Keven was giving me grief earlier because I haven’t blogged in a while.  I write myself notes all the time about things and events that would be funny to blog about, then get home and don’t have the time it takes to get it posted.  For some reason I can’t exactly figure out, it takes longer than it seems it should.  Only one person ever comments, so I’m kind of convinced nobody reads it anyway.

Admittedly I’ve also been a bit distracted lately by other things like Facebook, where I have more interaction with others.   And juggling my jobs, parenting, working with partially motivated, fickle buyers, etc. 

What have you been up to?

I’ve been doing 4 day a week open houses at this new construction site.  There are 4 homes left out of the 24 in the development.  Anyway, the builder refuses to advertise in any way except road signs.  Thursdays and Fridays are so freakin’ dead.  Although most days I manage to keep busy with a variety of projects, there are days like today where I’m bored out of my mind.

I often joke about seeing how long my eyelids can remain inside out, but haven’t actually tested or timed it yet.  YET being the operative word.  I admit to having developed an addiction to online Scrabble.  I was shocked initially when the resident mouse made an appearance, but would you believe he doesn’t even come on Thursdays or Fridays either?

Today was so bad I was having a hard time staying awake, so I made a really really hot cup of tea and dropped a Lifesaver gummy candy into it to see how long it would take to dissolve or if it even would.

New Year’s Eve was relatively low key.  We met up with some friends at a pub in Wallingford, rang in the new year and then headed out for a celebratory burger at Dick’s. 

The lines were as long as I can recall ever seeing them.  Since it was cold out, and getting late, we decided to head toward home and stop at another one along the way.  Approximately 15 minutes later, we rolled in to Dick’s, the lines weren’t horribly long in length, however, the wait time seemed ungodly long for the half hour it was and the lines weres barely moving, if at all. 

There were some very interesting characters standing in the lines in front and around us.  Believe me when I say we stood  in line so long, we had a chance to check everybody out at least once while we were developing hypothermia and rapidly nearing starvation.  We had one guy who I thought must have had a neck problem, when I realized he had no neck…just a head attached to his shoulders.  His friend seemed like a sharp knife while boasted about how he’s not the kind of guy to drink and drive, he’d just walked all the way from Greenlake.  He’d contemplated walking to the Greenwood location, but couldn’t decide how long that would take compared to Lake City.  There were some girls who were dressed in very high heels that appeared to not really fit and clothes that made me wonder if they were cheap hookers or just white trash that had left a party.  We had the man who was nicely dressed in an overcoat who kept looking at these individuals with a look of amazement on his face.  When we were about 4 people back in line, these two other girls with their dates/boyfriends, started compiling their orders.  One wanted one deluxe, one fries, one tartar.   The other wanted 3 specials, 3 fries and a shake.  Got me thinking too, the ole stomach started growling.

Moments later the girls approached their window. They started to place their orders when I heard one say “you’re out of specials? I’ll take a cheeseburger…no cheeseburgers, ok then, I’ll take fries.” She walked away with a very small bag of tiny fries.  The person in the front of our line was having the same problem and walked away without even fries and the employee shut the window almost in his face.   Keven and I looked at each other with the same incredulity that everyone around us had.  Dick’s, out of burgers?  Is that even possible? That’s like a crime against nature.  We couldn’t believe it!  It was 5 minutes after closing time, but there were still about 50 or so people in line.  You can imagine the conversation on the way home, the whole debate how they could turn people away when there were so many in line.

It was a travesty and an injustice.  I hope it’s not an indication of the year to come. 

Happy New Year, my friends.  May the new year bless you with much happiness and prosperity!

Consider the holiday craziness commenced!  It always starts with Alyssa’s birthday and just seems to keep going without a break until New Years.  Her birthday was last Monday…15, YIKES!  I have no idea where the time went but am grateful that she’s 15 years older and not me! She was having last minute nostalgia about leaving 14 behind.  So I rubbed it in a bit by reminding her of last things while she was 14.

