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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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.

Day Before Christmas Eve

As John said in his comment on yesterday's post, today is sometimes known as Christmas Adam. Just a little joke. Ha ha.

I'm listening to the Messiah quite loudly in my office as my officemate is absent and no one else is complaining. Sometimes I sing or whistle or hum along. I really can't abide other Christmas music. This is about as far as I can go to get into the holiday spirit. Oh, I might get some greenery at TJs tonight if they have a little tree in a pot.

My friend Leti and I were going to go out for lunch today but she and her son (who also works here part-time) suggested we get the others in the office together and have lunch in the conference room. They offered to run down to the Mission to get Mexican food. I am so full. I don't think I'll have room for the pumpkin pie she brought for another couple hours. I ate huaraches (corn tortillas filled with black beans), carnitas, queso fresco and fresh salsa (pico de gallo). Others ate chicharrones (pork crackling), hot red sauce, and refried beans. Arturo even got me some horchata (a rice drink) which I learned to love in Spain.

I just bought a hard drive on Amazon to back up my files at home. I thought about getting a portable drive like a Seagate's FreeAgent Go but went with a LaCie 1 TB (yes, that's terabytes) drive. While I was on Amazon I couldn't just get one thing, no, I had to fall for their buy-3-get-1-free paperback deal and get some urban fantasy books my library doesn't normally carry. Merry Christmas to me.

Day Before the Day Before Christmas Eve

Since I'll only be posting twice this week it didn't seem fair to use up a language for only two days' worth. Our office is closed from Christmas Eve through New Years Day and I don't think I'll be posting at home, though I may surprise you. Especially since the keyboard I took home from work on Friday seems to be compatible with my Mini (as opposed to mine which was all of a sudden experienced a sad painful rejection). We'll see. I often spend the holiday break in quiet contemplative seclusion.

Now that Sallie is living out here we feel obliged to get together for Christmas. Neither of us is big on the holiday but we'll eat a nice meal, sing a carol or two, watch a movie, and open what presents we have. I need to figure out how to wrap hers. I doubt I have any real wrapping paper at home. I think a newspaper or paper bag might have to do. I've been planning the meal and bought lots of veggies at the farmers market on Saturday. I'm having sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts and cauliflower. I need to pick up a roast of some kind. Maybe I'll stop at Trader Joe's tomorrow. Sallie's bringing rolls and a pie from Costco. I was hoping for gravy but she couldn't find the turkey gravy they had at Thanksgiving.

I'm getting hungry. I better get going.

ostiral

The purpose of our finance training/workshop was to educate the directors of the little organizations we work with and sponsor. We have arrangements, called fiscal sponsorships, with each of the groups who came so they can receive funds from foundations and others who want to donate to a legal, non-profit organization -- a 501(c)(3). Most of the people there knew very little about bookkeeping, financial reports, and the nature of the fiscal sponsor relationship. So to get everyone on the same page, we created a presentation and materials that covered the basics about financial record-keeping and reporting and the specifics about working with us.

The participants were three people who we work with very closely, a couple who we've worked with in the past and whose mission doesn't exactly fit with us, and a set of five from a community group we are just starting to collaborate with. We had hand-outs in both English and Spanish and a woman from our office was doing simultaneous interpretation into Spanish while my boss and I presented our slides in English. It forced us to go slowly which probably improved the quality of comprehension on behalf of both English and Spanish listeners. I was probably talking too fast.

Overall I feel like I did an okay job but know we could've been more prepared. I wish we would've had the slides in both languages because our Spanish-only people were flipping through the hand-outs all the time trying to follow along. I think having professional interpretation would've helped too. Another challenge was that there were varying levels of experience and needs in the group. At the end everyone was saying they learned a lot, wanted more and can we do another training.

ostegun

I left work early on Wednesday then got home and didn't have much to do before I got picked up around 7:30pm. I maybe should've showered because the one in the hotel in Merced was quite atrocious. The controls didn't work very well; the water pressure was miniscule; and the temperature was variable at whatever setting I had it on. I watched the Travel Channel until I felt sleepy and fell asleep quite quickly after getting up a couple of times to adjust the heater setting. It was getting down towards freezing so I had turned it up high but it was too hot to sleep.

