HAWAII!

Who's going to Hawaii?

I'm going to Hawaii and Morgan is going to Hawaii. Yup! You heard right. We're leaving February 26 and coming back March 4th.

I am SO excited!

Halloween - very very late

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins for Halloween this year! Do you like our pumpkin sown man? He has a real carrot nose. Unfortunately, this is the view our neighbors had:

They loved it!

TiVo

So TiVo is offering the lifetime subscription if you buy a new HD TiVo. I'm really annoyed because I asked if they would be offering it again and they said no. So I paid to have my lifetime subscription transferred when for an extra $200 I could have had 2 lifetime subscriptions. It's true that I got 1 free year on my old TiVo and if I decide to keep it it'll only cost $7 per month since it's my second TiVo and that means it would take about 28 months plus my 1 free year is 40 months before I would have saved any money. But still...

Me

I left work at 3:00 on Thursday because I wasn't feeling well. I ran to the grocery store to by some medicine and I picked up some soup from the Chinese restaurant next to the grocery store and got home around 4:00 pm on Thursday. It's now 9:00 pm on Saturday and I haven't left the house since. The closest I got was walking onto the front porch to get the mail.

I intended to leave the house today. I was going to pick up another wireless TiVo adapter. But I forgot the cable guy was coming so when he knocked on the door at 10:00 am I was still in my pj's and was 5 minutes from getting in the shower. Good thing I wasn't in the shower when he got here. He left around 11:00 am with plans to come back between 1 and 3 to see if he could fix the problem. That would give TiVo some time to repeat the guided set up. After he left I put in a load of laundry and got in the shower. Then I got dressed and made lunch. Then I tried to get TiVo to work. Eventually it did start to work, but only after Nate (the cable guy) called back to see if it was working and I said no. So he came back with his supervisor and they set up a 2nd card. I digress, this isn't really what the story is about.

After TiVo started working I got distracted. I was talking to Karen. Then it got dark so I decided not to go out at all.

Friday I laid in bed or on the couch all day because I wasn't feeling well. Today I still don't feel well, but I feel better than I did yesterday. I really need to get out of the house tomorrow.

This day flew by. I can't believe it's after 9:00 pm. Morgan is out of town for the weekend. She'll be back tomorrow night. I wonder if my being alone all day Friday and a lot of the day Saturday had something to do with me staying in the house all day.

Sometimes I think that I never learned how to be alone. One of the down sides of being a twin. I never spent much of my childhood alone. Everyone else I know has memories of time spent alone. They even enjoy spending time alone. Not me. I'd much prefer to be with someone than be alone. But not anyone and not many people. Usually 1 or 2 specific people. I am more introverted than extroverted. I am an ISFJ after all.

TiVo up and running

I finally got the cable company out here to "install" the cable cards so my new TiVo works! In fact I'm watching it right now. It can record 2 shows at once! I'm glad it finally works! I also have a brand new cable connection upstairs in my bedroom and tonight I'll move my series 2 TiVo up there. 2 working TiVo's, the ability to record 3 shows at once. Could life be better?

Miner 2049er

So I was reading my friend's blog and it reminded me of that game I used to play where you had to set up a bunch of stuff to make something happen. You could light a candle and it would put it next to a magnifying glass and there was a kettle. The whole point was to get a ball in a cup or something. I can't remember what it's called. But I had a unquenchable urge to play it! So I started to google things to see if I could find it, but I couldn't find it. So then I started to think about other games I used to love. Like the one where there was a bar and you had to shoot the beers down the bar to the people without letting them fall on the ground. I couldn't find that either. Then I looked for Miner 2049er. And I found it. I downloaded it. The screen is very small (2 in x 2 in or so). It took me about 20 tries to get past level 1! I couldn't beat level 2. But it made me happy. Does anyone know the name of the ball/kettle/magnifying glass game or the beer game?! *UPDATE* It's called "The Incredible Machine"!!!! And I found it! And I played it! It was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Update #2* I've gotten better at this Miner 2049er, but none of the levels are the same. Sad, but still fun.

Potential career paths

Possible Career Paths for the ISFJ:

• Interior Decorators
• Designers
• Nurses
• Administrators and Managers
• Administrative Assistants
• Child Care / Early Childhood Development
• Social Work / Counselors
• Paralegals
• Clergy / Religious Workers
• Office Managers
• Shopkeepers
• Bookkeepers
• Home Economics

Or these:

Category	Percentages
Sales & Marketing	100
Manufacturing	100
Construction & Maintenance	100
Technology	100
Finance/Accounting	83
Entrepreneurs	80
Agriculture/Forestry	60
Mechanical/Electrical	50
Administrative/Clerical	50
Business & Management	40
Visual Arts	40
Natural Sciences	38
Social Sciences/Services	33
Education	33
Creative/Performing Arts	10

Leaving the picnic table

After this week at work I realized that working with my child boss is unbearable. I spend 75% of my work time wanting to rip my hair out or beat someone. Especially since we are hiring 2 more people she is on this power trip, I think about being able to "supervise" all of them and getting an office (I can't believe they think she needs an office. It makes me so angry). She keeps saying things like, "I think that'll be a great first task for the new person." I keep thinking, "your kidding me. One person already started and you were so unprepared for her to start she has worked there a full week before anyone even started to talk to her about what her job would be or give her anything to do that was her job."

