I recently stumbled upon the nifty website GreenYour… You enter a word (or phrase) in the search box, and you get a handy list of corresponding green solutions. Just for fun, I entered “nail polish” and got a list of environmentally-friendly nail products (who knew?)

Try a search for “business” and you’ll get lots of useful green business solutions, including travel, investing and recycling.

While we adore Linda and her lovely house (and her lovely dog Butch), we’re in need of a more neutral meeting space option. We’re looking for a space that:

• will let us meet monthly and has guaranteed room for 10-15 people each time
• won’t charge us an arm and a leg (my guess is most folks would be OK with buying an appetizer or drink)
• has air conditioning for summer months
• has parking, or street parking nearby
• is wheelchair accessible
• and is welcoming and comfortable.

Libraries are out (we’d have to open the meetings to the public); coffee houses are OK if they can guarantee the space (which Starbucks won’t). Restaurants will be tough, as they’ll charge us for dinner…but maybe folks would OK with that.

I would like to hear your ideas and opinions, but a little more than that: I would LOVE if folks would make a phone call or two. It’s a lot of research for one person to handle, so if you’ve got an idea, do a little homework and then fill me in.

Thanks!

To promote my business, I’ve tried a variety of sites with mixed results. I like MediaBistro for job hunting and resources, and Freelancers Union for even more excellent resources. And of course I’m on LinkedIn and Facebook (and MySpace and Twitter, sheesh!). I have even played with nifty buttons like the one below for promoting myself:

All of these sites help me promote my writing business, and draw readers to ChronicBabe.com. But I have yet to find a useful resource for posting my clips and qualifications, so I stick with my Orange Grove Media site (soon to be redesigned).

So what are you using? Undoubtedly, there are other sites for web designers, photographers, graphic designers and more. I would love to know what all our members are using to spread the word about their businesses.

hi folks, i need to reschedule our meeting - i’m going to move us to july 23.

thanks for your flexibility! more details to come…

The CTA has announced a temporary closure of the Blue Line tracks from O’Hare to Rosemont from July 8 to July 28. During this time, there will be bus shuttle service between the O’Hare and Rosemont stops. See the CTA website for this and other construction updates.

We hope that these improvements will help the CTA finally live up their tagline (Putting Rapid Back in Transit)

Update your spreadsheets: the IRS has announced that as of July 1, 2008, the standard mileage rate will increase from 50.5 to 58.5 cents. This earlier-than-usual rate update was done partly in recognition of recent gasoline price increases (thanks IRS!) The rates for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will also increase, see the IRS article for info.