Levering Isolation
I made good use of isolation last night. The night before last, I got started on getting our accounting caught up and made a fair amount of progress: 5 months of credit card and bank statments were all entered and reconciled. Last night, I reconciled another set of bank statements and then I tackled an old pile of receipts for a credit card we canceled. The pile has been sitting around because we messed up with one of the downloads and in the interim, one of the cats (Ignatius, most likely) knocked the pile to the floor and scattered the receipts around. Since we didn't use the card anymore, reconciling it kept falling in priority. We had already extracted and entered any receipts we needed for tax or warranty purposes....
Last night, I got everything covering that six-month period from over a year ago to reconcile. Yay, me! Of course, now the net worth calculation in the accounting package shows us as having a lot less in the way of liquid assets.
It does very little to reduce our clutter or truly help us in any way. It wasn't a critical issue either. However, succeeding in dealing with that minor outstanding chore made both ealdthryth and myself feel a lot better for some reason.
What didn't make me feel better was looking at our 401(k) accounts. In spite of shoveling the maximum allowed each paycheck plus the company match into those accounts, they've actually LOST money during the course of the last 6 months. Grrr. On the other hand, with the value per share dropping, my shoveling purchases a larger number of shares. At least there is a definite short term bright side. It will all work out in the end...as long as none of those funds are backing the Savings & Loans.
How Did They Do That Fu?
IlovemykittiesIlovemykittiesIlovemykitties, but they managed to perform something that was simultaneously talented and disgusting at the same time. ealdthryth was actually up and about when I left for work this morning, and prior to my exit, we discussed some criteria for purchasing a new vehicle.
I got distracted, because I noticed a couple of cat toys at the bottom of the staircase, and something unrecognizable perched on top of the baseboard.
What is that?!?
The fact something was on top of the baseboard was intriguing in and of itself. Closer inspection determined that it was part of a kitty "Klingon". This led to the inevitable question of Who flung the poo? followed by How the heck did it end up THERE?!?? and an admonishment What? Do you guys are think you are ferrets now?!? (and, no, you don't really want to know why I asked that). It was only later that I realized a better rejoinder would have been What? Do you guys think you are running for President?!?
Our speculative conclusion is that one cat chased another yelling Hey! You've got a Klingon on your tail! causing the first cat to take off at high speed, and when the cat made a high-G turn at the staircase, the Klingon obeyed the laws of inertia and broke loose from the speedy feline, losing just enough velocity to land perfectly balanced on the baseboard.
Wow. Physics in action! and Eww!
Luckily, it wasn't a mess and was quite easy and not too nauseating to clean up.
I really don't know how to conclude this one....
New Blood
The new contractors are starting to trickle in. Someone in management must have finally paid attention to something I told them because they brought in a person to do data architecture instead of relying on code monkeys or business people to do it. That will help take some of the pressure off of our analysts. Yay!
The guy taking over for one of my ex-bosses is actually louder than my ex-boss. I didn't think that was physically possible and retain one's vocal cords. He'll get the same admonishment I gave my ex-boss: It isn't eavesdropping if the whole hall can hear you.
Last and not least, it looks like I may have to train a new contractor to do support work on one of "my" applications. This is a Good Thing--even though I don't have a lot of time to devote to it thanks to my other projects.
Last night, I got everything covering that six-month period from over a year ago to reconcile. Yay, me! Of course, now the net worth calculation in the accounting package shows us as having a lot less in the way of liquid assets.
It does very little to reduce our clutter or truly help us in any way. It wasn't a critical issue either. However, succeeding in dealing with that minor outstanding chore made both ealdthryth and myself feel a lot better for some reason.
What didn't make me feel better was looking at our 401(k) accounts. In spite of shoveling the maximum allowed each paycheck plus the company match into those accounts, they've actually LOST money during the course of the last 6 months. Grrr. On the other hand, with the value per share dropping, my shoveling purchases a larger number of shares. At least there is a definite short term bright side. It will all work out in the end...as long as none of those funds are backing the Savings & Loans.
How Did They Do That Fu?
IlovemykittiesIlovemykittiesIlovemykitties, but they managed to perform something that was simultaneously talented and disgusting at the same time. ealdthryth was actually up and about when I left for work this morning, and prior to my exit, we discussed some criteria for purchasing a new vehicle.
I got distracted, because I noticed a couple of cat toys at the bottom of the staircase, and something unrecognizable perched on top of the baseboard.
What is that?!?
The fact something was on top of the baseboard was intriguing in and of itself. Closer inspection determined that it was part of a kitty "Klingon". This led to the inevitable question of Who flung the poo? followed by How the heck did it end up THERE?!?? and an admonishment What? Do you guys are think you are ferrets now?!? (and, no, you don't really want to know why I asked that). It was only later that I realized a better rejoinder would have been What? Do you guys think you are running for President?!?
Our speculative conclusion is that one cat chased another yelling Hey! You've got a Klingon on your tail! causing the first cat to take off at high speed, and when the cat made a high-G turn at the staircase, the Klingon obeyed the laws of inertia and broke loose from the speedy feline, losing just enough velocity to land perfectly balanced on the baseboard.
Wow. Physics in action! and Eww!
Luckily, it wasn't a mess and was quite easy and not too nauseating to clean up.
I really don't know how to conclude this one....
New Blood
The new contractors are starting to trickle in. Someone in management must have finally paid attention to something I told them because they brought in a person to do data architecture instead of relying on code monkeys or business people to do it. That will help take some of the pressure off of our analysts. Yay!
The guy taking over for one of my ex-bosses is actually louder than my ex-boss. I didn't think that was physically possible and retain one's vocal cords. He'll get the same admonishment I gave my ex-boss: It isn't eavesdropping if the whole hall can hear you.
Last and not least, it looks like I may have to train a new contractor to do support work on one of "my" applications. This is a Good Thing--even though I don't have a lot of time to devote to it thanks to my other projects.