Thanks

You can't see me right now, but I am doing my "I just got a job" dance. Trust me it's not a pretty site :)

I am now the marketing director of dekalb financial credit union. They have branches in Auburn, Garrett, Angola, and New Haven. I have a mixture of feelings right now. First is the "new job" feeling with meeting everyone and trying to get settled and second is the feeling of relief of being employed.

Of course it's funny that I get a job offer and then have to go pee in a cup for the drug screen. That's a new one for me.

I just wanted to pass along thanks to everyone who has sent good thoughts as well as their prayers for me and the family.

You are next mdh!!!

awww nuts..

No Halloween party this year at MR's.. darn it. I made it a point to take my scrubs from Christopher's birth in January home to make sure that I would have a costume in October. Seriously, I was planning that far in advance.... I can understand him opting out of the party since the attendance had been waning the past couple of years and you never know who is available to show up with all the kids and stuff. I still have the Christmas extravaganza to look forward to this year. Whoo hooo.

This year I am sticking to my word and we are staying home for Halloween and not taking the kids all over to different locations like the past couple of years. Jen has to work so I might load up the boys and trick or treat at the Disney store. Stay tuned for stories, pictures and hopefully some video.

Life Goes On

Saturday Jen tells me that the garage door won't go up. Now this is a problem that usually happens when it is bitterly cold outside. Even though it was very cold it wan't cold enough to cause this problem. I go in the garage and see that one of the springs for the garage door is broken in half. Son of a ....I thought that I just had those springs replaced a few years ago but upon further review I think I was thinking of the house on Traders Crossing. I spent the rest of the weekend manually raising and lowering the garage without the aid of the springs and holy crap that garage door is heavy. I did some calling around on Monday and got a few quotes from different companies in the area. Anywhere from $160 to $200 of money that we don't have to replace the springs. I called the one company this morning to make sure they took credit cards since that's the only way this thing is getting fixed. A little over an hour and a half later they had a van out here to repair the springs. The guy they sent wasn't overly friendly or talkative until Andrew started talking to him and then he got more friendly. While he was replacing the springs he told me that the top sprocket (spaceley's sprockets?) on the garage door was getting ready to break. Crap (again). He said it would be around $50 to replace the sprocket. I asked him if it was something that I could do to try and save a little money. The repair guy told me that I could try it, but if I messed it up that there would be another $80 service fee on top of the $50 for him to come back out again. Uhhhh no I don't feel that lucky. I watched him replace that sprocket and all I can say is thank God that I had him do it. He had to just about tear apart the whole garage door opener from the bottom up. He commented to me about other people who have tried to replace the part themselves and the things that need to be adjusted that they don't know about and parts that need to be transfered and etc etc. Yeah it was worth the extra $50. The garage door works great now and I think that the repair has actually quieted it down a little bit as well. It still vibrates in William's room pretty good, but its a little better.

There was another incident with Jen that I am not sure I am allowed to comment about. All I can say is that it's good to have insurance.......

Happy Breakfast

This is the way my mornings usually start off. Usually I am up by 7:00am due to Andrew and William, and grab my shower. For some reason they both have been sleeping in the past 3 days (Thank the Lord) so I had to actually set my alarm. Don't get me wrong, they still come into the bedroom in the middle of the night. It used to be just William at 3:00 or 4:00 am, but now Andrew has joined in and will come into the bedroom too for unknown reasons. Most times it just carry them back to bed, plop them in, cover them up, and walk away. So even though I still can't get a solid 8 hours of sleep it felt good to sleep in a little bit this weekend. I bring William and Andrew downstairs and give them their juice and cereal and they will sit in front of TV and watch the PBS lineup in the morning. Then the next half hour we tell William to get dressed for school about every five minutes. Finally we have to turn the TV off for the proper motivation. William gets dropped off at 8:00am to Our Lady of Good Hope and then I come home for a little breakfast. If Christopher isn't awake when I get home I usually will wake him up around 9:00 and bring him downstairs. He usually munches on Cherios while I go through my lineup of online job sites. He gives me input on the ones that I should apply for and usually just sits there and is happy as a clam.