The celebrating started the weekend before, going to the movies with her friends early Saturday, then a girl’s nite with my best friend Kim. Sunday day she spent with my Dad and stepmother, followed by a family dinner on Alyssa’s dad’s side of the family.  On her actual birthday, I was off and Keven took off work early and we took her to Capital Hill to get a helix piercing (higher up on the ear aka cartilage piercing) which she’d been asking to do for quite some time.  Then a mad dash to get toward home to pick up a couple of her friends and onward to the birthday dinner at the Spaghetti Factory (email me for photos). 

Wednesday was girl’s night out, so we went to Molly Maguire’s for trivia.  That’s something we all used to do as a group, but Mac and Rachelle had a baby in June so they alternate going out and I haven’t been in forever since I started getting up so early for work.  The alarm is going off a little after 5am and I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination and I can’t roll home at midnite or later and get up at 5.  It was really fun though and our group won, so after buying a round of drinks for the runners up (we won in a tie breaker) and tipping the bartender, we each walked away with $20!

Thursday we went to Margo’s (Keven’s brother’s mother-in-law) hours, then on to Mac’s for the remainder of the evening.  Friday we did a bunch of errand-type stuff, went to a play with Marla (it was really good but over 2 hours long) then out with a few friends…one of whom was having a birthday.  Saturday was a blur of activity as well.  We got up early and did a freezing cold lap around Greenlake (it was 31 ice cold degrees), went out to breakfast, ran errands, then down to Mac & Rachelle’s house and babysat their kids so they could go out.  Keven was up early on Sunday, although I’m not quite sure how, all perky and flying out the door for a bike ride.

I’ve also been working overtime when I can get it, so you see the holiday tornado is already set in motion!

It appears that I live in an aquarium.  Monday night my cat was pawing at something behind a large printer in my family room.  When I got up to look, there was nothing there.  I waited a bit, then a lizard appeared!

In previous years, I’ve been the proud owner of field mice, gardner snakes, misc birds, bird or mouse heads, a small bat, found a frog floating on my pool, and now a lizard.   Do I dare wonder what’s next?

After much deliberation, the verdict is in.  I’m keeping the car.  At least for the time being.  In light of my recent decision, I’ve been giving the car a little extra attention.  The tires had been worn to the point that every time I took the car out, I did the sign of the cross and did a silent prayer I’d get to my destination in one piece.  I spent some time this past week calling around for the best price and found a guy in Auburn who gave me the best price and a good brand.  

I started to notice some very scary wear on my tires on Wednesday and decided that Thursday was D-day.  Under normal circumstances it takes about a hour to get there.  So I checked traffic online, packed some things to keep me occupied, and was heading out to the car, when I saw the neighbors who had something they wanted to talk to me about.  45 minutes later, I said my pre-venture prayers and hit the road, only to discover the clear traffic was no longer clear.  Apparently the Blue Angels were in town, one of the major bridges was shut down, and traffic was backed up in every direction.  My trip took over an hour & a half!  YIKES!  But I arrived safely and in one piece.

I met up with Chris, the owner of the tire shop, and we went out to look at the car.  The picture is of one of the tires when I arrived.  There was even more scary-wear and I was very grateful to have made it in one piece.  He was very friendly and got the tires replaced without an ounce of grief.  I expecting massive amounts of sh*t from him, since mechanics usually have a lot to say about whatever you’re in their shop for and the tires, admittedly, were in bad, bad shape. 

Note to self and others…if you want/need a good deal on tires and quick, friendly service, go to Chris at Afford-A-Tire in Auburn.  3108 A Street SE, Auburn.  206-371-4283 or 253-833-8882.

After my car wash and a new quart of oil, my girl is running like ‘almost new’.  Next on the agenda?  New windshield wiper.  The rubber has worn off one of the blades and so I’ve woven it through the existing wiper frame and semi-secured it.  And an oil change.

Carey sent this email.  I love the story, thought you’d like it too. 

