Second Family

You know, they say you spend more time with your co-workers than you do with your family !! I have truly, honestly lucky to love my job, really enjoy my co-workers, I laugh often, and usually don't mind going to the office !! I work at Aristocrat Technologies, Inc as their Controller-System Sales & Tech Services. We are an Australian based company whose main focus is manufacturing slot machines for sale and lease, services those machines, and marketing our brand. We also create player tracking systems (software) for casino management. That is my focus, System Sales and also Tech Services - the guys and gals that support the machines and the systems. We have HUGE acocunts (like Royal Carribean Cruise Lines and M Resort) and we have small accounts (like Brass Ass Casino and Little Turtle Hurtle) !!! It really has been fun to learn about financial accounting for this industry, since I was in hospitality accounting for so long (14 years) ! Nothing says fun like FAS 13, or SOP 97-2, or IFS for software financial reporting - - let's all say it together. . .YIPPIE !!

So that leads me to this cast of characters. . .they are the one's that make the day manageable !! From left to right, David, me, Frank, Alison (my boss), Jackie, Beth, Isabel, Shannon, and Thomas & Becky on the bottom. Together we have single men, single woman, married no kids, married with kids, partiers, non-partiers, east coasters, texans, west coasters. . . in this small group, we have it all !!!


Friday afternoon, we went to lunch and bowling for a team building event (AKA, get out of work early on Friday) !! I love to make an ass out of myself, and they will all tell you that I do a pretty good job. My line at work is . . . if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at !!! So I try to liven it up and laugh, and smile, and embarass myself, and talk, and talk, and talk - - yes I really talk when I am nervous !!! But when you go bowling, most pictures are like this below. . .


Glad my ARST is 20 pounds lighter these day hu Gini . . and yes dad, nice form I know !!! Always the coach he is !!!

And latestly, this is my first friend at ATI . . . Beth !! She is a small town girl for Boulder City, her mom works with Carol, my good friend and family triathlon buddy, and she was the one I talked to all the time when I first starter - - refer back to talk alot when I am nervous !!! She listened to me when I cried because I was scared when I took the job, she listens and knows about my kids, their activities, their likes, their dislikes - - Abby loves Beth and even calls her Beth-e-Beth like I do !! She was the first co-worker I told about my near death experience with Allegiant Airlines, and she cried with me !! So Beth, even though you don't read this, THANK YOU !! Thank you for making my day a little brighter, letting me brag about my kids, hugging me when I need a hug, just smilin', and letting me take this silly self photo of us when you hate having your picture taken !!!

LIFE IS GOOD !!!