I can't believe that it has actualy been about a month and a half of being unemployed. It doesn't seem that long. I serously didn't think it would take this long to get another job. I don't know if it is arrogance to say that or just that I didn't have a clue how bad it was out there. I should hear about the job in Auburn by Wednesday at the latest, here's hoping.

There should be a video of Christopher helping me find a job here, but Blogger is having video problems. I draw the line at 5 times trying to download a video before I give up. I might try later on again.....

Taking a Break

Don't get me wrong. I like being home with the kids and being Mr. Mom, but now I understand when Jen goes through and why she needs to have a job to get her out of the house (besides the extra money). Saturday I got an invite to get out of the house from some friends who were going to play golf. I debated about spending the money to play 9 holes on a chilly morning, but decided that I could use the break and get out of the house.The original plan was to tee off early so we could do other stuff with the rest of the day, but it was still hovering around the mid to lower 40's at 8:00am so we decided to try for 10:30. I drive all the way out to Eel River in Churubuso to meet my friend Wendy, Gina, and Gina's boyfriend Tom. I get to the couse and it's not busy at all which is fortunate since everyone in the group has only played a few times this year and Tom hasn't touched a club in a couple of years. I decided to be a little bit adventurous and use a set of clubs that I bought 7 years ago and had never played with. They were a set of used Hogan's that included the Hogan bag for $100. I tried to justify the purchase by telling Jen that I bought them for her in case she wanted to start playing golf. Needless to say I don't think the game interests her. Anyway we step up to tee of on number #1 in an almost empty course and as we are warming up two foursomes drive up to the tee. Crap, so much for a lazy day of golf. We all duff it off the first tee and struggle to play the first hole. We notice a couple of times, while searching for our scattered shots that the foursomes are waiting for us in the fairway. As we are heading to the number #2 tee we take a wrong turn and end up on the #11 tee, but we also notice that there is no one playing the back 9 at all. We decide to play the back 9 to get out of the way of the other golfers. Number #11 and 12 run right next to #2 and 3. After getting off the #12 tee we notice that the people behind us on the front 9 have now passed us so we hopped back on the front 9 to finish. Lucky for us it wasn't that crowded that we could do this but also that Wendy and Gina know the pro really well so he wouldn't get too mad at us. The scenery on the course was fantastic with the trees changing color. I kicked myself for not bringing the camera. The weather turned out to be fantastic too with the sun being real warm with just a little cool breeze. How did I play you might ask? Did I mention the scenery was fantastic? I played like crap. I was pulling everying to the left for some reason. I don't know if it was lack of practice or the different set of clubs effecting my swing. I blame both. As we were finishing the front 9 people started catching up to us again so we just picked up at #8 and called it a day. Of course on #8 is where I unleashed a huge drive that was straight and far. I got a few good shots in. We headed back to Gina's so I could look at her computer. I was just over last week and "fixed" it, but now I think it is really fubared. It was a freebee computer that I got to work, but I think the hard drive finally gave up the ghost. There might be one more chance to play golf this year if I can talk my brother into buying while he is home this week :)

On the job front I had a second interview yesterday (Wed) for a job in Auburn. This interview went so much better than the first. My sinuses weren't driving me nuts so I was more like myself and on my game. The people are real nice to talk to and I think it will be more like a family that a coporate gig. They will let me know the first of next week either way. Besides that nothing on the horizon, just lotsa resume's and emails going out.

