FriendsNews!

FYI, if you’re interested.  They’ve done this before, but here it is again.  You have to fill out their form, and then it’s the whole album.

http://www.coldplay.com/lrlrl/lr.html

It’s been almost five months now since I was laid off.  It doesn’t seem that long, actually.  What’ve I been doing since then?  Collecting unemployment checks and doing freelance consulting, helping people with their computer problems and questions.  Check out hepya.com for info on the latter.  I’m also trying to make money through ads on that and other websites, friendsnews.com, lazypugcafe.com, myoldboss.com and others I can’t think of right now.  Pretty soon, I’ll make another attempt to sort, photograph and price all of my old unused computer parts, and sell them online.  That’s a huge job.  There just aren’t enough hours in the day, and I’m not someone who can function on 4-5 hours sleep.  Actually, I don’t think anyone can function on so little sleep.  They just think they can.

I’ve also been going on interviews.  I like the wording of that:  going on interviews, not going to interviews.  Like it’s a ride, which it is, of course.  Anyway, the most recent, expensive and aggravating interview was last Thursday in Chattanooga at Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Yes, an evil health insurance company, with a brand new “green-certified” five-building facility.  How nice for them, putting their ill-gotten gains into a new facility instead of simply providing better pay for their employees and better services for their customers.  Anyway, I drove all the way down there, only to be told I didn’t have enough experience with large-scale software deployments, specifically any well-known deployment tool.  I could hardly believe it when, after just a few minutes, they were already wrapping up the interview.  Assholes.  With the questions they asked, the entire interview could have EASILY been done over the phone.  But no, I had to drive 250 miles round-trip.  When I got home, I emailed the headhunter who got me the interview and told her what a waste of time and money it had all been.  I think I pissed her off.  Oh well.  Headhunters are a dime a dozen.

A couple weeks before that, after a second interview with a company in town, I was informed by email a few days later that I had not been chosen.  At a loss for why they didn’t pick me – I’m always at a loss when someone doesn’t choose me, that’s how confident I am of my abilities – I asked the HR guy through email, “Can I ask why I wasn’t chosen?  Knowing me, was it literally something I said?”  He said the hiring managers told him they wished there were two positions to fill, they liked me so much, but the person they hired “had slightly better technical skills.”  I find it hard to believe anyone has better technical skills – – but oh well.  In December, I had an interview with yet another healthcare company.  They’re apparently the only companies hiring right now, around here, anyway.  Judging by the repeated questions in the interview – there were three people playing tag-team on me – about how I would handle “difficult customers,” it was fairly obvious that company was full of screaming prima donnas.  I hate screaming prima donnas.  Even so, I thought I performed well.  If I remember right, my final comment to them was something like, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, what matters most on any job are the people you work with.”  I was not surprised or disappointed when I never heard from them again.

But enough about me.  Last night was Elizabeth’s weekly night of gymnastics.  It was her fifth class, I think.  At her age, 5 in April, of course they’re just doing very basic stuff.  Normally, we couldn’t afford such a class, but she’s getting it free in return for my helping the gym with their computers.  Anyway, she loves it.  She’s a very active child.    And now she’s on my lap and wanting her usual morning concierge services.

Hopefully.  It snowed a good 5-6 inches Friday in and around Nashville.  It wasn’t good snowman/snowball snow, though.  Not in our neighborhood, anyway.  It was too crusty because of the freezing rain that came after the snow.  It made for great sledding, though, which Elizabeth and I spent several hours doing over the past few days.

The pugs hate the snow.  The past two nights now, with the temperature only briefly rising above freezing on Sunday afternoon, the sidewalks and grassy areas are still covered completely by this crusty snow.  There’s just nowhere for a pug to poop.  I had to rake out some of the snow in the back yard to create some grassy areas for them to go.

