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ShinyHappy - Thoughts for November 1st - 15th
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11/15/04 The gift shopping has begun.
Today was really quiet. Nice and quiet. We didn't have big plans for this particular Monday. Andrew had to go to the school library, but otherwise we pretty much hung out here. I'm of course now waiting anxiously for a phone call about the job, so every time the phone rings I have a minor mental freakout, but since I have until the end of the week to wait, I'm trying to be rational and calm about it. Hah.
While Andrew was out I decided to go for a walk to Arbour Environmental Shoppe to buy a Christmas gift for someone. Yes, I have now officially begun my Christmas shopping! Yay!
Ahem. Yes, I had noticed something there a while back that was a perfect gift for someone in my family and decided today to go and see if it was still there. It was, which made me very happy and I bought it, but of course while I was in there I browsed the environmentally friendly cat toys again and this time had to buy Halo the honeysuckle mouse that I didn't buy him last time. Last time I went with the cat ravioli which, while acceptable, didn't inspire in him fits of rambuctiousness and get him all stoned. The guy working there last time had told me that cats are just as messed up by honeysuckle as they are by catnip. So, this time I bought him a lovely blue fleece mouse stuffed full of honeysuckle and with an exciting yellow tail. No picture right now, unfortunately, as the digital camera has decided it hates my computer and will only interface with Andrew's Mac. It's a conspiracy, I know it. I should never have left them alone together (the camera and the Mac).
So, when I got home I called Halo into the dining room and plunked the mouse down on the floor for him, where he promptly played with it like a crazy cat all the way down the hall, back up to the dining room, into the bedroom and under the bed. I was thrilled, but he hasn't really played with it since. However, he does like it a lot, I can tell. He's been doing a lot of playing lately, actually. He had Andrew and I thoroughly amused last night as he galloped up and down and all around aimlessly for a while. He can make a lot of noise with his feet for a little skinny cat. He even sent the ravioli flying a few times, and roughed up the Daddy Pompom Legs a bit. He's certainly got the monopoly on cuteness around here.
Otherwise, however, contentment ruled the day. We had a reality T.V. fest tonight by watching Fear Factor and the tape of Thursday's Survivor and The Apprentice. I found out tonight that the new season of The Amazing Race starts tomorrow night, so I may have to watch that and see if I can handle it this time around. That show has always stressed me out with all the running around and trying to catch planes and trains and get places on time. I keep telling Andrew it's right up his alley. Tee hee.
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11/14/04 Pimpin' software in my weblog! Oh, yeah!
Well, we didn't wake up to any parades today, but we had a pretty good day anyhow. I was preparing to take a shower when our super came to the door and told Andrew there was a storage space for us downstairs. Andrew put our padlock on it right away and over the course of the day got the things we wanted in there moved, and also moved the things we had in the temporary storage in there too. It's not the original storage space we'd been told we could have. Apparently the jerks across from us get to keep their extra storage now.
As long as we have our own space, though, I'm satisfied. Just a bit irritated by people who do jerkish things.
We'd gotten an email from Jen the other day telling us that The Hebrew Hammer was playing at the Mayfair tonight. She'd mentioned this movie to us a while back as a very interesting sounding film, so when her brother's girlfriend found that it was playing in town we all got together and went tonight. Jen has been sick for days and was still very congested and tired, but she had improved enough that she was able to get to the theatre and be entertained for a while.
The five of us found the movie hilarious. It became fairly apparent, however, that very few others in the theatre did. We'd noticed as we chose our seats that the crowd was slightly more 'mature' than the sort we'd expected to find viewing this movie. It seems that most of them had not done a very important thing; they had not read the movie description. Here is what is says here:
"A hilarious spoof on the film "Shaft". Mordecai Jefferson Carver, aka The Hebrew Hammer (Adam Goldberg), catapults into operation when Hanukkah is about to be destroyed. Tossing political correctness aside and certified to offend everyone, Hammer ‘the baddest Hebe in the neighbourhood’ sets out to kick gentile ass."
