July 12, 2004Fiscal year end sucks
Last year I was lucky enough to be in Hawaii instead, but this year there was no getting out of it. On the 25th we had a meeting to go over the current status of things. For some reason we had a surplus of money this year (over a million dollars) and we were trying to spend, spend, spend. The next few days all I did was call vendors and other college employees to figure out what had been received, what we could get in the next few days, and if an invoice had been processed yet. Needless to say, I didn't have time for anything else for about a week.
When I finally had about all I was going to be able to pay, I started to process it all. In order to have all systems online an ready to go for July 1, everything was going to be unavailable on the 30th. Which means we had to get everything processed by the 29th. At 5:30pm on the 29th I had about 10 more minutes of stuff left to do when the system went down. Doh! We even contacted the guy in charge at home to see if he would let us process for a little while longer, but nope, wouldn't do it.
Luckily, we were able to get around the system the next day and still get it all processed. The reason for the rush and panic was that if we didn't spend the money, we were going to lose it; the State would take it back.
You'd think once the 30th had gone by it would all slow down. But noooo, no break for me! The end of the week was spent trying to get things ready for the next year.
Tuesday (July 6) I spent all day trying to process payment for these stupid dual enrollment schools. Dual Enrollment is when high school kids take college classes and their high school pays us for tuition. So, one of the area high schools just paid 2 of the invoices, almost 200 pages of students. And of course things never work right the first time.
Wednesday was more of the same, until the power went out. And when I got to work Thursday my machine was all screwed up from the storm, so I couldn't get any work done. The IT guys ended up having to replace the hard drive. We spent a couple hours on Friday making sure all the files and things I needed from the old one were moved to the new one. And I also got a DVD burner so we (my office) can backup files as needed.
Thursday and Friday was spent boxing up old files, moving semi-old files, and getting new files ready for this year. I was so tired one night I went to bed before midnight.
It's now 3:15 Monday, July 12, and I just finished with that deposit from the 6th.
Last week was very frustrating, I'm so behind on everything. It's going to be another busy week.
Posted by Olivia at 3:15 PM | Comments (1)
Find me in: Working Girl Blues
July 12, 2004Chris & Karen's Wedding
Saturday, July 3 Jeff, Brian & I headed to Tidewater for Chris & Karen's wedding.
But before we could get there we had to have some drama! Brian was nice enough to volunteer to drive so about 3pm we were on our way. I'm not even sure how far down the road we were, but both Jeff & Brian felt the car drive a little funny. We pulled over and sure enough, the rear drivers side tire was flat.
The boys put the spare on and off we went. That's twice now we've had car problems while on the way to Tidewater for a wedding. Weird.
We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to get the tire fixed or replaced. Luckily a Costco (which is where Brian bought the tires from only a few weeks earlier) was nearby and replaced the tire for free! Even after putting the new tire on, we still arrived at the County Club early. :)
The ceremony itself was on the beach at the James River Country Club. Very cool! Right before sunset, overlooking the water...mmm.
The wedding party was decked out in Aloha-wear, as worn by Mike, that Karen's mom made (I think that's what I heard).
Since Jeff and I are in hardcore planning mode for our own wedding I think we both viewed Chris & Karen's wedding in a different way. We paid attention to all the small details that seem so important to the bride and groom, yet may be overlooked by most guests.
The reception was inside, separate areas for eating and dancing. One of the coolest things were the 2 bars; one served strawberry daquiris, the other, margaritas.
Everyone seemed to have a really good time. Lots of people were up dancing to any song the DJ played. To complete the beach theme the cake was decorated with (edible) seashells and other beachy things. Awesomely tasty cake, I hope we can find one as good as theirs!
Chris & Karen seemed so happy and many heartfelt toasts were given by friends and family. They left around 11pm in a shower of sparklers and a heavily decorated Mini Cooper. Chris even made an extra drive-by just so Karen could stand up out of the sunroof to wave at us.
Posted by Olivia at 3:39 PM | Comments (2)
Find me in: Friends in Low Places
July 13, 2004Party on the patio!!
Sunday (July 4) we decided to check out the end of season sales for patio furniture and potentially a grill. By Monday evening we had it all! We did end up running all over town because Target didn't have the complete set of chairs, table and umbrella we liked, but we mixed and matched and made it all work.
