Evil Macaroni said so

Resolution to tour locally

2009-12-15T18:38:05Z

- Office cookie "potluck". A few weeks back, I suggested to the office admin that we replicate My Former Company's tradition of the cookie potluck. Concept: on each day of the pre-holiday-break week, volunteers bring in cookies or other treats. Result? Each day is filled with butter-soaked sugary goodness.

I had been a bit worried when only a handful of people signed up by the end of last week (the admin almost called it off), but after they saw Monday's bounty, the list got filled up. Yesterday there were 9+ treats. Today we're up to 4, though two of my colleagues claimed they bought large tins of cookies at Costco and would be bringing them in today. *happy dances*

- In other news, I've been mulling over New Year's resolutions. Yes, there is the annual resolution to do better about 1) biking to work and 2) hitting the gym to lift weights(to that end, I biked to work today despite the damp). But in addition, I've decided to make 2010 the year of local tourism. This all started after I had a conversation with learnteach a week or so ago. I was chagrined to admit I had never been to the Winchester Mystery House. Or to the Mystery Spot. Or the local museums. So resolved - I will go to visit one place on the list per month.

So here's a list of things I'm proposing to see in 2010 (subject to additions, subtractions and revisions):

Winchester Mystery House
SJ Art Museum
SJ Children's Discovery Museum
SJ Tech Museum of Innovation
SJ Institute of Contemporary Art
J Morgan Gallery
Filoli Gardens
Half Moon Bay
Mission San Jose
Mission Santa Clara
Hakone gardens
Mystery Spot
SJ Public Library
Emma Prusch Farm Park
Happy Hollow Park Zoo & Japanese Friendship Garden at Kelley Park, AND: electric light tower, History Park / museum

Edited to add (wow, is there ever a whole lot of things to see locally - I'm going to have to prune this list or stretch out the tourism beyond 2010!):
Hidden Villa
Historical home walking tours - Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, City of Campbell Ainsley House, others TBD.
SJ Japantown walking tour
Peralta Adobe House
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Sunnyvale history museum / heritage park
Hendy Iron Works in Sunnyvale
Ardenwood historical farm in Fremont

My local friends - do you have any comments or suggestions?

- In other bright news, I got my new battery and am delighted to have a laptop computer with 4+ hours of useful battery life!

EM Jr's 18 month checkup

2009-12-15T15:37:04Z

The husband took the boy over to the clinic yesterday for his well-baby checkup.

The stats:

21 lb 8 oz - still at the 4th percentile but at least his growth is steady.

32" - 46th percentile! ZOMG!!! I knew he was able to reach things at crazy heights compared to not-very-long-ago but DAMN ... my boy just got 3 inches taller. And now everyone who saw him recently is well justified in their "he's gotten so big" remarks. Wow.

He got another small series of vaccination shots and then conked out for the night at 4 PM (briefly interrupted by his parents changing & bottling him at 11 PM).

evil_macaroni @ 2009-12-02T16:35:00

2009-12-03T00:34:10Z

My husband has informed me that we have officially entered the holiday zone, in which I am forbidden from buying anything for myself until after Christmas.
*twitch*
As you were, people -

Recent events, in reverse order

2009-12-02T03:26:40Z

(because I'm perverse that way)

Tues
@ work - One of my favorite coworkers just left. This was his last day. We had so-so lunch at Afghani House. Food was expensive and quality was varied - from fine to YUCK. My lunch - mantu dumplings - had veggies that looked straight out of a freezer bag - little carrot cubies, cut-up green beans, corn and peas - ecchh. I made the mistake of ordering a side dish and appetizer instead of a kebab plate. It was cheaper and had the advantage of not coming with filler BUT the staff f'ed up the order and I got my food 5 minutes after the rest of the table was served. Grr. Aside from the weird veg & delay, my food was fine.
After lunch we gathered at the company break room for cake and pie. The chocolate cake was - I swear! - 7 lbs and tasted fabulous.
One of my other coworkers, I found out, is the grandnephew of Frank Lloyd Wright. Awesome! I can totally believe it, based on his looks.
@ home - I woke up with a nasty headache. Fortunately the husband was willing to take on baby duty and let me malinger upstairs while I waited for the meds to kick in. Between that & some extra hydration I felt a lot better quickly.

