It seems I'm having less and less to blog about as the (work) weeks go by. Nothing interesting happened to me this week. I didn't do anything special. It was just another week. I was hoping I would keep my blogging regular during this transition, but there just isn't anything to talk about.
Sure, I could complain about a bad day I had this week, but what's the point?
Next week I'm at a client in Laguna Beach. Not bad. It should be pretty nice.
I've been reading like mad lately. In the last two months I've read seven books! I plan on finishing another one before next week is over. Then my average will be about one a week. I'd like to keep it that way, but as I start studying for the CPA exam, I expect reading for leisure to fall by the wayside for about a year and a half. Nuts.
That's all for now. I'm hoping to go to a surfing compeition in Huntington Beach this weekend, but that's TBD.
Another Week Gone By
I Forgot What I Was Going to Say
I did, really.
I finally headed up to Los Angeles for the first time since I moved here. It was good. An hour turned into two because of 45 minutes of stop and go. On a Saturday! And there wasn't even an accident! I went to see a friend from high school, Andy. I haven't seen him since the fall of 2004. I accompanied him out here when he was job hunting. Well, we had a great time. It looks like we're going to be hanging out regularly hopefully.
Living in south Orange County is spoiling me. Life is so much different down here than the further you go north on the 5 freeway. It gets more and more crowded, more and more dirty. Andy lives in the valley though, on the other side of the Hollywood sign. It's nicer over that way. They actually have a nice place and a yard to boot! Well, a yard by L.A. standards.
It's good to know someone up that way because my goals include living right around there. You see, every major film and television studio is within a few mile radius of where Andy lives. Pretty sweet.
I'm really glad I've chosen the accounting profession. It's one of the few realistic ways to live in California and expect to have a decent quality of life before I'm ready to retire but can't afford to. If I had come out here with a public relations degree, TV production degree or whatever else I was thinking about majoring in, I would be in the poor house. Not that I'm out of it now, it's tight, but I know the future is bright.
Anyways. I almost bought a couch last weekend. Good thing I didn't. I already was given a recliner this week and I'm supposed to be getting a couch and another chair tomorrow. So we'll see.
That's all for now.
I think I'm over the whole cable tv thing. I don't even want it. At least not until the fall season starts. :)
Almich in Vegas
Hey y'all! Just got back from my Firm's 15th Anniversary in Vegas. It was quite a good time. Yeah, it's possible without getting drunk, going to strip clubs, and losing $100s-$1000s on gambling. Who knew?
I flew out Thursday morning with a bunch of other people from my Firm. Our flight was delayed an hour. Way to go America West. You're 0-for-2 with me. It's okay tho, I got to Vegas aroung 130 and didn't need to be to the dinner until 630. Krysti picked me up and we went over to her place to chill and get ready.
The dinner was at this place called Smith & Wollensky's. I guess it's a pretty famous steakhouse if you're into that stuff. They only have like 5 locations in the U.S., most of them in New England. I'm sure it was super expensive when we had hors d'oeuvres shoved in our collective face before we even finished putting the other one in our mouth. Open bar all night. A bottomless wine glass. The best filet mignon I've ever had. Ever. Myself and Randy, the guy sitting across from us, were going to get the halibut, but the waiter convinced us to go with the filet. "We are a steakhouse, afterall." Randy and I were both glad we made the choice.
The best part about all of this food at an event like this is that there is so much time between courses, I don't even feel stuffed at the end of the night. When you're eating from 7-10, what do you expect? Nice.
I haven't had a chance really to talk to one of my bosses since I started (the one who hired me) so it was good to be able to chat with him for a few minutes. I also got to meet the named partner finally. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better, too. There was a presentation of awards for people who had been with the Firm since the beginning. They talked about how, in our industry (career colleges, mainly), we are known as the best in the country at what we do. Some clients are afraid to hire us because they know how good we are. A few of the partners actually influence policy-making in Washington D.C. with the Department of Education. I mean, I'm sure the partner telling us this is biased, he owns the Firm. But, at the same time, he can't be too far off the mark. The industry we work in is pretty specialized, and not a lot of CPA firms deal with it. It was very cool to find that stuff out and know that I am now a part of that.
