Frog and Goat

How on this earth can people vote for this ticket that obviously stoops to pick a woman because they hope to snap up old Hilliary fans? I am all for women gaining access to the White House, but I’d just rather not have a woman go there with the devil himself.

On the other hand there are only 142 days left in the Bush presidency.

I took an impromptu half-day today. Man, what a good idea. I got home and made some white bean dip. Instead of using rosemary, I clipped some thyme out of the garden. I tend to use 2-3 garlic cloves when making the recipe. After making the recipe, I toasted some whole grain bread and picked some cherry tomatoes. After the toast came out of the oven, I slathered on the bean dip and then put sliced tomatoes on the bread. I opened a Blue Moon (what the hell, I am officially on vacation) and watched some Enterprise on SCIFITV.

The sandwich was amazingly good. Sometimes I can imagine being vegetarian. And then, someone mentions burgers, sausage, steak and a pork tenderloin and I’m over that idea.

Tonight I made a wheatberry salad with red onion, rosemary and tarragon as a side dish to the rockfish the better-half brought home. The recipe came off the web and for the life of me I can’t tell you who I got the recipe from. It is originally a Dean and Deluca recipe. I’ve never had wheatberry before but I like it quite a bit after today’s introduction. I liken it to barley which I love. I think next time I’ll cook the wheatberry for an hour and 15 minutes instead of just an hour. The recipe calls for raspberry vinegar–I used a combo of red and white wine vinegar (with salt dissolved in it)–I don’t even know where I could find that flava flave of vinegar.  Like I said, quite delicious.

I applied for a job with a well-known national health insurance company on 7/2. On 8/11 I got a call about it. I was on vacation. I called the hiring manager on 8/12. We set up a phone call for 8/18. I called her and we set up a phone interview for 8/22. I called 3 times on the day of our interview and sent an email. BLOWN OFF. I called on 8/25 and left another message. Today in my inbox the KISS OFF email from HR’s automated system arrived. I blew a gasket. It’s been awhile since I worked in a recruiting office so if it isn’t actually illegal to have someone in the candidate pipeline and close the job, it is highly unethical. Not to mention a load of CRAP. I emailed the closing notification to the hiring manager and said something about how I was surprised that I was dismissed before I could even talk to her. I also said I was writing a letter to the EVP of HR to complain about the crappy way this whole thing has gone down.

I received a response from the hiring manager. Turns out she’s not dead, but just an incompetent dumbass. Who didn’t apologize for blowing me off and said I need to do what’s best for me and that she’s sorry that I’m so offended. So offended? No I’m ENRAGED. She also called and left a message at home. The place I’m not. This really ticks me off because she had all of my phone numbers and she chose to call me at home during the WORK DAY, when I’m working. I emailed her back and said I’m not interested in the position and I’m not interested in working for you since you blew me off, didn’t apologize and acted like an incompetent dumbass. I asked her how she would feel if I treated her this way and she was the job seeker. Of course I didn’t actually call her a dumbass because I find that dumbasses generally don’t like being called out as such. I was firm, but professional. My letter to the EVP goes out tomorrow.

I decided to let a little metal soothe my soul:

I know times are tough all over, and you have people in the public school system using your franking system to send me books I purchased through half.com, but seriously, you are the capital of our state. Start acting and looking like it. In other words, get a haircut, tuck in your shirt and button your jacket. Buy a decent pair of shoes. Shoes say a lot about you. For instance, mine are now saying “She got really wet because there’s not a corner that drains correctly in the city” or maybe they are saying “What’s up with the brick sidewalk on Floyd near the VCU daycare center? Really? Is it necessary to have two-inch deep water on the sidewalk because you can’t maintain anything?”

Don’t get me started on what my pants are telling me right now.

Signed,

Glad it’s raining, but sick of the city’s inability to function

Since the students came back to school the IT system here has blown chunks. Today is the last straw as all access to email has gone tits up. The DNS servers are crashing and who knows if I’ll even be able to finish this rant before I lose all connectivity. How is it possible that for a university of this size that the basic infrastructure doesn’t work? Hie thy ass to Best Buy and buy the newest and biggest thing they have that will fix the problem–I don’t care about the purchasing policy make the shit work again.