There was a layer of ice on the car when we gathered to leave at 7:45 in the morning so I put on a glove and got out my library copier card and scraped off all the windows. We avoided the "complimentary continental breakfast" that consisted of stale poppyseed muffins and an orange beverage and went down the road to Carrow's instead. I'd never been in a Carrow's and am not sure I could've distinguished it from a Denny's except I didn't see the word "slam" anywhere. I was tempted by the pumpkin pancakes but went with the bacon and onion potato cakes instead. They were a bit oniony for that early in the morning.

We headed down the highway towards Fresno and soon were enveloped in what the natives here call Tule fog. To me it's just regular fog as opposed to the fog that comes off the ocean. We don't get that kind of fog where I come from. We never felt in danger driving along at 75mph but I did start to feel a bit claustrophobic when I couldn't see very far. It cleared as we hit the metropolis of Fresno and we had clear skies from then on down to Visalia where the training was.

asteazken

Today was busy with last minute prep for tomorrow's training/workshop. I edited some presentation slides and created a new one. My boss and I went over all the handouts we need to have and he's going to finish up the presentation tonight in the hotel. I hope things go well. I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm headed home soon to pack and have supper. They're picking me up at 7:30.

Today I also had to convert our big budget workbook to the next fiscal year (ending June 30, 2010) so we can look at contingency plans if certain funding doesn't come through. Like most non-profits a huge part of our budget is personnel so when we start talking about reducing expenses to match reduced revenue it's not a happy thing.

Stephanie's car did not blow up. I was shocked. Maybe next book. Now I'm reading an Amelia Peabody mystery which seems suspiciously familiar. I thought I hadn't read it but I must've. Not like I remember how it turned out so all's good.

astearte

Just as I suspected as soon as I finished Foundation by Mercedes Lackey I wanted to read the next in the Collegium Chronicles series. It's just not fair! We spend most of the book just getting introduced to the time period and our hero, Mags, plus a tiny, teeny smidgen of palace intrigue and then the book ends. Perhaps I'll have to re-read some other Valdemar books while I'm waiting for the next Chronicle. Cuz I think it'll be awhile.

Now I'm reading the latest installment in the Stephanie Plum series, Fearless Fourteen. It's again hilarious. Stephanie just picks up the quirkiest companions. I'm almost at the end of the book and her car hasn't blown up yet. It's been tagged but not been on fire. I expect that'll happen very very soon.

We've had lots of lovely rain around here lately. I thought Sallie and I might run into some in our trip to Modesto on Sunday but we did not. It was overcast which made for good driving which I ended up doing again. I used to make Sallie drive all the time but I guess I'm getting used to it. Or I'm feeling more possessive of my car. The musical was very nice and I enjoyed singing some Christmasy songs. We might go back out for their Christmas Eve service. Sallie gets off early.

Speaking of road trips...I'm headed to the Valley for work on Thursday and we were going to leave very early in the morning to get down to Visalia for a 10:30am workshop. I balked at the 6am departure time and suggested we stay overnight tomorrow night somewhere closer to the site. My co-workers agreed precipitately and propitiously. Especially after I found rooms for less than $40/night through Hotwire. Man, I love that site.

astelehen

I've been a bit incognito at home while online since my computer appears to be allergic to my keyboard. My way around it is to copy and paste words and letters from websites to TextEdit to make phrases and words to post to Facebook. It takes awhile and it awfully unsatisfying. Lucky for me most of the games I want to play on FB don't need keyboard inputs. My trackball suffices.

I think I'm going to pack up my Mini and bring it into work to let my IT guy look it over. After the keyboard knocked it out one time this weekend it wouldn't even power up. I got it to work after disconnecting all the externals but my trackball. It's feeling a little scary. I ran Backup a couple times but don't have enough space in my MobileMe cloud to save all my photos. I need to invest in an external hard drive or some kind of backup media.

