busy, busy week

or two? i've been finishing up all the loose ends with taxes and such. the grandboy celebrated his 6th (!!!) birthday on friday and saturday. and i'm getting ready to go see the endocrinologist in the morning. that was a surprise; i thought the appt. was next month. thank the powers that be - one of my clients wanted a training session this week. there's the appointment - plain as day...

i usually have my blood work done a week in advance. here's hoping the test results arrive in time.

getting ready for the meetup with my client was fun, too. now that i have the iMac, i don't use the laptop every day. i guess i've been neglecting it this month - there were TEN updates to be installed. i also wanted to be sure to install the adobe lightroom 2.0 (beta) as that's one of the programs we'll be working with. charged the battery and discovered the two spares i have are definitely deader than doornails. so i ordered a new battery, photoshop elements 6.0 and the print shop! i had no idea that was available for macs. i don't use it often, but when i want to use it...

i spent a few extra minutes last night trying to trim some of the many many podcasts down to "manageable". sigh, i don't think it's going to happen. iTunes reports i have 862 podcast episodes currently in the queue. granted, some of those are stories i haven't yet transferred to CD, but many of them are tutorials. i'm going to have to get brutal over the next couple of weeks.

haha! on me...

being single-minded doesn't always work out.

i was so "focused" on getting the office cleaned up, i just kept piling the mail up on the end table. oops. friday, i finally sorted through all of it. one "late" notice, several catalogs (straight into the trash bin, this time), a bunch more magazines (more about them, later), and a few bank statements.

well, really, that's not so bad. the "late" notice bothered me, i didn't remember getting the first bill, but it wasn't a major problem - it's the first time in about four years. paid the bill on the phone (bugs me, they charge for that particular service) and now i don't owe them anything. the bank statements are usually not a problem.

i check my bank balance nearly every day. it keeps me balanced, and i learn early if something is "out of order". last year, i discovered a fraudulent charge (ultimately, three of them) the day it occurred. managed to contact the company where it happened and get their cooperation, and the bank covered it. eventually, the hubby got a new ATM card, and it hasn't happened again. NOTE: i wouldn't recommend netzero to anyone, ever. THEIR response was "we're not responsible for the misuse of your card..." very peculiar circumstances, really. whoever was trying to use the card, did so ONLY to try setting up an online FAX account. the first time, it was used to set up a one year service. the next try was a month-to-month service. after the third try, they gave up.

back to the main tale--i hadn't checked my accounts online for ten days. it took me four hours, saturday, to balance the checkbook! at first, i thought i was off by about $750. pulled out all of the receipts for last month and double checked that i hadn't entered anything more than once. then i printed a month's worth of transactions from the bank site (i don't just download the transactions - it confuses me). checked off item by item, and discovered i had not entered a couple deposits and several online transactions. eventually, it all worked out. whew!

i love using quicken. i joke that "i never learned to count; that's how i got my kids." it's really true. until i started using quicken, i could never balance my bankbooks. i'm a little obsessive about it, now ("i check my bank balance nearly every day"), but everything stays balanced and up to date. i probably could take more advantage of the program. there are neat little graphs to show you where you're spending your hard earned moneys. and there are other graphs to show whether your funds are growing or shrinking. the best part is having the numbers show up red if you're overdrawn; i haven't seen those "red" for a long time, but i know they're available.

once i balanced everything, i figured i should finish paying the bills. there really weren't that many, but it took me all night! amazing! of course, i started around 9:00 pm. but i didn't finish until after 6:00 am. sheesh :-( paying the bills includes printing stamps, and filing, and checking when i last paid for that particular subscription or donated to that particular cause... have you noticed that paying for a subscription immediately gets you a "renew now and save" offer? or that donating to an organization gets a "thank you, would you like to give us some more?" you could run to the poorhouse faster if you just gave them everything, right?

so that brings us to sunday. hubby gets up and wants to know if i'm planning on sleeping any time this weekend. he was right; i definitely needed a nap. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, mom calls wanting to know if quicken can print her checks for her. i like talking to mom. her eyesight really is giving her fits, she's not sure she's doing her checks right, and yes, quicken will print out her checks. she just bought a new house! we talked for quite a while. in the meantime, hubby has started working on last year's taxes.