Little did I know what a freak I was

When I was helping out at the charity event a few weeks ago, one of Jen's cousins had to cut down a gift certificate to fit inside a frame. I told her to be sure not to chew her tounge. She looked at me with a "WTF" look. I said you know the thing where when using sissors that you chew your tounge or open and close your mouth. She said she had never heard of it. When relaying the story to Jen I get the same "WTH" look. I thought it was a common thing that everyone did or had at least heard about... obviosly not. Now I notice that when I am feeding Christopher that I will open my mouth, like that will help him open his. I think I will do a little research to see how much of a freak that I am or if I have some kind of mental condition. (no comments from the peanut gallary)


** Image is of the characters from Freakie's Cereal, if you go that far back. I still have a collection of these plastic pieces that might be heading to e-bay

Carley Hoffman Benefit II

Last Saturday was the Carley Hoffman Benefit which is the 4 year old daughter of one of Jen's cousins. She is fighting stage 4 Neuroblastoma of her spine. I hadn't volunteered for anything on the day of the event since I wasn't sure if Jen had to work or not. Also my mother in law had told me that my father in law had volunteered me for some stuff. I called him Friday night to find out that he hadn't signed me up for anything, so I just decided to show up in the morning to help with set up and do whatever I could. I showed up to a madhouse of people so I just kind of stayed out of the way waiting for direction for whatever needed to be done. The bake sale was HUGE with all sorts of stuff to buy. They let everyone set their own price so it was quite a range from $3 for 3 (1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) small cubes of fudge to $4 for a whole apple pie. There was some deals to be found, and everything went half price in the afternoon. There were a ton of auction items to bid on (almost too many). There was a couple things that I would have loved to bid on if I would have had any money. The 3 foot Repalla fishing lure would have looked fantastic in my sea shanty basement. I started off slow just folding T-shirtsand moving tables,but when they started toward the stage to set up the sound equipment I felt a little more at home. They had three auction items near the stage (a cd player, a vcr/dvd combo, and an xm satellite system) that they felt the need to pull out of the boxes and plug in. I didn't understand why, but just did as I was told. I helped set up the sound system and talked to the guy who brought the equipment. When he found out I was an old radio guy we talked about old equipment and stuff that he used to have and just general sound geek talk. My father in law also runs a sound system at his church so with all of us we had the sound up in no time. After that I headed outside to help set up the kids area. They had a couple of moon walks and some other kids games to keep the kiddies entertained. I noticed that they had an old cotton candy machine too. I had used one of those many years ago at a radio promotion, so when they found out that I had some experience with the machine they dubbed me cotton candy man. I spent the next 5 hours outside making cotton candy. Don't get me wrong it was a fantastic day, but dang it was hot out on that parking lot all day. After a while Jen showed up with the boys. William had a blast in the moon walks, but Andrew was extremely cranky (we found out later he has an ear infection) so we spent most of the time carrying him around. We tried to get him into a moon walk but he wasn't too keen on that idea. Around 5:00 the crowd had really died down and there wasn't any kids ouside so I thought it would be a good time to take the family home. I felt bad that I wan't able to donate any money to the cause, but felt that I was doing my part in volunteering. Jen did end up buying some stuff at the bake sale so we did contribute a little bit. The event went well into the night with a live band and some other stuff to make money. Overall they made $21,000 for the family to help pay some of their bills. It's probably no where near what they will need when everything is finished, but at least it will help out a bit.

Que?

When we took the boys to see Wall-E we saw a preview for Beverley Hills Chihuahua. It looked like a bad/cute movie. Well the boys went nuts when they saw the preview, then they started seeing the ads on TV for the movie. I can see they they were excited about the chee chee wha wah movie (as they pronounce it). Well last week my mom treated the family to the movie. We got the extra bonus of seeing it at the Cinema Grill which means dinner and a show. Mom had never been to the Cinema Grill before so this would be her first experience. I wasn't too worried about a crowd being there since it was a Wednesday afternoon at 4:00. I think it was us and one other family. We got settled in and ordered our food. The boys got chicken strips and fries but were so mesmerised by the movie that they barely ate anything. My mom and I both got a small pizza and pitcher of beer, but we were both still hungry after eating this pretty tasty but non filling pizza. I think we should have got a sandwich like Jen. Anyway the movie was a typical cute/dumb/entertaining for children kind of movie. I don't recommend it without kids, unlike some other Disney movies that can be entertaining for adults too, this is not. (I think the beer helped) There is some humor aimed at older people, but not too much. I think mom enjoyed the experience of the Cinema Grill and will probably go again some time, just not for a meal. Next on the agenda of movies is Madagascar 2 which begins in a couple of weeks.

