miércoles

Ah, miércoles. One of the best words in the Spanish language. It is one of my favorites, along with melocotones and mariposa.

Ooo, we might have rain here as early as Friday. I'm excited. I do love the rainy season. It might mean I have to put up my Birks for the time being. Maybe I'll leave them here at work and change from my sneakers.

Here's the first pic I ever took from my first ever cell phone (we're at Red Robin in Newark). Sallie's contract with Verizon was up for renewal so we decided to get a family plan and we liked T-Mobile's MyFaves list. I can call 5 numbers for free at anytime. The stupid thing is that the phones in the family plan are not free as well. So Sallie is one of my five. Work had to be one as well as my folks and Joanna. That left one free for a wildcard which I can change every month. Last month it was Anne but I never called her so I'll leave her on again in October.

We got free phones and I liked the slider from Samsung. You can record memos to yourself and then use them as ringtones. I recorded myself saying "Sallie is calling you. Pick up the phone." and set it to Sallie's number. Today she called and I actually heard it from deep within my bag. I recorded the 24 phone ring from a website I found and set Joanna's cell phone to that. She has yet to call while it's been set up properly so I'll let you know if it works.

I was wanting a little sleeve or pouch to protect my new fancy phone and Sallie is so cool that she got out her crochet hook and made up a bunch in various colors. I liked the black one the best but now my phone gets lost in my bag since it's dark and everything else in that pocket is black. I thought I could find some reflective tape from one of the cyclists in the office but no one had any. Brian found a couple red reflective dots and gave them to me but they're rather ugly. What I really want is something thin that I can weave through the loops of the crochet.

Now that I have a cell I keep expecting people to call me. No one really called me before so I don't know why I think they will now. And I can't really expect anyone to call if I'm not calling them! It has come in handy a bit with me and Sallie when she's headed to Costco and wants to know if I need anything.

Ah, miércoles. Una de las mejores palabras de la lengua española. Es uno de mis favoritos, junto con melocotones y mariposa.

Ooo, puede ser que tengamos lluvia aquí desde viernes. Soy emocionado. Amo la estación de lluvias. Puede ser que signifique que tengo que poner mi Birks de momento. Quizá I' el ll los deja aquí en el trabajo y cambia de mis zapatillas de deporte.

Aquí está el primer pic que tomé nunca de mi primer teléfono celular (en el petirrojo rojo en Newark). El contrato Sallie tenía con Verizon estaba para arriba para la renovación así que decidíamos conseguir un plan y nos de la familia tuvimos gusto de la lista de MyFaves de T-Mobile. Puedo llamar cinco números para libre en cualquier momento. La cosa estúpida es que los teléfonos en el plan de la familia no están libres también. Sallie es tan uno de mis cinco. La oficina tuvo que ser una así como mi gente y Juana. Eso dejó uno libremente para un comodín que puedo cambiar cada mes. Era el mes pasado Anne pero nunca la llamé así que la dejaré encendido otra vez en octubre.

Conseguimos los teléfonos libres y tuve gusto del resbalador de Samsung. Usted puede registrar notas a se y después utilizarlas como ringtones. Me registré que decía el " Sallie le está llamando. Coja el phone." y fíjelo al número de Sallie. Ella llamó hoy y lo oí realmente profundamente dentro de mi bolso. Registré los 24 anillos del teléfono de un Web site que encontré y fijé Joanna' número del teléfono celular de s a eso. Ella tiene todavía llamar mientras que se ha fijado correctamente así que le dejaré saber si trabaja.

Quería una pequeña manga o la bolsa para proteger mi nuevos teléfono y Sallie de lujo es tan fresca que ella salió de su gancho de ganchillo y compuso un manojo en varios colores. Tuve gusto el negro el mejor pero mi teléfono consigue perdido ahora en mi bolso puesto que es oscuro y todo en ese bolsillo es negro. Pensé que podría encontrar un poco de cinta reflexiva a partir del uno de los ciclistas en la oficina pero nadie tenía cualesquiera. Brian encontró puntos reflexivos rojos de un par y me los dio pero son algo feos. Qué quiero realmente es algo delgadamente que puedo tejer a través de los lazos del ganchillo.

