Totally Random
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Jay: Blargh
I feel lousy this morning. Got enough sleep, even if much of it was in Sadie’s bed because she apparently decided our bed would be better and warmer. Well, “even if” makes her bed sound bad, and actually it’s awesome. I may have gotten deeper sleep there. I noticed Valerie eventually abandoned her bed too, presumably joining the crowd in ours.
I woke up from one of those crazy mashed up dreams. It involved starting a job, and the place or aspects brought in elements of multiple past employers and situations. The place was named Halliday, which is one job. The lobby was right out of Corporate Software, which later became Stream. I was supposed to start at $8.00 an hour, which happens to be minimum wage in Massachusetts currently. I speculated they might start at slightly higher, which Flatley Company did when I worked at Waterford Village. Minimum wage then was $2.90 and they paid $3.00. Then minimum wage went to $3.10 and they paid… $3.10, which completely destroyed some notions I had.
I was talking with someone, speculating that the company might pay me a little above the minimum. Sure enough, it was going to be $8.02, which somehow morphed into the exact same thing as the $12.02 I started at with Corporate Software. Anyway, even the reference to pay rate is a reference back to prior jobs.
The exterior of the building was some kind of generic cross between places, hard to say one more than another, but there might have been elements of a Christy’s Market, adding another old job.
Later, when I was on the job, there was a scene in an apartment. Apparently apartments were part of what the place did, which goes back to Waterford Village. It was vacant, had been mine, still had some of my stuff in it, and was not going to be rented any time soon. This was like the office I had in Easton, which took me a month extra to move out of after the last official month, with them in no hurry for it. A guy named Matthew showed up in the dream. We once shared an apartment in Greenfield, and I was telling him he might soon want to get his stuff out of this one that he’d left it in with me. He hadn’t even realized I’d moved. Shades of former partners having left stuff in the office in Easton, which had to go to them, be disposed of, be adopted, or be stored.
Confusingly, in a related sequence, I was showing someone how many bookcases I was going to be able to fit, in a ridiculous arrangement, in just the entryway/kitchen area alone. The someone was an amalgamation of a former partner and someone I didn’t work closely with at Stream, but who was similarly brilliant.
Very strange. I also remember thinking that I could crash in the apartment if needed, like if I needed to stay over at work since the place was vacant, I had access to it, and they’d made me welcome to use it, short of actually moving in.
Lots of stuff to do today. Hope I can remember what it is! I have some e-mailing and calling and going and researching and writing and food storing and cleaning and organizing and so forth to be done.
We received a book yesterday that we’d order super cheap from Half.com, a used copy of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. I need to do more than skim the intro, but it should be interesting. Sadie is beyond ready. She fell asleep last night with a book named “Ted” open, pages down on her chest. She studies and recites books from memory. She knows the letters. She has an idea of some words, like the Q thing she identifies with closing a program (Quit), that made he so excited to learn about how q and u go together.
This morning she spent some time on my lap while I didn’t write and I did an impromptu tiny lesson on m and s, which are the first ones covered in the book. She can point them out on the keyboard (and sound like I’m stupid to ask her) and I had her say the sounds. The actual lessons take about 15 minutes. Not a bad amount of time to devote, once or twice a day. I doubt she’ll need the whole thing or want to be held back to that speed once we’re rolling.
Anyway, I need to go take care of stuff in the kitchen. And post the birthday I didn’t know about before I started this. Sooner or later I’ll have no birthday-free days.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Jay: Thinking Aloud
This is an exercise in helping me figure out what I am going to tackle today, and beyond, and wrap my head around what awaits my attention before I get all scattered.
I probably don’t need to mention the usual dishes to wash or load into dishwasher, of which there are relatively few because I’d caught up. I’ll want to just almost from this post right to the shower, so Deb can do laundry if her back is up to it. Poor back. (Sounds like it’s not.) Going to the store simply is, without option to avoid it. I could go to the bank while I’m out.
I have to take the registry thing to the town hall for an abatement on one of the excise tax bills, and pay the two of them. That needs to precede any visit to the registry, which needs to be preceded by contact with the insurance company. In Texas. Which probably means simply not possible to register car this week, before the gathering Sunday. Annoying. Also annoying that said gathering is at the same time as something else we were invited to first, which worst case I could have gone to with Sadie alone, since she’s the one near Dale in age, and it’s his birthday party.
I have e-mails to answer. Some are going on two weeks old.
We’re expecting my father to swing by late in the day, so I have to plan around that, even for a quick drop off of some stuff. That influences the timing of errands.
Yesterday I discussed a web site update with the former big client, who has realized that my original preference on something was right. I’d proposed to them a month to month flat fee for site maintenance and updates covering most anything short of a complete redo, since it’s not covered under the current support contract they have and I did the original based on their marketing/design person’s plan. They managed to get me to do a one shot update for the monthly rate, which ended up working out to no more than $12 an hour and required a ton of waiting. That’s long paid, but the last tiny bit is still not done, waiting for a photo. Obviously I am not going to make another change, which could involve changing every page, without another modest fee. I suggested an additional change to include and will hear back eventually.
