...other than the company I used to work for, that is...but, I don't consider them a "direct" customer because they gave me translations BECAUSE I worked with them!...
He's bringing the documents by tomorrow! ...great!

all my work colleagues are going to Honduras for a regional conference. I'm to stay and "guard the fort"....they leave tomorrow and come back next Monday...I was starting to wonder what I was going to do with myself for 3 whole days (it's slow when they ARE here, imagine with them, and 95% of the people at HQ being gone!), when, the people in HQ decided to send me some translations (these do not mean extra money, as it is part of the job description, but, hey, they'll keep me sane!) LOL!

from a very good source (finance dept employee!)...our year-end bonus will be paid next pay period!!! (she was warning the bank teller to make sure she had enough cash!)...it's not confidential, or anything, everybody knows it's due on payperiod 22....but, since it's my first year here!....

the latest translation will bring in about $700 after taxes...this one will most likely be paid either by the end of November or early December!

...the translation money is starting to trickle in!...$189.90 this time...already spent $35 in paying the electricity for this month, and today I'm going to go to the bank at noon to pay $98 still outstanding from last month...and tomorrow I will go to pay the $160 due this month, which will make me officially current....why go today and not wait until tomorrow?
1. the longer I have the money, the greater the temptation to buy "just a little thing"....
2. One less day of interest!

remember the sweat pants?..well, since they didn't have Ale's size that day, the school secretary called me and told me she had kept the $20 bill and would give it to Ale when she got picked up (so she wouldn't lose it during recess or lunch!)...since my niece couldn't go pick her up from school, she enlisted the help of one of her best friends (whom we've all known since they were in 4th grade!)...I called the school to let them know (they do NOT let the children go with anybody, not even a parent, unless you are either on a list of authorized people submitted by the parent enrolling the kid in school or, in cases of emergency, authorized via phone by the parent who enrolled the child!)...so, at the end of the school day, the secretary gives Ale my $20 bill...and since I had given her permission to spend $0.30 out of the change I should have gotten, she tries to buy a $0.30 candy from the store.... at which point her English teacher sees her and takes the money away from her, and gives it to the school counselor her- again for safekeeping-who gives it to the lady in charge of delivering the kids to your car, who gives it to my niece's friend...but, she doesn't give it back to Ale...Ale calls me crying because she feels awful that she lost my $20. I tell her I feel bad, too, but that it's not her fault and she did all the right things...I ask my niece to call her friend and she says she will (but, she doesn't! I know her, she was ashamed to call fearing her friend would think we were accusing her of stealing the money!)...so, today I go to the school and ask the school counselor who confirms Ale's story. I then ask my niece AGAIN to call her friend (they haven't seen each other since last week, as niece was NOT in the house when friend dropped Ale off!)...and, friend confirms she has the $20 and will give it to niece the next time they have classe together at the university!...

Needless to say, I feel VERY relieved that the $20 has turned up!....

On the bright side, while we still need the sweat pants and shirt, we didn't get to spend the change! LOL!

these are the "cheap" package ones, but, still....I already billed $23 for tonight's!! ...the ones last time (which will be paid in Nov) totalled $547 AFTER taxes, so...they're not to be despised!!...and, just think: the course goes from oct 8 through Nov 16...that's 30 working days!!!

I feel like doing the happy $$$ dance!

$360 this time! woo-hoo!...I'm going to the bank tomorrow and paying $78 towards the cc and $220 towards the loan...the remaining $62 will go towards the dept store card! ....woo-hoo! TAKE THAT!!

well, I have the amazing amount of $2 in my account...to last until payday (which is this Friday), BUT...cousin owes me $11 and sis owes me $60 (I paid that money to Nanny, sis still hasn't given me her share of the expenses for this month!)...they're both supposed to pay me today ...but, that means I have $73????...I could faint!...oh, wait, no, that will cover the payment on 1 cc...(due on the 15th, though...)

Oh, wow, this is a first!!

or thereabouts...English text tends to be shorter...

I'm getting there!

more translations!!! woo-hoo!!!
keep them coming!!!

well, one of our toy customers is having a special sale (open only to employees and suppliers!)...so, I bought spices...pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, cinammon powder, vanilla extract, and other stuff... I really stocked up!...some of this stuff sells for $3.00 each, and I got it at $0.25-$0.50 each!...yay!...we are also stocking up on toilet paper, detergent and tooth paste today!...
they do this sort of thing about once or twice a year...we like to take advantage of it!

We already got a pre-order for about $2,250....they are still making their final-final list of children, so the number may go up or down (they give toys to the employee's children 0-12, so if a child turns 13, s/he exits the list...newborns are added and, of course, if employees have left/been hired, there's changes in the numbers....)
We should be getting the final list on Tuesday, at the latest!

Notice that I've been saying my old wardrobe is in shambles and I will soon need to replace some items??...guess what! a colleague's wife said to me a while ago she had some clothes she no longer uses and would I be offended if she offered them to me...and, yesterday, she brought me a bagful of clothes...and they ALL fit!...so, now I have a new pair of jeans, a new skirt and 7 new shirts...both dressy and "weekend" ...
and all the items were "so me" ...and free!...

Took a warm bath and slept for about 2 hours in the afternoon....from all the typos I've made in just these 3 rows (which I already corrected) I can see I busted MORE than 3 brain cells!...I think I need more rest, so...BYE!


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I hope they were ones I didn't use much! LOL!...28,198 words in 4 days (and only about 3-4 hours per day! on 2 of those days!!) ...$1,014.66 (after taxes)

of course, it'll be at least 30-45 days before I actually GET the money, but...

