mission: accomplished

i just realized that i have gravely forgotten to make a very special announcement. as you will note, this news is long overdue. and i apologize to all who have been negatively impacted by my gross oversight. those closest to the subject were informed immediately, but i feel the need to give public recognition for this awe-inspiring achievement.

let it be known to all who are connected through this vast world wide interweb, that on saturday, july 22, 2010, my manager mark finally fulfilled his dream of becoming #3 on my google favourites.

it was at times a difficult, yea even arduous, battle that required his constant time and attention. and my patience. many long hours were spent reading accounting literature out loud, pontificating on remote accounting principles, and stretching out the smallest of insignificant small talk. with brazen disregard for phone call etiquette and cunning creativity mark persevered in finding reasons to call multiple times daily, from the wee hours of the morning to long after what should be bed time. yet, despite his travail, at times i was unsure that his focused effort would pay off.

but triumph was destined to be his.

congratulations, my friend: you have done well.

martha

this is what i made yesterday:

these are why:

never underestimate the demands of a great shoe.

good boy, jerry

welp, after entirely too much concentration wasted on work endeavors, i had to check yahoo one last time before hitting the sack tonight. on the main page, yahoo! finance was featuring an article called "The 5 Best Low-Cost, High-Mileage Cars", which conclusively and with authoritative finality answers the question, "what car would you buy that is well made, gets good gas mileage, and doesn't cost much?".

of course i had to check out the lineup. and guess who's number one, friends!

i couldn't agree more: jerry, you're awesome.

(in case you wanted to ask: no, i don't know who else made the list. i got carried away in celebration for my boy and stopped reading at #1.)

what i did this summer

in case you haven't noticed, i haven't been blogging much. not for lack of things to write about, but for time to write about them. not only has work swallowed me alive, but i have been insistent that i wouldn't allow work to consume all my waking hours.

lately i have taken advantage of the opportunity to use some of my pto before work gets even worse and i am completely unable to take the time off. and i have been busy!

so, in honor of school starting up again, i thought i'd do a quick, "what i did this summer" post for all.

• jun 6 - 7 visit woodworths in tahoe, ca
• jul 2 - 9 visit all kinds of family in ogden, ut, and eagle, id
• jul 30 - aug 5 visit inge & jared in houston, tx
• aug 8 - 9 california all-state ysa conference in santa monica, ca
• aug 14 - 15 becky's wedding in las vegas, nv
• aug 21 - 24 visit woodworths in san jose, ca
• sep 3 - 8 bumbershoot in seattle, wa
• sep 11 - 13 help mom & dad pack in ogden, ut
• sep 20 - 23 annual training for work in chicago, il
• sep 23 - 28 visit eden & clint, et al, in boston, ma

i'll elaborate on the details in the coming weeks -- when i find time to post some pictures. because a picture-less post is hardly worth the read, let alone the write.

chegou!

finalmente.

:)

lookie!

okay, ryan -- hope this is enough to tide you over until i find another 37 seconds to post more.

enjoy.

i am.

p.s.

oh, yeah. this is what else came in the mail ...

well, i mean, *i* didn't come in the mail.

just the ticket did ...

but, you got that.

right?

voicemail

i got a message today:

"so i'm standing here, washing dishes, minding my own business ...

and flynn says,

'mom, if you would be christianna, you would have crazy hair.'

so ... apparently, good thing i'm not you."

thanks, bud.

it's here!

now i just gotta figure out how to drive two cars home ... suggestions?

(more to come)

(and pictures)

c'est fini

i've had the phrase "c'est si bon" in my head for days. from the (old) yoplait commercials (they don't use that tag-line anymore, mmeh). so i wanted to write a post and call it that. but ... "c'est si bon" doesn't quite fit. "c'est fini" fits better ... because ...

... i passed all my tests!

c'est fini. it is finished.

i got my last score early on saturday morning and have been floating up in cloud nine eleven fourteen one hundred thirty-six since.

you know what this means? i mean, really. do you know what this means?

1. i get reimbursed for test fees (though, the firm only reimburses one round of tests -- about $1,000)

2. i am eligible to be promoted to manager (in a couple years)

3. my employer will stop asking me for a progress update

4. i get to be a cpa

but ...

most importantly ...

5. i don't have to take any more tests!

c'est fini. and ... *it* *is* *so* *good*!

:)

---

here's the final report, for posterity's sake (need a 75 on each section to pass):

all good things ...

not only was yesterday april fools day, but additionally and perhaps more importantly, yesterday marks the official end of busy season. yea! i made it through another one!

and for the record, this busy season was definitely the most stressful i have had. yet. ... maybe i shouldn't say that.

some of this year's busy season highlights:

• january: make-up client in glendale. this client was not ready for us when we came as scheduled in december, so we had to push the work forward by about 3 weeks, which of course meant that we were butting right up against the start date for other clients. of course, make-up client didn't care about that and expected us to push the schedule in order to accomodate their needs. at the same time, make-up client to this date has not clearly defined the scope of our work. i am sure i will be back out there sometime this summer. yea.