Anyways, enough of that. Our guests got to participate in trivia about 1992. My guest, Krysti, won the first question. "Who won the Super Bowl in 1992?" John asked. "Redskins, Krysti. Say Redskins!" I said. "Redskins!" Krysti shouted. $25 Bellagio chip was hers.
We decided to cash it in and split it. Daring as we are, we played the nickel slots for awhile. After my first $2, I was up $23.15. So I cashed out. The next day, at Planet Hollywood, I was playing the penny slots with $1. I doubled that, but then got greedy and lost it all. $2, down the drain.
Because of a nice monetary gift from the Firm, this trip was really completely free. I know, the room and airfare were free, but now I didn't even spend the spending money I brought with. How cool!
My room at the Bellagio was completely awesome. You walk in, and there are buttons on the wall (and next to the beds) to open and close the drapes. I opened them. WHOA! Spectacular view of Paris across the street, with Planet Hollywood to its' right, Bally's and the Flamingo to its' left and half of Caesar's Palace. It's not too bad being able to look out your window and see Toni Braxton sprawled across the side of the Flamingo.
The mini-bar in my room was motion-sensitive. So if you even pick up something from it, you get charged. You don't even have to use it. How lame. The $8 bottle of Fiji and the $4.50 bag of peanut M&Ms had never been so tempting, but yet so unappetizing sounding.
What follows are a few pictures I took. I know everyone takes pictures of stuff on the Strip, so I stay pretty modest with the amount I take. The first one is actually a leftover from the 4th that I forgot to post. Ok.
The view from my balcony on the 4th.
My room at the Bellagio.
I thought I had taken one at night, too, but this will do.
This is where I stayed. Oooh.
This is the view from the south side of the Bellagio property looking north on the Strip.
The Family Visit
My dad, mom, sister, and nieces were in town over the weekend. I took them to see where I work and they got to see where I live and around south OC and stuff. It was a good time. Now I probably won't see my mom and dad again until Christmas, so that's kind of a long time away, but I'm sure it'll come quick. I had to work Thursday and Friday so we just had the nights and half of Saturday then they all went back to Vegas where my sister lives.
We ate out a bunch. Shopped. Went to the OC Swap Meet at the fairgrounds...you know, the usual. The most fun we had was probably on the lake. Our friend Michal rented a pontoon for a couple of hours on Lake Mission Viejo. We ate and cruised around. It's still kind of weird that there's a lake four blocks from my apartment.
In other news, my computer is back up and running. I just had the Genius at the Apple Store reinstall the OS and everything was fine. I lost the stuff I thought I would, but oh well. Won't happen again.
This week will be a short one. We work three days and then the whole Firm is going to Vegas for our 15th Anniversary. Ooooh yeah.
Andy, Brent O, and Tony...expect my call in the next 7-10 days. That's my goal. Unless you call first, then you win.
I Heart Macs. but They're Still Computers
Yeah, so I don't want to jump the gun here, but I think the hard drive on my Mac Mini is fried. Not a huge huge deal I didn't think because I had all my music and pictures backed up on an external drive. So I thought. My music is solid, no problem. My pictures are usually on the backup drive, but I think when I was going to back them up last time, it took awhile to get the old backup off the other drive, so I went and did something else. I must've forgot to put the new backup on it. So, well, no pictures. That goes back to 2003. I'm not as mad as I should be, I guess. I actually look at it as a good thing because now I don't have to go back and organize them all. It was kind of a daunting task.
Back to jumping the gun. I have a warranty through 2009 on that computer so if it is the hard drive, it will most likely be replaced for free. Good. Fine. The Apple Store is open today, too, and I have an appointment for 330. Nice!! I hope to fondle the iPhone while I'm there.
Anyways, the thing I'll be most upset about if my hard drive is fried is the loss of my excel spreadsheet that lists every movie I've watched and my rating of it since I started keeping track on 2/06. Oops.