I did site backups across the empire and was going to update WordPress on all the blogs that use it, starting with Dan’s, which I didn’t update last time. I was falling asleep at my desk last night when about to do that, so figured I’d better wait. I’ll want to do those before much time passes, so I don’t feel like I must do the backups over again.
I have some paying work I need to get cracking on, which among other things will require me to get more familiar with RSS. I have dabbled with RSS readers myself, but none have “stuck” and I always revert to reading from links. How 2003 of me! I guess I need a reader I like enough, and then to be careful what I include, or to be able to categorize it well. I could almost see an automated system being useful, so your daily reads would appear every day, keyworded stuff would appear daily even if it’s not a daily read, and a measured amount of “check weekly” and “check monthly” stuff would automatically be included in your daily reading, perhaps varied by day, so if you want to do more reading on the weekend, it can play catch up then.
That probably exists.
I also need to learn all there is to know about measuring RSS feeds subscribed/read for a given site. Heck, I have no idea how many people read us that way.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Perhaps I can fit in some of that project today.
I also need to work with/learn more about Facebook and some of those.
I’m still on the office reorganization, which spills into the kitchen, where I still have stuff on the table that was once in the office. That seems to work okay by pecking away at it, like when I crave physical work and need to get up from the computer.
Shoot, that about covers today, doesn’t it? Not even getting into posts to write, my book/series of posts idea to work on while timely, CotC, the business site needing updating, etc. and so forth.
Well, off to it. Don’t be alarmed it there’s a lack of posts or if I revert to drive-by commentary.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Jay: Preoccupied
I was working on a post about recent work experiences, but decided I’d cut to a this and that post and save the other for later.
Things got more interesting again with the baby. Henry is apparently allergic to milk. He got into a sippy cup one of the girls had, got a meaningful amount, and where it dribbled down his front, he got contact hives.
So we are up to milk and presumably milk products, with it all the clearer the big incident was cheese-related, bananas, apples, grapes, juice of the above, apparently broccoli, and I could swear I’m forgetting something else. The seems to be able to eat/touch column includes rice, oatmeal, potatoes, chicken, beef, pork, butternut, carrots, and sweet potatoes. We’re reasonably confident about pear. He tasted Valerie’s cranberry strawberry juice today with no obvious or immediate consequences, but hard to say. The girls aren’t going to be easy to train. I got cranberry specifically because we know apple and grape juices are bad, and in case it’s good for Val’s urinary system. At the same time, wanting it so tasty she drinks plenty and stays hydrated.
Good thing he loves rice cakes.
This means Deb is back off dairy again, and I’ll avoid it for cooking anything we’ll all eat. We really need to find margarine that contains no dairy products.
I have so much on my plate, I’m lucky to slip in a post. I had a crazy, way underpaid bit of work Sunday and Monday. I helped someone with a computer speedup and de-infestation yesterday. Apparently I have some big fans at the old stomping grounds. The bit of work yesterday might lead to more. I have some work we’re calling tech-marketing that I need to ramp up and spend some real time on, getting a handle on it. The cool thing is it reminds me of my favorite college class, which was named management seminar, and was a graduate-style case course on strategic management and, by extension, business development. It’s like being handed a case to work on for real. There’s some writing work still pending, which I need to check on, status-wise.
There’s everything being made interesting due to the baby’s medical/diet issues.
There’s an ongoing, fits and starts reorganization and cleanup of the office and the house generally, purging stuff we don’t need, traveling a bit lighter.
There’s the project of thanking all the awesome people who donated to us recently, which is up near the top of the priority list for today.
There’s marketing. It looks increasingly like I may be able to piece together a living from this and that, and may be able to do that and spend a lot of time on the home front, while Deb has the potential of some supplemental outside work. However, the marketing includes of her, on the idea we can both do this and that without more than part time or hit and run outside the house work.
So that’s the stuff I’m working on or concerned with, that may mean a post is slow to appear if it’s somewhat extraneous.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Deb: So, since Jay isn’t here to entertain you…
I suppose I should post something. 
Jay’s off exploring the weaknesses of too many layers of outsourcing. The girls are up and glued to the babybabysteinstein, as Val called it for a while. When I say that now, she corrects me. I hear the baby stirring, so I’ll need to go get him in a minute.
I don’t have a whole lot to say this morning, really, since I’m on my first cup of coffee myself. Except that you guys rock.
Today’s agenda: clean kitchen, laundry, work on the shop-stocking issue (that last because you guys rock...see, there I go again).
OK, off to get the baby. Hey, I never promised it would be an exciting post!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Jay: On Today’s Menu
Wow.
I have to run stuff to the post office, as people have been cleaning Deb out. Like 1/3 of the Etsy shop and several items from the book shop, and there was only one order ready to ship before the post office closed yesterday. I’m looking at 7 first class or priority packages, and packing slips for a couple more.
That’s first, because it’s about prompt shipping for which the shops have become known.
Then I need to do thank you e-mails. Lots of thank you e-mails. Sometime in the next day, I figure. We’re just… astonished.