• february: toy manufacturer in costa mesa. this was my first out-of-town client in my public accounting career, which was fun. of course, the fact that i was staying at a hotel down the street from my client meant that there was an expectation of working early to late. but not a bad set-up otherwise. unless you want to count the fact that both of the staff i was given for this engagement had just been hired in september and this was their first busy-season client. oh, and we had a brand new manager on the job, too. so yeah. and what added to the "appeal" of this job was that it was actually work performed on an international subsidiary of a client of our hong kong office, which meant that we were answering to hong kong. kinda made communication difficult with the 15-hour time difference. but we did it.

• march: make-up client in glendale for a week with still no answer to many of the open issues. but because of funding issues on their end, we pulled out of the field to await a resolution.

  mexican food distributor in cypress for a week. cypress is not near my house, but not far enough to warrant a hotel stay, so take the minimum 11-hour days and tack on 2 hours of traffic in the morning and 2 more at night. the engagement team on this one, though, was fun and made the difference.

  the mexican food week was also the week that i threw out my back somehow. i don't know what happened but i woke up with a bit of a sore back on friday of the week before, which i tried to manage with what was available in the medicine cabinet at the office. the next couple days i tried to just cowboy-up and deal with the pain by walking slowly, sitting straight, and throwing back an ibuprofen or two throughout the day. however, tuesday i was in agony. laying down hurt. standing up hurt. driving hurt (yes, i mean actual pain from moving my right foot from the gas pedal to the brake, which happens frequently when driving through l.a., as you can imagine). walking hurt. sitting hurt. pulling myself up from my chair using my arms hurt but was the only way to do it. i got home that night and managed to sleep somehow, though not well. wednesday morning i called my physical therapist friend and begged for some advice. he offered to see me at his office, but that would mean an early early thursday morning. i was okay with that. so thursday he stretched me and pulled me and beat me up pretty bad. but, oh my goodness, it was fabulous. he gave me some exercises to do (which i have been doing) and i was much better.

  for added kicks, i decided that that thursday would be a good day to get sick. so i did that. and i have been arguing with my cold and personally financing the manufacturers of advil cold & sinus since then. i finally got some antibiotics last saturday. i am starting to feel better now.

  slime manufacturer in grover beach. my second out-of-town job. i'm getting the hang of this by now and i've pretty much got my packing strategy and weekly laundry routine figured out. this job is pretty good. though the client is brand new to me, i am working with some people i know and can trust, which is great. one perk is that we get to wear jeans every single day. i *love* it. plus we are a stone's throw from the beach. and one of these days i am going to go to the beach. especially now that busy season is officially over and we can work less than 55 hours a week without repercussion. yea!

wow. march has been eventful. thank goodness it's over. thank goodness busy season is over!

look how they grow!

i mostly took this picture so my mom could see how long my fingernails are. but i figured that all of you would want to see, too. i mean, why wouldn't you?

see, mom? i can let them grow ...

this is what happens when i am working out of town so i can't have weekly harp lessons (which require short nails). plus, i guess i haven't been stressed enough to chomp them off. though ... looking back at how this busy season went ... not sure how i can claim to not have been stressed ...

i didn't really even recognize how long they were getting until my sister commented on them last weekend. yeah.

okay. now i am going to go cut them.

they clack on my keyboard keys.

that gets annoying after a while.

resolutions, v. 2009

so it's the middle of march. shoot me.

i can still make resolutions.

yeah, huh!

okay, so this year, i would first like to announce my great success related to my prior year resolutions. whereas my cholesterol did not go down as much as i had hoped ... i successfully complied with my resolution for one year.

i deserve a pat on the back.

*pat*, *pat*, *pat*

okay, and now on to the main event:

this year's resolutions!

1. red meat and cholesterol - i think i started a theme last year. so we'll see about continuing in that great cause. however, i will not limit my red meat intake to weekends only anymore. because ... well ... just because. so ... this year, i am eating red meat whenever i choose, though not as much as i did in the pre-2008 years. if my resolution last year had any impact on me at all (besides 4 points lower cholesterol, thank you), it has broken my addiction to red meat. don't get me wrong: i still love the stuff. but it is no longer the only thing i eat.

   i am trying to work oatmeal into my diet as a combatant to high cholesterol. i freely admit that this resolution this year is not as well-thought-out and thoroughly defined as last year's. but ... it's busy season. i hardly have time to think about anything. but here's the general idea: eat oatmeal. yeah.