This is from John in the Morning on KEXP:
So on Thursday we have this great intern, he’s a good kid.  15 and rides his bike here at 5 in the morning.  Always does a good job and helps out a ton.   He was leaving the station today and noticed his bike was gone.  We checked our video camera and we see at about 5:40am some scumbag walking past my car and over to his bike and gets around the lock and rides away. Made me sick to my stomach to see that.  Couldn’t see enough to id him either.  So I write an email to the staff letting them know and to watch out for your bikes.  Within 2 minutes of that email, people starting walking into my office and handing me 20’s.  Within the hour, almost 300 bucks in the bike fund.  I went from that “I hate people” feeling to “man, I love people” and I also love the people here at KEXP.  I thought you should all know that.  Know that you listen to and support a station with GREAT people behind it.  I couldn’t be more proud….and now Morgan will get a bike so he can keep helping you and I out and get around this town.

I love things like this when the human spirit truly shines.

For about the last month or so, I’ve been playing phone and email tag with one of the 15 temp/permanent placement agencies I’ve sent my resume to.  Each time I get something from this one rep, it’s like she’s responding for the first time to my resume. It’s very odd.  Anyway, I called yesterday to check in with her, left voicemail, and today received an email saying basically I’m overqualified for their clientele and to call 2 other more upscale agencies.

Since when can one be overqualified for temp work?  I mean that is kind of the point, to pick up something quick and short-term or longer term.  Way back in the day I worked for 3 simultaneously, and for the most part, it was pretty fun.  I got to work for a lot of different companies and was able to piggyback them with various shifts, thus creating somewhat of an ideal work environment.

Things.  They are a changin’…

Remember that statement, I am a woman therefore I retain the right to change my mind at any given time?  That applies to teenagers doubly so…especially the girls.  You’ve heard me talk non-stop about Squid, some of the misadventures we’ve had, etc.  I don’t know what exactly has happened, but we’ve had about a month now of reasonably smooth sailing.  Perfect timing too because with everything else going on, if it wasn’t, I’d shove myself off a damn cliff.

Prior to her dad moving in with his gf, Squid would go to her dad’s Tuesdays and Fridays overnight, returning home sometime towards the later part of Saturday afternoon.  Along with the usual battle over getting schoolwork and chores done so we could get out and play, we used to do a lot of things together like going to movies, eating out, taking our annual day trip, etc.  Post move-in, since there are other kids, one of her age, she’s been spending most of the weekends there, returning home late enough Sunday that all there is for her to do is scramble to get homework done, eat dinner and go to bed.  If there’s a family dinner on their side, sometimes just enough time to come home, argue with me and go to bed.

Not too far in the distant past, she started saying things to me about how we never do anything together anymore, etc.  When given the option to stay and hang with us or go to her dad’s, the choice of late is his house because the other kids are there, whereas with us, either the kids are in absentia or too young.

So she was preparing to go to Idaho for a week with her younger cousins and realized at the community pool with her friends that she’d worn her swimsuit so far down, that it had become a see-thru suit.  LOL.  Shopping the past few years with her has not been fun, in fact quite the opposite, so her dad and I were both trying to not have to take her.  I left out the minor detail, that I wasn’t told about the swimsuit situation until shortly before she was supposed to leave for her trip…maybe a little over a day.  YIKES!! 

Friday I decided to just bite the bullet and get the dreaded task out of the way.  We went to lunch with Keven at this new Japanese restaurant we’ve discovered.  It has a sushi bar, indoor pond with Koi, and has a cool atmosphere.  She bravely tried a new dish that he’d recommended only to discover that he has good taste like her mother.  Then off to Redmond Towne Center. 

She had $40 to buy a suit and that’s it.  I was surprised to see that everyone now prices per piece rather than per set, so it is a bit misleading.  We’d see a sign for $25.99, but that’s per piece…most pieces were around $30-40 per piece.  Macy’s had sets for $76, but sizing and style were a bit problematic.  I was really impressed that she wasn’t trying to get more out of me, cash wise, but if she didn’t find what she wanted in the right price/size, was very agreeable to going to the next shop.  Luckily we struck gold at the 3rd place we hit, she loved the suit, it was exactly $40 without tax, and she embarassingly paid the guy…the embarassing part (for her) was that her dad had given her one dollar bills and change.