Apparently a large portion of the audience came expecting something rather other than what this blurb fairly bluntly states the movie is. The main sources of laughter in the room were our group and a woman sitting a few rows behind us. Eek. We didn't let it dampen our enjoyment, although there was an awkward moment when Colin saw someone he knew, asked him if he'd enjoyed the movie and was met with a decided and unhappy, "No!" Ah, well. Perhaps more people liked it than we suspect.
I seem to have a fascination with downloading interesting new software lately. As you may know, I'm totally in love with Firefox and Thunderbird. My only complaint is that Thunderbird, the mail program, isn't integrated into Firefox. The whole point of Firefox is that it's a stand-alone browser, I know, but there are some things that I'm just used to, and integrated email is one of them. In order to get notification of new mail from Thunderbird the program has to be running, and I don't like having to have both programs running at the same time on my poor old computer. So, to fix this problem I downloaded a nifty wee program called PopTray which checks my server for email and lets me know when I have new mail by flashing an alert in my systems tray. All my problems are solved!
The best part is, I can preview who the messages are from so I can then delete obvious spam without downloading it. More yay! And if I'm sounding like an advertisement, well ... sorry. It's just that I'm so happy!
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Today Andrew and I slept in fairly late. He was looking forward to being able to since he'd had a long week of extreme busyness and felt he'd earned a lazy morning. He did have to get up and move his dad's car from in front of our building just before eight, though, and as it turns out it's very lucky he did. I got up late in the morning and looked out the window to see people lining Bank street on either side. I knew I'd heard that there wasn't going to be a Grey Cup parade this year, so asked Andrew if I was wrong. He didn't know, so I went back to looking out the window and he soon joined me when I told him about some guys roaming around with huge John 3:16 signs. A parade did start going by, and it turns out that today was the Ottawa Santa Claus Parade. Huh. I'd had no idea.
It was nice to be able to watch the whole thing in the warmth and comfort of our own dining room. It was also nice to make really snarky comments and observations about the whole thing with someone who shared similar views. Tee hee. There's about a million dance schools in Ottawa as it turns out and they're all in the Santa Claus Parade. Also, armoured trucks with some pieces of Christmas wreath tied to the side mirrors count as floats. I won't say very many bad things about it, though. The kids had fun.
Because he had the car today Andrew felt the need to do something productive with it. I wasn't in the mood to go to Loblaws, which had been his first impulse, so he decided to take a trip to Merrickville. I'm sure I could have gone along if I'd wanted, but since his reason for going to Merrickville was to visit his favourite train store, I decided to stay home and do my own thing. I have not been feeling well for a day or two, so liked the thought of relaxing and recuperating from all the interviewing trauma. I made my own fun, as you'll see.
Something I'd wanted to do for a long time and hadn't gotten around to doing was to create a favicon for my site. If you don't know what those are, well, I've gone and created one for my site but depending on what browser you use and how they handle them, you may not be able to see mine. They're the little graphics that a lot of sites have beside the URL in the address box window and in your bookmarks or favourites that 'brand' their site. Google has its little 'G', and various other sites usually have their logo all tiny and cute there. I made mine a 'K'. I made it in a graphics program then used FavIcon from Pics to make it into what I needed. Very cool, and the site made it extremely easy to understand and set up.
This site has a huge favicon gallery. Teeny-tiny artwork is fun!
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My interview went very well today. I got there nice and early, just the way I like to, and was waiting for the interviewer when he arrived. He took me right into the place and had me listen in on a few calls with someone immediately before we started the interview, so I could get an idea of what the job was all about.
Basically, the job is all about doing exactly what I was doing at my old job. They use identical software and even use the same terms to refer to the various tasks I'd be performing. This was a bonus for me as it made it easy for me to ask questions in the interview, and I was able to pull a few industry phrases out and toss them around to show I had a lot of existing knowledge. My interviewer seemed fairly pleased with all this and as far as I can tell he was very positive about me.
I should be finding out by the end of next week at the latest if I have the job.