I also need to do my planned “hire us” item on the sidebar, which would have been better done before yesterday’s post went up. I didn’t ask for anyone to link it, and have no idea how the heaviest of hitters knew about it almost as soon as it was posted. So I didn’t expect anywhere near the traffic or response.
I have an American Idol post to write.
Maybe not today, but very soon there will be an edition of CotC. While I may still call it a fundraising edition, and if that catches a few more people who’ve appreciated or are attached to it then great, the impetus now is that so many people donated here and mentioned CotC in conjunction. Plus I’m going to burst if I don’t do something soon with all the links I personally have been accumulating, let alone whatever is in the mailbox I haven’t looked at lately.
It’s a good day to put the resume and/or work solicitations in more places.
I need to look at some information worth knowing in advance of a likely phone screening for the far away support job possibility. No matter how massive your background, it seems there’s always a “really like you to know...” that you don’t, or have not even heard of.
Okay, off I go. Just wanted to fix this stuff in my mind and put forth what’s up, for the curious, as something besides birthdays.
Oh yeah! Need to post about Henry aging a few months yesterday, and how cool that was.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jay: Crunch Time
This is going to be a different post from the one I started the night before last, with the same title. That one started out on the topic of needing to locate the taxes I’d done, for the partnership and personal federal, and to do the state ones and get them mailed. I since located the partnership ones and mailed them, along with two books from Deb’s book shop. One was an advanced computer book from my collection, so went for $17.50 at about the cheapest price available. For us that’s real money. When it arrives in the twice a month payout. I also rewrote the federal to be neater, and did the state, cursing Romney over RomneyCare. There’s now a form HC, which at 3 pages if you need the whole thing is longer than the main Form 1 at 2 pages. I had the urge to ignore it, but you are supposed to use it to determine your personal exemption. By running too low on money to pay the last $1300 of insurance for Deb and the kids to cover October through December, and failing to apply for subsidized coverage, we paid a penalty of $220 in extra taxes.
Anyway, that’s all done. I have to mail those today.
Looks like the interview last week was a bust, which is fascinating in that it was a temporary gig. Which I suspect they planned to try to get someone permanent out of, and looked accordingly. The interview the week before was obviously a bust as well.
I have a possible something in the works with an internet marketing business. I have someone putting in my resume for a well-paid support job that just happens to be in Lowell, so it’d be on the $25 a day commuting plan. If I can stop worrying about money and the household long enough to chase an income just slightly harder and keep the household, something - even something great - should come pretty fast. It’s probably a matter of keeping the balls in the air a few more weeks.
Trouble is, we’re out of time, and while some awesome people have picked up distress, we haven’t been forthcoming on just where things stand. I’ve threatened to have a fundraising edition of Carnival of the Capitalists, even though I’m too busy trying to raise money to try to raise money. I’ve pointed out the resume, Deb’s Etsy shop and used book shop, and my availability for side work.
I haven’t asked for donations, apart from whatever is implicit in making the PayPal button available. And it feels wrong to do so, much as we get annoyed by unhelpful people who dwell on the fact history ought have been different, rather than acting on (or ignoring) what is. I could say and rue much about how we got here, but that doesn’t keep us from getting evicted.
Then again, I’d rather ask individuals for help than use public assistance paid for with stolen money. Or worse, stolen from the future, given the financing of so much of it through debt, creating a future need for inflation and/or higher taxes. But what do I know. I’m just a crackpot who saw the housing/credit bubble vividly starting years ago.
So yeah. Pretty much asking now, as I prepare to mail the tax returns and then throw ourselves on the mercy of the gas & electric department to avoid having those shut off tomorrow. When I gave them Henry’s birth certificate, which by itself should give us until August 20, they also wanted an income number. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I’d made last year. I would never have guessed it would be low enough for the EIC, or that rent, medical and health insurance technically took 2/3 of it. There was enough in residual, undrawn funds that it carried us a long time in the shutdown of the business (in which mailing the tax returns yesterday is the last major act, though I’ll have stuff to handle for a while).
If blogging is a bit slow, or you see as much on other blogs as here to keep them up enough to justify their value to advertisers, it’ll be because we’re scrambling. The ads, the selling things, the found money, the incredibly generous donations we already received, the Etsy sales - nothing to sneeze at but also in jeopardy because you have to have money for materials and shipping - and the bits of side work here and there only go so far. The fact I tend to stock the pantry as if I’m expecting to ride out the end of civilization - or something like this bad stretch - only helps stretch things so long before real money needs to be spent on groceries and sundries again.
Of course, if we lose power, that’s the end game. What money we do make is online. That would trigger a total meltdown of our situation. I don’t think that should be a problem, but we do have to start paying them Real Soon Now. We’ve been managing to get $250 or $300 a week to the landlord, staying basically half a month to a month or so behind. If we miss a week, game over, barring something like working with us because I just started a job and it’s all going to change. This week we’re sketchy but should manage it. Next week? No idea. I expect to do some small side work early in the week, but not likely enough.
Anyway, if you can hit the donate button, even in small amounts, that would be amazing. Alternatively, use the address deb at neatlytangled dot com for PayPal, as hers doesn’t have a transfer limit (to get it from there to the bank) and is useful that way. If we’ve ever entertained you through blogging, given you helpful advice, or even if you think I’m an idiot but want to keep the kids fed and off the street, perhaps it’s worth something.