Why am I not more angry about this? I'm just like...whaaatever. What can be done about it? Nothing. Why be mad about it then? Exactly.
Like I said, there is still hope. If they can retrieve my files, but are gonna charge me $100 for it...I'm not so sure I'd do it. Sure, I've lost all those pictures, but the most recent ones, mainly from the past two years are all on my flickr account. So I be ok I guess.
So this is the second incident with my Mac Mini since March. I had the DVD drive replaced then. What gives? I will never disown Apple over these things because computer hardware fails sometimes. It just does. Good thing I will keep getting it fixed for another two years on Apple's dime.
I bet no one cares about my computer problems either. So I'll be sure and post updates.
Saturday's Errands on Sunday's Time
I'm not sure how things are where you live, but from what I remember when living in Minnesota and in Texas, libraries and car mechanics were among the many places closed on Sundays. Well folks, I no longer have to get these things in on Saturday.
I haven't been to the library in years anyways...but I was at Borders last night and decided I was tired of spending money on books I intend to revisit over the years but only ever read once. So I decided to go to the library. The Orange County Public Library has dozens of locations throughout the county...with several open on Sunday. None of them are very big, but with their combined resources, you can pretty much get what you want. Only 25 cents to get a book from another branch! My first trip involved getting Gary Larson's The Complete Far Side: Volume 1 and the first Harry Potter book. I've been putting off reading about Harry for years, I decided it's finally time to see what all the fuss is about.
Whenever I've needed to get an oil change, I've always had to go on Saturdays. No wonder why that's the busiest day at the garage, that's when everyone goes. Well, some genius here, or maybe it's the never slow down mentality of OC, decided to keep the mechanics open on Sunday. I got my car in at 9am, walked home in 6 minutes, read the newspaper, ate breakfast, walked back to the shop, and had my car by about 10:15. Rock on.
One more thing...Apparently there are earthquakes every day in Southern California. Yeah, 38 all together this past week. They were all in the 2.0 range, which I guess you don't really feel. None were real close to me. I guess every week averages a couple dozen!! Who knew?
Another Week Gone By
It seems I'm having less and less to blog about as the (work) weeks go by. Nothing interesting happened to me this week. I didn't do anything special. It was just another week. I was hoping I would keep my blogging regular during this transition, but there just isn't anything to talk about.
Sure, I could complain about a bad day I had this week, but what's the point?
Next week I'm at a client in Laguna Beach. Not bad. It should be pretty nice.
I've been reading like mad lately. In the last two months I've read seven books! I plan on finishing another one before next week is over. Then my average will be about one a week. I'd like to keep it that way, but as I start studying for the CPA exam, I expect reading for leisure to fall by the wayside for about a year and a half. Nuts.
That's all for now. I'm hoping to go to a surfing compeition in Huntington Beach this weekend, but that's TBD.
I Forgot What I Was Going to Say
I did, really.
I finally headed up to Los Angeles for the first time since I moved here. It was good. An hour turned into two because of 45 minutes of stop and go. On a Saturday! And there wasn't even an accident! I went to see a friend from high school, Andy. I haven't seen him since the fall of 2004. I accompanied him out here when he was job hunting. Well, we had a great time. It looks like we're going to be hanging out regularly hopefully.
Living in south Orange County is spoiling me. Life is so much different down here than the further you go north on the 5 freeway. It gets more and more crowded, more and more dirty. Andy lives in the valley though, on the other side of the Hollywood sign. It's nicer over that way. They actually have a nice place and a yard to boot! Well, a yard by L.A. standards.
It's good to know someone up that way because my goals include living right around there. You see, every major film and television studio is within a few mile radius of where Andy lives. Pretty sweet.
I'm really glad I've chosen the accounting profession. It's one of the few realistic ways to live in California and expect to have a decent quality of life before I'm ready to retire but can't afford to. If I had come out here with a public relations degree, TV production degree or whatever else I was thinking about majoring in, I would be in the poor house. Not that I'm out of it now, it's tight, but I know the future is bright.