When we got home Andrew and I crashed for a nap, then he had to go to the school midafternoon or so. When he got home we decided to go to The Works for our dinner. It just opened up in the Glebe a week or so ago and I've been curious to try their fancy-schmancy burgers since hearing what a huge selection they carry. That link says that the prices are average, but I think that ten dollars for a burger is a wee titch above average. Anyhow, the burgers are delicious and enormous, so you pay for what you get. I went with The Diamondhead, which is a teriyaki burger with ham and a pineapple ring. Andrew got one that had teriyaki in the name, but we don't remember what the whole title was. Anyhow, it had mushrooms so it was gross, although he appeared to enjoy it somehow.
I saw that in the sides selection there was mac and cheese so figured I'd get that rather than potatoes. I'd also noticed that there was a burger that came with Kraft Dinner on it! I somehow didn't put two and two together and was a bit deflated when the mac and cheese arrived in a bowl and turned out to be Kraft Dinner. I was expecting more of a homestyle macaroni thingie, but since I do enjoy my Kraft Dinner (like the good Canadian girl I am) I ate it and it was good.
I did find that putting ham on a hamburger is just not right. Bacon is O.K., but not slices of ham. This is a personal preference. So I took the large amounts of ham out of my burger. Then I had to leave the table, so told Andrew to have the waitress baggie up the rest of my burger if she came around. When I came back to the table Andrew had put the ham back in my burger. He said he'd just thought I didn't want that much meat at that particular time. I said I'd taken the meat out because I didn't want it at all. So I once again slid the ham back out to sit on the tray, lonely and pink.
In the end, The Works is good and great and I'll go back there anytime. Maybe someday I'll try the Kraft Dinner burger, but probably not next time.
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11/11/04 Let's just say that Andrew prefers living with me over Pez.
So, I have that interview in the morning. It's a bit of a bus ride away, and Andrew is once again demonstrating his unending love and devotion to me by getting up in the morning with me and going along to make sure I get there all right. Yes, he loves me that much! I mean, he's a man who likes to sleep but he will arise at what to him is a ridiculous hour if one doesn't really have to, accompany me in the cold on a bus to a place far, far away where he will then sit in a mall and wait around for me for an indeterminate amount of time until I return, at which point we will then come back home. Not much excitement for him, and entirely for my benefit since I'm terrible at figuring out where I'm going in strange places. And it's not like he understands my ineptitude, having been born able to figure out which direction he's going in, but he accepts my limitations in this area and doesn't make me feel bad for it.
I love my fiance!
Tonight Andrew said something that was incredibly funny, but unfortunately also incredibly inappropriate for my weblog. He does that all the time. So I told him that he'd sound like a much funnier person and get much more recognition for it in my weblog if he'd just make his funniest stuff more ... shall we say ... family friendly? He doesn't want to compromise his art, apparently, so will continue to be funny in private, I suppose.
Oooh, last night I downloaded Firefox and Thunderbird. I'm very, very happy with both, I must say. I've always been a sucker for new browsers and mail programs, but these are really very good. I've never liked Internet Explorer so I'm not surprised that Firefox is kicking its pansy ass all over the web, but I do like Netscape a lot and I'm quite pleased with how similar the features are. Similar, but better. The Themes are pretty, too. I'm using Curacao, which is gorgeous. Yay for pretty browsers!
So, I have to go to bed now. I've had a sleepytime tea and hopefully I'll get more than three or four hours of sleep. Once more please think good thoughts for me for tomorrow morning if you can, as I think it's about time I got a freaking job.
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11/10/04 Somebody give me a jeorb!
O.K., I keep forgetting to tell about this in my weblog and if I don't do it now it'll never get done. About a week ago I was in the bathroom checking myself out in the mirror or doing my hair or something. I don't know. Maybe I was washing my hands, because washing your hands is always a good thing to do in the bathroom. Anyhow, there I was in the sink/mirror area and I happened to glance at Andrew's section of the shelves that sit at about eye level over the toilet. His brush (a boar bristle brush that I'd given to him when we lived in Toronto because I never used it) was sitting there near the edge and I saw what looked like very long blonde hairs in it.
