Vote sincerely, of course, but I hope you vote for the way cool FreshPlans logo, because then Jay and I will win prizes.

So let’s see if I can catch up here.

#1 daughter and I went to see the SCORE counselor. If you have a business, check it out. He said to get a CPA, become an LLC, write a proper business plan, and raise my prices. I’m doing all that.

I’m also having my daughters work for me. I initially went to SCORE asking “How can I tell when it’s time to hire someone?” My IT guy mentor said that a business plan and financial forecast would show me when hiring someone would provide sufficient ROI to justify the hire. My local mentor said he thought I’d be pleasantly surprised by how much money I could make.

I’ve already been pleasantly surprised by that, but I still have trouble coming up with the thousands in tuition every month.

Still, #1 and I made a good-faith attempt to write up the business plan, and while we did get cross and frustrated as we worked on it (she says this shows that we need a CPA), it doesn’t seem entirely impossible. It also seems possible that I’ll be able to hire her if she does a good enough job to produce a positive ROI. And I think she will.

Then we went on a fact-finding mission to a local restaurant. More about that anon, probably.

Then we came home and I worked. It was a lovely fall day, and I was working. I’m going to be working again today. I’m feeling a little whiny about this. #1 will be leaving while I’m at church, and we won’t have had much fun at all.

#1 daughter came to class with me yesterday, and then we went to the SCORE meeting. The counselor was very helpful, and recommended a bunch of unpleasant-sounding stuff like forming an LLC and getting a CPA. He also said I need to raise my prices.

Oh — I was going to say more, but #1 daughter is up talking to me — more later.

Yesterday had a number of high points: a dawn walk shared by phone with #2 daughter, site testing with the bookkeeper, lunch with Janalisa, work on my cool new projects, and then the arrival of #1 daughter followed by pizza and TV and knitting with her and #1 son.

In there someplace was a spell with the tornado sirens. Later, #1 daughter and I attempted to fill out the financial projections spreadsheet my SCORE mentor sent me. We have an appointment with the local SCORE guy today. At a number of points — when the local guy was explaining to me why getting help in my business was fraught with pitfalls, when the bookkeeper was trying to help me figure out how to deal with both a business and a personal checking account, when we came to the sheet that involved taxes and Social Security, when we tried to forecast future sales — I thought that being freelance is way better than owning a business.

There’s also a bit of angst with clients. However, none of my clients takes off his or her clothes during meetings and throws them out the window. Nor do any of them stab themselves and leave me to clean up the blood. As you can see, CD’s stories about her difficult clients have given me a tough act to follow in the matter of difficult clients.

I did make some progress on my knitting, actually. We were watching The Big Bang Theory, which #1 daughter had never seen before. We get our TV via the computer and/or Netflix, which allows us to watch years of the stuff on successive evenings or even at lunchtime (#1 son introduced me to this dangerous indulgence).

I’d better get ready.

In class yesterday we were discussing the effect on the economy of a vampire army –

See, we’re working on how to respond to text in your research paper or essay. You always have to talk about what previous researchers have said, and in this case the book I had with me was Michael Ian Black’s essays, and one is on the likely economic impact of vampires.

I had the students work in groups to develop a thesis for their imaginary essay on the subject and then figure out how to reference Black in the course of their support for the thesis.

There were interesting outcomes, from the table that said there’d be a fashion-driven upsurge in spending based on the sexiness of vampires to the group that decided that the elimination of stupid people (vampires would kill them off, the table felt) would benefit the economy in a number of ways.

But as we worked on this, I wondered about the whole idea of something benefiting the economy. Isn’t it all just sort of the same money washing around? I mean, if you do something that brings in foreign money, then that could be good for the local economy, in the way that our biker festival is generally held to be good since it brings all these people from Off with their new funds not earned here. And I guess my foreign clients are sending money which I spend locally.

But mostly, if people spend more money on evening clothes and coffins, or perhaps on garlic, then they just spend less on blue jeans and curry powder, right?

The bookkeeper was over yesterday, sorting things out for me. Having done so, at least in part (she’s coming back tomorrow), she asked, “How do you find time to quilt and knit?”

I had to admit that I don’t. Far from spending an hour a day working on Christmas gifts as the HGP says to, I am down to an occasional Sunday evening with the knitting. It was still sitting out since Sunday, where is where the bookkeeper got the impression that I was doing it.

And yet last night, having come to the end of an evening writing about a llama farm, I sat with #1 son and watched two episodes of The Big Bang Theory and ate pizza. I could very easily have picked up my knitting — oh, except for the fact that the current Christmas gift pattern consists of two rows each of which includes about six instances of wrap and turn with complex and unpredictable (to me) shaping.

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

Speaking of rationalizations, we’re beginning work on an iPhone app. This item also works on an iPod Touch, so the question has become, “Who do we know who owns an iPod Touch, or alternatively which of us should buy a tax-deductible instance of said item?”

