Only three months to go

Watched this with Jim last night. It was not the first time I had seen it, but it gave Jim chills all over again. He is from Ohio, so this one had special meaning.

However, what I took from it is the most wonderful news in the world. It's the end of May, and there are only 3 more months until college football begins again!!!

Football is the most wonderful sport in the whole world.

Dr. Maddox was right

Ok, I have decided after lots of thoughfulness and reflection that my friends, my husband, and Dr. Maddox were right about me after all. I am not sure how at 14/15 that Dr. Maddox could have known, but I have decided that yes, I am hot to trot.

I think Steve posted in something about how I said my niece took after me and he said he would believe that if I had said she was fiesty. Well, after much thought and reflection of "my past" (specifically early 1993 - 1997 with a couple of occurances in 1988 and 1990), I have decided that yes, I am fiesty and hot to trot.

I said something to Jim one day not too long ago about I wasn't really fiesty was I and he just laughed loudly and mockingly. He said that yes I was fiesty, brazen, independent, ornery, and some other things I won't type in this forum. But all of that was ok because he liked all those things - plus he admitted when he met me that one of his first thoughts was that I was a hot piece of ___. Well - chalk one up for honesty! Someday I will blog about how we met.

So I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that Dr. Maddox was right a long time ago about me and at a young age. I didn't do anything in high school to have earned that remark, but I guess he was just an astute observer of overall behavior and knew there must be something lurking under the surface.

Where have all the jingles gone?

It is really sad that pop songs are being used to sell products now instead of original jingles. I roll my eyes everytime that stupid Chips Ahoy commercial comes on. How can they be selling cookies to Rod Stewart's "Do ya think I'm sexy"? Or a minivan to Heart's "Baracutta"? There is one other really dumb one for French Fries, but I can't remember the song that's used right now.

I guess that's why I get so happy and sing that "Free Credit Report dot com - yehaw I could have seen this coming at me like an atom bomb. They monitor your credit and send you email alerts, so you don't end up selling fish to tourists in t-shirts".

I love when that commercial comes on! I guess because it is original and fun. Unlike trying to figure out how "If you want my body and you think I'm sexy" relates to cookies.

Home to the Disaster area

Well I made it home fine on Wednesday afternoon and I was so tired I almost fell asleep on the plane (I never sleep on the plane or in a car), so I knew I was tired. While Jim had worked really hard and painted 6 rooms (2 were really big and two were bathrooms), the house was a freakin' disaster when I walked in. The living room was the paint staging area. All of the furniture was pulled away from the walls. All of the hardware was off the walls of the bathrooms (except for our bathroom) and our bathroom was not torn apart but was filthy.

Jim fixed a lot of holes in walls from shelves and things he took down and cracks he fixed. However, there was all of this drywall dust and crap all over the place. I had to vacuum each room twice. We put most of the furniture back (except in our room and the den/LR) Wednesday nite. Thursday, I had to go buy more paint and sponges and stuff, and then came home to finish the downstairs bathroom. I also helped finish up the living room. I had tons of clothes to wash, but I couldn't even really finish cleaning until Friday morning.

I started working at 8 am Friday and got in the shower about 1:00 after working like crazy to put the den back together and clean the house. Jim had to put the bathrooms together for me first thing so I could even get in them to clean. Yuck.

Then, I was going to hop in the hot tub and relax before getting in the shower. Jim got mad and said that I had been sweating and not to get in the hot tub that "He is the one that cleans it". Well, that was not the right thing to say to me. I just walked away instead of picking a fight. If that is the way this household worked, he would not be allowed to walk in any of the bathrooms in our house or walk on the floor that I vacuum.