Weird. Long blonde hairs? I pulled one out and looked at it. It was definitely a long blonde hair. Very long, very blonde. I went over in my head who we know with long blonde hair that might have used Andrew's brush. It took very little time, since we don't know anyone with long blonde hair who might have used Andrew's brush. I thought back to the party, and didn't recall seeing anyone there with long blonde hair who might have found it acceptable to use their host's brush while availing themselves of the facilities. There had been two women with gray hair, but the hair in the brush was definitely blonde and longer than the hair either of them had.
I showed the brush to Andrew. He seemed as puzzled as I, but also highly amused at my brush-shaking and demanding to know which blonde with long hair had been using his brush. He said it was cute that I'm so jealous and laughed at me. That's all well and good, but when the giggling fades there's still long blonde hair in your brush, buddy!
The mystery remained. Neither of us knew where the hair had come from and I scowled at the hairy brush whenever I was in the bathroom. Then one day, probably when he was getting out of the shower or something, Andrew informed me that he'd developed a theory on the hairy brush. There had been a lovely couple at our party that had left at around midnight to go see a show. They both had short dark hair, but after visiting the bathroom to prepare themselves they came back out, and the guy was dressed as a woman, wearing a long blonde wig! Mystery solved. Normally right about here I would go on to say how smart Andrew is, but because he was so smug about my worry I'm going to refrain.
So, I had my interview today. It went very, very well. It was a kick-ass recruitment agency. I say this because I've gone to many temp and recruitment agencies and this was by far the nicest and most professional. I got there early so the receptionist had me do the typing test right away and I got my usual score on that, then the woman who'd called me had me come in her office where she asked me a million questions about where I'd worked before and what kind of valuable customer service experiences I've had that I could share with her, highlighting such issues as troublesome customers, co-workers, and areas where I felt I'd gone above and beyond. That's always so much crap, but I got through it and think I did pretty well. Then I had to do another computer test, this time a multiple choice that focused solely on my call center knowledge. Then they did my security clearance application and told me how to go get my police check done. Man, here in Ottawa they take call center work very seriously.
In the end, however, I walked out with another interview scheduled for Friday which is a very good sign. It's with the actual client this time, so I'm supposed to go in prepared with questions about their specific business. My pet peeve about this particular industry is how much they want their employees to seem as if they're more excited about it than Christmas. Frankly, I like Christmas better. But I also love getting a paycheque, so hooray for employment! :)
This is all assuming I get the job, of course.
Our television has obtained a wee poltergeist that makes it spontaneously change itself from channel three to channel two every now and again. I theorized that it was the cordless phone making it do it, since I have a bias against those crazy things, and Andrew scoffed at that until I took the phone out of the room and the T.V. stopped acting up. Of course, I don't truly believe that the phone is making it go wonky, it's just that it's an old and crappy television that's getting a bit senile. I know that claiming that the cordless phone could be interfering with it is as crazy as thinking you get cancer from television remotes. However, it also makes me seem as curmudgeonly as Andrew so it's kind of sweet if you think about it.
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11/09/04 'Microfiche' is fun to say!
We didn't get in stupendously late last night but I was pretty tired, so no blogging for me. I am a bit tired tonight too and have to be up really early in the morning, but I don't want to miss another night. So here I am.
Yesterday was Dan and May's last day in Ottawa before heading home, so Andrew and I went over to Colin and Jen's around dinnertime to meet up with them. Colin had made an amazing lasagna for dinner. Andrew and I were not necessarily going over there to eat. I had already eaten a supperlike meal and Andrew hadn't, so he ended up partaking of Colin's creation while I did not, but it smelled heavenly and the rave reviews pointed to it being very delicious. I did eat dessert, which was strawberry-rhubarb pie with ice cream. Ooooh my.
After dinner we watched The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension. I was a bit torn about it, feeling like Andrew and I hadn't had much real chance yet to actually sit and catch up with Dan and May in a chatty, comfortable manner and knowing we'd have to leave when the film was done, but it was quite entertaining. It was necessary for me to see it eventually so that I could understand the John Name phenomenon among our circle of friends. Jen gives everyone a John Name, something that was inspired by the movie. My John Name is John Sassafrass. Andrew's is John Akbar. The rule is that the name has to come from Jen since she is the originator. I like my name and am thankful that it was given to me before the hair obsession was in full swing and Jen called me something like John Tresses or something equally upsetting.
