I make 'em - I take 'em. Fact of life for us accountant types.
Making them is hard. Asking people for money without going all "Guido**" on them is an art form, and I'm just a scribbler at best at it. It's the non-Guido** bit that is frustrating. Keep the customer, but get the cash. I can't be rude, crude, abrasive. I have to be sweetie-nice - as I push people to give me money. Well, not me personally - but me the Accountant for my Most Excellent Employer.
I used to be scared to do them, but now I'm ok at it. Sometimes I'm too mean and I get in trouble, most times I'm not mean enough and I get in trouble. Trouble R Me.
Anyhow - getting the calls is something else. With the current State of the Economy and all the layoffs and stuff, people are getting both more frightened AND more understanding. This makes VERY little sense to me, but... *shrug*
A few pointers:
1) If I tell you I will run a check this week - you really do NOT have to call me every day for the rest of the week. You're wearing out your welcome.
2) If I tell you I can't run your check this week, but will try for next week, whining, crying poor or just generally keeping me on the phone and away from my other chores is NOT going to change my answer.
3) Lecturing me about your payment terms is ALWAYS counterproductive, Snookiedimples.
4) If YOU go all Guido** on me, please understand that I can, I will, and I certainly HAVE already caused several former vendors to lose our business. The guy in purchasing and I get along pretty well, and he doesn't like being beat up on either, so he listens to me.
5) If I tell you the answer is "no", calling my boss is not going to change that - I already checked with him before I told you "no". Eat it.
The understanding ones make it a LOT less stressful for me.
**(No offense intended to any actual persons named Guido anywhere in the world. I swear. Pinky swear. Please don't hurt me.)
(Piston - you are NOT Guido...)
Friday, January 30, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Picking Your Battles
Been running about reading blog entries about various and sundry items regarding the new Administration in Washington, D.C.
I'd thought about this during the run-up to the inauguration. I'm finally getting around to mentioning it, because it seems that liberal folks have really been losing focus since 11/4/08.
Prior to 11/4, we had one goal - one purpose that united us - one reason for putting our best efforts forward. Getting Rid of Bush/Cheney and their Republican Regime. Period. I might not have agreed with every single thing that was said/done - but I was willing to put some things aside in order to achieve the prime goal.
And - YES, WE DID!!! The politics of Warhawk and Stupid are off the table for at least 3 1/2 years.
But then something happened. We splintered. We began to nit-pick and kvetch about things that aren't really the be-all-end-all that some would have us believe.
The first time I thought "Pick your battles" was when some of the GLBT folks got all up in arms about the guy who was going to give the "Invocation" at the inauguration. The guy got to speak for less than 5 minutes. It was a "prayer", not a sermon, and had those GLBT folks just said "I'm disappointed, but it is HIS party and less important to me than marriage rights and adoption rights", and refused to make a big deal out of it - NOBODY would have listened to him. Pick your battles. You're not going to win this one, and it's not important in the grand scheme of things.
President Obama has been on the job for a week now. SEVEN DAYS. During that time he and his team have already done rather a lot toward reversing the egregious errors of the prior administration. They haven't done everything - but they have been picking their battles, and tackling the hardest ones, the ones that will affect the largest proportion of the country - first.
Today I read an editorial by someone who was very upset that the "Economic Stimulus" package was not going to include money for contraception for poor families. While I agree that this is an important issue, I don't think the Democrats need to be villified if they choose to pull out (pun intended) this part of the package if it will get the rest of the package approved. It's been ONE WEEK, people. Surely you could let them tack the contraception onto another bill NEXT week maybe? PICK YOUR BATTLES.
I'd thought about this during the run-up to the inauguration. I'm finally getting around to mentioning it, because it seems that liberal folks have really been losing focus since 11/4/08.
Prior to 11/4, we had one goal - one purpose that united us - one reason for putting our best efforts forward. Getting Rid of Bush/Cheney and their Republican Regime. Period. I might not have agreed with every single thing that was said/done - but I was willing to put some things aside in order to achieve the prime goal.
And - YES, WE DID!!! The politics of Warhawk and Stupid are off the table for at least 3 1/2 years.
But then something happened. We splintered. We began to nit-pick and kvetch about things that aren't really the be-all-end-all that some would have us believe.
