Learning my Romanian

Dragon Mood? -- not tongue-tied

I work with a fellow at this new job who is Romanian ... or who at least can speak Romanian. A couple of us have been bugging him to teach us how to swear in Romanian. As a polite and rather gentle gentleman, he has refused so far.

But today, Steve and I did learn this:

• "Buna zuia" (pronounced boon-ah zoo-ah) which means "Good day!"

And then later, we did manage to strong-arm him into this one also ...

• "Rahat" (pronounced ruh-hot) which means "Shit" as in bad stuff OR manure.

Stay tuned, Girls and Boys, for MORE Romanian language lessons!

the road less traveled because it's a hard road!

Dragon Mood? -- yeah, I *get* that embattled feeling this thing talks about

From Astrodienst, here is one of this Sagittarian's longer term forecasts:

Solid and real
Valid during many months: At this time in your life you will be able to get along with very little if necessary, and you will be able to keep plugging away at tasks with tremendous discipline. As a result this is a good time for getting your life ready for hard times, even if this is not an especially difficult period.

However, even if this is a difficult time, you can be sure that this influence will help you make it through. It gives you tremendous tenacity and toughness and the ability to apply constant pressure on a situation until it gradually changes. Patience is the watchword of this influence - not that you need patience, but that you have it.

Whatever your objectives, you will keep working at them until you achieve them. In a slow but powerful way, this influence helps you realize your goals, and because you work so slowly, the results you obtain are very lasting indeed.

You will also probably discover that you are changing during this period, not drastically and suddenly, but slowly and at a very profound level of your being. And these changes will make your life more solid and dependable. In general your life is moving from the less solid and abstract to the more solid and real.

You may work alone for the most part now. You will probably prefer it that way, at least until you have come somewhere near achieving your goals. This is a very good time for researching alone, especially when painstaking work is required. Your ability to discipline yourself is extremely high.

Transit selected for today
Pluto Sextile Saturn
activity period from beginning of February 2005 until beginning of December 2006.

Thursday morning with my coffee

Dragon Mood? -- surprised and delighted!

Sitting here, drinking my morning coffee, I noticed the first hints of autumn in the air.

But, wait a minute. I feel like blogging so I'll check to see if our computer has emerged from its coma? Yes? Yes! YES!!!! Don't ask me, but it decided to turn on this morning. Hurray!

Anyway ... back to my morning coffee thoughts. Ahem.

Our sadly unhealthy tree out front here at the pied-a-terre has already begun dropping leaves. S mowed and mulched them up last night, not only to make the lawn look better, but to hold autumn, which is NOT SUMMER, at bay, I'm sure.

The air this morning is cool, cool, cool -- refreshingly cool after so much heat and humidity this summer. The temperature and dryness of the air ENERGIZES me! I keep reining myself in -- hold on, you just woke up -- take it easy, enjoy the moment. But it puts me in mind to paint, to ride my bicycle, to make hearty, yummy soups -- oh, so many things! And then, I think of other fall-ish things like football games, bonfires, pumpkins, gourds and all other manner of orange-y goodness! Yup, I LOVE autumn!

A tired blogger

Dragon Mood? -- pooped

Just a quick posting while I'm at work.

I interviewed for another job today. It was with a "foreign" automaker, not one of the Big Three. I was one of nine people out of 30 to make the first interview. I will be most surprised if I'm called back for a second interview. Just a hunch, an intuition. I could be wrong. I feel curiously indifferent about this prospective job.

I got way too little sleep last night. Partly that was my fault. I didn't remember that I was supposed to print out and fill out four lengthy documents prior to the interview. I realized that last night while sitting here at work. ArrrghHH! Googled, found the nearest 24-hour Kinkos, accessed my trustworthy gmail account and forwarded the four docs to Kinkos. I picked them up this morning about 2:30 a.m. Sheesh! Talk about unprepared!

Part of my general discombobulation is that our computer appears to have died ... or is in a light coma. S and I suspect that the electrical switch that fires it up has conked out. Whether that's an easy repair or not remains to be seen. But the timing is just downright lousy!

I'll post this now .... before I fall asleep sitting up here at work.

Blogging by email?

Hi  .... the ol' calypso Dragon herself here, reporting LIVE from my gmail account.

Will Blogger know what to do with this email/blog posting?

And now ... a quote to ponder:
 
"Today was good. / Today was fun. / Tomorrow is another one." 
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)




[UPDATE] Whoo-hoo! It WORKED! Dang, this computer stuff is COOL!!

Pssst!

Dragon Mood? -- ???

Can you keep a secret? I've got another interview for another job next week, Tuesday.

I don't know about this job -- whether I'd like it or not. But, it promises more security. A foreign automaker. That's why I'm investigating.