Today I got up and did my usual routine, which eventually involves checking workopolis.com for new job postings. I went through and applied for some that sounded good. To my surprise not half an hour later I got a call for one I'd just applied for! (That never happens.) The woman calling said that she'd happened to be sitting at her computer checking her email right at the moment I'd sent off my application, and had been impressed by my resume.
Basically the job is doing exactly the same thing I did at my last job. Except doing it for better pay, better hours and better benefits. Making it actually worth doing. So I have an interview at nine tomorrow morning, and if all goes well and I get the job I'd start on December 13th. I feel really confident about it, since I was good at doing it before and know I can do it again. Andrew told me exactly how to get to the interview on the bus and the route is simple enough, but then he came home tonight and thrilled my soul by telling me that he'd borrowed his dad's car and could drive me to the interview! He's so good to me.
He came home with the car because he'd borrowed his dad's microfiche reader so he could do some microfiche reading here instead of at the school. I was impressed that his dad actually owns a microfiche reader, and Andrew was very pleased that he could do the reading here in the comfort of his own home until he actually started setting the thing up and it started being very uncooperative. The focus appears to be problematic, so he may have to go in and do his microfiche reading at the school library anyhow, poor guy.
I downloaded something today which is going to keep me happily occupied whenever I have a moment to spare, I'm afraid. Yes, I tracked down Mah Jongg for Windows and plan to play it until I'm dreaming about it. It's only my favourite game in the whole world. I like it even more than I like Tetris, and I loooooove Tetris. There are some Mah Jongg for Mac versions out there too but since I don't have a Mac I didn't go to the trouble of finding a link. I guess if I had a Mac I would, of course, but I don't. Sigh.
I have to go to bed soon, so wish me luck for tomorrow even though you'll probably be reading this after my interview is over!
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Quote of the day, courtesy of Andrew: "I am not making a pinky-swear suicide pact!"
Sometimes he's just so unreasonable. Sheesh.
Today was nice. My parents came to town this morning. Today was my dad's 60th birthday so he and my mom came to see our apartment for the first time and go out for lunch with us. We went to Dunn's after attempting to go to La Strada in the Glebe for Italian. It was closed, so off we went to Dunn's. It was nice enough except that the table they seated us at had a sort of bar eating area facing directly onto us, so as we ate we had strangers overlooking our table on one side, which felt weird. If there had been a separating space it might not have felt odd, but the counter portion was right there by our heads, inches away.
My parents had to leave for Kingston very shortly after we were finished, so Andrew and I chose to take a nap in our new bed and sleep off the heavy meal we'd eaten. I'm not sure of the science of that, so don't follow our example, but it was nice to have a nap. After we got up I did some more general tidying and unpacked the set of dishes my mom had brought with her for us, since it's been sitting at her place for a long time and I've been intending to get them every time I visited. We had very few dishes before now, although certainly enough for us to get by on. It's not like we had one plate and took turns using it.
May, Dan, Noah, Jen and Colin arrived at our place at around sevenish from Toronto and we had a nice visit with them. To keep things Noah-friendly we closed the living room door while we were in there to make sure he couldn't escape, and I'd assumed Halo was hiding in our bedroom, safe from all us scary people. He suddenly appeared from behind the loveseat at one point and very, very daringly tried to make his escape out of the room through the jungle of strangers. The closed door stymied him, but Andrew got it open for him and he managed to flee. We did not see him again.
We eventually all ended up over at Colin and Jen's place for a So Good feast which the guys all went to pick up. On the way back they passed a fender-bender that had happened in the Glebe, and it wasn't until they got back to the house that Dan discovered his sister had been driving one of the vehicles. Thankfully she wasn't injured, just shook up.
