323 of the 373 W. stores will shut their doors in six weeks’ time, with the remaining 50 to remain open through Christmas, one last gasp, I suppose. Those who choose to stay until closing will receive a severance package and unemployment. Palisades (where my last day is August 10th, I’ll be working across the hall at X. starting Monday) is one of the fifty. Jefferson Valley (where I used to work, with a psychotic manager and two-faced coworkers), is not. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. I know I’m engaging in schadenfreude, but can anyone blame me?
And they want to know if I’ll stay
From Bloomberg.com, July 23, 2008:
“W. Jewelers Inc. tomorrow will face a long line of jewelry suppliers who will argue that the 373-store retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 23, has no right to liquidate goods they supplied on consignment. W. already has approval to hold a July 31 auction to decide which liquidator will make the best offer for selling the assets at going-out-of- business [GOB] sales.
“The hearing tomorrow is part of a separate process to authorize the GOB sales themselves and decide what W. can and can’t sell.
“W. argues that it has the right to sell consignment merchandise because there is a dispute over whether the goods were provided under arrangements valid under state law.
“Some of the jewelry suppliers counter W’’s argument and contend no public filings about the consignments were required under state law. Others contend that their filings make valid consignments even if they didn’t amend the filing when the company changed the spelling of ‘Jewelers.’ [from "Jewellers"]
“The hearing also covers W’’s motion for final approval of $80 million in financing from lenders for whom Bank of America NA serves as agent. W. already has interim authority to borrow $22 million.
“The Chapter 11 petition by Chicago-based W. listed assets of $207.1 million against debt of $185.4 million. W’s stores in 39 states include 78 purchased in April in the Chapter 11 liquidation of F’s Inc.
“The case is W. Jewelers Holdings Inc., 08-11261, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).”
And from Jamie Mason at TheDeal.com, July 14, 2008:
“W’s Final Sale Approved
“A Delaware judge has approved the bidding procedures for bankrupt jewelry retailer W. Jewelers Holdings Inc.’s going-out-of-business sales at all of its stores but not the stalking-horse bidder’s breakup fee. Since the breakup fee was denied, the group has reserved the right not to participate in the auction, so it’s unclear if there will be a stalking-horse bidder for the sale. The stalking-horse bidders had agreed to pay W., which sells diamonds, gold, precious and semiprecious jewelry and watches, 55.5% of the value of the inventory if it’s between $169 million and $177 million. However, if the inventory is worth between $138 million and $145 million, W. will receive 53.5% of the value. This means that W. could receive between $73.8 million and $98.2 million, depending on what its inventory is worth. “
The definition of a stalking horse bidder, from Wikipedia: “In bankruptcy, a stalking horse bid is a first, favorable bid solicited by the bankrupt company strategically to prevent low ball offers.”
What seems like the clincher, from Gerson Lehrman Group, “The Expert Network,” July 8, 2008:
“If the company (G) was able to acquire W. Jewelers’ 375 [sic] stores, it would likely be the principal diamond supplier to about 518 mall based jewelry stores with a [sic] annual turnover of about $475 million.
“However, it remains to be seen whether the company can strike a deal with the creditors to buy W. Longer term, it’s even more problematic if the G’s product breadth is sufficiently broad enough to support 518 jewelry stores in the US marketplace. According to unnamed Reuters’ sources, G’s deal with W. is between 3.5 billion and 4.0 billion rupees. That’s $80.85 million to $92.45 million at current exchange rates. The question is whether all classes of creditors would be better off liquidating the company.
“According to court papers the company had $207 million in assets and about $185.4 million in debt. The G. deal would probably mean unsecured creditors would get pennies on the dollar while secured creditors recouped most of their investment. With G. the likely beneficiary of W’s future purchases, trade creditors have little incentive to agree to the deal and would get more if the company was simply liquidated. Another possibility would be to liquidate the existing inventory and sell the W. name and fixed assets to G. How much irreparable damage a 90 to 120 day ‘Up to 70% Off’ liquidation sale would do the W. and L. trade names is an open question.”
I think I’ll pass.
Seven weeks, four days
I’ve been remiss in writing to this blog, and I apologize. It isn’t that there’s been nothing new to report, there has, and lots of it! I’ve just been busy; too busy even for Ravelry, too busy to keep up with The Yarn Harlot and Dooce on a regular basis, too busy to catch up on my email. So please, don’t feel neglected!
