Hello everyone!

It’s been quite a couple of weeks and I need to vent generically of course! Please bear with me as this is a little long but I promise, worth it!

Beloved had a problem with his partner, sort of. As you know beloved goes out for two weeks at a time. Now that could be thirteen day, fourteen days or fifteen days since you cannot 100% time this kind of a job. He always gets three days off (counting the day he comes home so he tries to make it an early day) and his partner gets the same. Well on the day he left for work, the phone rings about thirty minutes after he left and about an hour before I need to leave for work myself. It was his dispatcher asking for beloved. I told her that he had already left and is there a problem? (She has never called the house before so I knew something was up.) His partner lives about fifteen minutes from the terminal where they leave the big rig and we live about seventy five miles away. His partner left a message with the dispatcher that he needed more time at home but didn’t say why. All she knew was that there was a problem and needed to clarify with his partner and wanted beloved to be informed. I let her know where he was and did she think that he should wait there or just come home? She suggested that he come home until she knew what was up.

A big part of what I do to get beloved's stuff ready for the road is to make beloved nutritious meals that he either heats up or can be eaten cold that I store in the Coleman cooler.  If it’s in foil, it’s to be heated up and if it’s in Saran Wrap® or in Tupperware® then it’s to be eaten cold. We have saved a ton of money and he’s eating better. He still will get fast food on occasion but he has lost some weight but I digress ~

Bottom line is that his partner has a daughter who was due to ship out to Iraq for a second tour of duty the day after Easter Sunday (March 24^th). His partner wanted to be home for that weekend to be with his daughter but didn’t bother to let anyone know until about two hours before they were supposed to leave for their two weeks of driving. Since beloved finally found out what happened, we had to take all of my hard work and put it into the fridge. Guess what we ended up eating for an entire week? I also had to re-buy everything and make it all over again (with a few changes of course since beloved would be tired of the same thing) and repack it. The company beloved works for and the type of schedule that they are expected to keep made it hard not to get written up for it. But the dispatcher understood (wouldn’t you?) that his partner really needed to have those extra five days off. But his partner was written up for not giving proper notice since of course these things are not decided in a few days.

But now about my job ~

One of the other job coaches did a huge no-no and it’s affected many people including me. This person was given a certain adult as the only job coach for about a month and a half. This normally wouldn’t be a problem except what we learned at the monthly job coach meeting. For those of you who may not know, a job coach is part social worker, advocate for the adult, “eyes and ears” to both the adult and the place of work to be sure that everyone is doing their job correctly, trainer, and guide the adult as needed but that’s it. From what we all learned at the meeting from this person discussing the issues with this adult, this job coach came very close to crossing the line and was getting friendly with this adult. This of course, cannot happen or the job coach will not be effective and the adult cannot look at this person in the same light again.  Now this job coach cannot work with this adult again and since I am the “fixer,” I was elected to turn this adult around.

I don’t care what my hours are when beloved is working and my boss has always worked around my needs when he’s home. Well, this adult is the closer 90% of his shifts so that means I am working from 2PM-11PM for the past two weeks (including when beloved was home those extra five days, ouch!) and his place of work is nearly sixteen miles one way. We only get paid for the mileage if we see more than one person a day. Just like a regular job, you don’t get mileage for driving to work and back home again. That is the only thing that I don’t like but what can you do?

Anyway, I was the first job coach for this adult for his first two months and I broke him in correctly on what to do at his place of work. He worked really hard and then I was moved to the next adult that needed my touch. Now nearly a year later, I’m back and I have a lot of things to undo and to have my adult relearn again. He has convinced certain persons in management to forgive certain things that he does or doesn’t do since “he’s special” even though our company stresses that the adults are to be treated in the same manner as everyone else. We are there to guide them through the process of learning how to do their job correctly and back out when we aren’t needed any longer. This adult was down to maintain where we only stop by the place of business 15 hours or so a month to observe and do a monthly progress report. He had to agree to go back to the beginning where a job coach is with him 100% of his shifts or the company was going to fire him. He made the correct decision to start over.

