about share structure. We just took a blurb from a sample federal form we found online. When we went in to the office, they showed us a pre-written blurb of their own, that they could just cut and paste from a file, so we went with that. It was pretty easy. And what did Mike choose as a name? W Inc. (It spells wink.) He tossed around Walchuk Telecom Inc, but thought it sounded too long and stuffy. Walchaco Inc was on the table, but he wasn't sold on it either. W Inc was just kooky enough for his taste, and shockingly, wasn't taken yet. So now it's ours.

John just came down, and wants to say hi!
lkmnbvcx