[Oasfaa] News, Gossip, Outright Lies?

[Jonna Raney]

Did anyone notice the okies on the fsa page?  I see a few....

http://fsaconferences.ed.gov/conferences/dallas/lodging-and-travel.html

>>> "Mc Conahay, Pamela K." <pmcconahay at ou.edu> 4/23/2008 6:07 PM >>>
Hey, doesn't anybody just plain talk on this list any more?  I'm way out of the loop and I'm getting curious.  David Horn wasn't at OASFAA this spring so I can't get any news from him.  Caryn told me what she could remember but, believe it or not, she only wrote down actual WORK stuff and not the important gossip!

I've heard that Marcia Carter is retiring, Yvonne Maxwell and Sheila McGill will be following later this year.  Anybody else?

And, who won the OASFAA elections?

As for me, I'm fine, Eugene is fine.  He has a new co-worker (IT guy) that he really likes ,he doesn't have to carry the load alone,  they monkey with stuff and have a similar sense of humor, which could be a dangerous thing.  The Banner project is going well, I'm learning a LOT.  Our full-time consultant from SunGard is Mollie Delgado, who also worked with UCO when they moved to Banner. We share an office in an old dorm where we're headquartered---we're quite a pair together, Mollie is only 4'7".   Brad's still got most of his hair (he is the Functional Project Manager for the whole thing) and he's got more chickens than any human ought to.  A small egg business 'to teach the kids about working and earning/managing a little money' has blossomed into close to 1000 chickens.  I've learned a lot about chickens as well as Banner.

Sadly,  I lost my stepmother, Helene, suddenly on Feb 28.  She went in for a surgery tne dr. thought would be pretty cut & dried, but they found she had ovarian cancer that had spread throughout her abdomen.  She only lived a few hours after the surgery.  Her greatest fear was to be incapacitated through a long illness and I'm glad she was spared that.  If any of you are stepparents and struggle with how to be a good one, I wish you had known her. She married my dad 3 years after my mom passed away and she really and truly saved our family.  But, we gave her some good things too....we turned her into a Sooner football fan.  And, I inherited my red hair from her too (well, her bottle of dye was a slightly lighter red than mine), and I could reach things for her (she was 4'11").

All  the pets are still around.  Tounces, our cat, will be 17 in June.  He's decided that hanging out inside the house, usually on our bed, is a better life than defending his turf outside.  Bismarck, our eldest dog, turned 16 on October 31, 2007....yep, he's one old Halloweenie. He's pretty blind from cataracts and he doesn't get around real well, but he still enjoys his food and his cookies and snuggling with his mama.   Spanky, the Chihuahua who hates thunderstorms and wakes me up in the middle of the night doing the Chihuahua cha-cha on my head, is now eleven.  Lily, our little (or not so little, she's a tad 'round') female dachshund will be 10 in June.

And, then there's Big Dog.  Yes, there is ANOTHER dog.  On October 27, a Saturday that shall live in infamy, a large (100 lb) German Shepherd mix neutered male (black with tan mask) wandered into our yard and met Eugene.  And, he looks exactly like our old dog Leroy (who lived to be 17 and died about 10 years ago).  So, Eugene took him in.  We ran ads in the lost & found, put up posters, walked him all over the neighborhood.  We refuse to give him a name because if we do, that means we're keeping him.  Several people have informed me that I do HAVE another dog and his name is BigDog.  And, now he has a nametag with BigDog on it and our phone #, so maybe they're right.

He's well mannered, well trained, sweet, good with kids and smart as a whip....all the things that dogs we raise never are.  BigDog has only barked once in the approx 6 months he's been with us (he does like to howl with sirens, though).   Last week, the neighbor's parents came to visit with their large birddog that barks and barks and barks at us.  He ran up to BigDog at the fence and barked/barked/barked and BigDog just looked at him.....finally BigDog gave him big "WOOF", kind of a "shut-UP!" and turned around and ignored him.  We really do need to find him a good home though...he's just too big for our house and our yard isn't fenced, and he likes to eat my socks and I'm starting to run low on them.  So, if you're interested, and you have plenty of socks, let me know.

So, let's hear from some folks, we need to liven up this list!!!!!


Pam McConahay
Associate Director, University of Oklahoma Financial Aid Services
1000 Asp Ave, Room 216, Norman, OK 73019-4078
(405) 325-4617, Fax (405) 325-7608
pmcconahay at ou.edu