You had me at Hello...

I've been really crazy busy this week. I'm up before 7am and in bed after 2am. I don't even know what day it is...but when my iPhone woke me up to tell me about a new email, I was soon reminded:






$8 Million Deal Falls Through As Macy's Is Given The Runaround

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- It isn't often that an $8 million deal falls through due to
simple communications problems. But that was certainly the case last month when
Macy's wanted to offer that amount for a small jewelry company, but never got a
hold of its owner.

Stephanie Lee, a spokeswoman for Macy's, explains how it all happened:

"We've been wanting to expand into the Hawaiian scene for many years
now. Trends show that there is increasing demand for everything
Hawaiian, and this year will be no exception."

So in March, Macy's set out to find the perfect brand - one that screams "Aloha"
- and put its merchandise on its shelves. "We wanted something brand new,
something we haven't done before," says Lee.

Surprisingly, they found what they were looking for on the internet - a small
web shop called "Kimeejay." "It was a cute line of earrings run by Hawaii native
Kimberly J. Balmilero - a perfect combination of youth and Hawaiian culture
rolled into one."

Macy's wanted to buy rights to the brand, work with Balmilero to mass
produce the line, and sell it at all of Macy's U.S. locations. High
level executives were so impressed that they were willing to pay top
dollar for it.

However, Kimeejay's luck would soon run out. "We tried contacting the
folks at Kimeejay, but their webserver was malfunctioning and returning errors,"
explains Lee. So, Macy's spent the next week trying to track down Balmilero.

Various sources led to Balmilero's MySpace account, but many had
speculated that the account wasn't run by Balmilero, as messages sent
there are never responded to. So, Macy's skipped right over the social
networking sites and went straight to Balmilero's agent in New York.

Macy's contacted the Luedtke Agency and was informed that although
Balmilero resides in Los Angeles, she frequently travels to Honolulu,
New York, the Philippines, and Sydney, Australia, where she works as a
children's performer. All in all, Balmilero's location is almost always a
mystery.

A few contacts residing in Hawaii were provided, but most were unable to track
down Balmilero, and the rest didn't speak English.

Next stop was Australian television station Channel Nine, but no one
returned any of Macy's phone calls.

After weeks of attempting contact, to no avail, Macy's just gave up.
Instead, they extended the offer to Mahalo Designs of Honolulu, a
company that sells similar merchandise. The deal was closed in mid-March 2009
for roughly $8 million - the same amount they originally wanted to offer
Balmilero. "We just couldn't wait that long," says Lee, "we needed to close a
deal as soon as possible or risk losing valuable market share."

J. Jupland, one of Mahalo's attorneys, was asked about the deal, but
said he knows nothing about it, and that the whole story might just be
an April Fool's joke. He then went on to say "We wish everyone a happy
April Fool's Day and ask that you don't respond to this post until after April
2nd, and after Kimee gets a chance to read it."

Balmilero was unavailable for comment.



I don't know who did this....but you're my hero.

Thank you.

Love love,
Kimee

ps:If this ever really happens...you owe me 8million bucks. 'Cause you obviously know how to get a hold of me;)