please, would i dig out the taxes from 2006 so he could compare them? did i pay estimated taxes for the state? no more napping. back to cleaning out more office stuff (there are files we could put in the garage, i'm sure). just how long are we required to keep old tax records, anyway? questions answered, old files refiled, and taxes for 2007 are now complete. california wants copies of new mexico taxes, and viceyvers. so now i'm making copies of tons of paper. i also need to run to the mail boxes, etc. store for envelopes. don't i have some stuff i want notarized?

later, gators.

good people day 08

one of the things i want to do with this blog is give it more "content". otherwise, it's just random ramblings and whoever manages to find it will quickly get bored.

today is as good a day as any to start adding links to posts. this particular link is better than any i could imagine. gary vaynerchuk has an incredible blog re: personal branding and business building. today, his second post is a real real eye-opener.

gary vaynerchuk: good people day '08

there's a good little video on the page (explanatory). after watching this little video, i immediately thought of the various members of my family, most of the blogger and podcasting tribe, and quite a few other persons who have influenced me and helped me become the kind of person i am, today. i would be writing all week to include them all here, so i'll just name a few, and leave room for you to add to the list.

my hubby is "good people". we've been married almost 36 years. he's always made me feel beautiful, pretty, sexy and smart! as a father, he simply couldn't be better and as a grandfather he's just about perfect. even whe i'm grousing about something he does, or did, i know in my heart that i wouldn't have him change for anything in the world. he's the best man there is, and my true life mate.

my mom is "good people". it took me more than forty years to realize just how much i truly love and admire her. she taught me how to be patient (even when i consider it a dirty word), and tolerant (some people can try one's patience). i learned not to gossip from her, and how to never let someone feel my personal displeasure at their presence (no matter how much i feel they're intruding on my presence). mom has a really strong opinion on what is right and doing it; i hope i will always do what i believe is right.

mur lafferty is "good people". when i first learned about podcasts, hers was one of the first i found. i'm not a writer, but her podcast makes me want to write. and through her podcast, i have discovered many, many others. her essays have brightened many days, and her support for the Tribe is awesome. "go, eagle, go" is catching on around my family and friends (although they're not certain what started me saying it).

and gary vaynerchuk is "good people" for reminding myself and others that "every day is good people day"

he's home!

this is so nice, i missed him even more than i thought.

they had a great vacation; DiL took about 100 pictures which #1 son put on a CD for me. i got presents; they found a nifty disney pin with mickey mouse and a dragon on it, and hubby bought me a huge plush dragon - very colorful. the grandboy told me about seeing all the aquariums and fish tanks, swimming in the different pools, and all the lights and noises.

it's their first trip to vegas in 7 years. the place has definitely changed a lot. hubby and i go every year, and there's usually a lot of changes. somehow, our descriptions jsut didn't quite prepare them.

we went to lunch at islands, and then back to their house to play on the wii. what a really nice day. perfect ending to the week.

impatient

waiting on pins and needles for the hubby to get home tomorrow (around noon). if i go to sleep early tonight will he get home sooner? i miss him.

the hot glue gun didn't work. it has a very fine nozzle for detail work, hence it's just not putting out stickiness fast enough. #2 son got the velcro out of the closet for me, and i'm preparing to reapply new strips to the power strip and the side of the cabinet. silly me - i could use screws - the back of the power strips has cutouts for them... still, climbing under the desk to drill holes for them seems a bit awkward. (what a funny looking word - still, it doesn't have an spelling underline, so it must be correct)

cleaned out one of the hutch cabinets over the south desk. put the loft back to usefulness. watched man of la mancha (i always cry) and collected the mail. nothing much there, today. that's good, i didn't feel like looking at bills. 5 magazines:

National Wildlife: articles that look really interesting--"lessons of the flowers" and "america's forgotten forest. there's also an article about paperless bill paying (right up my alley).

Diabetes Forecast: general health and dietary stuff for diabetes control, and news re: diabetes research. there's an article about bariatric surgery this month.

Bead Style: there's a cute srticle on making cellphone charms this month, another on using wood beads.

ZooNooz: (from the San Diego Zoo) there's an artical here about flightless birds, and another on polar bears and climate change.

American Craft: there's a really good article on modern materials, and another on the crafts scene in Los Angeles.

i'm winding yarn now, and i think i'll listen to the podcasts i didn't pay any attention to this afternoon. it's going to be a late night. #2 son is on his way to visit a friend. it's going to be a quiet night. even better.