This week's language is: Basque.

föstudagur

For some reason the heat in my office hasn't been working today. The server (which provides a lot of warmth) isn't putting out enough to compensate. I may have to put on my hoodie soon. They're calling for rain and highs around 50º this weekend. I should go around and attempt to plug all the holes and leaks around the windows and sliding glass door tonight. My apartment sure isn't made for keeping the cold out.

Sallie and I are going out to the church in Modesto on Sunday for their morning service. They're putting on a play (Something's Up Down in Bethlehem) that I did years ago with the same pastors but at a different church. It should be fun to see. I need to let Sallie know I'll be picking her up a bit earlier in case we run into fog and slow traffic.

I'm about a quarter of the way into the new Valdemar book and am loving it. I need to read more slowly to make it last. The type is very large and it's not that big a book anyway. Who knows when the next one will come out...

fimmtudagur

So, Twilight. It was fun. I met Sallie at little after 10:15 at the cinema and we were the only ones there for a little while. The trailers they showed were of particularly high quality I thought. Maybe I was just in the mood to be entertained but I enjoyed them (except the one for The Unborn which I don't even want to think about).

I had heard that the Twilight movie was not that great so my expectations were low plus I really didn't have that much invested in whether it was good or not. I enjoyed the fourth book but the others were just above mediocre, IMHO. I don't even think Robert Pattinson is that cute (I much preferred Oliver Wood to Cedric Diggory, maybe it's the accent). Anyway, I thought they did a great job with the movie. The vampire special effects weren't overdone and the interaction between Bella and Edward, especially at the beginning, was quite humorous. The Cullen family for me was a mixed bag, mostly not fitting my idea of them from the books. Rosalie, especially, was a bit over the top with her venom. Also, the other high schoolers were caricatures but what can you expect in a movie that's really all about two characters. I liked Jacob and can't wait to see more of the wolves in the following movies (if they make them).

If you think you may have recognized Bella's mom and you're a 24 fan, yes, it is Sarah Clarke a.k.a Nina Myers!!!

miðvikudagur

Sallie and I are going to the late showing of Twilight tonight. I'll let you know what I think. I'm trying not to get my expectations up too high. I am looking forward to seeing Jasper. That's one cute vampire.

So I have hours to kill before 10:30pm. I'm kind of getting hungry so maybe I'll grab something here in the City and avoid the crowds heading home on BART. Sallie works until 8:30 then has some errands to run so won't have time to eat after work. I hope she has a dinner break. We might have to get popcorn and a Coke.

I think I'm going to give up on the fantasy book Sallie loaned me by Juliet McKenna. I've read a few chapters but it hasn't caught my attention. I'll give it back to her and maybe try it again when I'm more in the mood for some fantasy with a strong female. I didn't mean to check out so many books when I stopped in at the library to get my one held book last night but I perused the New Books shelf and there were several I wanted to read. Mercedes Lackey has a new Valdemar book out, Foundation, about the founding of the Heralds' Collegium. I can't wait to read that one! And I had forgotten that Fearless Fourteen was out (Stephanie Plum!). But I've started with The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith from the Isabel Dalhousie series. My aunt was reading it when I was there for Thanksgiving and I didn't know know it was out. I need some way of getting alerts to when new books are out in my favorite series and by my favorite authors. Amazon?

þriðjudagur

I got to work on Tuesday and started feeling some sharpish pains in my lower back. The more I sat the worse it got when I shifted slightly or leaned over my desk. I must've strained it somehow. Maybe I was just stressed about the lack of internet at my house over the weekend.