Wish me well!

Old dogs CAN learn new tricks

Dragon Mood? -- mind balloons and connecting the dots

Doing Sudoku puzzle this morning
I always date them
Reminded me of VISA payment due today
Eeek! -- then I remembered -- no balance on my VISA anymore
Huge sense of relief!
A little history
I've always been able to pay it down before
Couldn't do it this time
Ignored the evidence and reality based on prior experience
Is that the sign of an "old dog?"
Way back -- Josh said, "Mom, pay it off." I didn't listen.
Recently, S said, "Mary, pay it off." I finally listened.
Liquidated a stock market fund, paid it off. Whew! Good, GOOD feeling!

The MORAL of the story:
Sometimes, it pays to listen to others even when your previous experience tells you otherwise.
This old dog CAN LEARN new tricks! *SMILE*

Monday, week TWO

Dragon Mood? -- antsy

Starting my second week of work today. And Thursday is PAY DAY! Hurray!

Here's what's happened since my last posting:

• Finished up my first week of four ten-hour days. Whew!
  
• Friday felt weird. S called in sick for a mental health day. I think we both felt disoriented by my new schedule. I just felt plain old tired.
• Picked up medication office samples from my doc's office. Her providing those for me these past months has been a financial lifesaver. Literally!
  
• I couldn't and didn't sleep in Saturday morning. ArrrghhHH! So darn fatigued!
• S and I shopped until I almost dropped Saturday afternoon for the big, upcoming baby shower. S spent an obscene amount of money. I'll save my soapbox on that subject for offline.
• We hit Buddies again (second Saturday in a row!) for nachos and a mug of beer. S got on a talking jag until I almost fell asleep sitting up.
• Thankfully, she noticed how truly tired I was. We went home, got horizontal, I crashed. I slept for over two-and-a-half hours. You think I was maybe a little tired?
• S and I watched three DVDs this weekend:
  
  • Eight Below which made my heart hurt. Those dogs have such soulful eyes! Reminded me of how much I wanted to and yet hated watching Lassie as a kid. Anxiety, nervousness, sadness! Oh, the angst!
  • Failure to Launch which never got off the ground for me -- what a dumb premise for a movie!
  • And finally, TransAmerica, which I was all set to really like; again, it just didn't work for me. We listened to some of the director's commentary before watching the movie; he said the movie was really about parenting. Then why make said parent a transsexual? Bree's coming to terms with her sexuality completely overshadowed her coming to terms with being a parent, IMHO. Oh well!
• Sunday I slept until 11 o'clock. Yup, ELEVEN! It's the first day that I truly felt rested since starting these crazy hours.
• S finally got to waterproof the deck. All the interruptions over the past several weeks had made her cranky about the slow progress. I was very happy she was finally able to finish it.
• I made banana/oatmeal/blueberry bread. Turned out yummy!
• I deskunked the dog. Damn dog -- she acts like SUCH a dog sometimes! Here's the recipe:
  
  ---
  Vet-approved Deskunking Recipe
  
  1 tsp. dishsoap (preferably a degreasing one like Dawn)
  1/4 - 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  1 qt. hydrogen peroxide
  Mix all together and apply to the dog's fur. Rinse thoroughly.
  ---
  
  After applying the deskunking stuff to her face, ruff and shoulders, I drug her inside into the bathroom and thoroughly bathed her, with two latherings and two rinses. We can still smell eau d' skunk right around her skunk-sniffing nose. I couldn't scrub on that too much, unfortunately.
• Sat out on the deck and visited with our pushing-eighty neighbor, Bill. The old guy, I'm coming to conclude, is overly preoccupied with sex. He keeps bringing it up and S and I comment politely or clam up with no further conversation. (sigh) Geez, you'd think he'd take a clue!
  
• Chased dust bunnies and cleaned the floors in anticipation of a house-full of people again next weekend. Grandma and Sally are coming down for the big baby shower. Yosh is taking the ferry over from Cheeseland just to visit. I'm looking forward to his visit.
• Had a nice long telephone conversation with our friend, Joanne. Joanne has had quite a tumultuous summer selling her mom's house and moving her out of her residence of many, many years. In a family of many, it sounds like much of the work and decision-making fell to one, just Joanne. It sounds like a marathon of exhaustion and stress to me!
• Also had a late-night telephone conversation with Dad and Evelyn while I drove to the pied-a-terre. It's become quite the routine for them and me, a good routine, and something to which I believe we both look forward.
  

That's ALL, folks!

Hump day update

Dragon Mood? -- fatigued

It's Wednesday, early afternoon. I've finished the first half of my first work week at the little design shop. I think I'm gonna like it. And -- we're working four 10-hour days this week, with hopes to make it permanent. Wouldn't that be nice to have a three-day weekend plus half of Monday off? I think SO!

