Friday, October 31, 2008

Sexta-feira

Well, I finished Breaking Dawn and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit anti-climactic at the end. I was expecting more gore and mayhem. There are some holes I'd like to see filled as well. Perhaps in the next one.

I woke up this morning from an unsettling dream starring one of my co-workers. She was making unreasonable demands on my time and independence but I was refusing to go along with it. My boss was there as well though didn't seem to have much of an opinion one way or the other. I had to deal with her today and, wouldn't you know it, she had massive changes to the project we're working on. I thought it was almost done.

That pumpkin cake last night was not so great. I'd rather have a slice of pumpkin loaf from Starbucks. My favorite barrista was wearing a devil costume this morning. He was adorable.

We've been having a tiny bit of rain here which has been nice. I've only gotten sprinkled on a bit so I didn't bring my umbrella. Well, there wasn't any room for it in my bag anyway what with the huge Stephenie Meyer book and my backup book (in case I finished it, which I did).

It's only 4:45 and it feels like almost everyone is gone from the office and it's time to go home. I may just leave early myself.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Quinta-feira

I went by Leti's office around 2 or so and she had a chunk of pumpkin cake from Bristol Farms which looked delish. I just had to go get some. They have the most melt-in-your-mouth roasted turkey on the hot bar but not everyday. Lucky for me, they had it today! I got enough, I thought, for tomorrow as well but ended up eating it all. It was so good. I haven't tried the cake yet. I was too full of turkey!

I started the last Twilight book (Breaking Dawn) this morning on BART. I was so into it that when I got to my station I was so upset. Jacob had just shown up at Bella's wedding reception. I guess I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.

I finished the last in the Saxon Tales series by Bernard Cornwell (Sword Song) yesterday. It was too short. I wanted Uhtred's story to keep going and going. I'll have to check his website and see when the next one is coming out. I might have to read some of his other stories. He has an Arthur trilogy that looks interesting.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Quarta-feira

I think I'm going to whip up some mashed potatoes to go with my leftover steak from last night. And when I say "whip" I mean, add boiling water/milk to a packet of dried potato flakes. I wonder if some Better Than Bouillon would work in the water/milk mixture. I might be up for an experiment.

I showed Clint the Apple Mail plug-in that I got (WideMail) to view my messages in a panel on the right instead of always on the bottom. He then sent me a page full of links to other plug-ins and apps for use with Mail. I've spent a little too much time on that page and blog. But I love finding out how to work better and more efficiently. I'm trying out two others right now: Flagit! and DockStar.

Flagit allows customized flags but to apply them is not a one-click function (you have to right-click and choose from the contextual menu) and it seems you can't sort by the custom flags or use them in Smart Mailboxes or Rules. Doesn't seem that useful to me.

With DockStar you can add and customize up to five notification badges on your Dock icon with your chosen colors and shapes for whichever mailboxes you want to track. I have mine set to my Gmail inbox, my work mailbox (which is filled using Rules) and my work inbox (which collects mail that doesn't fit any Rules). I set only my work box to alert me with a sound. We'll see if it helps or if it's just annoying.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Terça-feira

Maybe it's the weather but I felt very sleepy at work today. Maybe it was going to bed before midnight. I'm hoping the time change next weekend will facilitate an earlier schedule for me. I need to get home before 8 or 9 every night.

Sallie called me yesterday and postponed our steak dinner until today. I'm looking forward to the meat but may be even more excited about the crème brûlée. The portion is generous and tastes amazing.

I wonder if the World Series will ever be over. I set my DVR anyway in case they could play a few innings in Philly today. I guess not. And now they're calling for snow there tomorrow. Maybe they should just play in Tampa.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Segunda-feira

Rein Supreme?

I read fan fiction online which is not subject to editing by publishers who hopefully know what they're doing when it comes to correct punctuation and word usage. Some common mistakes by fan fic authors are in confusing "your" and "you're" and putting in apostrophes in plurals where they're not needed (the pack of Slytherin's entered their common room). Another common misuse is "reign" for "rein" when using the phrase "have free rein". I'm sadly getting quite desensitized to these mistakes which does not bode well for my proofreading career. They still bother me but I've kind of given up getting upset by incorrect usage when reading works by amateur writers.

