The world is indeed a very small place

I had a very odd experience last night.

I went on to Ebay to find one of William's Christmas presents. I found one I thought was good, and it included a few extra bits, so I bought it. When I'm on Ebay, I don't really look at people's usernames. I pretty much only look at the product description, photos, and the number beside people's usernames to make sure they're trustworthy.

Anyway, after I purchased the item, I got an email. It said, "Angelina, is that you?" I was a bit confused, so I looked at the username, and the item location. And then it all came together.

Holy fucking jesus christ!

I had just bought something from my ex, TPO. Most of you won't remember who that is, but for those of you who do, can you imagine the mindfuck that was?!

So, of course I had to tell William. If the bloody thing wasn't so expensive, I probably would just not give it to him. I still feel weird giving something to my current boyfriend that has belonged to my ex!

What are the odds! Of all the millions of people on Ebay, and I have to go and buy something from my ex.

The coolest thing ever!

I am a geek from way back. Not a nerd, mind you, but a geek. Geeks have some social skills. Hey! Don't scoff! I have social skills! I just choose not to use them most of the time. Anyway. I am also a gadget junkie. Well, except if said gadget was produced by Apple, and then you can keep it far away from me, thank you very much.

I have just discovered the coolest invention ever in the history of the world! Yes, even better than high heels and handbags! Ok... maybe that's going a bit far. Maybe it's sharing top billing with those two.

Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you, so that you may bask in its glory and emit sighs of awe and wonderment...

The Pulse Smartpen, from Livescribe!

Ooh! Ahh!

Seriously, click on that link and watch the video. This is the coolest thing ever! Well, as long as you have some reason to be recording stuff as you write (student, secretary in meetings, journalist, etc). But it doesn't just record stuff as you write. Oh no. It does way more cooler things than that. When you dock the pen, it uploads all of the notes and audio you have recorded, and this then becomes searchable. So if you're studying for your exams, and can't remember what the lecturer said about a particular area, just type that term into the search function of the Livescribe Desktop (software you download onto your computer), and it will pull up all the pages where you have written that term, and you can then listen to the audio accompanying it.

The pen only works with special Livescribe dot paper, but you can print this for free if you have a colour laser printer. Otherwise, the notebooks and journals aren't really all that expensive. They also come with a sheet on the inside with a printed calculator and other settings (such as volume, room type [lecture room/conference room/etc], etc). These printed buttons actually work! You can just touch the calculator buttons, and the pen will show the calculations on its little screen. And it's not just a basic calculator either. It has financial buttons and scientific buttons (such as cos, sin tan, etc). There is also a keyboard on the back page of my starter journal, but it isn't yet activated. When I touch it, the pen says, "Keyboard coming soon." I presume when it's activated, I will be able to type things by touching the keys of the printed keyboard.

There is also an apps store (currently in beta) where you can download games and other interesting applications. I have downloaded a full Spanish dictionary, so that I can write a word in English, tap it, and the pen will tell me the Spanish equivalent, and vice versa. There are also translator applications where you can write a word in another language and the pen will speak the word in English (or vice versa) so you can hear the pronunciation.

I also downloaded a few games, like blackjack, hangman and helicopter. With blackjack, you just draw buttons on your paper for hit, stay, double down, bet and split, and then touch the button you want. The cards are shown on the Smartpen's screen. So far, I'm up $100.

The pen also comes with headphones, so you don't irritate people around you. I have written out a page of my favourite songs, and played each song as I wrote the name. Now, I can go back to that page (if I'm bored at uni, or whatever) and touch the name of the song, and the pen will start playing the song!

There are buttons down the bottom of the page to navigate through the pen's menu, to start, pause and stop recording, to assign bookmarks to particular points in recorded audio (which you can then skip to), to increase/decrease the volume output, to change the speed of the audio (chipmunks!), and to skip through the audio. You just tap these printed buttons whenever you want to.

Seriously, I am in love with this pen! I actually can't wait for uni to go back so I can start using it to its full potential! Even William (who is also a gadget junkie) is jealous of it! He wants one, but has no actual use for it. I am going to a meeting this afternoon, so I'm taking it with me. I can't wait to use it in a real world setting!

Argh!

Note to self: do not try to do things you can't, merely because there are people watching you and you think you will look like a fat loser otherwise.

