Quite a week

Man, this was one crazy week. To start off, Monday the painters came to replace some of my siding and rotted wood and paint the house. It took them about 2 and a half days to do everything and the house looks SO good. I ended up going with practically the same colors, except the red is a little darker. I think they did a really good job, and it was cheaper than what I thought it was going to be. They found some window trim and fireplace trim that was rotted and they also replaced some boards on my front patio. They only charged $56 for all the extra wood and work. Not bad at all. Also, since this is the same guy that painted my parent's house, they are going to get a $50 referral bonus. Cool! I'm definitely keeping his number in my cell in case I have any other repairs down the line. They came when they said they would and the workers were very nice and they all spoke English (which is uncommon in Austin. usually just the main guy speaks English and all the workers just speak Spanish....and my two years of Italian in college screwed up all my Spanish knowledge. Everytime I try and speak Spanish it all comes out as Italian -very annoying).

The other main happening this week is that Tuesday I was doing payroll which covered 2/11 - 2/24. My boss came in and said there was a change to make....I got my raise!!! And, it's exactly what I wanted!! She tried making me a salaried employee but I talked her out of it. So, I'm still hourly (which means I get overtime) and I got a huge raise!! If she does make me salaried later on, hopefully I'll get another little raise to cover the lost overtime. I was actually shocked that the number she said was the same as what I wanted. I really expected it to be less because we've been working on the budget and have been discussing cutting some positions to cut down on expenses. But, she said I was worth every penny, which made me feel good.

Thursday Melanie came over and we saw Napoleon Dynamite. It was ok. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood. It was entertaining, but I wouldn't buy it. I'm really surprised it became such a huge movie because it was very different from your usual fare.

Have I said this yet?....Must Love Dogs was soooooo bad. Bad plot, bad characterizations, bad writing. I didn't even care about the main characters. The only one I liked was Stockard Channing in a support role. I'd seen the previews when it came out and was thinking of seeing it, but I am so glad I did not waste money on that crap.

Tomorrow is New Volunteer Orientation. It seems like I did this just last week! At least they said only 15 people had signed up for the CATs so I shouldn't have a problem with taking them on a tour myself. Usually I depend on a couple people to help with the tours after I give my big talk about what we do. The problem with splitting up is that I never know what the other groups are being told or if they're being told all the right thing. Oh well.