I like a toasted bagel with cream cheese once in awhile. I get them at a little shop that also sells soup. They don't have a real toaster so they press them in the sandwich press. It makes grill marks on the bread and it actually quite tasty though slightly smushed. I like to get chicken soup there but the chicken pieces are quite large. I think it's bad planning on the chef's part. Soups and stews should be made of smallish like-sized pieces so you can get more than one ingredient on your spoon at once. The chicken is shredded too instead of chunked or sliced. It can get quite stringy.

mánudagur

I'm feeling cold so we'll be doing days of the week in Icelandic this week.

I had two major problems with my computer at home this weekend. First, I was playing Tetris and all of a sudden my computer went black. No shut down sounds, no big crackling of lighning. Just a sudden quiet. I powered up again and later I moved my keyboard to the side and it happened again. I guess no typing for me.

Then on Saturday I was reading some fan fiction and went to click to the next page and it wouldn't go. I checked my menu bar Gmail notifier and it had a question mark. I was disconnected from the internet. Oh, no! I checked all the hardware connections for the cable and cat 5 and everything seemed fine. I rebooted the modem and waited and waited and waited. Just some blinking lights. And no internet. Whatever shall I do?

It came back on Saturday night but was out again on Sunday so I spent most of Sunday and Monday reading books and watching movies and not being online. I didn't like it. I could tell my life had changed since I joined Facebook. I missed my games and seeing what everyone was up to.

petak

Crappy day today. Did I say crappy? I meant crampy. I just buried myself in my November bookkeeping and tried to ignore my malaise. It was good thing it was Friday which means fewer interruptions with fewer people in the office. My boss was supposed to be taking a vacation day but that didn't stop him from emailing and calling me. I got a set of draft financial reports over to him so hopefully that will make him happy even if I can't do the layout for the annual report until Tuesday.

I dropped by Sallie's to get her signature on our birthday card to Grandma last night. She asked if I wanted to pick something up for dinner on my way. I had eaten a later lunch so said I didn't think so but then once I got to San Leandro I was a bit hungrier. I got a load of tacos and burritos at Taco Bell. They were good. I like the crunchy tacos. We addressed and wrote notes on some holiday cards too. Neither of us really do holiday cards normally but I thought it'd be funny if she got some with a palm tree or something on them. She couldn't find that but found something similar.

I'm nearly done with Swallowing Darkness so I'm going to hop on BART and hope there aren't any graphic sex scenes I'd have to hide from my neighbors before I get home.

četvrtak

I found Tetris on Facebook last night so I lost chucks of my evening. All of a sudden it was almost 2am. It's not that uncommon that I'm up late but I may have to start setting an alarm to alert me when it's getting too late. I just get lost in the tetrominoes.

I experienced a bit of a Tetris effect this morning on BART as I was reading. If a paragraph ended with a short line, I wanted it to fall down and fit into the indent of the next paragraph. It was mildly distracting. I did fall asleep to tetrominoes falling through my mind. I think my favorite is the I tetromino followed closely by the T. I find them the most useful.

srijeda

If you don't mind a chilly day and like to avoid crowds, come to San Francisco the week after Thanksgiving. The line for the cable car this morning was practically non-existent. I haven't ventured across the street to the mall so maybe that's where all the people are. Paul and I went out for lunch today but neither of us felt up to going to the food court and braving the potential madness of the shopping, I mean, holiday season.

I rarely check my snail mail at home and as my mailbox is rather small it tends to get filled up with advertising flyers fairly quickly. Knowing my habits, my mom usually sends packages (and other mail) to my office. However, when I checked my mailbox after dropping of this month's rent check, there was a puffy envelope from my folks. It contained a wrapped present and a little award I won in college for leadership. I don't even remember receiving it.

I had left some of my things at home after I moved to California. I can't remember if I wanted to get rid of them or someday retrieve them. They happened to be in out on the south porch and weren't lost in the house fire in 2001. Mom sends me some once in awhile. I stole a photo album from her in August. I thought the collection of photos looked familiar and it was mine.

utorak

It was almost nice being back at work today, after being away five days in a row. I felt relaxed until I saw my filled email inbox. I flagged the messages and got to work chipping away at the tasks. At the end of the day, I made To-Dos for the unfinished flagged messages. There are too many!

