This whole "working for a living" gig is a lot more, well, work than I remembered.

This week, it's the bookkeeping thing that's stressing me. I did tell Bernie that I wasn't good at this kind of stuff and I'm not. I might be better if the Tweenybopper had left any kind of coherent records.

Granted, she felt the same way I do about having to take on bookkeeping chores, but that's not really a good reason for her to have failed to keep records in any form that would allow someone to come in and figure out what she's been doing, you know?

Okay, so I knew she didn't like to file. I figured that out when I found piles of stuff dated 2004 and 2005 sitting all over the place. (She started in late 2003.) (I'd be less bitter if I could find anything dated 2006.) But I assumed that, somewhere in those piles, a coherent system would appear.

I'm thinking, you know, "assume." ass - u - me Mostly me.

Issuing invoices this past week has been a guessing game. From casual remarks dropped by Bernie over the last week, a couple of things the Tweenybopper said before she left, a post-it note she left on her computer monitor, and the two actual job files she handed to me, I think I've found everything I was supposed to bill. (I'm going to put together a list for Bernie for Monday and have him double-check it.)

Okay, enough whining about that. What else is new?

Well, payday arrived. Yesterday, in fact. I slit open the little envelope, pulled out the check, and looked it over. 73 hours. $17.76.

And I'm thinking, yeah, I agreed to take a temporary pay cut until August, but this is ridiculous. (Bernie called them and I got a more reasonable check today.)

DiamondGirl seems to be doing well at getting her recently diagnosed Diabetes Type II under control. She's been taking her meds and eating right. And her energy level and concentration have improved immensely.

Unfortunately, that doesn't really mean she and Bernie are getting along better. Partly she gets bitchy very quickly in our too-frequent meetings. I can sympathize...she's been through these same problems many times already and is worn out and frustrated from trying to work with Bernie.

If you're a process-oriented, linear software programmer being supervised by a free-form, big picture, grasshopper-brained sales/marketing person, there are going to be problems.

She needs to make some changes, but Bernie needs to make even more. For one thing, he has to start writing down complete specs on all tech jobs he wants. I need to figure out a way to make him understand that, "build me a program that does this" really isn't a sufficient set of guidelines to hand a programmer.

Also? He has to learn to talk to us before he takes on any jobs that involve anything more technical than he can do himself.

Today I found DiamondGirl desperately working over the scan of a hand-drawn logo (4" x 6"). Bernie wanted her to turn it into camera-ready art that the client could hand to the printer to produce a decent 2' x 6' banner. It also turns out that Bernie told the client we could do that in two hours.

He's insane.

And he has to learn that you can't really build core business strengths if you're just accepting any kind of job that comes along. There are half a dozen different types of projects we're working on at this point, only two of which are even remotely connected to what he told me were the "core strengths" he wanted to develop.

Sorry for not being entertaining. I'm not feeling the fun today. Just the tired.