By the time I came back two weeks ago, this adult has refused to do his job like bring in the shopping carts in a timely manner and put them in the correct place, clean the bathroom to company standards, call into work if you are going to be late for any reason, basically everything!   

My style is to be gentle but firm when needed. I listen and watch my adult ~ when and if I see/hear something that isn’t correct per that company policy (either my adult or the company) then I start teaching through example. If you don’t listen to my instructions the first time, no problem. Second time, I start to get a little unnerved inside. They may be mentally challenged, but they are the highest functioning adults around. If you saw one of them on the street, you wouldn’t know most of them were challenged in any way and some of them think they can get out of doing something due to their disability ~ this adult falls under this category.

Well, there’s a good reason that my boss calls me “the fixer” since in just over a week now, I have written two incident reports, had a few serious discussions with both the adult and my boss, and he has unlearned most of his bad habits and is well on his way to being the person the company hired again.

So, maybe you will understand when I cannot blog as much as I would love to and visit my friends like I used to. Please don’t lurk and leave me a message. It may take me a little bit to get back to you but I promise, I will answer!

Families speak about switched identity ordeal

The Ceraks and Van Ryns discuss their shared tragedy after horrific crash

By Mike Celizic

 

Thurs., March. 27, 2008

 

The story of Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak is one of sorrow turned to joy and joy turned to sorrow, of life turned to death and death turned to life. It is a story that now, two years after it made headlines across the nation and the world, can finally be told.

The title of the book the families of the two young women wrote says it all: “Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope.”

Mistaken identity case March 27: TODAY host Matt Lauer reports on the sad story of two girls who were in a highway crash and the tragic mistake authorities made.

Before appearing on TODAY on Thursday, the Van Ryns and Ceraks had not spoken to the media since their ordeal began on April 26, 2006. It was then that a van carrying five students and four employees from Taylor University, a small evangelical Christian college in Upland, Ind., was struck head-on by a tractor trailer whose driver had fallen asleep on I-69 between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.

Five people were killed instantly. One young woman was barely breathing when she was airlifted to a hospital with several broken bones and serious head trauma. The badly injured woman was identified as Laura Van Ryn, the dead woman as Whitney Cerak.

It wasn’t until five weeks later that the families learned the identifications were wrong.

The stunning reality was first suspected by Laura’s sister, Lisa, who had been part of an enormous support group of parents, family, a boyfriend and friends who had been keeping a 24-hour vigil at the side of the injured woman. She had noticed small things over the five weeks that made her wonder about the identity of the woman they thought was Laura. But, like everyone else, she had been told the attractive blonde they were caring for was Laura, and so they had believed it.

“She’s not going to look like herself,” the medical staff had told Lisa and her parents, Don and Susie Van Ryn, when they first came to see a comatose Laura in intensive care just hours after the accident.

“She was lying in the bed and we just saw her face,” said Don Van Ryn. “She had a bandage around her head. She had a tube in her mouth and a tube in her head. We looked at that face and we said, ‘Yeah, that’s Laura.’ ”

Colleen and Newell Cerak, meanwhile, were just as certain that their daughter, Whitney, had died. Carly Cerak, Whitney’s sister and also a student at Taylor, had been the first to arrive at the hospital where the dead had been taken. She was given Whitney’s purse, which had been found near the dead body. Nobody asked her if she wanted to see the body, and she didn’t ask.

“I was too emotional to have to see the body,” Carly told TODAY’s Matt Lauer. “So they just brought me back to a separate room and gave me her purse, which was horrible, even the sight of it. It smelled like gasoline and it was just dirty. And everything inside of it was snapped. They said that the purse was found next to the body.”

Colleen Cerak, who arrived later after a long drive from Gaylord, Mich., also decided not to view the body. Whitney’s father, Newell, who was 1,000 miles away on a mission in Mississippi, did not arrive until the following day. He, too, did not ask to see the body.