Squid’s been babysitting for a few friends and has made enough money that she’s learning a different kind of money management than when you get birthday money and allowance.  She has developed an appreciation of how much things cost, what sales really mean, and how to stretch her dollars.  Don’t get me wrong, she loves the namebrand stores like Hollister (her fave), Abercrombie, etc, but doesn’t go for the $100+ jeans, $75 sweatshirts, etc.  She waits for them to go on sale.  It was quite interesting to observe her in action and because I wasn’t directly paying for the swimsuit, there really wasn’t a point in her trying to extract more out of me, which she would have in the past, regardless of who was paying.

We ended up having a really good time and I actually felt a little sad that she was leaving for so long.

A few days ago, I received a call from a temp agency that I’d sent a resume to.  I’m interested in something to help tide me over so I can get started in real estate.  I’ve been putting feelers out everywhere, and while I keep hearing how tough the job market is right now,  apparently that applies to the temp market as well.  

Most of the sites are automated, so you upload your resume or specify what you’re interested in.    One company I did that with sends daily updates for jobs it seems would be compatible with my experience, only they’ve got it all wrong…waaayyy wrong. It’s sending me a truckload of listing for various software program engineering all the way down to really obscure things like fire sprinkler design engineer.  Frankly, I didn’t realize my skill set qualified me for that! 

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked.  Sorry.  So I got a call from one company that was very excited by my resume, wanted to know if I could do a project coordinator position, the pay range was right on, and they want to send my information to the hiring manager as she’s looking for someone ASAP.  They were in Bellevue, I was in Redmond, so I went straight over to their office where, what was supposed to take 45 mintes, took more along the lines of an hour & a half.  There were two very young ‘girls’ working the office.  Toward the end of the massive amounts of paperwork I had to fill out, one says to the other “I just think it’s so cool you can type without looking!”.  The chatter continued along the same lines and there were matching phone calls to go with it.  I stopped for a second and thought “this is who will be making decisions of compatibility between positions, companies and candidates?”. 

Now keeping in mind that I hadn’t planned on being there that day, I didn’t have a good second proof of citizenship, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t keep my birth certificate on me, and I’m still waiting for my passport that was supposed to have been here almost 4 weeks ago. The one girl looked at me like she was totally shocked and amazed by this.  I had other proof, my real estate license, which she looked at and asked “what’s this?” and she wasn’t impressed by my gun permit either.  So she asked me to email her a copy of my resume (which she already  had) attached and open in email and my birth certificate.  When I got home I emailed the attached resume in Word, the “soft copy” as well as my bc.  I received emails from her throughout the day, one asking me to email it, so I sent it again.  Then she wanted a soft copy, which had now been sent to her 3 times, followed by a message from her saying she couldn’t open it.  I’m thinking what the h*ll, you don’t need to open a soft copy, just scroll down the page.  Another email came through at the end of the day stating ooops, she hadn’t meant the resume, she wanted the birth certificate.  

So as I was staring at my birth certificate, and now that they’ve also got my SSN# on a bunch of paperwork (W-4 and background check), how easy it would be for identity theft.  And I’m sure these two dingbats are not overly cautious about the handling of paperwork, so I could easily see them throwing paperwork either in the garbage or recycling without shredding and without a second thought.

Another thought running through my mind was what kind of company would have these two working an office unsupervised and entrusting them with their client base (including Nordstrom and various other companies of significant stature)?  The entire time I was there, they were making personal phone calls and just shooting the breeze with each other.   Not only did they not interview me in any sort of way, they didn’t even talk to me the entire time I was there.  I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I wasn’t.  Then to add fuel to the fire, they printed out a job description for the project coordinator position and it looks more like a bookkeeping position than project coordinator of any kind.  To add to my irritation, traffic was horrible and it took over an hour & 15 minutes to get to Keven’s house, luckily I stopped there on the way home only to discover the problem with his freezer.  We were in for a fun night….not hardly!