Mon
A many-errand day - I went to Magic Wok for lunch (pork and eggplant stir-fry over rice), then took the husband's car to the car wash, something that feels like an indulgence now that I'm no longer unemployed and washing my own car. Then to the library, where I picked up 3 YA books and one book I found off the Persephone list (though this is an earlier reprint).

Sun
A topsy-turvy domestic day. EM Jr had a late afternoon nap ... for 4 hours! He got up at 8:30 PM, at which point we plonked him down for dinner and then almost immediately whisked him back upstairs for bed. I finished my house tasks for the most part and was in general satisfied with my long weekend. I can't wait for more :-)

Sat
The entertaining day. I made brunch, testing out dishes I intend to serve for a future brunch party. A couple of friends sampled the items. The chilaquiles casserole (tortilla wedges baked with green sauce, chorizo and cheese, topped with avocado slices and cilantro sprigs) was delicious but looked appallingly bad once a serving spoon lifted out portions. O ye who entertain: is this a deal-breaker?
Once that was done, EM Jr woke up and we headed out to a party hosted by one of my husband's former coworkers (nobody I knew). It was sparsely attended, largely because it was a marathon shindig she was hosting over 2 days, with the grand theme "J cooks lots of stuff". As themes go, not so bad. EM Jr was being a toddler, so we couldn't stay very long. He kept trying to pull things off shelves. We relocated precious moments figurines (!!!) to higher locations but that just made him determined.
At home, we took him for a walk to Border's, where we did some holiday shopping for family members. By the time we got home, he was exhausted.

Fri
Black Friday! I made one early-morning shopping trip, then settled in. After baby's nap, we headed up to my parents' house, dropping the lad off for some quality time with his grandparents. We attempted the Christmas portrait (fail) then left them to their post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches while we headed out for lunch at Cafe Colucci followed by shopping - a car seat for the baby, some trinkets for me and then some chocolate mousse cake and cappuccino with the husband while we waited for it to stop raining. We eked out a tolerable Christmas portrait - EM Jr was super-cranky, wouldn't wear his nice hat and barely looked presentable but at least there were no on-camera baby meltdowns.

Thanksgiving Thursday
I made my apple-ginger-marmalade pie in the AM while the husband herded EM Jr. Then we headed up to my parents' house. My mother's cousin, my aunt, a family friend and a lady I didn't know (sister to my mother's late cousin's wife) attended. It was a good gathering, I guess. I was pretty stressed out for some reason - just frazzled. I never really got to relax, though the husband did a decent job of baby-wrangling. My mother's cousin has developed a really warped sense of humor - he doesn't seem to do very well around children and has no idea how to behave. As soon as pie was served, we took off for home, where I could finally relax.

Exercise musings

2009-11-18T14:54:42Z

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!

Dream: EM Jr left behind in Boston

2009-11-04T20:47:17Z

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.

(More) Things I've Been Reading Recently

2009-10-27T19:45:29Z

-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!

Things I've been reading recently

2009-10-24T18:05:38Z

-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.

Linky goodness

2009-10-18T02:10:58Z

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

this-and-that

2009-10-15T15:49:42Z

It's been very quiet around here but I thought I'd do a status update anyhow.

1. My parents returned from their 3 week vacation, just in time to let me crash with them while the husband was away for the weekend. At first EM Jr didn't recognize them but quickly figured out they were the source of fine grandparenty love. We stayed with my parents from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. It was a major stresser to schlep the baby and all our crap up to their house but once that was done, I could relax a bit.

2. I've signed all the requisite documents and am waiting to start work on Friday. Minor bummer: the company uses "flex time" instead of separating out vacation and sick days, thus providing incentives to folks to show up to work sick. The first year has minimal amounts of flex time; it quickly improves by year 2.

3. EM Jr and I had a lovely visit with Baby Bear and Helblonde on Tuesday. Baby Bear was awake, so I got to give him some milk from a bottle, which he slurped on with gusto. EM Jr was a little nonplussed by my bottling another baby and responded by bringing over Baby Bear's pacifier. I think I was gobsmacked by the cute then & there! My little guy is a bit too rambunctious and destructive for a house with a newborn so we skedaddled home shortly after.