   (if anyone has suggestions for helping me get this goal into action, let me know. keep in mind that i don't have time for breakfast, so oatmeal will be an evening meal. hmm: oatmeal ... evening meal. interesting.)

2. exercise - there was a month a while ago that i went jogging / running 3 times a week. really. i calendared it -- yeah -- i can show you. so ... i think i'm going to do that again. jogging / running 3 times a week. it was easier when i had a buddy, but yeah. no more excuses.

   until busy season is over, i can't promise anything more than maybe 15 minutes at a time, but that's something at least. when summer gets here, we'll talk about maybe stepping that up a notch.

3. spiritual - my stake relief society released a new program called the personal righteousness program in which we make goals around 7 different values and the complete a 15-hour project. it's kind of like the personal progress program in young women.

   as of this moment, i have read through the suggested goals for exactly 1 of those values. i'll remedy that. and then i will do those goals. (if anyone wants more detailed information about the program, let me know. i have a pdf of the whole thing i can send you.)

okay, i think that is all the burden i can pile on my own shoulders right now. i am getting a bit overwhelmed just re-reading all that. [deep breath] just gotta remember that i have the rest of the year to work on these things. yeah.

anyway. there you go. someone once said that a goal not written down is just a wish. so these are my goals: they are written down.

the results are in (again)

last year, i set a goal to limit the amount of red meat i was eating in order to decrease my cholesterol. it's been difficult and i have whined a lot, as you may recall, and i have had to really expand my ... umm ... horizons ... ? (something. can't think right now.)

anyway. i got my lab results back today. here are the highlights:

---

	PY (2007)	CY (2008)
triglycerides	97 mg/dL	82 mg/dL
cholesterol, total	215 mg/dL	211 mg/dL	(should be less than 200)
- hdl cholesterol	60 mg/dL	58 mg/dL
- ldl cholesterol	136 mg/dL	137 mg/dL	(should be less than 130)
glucose	80 mg/dL	83 mg/dL
sodium	138 mmol/L	138 mmol/L
potassium	4.0 mmol/L	4.3 mmol/L
white blood cell count	5.9 thousand/uL	5.7 thousand/uL
red blood cell count	4.91 million/uL	4.71 million/uL
hemoglobin	13.0 g/dL	13.4 g/dL
hematocrit	38.4 %	39.0 %
platelet count	283 thousand/uL	308 thousand/uL

---

okay. so ... my cholesterol is still a high. grr. it went down 4 points. woohoo. but ... honestly, i kinda expected more. i mean, i cut my red meat consumption by roughly 73%. so ... yeah, i kinda expected more. [sigh.]

so now what? as i see it, there are a few options:

1. continue the red-meat-on-weekends-only regime.

2. amend the rules such that i can have red meat on any 2 days of the week. i mean, c'mon, it went down 4 points: that deserves some kind of reward.

3. eat oatmeal everyday (or on some regular schedule) to fight this with a little proactivity instead of just restraint.

4. give up entirely and eat red meat whenever i darnwell please since it's not making any difference anyway.

anyone care to vote? c'mon, we all did it a month ago ... let's exercise our right to vote again!!

gone are the days

i like my new haircut, i do. but i have to say that this has been a transition.

gone are the days of ...	and in this new day ...
get out of the shower and go. (so what if that's what it looks like i did ... that *is* what i did.)	blowdry. everyday.
flat iron on my bangs: pronto.	curling iron burns on my neck, ears, face, and fingers. (don't really know what my problem is.)
up, down, half-up, bun, half-bun, braid, knot, low knot, high knot, chignon, ponytail, curly, messy, wavy, straight.	part left, part right.
100 strokes of the brush before bed.	haven't picked up a brush in weeks. (okay, not really.)
rubberbands, sticks, claws, bobby pins, clips in my purse.	more room for chocolate in my purse.
wind blowing long beautiful blonde locks in my face.	wind blowing long beautiful blonde locks in the face of a cancer patient.

okay, that last one makes it worth it.

...

alright, and the more-room-for-chocolate-in-my-purse thing, too.

...