The first time I thought "Pick your battles" was when some of the GLBT folks got all up in arms about the guy who was going to give the "Invocation" at the inauguration. The guy got to speak for less than 5 minutes. It was a "prayer", not a sermon, and had those GLBT folks just said "I'm disappointed, but it is HIS party and less important to me than marriage rights and adoption rights", and refused to make a big deal out of it - NOBODY would have listened to him. Pick your battles. You're not going to win this one, and it's not important in the grand scheme of things.
President Obama has been on the job for a week now. SEVEN DAYS. During that time he and his team have already done rather a lot toward reversing the egregious errors of the prior administration. They haven't done everything - but they have been picking their battles, and tackling the hardest ones, the ones that will affect the largest proportion of the country - first.
Today I read an editorial by someone who was very upset that the "Economic Stimulus" package was not going to include money for contraception for poor families. While I agree that this is an important issue, I don't think the Democrats need to be villified if they choose to pull out (pun intended) this part of the package if it will get the rest of the package approved. It's been ONE WEEK, people. Surely you could let them tack the contraception onto another bill NEXT week maybe? PICK YOUR BATTLES.
I have too many books
No I don't. I just have my own personal library - of several 100 books. A friend of one of my ex-roommates had come to visit and asked him "How many of them has she read?"
His answer was correct - "All of them, some of them multiple times."
I'm a word junkie. I love to read; I'm not quite so fond of writing, but I enjoy it. I absolutely ADORE new vocabulary.
One of the downsides of this addiction is that I've now got so many books that I can't remember all of them. Walk into a bookshop and see something "interesting" by a favorite author and not sure if it is on my shelf or not. Aggravating.
So I have begun to take stock - I'm starting a "Card Catalog" spreadsheet. Author, title, soft or hardcover, location in the house (I have 5 bookshelves) and genre. So far I've listed over 100 books and have only just scratched the surface, so to speak. This is going to be a long haul. In the end, however, I'll be able to shop for books with confidence, because I'll know what I already have and what is new fodder for my library.
Mom used to jump my case about having too many books. Why didn't I get rid of some of them, she'd ask.
Simple. I can't get rid of ANY of them because invariably when I've taken a batch of books to the used book store, within a week I'm awake and insomniac at 2:00 a.m. and remembering 1/3 of a book plot and need to be able to read THAT book to get back to sleep. I am not crazy.
So I have a question from anyone who may read this - do you know of any good (cheap) software programs that handle this database function specifically for home/personal libraries/book collections?
Inquiring mice want to know.
His answer was correct - "All of them, some of them multiple times."
I'm a word junkie. I love to read; I'm not quite so fond of writing, but I enjoy it. I absolutely ADORE new vocabulary.
One of the downsides of this addiction is that I've now got so many books that I can't remember all of them. Walk into a bookshop and see something "interesting" by a favorite author and not sure if it is on my shelf or not. Aggravating.
So I have begun to take stock - I'm starting a "Card Catalog" spreadsheet. Author, title, soft or hardcover, location in the house (I have 5 bookshelves) and genre. So far I've listed over 100 books and have only just scratched the surface, so to speak. This is going to be a long haul. In the end, however, I'll be able to shop for books with confidence, because I'll know what I already have and what is new fodder for my library.
Mom used to jump my case about having too many books. Why didn't I get rid of some of them, she'd ask.
Simple. I can't get rid of ANY of them because invariably when I've taken a batch of books to the used book store, within a week I'm awake and insomniac at 2:00 a.m. and remembering 1/3 of a book plot and need to be able to read THAT book to get back to sleep. I am not crazy.
So I have a question from anyone who may read this - do you know of any good (cheap) software programs that handle this database function specifically for home/personal libraries/book collections?
Inquiring mice want to know.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Mice?????
The neighbor guy came over last night and asked if I have mouse problems in the condo.
EEK
I looked very carefully this morning, did not see any mouse "by-products", so I think I'm probably ok. I suspect that they got into his house from the garage. He has direct access from his house to his garage. Not to mention my two semi-incontinent old-lady cats. I don't think I've got a problem.
At least I HOPE not.
Ok, it's been the first 3 days (short work-week) for President Obama.
He did not walk on water.
He did not leap any tall buildings in a single bound.
However
He signed an order to close Gitmo and other "Black Sites" within a year.