My grandma (mom's mom) turns 95 next Tuesday. They're doing a card shower for her. I made a card in InDesign but I need to get Sallie to sign it and she's not off again until Thursday. I'm not sure it would get to PA in time if I mail it on Friday. It might have to go with only one of our signatures.

ponedeljak

I've chosen Bosnian for this week. Hope you enjoy it!

After a few months of a pretty hectic schedule I decided to take Mondays off in December. Well, not the 22nd because our office closes from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. With January 2 on a Friday, I doubt there will be much happening that day either. I'll probably be in. I just know my boss will be emailing me during the holidays. He never stops working.

I was feeling like watching a movie Saturday and had plenty to choose from on the TV. I ended up watching two Brosnan Bonds and one Star Trek. I forgot how much I loved Star Trek. I need to watch more. I'm sure there are re-runs on all the time on some channel.

dydd Gwener

Sallie had to be back at work at Borders in the afternoon of Black Friday so we had time to eat breakfast and that was about it. I broke down and asked to try the pumpkin pie. It was yummy!

It took us three and a half hours to get up to Roseville and only two hours to get back to Sallie's. Next time we'll leave earlier in the morning, for sure. I'm surprised my leg isn't still aching after driving the whole way up with no stops.

Sallie drove back so I was managing the music. I ejected one CD and was attempting to load another into my 6-disc changer when all of a sudden it wouldn't take it. Nor would it play any of the discs it already had loaded. We had to listen to the radio and I was scanning for awhile and totally getting on Sallie's nerves. Sorry!

dydd Iau

I was thankful for a warm shower, cheaper gas, perfect eggs at Denny's (over medium), companionship in the car while sitting in heavy traffic on the 580. I was also thankful for relatively close relatives to share time and music and stories and delicious food with. I was thankful for Lauren's exploration of a new side-dish of Shredded Brussels Sprouts with bacon and pine nuts. I was thankful for the old favorites of sweet potatoes with marshmallows and mashed potatoes. I was thankful for an amazing tender turkey cooked on the grill and homemade creamed corn. I was thankful for Marilyn's spread of desserts of which I only tried two: Boston creme pie and coconut creme pie. So good!

Thanks, Clarks, for hosting us and feeding us with love and food!

dydd Mercher

I had lunch with my old friend Corrina today. We've known each other since she was a BVSer in 1995. She happens to work right next door to my office building. You'd think that would mean we would get together more often than we do. But we don't. I'm such a homebody I can't even make the effort to plan a movie night. Lunch is easy though. Maybe that's enough.

Tomorrow Sallie and I head up to Uncle Jim and Aunt Marilyn's for Thanksgiving. We'll be eating at our cousin Lauren's with her husband and two kids. It'll take us a little over two hours to get there. I'm not sure we can get ourselves moving in time to get there for lunch. I should buy some snacks for the car. I also need to put gas in the car. My usual station had gas for $1.99 this morning. We'll see if it stays that price by the time I get home. I probably should've stopped. I also need to put J&M's phone number in my cellphone, and charge it tonight!

I just downloaded and installed You Control: Tunes. I wanted something to tell me what song was playing from my newly created iTunes Genius playlist. With You Control, I can have the song name scroll across my menu bar as well as come up as an overlay box that fades in and then back out after a second or two. There are loads of controls so you have lots of say in what it shows you.

The iTunes Genius sorts through your music library and selects songs to go with one you select. I have mine set on Coldplay's Don't Panic with 75 songs sorted by artist. It's a nice mix between a completely random playlist and listening to just one or two artists. I like music to sound similar unlike others I know who can listen to many genres one after the next. That would disturb my ears too much while I'm working.

dydd Mawrth

Today was payroll-processing day so I made a few last-second changes and clicked the "Submit payroll for processing" button. It's always a little scary. I can't take it back once I've clicked that button.

