Miscellaneous Things on a Thursday

 Hello Everyone,

It's Thursday, so almost the weekend which makes me very happy.  My Thursday financial reports are done and they have been distributed via email, so I am mostly caught up.  I still have some documents that I need to add to the legal database.  It is really such a cluster.  Long story short:

• We have had a contract/legal database for a number of years that I use
• It was determined that we would switch over to our parent company's database
• When that couldn't happen as planned, our original database was going out of contract
• We had to stay with the original one, but it was "updated" and "improved" by the owner.  HA!  The new version is very cumbersome and not very user-friendly
• We were told that we would be switching to our parent's database in the new year (to me, that means January).  That has now been pushed back to mid-year.
• Since we were supposed to switch rather quickly, I decided not to fool with the new and improved version of our old one...and the documents I needed to add piled up.

My meeting yesterday at the office was to learn how to "easily" access things in the database.  That was a disappointing meeting.  The woman I met with really didn't help me that much.  I came home and spent the afternoon fooling around with it and FINALLY I made a bit of progress.  I added maybe 10 documents (I still have at least 20 more to add...but finding the correct location is the challenge).

But, because I was at the office, I stopped at Trader Joe's and bought some fresh flowers.

Gerbera Daisies are always so cheerful.  I love the color of these and they make me think of Frida Kahlo.  They are cheerful and happy and so bright on a grey February day.  My computer says "wintry mix," but I think it may be too warm for that.  However, the sun is missing.

Yesterday I also stopped at the library.  I had never read anything by Ross Gay and some of you have raved about his writing.  So, I requested This Book and it came in on Monday or Tuesday.  While picking up that book I looked for "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx for our next Read With Us book.  No luck on the shelves, so I will request it.  But, I found some other treasures:

• The Love Songs of W. E. B. du Bois
• Hamnet
• Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

I read some of Gay's poems and like them.  And then I started Love Songs.  Wow!  I managed to read about 50 pages after dinner and before Fletch and I caught up on All Creatures.  This is a LONG book (800 pages), but it reads so easily.  There have already been a few disturbing things...but I'm sure I will love the book.

Hamnet is a book I never wanted to read (subject matter and sad) until I read The Marriage Portrait.  I was happy to find it.  And the Russo book is one that Kym recommended and now Kat is in the midst of and has highly recommended.

Some errands are on the agenda today.  And I really need to buckle down and do some cleaning (once again, no Karyn...I don't think she is working out...).  But all I really want to do is read, knit and stitch.  The hell with work and everything else!  Oh, and I really, really want and need to book a massage.  

Here's hoping that your Thursday is off to a great start!

PS - one more thing:  I know a number of you have read and loved The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.  It is now a Series  on Acorn TV!!