Not so when it comes to books printed by actual publishing companies like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I read books one through three this weekend on my computer (hooray for electronic libraries!) and to my dismay I saw the phrase "free reign". I nearly had a conniption fit. How did that make it past the editors and proofreaders? Was I reading fan fiction by mistake? Has the phrase "free reign" become acceptable usage now? I mean, it makes some sense: To reign freely, with no constraints in ruling over others. But, come on. That's just not right.

Regarding the books, I wasn't too excited by them. They were okay. I think knowing they were so popular made my expectations too high and I didn't enjoy them as much as if I'd never heard of them before. To me they were a bit too melodramatic and too much about how beautiful Edward is. We get the idea, Bella. Okay, already. I really didn't find Bella all that interesting anyway. Maybe she gets better once she's turned. Oops, did I spoil that for anyone?

Friday, October 24, 2008

Venerdì

I've discovered a bit of a hang up in my new accounting software. I want to be able to choose which units to add up in a financial report but the only available choices are the whole department or just a single unit. I can't do a range and I can't pick and choose units. That's a bit of a bummer. I was trying to make a report for units 63-66 but I couldn't. It was all the 60s (we also have 60 and 67) or just one at a time. I can pick and choose in my General Ledger reporting so maybe I'll see if I can adapt something there. I won't be able to compare to budget I don't think...

Sallie called today wondering if I wanted to get together tomorrow. She has tomorrow off as her second day off this week. Then next week she has Monday and Tuesday. So she works Sunday then is off again. She doesn't know when her next day off after that will be. I don't think I could handle not knowing until a week ahead when my days off would be. For that and many other reasons, I'm glad I don't work in retail.

In celebration of fall, I share with you this series of photos of Zander and Zoe from 2005:


Thursday, October 23, 2008

Giovedì

On the escalator going down to the BART station last night I got on a step that was jerking up and down. I quickly moved to the step above. I thought it was going to blow up any second. Those escalators are out of service every month. It's not as bad as in Sallie's store. She says they're out of service every week. That's some bad escalators.

If you're a Beckham fan you'd like my block right now. There's a huge sign of David in just his undies for Emporio Armani by the cable car turnaround. Then I saw this morning that he might be playing for AC Milan. It's all about things Italian for Becks now, I guess.

I want to read the Twilight books so I reserved them at my library. The first three were available electronically so I put a hold on those. I reserved the fourth one as hard copy. Wouldn't you know it books two through four have come available before the first one! I have ten days to pick up the fourth book but I had to download two and three within three days. And I can only have those for two weeks. I'm number 3 on the holds for number 1 so it better become available soon. There's just no way I'm reading them out of order. I just won't do it!

ETA (Friday): I just checked in with my library account and saw that I had reserved the first book as hard copy as well and it's In Transit! I wonder if I'll get it this weekend....

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Mercoledì

The NHL has a great new GameCenter for listening (and watching if you want to pay) to hockey games. I just listened to the Devils big win 5-0 over the hated Dallas Stars. My Paul Martin had an assist and was +2 with almost 25 minutes of ice time, the most of anyone on the team. I could tell he was having a good game cuz I kept hearing his name. The photo on his player card page is so funny. His head is tiny compared to his shoulders exaggerated with pads.

The GameCenter even has a chat function where you can read all the inane comments by your fellow puck fans. You have to read fast though cuz there's no scrolling down to see what you missed. I hope no fights break out online. "good call" "lame call" Settle down, boys.

I think I'll put the budget workbook to bed and go home to watch my Sharks. I hope my DVR is working.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Martedì

Anne sent me a work email by accident today which prompted a bit of a conversation. I was pretty busy so couldn't chat much. She's on email all day at work like I am so sometimes we have a flurry of emails and then days will go by with no communications. She was all about Facebook today since that's how her younger son and she chat while he's at school. She was supposed to have an empty nest this year but her older son came home early from college and has no current plans to return. She's a bit perturbed with that. I hope he gets his act together soon.