What’s been taking up all of my available time? These two, born June 7, 2008:
Yevgeny Mungojerrie (Mojo) 2008.07.14
Which one starts the car?
Our house is a very, very, very fine house...
Harry sniffing Ivan Rumpelteazer (Teazyka) 2008.07.22
Tigger is more than sixteen times Mojo's size (16.4).
Learning how to play
Welcome to our little family, Yevgeny Mungojerrie aka Mojo or Zhenyka (one pound, 3.5 ounces as of today), and Ivan Rumpelteazer aka Teazyka (pronounced “teeska,” one pound, 3.8 ounces). We went all the way out to Long Island City in Queens to get them. We had only planned on taking one, but when we got to our friend M’s house and I picked up Teazyka, G picked up several of the others, and Mojo fell asleep in his arms. The conversation went like this:
G: (with puppy dog eyes) Can we keep him?
Me: Are you sure?
G: Yes.
Me: Are you really sure?
G: Ask me again, and I’ll say no.
Me: M, I think we’re taking two.
M: Yay!!!1!!
They had adopted out nearly all of the eight, and our guy was close to last, if not the last. Our amazing vet (who makes housecalls) has already been to see them, and exclaimed, “Oh my god! They’re so intense! They’re so tiny!” Which leads us to believe that they were indeed premature. Also, there were eight kittens total in the litter (all of whom survived). G has taken some more pictures, the first of which are posted over at Cats, Sheep, & Penguins, along with the whole story. He’s shot and processed more pictures; they’ll be up soon.
Totally manic
Had a 20 oz. mocha with a triple shot of espresso on a (mostly) empty stomach this morning and nothing else to eat until my pepperoni rolls come out of the toaster oven in a few minutes. I really shouldn’t be drinking the Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry, but I am.
Guess what’s coming home with us tonight?
Pictures can be found here. Talk about cute overload; I’m going to be especially antsy at work today (I wangled a 10:30 – 3pm shift).
The most sincere pumpkin patch
Last November, we tossed the ready-to-rot pumpkins over by the Kwanzan cherry tree in the back yard, you know, for compost. Shortly thereafter, they were attacked by animals looking for the tasty seeds that we hadn’t scooped out. It took a long time, but the pumpkins finally decayed. I added some fireplace ash at one point, having heard that it was full of potassium and good for fertilizer. I didn’t think much else of it all until a few weeks ago, when I saw some familiar leaves growing among the weeds.
We had a vegetable garden when I lived with my parents, and planted all sorts of things, including fat peas, corn, watermelon, and, you guessed it, pumpkins. I ran inside to tell G about this miraculous event, but he was rather nonplussed. “We did throw a boatload of seeds out there. One was bound to grow.” I’ve been watching the not one but TWO vines growing with anticipation. Today when I wentout to take some pictures, I spotted yet another vine growing! Here’s the evidence:
Project #1 – finished!
Here is the progression of pictures of the pierced cuff bracelet I designed (notice the dwennimmen adrinkra symbol?) and made out of nickel silver for my Jewelry 1 class with the Westchester Art Workshop, affiliated with Westchester Community College. I received one college credit for it, and on the heels of this, have decided to go for my Associates degree in art. I never thought about just doing the two-year thing, and never EVER considered a community college (one previously referred to my me as Wastechester Country Club). I’m getting over my snobbery – FAST.
Mary Beth Rozkewicz was an awesome teacher IMHO, but apparently, not in those of my classmates. It was really more of a refresher course for me; I’d learned all this stuff over 30 years ago with Red, the Silver Shop teacher at Camp Pinecliffe. MB crammed a full semester’s worth of work and teaching into a 5-week course, and the other women suffered. Mightily, it seems. I know that if I wasn’t simply remembering how to do things, I’d be very frustrated and pretty pissed off.
So here’s the progression: preliminary sketches, final sketch, traced sketch glued with rubber cement onto a 6″x6″ piece of nickel (diagonally because I needed a cuff that was 6 3/4″ long), the finished cuff, and a side view. Yes, I sawed all of those spirals. There are sixteen of them (!?!). Plus the nine diamonds. As always, click on the tiny pic to embiggen. Tell me what you think.
Fuck you, John McCain
In case you’re wondering about my invective, go watch MoveOn.org’s latest ad. It’s pretty freaking powerful.
