Today is Blondie’s first birthday – happy birthday !!!
Now, since she is no longer a puppy (officially), she needs to show chewing on my furniture, right? One can only hope.
I guess that she will also stop trying to pull my arm out of its socket while we are on walks.
She really doesn’t have that many bad habits, I must admit. She’s a pretty good dog.
So, happy birthday and many more to come !!!
I had trouble sleeping last night. I was thinking about the job offer that I was given yesterday. In all honesty, I am not sure why I applied for it seeing as it had such a low rate of pay.
I decided, after a lot of hard thought that I would turn the job down. Having not worked in the past 7 months, it was not an easy decision to make.
I really don’t care about how much money I make, but, when I considered that I would have to drive to Welland every day and most likely pay someone to come and walk my dogs (or at least let them out on a daily basis), I couldn’t see taking it.
I figured that after taxes, EI and CPP deductions, I would likely clear between $60-$70 per day. It would probably cost me around $15 per day in gas – I can see it being much lower. It would cost me around $20 per day to have someone walk my dogs for 1/2 hour each day and that is a pretty good rate actually. So, I might actually take home $35 (on the upper end) after just those two expenses. That isn’t a lot, that’s for sure.
I guess I will know if I made the correct decision in the coming months. If I get a job elsewhere then I will know I did. If I don’t, well, that will be a bleak future, that’s for damn sure.
So, I guess the hunt continues – at least it was my doing this time.
I had my interview today and was offered the job. I told her that I would let them know tomorrow (Friday). If I accept, it would start on Monday, not much turn around time for sure.
I guess that I will accept it, I am sort of backed into a corner. I sort of feel like it is a giant step down though.
I don’t know why I haven’t gotten interviews to this point. I really don’t. I haven’t applied for jobs that I am not qualified for.
There are two schools of thought:
1 – I have heard that after a person works for the government for a certain period of time (5 years +) that other employers (private sector) will not look at them. I don’t know if this is true or not, I am sure that in some cases it is. Government employees, for whatever reason are often considered lazy. I have worked with my share of lazy people BUT, the majority aren’t that way. I guess it is a hard sterotype to break.
2 – I am over qualified for the jobs and perhaps they will think either I am going to get bored and leave or perhaps I will want too much money.
I really don’t know what’s going on, but, since my money will be out in a few months, I need to do something. I am not sure if I will be able to stay were I am currently living. I may have to downgrade to save some money. I’d hate to leave, I do like it here, but… I will speak with my landlord and see if they are willing to reduce the rent – I think that is a long shot really. Oh well, I will cross that bridge in the next month or so.
Anyway, I guess I will call tomorrow and accept the position. They did ask for a 1 year commitment and as long as they don’t want me to sign a contract I’ll be ok. If I happen to be offered a better job in the future (near future I hope), I will have to take it.
Today only occurs once ever 4 years. It is February 29. It is special because it only occurs once every 4 years AND also because I have posted three entries to the blog today. WOW.
I posted on Facebook:
Do people who were born on “leap day” only get cake every 4 years?
I was sort of surprised that no one commented – lazy people. It wasn’t a rhetorical question… There was an article in the paper today about people who were born on February 29 and the one guy was turning 15 today which of course meant that he is 60, BUT, really, he’s only had 14 birthdays up to this point. He will be luck to see 20, can’t even legally drink in the US.
If your kid was born on February 29, I could see teasing them when the end of February approached saying, no presents or cake or a party, you don’t have a birthday this year. Cruel perhaps, but what the heck, our parents played cruel tricks on us, aren’t we supposed to play those on our kids? Not that I have any kids to do that do anyway, but you know what I mean.
Although I don’t have any kids (that I am aware of anyway), I do have two dogs, as I have mentioned before. Zeus and Blondie:
Zeus is 1/2 American Eskimo and 1/2 Sheppard and Blondie is a Yellow Lab (hopefully you can tell them apart in the above picture – HINT – Zeus is on the left). Anyway, it is Blondie’s 1st birthday on Saturday, that would be March 3 – happy birthday Blondie !!! I presume that she will immediately become a perfect dog, you know, stop pulling on her leash while walking – she will, won’t she?
Well, I got another interview, it’s tomorrow.
I wouldn’t say that it is my dream job, but, it’s a job. I need something in the mean time, bills keep coming in and I have to feed my dogs (and myself I guess).
It is at an inbound call centre. Who knows if I will like it or even if I can stand it. Who knows if I will be offered the job – I would certainly hope so.
I’ve sent out quite a few resumes in the past week so maybe I will hear back from one (or more) of them – I hope so.
But, seeing as I will be out of severance money by July, I need to find something and the sooner the better. I guess really, up to this point, I haven’t applied for anything that I wouldn’t consider a “good” job – are there better jobs and bad jobs? I guess so. All I know is that I need a job – it will be as good as I make it I guess – there, that is being optimistic.