I checked off a lot of things on my To Do list today. There'll still be some follow-up for things, like approving the proof of the magazine and reviewing my annual workplan with my boss but the majority of my work on them is done. Now I can move on to the rest of my list (the fundraising mailing, the annual report, our federal 990 form, etc.).

I assume I'll also have to spend some time with our new data entry person. She's working mainly for the fundraising team but since I'm the database person, we'll be working closely together. We have a Money Squad meeting tomorrow to discuss the transition. Leti's very happy she won't have to deal with data entry anymore.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Lunedì

I'm doing my final run-through of the magazine, catching little typos here and there. Our normal proofers were unavailable this time so there were some people proofing who I don't trust. I always do a last proof anyway, just to catch anything that may have happened as the editor was entering the changes from the proofers.

There are too many people trying to make decisions about the design. If I were the editor, I'd be upset when things are changed without his consent. I have two people other than the editor, looking over my shoulder having me change things as I lay out certain pages (like the cover!). Then the editor comes by later saying "I hear there were some things changed." I'm not allowed as much freedom as I'd like to add little design things. But there are some major decisions going on without everyone agreeing. Then I look like I made changes without permission when I've been told (or at least it sure seems like) it was agreed upon by everyone.

My Sharks iCal subscription says there's a game tonight in Philadelphia but it's tomorrow. I better schedule my DVR recordings when I get home tonight.

I watched the first two discs of the second season of Torchwood yesterday. I very muchly enjoyed it. The first season discs I got from the library only had two episodes per disc but these Netflix second season ones had three on the first one and four on the second. I had lots more Torchwood than I had anticipated. I should get discs 3 and 4 in a couple days.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Freitag

I went to put on my sunglasses this morning as I was leaving my apartment and they weren't in my bag. Neither was my cellphone! I had noticed yesterday afternoon that my new glasses case was sitting on top of my bag instead of in the outside pocket (where all three things normally reside), so I suspected that perhaps my bag had been dislodged somehow and stuff had fallen out of the pocket. I park it on a short bookcase beside which is both the recycling bin and the trash can. Oh, I hoped they hadn't fallen into the trash!

So this morning as I tried to enjoy my library book on BART all I could think of was "what if I have accidentally trashed my cell and sunglasses!?" You see, the janitors come Tuesdays and Thursdays so the trash would've been taken away.

I hurried to the office and to my relief and delight my sunglasses and cellphone and tissues and coffee nips (more things fell than I realized!) were sitting collected on the bookshelf. I guess I should make sure my bag pocket is zipped up at all times!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Donnerstag

My feet are sweaty. It was hot today and it's still 72º here at almost 9pm. Why can't fall come here like in other places?? My office is especially hot because of the fireball of a server I've mentioned before. I need to turn up my fan.

I got the Starbuck Signature Hazelnut Hot Chocolate this morning. It was too hazelnutty for me. If I get it again, I'm asking for less nut.

I had Pad Thai for lunch. It was delicious again. I got some sticky rice with mango to go because I knew I'd get hungry as I was again staying here until late. It sat a bit too long and the rice got pretty hard. I had to cut it up with a knife.

My train is scheduled to come in about 9 minutes and the next one isn't until 24 minutes from now so I'm heading out.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Mittwoch

What a great word for Wednesday. Mittwoch. Makes me sit up straighter. I like the Spanish word for Wednesday too.

I've been liking my Wednesday today pretty well as well. My boss was at home. My office manager was out on vacation. Our receptionist only came by three times with annoying, inane questions. And my office mate has been out all day as well. It's been nice and quiet and I laid out a whole poster in about three and a half hours. Now it's the hard part: waiting for the one requesting it to come back at me with "I don't like this. Lose the little graphic. Can we do a different color?" I get just a teeny bit too territorial and have to be persuaded that, yes, it can be better than my first try. I have to take a couple steps back and get some psychic distance from the project.

So Rocco was gone last night on Dancing. Maybe next week will be Cloris. The political ads were hilarious. Project Runway wraps up tonight. I don't particularly care who wins this season. Kinley was cool for awhile but then she got a little too whiney. I usually like her designs though.