Onward! Time to take care of business. Mail tax returns. Deal with utility crisis. Try to shake loose work. Planning to add Deb’s resume to the ones online and put a “hire us” box in the sidebar where “donate” is now, soon as I get a chance. So on. So forth.
Thanks for helping, or even just reading and quietly not saying or doing something unhelpful, no matter what you really think.
Update:
You guys are amazing. Not to replace individual thanks, but holy cow, we’re just blown away.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Jay: Shopping List
Don’t mind me. This is mostly composing aloud of my list of things I need to get at the store, following a quick run to the post office with another sold book. The budget for the grocery run is $25. Diapers should take $6.49 of it, unless I buy them elsewhere and juggle other money toward them, which is possible considering how ideal Market Basket is for buying food itself. I can look at this list here from the store if needed. Hooray for technology!
Besides the errands, I’m still working on the office, and today playing with some web and database code, which may be significantly easier than I had anticipated. Since working on code, be it that as a possible project, creating a portfolio of what I have done, or trying to dredge out stuff I can complete and make available, or fiddle with to learn more, means needing to hook up at least one additional computer and improve the lab environment, the office rearranging project goes hand in hand.
I still haven’t heard back on the contract I interviewed for. I need to e-mail the guy there and others. I did hear from the bank, where my online banking has never worked. Before they escalated it, they had me try it live on the phone to capture a server log of the attempt. It’ll be interesting to see what the problem is. I have to wonder if it’s FiOS or my router the FiOS comes through.
Anyway, what do I need to remember?
Meat. Depends what is on sale. We have none, period, and can use chicken and ground beef, for starters. Pork or unground beef are valid options. I could easily buy $50 of meat to restock, before even getting to anything else. With the dairy ban for Deb, we shoot for high fat more than we normally would.
Potatoes
Carrots (best price is there, or I might skip)
Beans, maybe lentils too (almost out of 64 oz bag of pintos, out of all else but split peas)
Frozen veggies (just a few cheap bags to interrupt the drought)
Cheese
Milk (not out, but cheapest place for it)
Pasta
Spaghetti sauce
Possibly some fresh veggies, sweet potatoes, butternut, or fruit depending on prices or sales
Bread
Yeast
Sugar
Maybe coffee creamer
Maybe coffee
Maybe tuna (goal of kids actually eating)
Maybe tomato soup (ditto)
Butter if still low there (ditto - Sadie can tell the difference, eats bread plain rather than with margarine)
I know I’m forgetting something and I’ll remember as soon as I walk out into the kitchen. I hope.
There are things low, like ketchup and rice, that can wait. I can do scratch rather than needing Bisquick.
Vegetable oil (using a lot where I’d put butter or margarine in pan to fry stuff, avoiding dairy)
Honey
Peanut butter, if they have a good price
Oatmeal, ditto
That may actually be it. It’s just that the innocent entries for meats and veggies could easily overwhelm the whole thing. Then if there’s a must have sale, that adds to it. Since I lost the flier, I should see if it’s online the way most are…
Huh. It appears Demoulas Market Basket supermarkets have no web presence. Weird indeed.
Anyway, off to it before the day slips any further.
Update:
I found the paper flier for this week. They have some nice sales, especially on beef and hamburger. That helps.
The kids are having a trauma over who will go with me…
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Jay: No Birthdays Today
Well, not in my calendar. Surely there are some, somewhere, for someone.
Today I am going to attempt to take Henry to my grandmother’s with me. Valerie had a recent turn. Sadie refuses to learn to use the big toilet, even though she’s getting too big for the potty, and we’re requiring her to do that before she goes visiting where that’ll be the only option. He can eat regular food, for limited values of same, so it’s his turn. This is the obligatory one for birthday cake for me and my mother, since ours were on Thursday. I need to get moving soon, as it’s starting to be late.
Ah, I hear kids.
Speaking of which, Sadie thought not being able to drive our new car until we “pay tax on it” (registration) was about the craziest thing she’d ever heard.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Jay: Birthday and Many Things
So yesterday was my birthday. And that of a lot of other people, now up to a total of seven on that day in my calendar. That may be the largest number on one day. (Pauses to check, because he’s such a geek, finds that it’s tied with July 28, but no other day has more than five so far.)
It would have pretty much sucked - well, it did - apart from getting a car, and a substantial donation.
My left knee, and to some degree my thigh, have been killing me beyond all reason. It may or may not be connected to gout, which had been quiet recently until today, when I seem to have a minor touch of it in my right foot. Nothing like it was. The knees have bothered me before, over the years, and can be sort of twisted easily, or hurt by kneeling on a hard surface, or standing in place too long (I tend to need to sit, or move around extensively, after sufficiently long food prep, for instance). This has been unusual, and tough to keep away because of the kids and the need for activity that stresses it.
Ironically, sitting in this chair tends to bother it, while taking a walk tends to help it. Stairs? Excruciating, once it’s flared up, bordering on impossible.