Last night at gymnastics, I knew I shouldn't be doing all the hopping/jumping exercises (my ankles are weak), but I did them anyway, because I always think if I sit them out, everyone will look at me and think I'm a lazy fat pig.

So, I has halfway down the mat doing some stupid jump and spin moves when my ankle bent outwards, and I heard a pop. And thus, I ended up on the floor in the foetal position, trying not to cry in front of strangers. Once I was able to move off the mat, I had to sit around for an hour with ice on my ankle, feeling very useless, waiting for Giggles to show up so I could go home.

I was in so much pain last night that I couldn't get to sleep. Until I drugged myself with 3 Nurofen Plus. To give you an idea, I wore flats to work today. FLATS!! I do not do flats.

In other news, I am heading to Sydney tonight. Should be nice and hot. Unfortunately, I can't walk around all the shops like I was planning to. Stupid ankle. Miss Giggles is house sitting for me and taking care of Mr Alex. Funny kitten. I slept in the spare room last night, and I thought he would sleep on the bed with Giggles, but instead he came and slept with me. I felt very loved! He is such an awesome cat. I bought some cheese for Giggles to give him if he's a good boy. He'll love her if she gives him cheese. Funny cat.

Anyway, doesn't look like I'll be doing too much on my ankle for a couple of weeks. *sigh* Just what I need. An inability to exercise.

Deflation and aggravation

I went to a cosmetic surgeon yesterday to find out how much it would cost me to deflate my chest. Turns out it will be about $11,000. :(

My other option is a 4 week weight loss clinic which costs $8,500. Essentially, it's like Biggest Loser (though I haven't watched the show). You're secluded away for 4 weeks and forced to eat correctly and exercise all the time, and are lectured by nutritionists and do cooking lessons and what not. I don't have heaps of weight to lose (maybe 10kg), but I figure if I do lose some weight, maybe my chest will deflate and I won't have to get surgery. And I'll be thinner, so it's a double win!

However, since I haven't had much luck with weight loss in recent years, I'm not sure it will work. I would think if one goes to the gym 4 times a week with a PT and is on a rather strict eating plan, that one would lose some weight after 3 years of it. Well, I didn't. So yeah. I think if I do this weight loss clinic and don't lose any weight, then I know I'm just stuck how I am and need to start thinking about selling half of my wardrobe (thank fsm shoes always fit!) and getting some more tests done to figure out why I'm getting fatter and can't shift it. However, if I go to the clinic and do lose weight, I will also hopefully work out along the way what it is I'm doing wrong back home so that I can keep going and maintain the new weight.

So I think it sounds like a good idea. But it is rather expensive. I'm still deciding. I really do hate how large my chest has become. They irritate me. They get in my way. I don't know why women choose to increase their breast size. Those women must be idiots. I would love to have A or B cups. Plus, I think most clothing looks better when you don't have large breasts. Otherwise models wouldn't be stick figures with flat chests, right? Designers don't design clothes for women with big breasts, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep mine hidden.

Anyway. I will have to think about it some more.

In other news, my mother is trying to convince everyone to fly to Sydney and invade my sister and her husband for Christmas. I can't stand her husband. He is an absolute twat. I'm not sure I want to ruin my Christmas by spending it with him and having him make snide little comments he thinks we're too stupid to understand. Seriously, he is freaking annoying. He thinks he's so fucking clever, despite the fact he has no university degree and works in a call centre, and thinks my family are all ignorant country bumpkins. He makes these snide little comments which he thinks we don't understand, and then does this annoying little laugh afterwards, like he's gotten away with insulting us and we don't realise it. He thinks he's so clever. I took him down a couple of Christmases ago, but he seems to have forgotten that, judging by the fact he was up to his old tricks at my mother's birthday this year. It took all my strength to hold back and not scream at him. Smug bastard. So yeah, I'd rather avoid spending any more time with him than is necessary. I like that we are in completely different states. So now I have to come up with an excuse as to why I can't do Christmas in Sydney with my sister this year.

Is it so hard to find a good contractor??

I am seriously annoyed right now.

About 2 weeks before Miss Flair started (so, about 15 September, or thereabouts) I contacted 3 firms to provide quotes on our office refit. Essentially, we have two options for creating a new office for me. One is to take over part of the conference room and build an office in there, and the other is to completely change the office around, making the current reception area a waiting room, the current waiting room a library, dividing my boss's current office in two and making one half the reception and one half my office, and moving him into his current lounge room (which he never uses).

