I have not been in the office for so long that I almost forgot how boring it is. Now, I am a person who can keep busy just about anywhere anytime, but eight hours of fabricated busy-ness every day can get old. I wish that my job for this week hadn't gotten cancelled. Anyway, to keep my chargability up, I have been doing some odd stuff these last week and a half.

I spent two straight days stuffing envelopes for some presentation that one of our departments is putting on soon. I don't mind charging my time to this job, but I would think they could find a more economical way to send out invitations. I don't charge cheap. Anyway, that was a nice mindless job which gave me some time to call some friends and I even managed to surf the net while folding and stuffing.

Then there was the afternoon that I had to basically check the mathematical accuracy of an entire set of financial statements. Footing. I borrowed a friends big ole calculator and practiced my ten-key skills for a while. I found no errors.

For the last two days of my off-time, I actually got trown on a little job. It was the credit union of a larger client of ours. Now, I am sure that we make plenty of money from the manufacturer, but the credit union portion of this deal is kinda funny. There are only four employees at this place and the two or three auditors make more money than any of the credit union staff. They really can't afford our audit fees, but their parent pays 90%.

The manager at the credit union voiced some interesting concerns about the efficiency of our audit. I am not an expert on financial services clients, so I was probably asking more questions than would normally be necessary. Anyway, he points out that he is likely to see a new face on the audit team every year from our firm. He says he could get better service and more consistent, qualified personnel from a smaller audit firm... at one third the price. I tried to point out how it was better to have a fresh perspective each year in order to maintain an objective audit. Basically, though, his organization is crazy to keep us as the auditors except for the fact that the parent pays most of the bill.

Monday I move on to a new Japanese client back in the suburbs. Looking forward to real work again. Hoping the hours won't be long. Later, Aaron