Carley Hoffman Benefit

Here is the info for those of you who did not get my email about the Carley Hoffman Benefit for this weekend. Carley is the 4 year old daughter of one of Jen's cousins. On July 23rd 2008, 3 year old Carley was diagnosed with high risk, stage four Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a childhood disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest, or spinal cord, causing tumors to form. In Carley's case, the cancer appears to have started in her spinal cord.

On October 11th, 2008, at the American Legion Post 296 in Fort Wayne, a benefit event will be taking place, with all proceeds going directly to Carley's family.

1st Annual Carley Hoffman Benefit

October 11, 2008

11:00 am - 11:30 pm

American Legion Post 296

130 West Tillman RoadFort Wayne, IN

Cost: $15 per person or $20 per couple (children 12 and under are covered by an adult admission)

Family Fun Time will be from 11 am - 6 pm.

Adult activities will run from 6 pm until closing.

There will be:Food (while it lasts) - pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, baked beans, potato saladFun for Kids - moonwalks, face painting, caricature artist (11-2), magician (1-1:30), games with prizes, cotton candy, balloon artistSilent Auction - begins at 11 am, ends at 10:30 pm. Need not be present at end of auction. See Silent Auction page for more details.Baked Goods SaleT-Shirts (available for pre-sale - see right)Music 8:00 pm until 12:00 - Chris Worth CompanyCash BarTip BoardsAll proceeds will go directly to Carley's family for medical and travel expenses.

For more details click here: http://carleyhoffmanbenefit.info/Home_Page.html

If you can't make the event but would still like to make a donation, details can be found on the website as well.

FINALLY !!!

I have been waiting on word about that job I interviewed for over 3 weeks ago. The company is run by a board of directors and the hiring for the position was done by a committee that met pretty infrequently, so I kind of understood the delay, but I thought for sure if they put someone through a 3 and a half hour interview they at least call them either way. I expected an answer the week following the interview... nothing. I emailed the person who contacted me.. nothing. Finally while I was getting ready for an interview last Friday I came across a cell phone number. I called yesterday and left a message. FINALLY this morning I get an e-mail saying that they were hiring someone else. The typical non-specific blow off email that I am getting used to getting. You know, even though I think this job would have been a perfect fit for me, I don't think that I would want to work for someone who was that inconsiderate and unprofessional. I thought about following up with the person to try and find out where I was lacking in skills/experience but decided it would be futile. At least I can move on. I am hoping to hear about that other job either Monday or Tuesday of next week. I was planning on doing a follow up thank you email to the president of the company but I can't find the business card. crap.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Friday was Andrews official 3rd birthday. Wow, 3 years old already. We had him just before moving into this house but it just doesn't seem like we have been here that long. Andrew is such a different personality than William. We got used to William being a relatively quiet kid who didn't get into much of anything.... then along came Andrew, just the opposite. Reminded me alot of the personality differences between my brother and I growing up. All I can say is that I wore the white hat while Dan wore the Black hat. I don't know how my parents didn't ship him off to military school when he was 14. Chistopher is probably going to be a 3rd different personality in the house as well, but he tends to be pretty quiet and well behaved for right now. I look at my boys and it reminds me alot of my 3 cousins in North Carolina with the different personalities.

