Picture post

These are the latest of Mason:

Mason with Gramps:



Mason with Great Gramma



Mason at his Baptism-peeking back at us



He did really well, until the water got on him-he wailed for the rest of the service!

A friend emailed me these pictures that I hadn't seen in years!

Me in Sante Fe Circa 1993:



Me in Nacogdoches Texas after a 12 hour drive with 8 druck people in a Suburban Circa 1992-I was the designated driver



Paris in January 1994. It rained the whole time we were there, but I didn't care!

A big surprise....

I sent out several resumes and applications this week and last. I got a call monday-they wanted to set up an interview for today.

So I get all worked up and nervous for the interview, get there 15 minutes early while the contact was 10 minutes late!

So I finally get to the interview with not one but two people. I'm sweating and my mind is racing-they are really nice and I start to relax. The questions were not what I was expecting at all.

I felt like I was a stammering idiot, and I said a few things that after I said them I thought "wtf, why did you say that jeff???!!!", but they giggled and it didn't seem to phase them.

It goes on for what seems an hour, but is only about 15 minutes. They ask me to wait outside for a few minutes and then call me back in and offer me the job. I was shocked.

I've never been hired during an interview! And to top it off, I was expecting the pay to be about what I got at my last job or less (the one I got passed over on!) and almost fell out of the chair when they told me the salary.

So I'm very happy that I am gainfully employed with great hours, great benefits and damn good pay! I don't start for about 2 weeks so I have time to get used to the idea!

I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

You can only use 2 words

I have a job interview tomorrow-I'm nervous, but prepared. I have my clothes ironed, my hair/beard trimmed and a positive attitude.

I saw this at my friend Ginger's MySpace blog and thought I'd try it. It took longer than I had orginially thought!


1. Yourself:
in transition

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (husband/wife):
fly fisherman

3. Your hair:
very short

4. Your mother:
headstone ordered

5. Your Father:
country boy

6. Your Favorite Item:
many things

7. Your dream last night:
stress induced

8. Your Favorite drink:
dirty martini

9. Your Dream Car:
expensively foreign

10. The Room You Are In:
office/study

11. Your Ex:
estranged, pretentious

12. Your fear:
failure, hate

13. Where you want to be in 10 years:
comfortable, happy

14. Who you hung out with last night:
my dog

15. What You're Not:
self confident

16. Your Best Friend:
recent anniversary

17. One of Your Wish List Items:
laptop computer

18. The Last Thing You Did:
shaved head

19. What You Are Wearing
jeans, shirt

20. Your Favorite Weather:
rainy, gray

21. Your Favorite Book:
still looking

22. The Last Thing You ate:
snickers, triscuits

23. Your Life:
still learning

24. Your Mood:
nervous anxiety

25. Your body:
hairy, white

26. What are you thinking about right now:
gainful employment

27. Your Crush:
Anderson Cooper

28. What are you doing at the moment:
watching Frasier

29. Your summer schedule:
laid back

30. Who will answer this next?
anyone welcome

I finally got my Nintendo GameBoy Advance microsystem in that I won back in January. I can't wait to get a game for it and try it out.

But will I ride the rides?

We have a tri state fair here every year. I missed a few years but we are going to go tomorrow-Rick won some tickets at work. It's fun, with all the rides, the midway, the livestock shows, the games and the scary carnies.

My parents met at this fair in 1958 and were married and pregnant at the one in 1959! They were on a double date-not together. My Mom was with a guy she was set up with from the girl that my Dad was on a date with.

My Dad told me that as soon as he saw my Mom he knew. He couldn't stand the girl he was on a date with and at one point told my Mom. She said that she thought the guy she was with was a dud so they snuck off. She poured some of her smuggled in cherry vodka in his coke and the rest is history.

I'm going to smuggle some cherry vodka into the fair tomorrow, pour it into my coke and toast her-if it hadn't been for this fair, the crappy dates, and cherry vodka -I wouldn't be here.

asdf jkl;

I went to a few places to drop off my application package and took a typing test. I was nervous for some reason while taking the typing test-there was a 3 minute warm up and a 5 minute test.

They had this old tiny keyboard crammed on a desk with a huge monitor. I couldn't get comfortable and I'm used to an ergonomic keyboard. They only thing worse would have been taking it on a laptop keyboard!