So we watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which was just as hilarious as it was the first time I'd seen it. When it was done it was definitely time for the night to end, so Andrew and I started walking home in the cold. I was pretty chilly, but as we walked down Powell street I looked up and saw, for the first time in my life, the Northern Lights. Wow. I mean, I probably saw them as a little kid when we lived in British Columbia but I don't have any memory of them. Andrew and I stood on the sidewalk and watched them. I was amazed. I didn't know that they moved so fast across the sky. It wasn't as peaceful and graceful as I'd always imagined them to be. They move fast and flash and flicker. I hope I see them often.
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11/06/04 Our apartment is possessed. By Ikea.
As quickly as my ad experiment began, it ended. Why? Because due to Fateback's banners at the top of every page, Google was assuming they were the most relevant content and only doing boring ads for things like reseller hosting and buying domains and crap that nobody is going to click on anyhow. So, for the sake of pretty, they be gone. I seriously wasn't going to be making much money, if any.
Speaking of pretty, guess what we got today? That's right! Our Noresund Queen bed frame! I'm so happy. You have no idea. Andrew went out to get it today and I was thrilled, although slightly anxious that the fates were against us and he'd arrive at Ikea only to find that the last one had been sold mere minutes before. Thankfully this wasn't so. He got the bed and paid for it, then promptly discovered it wouldn't fit in the car.
I don't know if he hid it in some bushes or what, but he left it somewhere and went to his parent's place to pick up the roof rack so he could strap it up there. This worked, and he and his dad brought the bed to our place safe and sound.
I was all hee-hee excited about finally having our coveted bed and could hardly wait to assemble it, although I must admit I was also a little bit intimidated. Ikea instructions for assembling their shit is usually fairly clear and helpful (you gotta love the little guy in their right way/wrong way illustrations) but this is the largest item we've bought from them and I couldn't help but think it might stress us out a bit. As it turns out, aside from the red bench we got from them, this was the easiest assembly job yet! It went together quickly and simply, and we were lounging on it smugly in no time flat.
Speaking of smug loungers, Halo had fled in horror from the entire setup process, but once he observed us being all comfortable and happy he hoppped right up and purred around for a while, and has since been spotted sleeping posessively on the new bed. It obviously meets with his approval. He's probably thinking, "It's about time you two lived like grownups!"
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11/05/04 Can't ... move ... eybrows!
O.K., so our Halloween party was last Saturday night. We cleaned up all the evidence of said party the next day, except for one wee thing. Remember this particular item? Well, it still looked cute on Sunday so I left it on our mantlepiece to keep doing what it was doing. It kind of escaped my consciousness though, until yesterday. As of yesterday it looked more like this and had to be retired. We just weren't comfortable having a leering zombie cat pumpkin in our living room. I won't even talk about the spores it must have been releasing by the time I caught it and bagged it.
Oooh, oooh! Tomorrow we might (and go heavy on the 'might') get our Noresund bed frame from Ikea! Andrew's going to attempt to get it, since they're apparently in stock. Oh, happy day if we do! Imagine, sleeping like real people on a real bed!
Yes, I'm excited about the accumulation of personal possessions. So sue me.
It was cold today so we turned on radiators when we were in the room with them. They heat up so fast and fill whatever room they're in with heat so efficiently that it becomes necessary to turn them off again fairly quickly, but if you then leave that room you find that the heat does not extend past the doorway of said room. That's O.K., though. You kind of need to cool down anyhow. Andrew was the one that pointed out this phenomenon, in case he reads this and goes, "Hey!"
I was thrash-around bored tonight so I ended up in the living room watching Extreme Makeover again while Andrew fooled around on his computer. Even I was horrified this time, though. It started out sweetly enough, with a couple deciding to get plastic surgery together because they both wanted to feel good. Except that this meant leaving their three kids alone for two months. Yep, two months. This show sequesters you in a makeover mansion while you're healing from your surgeries and you can't see anyone you know. So, that was weird enough. The saddest part, though, was that in the end the mother looked absolutely nothing like she had to begin with. They'd botoxed her for the final 'reveal' and she seriously seemed like she couldn't move the upper half of her face at all. I'm surprised she blinked every now and again. And her attitude changed from being a nice, thoughtful person to this sort of, "Yeah! Look at me now! I'm fantastic and SO MUCH BETTER!" It wasn't a positive thing, it was ... a bit obnoxious.