Sharks are 4-0!!!!! Go Sharks!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Dienstag

I was out sick yesterday with sinus pressure and headaches and general malaise and lack of energy. I think it's a cold. I was hoping to work a shorter day today but I was out of luck.

I broke down and purchased Starbucks Power Protein Plate today when I stopped in for my hot chocolate. It includes a hard-boiled egg, two little triangles of cheddar, two thick apple slices, a small bunch of grapes and a tiny whole wheat bagel with a pouch of peanut butter. I was going to have it for breakfast but had it for lunch instead. It was delish but I could've eaten a couple of them.

I just don't know what to think about Dancing with the Stars anymore. I thought Cloris would've been off a long while ago but she got 8s last night for their tango. It might be Rocco's night to go.

I see the Rays are beating up on the Sox tonight. It makes me very very happy. I'm not a Boston fan, can you tell?

Monday, October 13, 2008

Montag

Here's a rundown of Saturday's activities.

My car has been crying for sometime about its state of uncleanliness. I had to agree it was quite bad. So after going to the library to pick up my latest batch of reserved books I headed over to my local carwash. I paid too much for too little service but at least now I can see out of my windows. I still needed windshield wiper fluid but I took care of that later in the day.

I picked Sallie up and we went for a noontime brunch at Denny's. I wanted pancakes so got their make-your-own Slam with a couple eggs, sausage, bacon and pancakes. I wanted my eggs fried with the yolks liquid and the whites firm so the waitress said to order them "over easy" but they came with the whites still uncooked so I requested them "over medium" instead. They brought me two new eggs that were done perfectly. I'll remember "over medium" for the next time. Sallie got French toast which looked really good too.

Our main order of the day was to go to the zoo. It was the perfect kind of day for strolling amid the animals: clear, cool and breezy. Unfortunately, they had the African village cordoned off because of a special event (wedding) so we couldn't see the meerkats. Well, I saw them briefly through the trees. The warthogs were out this time which made Sallie very happy despite the meerkat disappointment. It was feeding time for the bats which they did inside by slathering jam on leaves hung from the ceiling. The bats were not happy eaters. They would often scare others off when they wanted that particular branch.

Our other order of the day was to find Sallie a replacement collapsible grocery cart. First, we went to Target. They didn't have it. Then we went to Wal-Mart. Not there either. We did accost someone who was hauling their stuff in one as to where she had bought hers. It was somewhere in Oakland where we didn't feel like exploring. Later, we stopped at the K-Mart near Sallie's apartment, just in case. No luck there or at the neighboring hardware store. She may have to get one online or at a local Asian grocery store.

It was a fun, yet long day that was fulfilling though only partially successful. We might be watching movies at my place this Saturday. I'm not sure I want to make nine stops in six hours again so soon.

Friday, October 10, 2008

vendredi

I've been having Grandma Mary's chicken soup for lunch this week. It's got a whitish vegetable in it that I don't recognize by sight or taste. It might be rutabaga or turnip. But really it just looked like a white carrot cuz it seemed to be cylindrical, cut crosswise and had a differently textured center. Any ideas? Oh, I just went to their website and it says parsnips right in the menu. I'm so glad to have figured that out. Funny, they also say the soup has noodles but mine never does.

Tomorrow I'm finally going to get my car washed. It's been too long. I'd like to be able to see out again please. Sallie and I are going to the zoo once I'm done with my errands. We'll be doing some shopping as well. Her collapsible grocery cart broke and she's been having to carry things in blue IKEA bags. As I was googling I found some great essays on "granny carts" and how they should be promoted as green alternatives to driving a couple blocks to the grocery store instead of being sneered at as solutions only applicable for poor people or those with fixed incomes. We're hoping Target or Wal-Mart have a good selection.

Here's the office chair I decided on. Leti's was able to get a good price on it since she orders from here alot. Still it's kinda pricy but, like I said, I have specific needs.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

jeudi

My keyboard is so dirty. I really need some computer cleaning supplies.

I'm shopping for a new office chair. I have specific needs. I'm too busy to spend a lot of time on it but Leti's going on vacation on Monday and wants to order hers and mine before she goes. My chair is pretty raggedy. The fabric is coming off in a few places.

I got my new glasses last night. The new prescription is noticeable in the middle distances so I'm only wearing them inside for awhile. Unfortunately I had a headache already when I picked them up so I wasn't too interested in trying them out when I got home. I've worn them all day today though and have only had a low level headache occasionally. Do you like them?

I'm still at work and listening to the Sharks season opener when I really should be at home watching it in HD. I would've headed home but was captured by trying to create a graph in Illustrator. Here's my first draft. It's pretty but I'm not sure it's what the authors of the article wanted.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

mercredi

In the line at Starbucks this morning I was behind a guy who was getting a couple drinks. He was new to the "tall, grande, venti" terminology so was taking a bit more time than a regular customer. Then he wanted an extra shot in one of his venti coffees and the staff didn't write on the cups which one was which so he had them do that so he could tell them apart. All reasonable activities and requests. The guy behind me didn't think so.

"Can someone ring up this damn water for me?"

"All I want to to get this damn water!"

"High maintenance...woman..." mutter, mutter, mutter.


Well, for one, if I was buying water I certainly wouldn't be getting it at Starbucks. Two, everyone has a right to order whatever they want as specifically as they want it. And three, it's not a female trait so you can keep your comments to yourself. If you're running late, you don't have to take it out on some poor soul who's getting his friend a coffee.

Then to top off my commute: as I was walking up the street to the office, a guy was across the street outside Baby Gap with his boombox on the loudest possible volume setting blaring "Shake Your Ass at Me" or some such annoying song. I'm sure the people in the cable car line were thanking him as much as I was.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

mardi

I finally decided I had to give Steve back the budget today or I would've spent too much time on it. I had to move on to the magazine layout. Our editor had been sending me articles for a couple days so I had quite a few to transform into pretty pages. I'm still missing many of the graphic elements which makes it hard to complete pages. At least I've got the text poured in for what I've been sent. Our development department wanted to put a couple ads in so I been having fun playing around designing those. I hope they like them. They can be particular.

My DVD was due back to the library today so instead of counting on making it out of the office in time to get over there by 8pm I took it over before heading to BART this morning. The only sad thing is that there are three books waiting for me on the hold shelf and they weren't open yet. Sniff, sniff. I'll have to wait to get them on Saturday. Maybe by that time more books will be in. I've been waiting on one since I was in Michigan in August. I think there's something wrong in the system because the three available copies have been either "in transit" or "check shelf" ever since I reserved it. I need to remember to ask about it when I go in next.

I got a call yesterday that my glasses have arrived at the optometrist's office. They're open until 7pm tomorrow so maybe I can get out of here a bit early and go pick them up.

Monday, October 06, 2008

lundi

So, French, I guess this week. I won't bother with BabelFishing it. Please feel free to do so on your own. Since I don't read French, I'd have no idea what the funny mistakes are.

Today felt like the Friday I didn't have. I had no meetings and only a couple people came by to chat. I've been working on the budget workbook all day and am feeling a bit fried but I wanted to get it done so I can work on the magazine layout tomorrow. I'm not sure the budget's all cleaned up though and I'd hate to send it back to Steve without spending a bit more time with it.

I had a good weekend. Sallie and I met up for a movie, lunch and Costco. There wasn't much out in the theaters so we ended up seeing Appaloosa. It's a western starring Ed Harris (also directed), Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons. I hadn't realized it also starred Renée Zellweger and I'm not a fan of hers. I also worried that it would be too brown for me. I don't like movies that make themselves brown to show age as if we couldn't tell the movie was taking place decades ago. Anyway, it wasn't that great but it wasn't horrible either. It kinda felt like a play once in a while and moved very slowly. I wasn't sure when the ending was coming so it was unpredictable in that sense. Also, Renée's character wasn't all good so I was okay with her (I could hate her if I wanted).

We had lunch at Chevy's since Sallie had a coupon and then we went shopping at Costco. I was looking for an umbrella but they didn't have any. I ended up buying way too much stuff but the madelines are delicious!

