torsdag

Today we had our trimesterly (every four months) all-staff meeting where we sit around and discuss big topics. This trimester it was about growing our membership and if it would help us achieve our goals. It was not highly interesting to me and I was resistant to going at all as they usually end up being a waste of my time. It certainly didn't help that I didn't arrive early and, even though my comfy office chair was open, I had to sit beside someone I don't particularly like or like working with. Unfortunately, he was on the agenda to give a presentation and did it from his seat so I had to hear him yelling in my ear for over half an hour.

I was also assigned to the same small group he was in and I knew I just couldn't take it (I'm officially blaming it on cramps) so when we broke into small groups, I bolted for my desk and spent a blissful half an hour doing research into the new bicycle transit benefit.

It was just my luck when everyone had reconvened he had been designated as the reporter for the small group. Before he gave his report he made a snide comment to the entire group about how they couldn't really get anything done because they had been waiting for me. Then he guffawed and said "just kidding" and shoved me in the arm.

His attempt to publicly shame me didn't work. And may just backfire in his face next time he asks me to do something for him. I normally try not to carry grudges but this one I may hold onto just awhile longer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Too Hot to Think

According to weather.com, the observed high temp for my town yesterday was 99º. I believe it and am glad I wasn't there during the day time to live through it. When I got home last night, my inside thermometer said 90º so that was hot enough for me! I'm surprised I got any sleep since the low wasn't very low. Thank goodness for fans and frozen water bottles.

We got up to 94º here in SF yesterday and today it's supposed to be a bit cooler but it doesn't feel that much cooler to me. I need to get a cross-breeze going in my office, I think.

Sallie and I were thinking of going to the zoo tomorrow but it might be too hot for us. We'll go to IKEA and enjoy the air conditioning (along with hundreds others, I'm sure).

The new Borders in Alameda opened its doors to the general public yesterday afternoon. I stopped by after work and Sallie showed me around. Then I browsed the sci-fi and mystery sections. I could've bought a bunch of books but limited myself to three. I wrote down a list of others to get at the library.

I forgot to take my camera into the store (at least it was in the car!) and when I went back in to take a few shots, Sallie had disappeared. I'll try to upload at home when I have a functioning mouse. Maybe I'll borrow the one I use here at work.

Birthday Week

For my birthday this year I’m getting a great present. The Interruptor’s last day is Monday. Woo hoo! They finally had to let her go because of budget woes (and her incompetence). It makes me so happy even though I’m going to have to do part of her job. I just don’t care.

Oh, I also got a lovely check from my folks, a late-night-for-him phone call from my little brother, a funny voice mail at work at 4:30amET from Joanna and the kids along with various email greetings. I also got an espresso chocolate bar and a gorgeous little book, Heirlooms: Letters from a Peach Farm, by David Mas Masumoto, the father of one of our board members) at the all-staff meeting yesterday.

We had Monday off for Cesar Chavez Day which just happened to be Opening Day for many baseball teams so I took advantage and watched baseball all day. It was lovely pre-birthday gift.

Hot Spot

It was freezing here in the office yesterday afternoon and into the evening. My hands were starting to hurt when I left around 6:15. There are a couple other people who stay later as well and they were still here when I left. Turns out they discovered where the thermostat for our floor is and turned up the heat. Waaay up!

When people arrived at the office this morning it was 85°! So not only did they forget to turn down the heat setting when they left, they also were under the impression that if you turn the heat way up, the space will heat up faster. Not true!

So it's been sweaty here in the office today. I'm glad I normally wear layers though my light sweater is still too much and I have the fan turned on to medium. Maybe I should open a window.

Can You Speak Up?

Ah, Fleet Week. Who doesn't like screaming engines and screaming to be heard over them? I'm surprised we got any meetings accomplished today with the Blue Angels and their jets flying over downtown all day. I'm sure glad our big anniversary party isn't this week. I may have to wear ear plugs tomorrow.

What a Week, Vol. II

Fifteen Years of Fun

Fifteen years ago Monday I arrived at San Francisco International Airport for the start of a volunteer year with an environmental non-profit organization. Eight months later my boss offered me a full-time job as Office Manager and Bookkeeper. Yesterday, my co-workers threw me surprise party celebrating those fifteen years of service. Yes, I am still working for the same organization but for a little bit more money than my volunteer stipend of $45/month!

I was told of a special all-staff meeting at 12:30pm on Thursday so suspected it might be something me-related but I couldn't be sure. Our ED's birthday is today so there was also a lot of furtive movement about the office related to surprising her with flowers and such. However, she was the one who had entered the meeting into our office calendaring system so I remained suspicious. However, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it as I had the audit to contend with!

I arrived in the conference room and there were two pies sitting with a pile of plates as well as several bars of various flavors of chocolate. My boss came over beside me and announced that we were there to celebrate my fifteen years. I was a bit overcome and really can't remember what he said but I was presented with a heavy package wrapped in thick gold paper and bound with binder twine accompanied by a lovely, clever, entertaining note from our founder (who is leaving us after 25 years in December) which I attempted to read aloud through my tears.

The package contained three books: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (what would happen to the earth without humans) and two baseball-related ones. I look forward to reading all of them. Our founder also presented me with some amazing note cards constructed with photos taken by her partner. They are truly beautiful and I can't imagine sending them off to anyone. I'll have to keep them for myself.

Our ED was celebrated with a bouquet of organic flowers, we sang Happy Birthday, then we passed around the strawberry-rhubarb and banana cream pies and chocolate with almonds and caramel as several of my long-time co-workers shared stories about me. It was very lovely; I just wished someone had remembered to provide tissues.

What a Week, Vol. I

Audit Week

So this week has been Audit Week for me and I had been a little worried after our pre-audit meeting last Monday. It turns out it was for no good reason.

The fieldwork is done and it felt easier than last year. I think all the notes they took last year helped since they hardly bothered me at all. They were happily working up in the library for three days and only rarely ventured down to my office. And the senior auditor was here for barely half a day and spent about 5 minutes talking to me. Last year she called me after the fieldwork and had lots of suggestions for how we could be doing things better. I'm curious to hear what she says this year after reviewing the work the others did this week.

Each year I take lots of notes of what they ask for and I encourage them to let me know if they want me to be doing anything different in preparing my work papers. I think reviewing those notes from last year really helped me this time.

Bad Luck in the Bathroom

Too many women work on this floor.
One stall in the bathroom isn't enough.
Whenever I checked someone was in there.
My bladder is complaining.
So am I.

Pre-Audit Jitters

I sent my files over to the auditors today at 4pm and felt such a great sense of accomplishment that I decided to leave the office early.

On my way home I remembered some potential bad news that came up during the pre-audit meeting yesterday with the Audit Committee (me, my boss, his boss, the auditors, a Board member and an outside advisor/former Board member). The audit will have some different procedures this year. Instead of testing many areas lightly, they will test fewer areas more heavily.

I'm a bit aprehensive about it since I don't really know what to expect. I fear I will get into trouble for not being careful enough. My boss and I tend to let things slide a bit too much because we trust each other and the rest of the staff and don't always insist enough on proper approvals and documentation.

A big part of what the auditors will be looking for is proper internal controls. I think we've been improving in the area of having more people involved in approval processes and oversight but it might not be good enough and we might have to get written up for it. I sure hope not!