I despise work. I spend the other 25% of my time there trying not to think about how much I hate it.

I'm torn between quitting and then finding a new job (I really want to quit so badly) and waiting to find another job before I quit.
But in my 8 months there I have gotten a total of just over an 18% raise. That's not bad for 8 months.

I mean if that continues maybe it's worth being miserable. Is it? No. It's not, I hate being miserable.

Also it's getting dark so early now. Stupid daylight savings time. I like the "extra hour" of sleep, but I hate it being dark at 5:00 instead of 6:00 all of a sudden. I mean it gradually gets darker earlier and then BOOM 1 hour earlier!

So, I'm making a commitment to actively look for a new job. Any ideas?

No more picnic table?

Well, we are moving from the 2nd floor of the building we are in to the 1st floor. So, they are building new cubicles for us. I am going to get a real cubicle. It will be 6 feet by 8 feet (which is bigger than the cubes everyone else has now.

We are moving in a few weeks.

I won't be able to send any more note from the picnic table!

New TiVo!

Through November 8th TiVo is letting you transfer your TiVo lifetime subscription to the new HD TiVo. Now, I don't have HD TV, but I thought when the TiVo Series 3 came out that might be the only time they offered to let you transfer your lifetime subscription.

True, when the TiVo series 2 came out they let you transfer the lifetime subscription for free. Now they're charging $199. But now you can transfer it to the HD TiVo which costs $299.

So I called TiVo to see if you can transfer to the the Series 3 TiVo (which is only $600 now instead of it's original $800). I talked to this very nice and hilarious guy named Jeremy. He told me that no, you can't transfer it to the TiVo Series 3 you can only transfer it to the new TiVo HD. The TiVo Series 3 has 300 non-HD recording hours, the TiVo HD (which according to Jeremy is not a Series 2, it "comes of the Series 3 line") has 180 non-HD recording hours. He also said that the new TiVo is 7% faster.

He also said that the TiVo HD is equipped with a thing in the back that, right now nothing exists to go there, but he eluded to the fact that they will be coming out with additional hard drive space you'll be able to buy. Because it doesn't exist yet he didn't have any information about it.

And, if you do it now they'll give you 12 months of service free on the TiVo you already owned.

So, I bought it. I couldn't help myself.

Ralphie 2

Someone called today and saw our sign about Ralphie. She said the owner lives downstairs in her building. She left her a note about Ralphie, and they she (the owner) left a note saying she didn't want him back!

I'm so sad! How could she not want him back?

Ralphie

This is Ralphie. He's cute, isn't he?

Dead Camera

My camera died today. My camera, my college graduation present. It stopped taking real pictures. Now it only takes purple shaded lines on a black background. Luckily Morgan got a camera for her last birthday so we can take a new picture of Ralphie the lost cat who is living with us until we can a) find his owner, b) find someone else to care for him or c) December 22nd. The first available drop off day at the closest no kill shelter.

We are going to make up posters and place an ad in the newspaper. I already posted on Craigslist.
I hope we find a good family for him. He is the sweetest cat. He'll just sit in your lap with you while you pet him. He has a big head that he hasn't quite grown into.

The only problem is, he's not neutered and Dippy is NOT happy about him being in the house, so he has to live in the basement. But he has a cat bed and we're going to getting him some toys. And for now our basement is better than living on the street. He's very skinny.

Why work is stupid

We have marketing materials. We send them out. We often send people several copies of the same thing, "just in case." We generally waste a lot of my time putting them together and sending them out and a lot of money on creating them. We are in the processes of totally revamping all the marketing materials. They will be completely new in a week and a half. But, as of today I still need to put together 50 of our "blue folders." Do you know what the executive director said when I suggested that instead of buying more folders and sending these out now we wait until the new stuff is ready? She said, "I want to strike while the iron is hot. We can resend the new materials later." So I'm going to spend the next day putting together 50 "blue folders" for people who and in a week and a half I'm going to need to redo this mailing with all the new materials.

Foxwood's

Morgan and I went to Foxwood's Thursday night and stayed over. We had a wonderful time! We didn't make any money and we didn't break even, but we had a great time.

There were some great slots. I didn't find Mojo, the monkey in the slot machine that we played the last time I was at Foxwood's but I did find some with some pretty good bonuses.

We should plan another trip down there. Maybe even to Mohegan Sun. What do you think?

On another note, I hear that my whole family was down in Cherry Hill on Saturday... thanks for the unvitation!

Race to 500...

So, we sort of got off track on this race to 500. I'm not sure what exactly to do about that. I'm super busy at work. I haven't been wearing my pedometer or walking during lunch or after work.
Has anyone else been keeping up?

Car Trouble

So this morning I drove to work, like any other morning. The only difference was that today right after work I had a lot to do: drive a friend to the train station in Springfield, pack for my weekend trip, clean up the house. Pay attention to my cat and guinea pig since they'll be alone this weekend.