We had our December all-staff meeting today since our ED is traveling to the East Coast next week. We used to try to share the facilitating role among all the staff but decided recently to have just the few who actually enjoy it -- and help move us along the agenda efficiently -- serve in that way. Today was my turn. I do enjoy it; it helps me stay interested when topics don't directly concern me. I also don't have trouble keeping the talkative ones on track even when they're higher-ups. One of our department directors announced she's cutting back to half-time beginning in January. When she started speaking I thought she was going to say she was leaving us. I was glad to hear that wasn't true.

dydd Llun

Welsh it is. Thanks for voting. (ha ha)

I felt generally unmotivated at work today. I wrote some checks, added them to my new bookkeeping software, and balanced the two registers. I know I should be writing checks in Peachtree but Quicken is just so easy to maneuver through and nice to look at. Plus I can't mark items as cleared before going through the whole reconciliation process in PT. Not that I've found yet anyway. Perhaps some day I will tire of doing double entries. It's hard when I can't have PT open all the time since I'm running it through Parallels and prefer not to have it sucking up all my RAM all the time.

I got a couple requests from our auditors to update their permanent file. Some docs I have; others I don't. I need to update our accounting manual. It's been awhile since I've looked through it. I sent over our Board member agreement doc and requested an organizational chart. The ED is updating it now. It's quite complicated.

The firm that we contract with to file our tax form in the various states in which we do fundraising found a few minor errors in the form. Now I have to file an amended form. Drat! I need to hire a proofreader, I guess. One error was from rounding. I don't like rounding. It always makes me off by $1 or so. Why can't people deal in dollars AND cents?

As Paul and I left the office for lunch, Bev was right in front of us. She must've taken the stairs while we took the elevator. I yelled her name and she ended up accompanying us to the Indian restaurant. Korma was not on the combo menu today so I chanced ordering butter chicken which comes with a very mild tomato sauce. It was delish. And the naan was yummy too.

Wasn't it great to see Jack in action last night? I've so missed 24. And then to see that Tony is returning from the dead in the new season. Awesome. Can't wait 'til January 11.

My Face on a Book

More and more of my family is on Facebook now so I felt pressure to join. I'm not much of a social creature so I didn't think I would enjoy it. It has a Chat function though which is nice. A few people have sent me friend requests that I've Ignored. I'm more interested in keeping up with my family than discovering old college classmates or former co-workers. I'm on my computer all the time at home so I suppose it might help me keep in touch more. Some days I just don't want to talk to people though.

Vrijdag

I'm out of Babel Fish languages after today if I don't want to get into other alphabets. I'll have to go looking for more languages. This week was Dutch (which has a great word for Thursday: Donderdag, if you didn't notice yesterday). So far we've done English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch. Perhaps I'll do some languages from Spain next like Basque or Catalan. Or perhaps some Gaelic-flavored ones like Scots or Welsh or Breton. Or should I go mid-European with Albanian, Czech or Bosnian, or Turkish perhaps? There are always more Scandinavians: Finnish or Icelandic would be cool. How 'bout some non-Europeans like Maori or Samoan or Quechua? Can you tell I found a cool language site?

Man, Survivor last night was awesome. If you're not watching this season, you're missing out. They've really been mixing up the tribes so people have been switching alliances a lot. The hidden immunity idol had been found on Exile Island (by Sugar) so when Bob when out later he made a (really convincing) fake one. Randy (an a-hole) thought Bob was in his alliance so trusted him when Bob (urged by Sugar) gave him the fake idol to play at Tribal Council. Obviously it wasn't real so Randy's off to the jury. I'm not sure making everyone hate you was a good strategy for him. Hopefully he's not that much of a jerk in real life.

Donderdag

I was just in a session for our Board of Directors orienting the newest members to our financial statements and budget reports. Steve, my boss, and I got lots of nice compliments on the presentation and all the hard work we do. Our auditors were there too and they again mentioned how I draft the financial statements for them so their job is easier and they try to get other organizations to follow my example. It's a bit embarrassing but it does feel good to know the time and effort I spend in being efficient and accurate pay off and are appreciated.