The second option makes much better use of the floor space, but would involve convincing my boss to move to a smaller office. I justify that by saying the room he would be moving to is bigger than the space he currently utilises in his office (half of the office is just empty floor), but that doesn't mean I will convince him to move to a smaller office.

It also sounds like a lot more work, but in reality, we're just moving around most of the current furniture. The only difference between the first and second options is that the second option involves building some bookshelves, and also involves dismantling and rebuilding the current reception area. So essentially, I didn't think the two quotes would be all that different. Maybe the second one would be double the first at an absolute stretch. Especially taking into consideration the fact I have done all of the measurements myself, and drawn up very detailed floor plans, and a schedule of the works involved. Any companies quoting on the work just have to look at it and write down a price and send it back.

So, out of the three companies I contacted first, one didn't bother to respond. The second came to look at the office, and then quoted on something completely different, saying they couldn't provide an office to fit that space (because they only did pre-fab instead of custom, despite claiming to be custom). The third company came, inspected the premises, and then quoted on both options, however I couldn't understand their quote, as it didn't seem to match the schedule of works I had given them. The quote was also not itemised. I sent an email back on 6 October, but have had no response.

I then contacted another firm to give a quote, and they came out, looked at the office, and then sent through two quotes. The first quote was ok, but the quote for the second option was ridiculously overpriced. The quotes were also not itemised as I had requested. So I sent back an email asking them to itemise the quotes. My reason for this is not because I want to micromanage the project. If I accepted the quote and they began work, I wouldn't care what one particular part of the project cost, as long as the entire project came in at their budget. If a door cost $200 less than the quote, but a cupboard cost $200 more, I wouldn't care. I just want an itemised quote so I can revise my options if necessary. If it turns out one part of the design I have come up with is too expensive, then I can revise it. If I just have a total quote, I don't know what part of the project costs what. Makes sense to me.

In any event, the second quote was nearly 4 times the price of the first, and it didn't make any sense. When I saw the itemised quote, I knew what they had done. The first quote was fine, although on the itemised quote they sent through, they had changed the figures to make it slightly higher. Because the second option is pretty much the same as the first, just with the addition of book shelves and the dismantling/rebuilding of an existing reception area, they had to copy the figures across from the first option, but then try to make up the rest of the figures they had originally quoted me. They had obviously just thought to themselves at first, "Ok, let's just quote x on this second option" and didn't realise they would have to justify it. So what they did was copy across the figures for the identical items, and then divide the remainder between the rebuild of the reception area and the bookcases. Which meant the rebuilt reception area now cost more than what the entire new office cost, and three bookcases also now cost more than the entire new office.

Obviously, that doesn't make any sense. So I sent back an email asking them about it and asking if we could speak about cheaper bookshelves, or other options or something. I was not accusatory. I did not call them out on what they had done. I then get this email,

Thank you for the opportunity to quote on your project. At this stage, we are far too busy to be constantly revising and breaking down our quotes. We wish you the best with your project.

I couldn't believe it! They'd pulled out of the entire project because I had queried the discrepancies in their quote! How unprofessional! So I sent them back an email telling them as much, and that I would be "forwarding on my thoughts of their company to the other businesses I deal with."

I have since contacted another firm, and am hoping that this time, I will get some decent quotes. I'm annoyed this has dragged on so long. I just want an office built! I am currently sitting in the conference room when Miss Flair is in, and it's not a very ergonomic set up. I spend half my weekend recovering from sitting at an odd angle with a computer screen at the incorrect height.

Seriously, is it that hard to give a quote on some works? Especially when all the hard work has been done for you? Can anyone recommend any office outfitters?

Jumped up secretaries give me the shits

I had a great argument with a secretary at another firm today. She likes to think she's not just a secretary though. She thinks she's one of the professional staff. I hate secretaries on power trips.

Anyway, we used to have a system where I would send all work we did for them through the post. They didn't like that, so they asked me to email it to them. So I began emailing all the documents through to the people I was told were handling the files. But no one ever tells me anything, so apparently I wasn't forwarding the right things to the right people. There were also various issues about the format of the files I was sending. "Send them in Word format", "No, send them in pdf", "No, send them in Word", "No, not that version of Word, we haven't upgraded yet", "We can't access your files because of the merge fields from your software". Argh!!! So I have now put my foot down and they get them in pdf. If they have to type them all out again, it's not my problem. And because I never knew who was handling what, a couple of months ago, they asked me to forward all correspondence to a central email account, and they would sort it out from there. Fine. The only problem with that is that they don't seem to sort it properly, and I still get emails from individual staff members asking me for documents I've emailed a month ago. Except they don't normally send them to me. They send the requests to my boss. I really don't appreciate this, because then it looks to my boss as if I haven't done my job properly, when the issue is just their own stupidity and inability to look through their emails.