So I had to run a quick errand for work to Agawam. I went out to my car and put the key in the ignition. And nothing happened. The thing didn't even turn over. It'd only been sitting in the parking lot for 2 hours and I didn't leave the lights on or anything. So we tried to jump start it. No luck. I called AAA and went inside to do some more work. About 45 minutes later they came (the maximum time they had to come was 1 hour, not bad). The guy jump started the car with one of those car jump starters and it started right up. He said, "just don't turn it off for 20 minutes" and left. I was like, hmm weird that it started right up. So I drove to Agawam. 30 minutes after he jumped it I arrived and turned the car off. I was a little nervous about it, but I tried not to worry too much. I went inside and counted some books, put some books in my car etc. Then I went back out and put the key in the ignition and nothing. It wouldn't even turn over!

I thought this might happen but I was so hoping it wouldn't. So I called AAA again and this time I had them tow me to a place that they recommended called V&F Automotive. I had called ahead and they said I could bring it over after 1:30. It was 2:00 before we got there. So they said they didn't have time to look at it right then, but it didn't sound like it was the battery. They said they thought it was the alternator. So I called work and someone came to pick me up from the car place and called Mike and left him a message, "hello Enterprise, I'm at the repair shop, I need to rent a car."

We transfered the 20 boxes I'd picked up from my car to hers and then we stopped by McDonald's on the way back to work. By that point it was 3:00 and I hadn't eaten lunch yet and I was super cranky and I needed a big mac. So we got back to work and I moved the boxes around and called Mike. He arranged for my rental car after I figured out which branch was closest to me. I said I wanted the "cheapest one possible." So I called up and asked them to pick me up at 5:00.

At 5:15 I called again to see where they were and I talked to someone else and they said, "what?" and I was like umm, come pick me up please. So at 5:30 they finally showed. It was a young girl named Megan who was nice (and I think the one I talked to the first time who forgot about me) and she took me to Enterprise and filled out my paperwork. And then she couldn't decide which car to give me. So a woman who looked like her manager because she was dressed different was like hmmm. And Megan said she wants a small cheap car and it's a family rental. She said it like the family rental got a worse car than a regular rental so I made a hilarious joke
like, "and that means you get the best car, right?" So they looked at the screen and Megan said, "that one" and pointed and the manager said, "let's go with this one".

I got a 2007 Monte Carlo with 6000 miles on it. It's a 2 door, but it's a nice car. Nicer than my car. But I still have no idea what's wrong with my car.

BED!

We got a bed today! This is it. This is not our bedroom. We didn't get the night stand or anything, just the bed. I put it together myself.

Sunday Night Blues

The Sunday Night Blues are terrible. There is nothing you can do to prepare. There's now way to know if this Sunday you'll be hit with the Sunday Night Blues or if you'll be safe. Tonight I have the Sunday Night Blues.

Dippy!

Here are some pictures of Dippy and one of Toby too so you don't forget what he looks like. Look at that cute little piece of hay on his nose.

I have a cat!

Morgan brought our cat home! She is wonderful. She's been in the house for about15 hours now and is much calmer. But unfortunately she hasn't used her litter box yet. That makes me nervous. I'll have to go on a "scavenger hunt" to make sure she hasn't been using a corner somewhere.

Let me tell you about Dippy. She's 8 years old. According to her old vet in New Hampshire her name is "Dippy Doo", she's a Domestic Short Hair cat. She weighs 8 pounds. She's orange and white and has freckles on her nose.

So far she doesn't seem very interested in Toby which is a good thing. I'll have to take a picture of her and show you.

Cat is coming

Morgan is at home right now. When she comes back on Saturday or Sunday she'll have our cat with her. I'm pretty excited.

I'm back

I realize that I disappeared for a little while, but I'm back. You see, first Morgan and I went to the cape for a week. It was awesome. I had a great time. If I have time, I'll write you more about it later. We got back Saturday around dinner time. I was exhausted. So we didn't do much the rest of the day Saturday. Sunday we packed and Monday I went to work. I'd been out for a week so there was a lot to do. Then I came home and Morgan's sister and brother-in-law helped us move our washing machine, then we packed some more. Tuesday I took the day off work and we rented a U-haul and moved. And I called Comcast so they would move our cable and internet to the new place. Wednesday I went to work again, it was Morgan's birthday. She also stayed home to wait for the gas and cable man. So Wednesday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Morgan's birth. Thursday I left work early to finish packing and cleaning our old apartment. We had to be out by Friday. Friday I went to work. Saturday we mostly unpacked and cleaned and I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Comcast trying to get the internet working, it wouldn't connect. So I had spotty internet connection, on for 10 minutes then it'd kick off and we'd have to reset the modem. So, I hadn't posted. Now it's Tuesday and we're going to go see the Simpson's movie. So I have to go again, but if you've been tracking your miles send them to me and we'll get back on track for our race!

Moving

I took Friday off work to work on moving as you all know, and I was very productive Friday and pretty productive Saturday, today is going kind of ..... badly. I haven't accomplished very much yet. I have realized that I have a lot of stuff. Not only stuff, junk. But it's things I'm not ready to get rid of. But it's everywhere! And it's hard to try and be organized at the new place because we haven't quite decided where everything should go. I'd kind of like to bring home 3 more pallets and just stack everything in the basement except the furniture of course. Then, as we get organized we can bring stuff up and put it away as we find a place for it or need it. And anything that's still in the basement after a year we can consider giving away, except of course for such treasures as, "Why I'm Specile by Lauren Harvey" (One of the things that bugs me is when Michael calls me "stoopid" or an "idjit") and the results of my two (yes 2!) tests to see if I have a learning disorder. Those things are priceless! So today I've packed up my foodsaver and the toaster oven. And I've emptied the toaster oven holder/storage thing in the pantry. It has a name I'm sure, but I just don't know what that name is. I might try to bring it over today, but I'm not sure I can do it by myself. I know we'll need it since our new kitchen has a serious lack of storage and counter space.

