What can I say? Being able to report on a weekend of activity, and slip in a RealiTV Update makes the blogging a lot simpler.
Budget Has Lept To The Top Of My Shit List
For my two recruiting trips I rented two Ford Focuseseses from Budget. Both times the rental part was simple, but the receipt part has turned into a major hassle.
My company make the employee use a personal credit card for hotels and car rentals. In order to be reimbursed you must provide receipts for each. When I rented the car in Raleigh I was given a receipt when I returned the car, and emailed another copy nearly immediately. I wish the same were true with the rental in Gainesville.
When travel to and from Gainesville was booked the only reasonably-early (in order to get back to Atlanta early enough to come into the office) flight departed at 0610 (that’s 6:10am). As you can imagine, the rental car desks at a regional airport are rarely open at that hour, so I was instructed to drop the keys with the rental agreement into the drop box. Which I did.
It wasn’t until I finally had some time to collect documentation for my expense report that I realized that the paperwork I had for the Gainesville rental car was merely an estimated bill, not an actual receipt. So I did what I rarely do these days, I picked up the phone an called Budget. After a minute of menu options I spoke with a pleasant-sounding woman to whom I gave my work email address and was assured that it would be sent to me in “five to ten minutes.”
I think you can see where this is going.
After a few hours with no email from Budget I picked up the phone called Budget again. I spoke to another pleasant-sounding woman, who spelled the email address they had on file (remember, I was successfully sent an email for the Raleigh rental) and pleasantly said “It’s on its way.”
It is now the next day and I’ve not received an emailed receipt from Budget. I’ve double-checked my Junk Mail folder and it’s not in there either.
The sooner I get this expense report submitted the sooner I get reimbursed the $500 or so dollars that I’ve charged to my personal credit card.
ITP Flickr Pic
This would be a really good place for a photo of the soup I made on Sunday. Unfortunately I chose to go out for a few drinks with my boss last night instead of working later than I did and returning home directly.
Perhaps Making My First Post-Jobs Atlanta iOS Developers Meetup Tonight
I really want to go to tonight’s Atlanta iOS Developers Meetup, not only because this is the first meetup since the passing of Steve Jobs but also because tonight’s topics intrigue my inner nerd. However I think that I might have to sacrifice tonight’s fun for a long evening of work instead. Who knows, maybe I’ll make it after all.
I Have $100 In Amazon Credit, Why Can’t I Remember To Use It?
Under the premise that “I’ll only live once.” I ordered a new projector for the Man Cave from Amazon. This would have been a great time for me to apply my $100 in Amazon credit to the purchase price, but no, I once again forgot to use it. Dangen!
On a more positive note, I am looking forward to getting the new projector and with any luck will have it installed prior to the first episode of Top Chef which is scheduled to air on November 2nd. And who knows, the new projector may inspire me to get the house ready to host a Super Bowl party again. Ha, that’s just the pre-coffee Paulie talking.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I was searching for something spectacular to which to link. Naturally I went to Spectacular.com, which is ironically one of the most unspectacular websites on the internet.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – November
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~5.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – ~16.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Meals – lost count (significantly fewer than carnivorous)
Carnivorous Meals – lost count (significantly more than vegetarian)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
October Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash (though I’m beginning to this this will never happen)
– Ride my bike no fewer than 100 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least twice
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than fifteen vegetarian meals
– Lose three pounds
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’M BACK!!! And exhausted! Glad to come to the office to get some rest.
The Games were a week of hard work and a whole lot of laughs.. a bit of whisky as well.
My cautionary tale of car rental drop boxes involves a trip to Montana to ski. I had to make a walk up rental when I got in so late the shuttle bus had stopped running. I returned the car the next day around 6PM when my host returned to the airport to pick up the rest of the guests. There was no one behind the desk, so I dropped the keys in the box. Imagine my suprise when I received a bill for 2 days of rental. The box was only checked the next morning and they figured I had dropped them off early that morning.
A call to the actual location straightened everything out…
I know your accounting folks might not like it, but the line from your credit card statement might just do it.
-FP
I had some places that didn’t give me receipts for my last trip as well — namely, the MARTA station. Granted, my RT ticket to the airport was $4, but heck, my company darn well will be paying for that, yo! My bank statement was pretty detailed – was able to print that transaction’s statement online to turn in w/my expense report. Maybe you can do that?
Projector ready by Nov. 2nd? Oooh! That means it’d be ready to host a Nov. 6th TAR gathering, right? 😀
The third call was the charm, after about an hour of impatient waiting and contemplation of calling for a fourth time — this time asking them to fax me the bill — it arrived! Now I’m waiting on my coworker who traveled with me to remind me whether or not he paid for the two dinners for which I have no receipt. And now you know why I attempt to file my expense reports ASAP. Off to check my credit card statement….
Indeed it will be Stacy. 🙂
If work is paying I park at the airport! Normally I wouldn’t be held accountable for receipts under $20.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve rented from the Budget location downtown. They don’t have a drop box (not that I would trust to leave anything at that location for long)…but it’s close enough I can actually run to/from (sans baggage of course) to pick up/drop off the car. Plus 4 out of 5 times we’d end up with an upgrade.
So is anyone watching Terra Nova or Bedlam? Again I’m not much of a ‘must see TV’ person but both of these have caught my attention recently.
Allan has watched Terra Nova – it doesn’t interest me at all. Bedlam? Haven’t even heard of that one.
Hi Steve!!!! Long time no talk (or shall I say read)!
I rent cars from whoever is the cheapest at Hotwire or whatever website I decide to rent from, but luckily, we don’t do it too often, and since I rarely travel for work, much easier that way.
Emory’s rental car deal is with Enterprise, which is awesome! They have the best customer service, and we almost always get our pick of cars. This is very important to David.
I’m watching Terra Nova! I’ve only seen the 2-hour premiere and the following episode, but so far I’m liking it. Jason O’Mara with his shirt off all the time = hawtness.
Yeah, my company requires receipts for everything, unless you’d rather not get reimbursed for an expense.
I have little control from which company a car is rented when I book for work. We get whichever company’s sub-compact car is cheapest.
Not watching much tv these days. In fact I need to fire up the ABC app tonight and catch up on some Modern Family.
And might I add — Men are not objects! We have brains, you know… 🙂
“And might I add — Men are not objects! We have brains, you know…”
It’s an hour later and I just stopped laughing.
😉