(oh, honestly. i'm such a whiner. you'd think i've never had short hair before in my life. sheesh, christianna.)

half-way

two down (again):

two to go (again):

love and marriage

(i've debated with myself about whether or not i should post this here, primarily because i don't want to propogate a political debate on my blog, but i feel strongly enough about the issue and want to get some knowledge and thoughts out there. if you'd rather not read this, that's fine. yes, it's about prop 8.)

i read an article today that expressed well a few ideas that i have had rolling around in my head. whereas this article doesn't articulate everything rolling around in my head, the author explains clearly a few key points. here are some excerpts from the article:

"The debate over whether the state ought to recognize gay marriages has thus far focused on the issue as one of civil rights. Such a treatment is erroneous because state recognition of marriage is not a universal right. States regulate marriage in many ways besides denying men the right to marry men, and women the right to marry women. Roughly half of all states prohibit first cousins from marrying, and all prohibit marriage of closer blood relatives, even if the individuals being married are sterile. In all states, it is illegal to attempt to marry more than one person, or even to pass off more than one person as one’s spouse. Some states restrict the marriage of people suffering from syphilis or other venereal diseases. Homosexuals, therefore, are not the only people to be denied the right to marry the person of their choosing.

"I do not claim that all of these other types of couples restricted from marrying are equivalent to homosexual couples. I only bring them up to illustrate that marriage is heavily regulated, and for good reason. When a state recognizes a marriage, it bestows upon the couple certain benefits which are costly to both the state and other individuals. Collecting a deceased spouse’s social security, claiming an extra tax exemption for a spouse, and having the right to be covered under a spouse’s health insurance policy are just a few examples of the costly benefits associated with marriage. In a sense, a married couple receives a subsidy ...

"Some argue that homosexual marriages serve a state interest because they enable gays to live in committed relationships. However, there is nothing stopping homosexuals from living in such relationships today. Advocates of gay marriage claim gay couples need marriage in order to have hospital visitation and inheritance rights, but they can easily obtain these rights by writing a living will and having each partner designate the other as trustee and heir. There is nothing stopping gay couples from signing a joint lease or owning a house jointly, as many single straight people do with roommates. The only benefits of marriage from which homosexual couples are restricted are those that are costly to the state and society ...

"The biggest danger homosexual civil marriage presents is the enshrining into law the notion that sexual love, regardless of its fecundity, is the sole criterion for marriage. If the state must recognize a marriage of two men simply because they love one another, upon what basis can it deny marital recognition to a group of two men and three women, for example, or a sterile brother and sister who claim to love each other? Homosexual activists protest that they only want all couples treated equally. But why is sexual love between two people more worthy of state sanction than love between three, or five? When the purpose of marriage is procreation, the answer is obvious. If sexual love becomes the primary purpose, the restriction of marriage to couples loses its logical basis, leading to marital chaos."

i think we forget in all of this hype that is currently taking over my tv and my city that marriage is not a civil right and was never purported to be. love whomever you choose: there is no legal restriction on that. but align yourself to the notion that the definition of marriage does not encompass all love relationships.

oh, honestly ...

i just got the following email message from my stake:

"Due to protesters, the Los Angeles Temple was closed this evening.
They ask that before coming in tomorrow you call first to see if they will be open."

that's disappointing.

on the news last night, they showed the marches that were happening in santa monica/hollywood until late in the evening.

i read that there have already been lawsuits brought with the primary premise being that this matter was fundamental enough to require not only a constitutional amendment but a constitutional revision and that such action requires a 2/3 passage in the state congress before it can be brought for a popular vote. we'll see what comes of that.

we live in a country where we are free to do so many things, including vote. and yet there are those who would wish to take that vote away when its results oppose their point of view.

those who are requesting tolerance, do not tolerate. those who speak of rights, do not recognize the rights of others.

i have mixed feelings.

part of me has a knee-jerk reaction that they are just being poor losers. at the same time, i don't imagine that they are feeling very differently than others who are refused something that is so important to them. i am disappointed, however, that they do not behave with the respect that they themselves desire.

the price of gas

when i left for chicago on oct-12 (2 weeks ago, today), the price of gas at my nearby shell was $3.37. on the way home from church today, i saw this:

yes, friends, we have broken $3 in california. the good way. that's a decrease of 38 cents in 2 weeks. yea! that's more than an 11% decrease! in 2 weeks! annualize that and you get ... well, something only an accountant should know ... so i won't subject all y'all to it. just know that it's really good, okay?

what's the price of gas in your neck of the woods?

square one

i was ambitious when i first got hired here at grant thornton. within my first 3 weeks, i signed up for and paid the fees for all 4 sections of the cpa exam. and started taking them. my strategy: start with the easiest one first and work my way toward the hardest.

perhaps not the best strategy:

i passed BEC (economics, IT, and hodge-podge of leftovers), AUD (audit & attestation), and FAR (financial accounting) straight out of the gate.

REG (taxation) killed me again and again. and again. and again. ... and again. (please remember that, any of you that are thinking of asking me to help with your taxes this coming spring.)

and so this is where i stand:

back at square one. a clean slate. as if i haven't done anything yet. poised behind the starting line.

again.

ai ai ai.