Race to 500 - July 5

Done with School!

I finished my class. Tonight we took our fourth and final test. My test scores (in order) were 100, 100, 98, 97. You can see that as class wore on I was more and more tired so my grades suffered. But the teacher said that I will end the semester with an A. He also said that if they gave A+'s I would have gotten an A+. Not bad, eh?

So, now I'm done with class and I'm soooo tired. I am not going to work tomorrow, I'm taking the day unpaid so I have a three day weekend to work on packing. Yesterday (the fourth of July) was a holiday so I did not go to work. Morgan and I spent the morning packing and cleaning and then we went out for lunch, took the boxes to the new apartment and went to the grocery store to pick up a few things since we were having people over for dinner. But, the point of this story is that the morning of packing, from 10 - 1 I got surprising little done. Packing takes forever! This is even worse than the last move. At least the last time a lot of the common stuff was staying and Morgan and I only had to move our stuff. Now everything is our stuff! There is so much stuff!

So, we've taken 2.5 car loads over so far. Today at work I got someone to give me a pallet so I could put some boxes in the basement without worrying about them getting when when it rains all day tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday like it's supposed to. We had been just putting the boxes in the kitchen because they were full of things like my childhood memories in tangible form that I brought from the Tangletree house or some of my video games and clothes we hardly ever wear and winter sheets and blankets and books which we can't unpack until we move the bookshelf. So today I put the pallet downstairs and moved all the stuff that we don't need to unpack for awhile (pretty much everything listed above except the books) to the basement. So now, when we bring more stuff over we'll have more room to put it.

Morgan's family is going to help us move, we are trying to pick a good day for it. I really hope it's sometime next week, because we're out of town the next week and the week after that is our last week in the old apartment. We have to be out by Friday, so I really want to have most of it done before we go on vacation. That's another reason I'm taking tomorrow off of work.

My future 2

They have decided to expand my child's picnic table into an "L". They're going to add some (hopefully usable) horizontal space, something I seriously lack now. The director was trying to think about how to fit a table in the room. And she was looking around and she really sincerely wanted to try to get me some work space. It made me feel bad because I was sitting there so angry about my job and how it sucks and she really wanted to make something work. So, I took advantage of the fact that the director moved from a cubicle to an office with a door. I went in to her office a minute after she left the room and asked if she had a minute. I told her that I was unhappy and that what was hardest for me was that I didn't a place for me to go with PJ that would satisfy what I need.

She said a couple of really helpful things. She gave me 2 thoughts wearing 2 different "hats"
The PJ Library hat/personal hat: She said that they were very glad when I came along but part of her wondered if this was enough for me.

I told her that at first I didn't think it was a good fit for me, but there were a few things that drew me here. One of which was a chance to work at a foundation and since PJ is thinking about separating from HGF to become it's own thing, I thought I might be able to learn something that might help us with our fund.

She said that PJ would support me in whatever I choose to do, that I could have time off for job searches. She said she would be willing to talk to some people with in the foundation to see if there was another department looking for some help that I could do part of.

Wearing her Mom hat: She said that I have a lot going on right now, I'm moving, Morgan's looking for a job and if I were one of her daughters she would tell them that maybe now wasn't the time to be starting a job search. She would suggest picking a date in the future (like September 15th) to say, I'm here until then and after that I'll see what I want to do.
She also said if I choose not to take that advice she would totally respect it and give me a glowing recommendation.

So, I feel better because they know how I feel and that I've been considering leaving and if something comes up that is not mindless work, I think they'll give it to me. In the meantime she suggested I sit down with the executive director for an hour or so one day to talk about the workings of a foundation. So if we decide to make our fund a foundation I might know something about it.

the future?

It is officially July. Morgan and I took a load over to the new apartment. At some point she's going to talk to her sister to see what day she can come help us move. Morgan's Mom might come help us too. We have until July 27 to be out of our current place.

As far as accounting. I am enjoying the material of my class. I'm thinking about going back to school for accounting, but if I do I'll need to quit my job. That might not be such a bad idea. I hate my job. I hate it so much. I am so unhappy there. I sit at work all day thinking about quiting. But the question remains, if I quit, what will I do? I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to school, but I'm sure I don't like my job. So, what have learned. I warn you that this may be boring, but I will now go through my past jobs and list things I liked and disliked about them.

Job 1: Dierberg's Cashier
Likes: It was fun. I got to deal with the public. I got to deal with money. It was relatively easy to take a day off
Dislikes: It paid terribly. I had to deal with the public. I had to work evenings and weekends.

Job 2: Camp Emeth
Likes: It was fun. I got to do neat things. I worked with fun people. I got to be outside. I got to work with kids.
Dislikes: It was a LOT of work and the camping trips and overnights were exhausting. The pay was terrible. I had to deal with the kids parents.