Anyways. I almost bought a couch last weekend. Good thing I didn't. I already was given a recliner this week and I'm supposed to be getting a couch and another chair tomorrow. So we'll see.
That's all for now.
I think I'm over the whole cable tv thing. I don't even want it. At least not until the fall season starts. :)
Almich in Vegas
Hey y'all! Just got back from my Firm's 15th Anniversary in Vegas. It was quite a good time. Yeah, it's possible without getting drunk, going to strip clubs, and losing $100s-$1000s on gambling. Who knew?
I flew out Thursday morning with a bunch of other people from my Firm. Our flight was delayed an hour. Way to go America West. You're 0-for-2 with me. It's okay tho, I got to Vegas aroung 130 and didn't need to be to the dinner until 630. Krysti picked me up and we went over to her place to chill and get ready.
The dinner was at this place called Smith & Wollensky's. I guess it's a pretty famous steakhouse if you're into that stuff. They only have like 5 locations in the U.S., most of them in New England. I'm sure it was super expensive when we had hors d'oeuvres shoved in our collective face before we even finished putting the other one in our mouth. Open bar all night. A bottomless wine glass. The best filet mignon I've ever had. Ever. Myself and Randy, the guy sitting across from us, were going to get the halibut, but the waiter convinced us to go with the filet. "We are a steakhouse, afterall." Randy and I were both glad we made the choice.
The best part about all of this food at an event like this is that there is so much time between courses, I don't even feel stuffed at the end of the night. When you're eating from 7-10, what do you expect? Nice.
I haven't had a chance really to talk to one of my bosses since I started (the one who hired me) so it was good to be able to chat with him for a few minutes. I also got to meet the named partner finally. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better, too. There was a presentation of awards for people who had been with the Firm since the beginning. They talked about how, in our industry (career colleges, mainly), we are known as the best in the country at what we do. Some clients are afraid to hire us because they know how good we are. A few of the partners actually influence policy-making in Washington D.C. with the Department of Education. I mean, I'm sure the partner telling us this is biased, he owns the Firm. But, at the same time, he can't be too far off the mark. The industry we work in is pretty specialized, and not a lot of CPA firms deal with it. It was very cool to find that stuff out and know that I am now a part of that.
Anyways, enough of that. Our guests got to participate in trivia about 1992. My guest, Krysti, won the first question. "Who won the Super Bowl in 1992?" John asked. "Redskins, Krysti. Say Redskins!" I said. "Redskins!" Krysti shouted. $25 Bellagio chip was hers.
We decided to cash it in and split it. Daring as we are, we played the nickel slots for awhile. After my first $2, I was up $23.15. So I cashed out. The next day, at Planet Hollywood, I was playing the penny slots with $1. I doubled that, but then got greedy and lost it all. $2, down the drain.
Because of a nice monetary gift from the Firm, this trip was really completely free. I know, the room and airfare were free, but now I didn't even spend the spending money I brought with. How cool!
My room at the Bellagio was completely awesome. You walk in, and there are buttons on the wall (and next to the beds) to open and close the drapes. I opened them. WHOA! Spectacular view of Paris across the street, with Planet Hollywood to its' right, Bally's and the Flamingo to its' left and half of Caesar's Palace. It's not too bad being able to look out your window and see Toni Braxton sprawled across the side of the Flamingo.
The mini-bar in my room was motion-sensitive. So if you even pick up something from it, you get charged. You don't even have to use it. How lame. The $8 bottle of Fiji and the $4.50 bag of peanut M&Ms had never been so tempting, but yet so unappetizing sounding.
What follows are a few pictures I took. I know everyone takes pictures of stuff on the Strip, so I stay pretty modest with the amount I take. The first one is actually a leftover from the 4th that I forgot to post. Ok.
The view from my balcony on the 4th.
My room at the Bellagio.
I thought I had taken one at night, too, but this will do.
This is where I stayed. Oooh.
This is the view from the south side of the Bellagio property looking north on the Strip.