Someone brought a lemon cake today for someone's birthday (who wasn't in the office). It was delicious. I don't often enjoy cake and wouldn't normally think of lemon cake at all but I loved it. It was moist and heavy and the icing wasn't too thick.

Today I did some more research on Health Savings Accounts. We're switching to a high-deductible health plan come January and I want to be able to give staff info about where they can set up their accounts. I'm looking at a credit union (Paltelco). They have a nice website and you can use ATMs in 7-Elevens (very odd). I applied for membership but they need a copy of my social security card. Geez. I have no idea where that is. Can't they use a paystub like normal people?

Woensdag

For supper last night at Sallie's we had lemon herb chicken steamed in her toaster oven, frozen green beans heated up on the stovetop in a bit of water, and cheesy mashed potatoes from a pouch. All were delicious. The movie was fun as well. Neither of us could remember much about the plot so we had fun guessing what was going to happen next.

Brenda: "I think she's going to die or betray him."
Sallie: "I think both."

Sallie was right, of course. So now we're all set to go see Quantum of Solace on Saturday. I'll be doing my usual library/farmers market errands first then we'll have to see when the showtimes are and eat before or after. I'm thinking Chili's as it's been far too long since I've had the country chicken crispers with gravy. Hopefully they're still on the menu.

Dinsdag

Sallie and I want to go see the new Bond movie so she suggested watching Casino Royale beforehand. I'm going to her place after work to enjoy dinner and a movie. The first time we saw Casino we were in Daniel Craig's hometown of Chester, England, sitting behind the singers from the Evensong service we had just attended at Chester Cathedral. I hope I can stay awake during it; I stayed up a bit too late last night.

Dancing with the Stars was fun last night. Brooke has been on top most of the season and was horrible in her first dance. She came back in the second one but my faves, Lance & Lacey, had the best scores of the night. I hope they make it to the finals. We'll find out tonight.

It's hunting season in Michigan and my brother has gotten two deer so far. They also butchered a pig at the farm this past weekend so their freezers might be getting full. Joanna was enjoying their new vacuum pack machine as they were processing all the meat. I'm surprised they haven't had one for years.

Maandag

Happy Birthday to my oldest niece, Melia!

I didn't get enough done today. I wonder if I would've if I hadn't had back-to-back meetings almost as soon as I arrived. However, I got both federal and state tax forms done and off in the mail; I finished up and sent off the three draft letters and three responses for our year-end fundraising appeal to our Devo Director by PDF; and I did a quick analysis of current health insurance costs compared to a possible new plan beginning in January. That sucked away my whole day and now it's time to go home.

Sallie introduced me to an author named David Weber this summer and I read the two books she recommended and loved them (Off Armageddon Reef and By Schism Rent Asunder). He has a long series (Honor Harrington) that is purely sci-fi which isn't normally 100% up my alley, but I tried the first two and loved them too. Before reserving the next few, I think I'm going to take a break and read a historical series about Arthur by Bernard Cornwall whose Saxon Tales I adore. They're due on Saturday but I'm sure I can renew them if I don't get all three read by then.

TGIF

Ah, Friday. I feel like I've worked two weeks in the last two days. Partly from my lack of energy from being sick and partly from the multiple little jobs I've had to juggle. I spent the weekend and Monday (my vacation day) being really sick and then Tuesday and Wednesday I rested (and sniffled and coughed) at home with barely enough oomph to respond to work emails. I felt pretty good yesterday especially after a nice long hot shower but today has been difficult. I'm so glad it's Friday.

I left the office early yesterday and had enough energy to not only think about cooking but actually doing so. I chopped up an onion and sautéed it in olive oil in my dutch oven along with a few (pretty dried up) garlic cloves that I pressed in. I cut up a snack packet of baby carrots and some leftover steak and added them to the pot along with ground pepper, dried thyme, celery salt and a couple of bay leaves. I deglazed with a bit of water, melted in some Better Than Bouillon and then filled the pot with water. In went two cans of white beans and I left it to come to a simmer then added a can of green beans and a head of cauliflower chopped into small florets. Once the cauliflower was tender, I filled up my bowl and had some delicious soup for supper.