After my shower, I told him that was why I got mad - not because he didn't want me in the hot tub it was what he said. He apologized. Of course, he got mad again on Saturday when my mom, sister, niece and I were at Carowinds and we were a little late coming back. He hung up on me on the phone because we were calling to tell them not to wait on us for dinner (hamburgers on the grill). He was mad because he had also made a cake. I told him that was no reason to hang up on me. My sister attributed it to the fact that after a couple of days my brother in law was influencing him and that plus her other explanation that he is M-A-L-E was the other problem. He usually only gets mad if I don't call - but I called and he still got mad and then hung up on me - not cool. He said to just 'come home whenever you come home'. I started to stay at Carowinds! I didn't call again to tell them when we were on our way after that episode, but he apologized again for being an A$$$$$$.

Weekend in New England

Just came back from outside of Boston, MA this evening where I had dinner with my old Audit Director that I worked with at Fleet Mortgage. Peter left Columbia in the fall of '99, and I had not seen him since the winter of 2000 although I had kept in contact with him frequently. Since I am in Rhode Island, I emailed him this week to say hi, and they invited me to dinner at their house tonite. It was only about a 45 minute drive to their house in Massachusetts as they live between Providence, RI and Boston.

We had a great time catching up on old times and it was so much fun to see his family. I really do miss working for Peter. I learned so much from him and enjoyed the challenging times that we worked through. I drove home and on the way traveling I-95 South passed two cars with SC license plates - how funny. I'm also in a rental and am really looking forward to driving my Celica when I get home. The one awesome thing about this rental is the Sirius satellite radio. That thing rocks and I want one!!!

I also miss working with Ed Santos. Ed was the General Auditor at Fleet Financial (the bank that owned the Mortgage Company) and Peter reported directly to Ed. I really respect Ed and Peter both and they are both working together again at a bank up here in New England. Am very wistful for those old days when I was learning tons of really good career building stuff. I can honestly say I have not had the pleasure of working for anyone as talented as Peter and Ed in the past 8 years. It has been a very long time since I had a real mentor and that was Peter. How few and far between it is to find someone you just click with and how depressing it is to think that I am going back to the hum drum world tomorrow instead of the really awesome cool world I was once lucky enough to be a part of.

To think that I almost did not take that job and would have missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime - scary. Here's to New England and to Peter and Ed - cheers!!!

Ramblings for a Saturday morning

Well here I am in a hotel room in Providence, RI havins Saturday morning coffee and nursing a cold I managed to pick up while here. My sinuses are not happy right now and my head feels like its 3X its real size. My hot coffee feels wonderful and helps finish the job of the decongestant I took late yesterday afternoon.

I have a lot of work to do this weekend, but the mall is just a couple of blocks away so that looks like the right place for a good time killer and a place to find some non hotel food for lunch. The good incentives for working include I planned it this way so that I can go home on Wednesday afternoon. No need to do nothing all weekend when there is no home to clean or husband to hang out with. I am hoping to take Thursday and Friday off and make it a 5 day weekend that I know I will need with all of the family visitors we'll have next weekend.

Wow - Memorial Day weekend almost. I have very, very fond memories of Memorial Day weekend at Myrtle Beach. My best friend (KKG pledge sister and roommate) Audrey was from Conway, and her dad lived in Myrtle Beach not real far from the beach. So we usually went down on Memorial Day weekend for "girls weekend". The first time we went was '92, and we went again in '93, '94, and '95. Audrey and I went to the beach again for a weekend in July of '96, but that was the last time we went together. That time, we stayed in a hotel but I can't remember why we did not stay at her dad's.

Last weekend before leaving, Jim decides that he wants to paint inside the house while I am gone. Poor thing, he told my mother the other day that he was lonesome - he'll tell me that he is lonelified. He doesn't like it when I'm gone - he is a real sweetie. So Saturday and Sunday we had to agree on paint colors for the bedrooms, dining room, den/living room, and bathrooms. Too much pressure in too short a time. Of course, we do not see eye to eye on color selection and one of the disadvantages of having a husband that really cares means that he doesn't just let me pick what I want and go from there. We were able to agree on everything except the shade of blue I want for the dining room. We picked a similar blue to the one I wanted for our bedroom, so i told him to just paint a little bit of that in the dining room for me to look at when I get home.