Ahora que tengo un teléfono yo guarde el esperar que de la gente me llame. Nadie me llamaron realmente antes tan de mí don' t sabe porqué pienso que ahora. ¡Y no puedo esperar realmente que cualquier persona llame si no los estoy llamando! Ha venido en práctico un pedacito conmigo y Sallie cuando la dirigen a Costco y quiere saber si necesito cualquier cosa.

martes

Paul and I had lunch today at the Indian restaurant nearby that has a korma that is tolerably mild. Sometimes I'm in the mood for the spices of India and sometimes not. I think I want it but then as I'm eating it I realize that I'd really rather be eating Thai. There's something darker and moodier about Indian flavors that I rarely appreciate. I always feel thirsty.

Anyway, at this Indian place they have daily specials that include the main dish (chicken korma, if the gods are with me) along with a spiced rice, a cucumber/lettuce salad and the vegetable curry of the day. The curry's always too spicy for me so, if I remember (which I did not do today), I request that I get more salad in exchange for the curry. They're very accommodating, so much so that we feel fine asking for korma or, in Paul's case, chicken tikka masala, instead of whatever's on special. Oh, I almost didn't mention that you also get a big basket of naan. How could I forget!? It's so yummy.

To complete my food finds of the day, I must mention that my Starbucks had the pumpkin muffins this morning. I love the combination of the pumpkin cake and the creamy cream cheese center topped off with some roasted pumpkin seeds. Such a good reason to love fall! My Starbucks drink is hot chocolate and they just came out with three signature hot chocolates: Signature Hot Chocolate, Salted Caramel HC, and Hazelnut HC. I may have to try all three.

Paul y yo almorzábamos hoy en el restaurante indio cerca que tiene un Korma que sea tolerable suave. Estoy a veces en el humor para las especias de la India y a veces no. Pienso que la quiero pero por otra parte como yo la estoy comiendo yo realice que sería realmente algo consumición tailandesa. There' s algo más oscuro y más cambiante sobre los sabores indios que aprecio raramente. Siento siempre sediento.

De todas formas, en este lugar indio tienen specials diarios que incluyan el plato principal (pollo Korma, si dioses están conmigo) junto con un arroz condimentado, una ensalada del pepino/de la lechuga y el curry vegetal del día. El curry es siempre demasiado picante para mí así pues, si recuerdo (que no hice hoy), yo pide que consigo más ensalada a cambio del curry. Son muy serviciales, tanto de modo que sintamos muy bien que piden masala del tikka de Korma o, en el caso de Paul, del pollo, en vez de lo que está en special. Oh, casi olvidé la mejor parte -- una cesta grande de naan. ¿Cómo podría olvidar!? Es tan deliciosa.

Para terminar mis hallazgos del alimento del día, debo mencionar que mi Starbucks tenía los molletes de la calabaza esta mañana. Amo la combinación de la torta de la calabaza y del centro cremoso del queso poner crema rematados apagado con algunas semillas de calabaza asadas. ¡Una tan buena razón para amar caída! Mi Starbucks bebe es chocolate caliente y acaban de salir con tres chocolates calientes de la firma: Chocolate caliente de la firma, caramelo salado HC, y avellana HC. Puedo tener que intentar los tres.

lunes

I stayed up last night until after midnight so I could listen to the last Midnight Baseball re-broadcast of the year. I do love going to sleep listening to a baseball game. I'm more a fan of the A's than the Giants but KNBR replays every Giants game at midnight so I listen to the Giants. I enjoy their broadcasters too, especially Jon Miller and Dave Fleming, though all of them are good.

I'm a bit sad the regular season is over. Having two teams in my area means there's a game on almost every night. I don't get that much hockey coverage especially with the NHL not being on ESPN anymore. I do get the NHL channel now though so I get to watch the Canadian hockey shows. That's almost as good. I should see if they're ramping up to the season with any preview shows or training camp reports. I bet they are.

I wonder how soon I can sign up for NHL Center Ice. I had purchased it a couple seasons ago and when baseball season started in the spring I got to watch baseball for free. The two packages share channels in my system. Somehow the channels never got turned off. I made the mistake of actually ordering Center Ice last season and they found out I was getting Extra Innings for free so this baseball season I was blocked out. I didn't need it this summer anyway with my favorite pitcher not playing anymore and both the A's and Giants on all the time.

