h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If only one bedroom is not on the direct bus route, I recommend staying in one of the other two.

$1670 and no elevator! I think sea has won the outrageous rent competition. If I were you I would withhold some rent until they fix the elevator. If you can get other people in the building to do the same, I'll bet they fix it much more quickly. This is not university housing, is it?

I am lucky so far. I do not have to pay anything in the way of renta at this time. The downside: I am living with my dad.

Must work. Must write up report. Must write up report. Must think of something nice to say and then must write up report. Maybe I'll start with the bad stuff. Must start it. Must.

[Munchkin, flicking through the backlog]
No longer rent, which is great, but before we moved up here Toc used to rent a box in Surrey for over five humdred pounds a month.
Oh, and for those in the US who probably have not been paying attention to the current Rugby World Cup in Australia a small result from this morning. Scotland 39 - 15 USA

Oh - and happy belated (yesterday) birthday to GD!

Morning folks. *waves cheerily to all and sundry*

Why, you ask, is she in such a good mood on a Monday morning of all things? Well, since you insist.........

After wrestling with the library accounts all day yesterday (our fiscal year ends Oct 31, which is appropriate in this town) it appears that I have brought us in 4.6% under budget. The smellfungus will be livid. She was looking forward to accusing me of fiscal mismanagement.

Actually, this is the 6th straight year that I have brought us in under budget. A couple of them were real squeakers, but I figure a squeek is as good as a mile. So the budget amendment that was scheduled for tomorrow's meeting won't be necessary after all. Bwahahahahahaha.

Superb effort, that Librarian! Have a bannana!

I have managed to find four good things to say versus three bad things to say in my report for one of my newbies ('Good points' vs 'Things to work on'. Lovely bit of fluff those titles), so I am rewarding myself by going home.

Hypatia, cant you use what you've saved from this years budget to help defray the upcoming extra costs of the move?

Surely budget planning doesn't allow anything that sensible?

Usually, if you don't spend all your allotment, you're not given as much the following financial year.

This is quite interesting, learning what it costs to have a roof in different parts of the world. Where's Hati? As I recollect she lives in a rather small village, like me.

As I have got the year end accounts into the post and a letter off to the pension scheme managers I think it must be time for and at the very least!

As for swopping things from one budget into another, it is usually considered not the done thing and didn't that get Enr*n into trouble? But to many of us it seems sound financial sense, but perhaps that's why I have to use an outside accountant.

I've just been called an Unknown Hiker again. Tschk!

Here's how it works. I have different sources of income, but the majority of it comes from property taxes. If you spend less than you collect in taxes then the presumption is that you don't need that much money and your levy should be decreased. So what I have to make sure I do is spend my entire tax revenue. But, local regulations forbid us to spend more than our total income for operations. Thus - no deficit spending. So I have the amount of nontax income to play with. I'm also allowed to juggle the nonbudgeted income - grants, donations, memorials, etc. They don't have to be spent in the year they are received. So this year I spent more than my income, but the difference came from a grant received toward the end of last fiscal year.

We have to carry enough of a surplus for emergencies and to operate between the beginning of the fiscal year (Nov.1) until we receive our first tax check of the year (Jan 15). When I took over we were so broke that I had less than $100 left in the bank after paying the Jan 5 payroll. And we had no bonds, no CD's, no endowments, no investments of any kind. We were broke. We had to borrow money from a board member to pay the gas bill. And the building had been neglected for so long that repairs were eating up every dime we had.

Since then I have managed to bring in nearly a million dollars in grant money and donations, get the city to commit two million for the building ( as well as to begin paying for utilities, insurance and building maintenance) and to end each year with money in the bank to rebuild our surplus. We now have a 501(c)3 foundation to establish endowments - we have 2 so far - for future operations.

We're still poor, but we're no longer destitute. To answer Phil's question - no, I can't use it for operations next year. It goes into the bank. But it won't negatively affect future operating budgets. And I'm at the point where this is the last year that I'll have to worry about rebuilding the surplus.

Hypathia are you thinking of resigning? are things that bad? I wish I could offer some useful advice, but I have no knowledge of the real world as you know.

I think sea wins in the nasty rent competion - she does have a few people to split it with though.

I have been to the s about my weight and managed to get Sibutramine, which is an appitate suppressent. I'm fairly sure that it's safe ish, no drug is side effect free but compared to the complications of being substanitally overweight for the rest of my life then it's the healthiest opiton. And to stay on it I need to have a healthy diet, and to prove that i've lost a certain amount within a month.. so that's a motivation not to have chips, and to take up excersise.

IMHO, potato/tortilla chips are the crack cocaine of the snack world.

I actually haven't heard back from the people I offered $425 to for their apartment. I even asked those people I put down as references on my application and they said they received no calls from the owners/landlords checking up on me. I suspect they might have gotten another offer from someone who can pay their original rent of $475 with no problems. But then again, I'm feeling all doom-and-gloom today because I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with one of those work-money-apartment-where-is-my-life-going? kind of panic attacks. What I need right now is my pajamas and a comfy couch to take a nap upon.

Oh dear have you tried contacting them again?

Lil I have just checked my uni mail, and have got two circulars promoting the medical school orcestra from the office.

But I do share an Outlook at home with A who is at home reading Socrates I believe so if he's checked his e mail then it would have deleted it from the server y'see.

[Egon]

Z, we'll see whether the invite is waiting for you when you get home, then.

I tried to review the thread this morning, but things began to flake and give me DNS errors, so I had to stop and get on with my day. I'll have another go later.

Am reading Al Franken's latest book -- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Well, I hadn't expected something well-researched and rather detailed as well as funny. The BBC would never let me say the things he does, though, even with a sheaf of facts in my fist.

[RTT]

i wish i had something to say, but i don't.

[>pumpkin>]

ha!