The exception to the "everything" rule was that I was supposed to still send accounts when requested to the person who had requested them. I had tried to send these to the central email as well, but also still received requests from individual staff members. When I mentioned this, I was told to send them to a particular staff member who handled the accounts. So I just began to send them to her.

Today, the secretary I mentioned in the first paragraph wanted an invoice I had previously sent to the accounts girl last week. I told her I had sent it to that girl, expecting her to then ask that person to forward her the email and invoice. Instead, she asked me to send another copy. I didn't see why I should have to print out another copy and waste paper, so I just forwarded her the email I had sent the other girl with the message:

The best I can do is forward you the email I sent P, as I don’t keep copies of the invoices sent, nor the scanned files. To send you just that invoice would mean reprinting it again, which would waste more paper.

I thought this was a perfectly acceptable message. However, she seemed to have her cranky pants on today and sent the following message back:

Thanks – perhaps when sending emails you could send them to the info address as well as P as this way I can save them to the matter on the system.

That wouldn't have been an issue, except she had decided to copy my boss in on the email! I really do not know what is with these people and trying to get me in trouble with my boss! I think it's uncalled for. I was happy to deal with her about the issue, and had she suggested this without feeling the need to copy my boss in, I probably would have said, "fine, no worries. Will do from now on" or whatever. But since she had decided to copy my boss in, I decided to copy her boss in and sent back the following response:

No worries P. I was under the assumption that invoices went to P, and everything else went to the info address. Though it often appears that things sent to the info address don’t get forwarded to the correct people. D has sometimes not received advices, and when I have sent invoices to the info address, P hasn’t received them. Hence, I have sent invoices straight to her.

Confusingly, this secretary's name is P, as well as it being the name of the accounts girl. I simply felt the need to defend myself and give a reason as to why I had sent the invoices to where I had sent them, so that both my boss and hers would know I was not simply a moron who had no idea what was going on. Apparently, it was then "game on, bitches."

That’s fine but sometimes the invoices are not for P and in any event everything needs to be saved to the system to the appropriate file which does not always happen.

If things don’t get forwarded to the right people that is for us to sort out here so please ensure that all goes to info so that K is aware of what is going on.

(K is her boss)

I realise it’s for you to sort out, but when T is sent urgent requests for advices that were done and sent nearly a month ago, such as occurred in the case of ## on 16 September (the advice was sent on 26 August), then it appears to T that I haven’t done my job properly, which obviously doesn’t reflect well on me from T’s point of view. Hence I was just doing what I thought was required of me in sending invoices to the person I have previously been told handles the accounts, and who I knew would then receive those accounts.

In any event, I will from now on forward everything to the info address, but I would also ask in return that you liaise with each other in ascertaining whether an advice or invoice has previously been sent to you before you send a request to T.

(T is my boss)

All I asked is for you to send the invoices to info as well as P. P does post settlement work and sometimes the invoices are for files that are still with D and myself and are not for P. Similarly I need to ensure that everything is saved to the system.

If there is a problem at our end let me know and I will sort out with the person here.

(D is one of the professional staff. Note how she says the files are still with him and herself, as if she is one of the professional staff. Ha!)

I had the last word, however:

Yes, I understand that, and that’s fine. It has now been implemented. I was merely giving you the explanation as to why I was previously sending invoices to P and not to info. I was under the apparently erroneous assumption that was where they were to be sent when she requested them.

It is a non-issue now. I will forward everything to the info address from now on, including requests from individual staff members, which will save on any confusion in the future.

I really wouldn't have gotten so defensive about it had she not decided to include my boss in the emails, as if she was trying to point out to him that I was an idiot, when it was their own stupid system that was at fault the whole time. Seriously, I don't care where I send the emails to, as long as I then don't get a billion requests sent to my boss for work I have already done, which makes me look bad. If you want to implement a system, then do it, but don't then decide that since it doesn't work, you'll blame the other people and get them in trouble when you're simply too lazy to check if you've already received the work first.