It doesn’t help that I’m beyond frustrated with work already but to not be able to do my tiny little tasks really puts my shorts in a knot. At least the top of my desk has been cleaned off and all my extra sheets of paper have been thrown into the recycle bin.

When people ask me how I’m able to get so much work done for school while at work, I can point to days like this.

On Saturday we joined friends for the special chef lunch at the Barboursville winery. I had planned on writing a longish post about this experience and include the menu. By the time we got home from our lunch and then shopping for our Sunday activities, it was late and I was tired. Let’s just say the food was awesome and the wine was good too. My favorite was the Cabernet Franc. I think it was the 2006 vintage. I’ll seek that out again. We sat with an older couple who is also from the Richmond area. Let’s say they have lots of cash and lead the life of Riley. They were quite interesting and engaging.

Sunday we had old friends and their three boys over for an afternoon of swimming and cooking out. We hadn’t seen them in over a year so it was wonderful to catch up with them in person and to see how the boys have grown. They are some of the funniest kids I know and they will make good adults in the few short years it will take them to all of a sudden be in their 20s. The oldest starts high school next week. I remember life before he arrived. We recently came across a picture of me holding him right after he was born. He was the size of a loaf of bread and now he towers over me.

Still no word from the hiring manager I was to speak with on Friday. I called again this morning and left my final message–I was more than professional and left all my contact numbers. I asked a friend who works for the same company but in a different division to look up the hiring manager’s physical address so in case I have to break down and write a regular note, I’ll know where to send it. I can only assume there’s been a catastrophe. Otherwise I don’t know that I could work for this person.

I have been reluctant to talk about this but I have a phone interview with a hiring manager on Friday. I don’t want to jinx the call, but it sounds like a perfect job for me. I talked to the hiring manager briefly on Monday and like her already–we joked around a bit on the phone and set up the interview for Friday morning. The hiring manager is located in Ohio. The job is located here but I’ve been thinking a lot about Ohio lately. Specifically about the job, of course, but also how I’ve never been there. Pittsburgh is as close as I’ve come to Ohio. A shame, really, but that will change if I get this job.

In order to torture myself, I’ve been trying to think of songs about Ohio or by Ohio singers or both. Yes, I have a lot of space in my brain and I devote it to crap like this.

Anyway…one of my favorite lyrics of all time is “a, o, way to go, Ohio”. Seriously. Something about the delivery.

I’ve had the “Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming” lyric stuck in my head since vacation last week. The Isley Brothers are awesome. But, you already know about my love of soul music. Yes I know they didn’t write it but the screaming guitars and the bass line rule and Neil Young is like nails on the chalk board for me.

And, of course, there’s REM’s Cuyahoga. As someone who grew up in the late 80s, REM will always be on one of my lists.

Friday afternoon update: No interview today. I called and left three messages and sent an email and I have yet to hear back as to what the fuck happened. I can only assume catastrophic family/business crisis otherwise I have no use for this job–except I was really getting excited about it.

JohnMcCain is a creep. If you need more evidence above and beyond that sick feeling in your stomach, check out this article from Daily Kos.

We returned home yesterday afternoon and before we took one item out of the car we ran into the house to see Simon. I think it’s fair to say we all missed each other. The poor guy was under the guest bed. He usually sleeps on top of it these days unless the nieces are here and he’s wigged. We could tell he spent no time on the hassock downstairs because the boy knows how to shed and there wasn’t a hair on it. That’s one of his favorite places to sleep.

He has spent all of the intervening time making sure he knows where we are or talking to us about where we are. Last night we finally had to open the bedroom doors so he could come in and be comforted. At some point early this morning, I had a face full of soft kitty fur. We’re really home, little guy.

The word has also gone out to all the deer in the neighborhood. The deer we’ve always been so friendly to–we keep part of our property as orchard grass so they can graze. Well, I’m considering cutting down the orchard grass and sitting on the front porch with a shotgun…mmm, tasty venison (ok, not really the hunting part):

We haven’t seen the saxophone playing frog since winter: