Well I Have been wondering if this would happen but today I recieved conformation from Glendale academy that Rafael will be becoming their treasurer. I had just spent two weeks in January and two weeks more in July setting up our accounting for Rafael in Georgia now he is going to Glendale where they are already using our software. I do not know what this means for our software use in Georgia. Sigh. I hope all that hard work will not go for naught. It was a pain setting up all that accounting balances and General Ledger numbers and Student accounts. The accountant at Glendale told me the news and I have yet to hear from Rafael but I know he is flying back to Georgia tonight so he most likely will give me the details tomorrow. I will want to know if I am still coming out there or not.  I suppose I may as they do need to change accounting systems anyway and the NAD software will not be ready for four years for schools. Rafael told me his principle was upset he was considering leaving. Now I guess he will be really upset that Rafael is leaving for certain. I just hope Rafael stays in Georgia until the end of July at least if they stay on our software. I do not want to be there during the transition and get all the upset feelings from the principle.

I have two more academies that have expressed interest in our software. One for certain has called me in person to ask specifics about our software. I expect to hear from them in a few days or in two or three weeks if they are really going to buy into our accounting software. So far only one has called me in person the other by proxy from the northern cal conference education department. So only one looks promising at this time.

I will be going to Bakersfield academy to set up account balances this summer. Most likely late July or early August.

We have finished the prior year detail lookup for the GL,AR,AP,SA modules in the accounting and finished the goto next record or prior record at the click of the mouse. A really cool feature.

So I will be busy this summer as usual.

Memories of Schwartz

My wife had to put to sleep our dog Schwartz. He was a border collie Sheltie mix. He was a pound puppy so to speak. Born during the first gulf war in February 1991 he was in a litter of puppies from a female dog that a local family got from the pound who was pregnant. My daughter went to visit this litter and fell in love with one in particular. She called her mom to come see this puppy and I told her not to bring him home. I love dogs but my wife had alergies and I was afraid we would get attached to the dog and then had to give him up due to her allergies. Yet Judi went to see this puppy with a box with a towel on the bottom. She fell in love with this bundle of energy and brought him home. I was introduced to this puppy and he was named Schwartz which is Black in German. He as a black colored dog with a white muzzle and paws and a white tip on his tail. For eight years he lived with us at Newbury Park Academy.

I remember Schwartz barking really excitely as I filled up the bathtup. Then Judi told me he was most likely thirsty. As my first dog I forgot that we had to put water down so I put a bowel of water down and he lapped it up really long. That was what he was trying to tell me. Hey guys I want some of that stuff in the bathtup.

I remember Kristin putting a bandana on him and attaching him to a wagon and Schwartz acting like a sled dog and pulling her around. I remember climbing a mountain Perspiration peak which we renamed Schwartz peak with Schwartz and meeting a rattlesnake on the path going down and Schwartz wanting to sniff this new creature but I prevented him and we went around this danger by anouther route that was not a path.

I remember climbing up to schwartz peak on another day and this guy was flying this glider with a 12 foot wing span and it whooshed over head and Schwartz cringed as it flew overhead as it startled him. I knew it was coming for I could see to the valley below and saw it coming a few seconds before it swooshed over head.

I remember running schwartz on my bike and one day ran him until he would not run anymore seeing how many laps he would run. He ran seven and would not run another. He lay panting on Dr Crooks lawn and after he recovered I took him home.

I remember when Ron Thompsons dogs got out and attacked Schwartz. Schwartz pulled out of his collar and high tailed it home. He out distanced those larger dogs looking over his shoulder as if saying. Catch me if you can you Clowns. He was a very fast runner.

I remember after the 1994 Northridge earthquake Schwartz barking nervously at the noise of the quake and when Kristin KC Judi and I joined in a family hug Schwartz squirmed into the middle of us on the bed to join us in that hug. Schwarz did not want to be left out.

I remember him running to hills and I followed him but he would not come to me. For 30 minutes  I followed him until he had enough of exploring and came to me. I was in my dress suit as I was getting ready for work and I picked him up and carried him home. Judi came home a few minutes later and looked at him asking me with her eyes if I had found Schwartz I told her I had.

I remember schwartz eyes would glow red like a demon dog at night in the low light and Grandma Sarah would be afraid of him as he slept beside her but she would see those red eyes looking at her and she was afraid.

I remember the long walks with schwartz.