Job 3: K.B. Toys
Likes: It was fun. I got to play with toys. I got to deal with the public. I got to work with fun people. I learned a lot about toys and what children likes. It was fun to try and make our numbers for the day.
Dislikes: I had to work with the public. I had to work nights and weekends. It was really annoying when people would try to steal stuff.

Job 3.5: Temping at Yankee Candle for 6 months
Likes: The people were very nice. I was good at the work. I didn't mind going to work every day. It's the only job I've ever had where I came home smelling better than I did when I left the house.
Dislikes: Sometimes it was very boring. Sometimes it was very stressful. It was a temp job, so there were no benefits.

Job 4: APT
Likes: I met some nice people.
Dislikes: Some of the people were terrible. I strongly disagreed with many many of the companies policies. They (pretty blatantly) paid men more than women. It was boring, it wasn't challenging and I really hated it.

Job 5: The PJ Library
Likes: Many of the people are nice. It is very easy to take time off (unpaid of course).
Dislikes: They really don't pay me enough. It is very boring and very not challenging. Even though I've had 2 conversations about how I'm not feeling challenged, I'm bored and I'm unhappy, their idea of fixing this is to give me busy work to do which just makes exacerbates the problem. I am really really really really really really unhappy, pretty much all the time. Mike and I and Josh can have depressed parties.

So, what should I do? I've thought about just quitting my job and looking for something temporary, just to pay the bills to see what I like.

I don't like that when working in an office I am pretty much sedentary all day every day. There's something that I'm kind of drawn to about a job where the harder I work, the more I get paid, but I'm scared of commission based work.
Also, I'm really not a risk taker, but I also want to go into business for myself, but I have no idea what kind of business. And, just quiting your job is kind of risk too. So, I'm trying to decide my next move (with my life, I'm in the middle of my physical move).

I'm still here

I know the only posts lately were graphs. No commentary, no nothing. And I'm sorry about that. A wise person once told me, "working and going to school sucks." She was right. I'm so tired all the time. I only have 3 more classes left, one week left. I've been doing pretty well at school. We've had three tests so far I got 100, 100 and 98. I missed 2 stupid questions. And I was so annoyed about it. We have one more test next Thursday the last day of class.

Race to 500 - June 28

Race to 500 - June 26

Race to 500 - June 24

Race to 500 - June 22

Race to 500 - June 19

Rachel, you are really catching up to Ellen..

Fathers Day

Today is Father's Day. So I called my Dad, it seemed the thing to do. After some chatting he asked me how my new apartment was coming. I said it was good. We talked about how the landlord seemed like he cared more about the property than my current landlord by how he was preparing the apartment for us. Dad said, "well, it sounds like you'll need to start keeping your place nicer since he might be popping over all the time." After I assured him that it's illegal for the landlord to just come over without 24 hours notice except in the case of emergency as stated by our rental agreement, Dad told me, well you never know. I'm half-way through a deck of cards, so maybe it's time for me to change my ways. Since it's Father's Day, all I have to say is this.....

Happy Father's Day Dad. I love you.

Signed the agreeement

We signed our rental agreement today! Since I gave him the check today (as opposed to on move it) he gave us the key so we can begin moving a car-full of stuff over everyone once in a while, just knowing that he has a few small things to fix so he'll be in and out. Then, on July 1 or the day or two before since the 1st is a Sunday.

On another note, we're getting a cat! The landlord said it was okay for us to get a cat. Which is good, since Morgan's family is looking for a new home for one of her Mom's cats since it is getting picked on by another one of her Mom's cats. So, we're going to become a 2 pet family. One of my friends is allergic to cats, and we always talked about how if we did get a cat she would never be able to come over again, but since she's moving to NYC to live with another friend, it's a non-issue. I'm very excited! I can't wait to move it.

On a totally separate note, to Anne, the picture came out great! I think Toby is the cutest.

Race to 500 - June 14

Raise

Stapled to the back of my paycheck and everyone else's paycheck today was a letter, that I only skimmed before opening the paycheck.

The letter was addressed "Dear Employee"

It had 4 paragraphs and after skimming it I had no idea why they had attached it to my paycheck. The only thing that really stood out was that they were talking about a NCAA coach. 3 of the 4 paragraphs mention John Wooden.

So I opened my paycheck and noticed that there was a note saying that my hourly wage had been changed from A to B. I immediately checked to see if this was an increase or a decrease. It turns out it was an increase, a 3% increase.

Then I decided to read the letter again only this time actually read it. The last sentence in the third paragraph (the only paragraph that does not talk about Wooden) says, "We are happy to recognize your effort to perform consistently at your best with the raise contained in your paycheck this week."

Just so you know it's not just me, 2 other people skimmed the letter and had no idea it was about us getting a raise.

So there is an upside and a down side.

The upside: it seems once a year everyone gets a 3% raise. It just turns out I've only been here for 4 months and I got it too.

The downside: it seems raises have nothing to do with your performance so no matter how hard I work I'm not eligible for more than a 3% raise once a year. But maybe, just maybe, if I really do awesome Harold will make something happen for me.

Until then, I'm 3% a year richer and that's a nice thing.

