Sorry for the delay, I am really lazy. But the winner is Molly! Huge surprise since almost half the entries were from Cindy, but as you can see from yesterday’s picture, Jack and I put one entry in a hat for each comment, swirled them around and then Luke drew a name.
Molly: I will be shopping for your prize on our upcoming trip to South Dakota.
Well, well, well. I quit my old job, and during my two weeks notice I decided to never work after hours. Then I took a week off, and tried to never touch a computer. Consequently, I have not been able to blog.
But this evening, I did compile a list of entries from the comments contest and there were 79! Crazy! I need Luke to pull the names out of the hat, and he is fast asleep after a successful first day of school, so this will have to wait till tomorrow.
I baked!!! OK – Update: I baked a Dimply Plum Cake, with plums from the tree in our back yard. The plums are on the tart side, but it’s nothing that a dollop of ice cream can’t handle. And here is the recipe!
Yum!
So, as I said, I quit my job. Maybe once, a million years ago, I thought that some place was going to be “so screwed” when I left, but I don’t feel that way now. Life goes on, work gets done, it’s no big deal. But I have to say, I have really mixed feelings about what is going on during my last 2 weeks. I am being replaced by a temporary consultant and two full time positions. The entire organizations project list is being restructured.** I suppose, it would be normal to either not care, or to feel gratified that someone realized I was doing the work of 3 people. But mostly, I feel annoyed. I am going to try to turn this into a learning opportunity about setting priorities.
** Part of this is that the other person that quit the same day I did was my boss. I get that, but really, they are only replacing him with one person.
My friend Laura is currently driving a Nissan Cube, which for no apparent reason, has a shag carpet on the dashboard. Laura thinks it’s a chihuahua rest, but for the sake of all the Nissan Cube driving chihuahua guardians out there, let’s hope they aren’t in a hurry to get to Pizzeria Basta on their lunch break. Computer Engineer Barbie couldn’t take those turns.
Here it is: I got frustrated with my job, so I posted my resume on monster.com, applied for some jobs, went on some interviews, got a verbal job offer, decided that was good enough, and gave two weeks notice at my job.
A few months ago, I announced that I planned to quit my job so spectacularly that I’d be interviewed on The Today Show, and Matt Lauer and I could reminisce about the good old days at our Alma Mater. So maybe that is why my facebook friends were all very interested in “the story” of my quitting. Maybe I made it sound like I just stormed out. Maybe they think that now that I quit my job, I will have regained the ability to tell interesting stories.
The story is still in development as I await a firm offer for a new job.
But today in an IM with a co-worker, the term LMOA was used. I just smiled and thought, “I am going to be funny again.”
Thanks for sticking with me!
I added the Mary Magdalene book to my list of books read, as well as My Hollywood and Cutting for Stone. The list appears to be putting itself in alphabetical order, which I don’t love, but am too lazy to work on that right now. After I read My Hollywood, I read a review of it which made me like it more. But there is just something about reading a book about the complicated relationship between women and me, women and children and women and their nannies, that wasn’t really the type of summer read I was looking for. It was very well done, and the characters were very real, but ugh.
I can’t remember which book it was, (A Fine Balance or The God of Small Things) but something I read caused me to put a hold on all Indian literature, because it’s always more tragedy than I can handle. I bought Cutting for Stone when I was on an Amazon gift card shopping spree without knowing much about it, but since it’s been on my shelf, I think it’s been recommended to me at least three times. It takes place mostly in Ethiopia, but the characters are mostly Indian. India+Africa really takes the tragedy up a notch. (It goes to 11, as they say.) It took me maybe a week to read the 665 pages, and one night, I finished working around midnight and thought, I better not try to read just a few pages, I’ll end up staying up until 2am to finish it. And then I flopped down on the couch and started reading. Yup, at 1:59 I read the last page. I had some major problems with the main character at the end, but I have been thinking about the book ever since. So yes, I recommend it.
Luke is reading the Harry Potter series, and I am trying to keep up. He finished the first book in less than a week and he’s almost finished with the second. I have heard from a good friend who does her research (Jena!) that books 1-4 are age appropriate, and 5-7 should maybe be saved for later. Luckily, Luke received the series from his Grandparents this summer, and the one book that is missing is book 5. So we may have a natural break while we look for book 5. Of course, he saw it at the Boulder Bookstore this weekend and almost died because I didn’t buy it. Somehow I have to leapfrog in front of him, and start reading the books before he gets to them to see what I think.
So, Harry Potter fans, how am I going to get Luke to stop reading and wait a few years for book 5? Maybe school will start just in time.
Dave and I went for a bike ride today, it was 93 degrees. As you may know, Dave eschews the typical lycra ensemble, in favor of a look one might call “shuffleboard chic”. I also like to wear my biking skirt, and a cute top, but as I have already mentioned, my biking skirt is too tight. So I had to break the family dress code and just wear head-to-toe lycra today for our bike ride. I felt like I was walking around in just underwear, but I have to say, I am sure it kept me cooler. And for a sunny, 95 degree 12 mile bike ride, every bit helps.
Dave and I had an odd conversation today.
Dave: Did you feed Lucy? Her bowl is empty.
Me: Yeah I fed her and I left the food outside. That’s probably why she wanted to go out as soon as we got home.
Dave: She was out with the food the whole time we were gone…
Me: I know, but she came in, got all excited when she saw us and then went straight back out, probably to eat her food.
Dave: Remember how Bean used to do that?
Me: No. He never did that.
Dave: Yeah, we’d feed him and he’d wait till we got home to eat, just in case. Like, “Oh they came back! I don’t need to save this food anymore!”
Me: Nope, that’s what Lucy does. That is what I was just describing.
Dave: Really?
Me: Yes, Bean ate all his food within two minutes of being served.
Dave: Oh yeah.
So if I had been blogging during all of Bean’s life, I could link to the time he ate an entire chicken, the time he ate a bag of chocolate chips, the many dog food buffets, the time he got really fat, and the cookie story. OK, I can link to the cookie story, and in reading it, I was reminded of the time Bean and Killian stole 20 pieces of fried chicken off the stove, ate what they could and stashed the rest behind the refrigerator. That must have been what Dave was thinking of.
MetaMegan 