Then Third Watch came on and Andrew joined me for that after expressing horror over what I'd been watching beforehand. So I made a deal with him that if we were home on Friday nights we'd make it a date to do the same thing every time.
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11/04/04 Click, click = cha-ching, cha-ching!
So, perhaps you've noticed the new ads up at the top of the page. I debated doing that for a while, and finally figured it certainly couldn't hurt. Google gives websites like mine money if people click on them enough, you know. Of course, they also have lots of tricksy little ways not to give you the money, but in the end I'm at least no worse off than I was in the beginning, right? Apparently the ads end up being related to topics found on the page itself, so I'm curious to see how bizarre this gets.
My interview went very well today. This is despite my pre-interview routine, which is like this: Be too nervous to eat upon waking up. Drink a Coke and eat a mini chocolate bar despite nervousness. Fret over leaving on time. Get to interview on time (and slightly early) and wait for the interviewer who is invariably running behind schedule, thereby having time to get even more nervous. Try to remember to dry sweaty palms on pants before shaking interviewer's hand.
My post interview routine is much more satisfactory. Flee office, eat food, feel relief.
But yes, it was a satisfactory interview. The guy who did it is younger than I expected him to be, but he wasn't as slippery as some recruiting types are. We had a great talk about the kind of work I'm interested in/qualified for and what I'd like to try doing in the future that I may not have much experience in now. I was encouraged by that, as a lot of the temp places in Toronto only seemed interested in having me work at things I had experience in and wasn't necessarily interested in doing again. So that was nice.
What was even nicer was the fact that Andrew accompanied me to the office and home again since I haven't even the slightest inkling of a beginning of a clue about how to get anywhere in Ottawa yet (unless it's in the Glebe). He had lunch at a diner while I had my interview, and I met him there after I was finished and gorged myself on scrambled eggs and bacon with the hugest, fattest pieces of toast in the world. I think the place was called Mello's and it was on Dalhousie street. Yum.
Then we came home. As Andrew was leaving for his evening class I decided to go to Loeb for some stuff, and it was making icy rain outside! Ack. I guess it must be getting close to winter or something. Which reminds me: the other day I pulled out my Christmas decorations to make sure that they were all in good order for the upcoming holiday season and I think I made Andrew a wee bit nervous by doing so. I'm not the crazy type to put up the tree directly after Halloween. No, that's what the first of December is for!
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11/03/04 Sometimes I wish I had money for cheap pop booze, so it's all good.
I had an errand to run today. It was bright and sunshiny out. Really beautiful autumn weather, with lots of colourful leaves still on the trees and and also swishing pleasantly underfoot. It was nice to walk a little slower than usual, just taking it all in. So when two guys stopped me on the street to panhandle money from me, it was perhaps this mood that made me feel more generous than usual.
They were young guys, early twenties at most. They each had a garbage bag of clothing slung over their shoulders. As I approached them the one nearest me watched me coming and while I was still a good ten feet away said, "Hey, sweetie, can I ask you a favour?" Normally calling me 'sweetie' like that doesn't impress me much. However, he rushed on to say that he hates asking strangers for money but he and his brother had just gotten off the bus from Scarborough and were trying to make their way to their friend's place, so if I could spare some quarters or some bus tickets they'd really appreciate it. He went on to give a long, convoluted tale about short notice and their pal just having gotten engaged. I wasn't really listening to the exact reasons since it didn't matter that much to me. They were standing a little too near the liquor store, but whatever the need was, I figured I could spare something for them. I fished a toonie and some other change out of my purse.
They were very thankful, and when I said I must be a real sucker they assured me that no, I was a genuine sweetheart. I wished them good luck and went on my way.
I realized when I got home that I'd given them the loonies I'd been keeping for doing laundry with, but luckily (?) Andrew had left enough loonies on the fridge for me to do the laundry anyhow. Oh, boy. What fun. The laundry did get laundered and even folded and put away on the same night. That's some kind of laundry record around here.
