finally this week is over!

boy, has it been a long week! i stayed on the phone for the majority of each workday. it's definitely budget season. we have had some weird stuff happen with some of the forms and reports. since i'm the first line of support, i have to take charge first and if i can't figure it out, i have to pass it on to my boss. fortunately most things are a quick fix.

the most time consuming part of my job is helping folks set up their user point of view for their reports. last year we found a way to help the users create pick lists for their locations. it's basically a one-time set up, but it's kind of confusing if you're not real familiar with the company structure. i wind up setting a lot of them up for folks and showing them a second time (sometimes a third or fourth time) how to run their reports. i don't mind so much as long as i don't have a flood of calls at once.

i'm there to help and i don't like having folks getting frustrated with something that they won't ever have to mess with again. it also gives me an opportunity to get to know them and see what's going on across the company. i talked to one really great guy from juneau ak. he informed me they had their 1st frost last night and that today they had beautiful sunny weather. if you know anything about juneau, you know it rains a lot. i told him they were going to have to figure out a way for me to come up there. i think i need to go put on a training session or two on up there...lol.

janelle and i are heading to erskine for college preview day. we have to be there at 10am. i want to leave around 7 even though it's only an hour and a half away. i want plenty of time to get there and have some buffer time in case we run into any traffic/detours, etc. in greenwood. we can always get a cup of coffee somewhere to waste some time.

on wednesday mom and i met with one of the kids on the yearbook committee to place senior ads for janelle. i had a hard time picking which pictures i wanted to put in my ad. i also went brain dead trying to come up with the copy to write. i finally was able to come up with something i liked. i hope she will like it too.

i'm sitting here listening to my itunes while i've been catching up on emails and blogging. right now gimme some truth by generation x is playing....some good ol' punk music from billy idol back in the day!

my most favorite band of all time has to be depeche mode. dave gahan's voice just drives me crazy sometimes. i fell in love with them when people are people came out in the 80's. i got to see them in concert in atlanta in the early 90's. a co-worker won tickets to the concert at lakewood amphitheater and couldn't go. she gave them to me. i went with a friend of mine and had a blast. i wish we could have gotten closer to the stage, but i was happy just being there. probably the song i like the most by them is strangelove. i can't explain why i like it so much, but i do. sometimes at work on my ipod i select artists > depeche mode and just immerse myself in their songs. i can get a lot of work done while listening to them. (side note: my big boss caught me jamming while i was listening to my ipod this week. i was chair-dancing and felt a presence behind me. i turned and he was standing there grinning at me. he said i was "getting down" and he hated to interrupt me...lol!)

well, i'm going to sign off now. i've got to catch up on my yahoo email.

kisses....

p.s. ROCK LOBSTER!!! love those b-52's!!!

i'm still here

just haven't been online to blog lately. i'll try to catch up here soon.

kisses....

getting closer to fish fry friday

at work there is a group of 4-5 of us who have this joke about fish fry fridays. there's this lady in our office who throws around the phrase that she's "got bigger fish to fry" than whatever issue we or someone else might be trying to get her to help with. well she basically works 4 10's and isn't in the office on fridays. we look forward to fridays b/c she is grumpy and bossy and we know we can cut up and have fun without being glared at when she's not around.

i can't remember who started it, but one time one of us sent an email out asking who was bringing the hushpuppies, coleslaw, tartar sauce, etc. then we started joking about who was going to keep the grease hot. and when the "fish fry" lady in our office is stomping around mad about something or at someone, we talk about the grease splattering up cause it is turned it up too high and someone wasn't watching it close enough. i don't think she's caught on to what we're saying. we try not to say anything around her b/c it's our own inside joke. one day she said "bigger fish to fry" in front of all of us and i couldn't look at anyone in the group b/c i knew i was going to bust out laughing. i just stared at the floor and bit the inside of my mouth to keep from laughing in her face. it was hilarious!

the other funny thing is we found out that cracker barrel has fish fry fridays!!!

kisses....

ronda rich totally rocks!

i had to post this before i went to bed tonight...

i got to talk to ronda rich on the phone today!! i am just beside myself with pure joy! y'all, she is probably one of my most favorite authors that i've ever read. she needed some help with some info and i was fortunate enough to be the one to help her.

it's really strange how things happen. the other day, laurie (aka crazy aunt purl) had linked to ronda rich's articles she had written for athens banner herald, which are posted on their website (back to 2003!!). i had talked to their controller and was grilling him on whether or not ronda came to the office. i went on and on about how i had already read 3 of her books and especially liked the one about her days in nascar. i had even petitioned to our hr department to have ronda as our motivational speaker for our last accounting managers' meeting (which we wound up not having).

well, greg forwarded me an email and asked if i could help. when i saw ronda rich's name on there, i about passed out! i called him immediately about it and he said he thought i might like to help out and could probably get the info for ronda quicker than he could. so i sent her an email because i needed further details to make sure i got what she needed.

when she called me, i know i was a goober and gushed telling her i loved her books. you know what is really weird....her voice sounded exactly the way i expected it to sound. i've never heard her speak or seen her on tv or anything like that. she has a very pretty sing-song southern voice that you expect us southern women to have. i could have talked to her forever. she is just so nice and down-to-earth. while we were talking, she received an email from the lady she had contacted at athens banner herald and it said one of her biggest fans was helping out with getting her info. i'm still grinning ear-to-ear about it!!