Anyway back to Andrew, we decided to have his party on Saturday. Jen had to work all weekend, but we could have the party and be done before she had to work. And like I have said before I have found out with kids birthday parties that people show up, eat and leave. They don't tend to hang out for hours like other parties. We kept the party simple (and economical) by cranking up the hot dog steamer and some quick snacks. Jen brought out a couple of cake pans earlier in the week and let Amdrew choose the character on the cake. He Chose Bob the buider again. We just invited mostly family for the party. I would have loved to invite the whole cast of characters and catch up with everyone, but we just weren't able to do that. Hopefully soon. We took things a little out of the usual sequence and openend present first, since the boys were staring at the pile of presents on the table. The hot dog steamer did its usual good job and I still had a couple of containers of coney sauce in the freezer. yum. After cake and ice cream it was quick clean up and Jen headed off to work. (someone has to) The toy carnage is spread out all over the floor of the fornt room and even Christopher is getting his mouth around most of them.

oh wait, Andrew wants to type a little something for this entry:

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa7777bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb5oooooooooo qqqqqqqqqqmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzddddddddttttttttttthhhhll

oh man I might have started something there. Usally the computer is a hands off thing. At least the laptop is, the tower upstairs I have desinated at the kids computer. Oh well, it's probably good to start him early.

Happy birthday Andrew!!!

Darn you Carrie ... or is it thanks?

So I go up to my interview on Friday not feeling that good. My sinuses are really doing a number on me so I am not 100%. Just before leaving I notice that my cell phone was dead. "great". not like I will actually need it though. I was striving to get up there early, but made it just in time. I fill out an application for the job, but get to the area where I have to list my references. oh crud, those phone numbers are on my cell phone that is at home and dead. My head is spinning so much that I can't think of any other people or phone numbers at all. I end up just leaving that part blank and hoping that it won't come up. After filling out the application I sit down with the president of the company for my interview. Not an outwardly friendly guy, but not too stoggy. Not long into the interview he asks the question that is the worst interview question in the world. "What is your biggest weakness?" This is just a bad question since no one would ever answer it honestly without making themselves look bad. Carrie Q (of the Q collective) recently asked her blog readers for the best response to this question. http://caquincy.blogspot.com/2008/09/help-ideas-for-interviews.html
A couple of the responses to the question "what is your biggest weakness", were humerous and included the responses "chocolate" and "kryptonite". As soon as he asked the question, my mind started to swirl (or continue to swirl with my sinuses). Would he appreciate the humerous answer? After what seemed like an eternity I decided against the humous answer and opted for some made up B.S. I think he would have appreciated the humor, but we will see how funny this guy is if I get the job. I need to work on putting together questions to ask the employer. The Friday interview was scheduled for 3 hours but only took an hour and a half. I am not sure if I should try and fill as much of that time with inane questions, but the president covered every question that I had going in there.

Of the 50 resume's he recieved he is only interviewing 10 of them and I am one. After finishing the interviews he goes on vacation this week, so I won't know anything until the middle of October. Jen is getting alot of hours at Disney and working her butt off right now, which is fortunate for us, but unfortunate for her since she isn't used to that type of work schedule.

Yeah that 3 hour interview that I did 3 weeks ago? They still haven't told me if I did or did not get the job. I know they have not filled the position yet. I emailed her a little over a week ago to see the status, but didn't get a response. I came across her cell phone and might just give her a call. At first I was understanding that the didn't get back to me, but now I am starting to get a little ticked. Interview someone for 3 hours and not bother to let them know what happened is just not right.