The school held an emotional memorial service for the five who were killed, and then the Ceraks buried the woman they believed was their daughter. By time of the funeral, Newell Cerak said, they were at peace with their loss, their strong faith assuring them that their beloved daughter and sister was with her maker in heaven.

“The funeral was a very joyous celebration,” he told Lauer. “It was actually a celebration of what God had done in her life.”

The injured woman remained in a coma for nearly two weekswhile the Van Ryns took turns sitting by her bedside, talking to her and singing to her. They had called Laura “Sunshine” because of her bubbly personality, and one of the songs they sang was “You Are My Sunshine.”

The family set up a blog and wrote daily reports on “Laura’s” progress. The Ceraks checked the blog often and even posted comments several times, letting the Van Ryns know they were praying for their daughter’s recovery.

Even though there were small things that didn’t quite fit — the injured woman’s teeth were slightly different than Laura’s, her eyes were a slightly different color and she had a pierced navel, which Laura’s family had not been aware of — the Van Ryns had been told to expect that Laura would not be the same person they had known as she came out of her coma.

“We were told various different things,” Susie Van Ryn said. “ ‘Don’t expect her to be who she was. Don’t expect big things. Don’t get too excited about things.’ ”

“She had the brain injury, and the neurons were firing but they weren’t connecting,” added her husband. “They said she may say things that don’t make any sense, she may do things that don’t make any sense.”

She called her boyfriend, Aryn, by a different name, but still it didn’t register.

Finally, she finally was able to write her name during a therapy session five weeks after her injury. But instead of writing “Laura,” she wrote “Whitney.”

Lisa was with the injured woman during the session. As she wheeled the woman she increasingly felt wasn’t her sister back to her room, she stopped and looked her in the eyes and asked her name.

“Whitney,” was the reply.

Laura Van Ryn’s family speaks March 27: Her sister, father and mother discuss for the first time how they dealt with their tragic and painful ordeal. Today show

Lisa then asked the names of her parents, and the answer was Newell and Colleen, names Laura could not have known. She gave no sign of surprise or shock. Instead, she told Whitney, “That’s great. You’re doing really well.”

When Whitney was back in her room, Lisa started making phone calls. Even two years later, her mother was unable to find a single word to describe what she felt when she learned the truth.

Don Van Ryn is able to put it in perspective. “She was one of five, Matt, and we’re very cognizant that there were four other families that suffered as well, and we became one of those,” he told Lauer.

As people of faith, didn’t they ever ask, “How can God allow this to happen?”

“Not so much,” Don Van Ryn replied. “Over the years, God has shown himself to us, and we kind of know his character. We know that bad things happen to good people. We believe that God is sovereign, and he takes an active part in our lives, and even in sorrow there is joy.”

While the Van Ryns were coming to grips with the knowledge that the woman they thought was their daughter was really Whitney Cerak, Whitney’s family, alerted at 2 in the morning, was having a hard time believing that she might be alive.

Carly and her mother drove down to the rehab center in Grand Rapids, Mich., with Carly insisting that they would not find Whitney when they went inside. Newell was on another mission, this time to New York, and also had a hard time grasping the idea that a life that had been lost had suddenly been found.

Colleen and Carly walked in the room, which was dim.

“I could tell it was Whitney right away,” said Colleen.

Carly fell on her sister, hugging her and crying and ignoring the nurses who were objecting to the breach of the nighttime peace. Carly ignored the nurses. She had her sister back.

Colleen called Newell and told him, “It’s really her.”

She put the phone to Whitney’s ear so she could hear her father’s voice. And in a whisper, she spoke into the phone: “I love you, Dad.”

Al Copeland died on Sunday. You might not know the name. In Louisiana and certainly around New Orleans, he was about as well known as anybody both for the chicken you can get at Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, the chain he started, and for his lavish, complicated and exuberant lifestyle.

He liked getting married. But all four of his marriages ended in divorce -- often acrimoniously. He liked Christmas. His house along Lake Pontchartrain in Kenner, La., was so lit up with lights at the holidays that airline pilots would use it to line up their approaches to the airport.

