Friday, January 30, 2009

divendres

All the payroll deposits went through today. Hallelujah! At least no one is reporting they haven't and when I checked with my next-door neighbor (whose account is with a credit union) her deposit had posted already. I feel very relieved and was happy to not be working on payroll-related items today.

Along with keeping the books for my employer, I also keep track of the books for a related group which has very little activity so I always put it off. Today I decided to get organized with it since I have to file their annual tax forms soon and the governing body is meeting in a couple weeks so I need to report on 2008. I use Quicken to print checks and really love the ease of use and pretty colors (in the Mac version anyway) so I thought I'd try to figure out how to track receivables and payables as well as cash. It all worked out great. I set up my Categories for things like grants and bank fees as well as Classes for admin and the various centers around the world. I entered three years' worth and matched up the financial reports with what I had for 2006 and 2007 and then finished up 2008. Whew! And it only took almost all day.

In all my bookkeeping excitement I missed grabbing lunch so I am now more than hungry so I'm heading out a bit earlier than my normal late Friday. Maybe I'll go to Carrow's for some chicken alfredo...

Thursday, January 29, 2009

dijous

What a day! I was verrry right to be verrry nervous about payroll when I left work last night. When I checked this morning the reports had payroll information in them but it looked like the funds were not going to be sent by direct deposit. I emailed my New Account Specialist asking if that was correct because she had been indicating to me all along that we'd be able to do direct deposit the first month. We'll she was wrong and told me that the checks would be live and not arriving until Friday. This upset me greatly and I let her know that. Many staff don't work in the office on Friday so getting them their checks was going to be quite difficult.

After sending out an urgent email to all the staff, I was going over the new reports and noticed that one employee's health insurance deduction was the wrong amount. I decided to checked all the totals. The earnings and almost all the deductions were off compared to the preprocess report I had approved. It was a mess. All the changes I had input in the last few days had not made it into the actual payroll.

I quickly alerted Gillian and sent her the preprocess report from yesterday. After an hour or so, she was able to tell me that the package of live checks and the ACH transfer of funds from our checking account could be stopped and they were going to run payroll again with the corrected numbers. And the best news was that now direct deposit was going to work. I was so happy to send out another email to the staff with that news. The only bump was that the credit union deposits might not make it into the accounts until Saturday. Luckily those involved were okay with that small delay.

So now I have to input all the changes I made earlier all over again. Gillian offered to do it but I told her it would take more time telling her what changes to make and then checking to be sure she entered them all than it would to just do it myself. I guess I won't be done with my payroll adventure until then. Sigh.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

dimecres

For those of you waiting with bated breath to find out the results of my payroll saga I have this to say: Not done yet. I was able to understand and complete the process-the-payroll process but now I have no reports. My New Account Specialist said to wait an hour but that was over four hours ago and there's still no data in the reports. This makes me verrry nervous.

The Castro Valley Carrow's appears to be under different management than the San Leandro shop. Sallie and I were not as well-pleased as we were a couple weeks ago. My pot roast was delicious but the fries were 1) scarce and 2) limp. Sallie got the Chicken Mushroom Alfredo which may be my next choice. It looked and she said it was delicious. I got a vanilla malt again to go and it was in a cup half the size the SL restaurant supplied. I think we might not be going back there if we can make it all the way over to SL instead. She's on vacation all next week, lucky girl. We'll be watching the Super Bowl at my place on Sunday. I still haven't decided who I'll be rooting for but I'm leaning towards the Cardinals.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

dimarts

I'm looking forward to going through the new payroll process tomorrow morning with someone who knows what's what. I tried to make sense of the Payroll Entry screen but none of the deductions are populating so I'm a bit confused. I didn't block them. I sure have spent a lot of time dealing with payroll issues this month what with the new system and all the salary reductions and furlough. I'll be happy to have things more settled on that front. Magazine layout is coming up quick and I need to do January bookkeeping before that. And I have to get on people about setting up their Health Savings Accounts (and do my own!) and figure out a system to track our contributions and people's payroll deductions. Oh, sorry, am I boring you?

I'm this close to finishing the book my cousin is thanked in. I've enjoyed it so far. It's got a unique and interesting perspective on werewolf culture. I'm again behind on my book reviews on FB so I need to do some writing tonight after dinner with Sallie. She's got the day off so we're meeting near my house at Carrow's. We really enjoyed our meal there a week ago or so.