I did 65wpm on the warm up and 60wpm on the real test. They only require 30 so at least I passed one hurdle.

My birthday is in 2 weeks. I'll be 37 :O Another year older but none the wiser!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

After thinking about my Dad selling his house I am considering on selling one of my houses. If it is worth what I'm told it is I have a ton of equity in it. I've only had it for 3 years but the market here has been increasing. I'm meeting with someone on friday so we'll see.

I applied for 3 jobs today and called back 2 of the others that only have a phone number for a contact-I just had to leave a message since neither answered. I have one more lead I'm going to follow up tomorrow and one friday.

I didn't get one job that I had held before-the lady hasn't call me back yet, but I found out from someone else that they had hired another person-which I thought was unprofessional. The last thing she said to me when I called 2 weeks ago was that she promised she would call me either way.

I have an idea why I didn't get the job-which is total BS if it is true, so I might have dodged a bullet on that one!

The weather has been nice and cool here after all that rain we had. My lilacs and apple tree are blooming again!

I hope everyone is having a great week :)

SOLD and a deleted rant

My dad finally closed on his house. My childhood house. He got a good amount of money that he will be able to live on for a long time. He was so worried about getting the deal closed and I know it is a load off of his mind so I am happy for him.

I'm kinda sad and mad that he sold it and I know my mom would be so freaking pissed off that he sold it!

When I used to have money I offered to buy them a house in a better part of town for them to live in and either rent out their old house or sell it for money for them to have savings-you would have thought I slapped her-I had never seen her so mad-she said a few choice four letter words and hung up on me! God I miss her.

But with just my dad, he is estatic-he called me and wants to go celebrate with an all you can eat shrimp dinner for 15.99-that is him splurging!

I had too much to drink tonight and just deleted the rest of a rant that no one wants to hear!

I hope everyone has a great week :)

Still no word...

I'm starting to feel like a bastard at a family reunion-no call backs still :O

I found 3 more job leads and sent resumes in. I sound good on paper at least so I am hoping for at least one interview before they turn me away!

I did get one callback from a company, then when I heard what the detailed job entailed and found out that it had been robbed twice this year I declined. Although it is sounding good right about now.

My car is finally ready, I'll have to be creative to be able to pay for the deductible to get it tomorrow!

I had a job lead last week that sounded promising-I sent my resume and made a follow up phone call today. Keeping fingers crossed on this one, it pays really well-double what I was expecting to find.

I wanted to spend today not seeing any of the specials/documentaries on TV about 9/11 but Rick wanted to watch EVERYTHING even the presidental address. I just wanted to spend a normal day doing normal things and be thankful that I could.

I spent time doing laundry while Rick was watching the shows and while walking through to put laundry away I caught a video of one of the people who fell or jumped from the WTC.

That image has always put the whole thing into perspective for me. It makes it personal, it makes me hurt, it makes me sad, it breaks my heart and it makes me so %*#@ing angry.

Remembering..

You can't have watched television for the last few days without seeing something about it. I have watched a few shows/specials/documentaries and I have Flight 93 via Netflix sitting on my coffee table.

Out of all of the things I have watched-the one thing that made me cry surprised me. I don't even recall the title of the documentary-Rick dvr'd it.

There was this lady that was telling her story of getting out of the building. There was the interviews with the real people and a docu-style actor thing going on in between.

The lady was talking about the clothes she was wearing that day. It was a white pair of pants. She talked of how everyday she scrubbed them and hung them up to dry. Then the next day she would scrub some more-working on every stain day after day.

Her mission was to get them clean, as if getting every last bit of evil and sadness out of the pants. It was the only thing that kept her sane.

And in between some laughter and tears she held up the pants and said "they are clean now-they don't fit anymore but they are finally clean".

Uncertainty

I'm still waiting to hear on a couple of jobs I have applied for and interviewed with. Budget meetings and background checks oh my! Hopefully I'll hear something tuesday. I'll go through the want ads again probably tonight.

I've been so stressed about it the last couple of nights I've been having trouble sleeping. From that and bills bills bills!

We have been getting a lot of rain lately which always helps my mood-it is nice today overcast and under 70.

I have had a few good wins lately.

I hope everyone has a great day :)