well, i've got to go now. y'all check out ronda rich...you won't regret it!!

kisses....

it's just another day, right?

i don't know why i dread mondays so much. it's just another day. it gets a bad rap from me sometimes. i think part of it is b/c i'm a little bit unhappy with my job right now and don't particularly like going to work. it's a busy time of the year for me, which is ok. i like busy. it makes the day go by much faster. i like looking up and it's 2:30 and i've got to still take a lunch. that means 3:30 i'm back from lunch, then 2 hours til time to go.

i'm tired of all the drama. we've got this one division that causes the most of the drama anymore. they can't get their kit together. we had yet another change with them. i think this is either change #4 or change #5. folks are blowing gaskets over these changes. basically b/c the guy who is in charge of this division isn't doing his job to make sure the info given to the various groups is correct. he "finds" it about a month after all the work has been done. he doesn't think it's a big deal. you know why? b/c he's not the one who is having to make the corrections. he just says "oops! my bad!" and there are no consequences for his actions. it's just so frustrating that someone higher up doesn't do something.

and for whatever reason, the database isn't quite like it was last year. there's problems with the headcount forecast and i'm trying to figure it out. and i'm being challenged when i'm bringing up the fact that the headcount data is wrong. i know what i see and i know what it should be.

tomorrow is going to be better. i've got stitch night and i'm ready to visit with all the ladies. i hope that donna is there tomorrow night so i can finally meet her face to face. ~~ waves to donna ~~

i went by my lys - in stitches - this weekend and bought baby alpaca brush by plymouth yarn. i made a basic beanie for my friend, tara. she found out i knit and asked me if i would please make her one. i started off with the lace beanie pattern from lionbrand. i wound up not doing the lace pattern b/c she needs it to be plain (long story i don't want to get into). so i cast on and did the rounds until i got the 88 stitches. then i knit in stockinette for 16 rows, followed by k2,p2 for 6 rounds to finish. i'm going to give it to frances to send to her. she's getting some stuff together to send a care package.

well, i'm going to go now. it's bedtime!

kisses....

in progress

here's some more of the diagonal ribbed sock i've been working on. last night i turned the heel and started on the gussett. i think it's moving along quite nicely. of course this is sock number 1. i've been very careful and try to make sure i pay attention to where i stop especially with the pattern.

here's another pic where you can (maybe) see the pattern a little bit better.

i knit a few rows at lunch time but was distracted by this....popcorn (my lunch) with dark chocolate m&m's added towards the end of the bag. if you like dark chocolate and haven't tried the dark chocolate m&m's, you should go out and buy some. we have this lady in our group who brings in a couple of bags a week. i think she's trying to keep on our good side or something. you can hear the tink-tink-tink as she fills up the candy bowl. then you hear the tink-tink-tink as people get some out. i try to resist, but it's hard some days especially when i'm stressing. i've got to get back on the no-candy bandwagon.... it's just so hard to resist that sweetness sometimes. :)

we're almost ready to open up the budget system for folks to use. my boss went through this little panicked phase for about an hour this morning and then she wanted to argue as to how data should be loaded. it's very frustrating b/c this is the 4th year we've used this system. we haven't added anything new to the system from last year to this year. i made some enhancements by alphabetizing some of the drop-down lists to make it easier to find things. she doesn't keep good records about how she does maintenance on the system, which is pretty scary. i keep stuff at least for a year so i can refer back to it. and she calls me unorganized....whatever!!

well, i'm going to go now. i have an early cleaning appointment with the dental hygienist. i've been having problems with the one tooth they worked on. it's been kind of achy. i hope a cavity hasn't developed! if it has, i blame it on the dark chocolate m&m's....lol.

kisses.....

sunday before 9-11

after i rolled out of bed around 12:30 today, i worked on the diagonal ribbed sock on and off through out the day. i finally got 8 inches done and set up for the heel. i almost started it, but i'm tired and don't want to make any mistakes. so far my gauge has been pretty good and the stitches are nice and even. i'll try to take a pic of it and post it soon.

i watched shows about 9-11 today. it's been 6 years since the terrorist attacks on the world trade center and the pentagon. it was an already stressful day at work. one of our co-workers was fired for insurance fraud. she had bragged to some folks about how she was getting prescriptions filled under her name for her boyfriend's son. someone turned her in and they fired her. we were all upset about what had happened with her and then we heard about the wtc buildings being hit.

i went over to chip's office b/c someone said he had a tv. there were some others in the office with him and we watched the video of the planes hitting the towers. we became even more concerned when we heard about the pentagon being hit. my boss, dianne, has a daughter who was working at the pentagon. dianne had been at home when the news came on about the pentagon. she kept trying to get in touch with her daughter to no avail. we were all relieved later on in the day when they finally spoke. all the cell phone signals were jammed with people trying to call their families.

the newspaper put out a special edition that afternoon. they sold out immediately. i've still got my copy in my desk. i still cry when i see the towers go down even though i didn't personally know of anyone killed. i remember laying on the couch crying as i watched the news reports through out the week. i could not imagine how the people felt who had family and friends trapped inside any of the buildings. the not knowing where they were would be so unbearable. the stories of the many heroes that day make me cry too. men and women who stepped up with no regard for themselves to take care of others. it makes me wonder what i would really do in a situation like that. i hope i would step up to the challenge.

i'm going to go now. it's going to be a hard week at work getting ready for the official opening of budget season.

kisses....