My grade? I'd like to see this happen faster. A-
He asked a judge to put the Gitmo military tribunals on hold pending review.
My grade? Since he went the LEGAL route and went through a judge instead of UNILATERALLY "decidering" ... A+
He put a freeze on White House salaries for employees making over $100,000/year.
My grade? A+
He reversed Shrub43's misbegotten policy of secrecy and erring on the side of noninformation and trying to find ways to DENY transparency to the public.
My grade? A+
Not bad for starters.
My car is ok. Had to have a couple of belts replaced, but it's running like a champ again. Not bad - $125 for the 2 belts, and according to my mechanic, the old ones were original equipment (They still said "Mopar" on them) - 9 years on belts is rather amazing. For a car company that doesn't get all that high of ratings, this Chrysler is one of the best cars I've ever owned.
EEK
I looked very carefully this morning, did not see any mouse "by-products", so I think I'm probably ok. I suspect that they got into his house from the garage. He has direct access from his house to his garage. Not to mention my two semi-incontinent old-lady cats. I don't think I've got a problem.
At least I HOPE not.
Ok, it's been the first 3 days (short work-week) for President Obama.
He did not walk on water.
He did not leap any tall buildings in a single bound.
However
He signed an order to close Gitmo and other "Black Sites" within a year.
My grade? I'd like to see this happen faster. A-
He asked a judge to put the Gitmo military tribunals on hold pending review.
My grade? Since he went the LEGAL route and went through a judge instead of UNILATERALLY "decidering" ... A+
He put a freeze on White House salaries for employees making over $100,000/year.
My grade? A+
He reversed Shrub43's misbegotten policy of secrecy and erring on the side of noninformation and trying to find ways to DENY transparency to the public.
My grade? A+
Not bad for starters.
My car is ok. Had to have a couple of belts replaced, but it's running like a champ again. Not bad - $125 for the 2 belts, and according to my mechanic, the old ones were original equipment (They still said "Mopar" on them) - 9 years on belts is rather amazing. For a car company that doesn't get all that high of ratings, this Chrysler is one of the best cars I've ever owned.
(Stock photo - mine is dark blue, not purple)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The United States of America has a President Again!!
The 43rd Elected, 44th Sworn-in President of the United States - Barack Obama
FREE AT LAST
FREE AT LAST
FREE AT LAST
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today
Today we party - tomorrow we start back to work.
I've taken the day off of work, I'll be puttering around the house, getting ready for the party tonight, and doing something I almost never do - watching television.
Ding, Dong, The Shrub Is Gone...
Celebrate!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tomorrow
On December 23, 2006, I pledged to myself to make a commitment to not post a single day without marking how many days were left in the Bush Regime's Evil Administration. At the time it was 758 days. For a little over 2 years I've done my best to keep that promise to myself. Tomorrow I'll be removing the coundown timer from the side of the blog and stop with the "XXX days" tag at the end of each post. Barack Obama will be the President of the United States. A constitutional scholar. A Harvard graduate. A man with a plan - and a brain. A "messiah"? No. A man. But NOT a Shrub.
I've had a lot of folks over those 2 years ask me in comments what the "days" countdown was, and about a year ago I pasted in the code to the sidebar to link to the official countdown site. Tomorrow the United States will have a new President. I do not expect miracles from my former Senator. I don't expect him to walk on water or balance the budget or end the war or do anything OVERNIGHT.
I honestly never believed I'd see this counter in single-digits, much less with "zero" days - only hours.... minutes... left. I wish Lea was here to see it too. She'd chortle.
I've been very politically vocal here - to the point of driving myself into an angry frenzy at times - and I've had to pull back to rein in my own blood pressure and welfare. Such a level of anger and hatred cannot be maintained without taking a serious toll on the person doing the hating, and eventually turning that person into a carbon-copy or mirror-image of the very thing they are opposing. I don't want to be like that. That's too much like the very people to whom I'm opposed.
We're not out of the woods yet. In fact, we may not even be within spitting distance of the PATH out of the woods yet - but at least we're heading in a different direction - since the last 8 years we've been going in all kinds of the wrong directions, thanks to our ineffective, criminal, lying, cheating, despicable "decider". I admit fully that I'm as prejudiced, as negative, as disgusted by GWB as any 12 neocons felt about Billy and Hilly combined. But the Shrub family is evil and should all - every last one of them - including Jeb the Savings & Loan cheater - be behind bars for life, IMNSHO.