4. Tuesday night I felt an achy throat ... and by Wednesday AM it was a full-blown achy body heralding a fever. I am not a fountain of phlegm but am worn-down and exhausted. The husband - bless his heart! - immediately left work when I phoned him Wednesday after the baby's nap. And skipped class that evening. As he put it "it's one thing if you're just frazzled, but frazzled and sick? That's quite different." Love you, my man.

5 We've been having a Farscape Season 1 marathon, thanks to the Sunnyvale library. Alas, I have to give back the boxed set yesterday (*blush*). Watching the episode "PK Tech" just bowled me over. The music, paired with the love scenes? *snivelly* I love that show.

6 EM Jr has been tapping a major vein of cute, just in time for me to go back to work

-The other day he decided to feed me his crackers. Once all the crackers had been placed in my mouth, he trotted off to fetch me his juice-filled sippy cup so I could wash them down. He put the cup to my mouth and wouldn't leave off until I had had 2 real swigs of juice.

-This AM he spent a long time cuddling between my legs while I was seated cross-legged on the floor. He soon decided the lap was incomplete, so he dragged over his stuffy lion, which was pulled over him like a blanket. He would snuggle into my lap, rest a moment, then get up and perform his stompey dance or bounce on my knee. Rinse, repeat. Eventually he decided to repeat the give-Mommy-juice episode.

Musings on fictional black presidents

2009-10-11T17:27:19Z

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.

I can has job!!!!!!

2009-10-07T22:44:32Z

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.

Semi-impromptu Thai feast

2009-10-05T04:49:01Z

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 -

A tasty pasta

2009-10-04T01:46:26Z

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
serving size = 2 cups pasta

370 cal
10 g fat (3.4 sat / 4.4 mono / 1.2 poly)
18.3 g protein
53 g carb (3.8 fiber)
18 mg cholesterol

Adapted from a recipe by Cooking Light

Interview the second

2009-10-01T18:30:04Z

... 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)!

evil_macaroni @ 2009-09-25T20:37:00

2009-09-26T03:46:42Z

It has been a chaotic week. I was at my parents' house until Wednesday afternoon. Mr Macaroni left for home Monday afternoon, which didn't give me nearly enough "me" time but it was better than nothing. I killed time Tuesday and Wednesday until I could leave.
The landlords had finished the interior painting Wednesday afternoon but still had exterior work to do on Thursday. It's a good thing EM Jr was at day care - that was *loud* work. I wasn't there either - I decamped back to my parents' neighborhood for a dentist appointment. And back again, not skipping a visit to their house to look in on the kitties, who were left behind awaiting a more sane me to transport both them and the baby back to the South Bay. I did get a little bit of "me" time, which I spent on some interview prep.

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. :)

EM Jr update

2009-09-14T18:17:52Z

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 ...

This-and-that

2009-09-03T20:35:01Z

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.

At Trader Joe's the other week, I saw a car with both pro-life and anti-war bumper stickers. Normally pro-lifers have their heads firmly up their Christianist asses and can't quite grasp that maybe being "pro-life" means something different than womb control and unquestioning support of the patriarchy. This person at least did not commit the philosophy's #1 hypocrisy fail (though I still disagree with hir philosophy).

Movies -
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day = frothy sweet goodness. Ciaran Hinds does pretty well with Frances McDormand.
The Tale of Deveraux - Meh. Nice visuals but story was lackluster. I figured this was a rush job to capitalize on Ratatouille popularity.
The husband and I are rewatching Lord of the Rings (extended edition). 1 disk/night, skipping a night between flicks to recover. The husband is starting to fall out of love with the saga, I'm afraid, making disparaging comments about the scripting.

Books-
I've tabled the sci-fi reading project (for the most part). I just had too much difficulty getting the books from my library. What I did manage to read: Ringworld, The Princess (& the Chessmen) of Mars, CL Moore stories, Ill Met In Lankhmar. None of them were ghastly but none of them were my cuppa.

Saturn's Children - someone on my LJ friends list read this recently. I saw it in my local library and checked it out. I must be turning into the laziest reader ever because I really disliked the perspective shifts between the two android characters (Juliette and Freya). And found myself just not enjoying the heroine's stupidity.
I'm the One That I Want by Margaret Cho - written after the movie of the same name. Delves into Cho's life in great, fucked-up detail. Fascinating.
The Boggart by Susan Cooper - lightweight juvie fantasy by the award-winning author of The Dark Is Rising saga. Forgettable.