Race to 500 - June 12

Here we go. I got Ellen for the 10th and the three of us for the 12th. This is a little early for me to post the 12th, but if anyone else submits mileage I'll just add it on when I post the 13th.

Race to 500 - June 11

Ellen - I have nothing for you for June 10. Did I mess up? Rachel is really catching up to you!

Lactose - Friend or Foe?

Today someone at work brought in a huge chocolate cake and put it in the kitchen. I forgot to bring breakfast to work and the chocolate cake was calling me. So I decided to have some for breakfast (not very sparkle-y of me) but I would have to have a glass of milk with it. So I took the milk out of the fridge and someone in the kitchen asked if I was planning to have a glass of milk. I said, yes, I need it to go with the cake. She said that I was the only Jewish person she knew who was not lactose intolerant. But then she asked me how old I was. I told her I was half way through a deck of cards (26) and she said, oh. It hit everyone I knew in their late 20's and 30's. She said in her 20's she was all about cheese and milk. I said... hmm, my siblings claim they're lactose intolerant. Maybe it is something that hits you later in life. I know lots of people become lactose intolerant after they stop drinking breast milk, but I guess I always thought that if you were in your 20's and fine with lactose you were good to go. Lactose was your friend, an ally.
So the question becomes: Is my time with lactose limited?

Race to 500 - June 7

Well. Rachel overtook Matt as number 3.

Race to 500 - June 6

2 down - some more to go

I've had 2 Accounting classes so far. Tonight was our off night then we have class again tomorrow and then again we're off for the weekend. I think our 4th class (which will be Monday) will be our first exam. They'll be 4 exams. So one exam each week probably. Each worth 25% of the grade.

So far it is going okay. I have learned some stuff, though we are moving slower than I would like, but I think it will be okay. I didn't have too much trouble with the 1 problem we had for homework....

The teacher is a repeat talker. He says everything a couple of times in a row. Each time as if it's new information. And he keeps saying things like, when you buy something your credit card balance goes up. If you don't understand that take us all to lunch.

But this going to class after work thing is tiring! And it's getting in the way of my walking!

Race to 500 - June 5

Rachel! You are over 100 miles! You were as of the 4th, I just hadn't noticed.

Race to 500 - June 4

Well, something exciting is happening. It looks like Rachel might overtake Matt soon. This will be the first time. It's very exciting! You're excited, aren't you?

Well, technically if I had all the original data from the first 2 weeks someone would have. But still....

Race to 500 - June 3

Well, I heard from 2 people that the 3-D graph was hard to read. How do you like this?

Yesterday was a good day for me: 8 miles.

Today (which will show up on tomorrows graph) was bad. 1.5 miles. It was raining during lunch and a super busy day and then I had my first class tonight. I'll tell you more about that another time. I'm tired now. RAH no miles for yesterday? That's ok by me since I'm trying to catch up....

The day before school starts

Well, my class starts tomorrow. I went school supply shopping yesterday. I just got a notebook, some pencils and a calculator since mine broke a year after college. Even though I am taking this class by choice I am still dealing with a pretty bad case of the Sunday night blues. I'm nervous about getting there on time and getting to the room and all that. I hope there are some nice people there. I hope they aren't all annoying. I hope the teacher is nice and a good teacher. I finally opened the book this weekend. I had been waiting because once you broke the plastic wrap covering it, it was no longer returnable. So I opened the book. The first chapter has a box (I can only assume all chapters have this) that said, "by the time you finish this chapter you will be able to:" and a whole list a of things. I didn't know how to do any of them. That's good.

So, tomorrow I start my class. I'll let you know how it goes....

Race to 500 - June 2

Well, here we go for June 2nd. Rachel, you aren't helping me catch up much with 9.2 miles! I can see I'm just going to have to work harder....

Race to 500 - June 1

Rachel, how am I supposed to catch up to you when you keep traveling more miles than I do. It's on!

And Ellen, you just topped 100 miles! 1/5th done.




Just so we all know where we are:
1. EMR: 105.3
2. RAH: 81.15
3. LEH: 70.89
4. MRH: 22.7
5. RMS: 7
6. MEH: 5.1

Race to 500 - May 31

Here we go for the 31st. All still in the same position. But I'm eyeing 2nd place.

Race to 500 - May 30

First let me say that I am sorry for not posting a graph yesterday. I have no excuse. But here the graph for yesterday.
Ellen is still up by 20 miles, but I am still keeping close behind Rachel...

Doctor follow-up

So, I went to the doctor today about my leg. I had mentioned my leg surgery when scheduling the appointment, and I knew my doctor was aware of it because she'd had me do an x-ray of it a few months ago, so when I went in and she asked I started to explain the type of pain I was feeling but I didn't specifically mention the surgery and the metal plate in my leg. I thought she'd remember or it would be in my chart and I said something about it to the nurse that took my blood pressure and weight. Anyway, so after a few minutes of talking I realized she did not remember that anything had happened, so I said something like, "well, I remember when you had me get the x-ray a few months ago everything looked ok." Then she was like, "oh yes. So there's no mystery why that area is bothering you" so she gave me the names of 2 orthopedic surgeon and 2 physical therapists and said that if I decided to see either of them then I should call the office and they would do the referral. She also wrote me a prescription for an epi pen (so you can stop worrying family).
I told her that I was trying to be more active (the trying to be more active was causing the leg pain) and eat better and she said, "thank goodness, because you really need to".