That was making me extra cranky. Part of today it was better, but we have kids and stuff. They are pretty much a guarantee I can’t take it easy on the thing, and Valerie managed to add a bit of back to the mix yesterday by doing a backward somersault off my lap and being prevented from landing on her head.
Speaking of Valerie, she needs to learn to tell us when she’s bleeding, rather than being fascinated by the artistic possibilities. Keeping a bandage on would be good, too, once Dr. Dad has ruined her fun.
So yeah, a car. My aunt got this silver/gray 1994 Buick Century with 86k miles on it in 2003 at a good price. She drove it to 174k miles, replaced it yesterday, and brought it to us.
She seriously downplayed its condition and overstated its degree of foibles, I think. It’s beautiful, body looking at least as good as he one on the ill-fated van of the same model year. The foibles are things like a fan blade on the AC being broken, so you have to turn it off and back on strategically. I seldom use AC, even in a vehicle that has it. The trunk apparently can leak some in heavy rain. There can be a little trick to opening the rear doors. There are rear doors! And room for three carseats, of which they left an extra, a spare of my mother’s, in the car. It uses a quart between oil changes, and she keeps it to 65 on the highway. We’d mainly use it on local roads, very limited driving to places we’d need to go together.
The trick now is to be able to afford to register it. That’s a tough one. My aunt is getting the form to declare it a gift and save us the sales tax, so that will help.
I’ve always been particularly fond of my mother’s sister, who is only 17 years older than me, but this is just amazing and a huge surprise.
Anyway, I parked it where we’d been parking the truck, moving the truck up into the main part of the driveway. We’d been using two spots deep in the driveway, then hogging a third, spare spot with the Sentra. That wasn’t considered a favorable spot due to the mulberries, and really neither is at least one of the others.
Today I got home from dropping off a trickle of rent to the landlord, ran into the gal upstairs, and she had moved her car so we could have our other space back, having seen that we got a second car. The very same day, they swapped his truck for something better, very nice. Funny how things synchronize that way.
I was amazed, as I figured we’d lost that spot fair and square. The spot we’d hogged with the old Sentra has a trailer in it now, which works out perfectly. They can be funny sometimes, in their youthfulness, but once again, the people upstairs are great.
What else?
I ended up doing a lot of dishes and cleaning. I took Valerie on errands with me, to the post office, Benny’s, the bank, and Stop & Shop, where her bladder almost made it through the entire lengthy trek. I was threatening to make myself birthday brownies, with a mix on hand, but never did get around to it.
That would have been no fun for Deb. On the off chance stuff bad for the baby translates into breast milk, she’s been off the likely suspects, bringing them back until it’s just eggs and dairy. She ate a single egg, in a sandwich with ham. He got rashy the next day. It’s back off eggs long enough to let him clear up and test it again. It could have been random environmental, or something stray he ate courtesy of the girls. He also tried pear, and while there’s room to wonder, that’s one of the least likely problem foods. I’ll give him more this weekend and see, maybe.
I did splurge on flour tortillas, so we had chicken burritos for supper. That was popular. He’s had seasoned chicken since we started reintroducing stuff, but I cooked a little chicken by itself for Henry, just salt and a little pepper. He loves chicken.
For that I pulled out a tiny frying pan I never use, big enough to fry a single egg, and now I want to use it again and own more like it. It’s stainless steel with a thick copper bottom. Yeah, I needed more oil than I am used to using, because the second I turned on the burner, it seemed, the pan was sizzling hot and the meat wanted to stick to it. But oh, it cooked so nice. I think I’m in love.
And hey, the non-stick pans are starting to lose their mojo. They end up with a spot in the center, where the heat focuses, that the coating loses its ungrip. Once that gets serious, you may as well have a traditional pan. The really bad one is Deb’s deep frying pan with a glass cover, which gets used constantly. I wouldn’t mind having more than one of those, including a larger version, if I were outfitting the kitchen more completely.
What else?
Today was better. Overnight was weird, in that I was up most of the night, but during that time the knee was better, after a couple hours of sleep. The very best thing for it is to lay down a certain way on the bed. I can coddle it some laying on, say, the floor, but the bed is better, and then sleeping while it rests is better still. It got worse again as the day progressed, but it does that. While it may be nauseating at times today, last night I experienced a revelation of understanding how someone can pass out in response to pain.
Ibuprofen is shooting up the “must buy some” list.
I have an interview Tuesday in Needham. That’s a Good Thing. Same former colleague who landed me the main interview Monday got me another, but this time it’s his own employer, for a 2 - 3 month contract supporting a new software rollout. Beyond that there hasn’t been much activity, besides a ton of additions in LinkedIn and correspondence stemming from that, including with my last manager from VB support, who was awesome.
I did up the root of elhide.com to be a resume links and simple supporting text page, to give it the shortest possible URL without setting up a new domain. Plus elhide.com is more memorable than, say, gphmo.com. Which stems from when I was going to setup a new business as “Geek Practitioners.” The HMO in this case, besides a play on the medical theme, stood for “home, mobile, office.”
Still have to do a blogging-oriented resume. Still have to retrofit the blogs with “hire me” sidebar sections prominent. Still working on the odds and ends side work, but that’s going a little slower than expected.