The Family Visit
My dad, mom, sister, and nieces were in town over the weekend. I took them to see where I work and they got to see where I live and around south OC and stuff. It was a good time. Now I probably won't see my mom and dad again until Christmas, so that's kind of a long time away, but I'm sure it'll come quick. I had to work Thursday and Friday so we just had the nights and half of Saturday then they all went back to Vegas where my sister lives.
We ate out a bunch. Shopped. Went to the OC Swap Meet at the fairgrounds...you know, the usual. The most fun we had was probably on the lake. Our friend Michal rented a pontoon for a couple of hours on Lake Mission Viejo. We ate and cruised around. It's still kind of weird that there's a lake four blocks from my apartment.
In other news, my computer is back up and running. I just had the Genius at the Apple Store reinstall the OS and everything was fine. I lost the stuff I thought I would, but oh well. Won't happen again.
This week will be a short one. We work three days and then the whole Firm is going to Vegas for our 15th Anniversary. Ooooh yeah.
Andy, Brent O, and Tony...expect my call in the next 7-10 days. That's my goal. Unless you call first, then you win.
I Heart Macs. but They're Still Computers
Yeah, so I don't want to jump the gun here, but I think the hard drive on my Mac Mini is fried. Not a huge huge deal I didn't think because I had all my music and pictures backed up on an external drive. So I thought. My music is solid, no problem. My pictures are usually on the backup drive, but I think when I was going to back them up last time, it took awhile to get the old backup off the other drive, so I went and did something else. I must've forgot to put the new backup on it. So, well, no pictures. That goes back to 2003. I'm not as mad as I should be, I guess. I actually look at it as a good thing because now I don't have to go back and organize them all. It was kind of a daunting task.
Back to jumping the gun. I have a warranty through 2009 on that computer so if it is the hard drive, it will most likely be replaced for free. Good. Fine. The Apple Store is open today, too, and I have an appointment for 330. Nice!! I hope to fondle the iPhone while I'm there.
Anyways, the thing I'll be most upset about if my hard drive is fried is the loss of my excel spreadsheet that lists every movie I've watched and my rating of it since I started keeping track on 2/06. Oops.
Why am I not more angry about this? I'm just like...whaaatever. What can be done about it? Nothing. Why be mad about it then? Exactly.
Like I said, there is still hope. If they can retrieve my files, but are gonna charge me $100 for it...I'm not so sure I'd do it. Sure, I've lost all those pictures, but the most recent ones, mainly from the past two years are all on my flickr account. So I be ok I guess.
So this is the second incident with my Mac Mini since March. I had the DVD drive replaced then. What gives? I will never disown Apple over these things because computer hardware fails sometimes. It just does. Good thing I will keep getting it fixed for another two years on Apple's dime.
I bet no one cares about my computer problems either. So I'll be sure and post updates.
Saturday's Errands on Sunday's Time
I'm not sure how things are where you live, but from what I remember when living in Minnesota and in Texas, libraries and car mechanics were among the many places closed on Sundays. Well folks, I no longer have to get these things in on Saturday.
I haven't been to the library in years anyways...but I was at Borders last night and decided I was tired of spending money on books I intend to revisit over the years but only ever read once. So I decided to go to the library. The Orange County Public Library has dozens of locations throughout the county...with several open on Sunday. None of them are very big, but with their combined resources, you can pretty much get what you want. Only 25 cents to get a book from another branch! My first trip involved getting Gary Larson's The Complete Far Side: Volume 1 and the first Harry Potter book. I've been putting off reading about Harry for years, I decided it's finally time to see what all the fuss is about.
Whenever I've needed to get an oil change, I've always had to go on Saturdays. No wonder why that's the busiest day at the garage, that's when everyone goes. Well, some genius here, or maybe it's the never slow down mentality of OC, decided to keep the mechanics open on Sunday. I got my car in at 9am, walked home in 6 minutes, read the newspaper, ate breakfast, walked back to the shop, and had my car by about 10:15. Rock on.
One more thing...Apparently there are earthquakes every day in Southern California. Yeah, 38 all together this past week. They were all in the 2.0 range, which I guess you don't really feel. None were real close to me. I guess every week averages a couple dozen!! Who knew?