He liked fast cars and fast boats. He carried on a fun feud over the decor of one of his restaurants with no less than Anne Rice, the author of "Interview with the Vampire."

In short, he was a dream subject for reporters. Check out the obits on the man in The Times-Picayune (my former employer) and The New York Times. Or check out the brawl he got into in 2001.

But, while he was pretty good at the restaurant business (You can see what he did here), Copeland also did one of the dumbest deals ever when he took over Church's Chicken in a hostile takeover fight in 1989.

My point is not to beat on Al for the deal. Rather it's to note that Wall Street makes stupid mistakes again and again and again. The subprime mortgage crisis that has caused so much stress since last summer is hardly unique.

Check the Church's Chicken deal. It wasn't the biggest deal at the time, but it was just as dumb as the deal Canadian developer did to buy Federated Department stores, known today as Macy's, and Allied Stores. And Wall Street made it happen.

To make the Church's deal work, the bankers (including Merrill Lynch, Wasserstein Perella and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, allegedly smart guys all) agreed to let Copeland's company borrow 150% of the $392 million purchase price. That's right: 150% of the purchase price, give or take a million bucks. Copeland didn't have to put much money at all.

The plan was that the debt would be worked down by selling off surplus Church's restaurants. That decision probably caused every potential buyer to knock their offer for a Church's restaurant by 50% or so.

It took only a few years for the deal to blow up. Copeland's company couldn't make the debt payments. The banks declared him in default. His position seemed to be, "You lent me the money; it's your problem."

And, besides, he was about to get married at the New Orleans Museum of Art, a ceremony to which he invited hundreds. He and his wife (No. 3) left in a helicopter that sprinkled rose petals on the throng below as it lifted off.

Angered by Copeland's nuptial extravagance, the bankers forced Copeland's operating company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Eventually, they ended up owning it.

It's now known as ACE Enterprises with some 1,800 mostly franchised Popeyes outlets in 40 states  It went public, bought the Cinnabon and Seattle Coffee and sold both and Church's when the company got into trouble. The stock went to nearly $21 in May 2007 but has fallen more than 50% since.

But Al Copeland had the last laugh. A separate company owned the recipe to the spices for the chicken and has a contract to supply the spices until 2025. Without the recipe, Popeyes wasn't Popeyes. So, the company that was taken away by Wall Street ended up paying him millions.

Bus tours showing off foreclosed homes

Realtors eager to show off rash of properties meet with buyers in bulk

Prospective buyer Marcia Coleman takes a last look at the home she just viewed during the Foreclosure Bus Tour in Orlando, Fla.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The white bus rumbles into the quiet suburban neighborhood, heading toward a foreclosed home that sits empty. Neighbors, young and old, cock their heads in curiosity or point at the slow-moving coach.

Once the vehicle stops, about 20 potential buyers file out and become detectives, opening and closing cabinets and drawers, knocking on walls and asking about the price, the previous owners and what repairs may be needed.

Welcome to the Foreclosure Bus Tour, a six-hour expedition to show Orlando-area homes and educate potential buyers on the vagaries of snatching foreclosures in a state where the housing market has struggled over the past two years. Real estate agents have also organized tours in California, where the idea seems to have originated, and cities such as Phoenix, Detroit, Kansas City and Jacksonville.

The Orlando prospects included working-class people looking for a family home, speculators seeking a bargain investment and even a Brit trying to take advantage of the weak dollar. To avoid embarrassing owners, the bus stops only at empty homes.

"I thought it would be nice to have a look at some American houses all at once, see how the market works," said Geoff Lamont, a London tanker truck driver who was on vacation and dreams of moving to Florida with his wife.

"You see some nice, nice properties that are much cheaper than you can get in the U.K. It's been good. You can get a feel for how a place is," said Lamont, 50.

The homes were in the market after lenders took them over from owners who failed to make mortgage payments. In February, Florida trailed only Nevada and California in the percentage of homes in foreclosure. RealtyTrac Inc. said 32,447 homes were in foreclosure statewide in February, up more than 69 percent from February of last year and up more than 7 percent from January.