Ok, that's not what she said, but I think that's what she meant. She said, "that's great. I'm very happy to hear you are doing that"

So, I think I'm going to go to the orthopedic surgeon and see what he thinks. If he thinks it looks fine she said I should just do what I'm comfortable with. If he thinks there may be a problem I try PT. Or I could just go to the physical therapist once to talk about how to do good stretches for my leg.

What do you think?

Race to 500 - May 28

Here are two versions of the graphs for the 28th. Which one do you like better? Whichever gets the most votes wins. The new one is courtesy of Matt. Matt, I'll assume you vote for yours.

Race to 500 - May 27

Here it is as of May 27. But only Mr. H and I reported for May 26 and 27, so I bet when we hear from the others this will change, but for the first time in a long time I seem to be ahead of R Sr!!!! I'm sure once she tells me what she did the past two days that won't be true any more, but I can hope. Ellen: I'm coming for you!

Race to 500 - May 25

Here we go as of May 25. I got nothing for today because I was at a wedding all day!

May 24

Ellen is still ahead. R Sr and I are only about 20 miles behind. That's no biggie, right? Wrong, R Sr was right. Ellen just walks around all day! Though today she emailed that she'll only have 1.5 miles for the 25th. R Sr! It's time to catch up!

Apartment 2/Leg

On another note, yes, we move in July 1 to the new apartment. We have our current one till the end of July. But I like to move in slowly. And I haven't figured out how to get my washing machine into the basement! Maybe when I get the dryer I have to buy delivered I can get them to take the washer down too? They might do that, right? I'd pay extra...

Matt, you said you'd take care of pedestals for the washer and soon to be dryer?

I'm excited. We'll have two floors and a basement. They'll be a guest bedroom for visitors (hint hint).

In other news, I made a doctors appointment to talk to my doctor about my leg. I'm going to see if she'll refer me to an orthopedist and/or a physical therapist. My legs been hurting more than usual lately so we'll see what she says. The appointment is for May 31st in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes and what she says.

May 23

Here are the results as of May 23. Ellen is still in first place (but I didn't get any miles from her today... are they coming?), R Sr is in second and I come in third. I'm really going to have to pick up the pace!!! Ellen is almost 1/10th to goal!

We got it

Well, Morgan and I got the apartment we applied for. So we have an appointment to sign the rental agreement June 12th at 6pm. I'm excited! We have someplace to live next year!

I'm excited!

Race to 500 - May 21

Here it is. But Mr. H and R Sr, I know you went for a run on the 20th. Send me your mileage so I can update.

Ellen is kicking everyones butt...

May 17

Here are the totals as of yesterday, May 17. Ellen is catching up... Was R Sr right? Does she just, "walk around all day"?

Day 3

Here it is as of yesterday. R Sr is in the lead.
14.1 miles. I mentioned what we were doing to someone and work that I don't really work with and then immediately regretted it when she said, "that is wonderful. I think it's worth writing an article about...." So, we may appear in some article somewhere sometime about how we are encouraging each other to be more active...

Apartment

Morgan and I are looking for a new apartment. We don't want to move far, we just want to live someplace that doesn't cost $400+ to heat in the winter. Yesterday I saw a post on craigslist that was posted the day before (2 days ago) for an apartment in the Falls (5 ish minutes from where we live now) and I think walking distance from one of my favorite restaurants. It's cheaper than where we are now. It's a duplex with the owner living on the other side. There is a basement and 2 floors. The first floor has the kitchen, bathroom (annoying that in many houses around here the bathroom is off the kitchen) and a living room with a bay window. Upstairs are 2 bedrooms with a small office in between them. The heat is about $150 during the coldest months of the winter. Also he's replacing all the carpet and so the move in date is July 1 which is exactly when I wanted it to be! The only downside is that he does not want to do a lease, but wants to rent month to month. But I think the location, price and place make it worth it.

Morgan is at my favorite restaurant now picking up dinner. It's delicious and the two of us can get dinner for $15 dollars. What a deal, eh?

Change in Holiday Office Closure Policy

Today the executive director walked around and said, "all staff in the conference room" so everyone gets in the conference room. I think that maybe they're going to tell us what to do in case of a tornado since the sky was very dark and there was a tornado watch. But, no, they pulled everyone together to talk about a change in the policy for Jewish holidays off. The policy used to be that if you celebrated a Jewish holiday you could take it off paid but the office would remain open. But people felt that wasn't fair to the non-Jews, so now the office is closed on the following days:
The first and seventh day of Passover
Shavuot
Rosh Hashanah (the first day)
Yom Kippur
Sukkot
Shmini Atzeret

This is in addition to the regular holidays (yes, there are pathetically few of them):
New Year's Day
Memorial Day
July 4th
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
the day following Thanksgiving
Christmas

So, now there are 14 paid holidays instead of 7. Not bad, eh? Ok, fine, I'm sure it's not as good as what you have, but at least I'm better off than I was.

Day 2 of the Race

Today is the third day of our Race to 500. Here are the standings as of yesterday.
Looks like RH is in the lead. RS, Mike? Nothing for yesterday?