In June 1999 we moved to Riverside and there Schwartz lived for another seven years until May 2006. I remember the long walks and he always wanted to be in the lead. He would pull really hard if any family member was ahead of him and he would strain on the leash until he was leading his family pack.

I remember how when his food bowel was empty he would carry his food bowel over in front of me and toss it in the air and look at me really long and hard.. When I acted like I did not know what he wanted he would pick up the food bowel and toss it in the air again in front of me and bark angryly. He was telling me. Hey I get hungry to guys.

Schwartz would leap onto the bed and sleep on the bed with us.

Schwartz had an active life for 13 years. He passed away on May 18 2006. He was 15 years old. He will be missed by his family and remembered. He grew up with my kids and he will be the family dog of their childhood. He guarded us from any potential threats including the postman and the UPS man and the sparklets water man. He let any and all coming to his door and ringing our door bell that they were entering his domain and he was on duty and to beware. He had sharp teeth and his bark let all know that here on this house he was the protector of this family.

We have our pictures and memories to remember Schwartz now. Fond memories they are of that black shiny eyes black furball and white paws and muzzle with a wagging tail and the way he would curl his lips and throw his head back into that familiar howl of welcome when family would come home after a day away.

We will remember you Schwartz.

Well I had a scare last night. I had already bought the airline tickets to go set up our accounting at an academy and then I learned they were thinking of not doing it after all. I had paid for the hotel and airline tickets allready.  I had a rough night with a lot of nightmares.

Today I learned they decided to go ahead and go with our software at least until the summer of 2008 and maybe longer. The treasurer asked if they could install that new NAD software in the summer of 2008 and they said they think they could. This is good. I can go see my sister who is close by this academy. I learned that the rival software the NAD the team installing it is booked up until late 2007 with unions and conferences installations. They will not get to the academies until 2010 I am told. If it takes four years to do the conferences it will take that long or longer to do the academies who are much more numerious.

I was also told that this programming team making this software told this academy that the Pacific Union has the best IT teams in the NAD. LOL. My supervisor and myself head the software for the academies and Conferences in the Pacific Union. I guess that is some compliment. I expect I may lose one conference in 2008 or 2009 to this new software. At least I will get Kristin through college with the educational schlorships from my employor by then. That is my main short term goal for now. I may have to get into the ground floor of this new software sometime in the future when it heads out this way.

I am still swimming six days a week this winter quarter. I hope to lose 40 to 50 pounds this year and the same amount in 2007.

It has been a busy summer. I bought Kristin a new car. A new Hyundai Accent. Judi and I did not feel good about that old Mazda she was driving. At least she has a reliable new car that should get her through college.

This summer I had to change drives for our software at Mountain View. I went back up there to set up a terminal so that the retired treasurer of MVAA could help out. They were down for six weeks with computer problems and a hard drive crash.

I started swimming every day for an hour to 75 minutes. I would go in the evenings tuesday and thursday but their hours are from 4-7pm and my getting off work at 6 pm makes it difficult. I did get a travel allowance raise of 9.8 percent which helps in the fuel costs of driving around my companies area.

I applied for a $20 raise of my cell phone reinbursement. They had to take that to Adcom I guess because only supervisors like my supervisor can get that much. Does not make much sense as I use my cell phone far more than he does for business. I need to get more hours or my employor will pay far more in overages in a year than the $240 per year extra in Cell phone costs.  They have already paid $350 in overages this year already. We shall see what happens.

I set up all three of the new academies and am training one of them now. I should finish training the others by the end of December. I have to go to Bakersfield in December to train the people there in the our software. It should be nice then. No hot weather to deal with then.

I have to go back to MVAA sometime during the Xmas break to move the software over to the new server.

Well my old computer of six years use was starting to slow down. It is starting to die. It is only a 500 Megahertz machine with only 17gig hard drive. So I set up my old laptop which had the same Ram but had a 30 gig hard drive and a 1 gig processor as my main computer. As a laptop it runs a whole lot quieter. One hardly knows it is there unless one is quiet and listens for the hum of the laptop. One has to know what one is listening for to even know it is there.. LOL. Anyway that should take care of our computer needs for a while in any case.

June is coming and the busiest time of the year for me is about to come. July and August are when the schools close their books. I mainly close via the office but I do a lot of traveling as well. David is working on a new update I have to get out ASAP when he is done for payroll for everyone including conferences. This has to do with the added life insurance the IRS decides is taxable. That sucks as it hits the older people harder.