Zero days. Praise the Deity of your choice. Namaste
I've had a lot of folks over those 2 years ask me in comments what the "days" countdown was, and about a year ago I pasted in the code to the sidebar to link to the official countdown site. Tomorrow the United States will have a new President. I do not expect miracles from my former Senator. I don't expect him to walk on water or balance the budget or end the war or do anything OVERNIGHT.
I honestly never believed I'd see this counter in single-digits, much less with "zero" days - only hours.... minutes... left. I wish Lea was here to see it too. She'd chortle.
I've been very politically vocal here - to the point of driving myself into an angry frenzy at times - and I've had to pull back to rein in my own blood pressure and welfare. Such a level of anger and hatred cannot be maintained without taking a serious toll on the person doing the hating, and eventually turning that person into a carbon-copy or mirror-image of the very thing they are opposing. I don't want to be like that. That's too much like the very people to whom I'm opposed.
We're not out of the woods yet. In fact, we may not even be within spitting distance of the PATH out of the woods yet - but at least we're heading in a different direction - since the last 8 years we've been going in all kinds of the wrong directions, thanks to our ineffective, criminal, lying, cheating, despicable "decider". I admit fully that I'm as prejudiced, as negative, as disgusted by GWB as any 12 neocons felt about Billy and Hilly combined. But the Shrub family is evil and should all - every last one of them - including Jeb the Savings & Loan cheater - be behind bars for life, IMNSHO.
Zero days. Praise the Deity of your choice. Namaste
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Grrrrrr... Grrrrrr. Grrrrr. GrrrrrrrVAROOOOOM
Urgh. my car started. Sorta. Barely. I'm NOT happy.
Went to the "urgent care" - met a nice young oriental Vampire, got a bit of blood removed, then went to have some breakfast. Nice breakfast, but right before I got to the restaurant the "check engine" light came on my dashboard - oh shit I really don't need that. Really.
I should go to Sears and have them check that, as well as have them check the antifreeze and get them to sell me a oil-stick engine heater and maybe a battery charger thingy.
And now my computer is doing some strange crap - which makes me think I may have to do a virus scan... *sigh*
Two days
Went to the "urgent care" - met a nice young oriental Vampire, got a bit of blood removed, then went to have some breakfast. Nice breakfast, but right before I got to the restaurant the "check engine" light came on my dashboard - oh shit I really don't need that. Really.
I should go to Sears and have them check that, as well as have them check the antifreeze and get them to sell me a oil-stick engine heater and maybe a battery charger thingy.
And now my computer is doing some strange crap - which makes me think I may have to do a virus scan... *sigh*
Two days
Friday, January 16, 2009
Hello, Dr. Nick
Well, good news for me. Saw Dr. Nick last nite and he said everything is going well. Apparently my eating and drugs and stuff regimine is working and I'm doing better than usual. He even said I do NOT have to give up red meat entirely - which is a good thing because I just CANT. I'm a carnivore at heart.
Continued very very cold - I hope my car starts this morning.
Put some more cash into the old credit union. Hope to have enough to remodel the bathroom in a few years. If I can keep from spending it....
Take care - stay warm.
3 days
Continued very very cold - I hope my car starts this morning.
Put some more cash into the old credit union. Hope to have enough to remodel the bathroom in a few years. If I can keep from spending it....
Take care - stay warm.
3 days
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The cold... it hurts
I hope my lime tree will be ok.
I want it near the window, but the windows are a bit leaky and I don't want it to die from cold. Citrus trees do, you know.
I am not about to set off a smudge pot in my livingroom, however.
I'm thinking about maybe bringing it upstairs for a few days until Canada gets my letter about their excessive gift. It's a few degrees warmer up here than down in the front - and might do well for the poor lil' thing.
5 days
I want it near the window, but the windows are a bit leaky and I don't want it to die from cold. Citrus trees do, you know.
I am not about to set off a smudge pot in my livingroom, however.
I'm thinking about maybe bringing it upstairs for a few days until Canada gets my letter about their excessive gift. It's a few degrees warmer up here than down in the front - and might do well for the poor lil' thing.
5 days
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