The biggest adjustment so far is just trying to not-so-gently bump my circadian rhythms towards the afternoon and evening. My body is protesting. It wants to wake up at 7:30 a.m. no matter what time I went to bed (2:30 last night). The first night I only got five hours of sleep. I just absolutely could NOT sleep yesterday (Tuesday) during the day. Last night I got more like seven or eight hours. I feel better today than yesterday but still fatigued and a little disoriented. I must remember to drive the twelve-minute drive to work with EXTRA caution.

Right now I'm multitasking. Posting on this blog, frying up some barbecue-flavored turkey burgers for S's dinner and my dinner (sadly apart), thinking about what I'm gonna wear to work and hoping to still grab 30 minutes of shuteye. Do you think I can do it???

Later, alligator.

The BIG Monday!

Dragon Mood? -- throbbing scales too!

Today I start a new job. FINALLY!!!

My left upper back muscles are as tight as a drum ... I'm definitely nervous. I know that once I get there, settle in, and get to work, I'll be fine. It's just the time between now and then.

S and my weekend was quiet and relaxed. We did some errands separately early Saturday afternoon and then met up at Buddies for nachos and a beer. Then we drove home and promptly took a two-and-a-half hour nap. How's that for relaxed?

Yesterday, we got a surprise, impromptu visit from our nephew Luke and his friend, Andrew. S was working on cleaning the deck for a staining update. I fixed a fresh pot of coffee, nuked some turkey bacon for them and rustled up three-egg omelettes for the two guys. S drank a beer while cooling off. We had a wide-ranging conversation (would you expect any less from S?); it ping-ponged from Myers-Briggs personality types, seeking life's purpose and jobs to the gnostic Gospels, mu waves and quantum physics. Whew! I actually had to write two notes to get a word in edgewise. S was on a roll! And to Luke and Andrew's credit, they rolled right along with her!

The guys left around 4 o'clock, I believe, and I vegged and took a nap. S did some more work on the deck, I think.

I also got to talk briefly with Yosh as he prepared to fly to Boston last night. And, Lina and I had a lovely catch-up-with-each-other conversation later in the evening as I drove down "here" to the pied-a-terre for the impending work week. Feels almost funny to say that.

My orientation starts at 3 this afternoon. Wish me well!

two of the seven dwarfs

Dragon Mood? -- ???

I'm sleepy, I'm dopey .... I just downloaded two free fonts from here and didn't know where to put them. Where DO you put downloaded fonts?

What I am ... and am NOT!

Dragon Mood? -- benevolently amused

At least I'm not a Benevolent DICTATOR!

Benevolent Creator

(move your mouse over the blocks of color)

Job details

Dragon Mood? -- catching up with dragonly duties

It's Wednesday morning ... I wanted to post yesterday, but instead, took a mental health day and didn't even log onto the computer.

Plus, I chased and cleaned up dust bunnies yesterday. Our friends, Patrick and Kevin, drove down here to join up with us. We had cocktails on the "loggia" (our aluminum-covered concrete patio out back), dinner at Zumba's in Royal Oak and then we headed for the "main attraction" of the evening, a Tigers' game downtown. Never mind that we didn't get there until the middle of the fifth inning, when the Tigers had scored all their runs for the game and ended up losing 4-2 to the Minnesota Twins. We still had fun!

Now to the job details ...

I will be working for a small design shop within a ten-minute drive of our pied-a-terre. The work is not automotive-related, but tied into the aerospace industry. Also, as my son, Yosh, pointed out, with some of my work there "now, Mom, you may be tied into the 'war effort.'" Yup, very possibly true, son. Which I'm not crazy about, but it doesn't feel so contrary to my values that I'm gonna lay awake nights worrying about it, okay?

Primarily, I will be taking 2D drawings and converting them into 3D models using the CAD software with which I'm so experienced.

Money? It's decent, not great. It's about 15% less than I got at my automotive job, but that's okay. It keeps the wolves away from the door for now.

Bennies? There is health insurance, but honestly I don't have the particulars on that right now. And even if I did, I probably wouldn't post about them here.

The biggest advantage? This job gets me back in "production" modeling, working on actual parts (rather than training parts which aren't supposed to have inherent problems), working under real deadlines and generally pushing me to sharpen and hone my skills again. Those are good things.

The biggest drawback? My work day will be from 3:30 p.m. until midnight. Yup, second shift. Because this is a contract job, the shop has a limited number of software licenses and a looming deadline. To meet the deadline, they have instituted a second shift, of which I will be a member. I start next Monday at 3 p.m. with an orientation meeting.

