The great city of Sunnyvale has finally finished their road work on the railroad overpass, making Wolfe once again open for traffic. This means I can bike to work on a road with continuous bike lanes (unlike Fair Oaks). And I will, likely starting on Thursday. I would have done it yesterday but I took the car so I could go grocery shopping on my way home and pick up a (work-related) library book. And today is a pick-the-baby-up-at-daycare day.

On the theme of exercise, I finally got around to visiting the 24 Hour Fitness club near my workplace (Arques & Lawrence Expwy) yesterday. At a quarter to 12 the parking lot was totally full, with impatient pedestrians hustling to the door, apparently eager to commandeer their favorite machine. Fortunately, there were plenty of machines inside, so I could do my cardio-and-weights routine with no interruptions. I had a good workout and got back in time for lunch with the gang in the break room. I will return!

I had my worst-to-date maternal anxiety dream.
I was visiting friends in Boston. One of my friends had somehow become a single mother in the dream, with a cute child a year older than EM Jr. Mr Macaroni, EM Jr and I had a lovely visit at their house, then Mr Macaroni and I got on a plane back to the west coast ... accidentally leaving EM Jr behind.
I remember frantically phoning both of my friends but because of the time difference it was late and they had already gone to bed. Eventually I got a garbled phone message from one of my friends (the one without the child). My stoopid subconscious couldn't figure out whether to believe that my friend with the (nonexistant) child would take care of EM Jr and be relieved or believe that EM Jr was in MORTAL PERIL.
I hereby vow to double-check the boy's presence before my next plane flight.

-Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson. Persephone edition
This got added to my to-read pile after I saw the movie. If you like the movie, you'll love the book, which omitted the forced-in references to WW2 (the book takes place pre-war) and has other changes that - on balance - I really enjoyed. This publisher seems to have made it their mission to resurrect pre-war novels by women and the results are wonderful (see my review of The Blank Wall. This is truly lightweight reading: dowdy, penniless governess Guinevere Pettigrew spends 24 hours with the sweet but amoral Dalysia, getting transformed into a person who 1) rescues Dalysia from her many exploits and 2) learns to enjoy life to the fullest. Happy endings galore!

-Cold Comfort Farm - by Stella Gibbons.
Did I not post about this earlier? My bad! This is also pre-War. A delicious parody of the now unknown "rustic" genre, featuring a sparkling heroine who goes to visit distant family members' farm and acts as the transformative agent, solving all their problems with judicious applications of common sense. The movie of this was also lovely - a little bit gets lost in the translation but less than you'd think!

-At somebody's recommendation (bibliogramma?), I checked out Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative Trilogy. Overall verdict: a good sci-fi read. Enjoyable, though I have no urge to either buy it or read it again.
Of particular note are Czerneda's aliens and their interactions with the human characters. The main character was a bit Mary Sue-ish (a biologist! who saves the universe! and shags the handsome secret agent!) but it was great to watch her blossom.

- Last night I started - and finished! - Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall. Amazing read, especially for people who enjoy film noir and classic crime fiction. It wasn't so much of a mystery novel as a drama that could easily be filmed by the Coen brothers (except it was done by someone else with Tilda Swinton - The Deep End. Oh well).
Synopsis - Quiet housewife raising 2 teenage children while her husband is off at war (WWII) discovers - and disposes of! - a dead body. Shenanigans ensue.
But it's much more complicated than that and a great character study, feeling totally believable. We get to watch this seemingly dull woman transform herself into a lioness protecting her family.

Ancient Chinese form letter to apologize for one's public drunkenness
Here's a taste:

Getting hideously drunk at a dinner party and embarrassing yourself is certainly nothing new. As far back as the 9th Century, the beautifully named 'Dunhuang Bureau of Etiquette' insisted that local officials use the following letter template (dated 856) when sending apologies to offended dinner hosts. The guilty party would copy the template text, enter the dinner host's name, sign the letter and then deliver with head bowed. The letter was discovered, alongside thousands of other documents, in a sealed cave library in western China.

h/t The Stranger

It's been very quiet around here but I thought I'd do a status update anyhow. ( nothing much to see, move along )

In the more-distant past, whenever you'd see Some Generic President on a TV program or movie, he'd usually be an older white man (they'd sometimes make him young and vigorous just to be daring). Within the last 10 years or so, this trend changed - no longer was the generic presidency assumed to be white and male.

Well, not white anyhow. Most of the presidents, with the fleeting exception of Geena Davis, were still male, but there was an increasing trend towards black presidents. In fact, it's such a prevalent trend, almost every black actor of a certain age - not too old, not too young - who can muster up the requisite gravitas has probably appeared as a black president on some production or the other.

