This Week

So far this week, I have lunch scheduled with two friends - both are people I haven't seen in awhile.  One I haven't seen in several months, and the other I literally haven't seen in years, although we have kept in touch.  It's a little ridiculous that we haven't seen each other since she works in the city, but she travels a lot for her job and when I worked, I worked on the opposite side of the city.  When I didn't work, I didn't really have the extra money to be travelling to the city just for a lunch that I couldn't necessarily afford.

But I do want to see her this week since she served as a job reference and helped me network and all that good stuff.  Also, I'm going to be inviting her to my "Yay - I Got a Job!" celebratory supper, but her daughter is getting married in two weeks (a large wedding with a LOT of out-of-towners coming in), so it seemed like getting together for lunch was a safer way to go.

I have an appointment on Wednesday.

And an out-of-town friend will be in town this weekend.  Her daughter has a Girls Rock Philly concert on Saturday.  I was invited to it, and while I'd love to support Iris, I didn't want that to be our "catching up" time.  I'd much rather have time alone to ACTUALLY be able to talk since I haven't seen Kristi since she moved to South Carolina.  Again, she and I have kept in touch, but much of that has been about her book, my job search, and other blah stuff.  I really want to actually TALK to her.

Finally, plans for this week are a little difficult because I may or may not be working at the part-time job I mentioned last week.  It's increasingly looking like I won't be, but I'm trying not to book up too much since I hate breaking commitments.  So pretty much every plan that I make is with the caveat that the plan is tentative unless it's an evening plan.  Blech.

The Co-Workers

I called my sister last week to let her know that I FINALLY had a job, and she was excited for me.  What she hadn't known (until last week) was that I was down to my last nine weeks of unemployment.

Since I've been unemployed for the last year and half now, I told my sister, "Okay, I need to get something straight now.  I've forgotten how this goes."  "What's that?" she asked.

"What's the roster of annoying people I'll be working with?  You know what I mean... how there's always THOSE people."

We came up with "The One Who Knows Everything" (who may or may not be the same person as "The One Who Can Do Everything Better/Faster"), "The Slacker," and "The Finger Pointer" (aka: It Isn't MY Fault and Here's Why).

But in her current job, she doesn't actually work with people much anymore, so she's kind of forgotten how this goes. 

So, I'm asking you: who am I missing?

List #21: Lies My Mom Told Me

Every parent tells the little lies.  But these are the lies my mom told just because she could. 

1.  Anyone remember "The People's Court" when it was still with Judge Wapner?  We used to watch that every day.  And when they would go to commercial in the middle of a longer case, they would freeze the frame.  When I was a kid, I obviously didn't understand a "freeze-frame," so I asked Mom how they did that.  She told me they had an artist who drew the people they way they were and when they came back from commercial, they had the people get back in position they way the guy had drawn them.

2.  When Price Chopper (our grocery store) started using a scanner at the check-out, I was FASCINATED and didn't understand how it worked.  Mom told me that the Price Chopper man (the mascot for the store was a guy in a butcher apron with a tiny axe who would chop the prices) was inside the scanner and he worked in the machine all day.  Sometimes she would even pick me up, and then she'd tell me I hadn't looked fast enough.  Occasionally, I'd go to the cashier for confirmation.  "Is that true?"  One cashier hedged one day and I got suspicious.

3.  When I fell asleep in the car and Mom wanted to wake me up before we got home (so she didn't have to deal with carrying me in or waste the extra minutes waking me up when we got home), she'd yell, "OH MY GOD!  There's an elephant!"  I have no idea why, but this worked for years.  This cracks my mom up to this day.  "But you fell for it EVERY TIME!"  (In my defence, I didn't want to miss the elephant standing by I-70!  Would you????)

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that have apparently scarred me for life.

Recipe: Hamburger Hot Pot

The basis for the recipe came from Ravelry, and then I embellished it.  I'll post the base here, and then give the rest in my "notes" section.

1 lb ground beef
1/4 t garlic powder
1 t salt
1/4 pepper
3 potatoes, chopped
3 medium onions, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup-can full of water

Brown ground beef, adding garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

In Crock Pot, layer half of the potatoes, half of the onions, the beef mixture, the rest of the potatoes, then the rest of the onions.  Combine the soup with the water, and pour mixture on top, covering evenly.

Cook on high 3-4 hours.

NOTES: The recipe was the second attempt by someone and the first time, she had put in all of the onions raw.  The second time, she cooked the onions before adding them in.  I decided to cook half of my onions with the ground beef and put the other half in raw and see what the results were.  I honestly couldn't tell the difference.  Next time, I'll just put them all in raw.

I had a pound of frozen sliced carrots from Angel Food, so I added them in.  I decided they would get cooked enough in 4 hours time, and I was right.  I also had some leftover peas (previously frozen - thank you again, Angel Food), but since these were cooked, I put them in near the end of the cooking time.  This turned out REALLY well.  The only thing I would do differently next time is put in more soup since I added a bunch of extra stuff, and it came out really thick.

Good new Wednesday

Guess who got a job offer today!

I actually received a call yesterday from another organisation about temporary, part-time work that has a potential to turn into full-time work, but I knew that I had a full-time offer pending.  I hadn't told many people about this offer because they were doing a background check, and I was going to be EXTREMELY embarrassed if I didn't pass the background check.

I explained to the part-time offer that I had a pending offer (I'm actually friends with this person, so I didn't mind giving her details), but even if the offer came through, I didn't know when I'd start, etc., and that I may be able to help out until I start the other job.

So I may have a job and a half!

My Lazy Day

I had an unintentionally lazy day today.

Last night, my window AC unit suddenly decided that it wanted to tilt in.  I won't bore you with the details, but I know what went wrong.  The building maintenance guy is great, and every once in awhile when I need something personal done, I'll call him and pay him to put shelves up or something.  So I called him this morning.

Me: Hey, will you in my neighbourhood sometime today?
Him: Why?
Me: Why you gotta sound all suspicious?
Him: Why?
Me: You know, maybe I baked you cake!
Him: Uh-huh.  What do you need done?
Me: Well, see... it's like this...

He told me if I hadn't heard from him by noon, to give him a call.  Thankfully, today was one of those days where it was MUCH cooler outside than it was inside, especially with the nice, cool breeze, so I sat on my porch with a bottle of water and read a book.  And I texted him around 12:45 p.m. to remind him.  Then I called him around 2:00 p.m.  He said he was caught up on a job, but he'd be there in about 45 minutes.  And he got there around 3:30 p.m., just as I finished my book.

He installed my unit permanently, drilled that sucker into the window, caulked it up, etc.  I have air again!  Yay!  And he said he'll probably be back this Friday or Saturday with my new toilet.  Exciting!

Book Review: Deed to Death

Toni Matthews nearly has it all -- she has a great career as a real estate agent, and a great fiancée, who is successful in his field (he's an architect).  But three days before their wedding, Scott's body is found at the foot of one of the building's his company has been working on.

The investigation concludes that he committed suicide, but Toni refuses to accept this.  Her friends understandably chalk this up to denial.  What person wouldn't have a difficult time accepting this when they bury the man they're supposed to marry... on the actual wedding day?

Toni launches her own investigation, which reveals some shocking revelations.

Read my full review here.