The other important point about this job to note is that it is a contract position, based on a finite contract with a volatile industry. As the interviewer so gently reminded me, "... there are no guarantees these days." Ahhh, yes. The faltering economy. Especially here in Michigan! So, I am not seeing this as a permanent position, but a temporary one, perhaps lasting until the end of the calendar year ... at which point, I may be looking for another job. Whew! -- ain't life exciting?

One of the curiouser things about me is that I always have these delayed emotional reactions to events. I mean delayed. Just now, 48 hours later, I'm starting to feel some dismay that my "semi-retirement" as neighbor Tom called it is coming to an end. No more languid summer days and evenings. I'm feeling relief that our money worries will be alleviated -- not completely gone -- but certainly alleviated. I'm feeling a bit of anxiety that S and I will be on opposite shifts ("Hi Honey, Goodbye Honey") although we will still be able to sleep together each night. S was hoping to take a vacation soon. She most likely will be vacationing sans me. So the emotional ups-and-downs of getting a job, losing some freedom and regaining some economic viability -- well, I'm experiencing them all. One minute up, the next minute down. (big sigh) Whew!

JOB JOB JOB!!!

Dragon Mood? -- excited, elated and electrified!

Halleleujah ... I've got a job!

Details to follow...

Quick update

Dragon Mood? -- hopeful

It's too early to tell ... but things are looking a bit more hopeful on the job front.

I heard from a recruiter that my resume got past the first gatekeeper on a job at one of the Big Three (you know, the OLD Big Three, not the NEW Big Three which now includes Toyota).

I sent off my resume for a job in the Windy City that -- well, that I think I should be a shoo-in for. But it may join all my other resumes in the galactic black hole of trashed resumes. We'll see.

And then there's Adam. An old colleague called me after networking with another old colleague and I most likely will have an interview for a job right here in Motown next week. The catch? I would be working a second shift, from 3:30 p.m. to midnight. ArrrghhhH!

And now ... I need to get off the computer, gather my shhhtuff and get ready to head home to the pines. S and I are watching Baby Preston, who is now scarily mobile and FAST, for the entire weekend! Will we survive? Breaking news -- or broken news-- on Monday!

Thanks for closing the oven door!

Dragon Mood? -- scratching her dragon head and scales

Wow! Where has the week gone?

Like so many other bloggers I've been reading, S and I are slowly emerging from the state of air-conditioned seige we've been in for the past eight days. Record temperatures and unbearable humidity have kept me in the house like a summer BLIZZARD. I've got cabin fever! It was so hot and humid that two or three nights, at 10 p.m., after sticking my head out the back door, I told Cisco, "Sorry, girl -- we're not going out tonight." On the other hot nights when we did venture out, we weren't even a block from home when she was panting hard and I was dragging along.

The heat and humidity felt downright UN-natural. Like Mother Nature left open a 500-degree oven door AND a steam bath door. The stifling feeling was horrible. How do people in Florida and Louisiana stand it? And it really did feel unnatural for us cool-air folks in Michigan.

I can't tell you how good it felt last night to OPEN THE WINDOWS, let in the fresh, cool air and fall asleep listening to the windchimes moving in the breeze. Thank you, God, for cool air, breezes and restful sleep.

Restful sleep until 3 a.m. anyway. Then I was awakened. The dog heard or sniffed something outdoors, jumped at an open window and I heard this crash of glass. I jumped out of bed and found the drinking glass that I thought had broken still intact. Meanwhile, Cisco is madly pacing back and forth, whining to be let out, so I accompanied her outside, at which point she immediately charged at the sideyard fence. I got this faint whiff of ... skunk ... and immediately whisked the dog BACK inside the house. Broken glass (yet to be found) is bad enough; I didn't want to have to deal with an odoriferous dog too.

Now my brain is on avoid-the-skunk alert. I used the bathroom, drank a short glass of milk, took an herbal Valerian, got back in bed and lay there. And lay there. Wide awake. The brain gerbils were going a 100 mph on the mind-treadmill. STOP that! Go to sleep!

At four a.m., I got up, started laundry, tidyed up some in the kitchen, and sat down in our one remaining living-room plastic Adirondack chair to play a mindless little iPAQ game, hoping that would get me sleepy. It did ... finally at 5:30 a.m. I heard S's alarm go off around six, but I had enough of The Sandman's sleep in my eyes, ignored it and continued to slide off into sweet sleep.

I woke up at nine ... should an unemployed person tell you that? It felt GOOD to get back some of the sleep stolen from me in the middle of the night. Ahhhh, another day!

And .... what about the broken glass? Well, stupid with sleep, I never even thought to worry about the dog STEPPING on glass shards. I found the remnants of a large votive candle that got knocked off of a window sill and fell harmlessly UNDER an end table where the dog couldn't reach. Thank you, God, for protecting Cisco's paws when I couldn't.