Software and Hardware

I got my software today.  ("Software? What software?" you may be asking.)  It's good, important stuff: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, QuickBooks Pro 2004 (2005 would have cost a few hundred dollars more) and Peachtree Complete Accounting 2005. I ordered them through the UoP alumni assiciation, figuring I'd better use the student discount before my eligibility runs out.  Office 2003 is an upgrade from my XP Student and Teacher Edition, which left out Access and Publisher entirely. The others - well, let's put it this way.  How much trust would you place in a newly minted CPA with exactly zero exposure to the two most popular accounting programs for small business?  Since University of Phoenix didn't see fit to do more than mention the programs in passing a couple of times, I thought I'd better take the initiative myself.

It wasn't easy to take physical possession of the software.  It went out UPS Ground, and I'd gone with my home address for the delivery, having previously made arrangements for UPS to drop off without a signature when necessary.  Or maybe I only made that arrangement with FedEx.  Oops!  When the first of the delivery attempt stickers turned up on my door, I failed to notice that it was marked with a requirement that I sign for the package in person.  The second night, I got the message.  I called the 800 number to reroute it to the office address, but the 800 number said to do this online.  So I did.  I entered the tracking number, and it let me input the alternate address and phone, and even special instructions.  When I was done, it gave me a confirmation of the change to print out, which I forgot to do.

Just as I was leaving for lunch today, the UPS truck pulled up in front of the office.  Oh, joy!  My software!  I eagerly signed for the package, only to learn it was addressed to Mal.  Brochures.  Well, I thought disappointedly, maybe it takes an extra day to get it onto a different truck.

But when I got home tonight, there it was on the kitchen counter!  John happened to get home earlier than usual, at 5:50 PM, and the UPS guy was 3 1/2 hours later than usual.  Maybe he did that onpurpose to try to catch us, bless him.  He told John he'd received no notice of a change in delivery destination.  Hey, if I can't trust the UPS website to have any effect on the routing, why have me do that stuff online?  Oh, well.  At least I got it.

I've also started looking at the Monster listings that have been mailed to my Yahoo inbox every day for almost a year.  There's always lots of stuff in Southern California, almost as much in metro Phoenix, and nothing or next to nothing in Tucson.  Granted, it's only one source of listings, but I don't like the trend.  My pastor wants me to stay in Tucson, and frankly I don't want to leave St. Michael's, especially while Eva, my 99-year-old friend, is still alive and healthy enough to want a ride to church.  If I do move, I'm thinking seriously of driving two hours each way between Phoenix and Tucson every Sunday.

The only recent Tucson listing that sounded promising was for one of our corporate clients.  I was actually getting a little excited about it, until I read the qualifications.  Close, but no cigar.  Oh, well.  Something will come along. 

I'm not ready yet, anyway.  I'm still working on the year-end, and having weird tingling and soreness in my hands and forearms (not wrists) toward the end of the day at work. I'll have to keep experimenting with the placement of the keyboard and mousepad and wrist rests, not to mention where my arms go.  I didn't have trouble with the old computer at work, and I don't have this trouble at home.

I have a different trouble at home.  My Compaq refuses to recognize my external floppy drive tonight, and my internal one went south months ago.  I therefore can't upload that photo of my unopened software boxes with the Academic Price notices on them.  If you see such a picture later, you'll know that rebooting helped.  Still, added to the other weird problems this computer's been having lately, I remain worried that I'll have to replace it soon.  And yet, Norton and AOL Computer Checkup both insist that everything's hunky-dory.  Go figure.

Karen