I'm watching Monday Night Football right now and I love HD but I really don't need to be looking at some guy's eye injury that closely. Thanks. It's just gross.

As a special bonus, I'm translating this week's posts into Spanish using Babel Fish. Enjoy the fun mistakes!

No me fui a la cama anoche hasta después de medianoche así que podría escuchar la retransmisión de medianoche pasada del béisbol del año. Amo el ir a dormir escuchando un juego de béisbol. Soy más un ventilador del A' s que el Giants pero KNBR juega de nuevo cada juego de Giants en la medianoche así que escucho el Giants. Gozo sus locutores también, especialmente de Jon Miller y de Dave Fleming, aunque todos son buenos.

Soy un pedacito triste la temporada he terminado. Tener dos equipos en mis medios del área allí es un juego en casi cada noche. No consigo a eso mucha cobertura del hockey especialmente con el NHL que no está en ESPN más. Consigo el NHL ahora acanalo sin embargo así que consigo mirar las demostraciones canadienses del hockey. That' s casi como bueno. Debo ver si ramping hasta la estación con cualesquiera demostraciones de la inspección previo o informes del campo de entrenamiento. Aposté que son.

Me pregunto cuando puedo firmar para arriba para el hielo de centro del NHL. Lo compré un par hace estaciones y cuando la estación de béisbol comenzó en el resorte yo conseguí mirar el béisbol para libre. Los dos paquetes comparten los canales en mi sistema. Los canales nunca consiguieron de alguna manera apagados. Incurrí en la equivocación realmente de pedir el hielo de centro la estación pasada y encontraron que salía los turnos adicionales para la esta de béisbol estación libre así que que me bloquearon. No la necesité este verano de todos modos con mi jarra preferida que no jugaba más y ambos los A' s y Giants encendido todo el tiempo.

Estoy mirando el balompié de la noche de lunes ahora y amo HD pero no necesito realmente mirar alguÌ�n guy' lesión de ojo de s que de cerca. Gracias. Es apenas gruesa.

Como prima especial, estoy traduciendo los postes durante esta semana a español usando Babelfish. ¡Disfrute de los errores de la diversión!

Friday

I use the basic Quicken to write checks for our main checking account. In order to avoid duplicating my effort, I'll be switching to using Peachtree to write checks pretty soon. I'm a little bummed about it though. The Mac version of Quicken has such a nice look with which Peachtree cannot compete. It's just so ugly.

Also, having to running Parallels to get to my check register may cause me a bit of a hang up. I'm used to being able to switch back and forth between many programs at once including some pretty heavy CPU and memory users: Excel, Photoshop, InDesign, FileMaker to name a few. Parallels eats up a lot of power and memory so I almost can't do design work when I have it running. Which would mean not being able to write checks -- or look up a check I've written -- on the spur of the moment. Something I do many times a day.

Today for lunch I went over to the SF shopping center and got some potstickers and brown rice from the Bristol Farms hot food selections. I was really looking for their roasted turkey cuz it's so hella good. I almost got some scalloped potatoes from the comfort food bar but the rice and gyoza just looked yummy. I spied some organic honey crisp apples so grabbed a couple. There was no birch beer or sarsaparilla in the specialty soda case so I made due with water back at the office. All in all it was a good lunch.

I have this weird habit of staying late on Fridays. I explain it by saying the other days I know I have to come in the next day so there's no reason not to just go on home. But on Fridays I tend to just keep on working. I've been tending to work until after 7 most days anyway. Then I don't come in until 10:30 or so. I get loads done after most everyone else has gone. I do have one late night companion down the hall so I'm usually not here by myself.

Have you ever wondered who the strange phone number is calling you? Try visiting WhoCallsMe? or Who Called Us to see if someone else is getting the same calls.

