A Chat with my Boss...

Today our boss handed out our paychecks. And he had already called a couple of guys into his office to talk about the overtime they've accumulated. I figured that he was going to talk to me about that subject as well. This month we have a 5-week work circle and I've accumulated 50 hours overtime this month alone.
So we had a little chat about the subject. This month was like a perfect storm. Preparing for Taking Inventory, then the overtime required for the actual Taking of the Inventory, a 5-week work circe and having to do overtime since the head of finance had called in sick for 1 week and apparently besides me nobody has the knowledge and the courage to step up and fill in for him. On top of that I had started some pre-prep-work for getting the numbers for the tax guys started and that' just something that doesn't go during regular business hours.
Although my boss understands all that he gave me a limit of the overtime he is OK wiht. That limit is 30 hours in a 5-week work circle and about 25 hours in a 4-week work circle. And it will not be that easy to stick to that limit, since the Junior Accountant just doesn't step up to the plate. Essentially it will mean that I have to leave work every Friday at 2 pm to keep overtime in check. And most likely I will have to take at least 1 day off each and every month. I'm totally fine with that since I really enjoy having more time off. During the cold winter month it didn't really bother me but with Spring and warm temps it's nice to have more time available to do stuff. And I'm sure my new boyfriend will appreciate that as well.
From a financial point of view getting 30 hours overtime paid makes sense, as you really see somthing on your paycheck. But there's very little difference in your paycheck if you get paid 50 hours overtime. The majority of it is eaten up by social security and taxes. Yes you can get it back at the end of the year when doing your taxes but you have to wait 1 entire year.
By the end of that chat my boss did point out once again that he appreciates having me on the accounting team and that he does appreciate me work effort and me stepping up to the plate when it is required without having been ordered to do so by my superiors.

VET Appointment...

Last week I set up Daisy's annual VET Appointment for today. Usually I would do that on a Saturday, but since I had plans for the Saturday and the workload is currently a little lighter, it just seemed a perfect fit to have the appointment today at 6.30 pm.
So I left work at 3 pm and headed back home. It usually takes me about 35 minutes. But today it took me almost 1 hour. There just had to be a big traffic accident on the road the busline I was using. Naturally...there hadn't been any accidents in that busline in weeks. So I got home at 4 pm to a super excited CowDog. Got all the stuff I needed and headed out to the Vienna's West Trainstation. Got there in time, bought the ticket and chose  a train around 5 pm. Gave me the chance to find a great spot for Daisy and myslef.
We headed out with the train and Daisy really enjoyed herslef. The busride to the VET was exactly the same. We got to the VET about 30 minutes before the appointment. But I do like it that way it gives Daisy time to relax and calm down a little. And it pretty much works every time. It also gave Daisy the chance to socialize with other dogs.
It was a routine check and so I didn't expect anything major to happen. Daisy got her routine shots: Parvo, Leptospirosis, Kennl Cough, Hepatitis, Distemper and Rabies.
Of course Daisy got her annual physical exam as well. And most is great, especially considering that Daisy will be turning 16 in a couple of days. So far she has ver few days when her joints seem to bother her a little. But as long as that doesn't happen on a regular basis pain meds aren't the right choice. And for most part you couldn't tell that this CowDog is turning 16. The Spine is another story. That's something I have been noticing more and more lately. Brushing her a little harder seems really to bother her. So when doing that I take particular care not to hurt her. But that's a sign of a bigger problem. There are arthritc changes going on in her spine and the also accounts for the fact why sheis occansionally having problems when putting down her hind legs. The right hind leg seems to be worse than the left one. But again it's something that happens unfrequently. And it long as it doesn't bother her meds aren't the right choice here either. And to be quite honest a dog at Daisy's age is allowed to have some medical issues related to age. Other than that she has a clear bill of health.
I also had planned to see a few friends that I don't usually get to see. But that never happened. I wasn't going to meet them a a certain location. It's just too much effort, especially with a senior dog. And of course there are other reasons for that as well. I've talked about those in more datail in an earlier blog entry, so there is no need to repeat them.
I've said it as well in an earlier blog post...if certain people really want to stay part of my life, they will have to make the appropriate effort. Telling me that they don't want to meet at a location that is more convenient for me, after I've made the effort to travel 40 miles...well, it's not exactly helping your point. Those people I'm talking about they know exactly who they are, so there is no need to name them. On the other hand I wasn't that upset either that I didn't have to listen to the endless twaddle of certain people, telling me how terrible their life is. That way Daisy and I got to go back home right after the Vet to relax and chill for the evening. And Daisy did make a coule of new friends during the train and the subway ride.
There is something that really needs to be pointed out at this time once again, since apparently certain people still don't get it. I do have my life together. I have a great job and I have great friends in Vienna, that I do fun stuff with. As little info to all other friendes, here's how it's going to work with this Aries:
You want to be part of my life, you will have to make the necessary effort. I'm not the one who is going to do that anymore. If you really are unwilling to make that effort you will eventually be phased out like a piece of hardware that no longer serves any purpose.

Amazing Race - Episode 9

My thoughts on Episode 9 of Amazing Race, Season 22.

Picking a new Computer...

