okay, well since you asked. . .

. . .I'll tell you about my day.

After a detour of a couple of years, I've gone back to doing our "books" with Quicken. I said I'd never do it. . .but two factors converged to change my mind. The program that I've been using for three years did an "upgrade", an overhaul really, and it STINKS! And during the past year, things over on the Quicken side have really improved and so I decided to to give them another try. Doncha just love how software like this simplifies your life? I've been working twelve hours straight today--really, almost no breaks except for an hour or so to clean the kitchen, which was a welcome task after all the dollar signs and decimals. So twelve hours of work and I'm still looking at the help files and the conglomeration of numbers and wondering what in the world I'm doing! I've been doing our finances for thirty-two years (well okay thirty-one. John took over for one year until he gave it back to me in desperation with two dozen roses), and doing our taxes every year except two, and I feel like a kindergartner with this stuff. I'm not an engineer, but you guys know I'm not computer illiterate either. . .and yet every "upgrade" adds about four hours to the learning curve! Back when I last used Quicken it was simply an electronic version of a check register. But no, that's not good enough. Now it wants to be your tax accountant, your investment advisor, your retirement planner, your bill payer, your debt counselor. . .everything but your hors d'oeuvres chef, and I'm sure that's in the 2007 version! And of course I'm such a sucker for computer program bells and whistles that I have to try all this stuff out even if it kills me, and today, I think it has. Please, someone STOP ME!!

Late today I sent John out to find Quicken 2006 for Dummies but evidently there are a LOT of dummies like me and they were sold out. There must really be a market for stupidity. Now if I was REALLY smart I'd get it all figured out and then I'd start giving classes and I'd make a little money on the side that I could spend on that new software that cleans your house. But with my luck, by the time I start teaching the classes, Quicken 2007 will be up and I don't like making canapes, so I'd be unemployed. On second thought, that might mean fewer finances to track and right now that doesn't sound like a bad thing.