Show me the money!

I have a bad habit of not blogging. It's been 15 days! I even took photos of my flowers to post but haven't had time. I guess that's a good thing - being busy. I have some good news though! I had to go to the Board meeting last Monday because we were asking them to FINALLY approve the purchase of 3M's PAMS - Patron Access Management System - an internet management program. We've been "reviewing" it for almost two years now. The Board appropriated the funds last summer but had not gotten around to actually giving me the go-ahead to order and implement the system, continually posing questions and asking for more info. I prepared a paper addressing every question they had, every concern the staff had, showing the hardware that would be used (smart card readers), and basically giving them a very persuasive sales pitch. I had to be in attendance in case they had still more questions. That meant I had to sit through all the boring rote stuff - approval of minutes, budget reports, committee reports, etc. Just before my project was to be discussed, discussion ensued about a change to our salary scale. The personnel committee and the supervisory team had recommended a change. The current scale provides for a 4% step increase every year through the fifth year. From that point forward until the 12th year, the step increases are given every OTHER year, so year 6, 8, and 10 do not get raises. Starting the 12th year, the raises are only given every three years. It was finally recognized that this system totally devalues those who have been with the library the longest and it was recommended that the step increases be given every year for everyone. That I knew about. What I didn't know was that the Director and one of the Board members had decided that doing away with the "gap" years should be made retroactive to the beginning of this fiscal year - October 1, 2004. Anyone who was not scheduled for a step increase on their anniversary date from 10/1 to now would, in fact, receive one - and it would be retroactive! Well, I am one of those who did not receive a raise on my anniversary date of 10/1 so that means I get a lump sum payout of 4% of my earnings from 10/1 to 5/31, and I am now being paid at the higher rate. AND...on 10/1/2005 I get ANOTHER 4% raise! So, by 10/1 I will be making $300 more a month than I was making just last month! Awesome! I had no idea the Board was pondering this so was thrilled when they approved the policy change. Immediately afterward, they spent about 30 seconds on PAMS - and approved that too! It was a great night for me!!!

Now... I am sitting here with sutures in my mouth following gum graft surgery wherein they took tissue from both sides of my palate and inserted it between the gum and bone on both sides of my lower jaw. Needless to say, I am in pain. I can only eat cold stuff like popsicles, ice, ice water, iced tea, ice cream...for the next 48 hours. Then I can only eat soft stuff like pasta and soup for the next two weeks. Maybe I'll lose weight? Well, not if I'm eating ice cream I suppose, but it hurts so much I don't feel like eating much of anything really, even ice cream. It hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I did get a prescription for Vicodin, but I'm not big on pain meds and would prefer to get by with just the 800mg of Motrin every 6 hours. We'll see. For now, I see myself doing a lot of reading and movie watching. I was watching "A River Runs Through It" during the surgery and didn't get to see the end. I've never seen the whole movie, so maybe I'll go rent it, or check it out from the library.

Oh, Tom and I had our 24th anniversary yesterday! Yay! We're going to celebrate on July 8 at the Hotel Lusso in Spokane. I have a free night's stay coming to me courtesy of a coworker for whom I did some computer work. It's quite a luxury hotel, so we're going to do shopping, dinner, and a movie and spend a romantic night in luxury! Should be fun!

Time to get dinner started.