Anyway, off to bed, I guess. Wanted to do a post for the day and talk about the birthday and the car and such. Got delayed and now it’s after midnight, but oh well.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Jay: Apparently
I hit just the right food combinations yesterday for the kids.
First, I had bought 3 Bartlett pears on sale, sneaking them into a “can’t get everything I need and must keep it under $10, preferably under $7 in case the debit card doesn’t work and I have to use cash” grocery order, and the girls split one like they were discovering fruit for the first time. It was especially good, perfectly ripe.
Shortly after, at their request, we had grilled cheese and red soup. The latter being what they call tomato soup. Which was Wal-Mart’s house brand, and quite good. They each devoured completely half of a grilled cheese, made with colby jack, cheap bread and cheap margarine. Since we can’t afford cheese, but still have to buy some, and are using it slower while Deb avoids dairy, and I’m nervous about my beloved cheddar after the allergy incident in which it’s about 80% probable the specific batch of cheese plus pre-sensitization were to blame (I didn’t know cheddar could be loaded with histamines) and I reacted to it or something too, we’ve settled on that kind. Wal-Mart’s is good, and it makes great grilled cheese. One devoured all and the other most of a third or more of the can of soup. I gave each of them at least as much of it as I had.
Then when I was at a total loss for supper, Deb remembered I’d mentioned blueberry pancakes the night before. We still had part of a bag of frozen blueberries my father had gotten for Sadie, knowing her love of blueberries. Most of it went into an astonishingly good blueberry cake a while back, which oddly enough left the kids indifferent.
There was exactly a cup of Bisquick remaining, enough for half a standard batch, without stretching it or making scratch. I made that up for them, figuring they might not eat it all and that would be part of what I had. Using an eight cup measure to scoop relatively uniform pancakes, I made 12 of them, heavy on blueberries, ate one myself, and between them they ate all of the other 11. Sadie ate 5 2/3 and Valerie at 5 1/3 of them, with plenty of cheap fake syrup.
That’s just nuts, compared to their normal, or at least recent, eating, especially Sadie’s. She’s been doing a lot of living on moonbeams. And afterward she pleaded still hungry, at least enough for several jelly beans.
In between, they each got a green apple lollipop from the post office when we walked there. You may remember we have books for sale, and there was an order for one to go priority, rather than the usual media mail. Not only did the guy at the post office give out lollipops, he had me stuff the original package into one of the “if it fits, it ships” priority folders, to make it $4.60 instead of $7.50.
Too bad having a full belly didn’t prevent a total meltdown by Sadie, for no apparent reason, late last night. She did make the breakthrough of calming herself enough to be coherent, so that’s good.
And speaking of cheap bread, we fell in love with Stop & Shop’s cheap bread, in 3-packs for $2.69, so it’s the best price as well as quality. I went in there the other day, read the package and found it has no milk or egg, so bought that rather than making more dairy-free bread myself just now. But… it went up sixty cents, to $3.29, just like that. Wow! If bread everywhere else, in single loaves, stayed that same, that makes them comparable. I have to assume there was probably a generalized increase. But 22%?? That’s going to mean the cheapest breads start to approach $1.50 a loaf. Perhaps it’s not generalized. I’ll have to look, just to find out.
My next mission will be to persuade the kids that soup is still soup and can still be eaten even if it’s not tomato. I have three cans of chicken noodle, which they ought to like, if I carefully promote it and make sure they know what it is. There are some other cans that the three of us can eat.
Speaking of allergies, we tried reintroducing eggs to Deb starting last night. The two of us had fried egg and ham sandwiches. Eggs come out odd on non-stick with no source of grease, but it was still good. Within a few days we should be clear that it’s okay for her to have them, which will leave only dairy, which makes it not too bad.
Henry can now eat oatmeal, rice, butternut, apple, chicken, and carrots. I really need to hit the store with money enough to buy chicken this week, as it’s on amazing sale, and hello, he can eat it and it’s a nice boost from the veggie kingdom. I was thinking of trying the pears next, but I doubt they’ll last long enough. They’re a safe bet, anyway. We still have sweet potatoes he could try next, and that’ll cover the major orange food group.
Oh, peanut butter and raisins appear to be safe for him, too. He has sisters. Apparently the main reason not to give him peanut butter is ability to eat it without choking, because he’s managed to get some twice.
One of his biggest problems seems to be my printed shirts. Part of it’s an abrasion factor, on the heavier, rougher prints, but the ink can also contain stuff that can bother some people. Given that we know he is bothered severely by bananas, and that probably means a latex allergy, the ink thing would be no surprise.
I’m rambling. Need to get more coffee, and at least make it so the girls will wake sooner rather than later. Last night I was threatening them with an earlier bed time, starting with waking them early today. I didn’t, but it’s about time even for not so early.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Jay: Regarding Yesterday’s Adventure
I’m thinking it might work best as a series of posts on specific elements, observations, and so forth. Like riding the commuter rail from Lakeville to South Station, and back. Which was great, and I can see doing regularly, as well as taking the kids on sometime just because.