The NHL season started in Europe on Saturday so I finally got to see some hockey. I was going to watch the baseball playoffs on Sunday but I ended up spending the whole day watch the DVD I got out of the library last week: the first season of Torchwood. Man, what a great show. I'm not that much a fan of Doctor Who so I probably didn't catch all the references but I really enjoyed the gritty urban feeling of Torchwood as well as the lovely relationshippy stuff with Captain Jack. I was crying so hard at the end of the episode where he and Tosh go back to 1941 and he meets the real Captain Jack. What a sad, sad parting! I have the second season at the top of my Netflix queue.

Friday, October 03, 2008

viernes

We set up a new account with Calvert a couple months ago because one of our board members works there and they give us donations sometimes. I asked when I was getting information about it if we would be able to access the account online to transfer funds via ACH and all that. They said of course we would. Well, turns out that their online system only allows accounts set up with social security numbers and not tax-payer ID numbers which means I have no access to our account online.

Well, today I get an email from them basically saying "Here's the link to your electronic quarterly statement. If you want to change how you receive the statements log in to your account." Duh! Now I have no statement and no access to change it! I guess I'll be calling them next week, the dummies. I really want to take our $25k back and give it to someone else who has their act together. How they have any businesses or non-profits give them business, I don't know.

For being a Friday, I was awfully busy with meetings today. First I had a meeting with other admin and development people about the new positions. Then we interviewed our old receptionist from two years ago. She was looking for a part-time job so Leti called her right up yesterday. Re-hiring her will really reduce the amount of training we'll have to do.

At 1pm we had our audit meeting where the auditors went over the financial reports with the committee. I got some nice compliments. It feels good that's it's over. I hope I took good enough notes to help out next year. Now it's on to the 990 form for the IRS.

This afternoon I did a bit of training with Shana for reading financial statements, working in our database and iCal. I don't mind the one-on-one trainings, especially if the person I'm training is as quick to pick up computery stuff as Shana is.

Now it's back to the budget. Joy!

Fijamos una nueva cuenta con Calvert un par hace meses porque uno de nuestros miembros del Consejo trabaja allí y nos dan donaciones a veces. Pregunté cuándo conseguía la información sobre ella si podríamos tener acceso a la cuenta en línea a los fondos de la transferencia vía ACH y todo el eso. Dijeron que por supuesto. Bien, resulta que su sistema en línea permite solamente que las cuentas fijen con los números de la Seguridad Sociales y no los números de identificación del pagador de impuestos que los medios yo no tienen ninguÌ�n acceso a nuestra cuenta en línea.

Bien, consigo hoy un email de ellos que dicen básicamente el " Here' s el acoplamiento a su declaración trimestral electrónica. Si usted quiere cambiar cómo usted recibe las declaraciones abre una sesión a su account." ¡Duh! Ahora no tengo ninguna declaración y ningún acceso para cambiarlo! Conjeturo I' el ll los esté llamando la semana próxima, los maniquíes. Quiero realmente retirar nuestro $25k y darlo algún otro que tiene su acto junto. Cómo tienen cualquier negocio o no-se benefician le dan negocio, I don' t sabe.

Para ser un viernes, estaba terriblemente ocupado con reuniones hoy. Primero tenía una reunión con el otro admin y gente del desarrollo sobre las nuevas posiciones. Entonces, nos entrevistamos con a nuestro viejo recepcionista a partir hace de dos años. Ella buscaba un trabajo por horas así que Leti llamó la su derecha ayer. La recontratación ella reducirá realmente la cantidad del entrenamiento we' el ll tiene que hacer.

En 1pm teníamos nuestra reunión de la intervención adonde los interventores pasaron los informes financieros con el comité. Conseguí algunos elogios agradables. Se siente bien that' s it' s encima. Espero que tomara bastante buenas notas para ayudar hacia fuera el próximo año. Ahora it' s encendido a la forma 990 para el IRS.