I'm no closer to figuring out when I'm going to go to the midwest. Maybe I'll call Mom and see if she'd like help packing and moving or unpacking or both or neither. I wish I could get to MN to see Melia's harp recital. I should check NWA.com and see what their prices are for two round-trips. Probably more than I want to spend.

Monday, January 26, 2009

dilluns

Days of the Week in Catalán this week. I should dig up some of my Barcelona photos and scan them. I'm not sure exactly where they are...

Dad's surgery went very well this morning. I got a call from Joanna around 11am my time saying he had woken up and he and Mom were arguing so all is well and he's back to normal. He's staying over tonight at the hospital and then can go home tomorrow. He's not allowed to do any heavy lifting for awhile and he can't raise his left arm above his head ever again. I hope he can contain himself. I called him this afternoon and he said they didn't knock him all the way out for the surgery but since he was woozy he took advantage and fell asleep. Probably better that way.

I still don't have all the payroll information for this month. And when I went into my new payroll system to enter some changes, it gave me an error message whenever I tried to save something. Not a good sign! I hope it's functioning tomorrow. I'd really hate waiting until Wednesday morning since the cut-off time is noon.

Sallie and I decided against the zoo on Friday. It was raining and we didn't want to get wet and cold. We went to Costco instead for lunch and groceries. I also got a hand-held shower-head attachment for my shower but haven't installed it yet. I kinda forgot about it over the weekend and was pressed for time this morning once I actually got in the shower. I probably need to find my wrench as well. I think it's in a drawer in my kitchen.

Friday, January 23, 2009

ch'askachaw

My dad's going in for a pacemaker on Monday. I don't know yet what time the procedure is. I hope everything goes well with the installation and that my new bionic dad gets better quickly. His atrial fibrillation has been getting worse recently so I hope this helps control it and he can keep his ticker going strong. Stay away from iPod headphones though.

In Mom's email about Dad's surgery she says that next month the doctor will perform an ablation on his heart. That word seemed awfully familiar to me though I couldn't immediately define it. I checked my little Dictionary app but it didn't have an entry so I looked it up on Wikipedia. As soon as I saw that the first section was about space I realized where I had seen it recently: I was reading about ablative armor on the hulls of various space ships in Star Trek while surfing Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.

Speaking of Star Trek, how did I miss the news that Ricardo Montalban died? Mr. Roarke? Khan? No!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

illapachaw

I spent awhile on the phone with Gillian from CompuPay this afternoon learning about my new online payroll system. It's quite nice and the training was excellent. I had already spent a few hours exploring and entering data and testing things out so I had a list of questions to go over. Hopefully everything will go fine next week and I won't have loads of adjustments to make in February. It depends as well on getting all the new salary info tied down. I wish people would submit their forms!

Joanna and I exchanged birthday gifts a bit early this year. Lately my gifts to her have been TV show related. One year it was a Reno 911 hat, another an Ellen mug and sippy cups. It's only natural that 24 would pop up as an option. Thanks, Zander, for needing a new bag so your mom could find us really cool presents!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

quyllurchaw

Last month while I was Christmas shopping on Amazon.com (buying an external hard drive to back up my photos and other files on my home computer) I decided to take advantage of their 4-for-3 paperback deal to check out some urban fantasies that my library doesn't carry. I finally got around to looking at the first in the Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn last night and, much to my surprise, who was thanked in the first few lines of the Acknowledgements but my cousin Yaz Ostrowski who just joined Facebook a few days ago. So after years of not really knowing what she's been up to I see her name in a book and connect with her online. Very cool.

I slept through the inauguration festivities yesterday morning and then was too busy at work to check out anything online until I got home. I watched my boyfriend Anderson Cooper on AC360 but by that time it was mostly ball coverage which wasn't that interesting. After Mom had mentioned CSPAN I looked to see if they were replaying anything so got to see some of the parade. That was a lot of bands! I recorded the speech so I'll be watching that tonight.