Today I called the guy who'll be interviewing me tomorrow and told him about my lack of French speaking skills, but he said he was already aware and that while it could make it a bit harder to place me, it certainly didn't make it impossible. That's what I like to hear. So I get to go and see him and likely do some skill testing. Yay for skill testing. It involves a lot of typing, which I can do quite well according to all the other skill testing I've been subjected to. Wish me luck!
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11/02/04 The joy of punctuality is more like it.
Oooh, I have a job interview on Thursday. I have a creeping feeling of dread that the interviewer will tell me I have to be bilingual, and I forgot to quiz him on that today when I was speaking to him because I'd sent him the wrong copy of my resume and was stressing about that. So, I will call him tomorrow and ask if that's a prerequisite. I mean, he found my employment profile on workopolis.com and it says right there that I only speak english so perhaps it's not going to be a problem, but he did say that he's recruiting for jobs for the federal government. It would be nice to get a job like that, and he said he could probably place me in a clerical position. W00t.
We shall see.
Today was O.K.. It was raining out, and I had to go for a bit of a walk to run some errands. I was reminded that I really like walking in the rain. If I'm going to go for a walk I prefer it to be at night, but barring that I really like walking in the rain. With an umbrella, of course. I'm not sure why. There's just something nice and cozy about it. A good snowfall is also a wonderful thing, but then there's that matter of it being freezing cold and all. This winter, however, I do plan to go for lots of walks so I'll have to get some nice warm winter gear that can handle things like walking and tobogganing and maybe even (eek) some beginner downhill skiing. That last is purely for Andrew's benefit, of course, but I mean it. I'll try it and see how I do.
We also talked about a (summertime) Rideau Canal canoeing trip with Jen the other night, one that would end in Kingston. It sounds fun, especially the part about staying in bed-and-breakfasts along the way. I'm all for things that include some creature comforts (read: showers).
I was talking to Jerome tonight and he read my Oct. 31st entry out loud to me because he hadn't read it yet. It was much longer than I'd realized when I heard it that way, and he also made fun of my non-use of semi-colons which I bet drives Colin up a wall as well. Sorry, guys. My weblog is not about perfection! It's about the minutiae of my daily life and isn't meant to bring you the joy of punctuation!
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11/01/04 My cat is not spoiled.
The upside of having a party with a pile of food leftover is that you eat well for a few days if you're creative enough in the kitchen. With the absolute ton of cheese left over we had delicious nachos with Jen last night, and today I was able to make a kickass omelette and stir fry with the veggies. I've also been looking up recipes that use beer so that I can put some of the millions of bottles of beer to good use, since I'm certainly not drinking any of it and Andrew doesn't drink it very quickly on a day-to-day basis. I've found some promising recipes that include one for apple fritters, one for pork chops and another for a chocolate cake! Mmm. Beery goodness.
We also have two bowls of mini chocolate bars sitting on our dining room table. Eek. Too much chocolate, none of it Cocoa Camino.
We noticed after the party that there was a camera case left behind, and we figured out it was Colin's. Tonight we decided to go for a bit of a walk and return it to Colin while we were out, plus give him the money we owed him for picking up the liquor for us on Saturday. We decided to go, then I spent ten minutes or so prodding Andrew to hurry up and get ready. I was insistent, telling him to hurry up, to come on, to get going, let's go let's go let's go! So we left, and then when we got to Colin and Jen's I discovered that (like a dummy) I'd forgotten the camera case. Duh. Colin didn't care at all, but I was very embarassed over the whole thing.
Earlier in the day we'd gone out to run a couple of errands and I stopped in Arbour to see what kind of earth-friendly cat toys they had in stock. I'd remembered smelling some pretty potent catnip there over the summer, and figured this would be good for Halo. I ended up buying a cat ravioli made out of hemp and stuffed with organic catnip. As a bonus the cat ravioli were all made by disabled people and a portion of the cost goes to charity, so it was all good. Halo liked it when I gave it to him, and did some crazy playing with it up and down the hallway, but when he got tired tonight he ended up turning to his other toys for some relaxation. Here he is lounging on the Daddy Pompom Legs and his ratty fish. And here he is a little later loving them up again, making sure that he's touching each of them with a paw. Dang, he's cute.
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