What is going on in our lives?  I suppose the two things that keep us busy the most it our work and sleeping.  For those who don't quite understand exactly what we are doing, I'll do a bit of explaining.  SAP R/3 is a huge software system developed by a German company, also called SAP.  The software helps big firms run their businesses, from taking sales orders from customers, to keeping track of what is in the warehouse and to creating financial statements.  Our area of expertise is in the Human Resources Module.  In this module there are a few sub-modules, like Personnel Planning, Time Management and the Payroll.  Our role as consultants is to help customize the software to fit the needs of each individual implementation.  For example, some companies say we'll pay overtime if you work more than 40 hours a week, where others would say overtime is paid if you work more than 8 hours a day.

I enjoy my work, at the moment it is challenging and exciting.  I love having the opportunity to work with people as well as doing technical work, I think it is a rare combination.  We both work for an American company: Conley, Canitano Associates Inc or CCAi in short.  We were actually hired by an Atlanta-based company, Bureau van Dijk, run by a Belgian, with mostly European employees.  However, we were bought out soon after by CCAi.  Sometimes I miss working for EPI-USE, they just had such an excellent group of people together and to interact with them was always extremely stimulating.  The distances in the USA complicate things and it more difficult to keep up the interaction needed, since all the employees are spread over the country.  We only visited the CCAi head office once, and we daily speak to the personnel at the head office and some of the other consultants without meeting them in person.  I suppose it is a symptom of the global structure we are moving towards.

My biggest short term goal is to beat Ben at Scrabble, he has now beaten me 3 times in a row and it is way to much for my ego to handle.  I am so desperate that I even went so far as to go out and buy a dictionary (with pictures).  If anybody has any tips as to how to memorize a dictionary in a week, please let me know.  I suppose I am just not good at losing.

The last movie we saw was Nottinghill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.  Its not an Oscar grabber, but if you have a romantic heart and are looking for a relaxing night out, this is the movie to see.  We had a couple of good laughs and found it to be first class entertainment.  The next movie on our list is the new Disney movie, Tarzan.  Around here if you go to the movies, you go to the movies and that is it.  It is not like in South Africa were it tends to become an outing.  The movie theatre is not part of a shopping mall, with coffee shops etc.  It is normally close to a mall, but no coffee shops.  It's about $12 entrance for the two of us, but it could depend on the popularity of the movie.

What are we reading?  Ben found a new passion for an old attraction.  They just released a new magazine for StarTrek fans, and Ben hasn't missed an issue yet.  He also discovered a magazine called WIRED.  It has scoops on all the latest and greatest gadgets that are new on the market, and it also gossips about all the rich and want-to-be-rich in the technology world.  I think it is very close to the tabloids.  I am supposed to be reading Moby Dick, but I keep interrupting it to read books that are not so demanding, you don't make a lot of progress if you fall asleep after one paragraph.  In-between, I am reading a book on how to take better photographs and how to take black and white photographs. Maybe you'll see some of my practice shots soon.