I have to mention this for Joanna: I saw a young man in a kilt on BART yesterday. He happened to be getting off at the same station I was so I followed him for a few yards until our paths diverged. He was wearing a sporran and tall whitish socks but had no bonnet or bagpipe that I could see.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

atichaw

I had yesterday off so watched some Australian Open tennis and the Star Trek: Enterprise marathon on SciFi channel. I like a nice three-day weekend. I get another this weekend since we're closed on Friday. Sallie and I are planning to go to the zoo. It should be about 60º and partly cloudy. Just perfect for a stroll among the animals. I hope the African village is open this time. It was closed last time we were there and we missed the meerkats.

I finished the last book in a great series this weekend and it's always hard to say goodbye to a world and characters you've spent several books getting to know and love. I can only hope that some day Sharon Shinn will feel moved to write more in the Twelve Houses world. Okay, now that I wrote that I just discovered that she has written a fifth book that came out in 2008. Aren't I lucky? It looks like it's a companion story about an auxiliary character from the last couple books in the original series. I just requested it!

Now I'm on to the second in an urban fantasy series by Ilona Andrews. It takes place in Atlanta where the magic comes and goes with no warning so if you've driven your car into town, you may not make it back because nothing that uses technology (including guns) works during the magic phases. But say you had erected some wards around your house, well, they aren't going to be much help during the tech times. There are shape-shifters and vampires and and an Order of some Knights and a magical heroine who has flaws and doesn't always make the right decisions but she really really tries. The third book, Magic Strikes, comes out in March.

Monday, January 19, 2009

killachaw

Days of the Week in Quechua this week.

Sallie and I made it to the movies on Saturday. We hadn't seen each other since New Year's Eve so it was really nice to spend some time with her. We saw Bedtime Stories which had some funny parts but I'm not sure I'd recommend it if you have to pay more than the $6 we paid for a matinee. I think I was expecting it to be over-the-top. The bad guys weren't bad or evil enough maybe. (One was Uncle Vernon from Harry Potter.) The supernatural effects I was expecting were not actually fantastic; they were all easily explainable or just not that cool. However, the little girl was so very cute and the ending was great. I enjoyed it but don't feel the need to ever see it again.

We had lunch at Carrow's since Sallie had a coupon for a half-off entree (with purchase of two entrees and two drinks). We were pleasantly surprised with the quality of our lunches. I had the pot roast and Sallie had the meatloaf. Our server forgot to bring Sallie's side salad with the entrees so she got it for free. We'll be going there again for sure.

After lunch we did a bit of shopping at the new Wal-Mart (which just opened at the site of my old Target, down the block from Sallie's house) and at PetSmart (which just happened to have kitties there). I watched the fish for awhile too and then bought a Black Cat calendar for 75% off. Score.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Dihaoine

Now Mom is mad at me for saying that I couldn't believe Dad had to drive himself home from the hospital after his ER visit. I'm not saying that I thought she had to be the one driving home. I know she doesn't like driving at night, perfectly understandable. It just seemed kinda much for a man with a heart condition and trouble breathing to be behind the wheel on a dark and cold night in the wintertime. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think it's safe and maybe they should've gotten some help.

I'm here at work late creating individualized pay rate adjustment forms for each and every one of our almost 25 employees detailing the change in their pay for the next six months along with a scenario for each one where they could give up some accumulated paid time off in lieu of an unpaid furlough. It's so complicated I'll probably be explaining it 25 times next week (if not more).

We have Monday off and next Friday is one of our furlough days so it'll be a quick week. I'm going to need to get close to finalizing payroll information and get familiar with my new online payroll vendor system. I have a feeling I'll be making loads of corrections in February's payroll!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Diardaoin

My dad had to go to the ER again today. He had difficulty breathing and an irregular heartbeat. He's back home now feeling better and has a cardiologist appointment tomorrow. Mom doesn't like driving in the dark so Dad had to drive home from the hospital. Gee whiz!

I think my boss and I have a better handle on our cost-cutting, paid time off system. It feels like that's all we've been talking about recently. I'll be taking 52 hours off instead of going to 95% pay through June. We'll see what will happen in the new fiscal year in July. We'll be closing the office two days a month to make sure people are not working when they're supposed to be not working. It's hard for salaried activists to not keep working on the issues.