I almost forgot to comment on Survivor. Hhmmm. Not a clear fave for me yet. Perhaps Ace. Bob the Bow-Tie-Wearing Physics Teacher is pretty awesome too. I was agreeing with Charlie as I saw the tribes forming. Almost all the predictably weak people on one tribe? Not too smart. Love the tribe names though: Kota and Fang. Are those African words? I have to report that the HD was true HD and I switched my DVR recording over as soon as I got home. I caught over half of it and it was lovely. Jeff's looking hot (Emmy-winner!).

Thursday

Today has been a bit crazy with coming in late from my eye appointment and having to process payroll and get a cash flow report done for our Board Treasurer. Tomorrow morning we're having the first monthly conference call with her since she started in this role. It's one of those things that I don't think I need to be involved in but my boss likes to get me involved in. It's not like he can't answer any questions I can (and more).

So, new glasses. I have to say I love my new optometrist. She is awesome. We're the same age even. She went to see Journey last night so was tired and husky-voiced. She answered all my questions and didn't mind me asking them. They took a digital photo of my retinas which looked super healthy. Now we have a baseline to check against for the future. It turns out that my prescription actually has decreased a bit in power since the last time I had an exam (which was over two years ago). Dr. Atkinson said that that is typical and normal for someone my age with myopia.

I picked out some new frames that are half rimless. I was thinking I wanted metal frames all around but this will be better since I've been wearing rimless ones for so long. I'm no girly girl who likes patterns and pretty things much but the frames I picked have a subtle pattern at the corners near the hinges. They're by Sigrid Olson (SO116 in graphite).

We had a bit of a kerfluffle with our internet service today. Someone made a change on the router and, whoops! we were all less productive for awhile. I actually got a bit scared because I do payroll online. I actually could've waited and done it tomorrow, I suppose. It has to be done two days before payday which is Tuesday. We pay once a month on the last business day.

I got a call from my credit card company yesterday asking me to confirm some recent charges. Turns out someone had gotten a hold of my card number and was somehow using it to make purchases at Office Depot and Wal-Mart. I had to use my ATM card to pay for my glasses this morning since they cancelled my Visa. Good thing I didn't fall in love with some fancy designer frames. Actually, I was surprise how reasonably priced the designer frames were. I really liked some Juicy Couture ones that were less than $200 until I saw their little label on the temple. No, thanks. The most expense ones I looked at were at a bit over $300 (Calvin Klein). The two I ended up choosing between were $135 (Revlon) and the $150 ones I got.

I did get to the library before my appointment so got the books. I can't wait to sit down and start reading them. I'm on a romance kick right now, specifically Regency romances. I checked out a bunch of eBooks but then had to reserve some actual physical books to fill in the holes of series that weren't completely available electronically.

Were you sad that Ted McGinley got eliminated from Dancing? Me, either. Good riddance. Survivor starts tonight. They say it's going to be on in HD but all the ads I've seen have not been. If they mess with the proper proportions I'll have to watch it in regular definition on the regular channel. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Wednesday

My boss works at home on Wednesdays so it's a free day for me. Well, not really but sometimes it feels like that. Not that he's always looking over my shoulder or anything. But I don't have to worry about it if I'm surfing the web for iCal calendars for my favorite hockey teams.

I really should stop getting distracting by new software. I just wanted to provide a bit of support to our IT guy since he's the only one who really knows how to use iCal and it's dragging him down a bit. Trying to persuade people that switching is a good thing is hard. Nothing will be the same so we have to find out what's good about it and try to ignore what we'll be missing.

Today was the monthly meeting of what we call the Money Squad. It includes the people most involved in dealing with the nitty gritty of incoming funds. Because we enter every check, money order and credit card charge into our main database, we often deal with issues related to how information is entered, not just money-related items. It's a good place to work out the best way of collecting and tracking that info. Not only am I involved in the finance part of the equation, but I'm also the resident FileMaker expert. The two go pretty well together for me but I wish I had more time to really concentrate on making the database the most functional it could be.

I just checked my library account and 5 of the 9 items I have on hold are ready to be picked up, including a book that wins my Best Title Ever award, By Schism Rent Asunder. Too bad the library would be closed by the time I'd get there. I wish they were open until 8 every night instead of just Mondays and Tuesdays. I guess I should be happy for that much. Maybe I'll stop by tomorrow before my eye appointment. It's at 10:30 and the library opens at 10.

