TSCPA Meeting in San Antonio, Texas

Photo of some Austin Chapter people at TSCPA meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

This weekend John and I went to San Antonio, Texas for the TSCPA’s Annual Meeting of Members. We had such a nice time! This was the first time John could go along. I always enjoy my buddies in the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the hotel was lovely. It’s right on the River Walk and the mall, so John and I had Mexican food, and shopped, and saw sights, and attended meals and very interesting meetings. We got away from our normal activities enough to truly relax.

You almost had to stay indoors since it was over 100 degrees. My favorite meeting, as I thought about it afterwards, was the talk given by Congressman Mike Conaway, CPA (of the Permian Basin chapter), who discussed a little bit about economic, health care, tax, and other legislation in Congress right now.

I had five pairs of CSM socks in a silent auction basket for the Austin Chapter. The money goes for scholarships for accounting students. Also in the silent auction were some baby alpaca scarves that did pretty well. Somebody crocheted the scarves. My socks didn’t do well – you couldn’t really see them down in the gift basket, nor did the bidders notice some of the other treats that Diane Joiner had tucked in the basket, including a hotel stay in the Austin Hyatt.

Well, I’ll have to do some of my lace alpaca scarves or even a lace shawl for that auction for next year!

I couldn’t help noticing some very pretty, fashionable things that other lady CPAs were wearing (the male CPAs’ clothes are boring). My friend Penny said she hit the Salvatore Ferragamo outlet store in San Marcos on the way to San Antonio and bought all the good stuff. Well, I’d never looked in a Ferragamo store in my life, and Steve’s warm jacket was stolen, so John and stopped in San Marcos to have a look in the outlet stores. We didn’t find a replacement jacket; the salesman where we bought it a year ago thought he had one of those exact jackets left but couldn’t find it. There isn’t much available in warm clothing in summer, so we’ll have to take Steve shopping again in the fall. Out of curiosity, we went to the Ferragamo store. Good grief, what beautiful things, and how pricey! The price of one purse would buy me ten good leather purses from a nice department store. Now I've got see what my friend Penny bought.

I need to make more sweater sets – they are excellent for these meetings where you have to layer up when the air conditioning comes on or peel off when you get to the heated car.

Father's Day Car Show

For Father's Day, we went to the Father’s Day antique car show. I took lots of pictures. I wanted to show some of the more interesting cars to our son Steve, who had other plans, and I wanted to put the pictures up here.

We rode in the Model A. It was an incredibly hot day, but John said we’d just use the “air conditioning,” which means he opens the windshield along the bottom (it swings out). With the windows on the side, we got wind-blown and weren’t uncomfortable.

We walked around the car show in the steaming, over 100 degree heat, on asphalt. (Do I get wife brownie points for this?) There were wonderful cars there, and some of our friends were there. Everyone is very nice, and most owners are willing to answer questions about their cars. We bought a giant sugar-free shaved ice and shared it with spoons. I met a new person in our club who spends many days at these shows and brings along her crocheting!
On the way home the passenger’s floor vent was stuck open just a little (these old cars always have something-or-other needing a fix) and blowing searing air at me, right off the engine manifold. I realized after a few minutes that it was going to burn my bare legs, so John took off his sport shirt and I draped it over my legs. That worked great to keep the hot air off my skin. At some point, I began to wonder if we’d break down or even get pulled over with no seat belt (ours was giving us a problem) and dear husband naked from the waist up except for a rather battered Aussie hat! We got home okay, though.

Apparently, it’s legal to drive these old buggies without a seat belt because it wasn’t original equipment, but what if a police officer didn’t know that? I would prefer to wear a seat belt anyway.

Austin Business Journal Event

We had an awful lot of fun at the CFO of the Year party last night. The Austin Business Journal had this event. I was a nominee in the nonprofit category, but not a winner. The CFO of Meals on Wheels, who won, very much deserved to win.

It was at the Austin Driskill Hotel, a very elegant historic building, and the food was fantastic. I ate bunches of shrimp (all very low-cal and in keeping with my Weight Watchers program). I met some very interesting people and got a picture of myself with Christina from the Austin Business Journal. See how she towers over me? She’s a tall girl wearing beautiful, very high heels.

I’m doing Weight Watchers and John’s doing South Beach. This time, it’s for our health (not just looks).

June Knit Natters Meeting

We had knit club today! We met at Barbara’s house, and we had Mildred Beeson and Pat and Sara Tittizer.

I brought all the stuff for sponge bar rehab and told everyone to take enough for their immediate needs. The instructions to redo sponge bars (cheap, easy, simple supplies) are on http://www.knittsings.com/, complete with details and photographs. This is not your usual weather-stripping method – it’s much less expensive and I think the sponge bars are better this way.

Barbara had been knitting slippers for the troops (her son-in-law is in Iraq). She’s knitted dozens of them on her Passap. She knits in fisherman ribbing up to the toe, then switches to regular knitting at the toe, which makes the toe narrower. Barbara knits them off her machine attached in pairs by waste yarn. We were trying them on and checking them out. I will have to see if she has a pattern she can share or at least a reference for the pattern to put on the website.

Barbara’s been cranking out afghans and goodies prolifically, clearing some of her yarn stash. She actually runs her Passap during commercials while they watch television and gets an incredible amount done.

Pat Titizzer has handknitted two absolutely gorgeous, airy lace shawls, and I took photographs. There are many, many hours in these incredible projects. These will get blue ribbons at shows, natch.

Since we had all played with Mildred’s Mattel knitter last month, she brought in a doll dress and hat she made with it.

Out to Pasture?

Yesterday was my last day as President of the Austin CPA Chapter! We had a good year and I feel good. Hopefully, more free time now.