I'm headed home now to have some more!

fredag

I have a cold. Or I should say: "I hab a cold." My nose is stuffed up. My sinuses are achy. My throat is sore. My head is woozy. My voice is low and scratchy. Why the heck am I at work?

Well, 1) it's the last day of employment (good riddance) for our receptionist and I had final paycheck stuff to do with her; 2) My boss (sick) and our office manager (vacation) were both possibly going to be out; 3) I wanted to finish up a draft of October financial reports; and 4) I'm taking Monday off.

I really tried to leave early, and I would've left at 2:30 when I was done with the financials, but at 12:30 my boss emailed me about designing a little flyer they need on Monday. Our air monitoring device was chosen this year as one of 25 innovations recognized by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose (out of over 300 around the world). The Tech Awards are next week and we have a table where people can stop by and pick up literature. I have to print out another 70 or so and I can get out of here.

An aside related to the star of yesterday's post: My boss also asked him to print out something for the Tech Awards and he was having problems and wanted me to do it but I said no. I gave him a bit of help but made him do it. I wasn't going to walk the extra mile for him today. Not after yesterday.

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.

onsdag

Last night I checked my voice mail and I had gotten a call from my apartment manager saying he was taking over the last of the rent and hadn't received mine yet. Oh, no! I completely spaced paying my rent for the first time ever! I'm going to blame it on all the election excitement. The ironic thing is that I was just talking about Wells Fargo BillPay with Sallie at supper on Monday at In-N-Out. If only I had thought a bit harder about what I might use it for. We were mostly talking about managing our online payments and not checks. They're charging me a $35 late fee. Ouch. I've set myself several repeating reminders for the future.

So how gorgeous was Anderson Cooper last night? I couldn't stop watching CNNHD. Joanna called me and was getting all emotional. I bet she was even more so after listening to Obama's speech. It was great. I didn't want to get my hopes up earlier in the day and was pretty stunned when I got home a little after 8 and turn on the TV to see the words: Barack Obama voted in as 44th President. I think I'm still a little disbelieving.

We had some bad news here in Cali with the passing of the evil Prop 8. I just can't understand why over 5 million people think more discrimination and elimination of rights is a good thing. I need to go home and watch Ellen.

tisdag

Ah, the election tizzy. I expect I'll go home in a bit and turn on the news. I'm watching a blog from the Guardian in the UK occasionally while I'm still at work. I keep forgetting to refresh the page while sitting here wondering why there's no update. People in the UK are leaving comments about how late it is there and could we just get on with it already. For awhile the commenters were mostly talking about what they were eating. It was funny.

The new baby's name is Shiloh Madelyn. I like it. I guess John's been liking the name Shiloh for awhile. Maybe he's a big Brangelina fan.

You know the unsettling dream I was telling you about on Friday? Well, the same project has had revisions both yesterday and today. Some people can't leave well enough alone.

måndag

In honor of my Swedish-descended sister-in-law, Joanna, this week we have the Swedish Days of the Week.

Joanna called today to pass along the super good news that she and my brother were accepted as the adopted parents of a new baby girl. The baby was dropped off at a fire station in Detroit. This will be their second adoption and second adopted baby girl. I wish them all the luck.

They were smart enough to realize that -- as they had to be in Detroit tomorrow to pick up the baby -- they would be unable to vote at their normal polling place so rushed over to where they could fill out an absentee ballot and just made it within 10 minutes of closing time.

I filled in my ballot and mailed it on Thursday. I didn't realize that you can also drop off your absentee ballots at certain locations if you think you're going to miss the mail. I hope mine gets there in time!

Here is a Halloween photo of John and Joanna's other kids (left to right): Leaf Man, Cowgirl Z and Piglet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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:

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....

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.