For Janice Ziesig, owner of Z House Realty Group in Orlando, the tours present allow her to show homes to many people at once. A cost of $45 per person or $65 per couple covered the tour, house information, teaching sessions, a continental breakfast and lunch at Applebee's. Everyone on the bus said the fee was worth it.

The March 15 tour also included a mortgage broker; a home inspector who pointed out details such as structural issues, water damage and electrical problems; an attorney who answered questions about title insurance and short sales; and real estate agents with information on square footage, when the home was built and other key information.

The group dynamic, with 20 people from different backgrounds and income levels, made for constant dialogue between prospective buyers and the experts.

"A day like this is a great laboratory and a great classroom, and it almost gives you a stepping-off point that when you do go to buy, it gives you areas you need to dig deep into," said Ken Nuckols, who was looking for a home.

The first house — in a subdivision with single-family homes, tennis courts and abundant green space — was an example of a fixer-upper that needs "a little lipstick and rouge," Ziesig said. At $201,000, the three-bedroom, two-bath home that was built in 2003 looked fine from the outside, but inside it had visible water damage on the walls, carpet stains and other issues.

Some were intrigued at the low price and the chance to fix it up. Others weren't.

"Either it was people who weren't very careful when they ripped stuff out or the people who owned it just didn't take care of it at all," Nuckols said. "You would have to invest quite a bit of money to bring it up to a standard that you would want."

The second property, a two-story home with four bedrooms and three baths, drew raves because it was so well-maintained. Built in 2004, the 2,514-square foot, two-story home was a relative bargain at $257,000.

Between stops, mortgage broker Cecil Moore answered questions on home loans and risk, telling the riders to get a deal that fits their budget to avoid foreclosure themselves.

"Go with your gut instinct," Moore said. "If you feel like something is not right with your financing or any aspect of the transaction, it's important to feel like ... you have the ability to bring things to a halt."

A few stops later, the bus arrived in a neighborhood where homes were much older. Homes with nice lawns and updated exteriors were peppered among others with sagging rain gutters and peeling paint.

Built in 1985, the three-bedroom, two-bath home with 1,543 square feet was rife with repair issues, including a pool deck that directed water toward the home instead of away. That made the $169,000 price just a starting point.

Kim Douglas Moore, a home inspector who is no relation to Cecil Moore, estimated that the home needed more than $30,000 in repairs.

Across the street, a woman and two girls sat in their front yard, and another neighbor came walking by. They were not enthusiastic about the traffic problem the bus's presence caused and having its passengers milling about.

"If it came through every day, it would be annoying because there's kids playing here all the time," said neighbor Jennifer Mastin.

Tour participant Beverly Frazier, of Poinciana, said she wanted to buy homes to rent, and had no misgivings about buying a home that once belonged to someone who couldn't meet loan obligations.

"It doesn't affect me because you didn't do your homework and you didn't budget properly," Frazier said. "When you purchase a home you have to know that it's a big commodity and you have to actually take care of it and do research on it."

The tour ended after seven homes, and while Ziesig received no concrete offers for any of the homes, she was happy she was able to make home buying more fun and accessible to potential buyers. She plans tours in April and May, and even wants to have a bilingual tour for Spanish-speakers.

"It's turning out just the way it's supposed to," Ziesig said. "We wanted to do something different. We wanted to teach people. People are interested. It gets people to call."

updated 1:59 a.m. PT, Tues., March. 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" when saying last week she had landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996. She later characterized the episode as a "misstatement" and a "minor blip."

The Obama campaign suggested the statement was a deliberate exaggeration by Clinton, who often cites the goodwill trip with her daughter and several celebrities as an example of her foreign policy experience.

During a speech last Monday on Iraq, she said of the Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

Here's the rest in case you want to read it (just click on here's the rest)

Any comments out there?

Grocers might offer taste of wine, beer

By Richard Roesler

The Spokesman-Review

Think of it: You go to the supermarket and en route from the carrots to the fish sticks, you stop and ... drink some beer.