Sadly the tornado watch cancelled my afternoon walk.

Bike!

I bought a bike helmet today and a bike pump! Then I came home and put air in the tires of Jeanne's bike and rode it! Only 1 mile since it was getting dark by then so I didn't want to stay out in the dark riding a bike in the road. But tomorrow I should be able to bike a lot. Then my mileage will go up and up and up! And then I will take the challenge by storm!

Race to 500!

Race to 500. Here are the standings after day 1.
Rachel S is in the lead.

I will post an updated graph each day until someone reaches 500. Ok, maybe every other day.


To answer some other questions: 1. I have decided not to go for the other job at work. It would not be more money and I'm going to give my current job a little more of a chance. I guess 3 months isn't that long, so who knows what will happen.
2. Crystal Reports is a program that connects to your database (we use In Order) and allows you to create reports. For example, it can pull all the people who live in Massachusetts and are in our 1 year old subscription. Or it pull information and put it directly into a letter (kind of like a mail merge, but it saves you a step of having to export the data to Excel and then putting it in Word like we do now.

In other news, starting Thursday I am going to be keeping a TV Diary. Nielsen TV ratings sent them and so we well write down what we watch and when and then they use that to figure out TV Ratings! How cool! Especially since I don't watch what an average 26 year old watches. I think I'll be the outlier.

Schedule

My schedule from STCC arrived in the mail today. Conveniently enough I also took a long lunch and went to the bookstore to buy the book for my class. I was glad that in my 45 minute lunch I was able to drive to STCC, go into the bookstore, buy the book, drive around campus to find the building where my class would be held, park the car, walk around the building to the right entrance, walk to the fourth floor and peer in the window, drive back towards work and stop at McDonald's and walk back into work stopping to talk to some people in the conference room for a minute. That is good since class will start at 5:45 and I'll get out of work at 5:00. I shouldn't have any trouble getting there on time. I'm all set, just a little over 3 weeks before I start.

On another note the director talked to me yesterday morning and said that she wanted me to be happy and that if I wanted to I should talk to someone at work who is leaving to see if I want to try and move up within the company to take her job. I don't think I do. I heard her talk about her job a little bit more today, and while I still don't know exactly what she does, it was pretty clear that it sucks a lot of the time.

On a totally unrelated note I finally got to play with Crystal reports today. And I made a huge step forward in writing the report that I want. Then I did something stupid and now I'll have to completely redo it again on Monday. A word to the wise. If you're not sure the thing you're about to try will work be sure to save first! Well, you live and you learn. But I had a great day because I really enjoy playing with the program and trying to figure it out.

So, I guess things are looking up.

Trying to get away

Well... I did it. I registered an Accounting 1 class. It's at Springfield Technical Community College, not a fantastic school, but close to work and has a convenient class. I was looking to see if there were any classes at any of the schools around here. So I went to stcc.edu and looked at the summer 1 session classes. And I think it was a sign, but the first class listed was Accounting 1. It either was a sign or the list was alphabetical.

Anyway, I registered. The bookstore is open from 8-4. Tomorrow I'm going to call to see if I buy the book over the phone how long it would take to get to me. Classes start June 4 and end July 5 from Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 5:45 to 9:15.

On another note after sending out two mailings today, one of 81 and the other of 125 the director asked how I was liking my job. I told her I was hoping it would be more challenging and interesting. She said that she knows that I'm very capable and will try to see if there are more things that I can begin doing and I should speak up if I see something that I can do. So, we'll see what happens.

Half way through a deck of Cards

Being 26 feels a lot like being 25. But now I feel like I'm half way through a deck of cards.

Work today was busy. I barely sat at my desk all day. Because of a system error we had to mail out 699 books by hand instead of sending them to the Work Opportunity Center (who does all our mailings) so today I finished mailing everything out. Each book needed a sticker and a reading guide put in it. It needed to be put in the right envelope and then needed postage. HG hadn't signed the check to the post office so we only had about 500 dollars worth of postage on the postage machine. I used about 300 of it. The other 800 dollars was in stamps. Thank goodness they are self sticking. of the 699 books to be mailed 180 of them needed $1.35 and the rest needed $1.59. The $1.59 was 5 stamps - 1 $1, 2 $.24, 1 $.10 and 1 $.01. The $1.35 was the same only one $.24 stamp instead of 2. When Janna was helping me we had to hand stamps back and forth sometimes so we called them: man ($1), butterfly ($0.24), clock ($0.10) and bird ($0.01).

The weekend was exhausting, but here are the highlights that pretty much only effect me:

1. I got the name for this blog
2. I decided I might take a class or 2 to see if I like accounting before I decide if I want to go to grad school to get an MSA
3. It turns out I do not have to buy a new outfit for the black tie wedding in 2 weeks, I just need to buy fancier shoes and a "ridiculously sparkly" necklace

My very exciting plans for tomorrow at work:

1. Break down some boxes
2. Clean up the area in front of the book shelf
3. Put together and mail out national marketing kits
4. Do a mail merge (people keep talking about this as if it will be very time consuming. I keep trying to tell them that a mail merge is easy. I guess tomorrow is the day of truth)

I know you all wish you were me and got to work at my picnic table.