I feel like tacos for supper but didn't move the hamburger down from the freezer to the fridge. I may have to wait for Saturday. I need lettuce anyway and the tomatoes I got last week are getting a bit old.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Diciadain

I just got new RAM installed in my iMac at work. Woo hoo! 4 GB!! I've been struggling with needing to run Parallels more and more often with my new accounting software. It sucks up so much RAM and if I have to have Filemaker and any Adobe or Microsoft apps open I can't have much else running. I don't like having to choose. I like being able to switch from one thing to the other quickly. I'm spoiled like that. We'll see if having another GB solves my problem.

Now that everyone has been able to absorb the goodness that was the 24 season premiere I have to say I loved it. I had to delete it from my DVR to record the Sharks game in HD last night but I wish I could watch it over again. I wonder if it's on On Demand.... It was so great to have Tony back with us and as a good guy (we think). He was always one of my favorites. And who is a bad guy this season but Methos from Highlander, Peter Wingfield! He's looking very good. I'm enjoying FBI agent Renee Walker as well. Can't wait until next week!

American Idol started up and I have to suffer through these weeks of auditions to get to my favorite part. Some people like the bad singers; I don't. I'm never more grateful for my DVR than during horrible auditions. Only Simon's disbelieving expressions and pithy comments make it bearable.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dimàirt

I got some potential bad news about my attendance at Anne's visit in March. Turns out our staff retreat planning committee wants to have the retreat off site the Sunday and Monday she's here. It's not fair! I'm really hoping I can get out of it. I don't really think I need to be there. The retreats are mostly program-related anyway.

I just got off a call with my boss. We're trying to work through a plan to have people reduce their vacation time instead of cutting their FTE to save costs. The problem seems to be that people will be able to accrue it back later and then cost us even more then. I hope he gets a great idea tonight so we can figure it out.

Who likes Bingo? Me, that's who. I'm only slightly addicted to two different Bingo games on FB now. The one I like better only lets me play 5 cards a day though if you win enough medals you can increase your daily allotment. I'm only 1 bronze medal away from getting 4 more cards per day. The number of winners per game is 10% of the cards being played. The other game allows you to play as much as you want but I don't like it as much. That doesn't stop me from playing into the wee hours.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Diluain

Scots Gaelic this week, in case you were wondering...

I'm getting behind on my book reviewing on Facebook. I'm going to try to review the one I finished on Friday soon. I'm now into the last book in a series by Sharon Shinn that I didn't know had come out yet (Reader & Raelynx). I'm enjoying it very much so far.

Sallie and I keep trying to get together for a movie but we haven't been successful yet this month. She had a migraine last week and I didn't call and she didn't call and I wanted to stay home anyway. It all turned out okay. We're going to try for this Saturday again to see Bedtime Stories.

I'm kinda on a honey butter kick. I got some honey at the farmers market and have been mixing it with my olive oil I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. So good! On potato bread or English muffins, doesn't matter.

Friday, January 09, 2009

perjantai

Nothing like a post-5pm-Friday design project! Yeah, I was sitting here around 4:30 after a record-breaking completion of the previous month's bookkeeping wondering what project to tackle next. I did a couple small things and then my boss came to chat. I should've left early 'cause I was roped into doing labels and a poster for a meeting that's happening tomorrow. Why can't people think of things ahead of time?!

I have to say it's nice that my new iMac at work has speakers built-in. I used to listen to my tunes on the little tinny one-speaker set-up my old tower had. It was functional but not nice. This is loverly. Stereo is one of my favorite things (along with wind and men in black turtlenecks).

Did I tell you about the new Starbucks Tea Lattes? They're pretty pricey but I got a tall Black Tea Latte this afternoon and it was so yummy. I do love strong black milky tea. Clint, my officemate, gave me a card that was in the Chronicle that gets you a tall tea latte for $2 after 2pm every day through February. I might have to start leaving the office for an afternoon break more often.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

torstai

While checking the calendar for this year I noticed that both February and March will be having Friday the 13ths. Lucky us!

My reason for looking was that Anne has a trade show in Reno in March and is taking advantage of the trip to visit me and Sallie. She's flying on Friday, March 13. Perhaps some travel insurance is called for?

I was in a magazine production scheduling meeting this afternoon and for a moment I thought I'd have layout during the days Anne is here but then realized we were talking about February. It was the duplicate Friday the 13th that threw me.