Yes, I'm finally getting my eyes checked and getting new glasses. We changed insurance two years ago and I never made the effort of finding an optometrist. I used to just go down the block to Site for Sore Eyes. But now our insurance doesn't cover them. The real reason I'm getting new glasses is that mine are about to break. They're rimless and there are big cracks radiating out from the holes they drilled to attach the nosepiece. I'm afraid they're going to fall apart at any minute. I'm still seeing great so I don't think my prescription will need changing much.

Who was sad that Jeffrey was eliminated from Dancing last night? You? You? You? Anyone? I didn't think so. I'm definitely still loving Lance and Lacey with the blond kids a second fave. I have no prediction who will be gone tonight. I hope it's not Mark and Kim only because he's hot and I like how he dances with his mouth open so much!

Tuesday

Wasn't Dancing with the Stars awesome last night? I just have so many favorites to choose from. Should I be for the two blond kids, Cody and Julianne? Or Kim and Mark? Or Brooke and Derek? Hmmm, I liked them all but my favorite last night had to be Lance and Lacey. I loved her on So You Think You Can Dance.

I got distracted today by reading about FileMaker Pro. We've been limping along with FMP 6 for many years because it's such a huge cash investment to upgrade. I think we'll still need to do it even if we choose to move our main contacts database to another system. While reading about FileMaker Pro 9 and doing the tutorial, I felt a bit sick to my stomach as I discovered all the added functionality and fixes they've built in over the last few upgrades. My job would've been much easier if we had upgraded and converted a few years ago.

I really shouldn't be working on FileMaker anyway. I still have Peachtree to conquer and July and August bookkeeping to finalize. I'm late going on my bookkeeping because of the audit and switching over to Peachtree. I'm very close though.

Another distraction is our transition to using iCal for our office calendar. Some of it is good but there will be plenty of things to miss from our Now Up to Date system. My pet peeve of iCal so far is that in Month view you can't scroll week to week, you're stuck seeing the entire month no matter what day it is in the month. For example, today is the 22nd so I'm only allowed to see one week ahead though I can see three weeks behind. That's not very helpful.

I'm sure you've all been wondering if Enid did discover her husband wasn't really her husband and he wasn't. He was his cousin! She ended up with him anyway once she discovered her estranged wastrel of a husband had died in the explosion that damaged the laird. Now I'm wondering when Caroline will discover that Jude, Lord Huntingdon is actually a spy instead of the fop he appears to be.

Monday

I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm was to go off and decided to catch a bit more shut-eye since I stupidly stayed up until 3am last night. I was successful in falling back to sleep but felt horrid when the alarm went off. However, I was kinda glad to get out of the dream I was having because it was about my audit and how I wasn't doing things right.

I made it to the BART station and found a good parking place but missed the 10-car train so had to sit squashed into a 4-car. I think they should all be 10-car trains at least until noon.

I've been learning my new accounting software and today was so into it I didn't break until 4pm to have lunch. I only took the time to run down for a slice of pizza and a Coke. I don't think it's going to last me very long. I really need to go to Safeway and get milk and other things. Yesterday I found this great pesto in my bare cupboard which I mixed with some plain tomato sauce for a lovely spaghetti sauce. I may have it again tonight.

My accounting software (Peachtree) is Windows-only and one crucial function I need is to export reports so I can combine and edit them in Excel. I didn't have Excel installed in my Windows system (it's running in Parallels on my iMac) and Peachtree won't export to a text-only file; it has to have Excel. I had install discs for Office 2007 for Windows but my XP is so old it wouldn't install. I tried to upgrade my XP to no avail. I ended up finding an Office 2003 disc and was able to install Excel finally. Peachtree basically copies the report into an Excel file with no intermediary step. I can then save it and open it in my Mac Excel to manipulate it.

I am really enjoying learning Peachtree though it's still a struggle to convert for-profit thinking to my not-for-profit reality.

I was just about to sign off and head out when my late-night colleague down the hall came by with an offer of some cheesecake. I'll stay for a bite and then catch the train home. I have to get back to my eBook and find out if Enid's amnesiac husband is really who everyone thinks he is.