Anyway, wish me luck. Thank you.
UPDATE – 18:35 on Thursday, March 1
I had my interview today, went well. It involved some testing and then a sit-down interview. It lasted about 2 hours so it was fairly long, I am too talkative.
Anyway, after the interview, I was offered the job. I will let them know tomorrow (Friday) if I accept it. I will, it will help pay the bills, won’t it? There is a room to advance with them and it should be an interesting job, I think. Guess we will see.
See, I am just like Calvin, sweet and innocent.
I typically do not watch Conan. It’s not that I don’t like him, he’s OK, I prefer Leno. I am not writing about late night talk shows though.
I watched Conan today and at the end they had a band on called Fun. They were playing a new single called We Are Young. I hadn’t heard of this group before, I suppose I live a sheltered life. I typically listen to Q107 and this isn’t quite what they play there – I also only really listen to the Q when I am in the Jeep.
Anyway, it is a pretty good single and the album is good too:
http://www.facebook.com/ournameisfun?sk=app_182222305144028
So, thanks Conan for introducing me to a great band – much appreciated. From what I read, the show Glee covered the song We Are Young, but, as you might imagine, I have never watched Glee so I cannot pass any thanks along to those people.
Anyway, take a listen – you might enjoy. I know I did.
UPDATE – I finally found the CD at Sunrise at the Pen Centre. I didn’t want to download it and then have to burn it, so, I paid $3 extra (or so) and bought the CD. It is pretty darn good, if I ever start working again, I think I will purchase their other CD.
Well, the weather forecast people said that we would get 3-5cm of snow between last night and tonight. I just finished shovelling, well, I’d guess 15-20cm perhaps. There was quite a bit of drifting as well.
Can’t really complain, we haven’t had this much snow over the entire winter – that’s combined.
The steps and landing area and sidewalk are shovelled. I cleared the neighbours sidewalk as well, not the neighbour to the left though, I don’t like her…
Otherwise, it has been quite a boring Saturday. Much like any other day really – have I mentioned that I need to get back to work?
Enjoy your weekend, don’t shovel too much of that white stuff…
I went to the grocery store on Saturday evening – the dogs were with me. Well, I left them in the Jeep, I am sure that the people at the Canadian Superstore would not want them in the store with me.
Anyway, I bought a few things and returned to the Jeep 10 minutes later (or so). I start the Jeep and the seatbelt and air bag lights stay on.
The bad thing about the seatbelt light being on is that it dings, quite loudly for about 5 minutes after you start the vehicle and then, I guess, it gets tired of making so much damn noise and shuts up.
So, I called Performance Chrysler this morning to make an appointment to bring it in – I am heading there for 1:30pm. I hope that it will be covered under the extended warranty that I have on it. Guess we will see.
The Super Bowl was last night – not a bad game. It started out sort of weird with a safety and the Giants up 2-0. There were a couple of exciting plays through the game and it ended with the Patriots having the opportunity to win the game in the dying seconds but the Giants held on, it was 21-17, I think… I didn’t really care who won this one, I am, I will admit, a Bills fan. That is becoming harder and harder mind you – they haven’t made the play-offs since 1999.
I am hoping to hear about recently applied for jobs this week – wish me luck.
UPDATE (4:24PM) – When I went into Chrysler, I mentioned that the dogs were in the Jeep before I discovered the issue. The service person asked if I had noticed any loose or broken cables or anything, under the dash or under the seat. Well, I had checked under the dash and nothing was out of the ordinary but I had never checked under the seat. We went out to the Jeep and sure enough, there was a set of wires “cut” (possibly chewed) under the drivers seat. So, that was what was wrong – an hour of labour (likely took the guy 15 minutes to fix) and $100 later and all is well. Could have been worse…
This past weekend we saw both the NHL All-Star Game and the NFL Pro Bowl.
I didn’t watch the draft for the All-Star game, really, who cares? I guess if you are a die hard fan you might care but I really only catch some hockey during the play-offs, NHL hockey that is. The draft was Thursday, kicking off 4 days in Ottawa.
Saturday night was the skills competition. Sort of interesting, I guess.
The game was on Sunday. High scoring but I found it slow paced and not very good. No hitting, not much hustle – of course, no one wants to get hurt.
The Pro Bowl was also high scoring – 100 total points. It was a good “touch” football game really and that’s about it. I also don’t like how it was moved to before the Super Bowl. The players that made the Pro Bowl from either of the two teams playing in the Super Bowl aren’t there – they can’t take the chance of getting hurt. Sort of wrecks it a bit.
Oh well – I would still like to take the trip to Hawaii sometime to catch the game and the sights. Who knows…
All in all, both games were disappointing. Don’t know what can be done to improve it though. They were, at least a bit entertaining. I guess that’s something.
Kevin's Ramblings... 