EM Jr-
"Pick your battles" is what they say to parents dealing with recalcitrant toddlers. It's so true.
Battle #1 - diaper changes: oh, it's ON. My little boy still resents the imposition on his liberty of the diaper change. I don't want to let diapers sit on his ass so long that he gets a rash. Inherent conflict, especially when I want him to be still when I'm dealing with a poopy diaper. Singing and distracting with a toy sometimes helps but mostly it's just a wrestling match accompanied by shrieking. *sigh*

Battle #2 - feeding at the high chair: not so much. For some reason, my hungry baby does not want to be fed cereal, even though he likes it and will eat it (note to Joan: I mix it 50-50 with fruit puree so it tastes good). Occasionally I can get some eating to occur if I break through his resistance long enough to get a morsel in his mouth, at which point he'll capitulate ... for a time. But that's not what I want to do here. So most mornings I just sit on the floor and spoon a bit in his mouth whenever he toddles by. Food in baby stomach = WIN.

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.

Interview!

2009-08-14T00:34:04Z

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'm an idiot

2009-08-13T19:02:51Z

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.

Birthday wishes & good cheer

2009-08-12T18:54:36Z

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.

Movies

2009-08-03T05:08:02Z

* 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.

evil_macaroni @ 2009-08-02T14:56:00

2009-08-02T22:28:26Z

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:cow share</a> with friends once I become employed again.
- Ate lunch with the husband, who then went off to support a demo with his friends. Said hi to ppuf and leohtulf who were at that demo.
- Snagged a sno-cone (blue raspberry, naturally) en route out

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?

Unexpected good news

2009-07-31T02:05:19Z

Porch crap removal - Still to go (10): camp bed (promised to etaine_pommier, old bed (WTF?), rug, shelves x 2, folding art table, my husband's tae kwon do pads, a suitcase with ? inside, nonfunctional chair destroyed by cat pee and in need of completely new canvas, chair arms pulled off our dining room set, tarp, etc.?

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 ()
Mon - job hunty day, plus stuff
Tues - forgettable (park / walking around apt)
Wed - Mom came! I got to go out ... Went to lunch - no Cyn, alas. Then to Peet's for job hunty stuff - mostly I just got organized and did a spot of networking, then off for errands and some cardio at the gym.
Thurs - forgettable except for our Ikea trip - I ate meatballs with the lad, bought a storage bin and let EM Jr run around in the child's furniture section, where he pushed a rainbow chair around. Later we went walking around the apartment complex, meeting a shy 17 month girl.

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.

Job hunty and miscellaneous updates

2009-07-27T17:58:39Z

* My apartment has a lovely porch outside of the bedroom. Currently it has all of my husband's camping crap piled up on it. But it would be a lovely place for a person to sit and hang out. Perhaps with houseplants. So I have made it a mission to de-crap-ify it. I've been removing an item each day and redistributing it around the house. Or junking it. I will update.

* Somebody stole my water bottle at the gym (my bad for leaving it and optimistically hoping it would show up at the lost and found). I'm sad - it was a great bottle. EM Jr loved to drink from it and it was so much better to have an unbreakable bottle on the coffee table rather than a glass of water - I now have to be triple-vigilant about picking up my water glass.

And who the hell would steal a water bottle? I mean, GERMY much? Ewww!

* Job-hunty updates:

- A temp agency has been in talks with me. A prestigious company in the Peninsula wants to hire a well educated person with [specific experience I don't have] at peon wages and shitty benefits on a 6 month contract. The temp agency has wisely determined it ain't gonna happen like that so they can either get a desperate but smarty-pants (like me) or be out of luck. We shall see. If I got it I'd probably take it - it would give me some good experience in a different field, connections within the company and (quite importantly!) $$ and extension of my UI benefits.

- A little birdie told me who was the lucky candidate for the job I failed to attain. Turns out it's a respected former colleague of mine. I have absolutely nothing against this fellow and (hell) if I were the company, I'd totally have chosen him over me, given that he has a bazillion times more experience than I do and is a sweet fellow to boot. Sweet enough to send me some connections and pledge to keep me informed of any opportunities. Woot! This is taking a good portion of the sting out of my recent loss, let me tell you.