I am not only the president of the company.. I am a member

So the latest project to work on in my time off is replacing all of the light fixtures on the outside of the house. Originally I was just looking to replace the yard light in the front since the top was hanging on by a thread and I had cut the wires quite a few times. So it hasn't worked for most of the time we have been in this house. My plan was just to replace the yard light head and re-wire the fixture. Yes the other lights on the house were made of this quasi-brass looking stuff that was real tarnished and looked like crap, but my idea was the most economical. Jen was looking for an exact match for the other lights, but do they really need to match, being 40 feet from the house and under a tree??? I was informed that they did.. by the boss. Well we had been looking around for a yard light over the past year, but none of them were what Jen wanted. Who knows were these lights came from or if they make them any more. My mom was over the other day and commented about the lights as well. Then she offered to help us get some new lights for the outside. Not only a new yard light but new lights for the entire front of the house (so they would match). So Monday mom heads out with Jen to go shopping (always dangerous). I have an opinion about the stuff that we buy for the house, but I figure that my taste is similar to my mom's to they will pick something good out. They come home with 4 new house lights and a new yard light. I figured that the only colors that would look good on our house (with the current paint colors) would be either brass or white to match the trim. They ended up buy white fixtures that I wasn't too sure about, but after putting them up, look real good. The new lights are a different open-bottom concept that put them a little lower than the current lights. On either side of our garage are two bushes that grow up to a point. They usually block the garage lights when they grow so I have hacked them back once already. I decide to hack them back again so you can see the lights. I get out the saw and cut the bush down about halfway, then proceed to trim the outer branches to try and make them even. So I am working on making them even and cut the wrong limb leaving a gaping hole right in the front of the bush. Son of a..... There is no way to fix that problem without making both the bushes look stupid, so I do the next best thing. I grab a piece of the freshly cut bush and put in the hole. Now I can say that my bush has a toupee. I know that the "toupee" will die eventually, but maybe I can cover it with webbing for Halloween and corn stalks for the fall. Either that or I am going to start taking pieces from the identical bushes in the backyard until it grows in again. Is there bush Rogain? The house light install doesn't come without it's little problems (like most of my projects do). The bolts that came with the kit to install the lights on the brackets were too long, and the bolts from the old lights were too short. After looking through my bolt collection I decide to hacksaw the long bolts to make them work. After getting over that little problem the installation of the other lights went pretty quick with only a few distractions including the boys "helping" me and a short rain shower (don't want to work on electrical during a thunderstorm). The lights look really good and match the house perfectly.
The next project the next day was the yard light. This would require quite a bit more work since it included laying new wire to the post. Also I had to replace the post since the new fixture was white and wouldn't go with the black post. I offered to just paint the post to save a little time and money, but was out voted by the womenfolk. First things first, I go out and rip the old head off of the yard light (God that felt good). I have been wanting to do that for years. Then I pull the post out of the ground with the wiring. Somebody actually got a clue and put a conduit under the sidewalk for the yard light which made it easy to go under the walk. The new pole was probably 9 feet tall which means I would have to dig deeper than the old pole, I decided to take this opportunity to move the pole away from the tree right next to it. I call the "keeper of the tools" (my father-in-law) to get a post hole digger, since he owns every tool known to man and to see if he has enough wire to do the job. I get over there to find out that he doesn't have a post hole digger or enough wire. Nuts, there goes my back. So a quick trip to Menards for wire and some connectors and head for home. I start digging my new hole. I get down to what I think is pretty deep, put in the pole, and see that I am at least a good 2 feet away from where I need to be. So I am pounding away at this Indiana clay a little at at time with a cracked spade and not going very far. Pretty tired and sore I go into the garage to see if I can find a pole or something to help break up the clay. There in the garbage can of tools is an old ice fishing auger that I saved from the auction at the lake cottage for whatever reason. hmmmmm. I wonder if it would work on dirt. I know it looked a bit silly using an ice fishing auger on dirt but it worked fantastic. I was able to cut down another couple of feet in a few minutes. I put in the post and leveled it up, then ran the wire up to the house. I connected the wires together with some waterproof connectors so hopefully it will be able to keep the connections from shorting out like it has done in the past. I button everything up and hit the switch and it works great. As I am putting away the boxes I find that the post came with an electronic eye to turn the light on and off, but I kept tripping the breaker so I will have to look up the instructions for connecting those. Overall it was about 3 hours to install the yard light with all of the little problems and again with the boys "helping" me. Thank God that Christoper took a good nap.
Not sure what the next project is going to be. On the job front I never did hear back from that interview two weeks ago even though I know they have not filled the position. I have a job interview on Friday, but besides that there isn't anything that even looks close to something that I would want to do. We will see.