For some time now I've been thinking about picking a new computer. There are quite a number of reason for that. The main reason still is the fact that my iMac is turning 8 years. Not that it doesn't work anymore, but it has become really sluggish and even a complete system re-install doesn't fix the problem. And of course I'm aware of the fact that the thing is completely outdated. The second reason is that you don't get any current software that works on this old machine and that also includes printers, scanners and so on.
I wasn't going to go for Desktop type computer. The main reason for that being the fact that my workplace in my apartment still isn't set up and that I like to work in front of my big screen TV. So it was quite clear that I was going for a laptop style computer.
Basically I was left with 2 choices Windows or Mac. Well the the decision wasn't quite easy. First I looked into the hardeware builds. Turns out there really isn't any difference between PC's and Macs anymore. I know Aplle wants people to believe differently, but that's just a load of bull. The remaing question that needed to be answered is that of the operation system. Having worked on Windows 7 I can first hand say that it is a rock solid thing. The OSX releases on the other hand that came out of Cuportino lately have been just one example after another of slopply coded and sloppy tested software. Paying a boatload of cash for a basically mediocre software is just not my idea of a smart buy. In general there is a tendency that Apple products no longer have the same quality than they used to have about 5 years ago.
And than there of course is the most important reason to turn my back on Apple. Let's face it the business world, especially the world of accounting a Windows dominated. No amount of Apple Propaganda is going to change that. If you want to work professionally in accounting you have to go Windows. No pretty little trick is going to change that. Since this was going to be computer I mostly will be using for work I started my research into Windows Notebooks.
When I started my research I had certain benchmarks. This was going to be more the a pure accounting computer. For that I would have been fine with an i3 Processor. But I wanted way more than that. I wanted that thing to have multimedia capabilities and therefore a fairly decent graphic card. And since I do a lot of converting of video footage I wanted a computer that can do that task, since it takes forever on my iMac. So the processor I was going for was an i7. And of course I had an budget of a max of 1100 bucks.
After quite some research it came down to 4 brands: Sony, HP, Asus and Acer. The Acer and the Asus notebook dropped out of the race since the configuaratioon I wanted to have would have blown my budget and I would have had to pay at least 1400 bucks. And that was an amount I wasn't willing to spend. So there were 2 brands left. Bot with pretty much the same configuration. So the day had come to finally got to the store. I was more leaning towards Sony Vaio. When I got to the store they had only the floor model left. Yes it was quite discounted and it would have been a cheap buy. But somehow that just didn't sit right with me. So I went with the HP. And by taking advantage of a sale I even got one with a bigger screen. Initially I was looking into 15" notebooks and I ended up with an 17" one. That might come in handy when doing wokring on spreadsheets and doing accounting stuff and especially it might come in handy when working on my website.
Here are some of the Specs:

• Intel i7 Quadcore Processor
• 750 GB Harddrive
• 8 GB Ram
• Nvidia Geforce 2 GB graphic card
• all the "usual" ports
• USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports

The only thing that I could have lived without was the operating system. It came pre-installed with Windows 8. And I'm not a big fan of that. Would have much rather had Windows 7. Of cours it's a piece of cake to insall Windows 7 over it. But for now I've decided to give Windows 8 a try.
Let's face it in the business world it's just a question of time when the accounting software you're currently using will no longer support Windows 7. So having Windows 8 on your system might be the smarter deciesion in the long run.

Amazing Race, S22, Episode 8...

My thoughts on Episode 8 of Amazing Race Season 22, 

"My Cheese is out of Control".

Company Event...

Today we had a company event that usually is scheduled shortly before the XMAS holidys. But for certain reasons it never happened at that time. And with the beginning of the new year there was not much time either with all the now products coming out, the convention and then the work related to taking inventory. Today the event finally took place.
We were supposed to leave at 4.15 pm...but as things are we almost lost about 30 minutes later and then traffic became an issue. So we got to Schönbrunn a little later than we were supposed to. But we finally made it there and had a very nice and interesting time at the Schönbrunn Zoo. Later we met a a restaurant in Vienna's 13th district for dinner. We had a great dinner, listened to a little speech of our boss. It was fun hanging out with co-workers in a non working setting. Got to see the one or another co-worker that I barely see under normal circumstances. And it was fun seeing or boss on a more personal level as well.
Around 10 pm I left to...after all I had to be at work at 8 am the next morning and I still wanted to spend some quality time with Daisy as well. All in all a very fun evening.

Amazing Race - Episode 7

My thoughts on Episode 7 of Amazing Race, Season 22.

Battling the Flu...

With the flu going around and all the people being sick it was just a matter of time until it would get to me. That my boss had been coming in while having the flu wasn't particularly helpful either. The past couple of days I've been feeling actually sick. Sweating like crzy during the night and the central heating isn't even on. In the mornings I had to relax at last 2 or 3 times in bed, because my blood ciruclation just wasn't doing what it is supposed to do. But with all the people that had called in sick, we were only 1/3 of tSo I the workforce that we would be normally. So I didn't stay home. Thursday evening I was running a temperature of 38 degree C (100.4 F) and thought that I would be sick the next day. That's at least how that usual works. But Friday morning I didn't run any temperature but still was feeling sick. I had decided to make this a shorter work day and went home at 2 pm. Went straight to bed and slept till 7.30 pm. But still no temperature nor was I feeling any worse than the days before.
I did spend the entire weekend pretty much in bed and watchted a ton of TV. Just got up to get grab something to eat from the kitchen. Good thing I still had quite a lot of leftovers. The only time I went out was to take Dasiy for a short walk. Still wasn't feeling OK, but never got any temperature. Not quite sure what's up with that. By Sunday evening I did feel a little better. Maybe all the sweating during the weekend helped me get rid of that flu at least my blood circulation has improved quite a lot and I no longer feel light headed as I did during the last week.