Yup. Barring an unexpected legislative hiccup, a handful of grocery stores across the state will begin offering free wine and beer samples this fall.

Some lawmakers, worried about drivers and what children will think, say it's an unbelievably bad idea.

"Let's take a look at this bill. It's about drinking — in grocery stores," said Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland. "What are we thinking?"

For years, beer and winemakers have been asking lawmakers to let shoppers try their products. On Friday, the House narrowly approved the proposal over bipartisan objections.

"You're going to see booze being handed out for free. That's wrong," said Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, a retired Navy captain.

Proponents say it's unlikely that the samples — a third of a glass of wine or a sixth of a beer — will turn a neighborhood Safeway or QFC into a saloon.

The one-year pilot project, they say, will follow strict rules set up by state regulators. Samples will be limited.

Only 30 stores statewide can participate in the pilot. The tasting area will be segregated. And ads will be restricted to inside the store.

"You won't be seeing signs out on the street: 'Come and get your free wine sample,' " said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside.

Oregon already allows such sampling, he said.

Some lawmakers — particularly from wine-growing districts — suggested their colleagues are being a little puritanical.Wine is a legal product," said Rep. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla. "And if we quit putting such a stigma on that, maybe our kids, when they grow up, would not think that it was such a great thing to have alcohol."

Rep. Al O'Brien, D-Seattle, a retired police officer, argued that even a little alcohol can affect someone with a low tolerance.

But Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, noted that parents take their kids to restaurants or sporting events and often drink far more than the small samples allowed by Senate Bill 5751.

'Nuff said.'

The troubled star has sported a rounded stomach in recent times, and her latest outing has only served to further fuel whispers.

Rumours: speculation the star is expecting her third child continue to swirl.

Her medical visit comes a week after Birmingham-raised photographer Adnan Ghalib reportedly bragged to friends that Britney has "a baby Brummie in her tummy".

News of Ghalib's apparent bragging was first reported in Us Weekly, and another U.S. publication, Life & Style, has also speculated the star is with child.

But the paparazzo's relationship with Britney appears to already be in tatters after he was reportedly seen getting cosy with LA waitress Amanda Pagel this week.

Britney, who has only just regained visitation rights to her children Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, 17 months, was spotted holding a pregnancy test in a chemist's shop in January.

If the rumours prove true, it will no doubt be a huge blow for Britney's parents who are desperate for their daughter to pull her life together.

While the former pop princess has been offered support by a list of stars, most recently Heidi Klum, she is not getting any sympathy from Mr Nasty Simon Cowell.

The American Idol judge said in a recent interview that Britney has only herself to blame for her troubles.

Cowell said: "I think she's manipulated the whole thing, like waving a pregnancy test at the cameras."

 "I've heard she won't leave the house until there are enough photographers there."

Weighty matters: the star looked bloated during the outing.

"Even some of the biggest celebrities in the world manage to have a quiet life. Look at Tom Hanks, no one bothers him. So it is possible."

He was also unimpressed by Spears' latest musical efforts, saying: "I hated Britney's last album."

"That song 'Gimme More' sounded like a ringtone - it reminded me of that awful 'Crazy Frog' song. Utter rubbish.

"She could well have had her last No.1. And certainly her last meaningful one."

Baby whispers: all eyes have been on Britney's stomach in recent weeks. She put her more shapely figure on display here last month.

The greatest game show episode ever was on last night. Fox’s The Moment of Truth, which I hadn’t watched until last night, asks contestants difficult yes or no questions. If they tell the truth they earn more money, but if they lie they lose it all. Last night’s episode featured a wife, Lauren Cleri, that basically destroyed her husband, Frank Cleri, on national television for a chance to win $500,000. She was asked if she married the wrong guy, ever pretended to be single, if she had sex with another man during her marriage, and the toughest question of all …. watch the video to find out because it is worth it!

I also found a link to her entries on Myspace explaining her side and how her husband was "acting" since he supposed to know everything before the show aired but I won't list it here. Any comments out there?

Jay Leno, who will leave “The Tonight Show” next year to make way for Conan O’Brien, is not allowed to negotiate for a new job until November 2009. But his suitors are already circling.