I wrote a summary of our year on the Austin Chapter website at http://austin.tscpa.org/news_and_events/Newsletter/06/Sullivan.html

I Love My Feet (for a change)

Recheck with the podiatrist today. He did a small miracle on my feet.

For several years, I've had a lot of foot pain, even at times enough to keep me from sleeping. I wrote it off to getting older and carrying too much weight. Recently, however, I found a podiatrist by getting a name from a colleague and went, hoping for a little relief. He examined them and asked me how moving them in certain ways felt, x-rayed them and then he told me that wearing othotic supports in my shoes is the treatment of choice for my foot problems.

He actually held my foot above a scanner - looked just like an Epson scanner with no lid, and was hooked up to a laptop, and then he ordered the custom orthotics. My insurance covered most of the cost, and it took a week or two to get them.

I've been wearing them a couple weeks. The pain stopped in the first few days. I also have a neuroma on one foot that gives me numbness and strange sensations, and that has stopped unless I go barefoot for a while.

Knit Club with Mildred & Barbara

Knit Club with just Mildred and Barbara. It happens sometimes, especially in the dead of summer, that just a few diehards attend.

Mildred Beeson brought a Mattel knitting machine and we all played around with it. It has needles arranged in a circle for maybe 15 or 16 stitches and makes tubes. It knits very well with furry or hairy yarn.

What fascinated me about the Mattel is that it isn’t the typical latch-hook knitting mechanism. The Mattel stabs the yarn through the loop of the stitch in the round above.

Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts Safari Dinner Fundraiser

This is a fun evening for me, work wise, a fundraiser for the Boy Scout Council where I work. It’s not my project, but John and I get to attend, meet the people, and see the exotic animals, and then we help with checkout.

The Safari Dinner and Auction fundraiser for Capitol Area Council, Boy Scouts of America is held at the Texas Disposal Systems Exotic Wildlife Ranch, an absolutely stunning facility on grassy grounds populated with dozens of exotic species. They even have log cabins that are designer-built and luxurious. The facility is used week in and out by a great many charities in Austin. The owners let charities use it free of charge.

Casino Night at Austin CPA Chapter

We just attended the fundraiser for the Austin CPA Chapter, the Casino Night. We do this once a year to raise money for scholarships for accounting students. We have a company come in that supplies the gaming tables, dealers, and the like, and we play for poker chips. We turn the poker chips in for raffle tickets, and there are always great raffle items. There is also a silent auction, and I try to donate something but didn’t this year.

The Scholarship Fund makes money on admissions and on the silent auction. There are usually enough sponsoring companies to cover the cost of the party.
This year we had it in a different place – not a hotel, as we have had in the past, but at the Saengerrunde Hall downtown. The Saengerrunde group is a German singing club, which has been operating in Austin for many, many years, and they have a terrific facility downtown. There’s a stage, tables, a dance floor, everything nice and well-kept but casual, and in the back there’s even a small bowling alley. John had a look through the door at the bowling lanes, and I wish I’d thought of having a look. There was a fellow there from the club who was very friendly, and John had a long talk with him about the Saengerrunde society and how it all works. This was absolutely the best place we’ve had our party, in my opinion, because we had lots of room to move around and it had such a relaxing, casual atmosphere.

This year’s theme was Western, and fajitas were catered by Sholtz’ beer hall next door. It was a terrific evening. John played craps, and I played a little while. There was so much space that it was easy to gossip with friends.

There are photos over at http://www.cpascount.org.

Volunteer Appreciation Party

This was the evening that the Austin CPA Chapter (http://www.cpascount.org/) puts on a party for our volunteers, and I can’t resist writing about this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Party, because while I’m President, this is my responsibility, and I had a heckuva lot of fun with it.

I wanted to put on a murder mystery evening. Because the murder mystery is something you can do yourself, you don’t have to spend very much. The Chapter staff had the great idea of having the party at the Zilker Clubhouse, which is inexpensive, so that left plenty of money to feed everyone a great meal and provide beer and margaritas.

The Zilker Clubhouse overlooks a huge park near downtown, sits on a hill and has a great view of downtown. It’s an old stone house with no a/c – just ceiling fans – but it’s pretty mild weather in April. There’s a great stone patio where you can enjoy the view.

Diane and Kaira at the Chapter found a company that sells murder mystery kits, and we chose “The Pink Lace Diamond,” which is designed for a large group. I think we maybe had 75 people with volunteers and spouses.

When the kit arrived a couple of weeks ago, Kaira called me to figure out a cast of characters, and we assigned parts to the Executive Board members. I picked out someone to be the millionaire, the millionaire’s wife, the playboy, the playgirl…you get the drift. There was one part left, the hotel maid, so I took that.

Later, when I read the script, I realized I was supposed to scream and run on the “stage,” in our case, a clear spot on one side of the diners. I had been roaming around the crowd with a pocket apron, feather duster and mop during the evening to set the mood. I was supposed to scream because I had seen the “dead guy” in my janitor’s closet, you see. I was quite worried about my job of screaming, because I am a very soft-spoken person and often have trouble being loud enough for people to hear me clearly. Anyway, I screamed my brains out and startled the heck out of the crowd. They knew we were playing a murder mystery game and yet they thought something was really wrong. Then I had to faint. I was, however, a terrible actress, much too inclined to giggle while dead.

My friend Jesse had the big part – he played Inspector Clueless. Everybody ad-libs and works loosely through the script, making all kinds of mistakes, which are also funny. I died in the play – the maid is poisoned because she knows too much.

It was a complete hoot. My friends were so darn funny that I kept giggling when I was supposed to be dead. Everyone had a great time, and I was euphoric because we managed to give my friends, who are hard-working volunteers a great party.