Morons.

In other news, my assistant, Miss Flair, is going very well. I am actually excited on Wednesday afternoons because I know she is coming in the next day. And for any who know me in real life and know what a hassle I usually think it is for anyone to encroach on my space at work, that is a really big fucking compliment!

Stupid fucking computers!

So, in an effort to have my computer functioning normally before exam time, I did a complete back up, deletion, reformat, and reinstall last weekend.

Or so I thought.

Even though I have had various computers over the last 9 years, I still have every document I've ever created during those years. I usually back them up, and then transfer them across to any new computer. I have a folder entitled "Uni" as a subfolder under "My Documents" (because I'm creative like that). One would think that when one copies across My Documents to an external hard drive, that all subfolders would come with it, no?

Apparently not. Apparently the only subfolder that didn't copy across is the only one I really, desperately need right now. The Uni folder. 8 years of uni work is gone. Right before exam time.

Why did I not have a backup, you ask? But I did! I copied the entire folder across! There were no errors! No, I didn't check to see if everything came across, but I have never had to do that before. And in my wisdom, I simply copied over the top of my previous My Documents backup on said external hard drive, so I don't even have an older version of all my uni stuff.

I have some things on my work computer, as I usually finish off assignments at work. But all of my summaries for my exams were on my home computer. Gone. Lists of cases and materials. Gone. Scanned tutorial work and lecture notes. Gone.

I could seriously cry right now.

A weekend of not much at all

I finally got to relax this weekend! I've got a 2 week break before I have to hand in any more assessment, so I figured I'd do nothing this weekend. I got out my sketch book and pastels and did some designing. Which then made me want to go to the fabric store and start sewing. But as my sewing machine is in desperate need of a service, I didn't go. Whenever I turn my machine on, it goes in reverse until I hit a complicated routine of buttons many times to get it to go forwards. Odd.

I also decided that it was time I fixed my laptop, so I backed everything up, deleted everything, and then reinstalled it all. It runs so much faster now. I'm also pretty sure I had some dodgy spy or malware on there, as it did some odd things some times. At least it will all be fixed now.

Saturday morning I got my car washed, and then we went to check out the Da Vinci machines exhibition at South Bank. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. I mean, the man was a genius and his inventions were spectacular, but I was expecting there to be his actual drawings or notebooks or something on display. Instead, there were models of his designs next to cardboard facsimiles of his notes. So yeah. Still interesting, but not as interesting as it could have been.

We then bought soft serve cones from an ice cream truck and ate them in the shade. I can't even remember the last time I bought something from an ice cream truck!

Saturday afternoon saw another dust storm blow in. Fantastic. I just spent $40 on a car wash and now it's all dirty again. *sigh* I'm going to wait 2 weeks before I clean it again. I figure by then the dust should be gone for good.

On Sunday, I made two batches of biscuits (chocolate chip, and white chocolate and macadamia) and a batch of brownies and took them with me to a make up party a friend of mine was having. Her wedding is soon and her bridesmaids are doing their own make up, so it was supposed to be an informative session on how to put it on. I figured I wouldn't be buying anything, so that's why I brought the food with me. The session wasn't very informative. The woman was more concerned about selling the stuff than telling people how to put it on. It was like a Tupperware party, but for Body Shop products. Bleh. Still, I got to talk to my friends, so that was nice. I felt really awful for the girl hosting though. We have an uneven relationship. She has heaps of friends, so I am not in her inner-circle, but she's in mine because I have a lot less friends than her. Her hen's party is just her inner-circle, so I wasn't invited (which I really don't mind about, I understand that). However, a mutual friend of ours, who she works with, was invited. I guess our mutual friend assumed I was invited, as she asked me at the party (whilst sitting next to the host) what time I was arriving at the hen's party. I could see the host felt really awful and started squirming. She must have thought that I would be upset that our mutual friend was invited but I wasn't. I just told her that I wasn't going and made it seem like I was busy with uni. I felt really sorry for the host though. I could tell she felt awful about it.

My assistant starts this week. I'm very excited. Although I suspect it's going to be somewhat unorganised around here to start with. I don't have my computer yet, and I don't have anywhere to sit when she's here. Hopefully my computer arrives in the next two weeks, and we have another workspace built by the end of the year - and I really hope my boss will let me reorganise the whole office how I want it!