I'm guessing that by doing this, Hollywood was putting their productions firmly in the camp of fiction. See? By showing the president on our TV show as black, we're making it clear to viewers that he's fictional and isn't meant to be *shudder* a source of political commentary on current-day politics. At the same time, however, the shift from generic-white-dude to black-actor-with-gravitas was also an implicit vote of confidence in the plausibility of having a black male president. These weren't (all) meant to be science fiction presidents, just fictional presidents.

So what happens now that we have a for-reals black president? Now any black TV president will no longer be in the fiction camp but will be perceived as being a reflection on the Obama presidency. Political. I think we won't see them as much any more (until the end of Obama's term and beyond) if the production in question is trying to avoid political commentary. So maybe we will see a return to the generic white dude presidents, but I hope not.

I predict that the next fictional TV presidents will trend towards being white, middle-aged females. Think Laura Roslin, but characters who have earned their presidency instead of being an improbable figure with the presidency thrust upon her in a crisis. The Geena Davis TV presidency was a sensation; the next one will be much more matter-of-fact (and hopefully a better production!).

Anyhow, I'm sure I'd have done better to trawl through IMDB and pull up movie and actor names but this is a lazy Sunday AM post fueled by a random throught. I welcome your commentary.

The offer has been approved. The proposed salary is acceptable (5% more than my previous job but reduced 10% because everybody is taking a temporary pay cut due to economic conditions) and the stock options are NUMEROUS (!!!!).

I am happy, to put it mildly.

Appetizer:
Tilapia cakes with cucumber relish

Main course:
Roasted eggplant salad topped with crushed peanuts
Beef and sweet potato in red curry sauce
Jasmine rice

Dessert:
Coconut ice cream

I went grocery shopping at 4:30 PM and had the food all prepped by 7:30 PM. The eggplant salad was the best ever.

I should cook more often. This is awesome stuff. Am shwocked now and should go to bed. xoxo, my LJ peeps -

Apropos of nothing, a recipe for the pasta I made last night, which was both easy and tasty:

Pasta with tomatoes, spinach and proscuitto

8 oz rotini pasta (I used multicolored)
6 oz bag of prewashed baby spinach
5 medium on-the-vine tomatoes, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2 oz proscuitto, sliced into ribbons
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Boil pasta as directed. While pasta is boiling, place spinach in colander. Drain cooked pasta over spinach to wilt it. Toss pasta/spinach mixture with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, red pepper and proscuitto. Top with parmesan cheese & serve it forth.

Serves 4
Nutrition information ( below the cut )

... wasn't so much of an interview as a discussion of the technical complexities with my potential customer-to-be. And then I met with my potential boss-to-be, who discussed things like 1) when he wants to get an offer to me, 2) what my salary would be and 3) my start date. It's not official yet but OMFG YAY (butterflies, butterflies)!

It has been a chaotic week. ( house sitting )

Today was the interview itself. It didn't go badly - some awkward bits (how not, when talking with a laconic-as-all-hell CEO?) but I communicated What I Know and Who I Am effectively. I'm a little bit worried about the sheer level of knowledge required - it will be a very challenging job (more so than the one at WP's company) but whatever - I could use a challenge. And a job! I should hear back by next week.

As of tonight, we're back at my parent's house ('til Sunday AM), with EM Jr and cats. We will enjoy lunch with some delightful guests tomorrow after I buy some goodies at the local Farmer's Market. Sunday we'll take the entire family back down south, complete with howling cats. *shudder* At least they'll enjoy the remodeled apartment - the new window boxes are awesome. I'll have to post a picture. :)

I took EM Jr to the clinic for his 15 month weigh-in. Baby boy is at a whopping 20 lb 3.5 oz, putting him slightly above the 5% curve and making the doctor giddy with joy at his improved rate of weight gain. Whee! More importantly, he gets to go in the big-boy car seat which doesn't require contorting the kid's legs to fit through the straps.

In other news, he continues to accumulate words. Right now he can say "ball" and play fetch. Dog owners, begin your snickering in 3, 2, 1 ...

Still waiting on the results of the interview. The week of limbo is nearly complete. This whole process - from the first phone call 'til now - has put me off my routine. While I dearly hope I get the job, I really just want to get back to my life, whatever that means.

At least I went to the gym Friday & Wednesday after a long absence. That will be part of my routine, oh yes, it will be. High up on my list is developing a free weight routine for my arms.