LOS ANGELES — The Jay Leno chase is on.

Four years ago, NBC made the comedian the lame-duck host of “The Tonight Show,” announcing with fanfare that he would be succeeded by Conan O’Brien in 2009.

Today, Mr. Leno is still the champion of late-night ratings, with no apparent desire to do anything else but continue on top. “What I do,” he has said on several occasions to colleagues, “is tell jokes at 11:30 at night.”

And so, nearly two years before he can officially be courted, suitors including two networks, ABC and Fox, and at least one television studio, Sony Pictures Television, are beginning to circle, doing everything they legally can to make sure Mr. Leno knows that they will make it possible for him to continue doing just that.

Senior executives at ABC and Fox said that their networks had discreetly gotten the message to Mr. Leno that they were waiting eagerly for the time when they would be able to make official overtures. NBC Universal, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed its intention to retain Mr. Leno with a still-undisclosed plan for a new program.

Sony Pictures Television has made an approach through intermediaries to let Mr. Leno and his representatives know that as soon as he is allowed to discuss his next move, the studio will make him a rich offer for a syndicated late-night show that would make him the highest-paid host in late-night television, put his name on a new theater on the Sony lot and give him a financial interest in Sony music artists who appear on his show.

Executives who have heard the details of the plan said the move was Sony’s effort to stake a flag in the ground, knowing how intense the pursuit of Mr. Leno was likely to be in coming months.

In a series of interviews here, executives on several sides of the courtship of Mr. Leno outlined possible plans for his future. They all asked to speak anonymously because they are not allowed to negotiate with Mr. Leno until November 2009, when a negotiating window will open up in Mr. Leno’s deal with NBC.

Executives who know the details of his contract said Mr. Leno would remain attached to NBC through the end of 2009 even though he probably would not be on the air for the last six months of the contract. Mr. Leno’s contract is estimated to pay him about $25 million a year — which is less than David Letterman’s, which pays him more than $30 million. “Jay will of course honor his contract obligations to NBC,” said Kenneth Ziffren, Mr. Leno’s lawyer. (Mr. Leno works without a formal deal with an agent or manager.) “Jay isn’t talking to anyone about anything and won’t be until it’s contractually proper,” Mr. Ziffren said.

In 2004, when they established a plan for the network’s late-night future, NBC executives most likely did not expect to find themselves facing the prospect of losing another incumbent late-night star to a competitor. That happened in the early 1990s when Mr. Letterman defected to CBS after Mr. Leno won the battle to succeed Johnny Carson.

Instead, the announcement of the five-year transition from Mr. Leno to Mr. O’Brien in 2009 cut off efforts by other networks to steal away Mr. O’Brien, whose “Late Night” appears on NBC after “Tonight,” and secured five more years with both Mr. Leno and Mr. O’Brien in the NBC fold.

But if the expectations at NBC had been that Mr. Leno, as he approached 60, would be showing signs of slackening in popularity, he has defied them, winning in the ratings virtually every night, even during the recent three-month writers’ strike. Mr. Leno’s ratings dominance even without writers was noted throughout the television business, and only heightened the already intense curiosity surrounding his next move.

Mr. Letterman is signed at CBS through 2010.

The terms of Mr. Leno’s contract, as well as the tentative plan for how and when Mr. O’Brien will step in to replace him on “Tonight,” have set up a sequence of events that will have both comedians off the air in 2009 for extended periods of time.

Executives close to the planning said the expectation now was that Mr. O’Brien would leave “Late Night” next January, allowing him five months to reshape his show for the transition from New York to Los Angeles and the earlier time period of “Tonight.”

NBC has begun construction on a new studio for “Tonight,” as well as offices for Mr. O’Brien’s staff, on its Universal lot here. Several executives predicted that NBC would use the months Mr. O’Brien will be off the air to introduce his successor, widely expected to be Jimmy Fallon, the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member. Mr. Fallon is the favorite of Lorne Michaels, the “Saturday Night Live” producer who had success in choosing the unknown Mr. O’Brien in 1993 to succeed Mr. Letterman and who will again be involved in the selection of the new host of “Late Night.” Moving into the show next February would mean Mr. Fallon could benefit from the lead-ins from Mr. Leno’s last months on “Tonight.”