I confirmed you can indeed pay cash on the train, rather than going to an out of the way store and buying tickets from a bored clerk. Apparently there is no surcharge, either. There are bathrooms on the trains, though I didn’t check them out myself.
Parking seems to be adequate, at almost 900 spaces.
The trains are comfortable. It was more so on the way in, and I am not sure how much of that was being on lower versus upper deck, versus any differences in the track or driving style. It was less smooth farther north.
On the way in, they collected tickets and fares after each initial stop, and left a cardboard marker on the back of each seat for each person who’d paid. Once they were north of a certain point, I think where it starts to double as part of the T, they took the markers and didn’t do any further collecting, etc. On the way south, the only time they did any of that was at South Station, though I would presume in theory people could get on at, say, Montello and go south to, say, Lakeville or Bridgewater. It struck me as relatively easy for someone to bypass paying a fare, at least selectively, but probably not worth the effort and schedule disruption it would take to avoid any free riders.
North ran precisely on time. South rand a few minutes slow and you could tell it was happening, because it crawled what seemed painfully slow in places it shouldn’t have, apparently due to rail traffic flow.
I forgot to grab a book, but it worked out between the first timer looking out the window factor and the Blackberry, which had good reception every time I checked going in, and most of the way coming out. I can see wanting a book or laptop or such if it were a regular thing.
The trains weren’t at all crowded. It was one person to a seat except by choice, and many seats empty.
At South Station and especially Lakeville, there was plenty of time to board. In the morning they seemed to go out of their way to wait for people to walk in from the parking. At the other stops, if you weren’t by the track ready to step through a door, you might have been left behind. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Being early for parking insurance is fine, but if I do it again, I’ll sit in the car until it’s almost time for the train to arrive. It was cold.
The view was cool, because it’s a completely different perspective. You see everything from the roads all the time.
I guess that about covers it.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Jay: I Have To Note
That I am sitting here in size 38 jeans right now.
I was trying on old non-jeans and a couple jackets and some shirts, in preparation for tomorrow’s foray to Boston for interviews. I was fitting comfortably, even loosely, into pants that were size 40 and not jeans. When an unexpected size 38 came close, we decided to try size 38 jeans. They aren’t even excessively tight. Enough so I might prefer to stick to loose in size 40 jeans for another several pounds, but not as you might expect.
I was wearing size 42 jeans three months ago, and had nothing that wasn’t jeans that could fit me.
Yay for losing 30 pounds! And a disproportionate amount of belly in the process, for whatever reason.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Jay: I Once Had A Title In Mind
So today should be fun. I need to take some rolled coin to the bank for more readily spendable and carryable currency, so I have enough to buy train tickets for Monday morning, and potentially a small bite to eat or whatever if I have to, entirely aside from the cash being useful in a couple days when we need more something like milk from Hannaford or Stop & Shop. Maybe I’ll deposit $8 in change too, so I’ll have $10 available on the debit card.
Train? That ought to be an adventure. I have an interview in Boston Monday morning, which will probably be followed by meeting with someone nearby who has a potential temporary gig during part of this month.
I’ve never taken the commuter rail before, but it’s great it’s so handy. I need to check out precisely where and how for getting into it and buying tickets and all that.
This also means having to dig out clothes that might be remotely appropriate for an interview. I’ve spent too many years casual, and with clothes one of the last spending priorities on too little income. A casualty of insane housing and even more insane medical insurance costs, you could say.
Shoes? It’s going to have to be my almost formal looking black sneakers, because I last got new shoes 20 years ago, and if I can find them, I can’t wear them without them scraping my feet raw. That’s if the gout is calm enough to get them on, which it may be, since it seems to be attacking my knee instead. Or that might be something else, but it’s that kind of painful.
At least I’ve lost enough weight that I have pants that aren’t jeans that should fit me.
The last time I interviewed for a job at a company I wasn’t already part of was 1994. Internal interview was 1997. The closest I came since then was 1999, when my partner who was the face of the business to the big client left for a day job and I had to talk them into keeping us, pointing out that in reality they may have noticed I’d been doing most of the support for them for months.
I always had a hard time getting to an interview, and an easy time getting a job based on an interview.
Apparently my resume and the internet and my networking are taking car of the first part for me. Besides those two, I have an e-mail about a WordPress development gig, which is intriguing, but I cautioned them I am far from a PHP expert, which is what they say in the description.
I need to find a bread recipe that doesn’t take milk, as Deb is going to try adding back wheat, but not milk. I still haven’t found milk-free margarine in a store. I can’t believe it all contains milk, when the point was that margarine is a sub for butter. Also need to make banana bread today, or else accept throwing out some bananas at that stage of ripe.
I really hate taking the first two hours of the day to dash of a 15 minute this and that post. Plus I should probably post to the other blogs instead, since this one lost Page Rank, those didn’t, and those could use a traffic/activity boost.
Let’s see…
Did I mention I need to setup a computer for Henry, on the living room floor, so he has that as a distraction?
Today I’d like to make significant progress in my office arranging and cleaning project, which stalloed yesterday and went backwards as Valerie trashed things, even stuff that had been in reach for months and not touched.