Some really good news about the paint is that yesterday he had done about 1/2 the living room/den and he told me that he really liked the yellow and how much it really brightened up the room. He was initially opposed to the yellow for those rooms, so I feel like I got a little moral victory. The real one will be when I get the blue that I want for the dining room. I could have been insistant, but considering that it was 4 on a Sunday afternoon and my flight was the next morning, I didn't want to get into another 'toaster' type argument right before I left.

Happy Saturday!!

E is for East (Egypt that is)

FOr my flight out of Charlotte yesterday morning, I had to trek to the E concourse since my flight was on a small CanadaAir jet (2 seats on one side 2 on the other) and holds maybe 80 - 100 people. I like those jets as they are very comfortable and very easy to board and deplane, but I had forgotten just how far out that E concourse is from the rest of the world.

The last time i visited E concoure, I had flown into Charlotte on a red eye from LAX and had to go out to E to catch my connecting flight home to Columbia. I guess I was just so tired and didn't realize how far it was - or could it be that was 9 years ago almost and is actually something (gasp) I didn't remember.

So I made the very long trek from the main part of the airport out to E concourse and I realized the only thing worse would be to have to go down to the tram in the Atlanta airport and ride that tram to what feels like the edge of the known world. I picked Jim up in Atlanta on new years eve in 1997 when he returned from Germany after being gone almost 6 months. Going out to the international concourse that day was a long ride indeed and I thought I was riding the road to nowhere. I kind of compare it to being on the very lowest level of the USC library and realizing you are 5 floors underground and it's 11 pm and way too quiet and creepy down there.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Well tomorrow morning I'm leaving for ten days to go to the exiting locale of Providence, RI for an exiting tour of Fixed Assets. I hate that I have to be gone so long, but since the bank's earnings were way down any travel for more than a week does not allow the traveler to come home for the weekend :(. I will miss arguing about Toasters!

I really don't want to go at all, but the alternative is not having a job and that would not be good. The good news is that I am leaving tomorrow morning at 9:30 instead of killing a Sunday by leaving in the late afternoon. I hate Sunday afternoon flights. Since I'm having to stay over the weekend, I decided I will just work over the weekend and come home on Wednesday (5/21) since I won't have the opportunity to come home for the weekend. I scheduled my flight for 1 pm instead of the 5 pm flight so that I can arrive back in Charlotte between 3 and 3:30. Jim's office is close to the airport, so it will be easier for him to come pick me up then. I have also decided I'm going to take that Thursday and Friday off before Memorial day, since my mom, dad, Meg, James, and Quincy are coming for Memorial Day weekend. That will be something to look forward to for sure!

Detailed Memory

I had a friend comment to me the other day on the fact that I have a very good memory. I am often told this and by many people. So I wanted to put it to a little test that I know my blogger friends can help me out with. In less than 5 minutes, I was able to remember the following details about high school.

9th Grade Schedule (in order & teachers)

1 - Algebra I (Nadra Bachman)
2 - PE (Don Richardson)
3 - Latin I (Sara Hempley)
4 - World Geography (Sam Corley)
5 - English (Lumpkin)
6 - Physical Science (Pippa Lambros)

10th Grade Schedule (in order & teachers)

1 - HARP I (Cal Maddox)
2 - Biology (Branham)
3 - Geometry (Davis ?)
4 - Algebra II (John Kilgo)
5 - Latin II (Sara Hempley)
6 - Typing (Pam Smith)

11th Grade Schedule (in order & teachers)

Before School - Latin III (Sanders)
1 - Teacher's Aide (Nadra Bachman)
2 - HARP II (Cal Maddox)
3 - US History (Jennifer Park)
4 - Algebra III/Trig (John Kilgo)
5 - Chemistry (Mike Morris)
6 - Computer Science I (Bunch)

12th Grade Schedule (in order & teachers)

Before School - Latin IV (Sanders)
1 - Physics (Mike McClure)
2 - Calculus (Lynn Harley)
3 - Computer Science II (David Bundrick)
4 - AP English (Melissa Rawl)
5 - Government (Vinning Morrison)/Economics (Joe Yawn)
Dismissal after 5th

I know this blows your mind that I can rattle this off, or maybe not. Maybe you know these details about your classes too and my memory is not that special. I can tell you which hall I had each class in too (not room number).