But the terms of NBC’s contract also mean Mr. Leno could not return to the air anywhere else until January 2010. That would give Mr. O’Brien an extended period on “Tonight” without facing competition from Mr. Leno.

“The Tonight Show” earns an estimated $100 million a year. Mr. Leno, who turns 58 in April, has kept his intentions for his post-“Tonight” career to himself, declining any comment about what he might choose to do after his contract expires. His friends and associates have speculated that he could be looking for some way to make NBC regret asking him to make way for Mr. O’Brien — though Mr. Leno publicly has been nothing but supportive of Mr. O’Brien.

As a guest last month on another late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC, Mr. Leno declared his intention to go through with the move.

That comment countered what had become rampant speculation that NBC might reconsider at the last minute and ask Mr. Leno to stay on at “Tonight.” But NBC executives, including the chief executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, have reaffirmed their commitment to Mr. O’Brien. And if they did change their minds, they would owe Mr. O’Brien a penalty payment: an estimated $45 million.

One of Mr. Leno’s potential suitors said, “I expect money will play a secondary role to revenge and Jay will look to prove to everybody that NBC was wrong.”

Several of those trying to guess Mr. Leno’s next move suggested that motivation would be one of many reasons why ABC enjoys the best chance to land him. That network could abandon its “Nightline” news program at 11:35 p.m. to give Mr. Leno a show that could go directly against “Tonight.” Fox, in contrast, would offer him an 11 p.m. slot.

Executives at Fox, though, say that network’s pitch to Mr. Leno will use its recent prime-time dominance as a selling point. Executives at ABC, meanwhile, say the network will stress its lineup of prime-time hits as well as the lead-in power of the late local news on its stations.

“Another performer would find getting a jump at 11 an advantage,” one Fox executive said. “But probably not Jay, who will want to be head to head against NBC.”

If Mr. Leno prefers a face-to-face network battle with NBC, that could make it difficult for Sony Pictures Television or any other syndicator to win out over network offers, executives say. But those who have heard the details of Sony’s plan say that by 2010, when Mr. Leno would finally return to the studio, networks will be further diminished as viewers get their programming from a wider array of sources.

Sony also has the backing of its chief executive, Howard Stringer, who, when he held a similar position at CBS, was in the middle of the last late-night roundelay, wooing Mr. Leno with a vintage motorcycle, which led to NBC’s decision to commit to him over Mr. Letterman — which in turn led to Mr. Stringer’s landing Mr. Letterman for CBS.

The president of Sony Television, Steve Mosko, declined to comment. But executives who have heard some of the details of Sony’s plans said the studio intended to throw a kitchen sink of proposals at Mr. Leno.

“When he walks on the lot, there’ll be a Yellow Brick Road to the Jay Leno Theater, which will sit at the centerpiece of the Sony lot,” said an executive who has seen the plans.

Sony is expected to promise Mr. Leno $40 million a year or more — the top salary in late night. The studio would also give him ownership, not just of his own show, but also of a second hourlong late-night show designed to follow Mr. Leno’s — a construction that Mr. Letterman already enjoys at CBS, with his “Late Show” and “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.” (Mr. Leno does not own “Tonight.”)

The terms are not likely to drive off the competition for Mr. Leno’s services. Referring to the executives with ultimate control over ABC and Fox, one NBC executive said, “Bob Iger and Peter Chernin are camped out at Leno’s garage.”

No matter how elaborate their charm offensive may be, Mr. Leno cannot sign with anyone else until very late next year, and cannot be on the air anywhere until January 2010. That is not a lot of time to prepare a new show.

But perhaps not for Mr. Leno. “He could hire an executive producer and staff up,” said one executive who has worked with him. “He’d probably be ready to go after a weekend.”