But enough about that.  Now it’s Monday morning morning, and we’re looking forward to it being sunny and above 40F later today.  I could have let today’s sun do this for me, but I decided yesterday to go ahead and clear the snow off the driveway.  It took my elderly neighbor just a few minutes to do what I’d been working on twice as long.  I think my driveway is a bit bigger than his, but that’s no excuse.  I was using a garden rake and regular shovel.  The key to his success was his snow shovel.  Once he proved his superiority, with his wife looking on, unsmiling, he loaned me his snow shovel.  As I told my other neighbor, Troy, it’s amazing what a difference the right tool makes.  Troy then borrowed it and did the same to his driveway.

Our street is on a hill.  We’re the first house on the right, going up the hill, so days like these are not too bad for us.  For those at the top of the hill, however, it’s sometimes impossible to get up and over.  One such neighbor, who has a Boston Terrier – that’s how dog owners identify other dog owners – made at least two attempts.  At the time, Elizabeth and I were out on the driveway.  I was clearing it, she was trying to build a snowman at the edge of it.  A couple of times I had to tell her to come back to the safety of the porch in case any cars coming down the hill lost control and plowed into our yard.  Anyway, this one Boston Terrier neighbor finally, after two failed attempts, sat and waited at the bottom of the hill for the sun to do its work and let a few cars better-equipped for the snow than his small sedan loosen up the ice for him.  Finally, after about twenty minutes, he tried again, gunning it in front of our house where the ice was mostly melted.  This time he made it, with a few neighbors like me looking on, rooting for him.  A few minutes after that, his neighbor came down to get his SUV that he’d left parked at the bottom of the hill the day before.  I missed it, but he apparently made it up the hill just fine, too.

Elizabeth did finally make a snowman, but she had to recruit Tara for the job.  Tara wisely suggested trying it in the back yard because the sun had been shining there longer and softening up the snow, making that area much better for snowman building.  Sure enough, twenty minutes later, Elizabeth came running out to tell me to look at their snowman.  I got video of her in front of it, but I think Tara has already posted a picture of it on her blog, Tara’s Favorites.

I am now the proud owner of this very cool device, here:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018P7WZ2/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

Thanks to Heather and Brady for the suggestion!

Yes, we do it all here at FriendsNews!  :)

If I said to you “Bohemian Highway, California Merlot 2007,” what would you think?  Crap?  Just this side of Thunderbird?  Well, you’d be wrong.  At the amazingly low price of $6 for the small bottle, it’s just as good as the Woodbridge California Merlot at twice the price.

I’ve never had French wine, so this might still be crap in comparison, but it works for me!  Just FYI.

Get your “eBooks” here!

http://stores.lulu.com/holmeswa

Lucy's "B" litter

Help her come up with names starting with the letter “B” by leaving comments below!

You will not believe what I’ve been through!  :)  Okay, maybe it’s not been that bad.  You single parents out there are laughing at me, I’m sure.  But I went an entire week taking care of Elizabeth, our 4 year old, while Tara not only had to work all week, but also came down with a cold.  So, I’ve had to start her baths — Elizabeth’s not Tara’s — and read her bedtime stories!  Oh, the horror!  I’m normally the one who prepares her breakfast in the morning, anyway, so that was nothing new this week.

We’ve been to the library several times, a great source of free entertainment for any kid.  And we’ve been to the “indoor playground” at Christ Church up the street.  I normally avoid church and churches, especially behemoth small city type of churches with the word “Christ” in it like this one on Old Hickory near Nipper’s Corner.  But they’ve got this — again, free — great indoor playground available from 2 to 4 Monday through Friday for Elizabeth to burn off some energy.  There’s free wi-fi, too.  This being winter, the indoor playgrounds such as this one and those at McDonald’s and Chick Fil-A are great to have around.  We’re at a McDonald’s right now, with Elizabeth playing in the playground.  If I ever start my own business other than the current computer consulting, I think I’ll probably find a way to have a playground in it for both the kids to play in and the parents to chill out for a while.

Things were a lot more freely moving back then.  And the kids seemed to be having fun.  Reminds me of Russian traffic today, only they have slightly newer forms of transportation now. 

http://www.flixxy.com/san-francisco-1905-historical-footage.htm

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html