Budget Time

I really need to stop posting once every two or three weeks. A lot has gone on since the calendar has turned to 2007. For one, work has gotten extremely busy. Starting in January budget season begins and doesn't end until May. The counties in California run on a fiscal year starting July 1 and ending June 30.

Our county has mid-year budgets, meaning we use actual expenses for the first half of the year to budget for the rest of the year. Once mid-year is over, we have a brief break until year-end budgets are due. Year-end budgets use the first three quarters of our fiscal year to predict how we will finish the year. Once year-end budgets are done we turn our attention to the upcoming fiscal year, known as proposed budgets. The proposed budgets are usually the most time consuming because we are trying to predict a full year's worth of revenues and expenses.

The next exciting thing to happen was my cousin Eric's visit to Sonora last weekend. I've mentioned here before that he is an excellent ping ponger and always played the Yankees to my Red Sox (pre 2004 of course). Before his arrival I was confident I would be able to prevail due to my recently acquired ping pong table. Boy was I wrong. Eric served me a nice plate of humility, winning 11 of the first 12 games. I will note that by Monday, he only won three of five.

One sad thing that happened to us was James and Michelle going back to the Bay Area. We had a bunch of fun while they were here and are deeply saddened they will not be around as much.

And finally, I bought a new toy. On Monday we went to Modesto to spend our Christmas gift cards. While walking through the electronics department in Target I stumbled upon the 60G PlayStation 3. Ever since the release date I wanted to get a PS3 but knew I would have to wait until spring time, when production would catch up with demand, to buy one. Thankfully there was one left for me. Of course Christina was not happy I spent the money, even though it fit into our personal budget.

Just so you know, I am making a conscious effort to up my blogging energy in an attempt to keep everyone from looking at the same old pictures of Dillon.