On the one hand, this is obviously an area of growth, and we need to leap into fast-flowing streams, and our client already seems to think we’re pretty rustic (another New Yorker outsourcing to the rural south, so I guess he’s prepared to make allowances) and I don’t know how long we can be convincing about our skilz at promoting iPhone apps when we’ve never actually used one.

On the other hand, think about being audited and explaining that you had to buy an iPod Touch and really you only use it for work. Hmm.

Here’s my bento box with rice, teriyaki beef, fruit and veg.

I don’t have either the cuteness or the fully-packed-ness down, but this is a good way to arrange for lunch, and it lessens the inclination to send #1 son out for something — anything — just because I can’t take time to think about it.

I’m working on an interesting new project: cookshelf.net , where they make iPhone cookbooks.

You pick your recipe, tell it how many people you have coming and what day you’ve planned it for, and it’ll make your shopping list and I suppose remind you that you were going to make Chicken in Wine and Apricot Tart.

Currently, they have a kosher cookbook. I’ll keep you posted.

Fortunately, #2 daughter is going to help me out. Otherwise, who knows what I would do, because this is what my markerboard looks like.

I went to rehearsal last night anyway, though I felt that I ought to stay home and work instead, and I’m glad that I did. It’s beginning to sound pretty good.

#1 son spoke with #2 son yesterday, for those of you who follow the adventures of the younger generation. I said, “Is he happy? Is he doing well in school?”

#1 son assured me that his bro hadn’t mentioned being unhappy or not doing well in school, so we’re optimistic.

Our ensemble in church was nice yesterday, we had an interesting Sunday School class, and I finished up my ten hours for the Brits and most of my grading.

Then I had a bit of a nap and went off to a meeting of the worship team, where we got the Advent and Christmas music under control.

Home, then, to do a bit more grading and then to begin the second pair of Christmas slippers while watching The IT Crowd, which is really quite funny if watched in the right spirit.

I sent a question off to SCORE, and got a response with some specific useful steps. If you have business questions, I recommend them. They have a local office, right up near where I teach, so I think I’ll stop in there today. My SCORE mentor has recommended that I do a financial forecast and then “consider adding one employee when you can project the business that will allow you to see a profit from the added production of the employee.” This seems logical to me. There’s an interactive form for the financial projection, so I can probably manage it. I hope.

My church has begun a prayer experiment, asking all members to pray for 15 minutes a day for the next twelve weeks. CD and Suwanda and I are all having big life/work change issues, so we’re going to do the experiment, focusing on that.

There are issues, I think, with prayer experiments. First, we have no reason to suppose that God participates in them, the Book of Job being the closest example and not a reassuring one. Second, it’s not possible to control the variables of how spending 15 minutes a day in serious prayerful contemplation of our needs — or the accountability of knowing we’re expected to report on the results — might affect us. The pastor specifically reminded us that prayer is not an excuse for laziness.

However, it seems to me that 12 weeks devoted to my life/work issues in some organized way would be a very good thing. I might begin 2010 with a more balanced life and healthier habits. And speaking of organized attention in 15-minute bits, this week on the HGP we repeat our shopping and freezer-filling and gift-making efforts, clean our kids’ rooms, and make a bathroom goodie basket to welcome houseguests.

Today I also need to learn more about Camtasia for the Brits. I’ve had that on my list for a while, actually, so that’ll be good. I also have class, three companies to look after, and more grading. Then rehearsal.

Happy Socktober.  I’m a bit late, I realize. However, in my defense I have to say that I haven’t seen any good Socktober buttons out there, and I don’t have time to make one myself. I was waiting for somebody else to make a good one. Half the fun of Socktober is having the cool button on your sidebar.

My new Tuesday class has been cancelled, and I’m thinking that this could give me an evening a week during which I could do needlework without making things any worse in terms of getting work done. I have these quilt tops waiting to be quilted, after all, and Christmas presents to make, and I might even need to make some socks for Socktober. In fact, on this day last year here at my xanga, I outlined quite a good plan for a SWAP, and I still have all the materials for that.

Yesterday I worked all day, which helped me get nearer to caught up, and then in the evening I organized things a bit.

I was supposed to be at the Gridiron Show, for which I made cookies and everything. My husband and son went out with friends. I ate a sandwich, put The IT Crowd on instant watch, and did my filing. My physical filing, in fact. There was a moment during which I thought it was pretty pitiful that I was doing that on a Saturday night.

On the other hand, I’ve got my filing done.

I have another 2.67 hours to do for the Brits before midnight GMT, whenever that might be. And I have to go sing in just a minute here. And also there’s a committee meeting at the church today. I’d better get going.

We’re sending out an email about our new artists’ offer.

If you  are an artist — of any kind — and you need a website at a good price, you might like to have your name added to the list. Or if you have a website and want to get more out of it. Or if you’re just curious.

Leave your email in the comments, or message me with it.