( bumper sticker observations )

( movies )

( books )

( EM Jr )

The kitchen light burned out 2 Fridays ago. The landlords have yet to get off their lazy asses and fix it (it's a ballast problem, not a bulb problem). I really can't stand this. We need light in the kitchen to function. The husband rigged a shop light which gives me headaches. GRRR.

As of Tuesday I have starting the kitty regime, whereby I pick up the cat food during increasing portions of the day to accustom the girls to meal-time feeding. The first day went quite well - they were asleep when the food was up - but yesterday and today has been filled with uncomprehending feline misery. I have been informed that I am an awful cat mother and they're STARRRRRRVINNNNGGGG. Too bad. Food stays up 'til 3:20.

A recruiter from the company I spoke with yesterday called me - I'll be interviewing sometime next week (details TBD).

Needless to say, I'm psyched. This is the first position I'm interviewing for where I'm *completely* qualified for the job. My previous three interviews were all for jobs that would have been a stretch. Yeah, I could have figured it out because I'm a smartypants like that, but I wouldn't have been at full capacity from the start. This job? Nearly *exactly* what I was doing at my former job, just on slightly different equipment and with different materials. That sort of stuff will be fairly easy to learn.

I now need to prepare a 20 minute presentation. I should verify with the hiring manager the subject. The recruiter's instructions were *really* vague (a topic as broad as that doesn't give any hint as to what the audience would like to hear about).

I knew that one of the day care days this month was going to be a Thursday. Idiot that I am, I thought it was this week because for some reason I thought the 14th was on Thursday. WRONG.

So I showed up at the day care provider's at 8:30 AM with EM Jr and all our stuff. Oops. Off we went to the car mechanic to drop off the car for its 9 AM service appointment. Returning home involved drama too - how to secure the child seat? I learned something today - a lap belt can secure the child seat without need for a car seat base. Thanks, seat manufacturer, for those handy diagrams on the side of the seat that I never noticed before!

And now I'm having the day I didn't expect to be having, complete with an incoherently screeching toddler angry at the world because he has his lower teeth coming in.

On the bright side, tomorrow will have that much more free time because I won't have to deal with the car and can deputize the husband to do baby pick-up and drop-off.

ETA - and now the little guy is down for part 2 of his morning nap. Schedules are for weenies.

Happy birthday, cynthia1960! Here's looking forward to another delightful trip around the sun for you. May today be filled with tasty treats and excellent company.

...

On the happy news front, I got an email from the hiring manager at wild_patience's company. [I had applied last week - ref this entry] The position had been in the interviewing phase but I guess they didn't like those candidates or just want to explore other options. They want to do a phone interview with me today or tomorrow. Woo hoo!

I'm at the library today doing job-hunty stuff while my mother and father are watching EM Jr. He was very fussy this AM - the new tooth? the rash? still sick? - so I hope he is better after his nap. I really hate the idea of my parents having a bad time with their grandson. They are so sweet to come down once a week to help me out.

* Checked "Gosford Park" out from the local library. I'd seen it before but with horrible sound. The dialog is still hard to catch at points (characters speaking in English accents with a lot of background noise) but it was better. I enjoyed seeing it again - knowing whodunnit isn't the point of the movie.

* Finally got around to watching "No Country For Old Men", which I've had out from Netflix for-bloody-ever. I refuse to tot up how much I've spent on it. It was a good movie but not worth *that* much! Not meant for anybody who likes their movie to have a happy ending.

* Both movies had Kelly MacDonald, who is quite skilled with accents. The husband placed her - I didn't believe it until I checked IMDB.

Just returned from the Santa Clara County Fair. We only stayed for a couple of hours, due to my desire to put EM Jr down for a nap. Baby foiled my plan by having a micro-snooze in the car then not going down at home. *sigh* We'll see if Mr Egregiously Cute Roly-poly boy wants to go down later.

What we did at the Fair:( sheep! )

In some respects, many of the places we're visiting now are trial runs for future family fun. EM Jr is too young to appreciate most of the activities at the Fair but I could tell there would be things he could enjoy in the future. Perhaps next year?

Porch crap removal - ( coming along nicely )

Ain't it COOL? - Just got a note from our landlords saying they want to reduce our rent by $30/month. Wow.

The week in review (( nothing much to see, move along )

Baby has figured out how to put shaped blocks through the shapes in the lid. Not that he does it well, mind you. Also has figured out that buttons = noise = fun! Therefore the nursery rhyme book is now going to go in the "take a 2 week rest" box upstairs.