Off to it, I guess. If there was anything else, I forget. Oh, I stopped at my grandmother’s and picked up a special mattress cover my mother’s cousin bought for Henry. It’s pretty astounding that a cousin I’d forgotten existed until a few years ago heard about his problems and did something like that. Apparently she has major allergy problems herself, so knows all the places and stuff to get from them. Even if all this means is he can nap in the crib for a couple hours at a stretch, that’ll help. Previously he couldn’t go more than half an hour before he was awake, scratching himself frantically and complaining. Poor kid. But he still can’t be exempt from being put down sometimes. We go entire days sometimes with him on one of us for all but a couple waking hours, tops. And when he’s on one of us and awake, he wants to be active. All your keyboard are belong to us.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Jay: Dreams Are Weird
I haven’t seen my stepsister in years, yet she was in dreams two nights in a row. Night before last, there was a mishmash of stuff that included one of my father’s houses, the dream version of it, which in the dream she’d ended up buying. Last night’s dreams included a scene in which I was telling my stepsister about the dream I’d had the night before. Very meta, self-referential, or whatever you want to call it.
The seemingly lengthy end part of the dreams last night involved being somewhere to the north, like NH, ME or VT - the highway I drove down was a generic stretch of what looks like northern New England highway that seems to recycle in dreams where it’s needed - and there being a giant snow storm. I needed to get home, apparently for work, and was trying and trying to get through it, leaving when I shouldn’t have, getting in shoveling scenarios, trying to bash through a snowbank a few feet taller than the car, that sort of thing. Eventually I gave up and stayed in a motel, though even that was a matter of getting a room, then continuing to try to flee.
In the motel, which seemed to double as one of those side of the highway tourist rest stops and the offices of some business (for that matter, in part it looked like a miniature section of some airport terminal, in rustic), there was the challenge of getting something to eat. People were strangely open, but not open, at a lunch counter and small store. I found my way into the dining area, where someone had just been served a sandwich, but most people were just hanging out, and was told they would be serving starting at a specific time. An odd time, though I forget when. It was at the motel where I ran into my stepsister, as I recall.
Fast forward and I am driving down the highway in the morning, bright, sunny, and not a speck of snow, immediately south of where I had stayed. I was fuming at having had to spend the money and time to stay over. I was also alone, but then I wasn’t, because Deb and a kid, presumably Sadie as a baby, were with me. This would fit with the blizzard when we had to stay an extra night at the Park Plaza for Arisia, when Sadie was less than 4 months old. On the way, we discussed the state of the credit cards, and which one I’d used for the stay, and how it sucked to have needed to do that because we so couldn’t afford the $40.
Next thing I know, pressed for time, I was driving straight to work with family in tow, which is odd in that we’d gotten almost home when I got onto the highway going north from here. In reality, I’d have had to pass work on the way there, then changed my mind and not spent an extra 10 minutes dropping them home. Then there was a bit of fuss about where Deb and the kid would hang out at the office, which was a cross between my former large client, a larger business, and the motel I’d stayed at in the dream.
That was about it. I woke up, amused at the whole thing, and started coffee brewing. I certainly hope we don’t get any snow, and that dreaming about my stepsister has no prescient bad significance. However, this wasn’t like one of those “dreams that happen” dreams, or like when I flashed “this could be the last time I talk to her” out of the blue and sat to converse with my grandmother at length less than 36 hours before she died.
Being Friday and not having had it early enough to mail it, I have to make arrangements to drop money to the landlord. We may look like we’re sitting around watching soaps and playing with the kids, but each week we have to come up with $250 or $300 toward rent to defer eviction proceedings. The drop-ins by people who are bringing food donations and don’t care what the house looks like at any random time are welcome but are still disruptions. Visits that are just visits on a couple hours notice tend to get “well, this is really a bad day” pretty uniformly. Friday is especially bad with the actual rent delivery, but today I need to make a post office run - a small contribution to our finances a couple weeks hence because someone bought a book, I need to go to Wal-Mart and figure out how to stretch $30 beyond all recognition - including a couple bucks for yarn for a custom order to help our finances in a week or two, stop at my mother’s for a special crib mattress cover a cousin got us for Henry not to be allergic to the crib anymore (she’s allergic to everything herself, apparently), reply to the person who is offering temp work that’ll be great if the interview Monday doesn’t work out, figure out whether I need $8 or $16 for the train Monday and walking directions from South Station to my destination, help unbury and select clothes sealed in the leaky closet for the winter, continue my office organizing project, make banana bread, figure out what’s for supper and start it ahead of time if needed, and probably some things I’ve forgotten. Like e-mailing someone who might want me to do a computer cleanup Sunday, or Monday evening, and might have others who could use that, if she’s recovered enough from surgery. A few of those and it’s close to another rent week.
And I still haven’t worked on the giant “we’re back” fundraiser edition of Carnival of the Capitalists, but I should, because that could contribute to groceries or to the rent on the 11th. Or gas for the truck, because even if you take six weeks to use a tank, eventually you need more.
And with that, off I go, because the day is getting no younger.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Jay: Speaking of “Famous”
It’s kind of cool to see myself in this item currently on the front page of Web Worker Daily.
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