They were very happy with the job (the end customer), and said they'd probably have some more next week...(this was a new customer for the people that sub-contracted me, so that means THEY're happy, too!--of course, if they hadn't been impressed by the first translation I did for them, they would never have trusted me with a new customer!)

YAWN...I'm going to bed!

LOL!...it's 11:07pm...I sent my last work of the day at 11:04...4 minutes after my self-set cut-off time!...woo-hoo!...only 12 pages to go and, from what I've seen, I can have them ready before noon.

I then have to work on some other stuff, but that is not as urgent...I might even stay with Ale at a friend's b-day party tomorrow (was thinking of just dropping her off if I was still swamped!..now I'm thinking it would be a nice nap!LOL!)...

speaking of which...I gota go ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ now!

Will update total wordcount for the weekend tomorrow!

I went to bed late, and got up early-ish (ok, so 7:30 instead of 8!--it's SATURDAY!)...managed to translate most of the day --minus a 1 hour break to rest/bake some honey bread...yum! Just like grandma's! And I didn't want Ale to feel TOO neglected!...
I'm almost done (in every sense!)...I'm going to go watch TV to soothe my brain a bit...
I still have stuff to translate, but, I will work/send that tomorrow before noon! (they need to have the docs tomorrow at the latest, so they can put them all together --they gave us half and the other half they gave to another translator!--make them look like there was only 1 single source, print it, bind it and present it to some VIP's before a mid-morning meeting on Monday, so....)

Good thing it deals with stuff that I know (and I mean KNOW, as in: this was "our business" 2 jobs back!)

$127!!!... ~$114 after taxes...for 2 hours worth of translations!!...woo-hoo!!

(at work, don't worry!)...I can actually see what I'm writing without squinting and/or slouching now!!...they sure took a long time, but they are finally here!-- I've already updated our asset inventory!!...we are all

LOL! Funny story: I plugged my monitor, but could not get it to work...I had to call my boss to help...he asked if it was on...(I gave him the evil eye)...and then...he chuckled and just closed the laptop and...voila! the image came on!...duh! ...I'm technologycally-challenged!

well, they just announced a salary increase of 2.7%...after taxes, that comes to about $12 more per pay period for me...I'm goint to put this towards our Disney trip (more on this later!)...starting 9/27!!

I just finished sending all the translations I did today (I still have a package to process, but my brain is fried for the day!...$329 worth of translations done today! -- at $0.04/word...you do the math...honestly, right now I just want to go to bed and ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...running out of battery!!!!

Well, I had made plans to spend my morning going to the social security offices to renew Ale's card and to have our "adscription center" (meaning where we are to go for medical care!) to one closer to home....as the one on our records was the one closer to the place we USED to live!....and then going to the bank to make a (small) payment towards my loan....Although I couldn't get started at 8am like I intended (the office opens at 9, not at 8!), I was done well before 10am! Nice surprise!...Instead of roaming the streets and wasting fuel, I came back home to finish Ale's sweater (and log on to SA, of course!)...and, Nanny told me there had been an "urgent" phone call for me...from the translation offices!...sure enough, they have some urgent translations...since they only have print-outs, they're sending them to me right now!-- which means I still get enough time to log on and work a bit on Ale's sweater!....I'm "free" from now until 3pm, when I have to pick up Ale, so I expect there will be plenty of time to do the work! (I'm rather fast!)...

I'm glad, because, if I had been at work, I wouldn't have been able to take these translations (let me see: working on translations during normal business hours, when I'm supposed to be working on my primary job ...er, - NO!)

So, I'm off to finish knitting the pocket to be sewn onto Ale's sweater!!...(small enough that I KNOW I can finish it today!)...

HAPPY LABOR DAY, EVERYBODY!

They finally have the "official" uniform sweat pants....we were lucky, Ale has PE on Tuesdays and Fridays...that means I'm only buying her 1 pair, and not 2 (as I would have if the PE sessions had been closer to one another-- rainy season lasts 6 months, after all... and we don't own a dryer!)

due for tomorrow am, no less!...it's about 35 pages (though only abou 3,500 words, so not as bad as it seems, but it has a lot of tables (empty, thank God!) and they take a lot of space!

gotta go!

*****
it will bring in $121 (~$110, really, after taxes!)

came yesterday. Payment should be in about 15-30 days....about $60-$65 (haven't done the wordcount yet!)

woo-hoo!!!

The translation they sent yesterday night will bring $68! - woo-hoo!...
just a short lease contract, and it took me about 2-3 hours....I could hear their minds going ca-ching! when they asked me if I worked nights and I said "Yes"....most people will not work on a document received after 6...but then again, this is my 2nd job...and, mostly, I start working on it at 8:05pm, right after DD is put to bed (8:00pm is her bed-time!)

well, this was a good week. I actually managed to spend only $51 (against budgeted $50!!!...and, in reality, you could say I spent less, because this total includes the fish, which "technically" came out of the oil change money!!) yipee for me!

...they had a special promotion on the oil change...it cost me $23 instead of $35 (same oil, I checked!!)....so, with those $12 I bought the fish that I couldn't get during the holidays!!!....I'm cooking it tomorrow, though, because I couldn't find oranges (or, rather, I would have had to buy a bag of 50!...) so I'm going to the corner store today, where I can either buy less oranges or, buy the same 50 for a lot less than at the supermarket!!
Funny how such a small thing can make your day!...to think that all through my childhood we had fish or shrimp EVERY Friday (except for lent, go figure!) and now it's a luxury!!