Esta tarde hice un pedacito del entrenamiento con Shana para los estados financieros de la lectura, el funcionamiento en nuestra base de datos e iCal. I don' mente de t los entrenamientos unívocos, especialmente si la persona I' el entrenamiento de m es tan rápido coger la materia del computery como es Shana. Ahora it' s de nuevo al presupuesto. ¡Alegría!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

jueves

I've had a bit of a headache all day today. I think it's due to the weather. I took my allergy med this morning and then some Tylenol once I got to the office. The pain went away for a bit but now it's back. I'm trying to drink more water. Now that the water filter on this floor is working again, it's easier to do. When our filter wasn't working I'd go up to the 6th floor and kept forgetting my water bottle. We used to get bottled water in those huge jugs but the filter system is working pretty good. We don't need to be paying $100/month just for water. It tastes nasty just from the spigot so I'm glad they choose to get filters.

Thursdays are meeting days here at work which means that most of the staff are in the office. We have quite a few people who work part-time and who work at home part of the week so some days we have half the staff gone. The first Thursday of the month is our monthly all-staff meeting. We all congregate in the conference room which doesn't even fit us all anymore around the tables. Each month all the departments give a short 5-10 minute report on what's happening. I spoke briefly about the audit and how it went pretty well. (The Board Audit Committee is meeting tomorrow to approve the audited financial statements.) We also talk about any issues that need discussed and people can share about what's going on with them that people need to know about.

One thing we talked about today is that our receptionist is leaving in a few months. She never really did the job in her job description anyway so I'm glad she's going. Our office manager has been doing her job in the meantime. I hope we can get someone in who really wants to be a part of the Admin team and not look around for ways to get out of doing the work. We're looking to hire a half-time person and also hire someone to work part-time for the fundraising team. We'll be moving some tasks out of Admin/Finance and into FR that they want more control over, mostly entry of donations into our database. We in Admin/Finance will retain the responsibility for depositing the funds. That function needs to remain under mine and Steve's purview.

He tenido un pedacito de un dolor de cabeza todo el dia hoy. Pienso que es debido al tiempo. Tomé a mi medicina de la alergia esta mañana y entonces algún Tylenol una vez que llegué a la oficina. El dolor salió para un pedacito pero ahora está detrás. Estoy intentando beber más agua. Ahora que el filtro de agua en este piso está funcionando otra vez, es más fácil hacer. Cuando nuestro filtro no funcionaba subiría al 6to piso y guardado el olvidar de mi botella de agua. Conseguíamos el agua embotellada en esos jarros enormes pero el sistema del filtro está trabajando bastante bueno. No necesitamos pagar $100/month apenas agua. Prueba repugnante apenas de la espita así que estoy alegre ellos elijo conseguir los filtros.

Jueves son días de reunión aquí en el trabajo que significa que la mayor parte de el personal está en la oficina. Tenemos absolutamente algunas personas que trabajen por horas y que trabaja en el país la parte de la semana así que de algunos días nosotros tiene mitad del personal ido. El primer jueves del mes es nuestra reunión mensual del todo-personal. Todos nos juntamos en la sala de conferencias que incluso no nos cabe todos más alrededor de las tablas. Cada mes todos los departamentos dan a 5-10 corto informe minucioso sobre qué está sucediendo. Hablé brevemente sobre la intervención y cómo fue bastante bien. (El comité de la intervención del tablero se está reuniendo mañana para aprobar los estados financieros revisados.) También hablamos de cualquier edición que necesite discutido y la gente puede compartir sobre qué se está encendiendo con él que la gente necesita saber alrededor.

Una cosa que hablamos es hoy que nuestro recepcionista se está yendo en algunos meses. Ella hizo nunca realmente el trabajo en su descripción de las funciones de todos modos así que estoy alegre ella voy. Nuestro administrador de oficinas ha estado haciendo su trabajo mientras tanto. Espero que poder conseguir alguien en quién quiere realmente ser una parte del equipo y no de la mirada del Admin alrededor para que las maneras salgan de hacer el trabajo. Estamos mirando para contratar a una persona de medio tiempo y también para contratar alguien para trabajar por horas para el equipo fundraising. Nos trasladaremos algunas tareas del Admin/de finanzas y al franco que quieren más control encima, sobre todo entrada de donaciones en nuestra base de datos. En el Admin/finanzas conservaremos la responsabilidad de depositar los fondos. Esa función necesita permanecer bajo articulado de mí y de Steve.