Would love to know if you all remember your schedules/teachers/etc. or if I am just that weird.

Target, Toasters, and Gas Milage

Last week while driving our Toyota Highlander to my sister's house, Jim and I were discussing gas milage and I remarked on how good my car was on gas even though it is 12 years old with 134,000+ miles on it. I said that I was probably getting mid to low 30's for sure. He did not believe me.

So today, I drove my car into work and as I was getting off of I-77 the fuel light came on. After work, I decided I had enough for the trip home as long as I left early enough to not have to sit in traffic. I was about on 'E' when I crossed the state line and pulled into the gas station in Lake Wylie just across the lake (SC gas is cheaper than NC gas because of state taxes so I never buy gas in NC unless absolutely necessary). I had 460 miles on that tank of gas, but I still was not sure how many gallons my tank held. I filled it up and put 13 gallons in all excited to come home and divide it out. It ended up being 35.38 or something like that - almost 35 1/2 MPG!! How exciting and was right in line with what I suspected.

Saturday, we were in Target to get a bookcase Jim just had to have (it is still sitting in the box as of 7:39 pm on Monday). While we were there, Jim started bugging me about a 4 slice toaster. We have a perfectly good toaster. Nothing wrong with it except that for his 1 1/2 bagles for breakfast, one slice is a bit cooler than the others since it has to get toasted separately. This is, of course, a great tragedy that is repeated every morning at breakfast time. After about 10 minutes of back and forth, I knew I was not going to get out of the Target unless one of two things happend: 1 - This would be an argument for the rest of the weekend or 2 - Just buy the stupid toaster. I elected to go ahead and get the stupid 4 slice toaster and spend $30 to keep peace in my house.

Chalk it up to the fact that it's the small things that end up mattering in a relationship. Or as Willie Geist says at the top of the hour every morning on his segment of Morning Joe (Scarborough) - News You Can't Use!

Tier 1 to Total Capital Recon and Ratio reporting

Ok, this has been a crazy week. One of the quarterly disclosures I've been doing for the past three quarters has been the tie out and reconciliation of Tier 1 Capital, Total Capital, and Capital Ratios to the financial statments filed with the SEC. The 10Q tie out is complex, but to do a thorough review, we look at some specific controls and processes to gain confidence in the compilation of financial information for reporting.

So this week, I have looked at the capital for the entire corporation and the related ratios. There is additional scrutiny right now on the bank's capital position since the regulators are really looking at this carefully for all US banks given the current credit crunch and related losses in mortgage loans. Loan loss reserves have increased substantially, and this drives a decrease in available capital. WaMu and Wachovia have recently been raising additional capital, and Citigroup had to raise significant capital (mostly from that Arab group) to stay afloat.

So no pressure there on my tie out of the financials supporting the Tier 1 and Total Capital calculations, the tie out of risk weighted assets and average assets, and the ratio calculations. My deadline for my disclosure work was yesterday and I worked until after 6 to get that one done, my other disclosures done (with pesky international tax problems), nevermind the other audit work I needed to complete.

While I had wonderful intentions of going home and getting rid of my stress through exercise (for the mental wind down the physical exercise would provide), I opted instead for a 20 minute soak in the hot tub after eating some delicious sugar wafer cookies. I know you are all shocked that the hot tub would solve this problem! 105 degrees with massaging jets is an amazing thing after a long day when it was a nice cool 50 degrees outside at 9 pm. It was mighty satisfactual!!