The grill we got from Sears, also on sale. After a wild goose chase in Ashland to find the campground that would supposedly fill the propane tank, we gave up and just switched our brand new tank for an already filled one at Sheetz.
Of course we couldn't actually use the grill yet cause we had no food in the house. And it kept raining. And then the storm on Wednesday.
July 4th was rounded out with dinner at WaWa before meeting up with Brian to watch the fireworks at Kings Dominion. This year, for some reason, the smoke wasn't clearing as fast as the fireworks were going off, so about halfway through it was almost too smokey to even see anything. Very strange, it's never done that before.
Kings Domion has been our fireworks viewing location every year since we've been in Richmond. Always with different people, but it's a neat tradition we've started. :)
It was nice to have Monday off although at this moment I can't remember what we did. I guess we were still on the hunt for furniture & stuff. Work of course, as you read before was a pain, so it was nice to only have 4 days of it. Well, if you count the effects of the storm it was really less than a 4-day work week.
Supposedly, in our area at least, the winds from the storm were as bad, if not worse than when Isabel hit last fall. Luckily we didn't have any damage. Our neighbors patio furniture was all blown off their deck, with one chair flying all the way across the road. Lots of trees went down all over the city. It was crazy.
We lost power at work about 1:15, were told to wait until 4 to see if it would come back on. Well, since none of use could really work without power or light (in most parts of our office) we just kinda hung out and talked until then.
Since I got to leave early I took the opportunity to run by David's Bridal to pick up (or order) a few of the bridesmaids dresses. I also stopped by Michaels to check out flowers for bouquets. I hadn't been able to decide on fake or real flowers. After working up our budget (what we've already spent plus what we're going to have to pay) I decided that cheap was the way to go. The lady there was no help, so I came on home to clean up the trashcans, our neighbors furniture, and the leaks from the windows.
After Jeff got home we walked and drove around checking out the damage. Even at 8pm Virginia Center was still without power, but it came on as we left that area. Same with our place, power came back on around 9pm, just as we were turning the corner down the street. What a crazy day that was.
Posted by Olivia at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)
Find me in: Home Life , Weather Words , Wedding Talk , Working Girl Blues
July 13, 2004A little bit of this, a little bit of that
We finally went grocery shopping! Our fridge was so sad, cool whip, pickles and cat food. Now the pantry and fridge are stocked full. We even made a point to buy some grillable items.
And that's just what we did Friday (July 9) night. Jeff fired up the grill while I cut up veggies for my shish-kabobs. I think we did pretty well for our first grilling experience.
After dinner Friday and again Saturday morning I was in a mad dash to clean up the house. Glen, the minister for our wedding, was coming by to discuss the questionnaires we had completed earlier.
I think we were both a little anxious about the meeting, but it wasn't too bad. He says that based on our responses, he feels we know each other pretty well. We even wrote practically the same answer for several of the questions. It was kinda creepy.
After he left we decided to hit the mall to visit Gingiss and check out the guywear options for the wedding. Jeff picked out a simple tux with vest and tie. I guess the next step is to get all the guys in there to be fitted.
We also stopped by Michaels to look at the flowers again. Thankfully, the lady working in this store was actually helpful and showed us some good combinations of fall flowers. We picked up one bunch each of about 5 or six different kinds to play around with. With Jeff's help I was finally able to put together something halfway decent. But I only had enough flowers for 2 bouquets.
Sunday, after lounging around for a while and trying to watch the race live (versus the Tivoed, no commercials way), we ran back out to Michaels to buy the rest of the flowers to finish up all 6 bouquets. Turns out all flowers were 40% off (doh!) so in addition to the bouquet flowers we purchased these fall leaves to use for the ceremony. I feel silly buying them, because we'll have no use for them afterwards, but it's going to look cool.
For those of you who didn't realize, Sunday was July 11th. That's 7/11. And on 7/11, 7-Eleven was giving away free 7.11 oz Slurpees for their 77th birthday. Sure, that's pretty small, but when you visit 3 different stores, that adds up to a pretty decent Slurpee!
We also grilled out again, just burgers this time. I'm going to have to find some other neat grillable meals, it's much more fun that cooking on the stove. :)
I think that pretty much takes you all up through this past weekend, so I'm going to stop typing!
Posted by Olivia at 1:33 PM | Comments (4)
Find me in: Home Life , Wedding Talk