Is this thing still on?

Well, it's been a crazy couple of months since I returned from overseas. Williams broke his leg 2 weeks before he was supposed to fly out and meet me in Madrid, so I ended up finishing Spain alone, then flying to Paris for 5 days and coming home. So now he owes me a European holiday, because I'd saved all the good bits until last and then didn't get to do them (except Paris).

South America was amazing. My favourites were Peru, Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Tulum was breathtaking. My favourites in Europe were Napoli, Fussen, Bretagne, Sevilla, Granada, and, of course, Barcelona. That city is so fucking amazing, you have no idea. The food market! Gaudi architecture! The baby squirrels! It's just fantastic. I had such a great time there. In fact, I would fly there just to go to the food market, and then fly back home again.

But I can't be arsed recapping my trip after having written about it every day while I was gone. If you want to read it, let me know.

Since I came back, I had to plan a cocktail party, which was themed on the countries I visited, and everyone had to dress up in something inspired by one of the countries. I was supposed to go as Marie Antoinette and had ordered a gown from a woman in the US. It was custom made and she was supposed to ship it to me at least a week before the party so I had it in time. She tells me 2 days before hand she hasn't shipped it yet. So now I'm fighting for a refund. She's giving me excuses after excuses about why she can't afford to pay me. I'm giving her 90 days, and then I'll be contacting mediators in the US to sort it out.

The cocktail party was a success though. I (and Giggles and my friend Size 0) cooked hors d'oeuvres from each country I went to. And there was a chocolate fountain for dessert, which went down very well.

I started back at work only to find the girl I had hired was a complete disaster. She didn't even bother to look up the manual I left her, and so I now have major issues to fix up. Some which can't be fixed up because they occurred in the last financial year. Moron. Not to mention she apparently tried to get me fired while I was gone. She kept telling my boss I hadn't done certain things, and when I got back he had a go at me, until I pulled out the stuff he was talking about. Then Moron tried to say she didn't know about that, so I pulled out the manual, went to the right page, pointed it out and said, "oh, you mean you didn't bother to look up this section? Even though it's labelled "XX" and Boss was specifically asking about "XX"?" She just gave me a blank look. I had a two week handover with her and I swear, the amount of times I had to say, "did you look in the manual?" I should have had it tattooed on my forehead! And she was angling for a permanent position as my assistant! I simply told her that her contract was up, and then hired a new one.

She starts on Thursday. I'm very excited, because I think she's pretty clever and seems very keen to do the work. And because I'll still be here, I can train her and keep an eye on her to make sure she's capable of it. And fire her if she's not before it gets to the point where she's made horrific mistakes that can't be fixed.

I went to my graduation ceremony in August, and got to wear the cap and gown for the degree I finished last year. It was a very odd experience after so long at uni. One down, two to go!

I've started doing gymnastics on Tuesday and Thursday nights with Giggles, just for some fun, and a bit of exercise. The first hour is a work out and strength exercises, and it's really difficult. The next hour is learning a cool trick. We're tried back tucks, front and back saults off the trampoline, round offs, and whatever it was last night that we were trying to achieve. We're not very good, but it is fun, and it's way better than going to the gym. We're going to be starting ballet soon too, and I'm also looking at doing piano and singing lessons.

I'm currently trying to convince my boss to do a complete overhaul of our office. When the assistant starts, we don't really have anywhere to put her, as he hasn't utilised the space up here very well. He has a massive office, of which he only uses half the space, and also a lounge room and bedroom at the back which he never uses. I'm proposing to take over the lounge room and turn that into his office, keep the conference room as is, divide his office in two and make one half the reception (where the new girl will sit) and the other half an office for myself, change the current reception to a foyer with lounges, and the current waiting room to the library. It's a much better use of space. Plus, the current plan is to build me a little office inside the conference room, so the only additional cost of doing my plan is building the floor to ceiling book shelves in the current waiting room. We'd just be moving the furniture around otherwise, and still installing a wall and a custom desk for me. But I seriously doubt I'll be able to get him to give up his office. Wish me luck.

And I think you're pretty much caught up. There are other things, but I'll leave them for next time.

Adios, muchachos!

Hot in Guayaquil

Well, I've been travelling for 6 weeks now and have been to Chile and Peru and am now in Ecuador. If you want to read more about my travels, send me an email to angelinaballerina08 @ gmail dot com.

Hope you're all having fun!