Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Sat May 11, 2019 3:31 pm
LadyM: It is Harmony I'm in awe of. She at least does her books monthly and has more in a month to deal with than I do over a year. The only thing I have that she doesn't have is reconciling when dealing with receipts and invoices in 5 different currencies on a regular basis and others as well. I got a bit snippy the other night entering an invoice for $5400 and only getting paid $4900 because the banks help themselves through currency conversion fees. That is true for about 80% of our billings, with up to 10% being lost to exchange rate fluctuations.
In those cases, I have to go back and adjust the invoice to reflect what we were actually paid. For the description of the fee, I enter "Robber Fees".
Dh got off his call and sat down in the dining room with me and sent me all the emails with Uber receipts (the ones from Canada and overseas show up on our credit card in C$ which don't match the numbers on the expense report if it is overseas, due to currency conversion.) And the Canadian ones have a bit of tax I can record and receive back from the government. So I need to see every receipt.
He read them off to me and I filled in my worksheet (by hand.) Every expense should now be accounted for. I still have to rename every email he sent me to match the receipt number in my accounts. But that way, if we are audited, I'll be able to off proof of the expense without having to print off every bill. I prefer paper, but so little comes with paper now. On a one week trip, there were only 6 receipts for dinners, the rest, plane, train, uber, and hotel had no paper.
I made up the hamburg chowder. There was 1.75 lbs of beef, not 1.3 as I expected so I doubled the vegetables and worcestershire sauce to go with the extra meat but left the rice at a single recipe. It is probably the best batch I've ever made.
Dee: the recipe is simple. Start 3/4 cup of rice in 2 cup of water cooking. While that cooks, in another large pot, saute up 1 lb of meat and a good sized onion, diced. When it is no longer pink add 1 large tin of diced tomatoes and one tin of cut green beans. Season with 4 good shakes of Worcestershire Sauce, salt and pepper. My aunt (who gave me the recipe) used to add curry because she was born in India. When the rice is done, add it to the meat and veggies, bring it up to a light boil and serve. It's better on day 2, although it was pretty darn good today.
This freezes really well and I get about 6 x 8oz servings from each pound of meat. I freeze them up and have them for lunch.
The dishwasher is running now. I've got some tea so I'm going to get back to work on the expenses. If I can finish them before dinner, that leaves the evening to finish my service for tomorrow (no more than an hour's work required.)
LadyM: re: the Amazing Race - I'm not sure it is the best way to teach geography. The geography component isn't worth putting up with the out-gaming others vs relationship squabbles, vs physical exhaustion of the contestants. You are seldom seeing contestants at their best, dealing with other cultures in anything other than the usual Ugly American way. There must be a better choice out there. That said, it is really entertaining but I think I enjoyed it because I don't treat people from other cultures, especially when I'm in their country, that way, so it made me feel holier than thou.