Must go look through the pics of Timbercrest Mom is sending...

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

keskiviikko

I went to Safeway last night after stopping by the library and after I unloaded all my bags at home I was missing a box of taco shells. I checked in the car this morning but didn't see it. I think it must've gotten left at checkout. Darn! Good thing I got two so I'm not left in the lurch when I get those taco cravings.

Joanna was just telling me about the cake they had for her dad's birthday: chocolate with coconut frosting. I really didn't mean to go through the bakery area at the grocery and find a slice of it. No, really, it was just an accident. But those few bites I had for dessert last night were delish!

I set my Dashboard BART widget to announce the scheduled arrival times of my train beginning around 5. I really should set it to later since I'm rarely heading out of the office by then. My officemate occasionally stays later than me and has commented that he hears my computer speaking the reminders. I've been trying to remember to put it to sleep when I go but, even so, he takes the same train as me and shouldn't be staying so late anyway.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

tiistai

Sallie reported to me today that she finally got a new collapsible shopping cart. The one she had for years finally broke down after a trip to Costco. She found one at OSH for way more ($35) than she paid fifteen years ago ($15?). It's got an adjustable handle which should be helpful. I hope she'll be happy with it.

Mom reported that they put the down payment on their new home at Timbercrest. They picked out carpet and paint samples and took down loads of measurements so they can plan out what furniture will fit where and what won't. No word yet on when they plan to do the actual moving. Once the snow clears, I suppose. I got tentative approval from my boss to be gone the first week in April so if it happens then, I can be there.

I'm switching payroll services for 2009 and I tried logging in to the one I used in 2008 to get my December reports and they wouldn't let me. I'll have to make a phone call tomorrow. I need those reports!

Monday, January 05, 2009

maanantai

In honor of the town of Kaleva, Michigan, from which my parents will officially be moving this spring, we'll be learning the days of the week in Finnish.

I ended up not reading as many books as I was hoping to this holiday season and neither did I visit the library as much. I have a few books to pick up now that have been waiting several days and I only have a couple to drop off. I finished the most recent Amelia Peabody mystery as well as reading the first one in the series which I had never read before. It was great to see how Peabody and Emerson first met and had their first adventure together. Right now I'm reading another Elizabeth Peters mystery which isn't nearly as good and is downright disappointing. I'm nearly done and can't wait to be.

Have you heard about the new Star Trek movie that's coming out in May? It's got an all-new cast along with Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock. I'm really looking forward to that. All the promo photos have everyone looking all mean and sexy, especially the Romulan villain, played by Eric Bana. I've been recording and watching all the Star Trek re-runs on right now. I never really watched Enterprise so all those episodes are new for me. I like it okay but not as much as TNG and Voyager.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Day After New Year's Day

That was odd. My post just posted itself. All I did was click on the View Blog link. Very weird. So if you got this post earlier with no content, I apologize.

I had a lovely vacation. Sallie came over for Christmas Day and after trying to call my folks' house a few times (every time Mom tried putting us on their speakerphone it cut us off) we sang a Christmas carol (Twas in the Moon of Wintertime) and opened our presents.



I got Sallie a few pairs of earrings and a couple bright red kitchen towels. She got me some CDs and books and a beautiful Christmas tree decoration (a tree, not to put on a tree). And we exchanged gift cards of the same amount: Borders for her, Starbucks for me.



I put her to work in the kitchen stirring cream corn and shredded Brussels sprouts while I checked on the pot roast with potatoes and carrots.



All the food was delicious and we ate a lot.



We watched a few movies that Sallie had brought: Gladiator, Kung Fu Panda and Game Plan. It was a lovely day.

Sallie also came over for New Year's Eve and we watched the third Mummy movie after she had given me the run-down about the first two over a Taco Tot Casserole dinner. Our special NYE treat was deep fried cauliflower that turned out amazing! It might be my favorite deep fried food.

It was okay being back at work today but there were only three other people here most of the day which made it easy to get a lot of work done. I did a bit of FSA reconciliation, paid the Visa bills, worked on budget and rent issues with my boss and wrote some checks. Now it's the weekend and another two days to relax. Maybe Sallie and I will do something on Sunday. I'm thinking maybe Bedtime Stories.