Mmm, slice of life!

Slurp
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Lately, for reasons of unemployment and the subsequent seeking of employment, I have found myself in several, how should I put this? Okay, I'll say it: "slice of life" situations. This is where you have people from all walks of life, varying economic classes and cultures. A real stew pot, not unlike a typical DMV line. I'm not uncomfortable with my fellow job seekers in these situations, it's the people with the upper hand that I can't stand, like exam proctors, program managers and such. So often these people address the groups I'm in like unruly children. They shout, they're terse, unkind. Come on, I want to scream, we already feel bad about not having jobs! We are doing something about it! Don't make us feel worse.

This morning I took an exam for a job I am not even sure that I want. As requested, I arrived 20 minutes early for the exam. A sign on the door of the building asked the 50 or so of us test takers to wait outside until called in. It was cold this morning and they didn't even let us in until 30 minutes after we were asked to be there. Never mind that there was a warm, comfortable reception area just through the doors. No, just wait outside like dogs until we say you can come in. It was so unnecessary.

That's it. I just want to complain. Wahh!

WTF

Yorba Linda Fire 00288
Originally uploaded by mikekrueger.

I'm mildly obsessed with the fires in Southern California. Leon has some cousins close to one of them and they evacuated from their home on Monday. We haven't heard much about them since then, so we assume everything is okay. One thing I love about Flickr, is that whenever something is going on somewhere, someone is taking a picture of it and it's probably going to end up on Flickr. I did a search of some photos tagged with "yorba linda fire." This picture is one of many that turned up.

And I say: WTF? Is this guy updating his facebook status with his iphone? "Segway Douche is watching his house burn." I'd be running to the nearest shelter.

Okay, I think I'm just jealous of people that have Segways. They're ridiculous, but I want to ride one. Just once.

I think the word I want to use here is "chimayed"

I could use another one right about now
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Last night we were let down by businesses promising to offer us delicious and rare beers, but totally not delivering. We started the evening out for nutburgers and beer at F&G. First the waitress tried to sell us a lame ale, but we asked what was on their seasonal tap. She went to check and came back to let us know it was Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest. Wow! If they still had that, I'd surely drink it! But, after a few minutes she came back and told us they were out. I ended up with a Stella Artois draft, which I don't hate, but sort of had my mind set on the Oktoberfest. In all, we came there to drink and eat, and she might have sold us one more beer had she been a little quicker on the service.

After that, we went to Bows and Arrows and on to 58 degrees to check out their beer list. There were only two draft beers. Leon got the Scrimshaw Pilsner (delicious) and I got a glass of wine (pleasing). After we asked for the list of premium bottle beers, I was sorry I got the wine. They had arguably the best bottled beer selection I've seen in town, which included Grimbergen blonde, and I've been wanting that for a while. We were really impressed to see a Hitachino IPA listed and asked the barkeep if we could buy that beer in the wine shop next door. He said that we could, so being Hitachino nerds, we quickly finished our drinks and ran next door. Uh oh, make sad trumpet sounds! The Hitachino they were pimping as an IPA (which we've never seen before) was actually the Hitachino Classic Japanese Ale (pictured). We've previously found this at a Whole Foods in DC and liked it, but were not willing to buy it since we were hoping to buy a Hitachino we've never had. We also noticed that the premium beer list included a He'Brew that was listed without the brand, just the brewing company, which is Schmaltz. When I saw it on the beer list, I didn't connect He'Brew to Schmaltz and thought that it was a totally different beer and when we saw it in the beer cooler, we were kind of disappointed. More sad trumpet sounds. I'm sorry to say that after those two mix ups, we felt like this place was basically the Nugget with chairs and sexy lighting. Shout out to smiller for the term "chimayed."

Small piece of rear

Best ever.
Originally uploaded by riblet.

I subscribe to the Sac PD blog on my RSS feeds. I like the crime logs because I'm nosy. I also find the typos and terrible grammar hilarious. Here's a funny and/or confusing one from 10/28/08:

Del Paso Heights

October 28,2008, 6:15 p.m., Natomas/Harris: Mayhem

The victim of the Mayhem stated that she was standing out near the street when she was approached by a male and female. For no apparent reason, the female began beating on the victim. The male also pulled the victim by the hair to get her off the female suspect. The victim sustained numerous scratches, a black eye, and a small piece of her rear was torn off. Detectives are still investigating the incident.

"a small piece of her rear was torn off?!" WTF? Is this a typo where they meant to write "ear?" Or was a small piece of the victim's butt torn off? How does this happen?!

Then here's another one with an obvious/unfortunate error:

Curtis Park

October 29, 2008, 6:31 p.m., 2901 Freeport Boulevard: Robbery

A victim was preparing to get off at the 4th Avenue/Freeport light rail station when another passenger walked up to him and grabbed his I-pod out of his hand and fled. The suspect was described as a black male adult, 18-19 years old, 5’10”, thing with no facial hair, wearing a red bandana, a red short-sleeved t-shirt and blue jeans.

So, we're looking for a "thing with no facial hair?" That's kind of vague.

Hey, officer Michelle. I am available for proof reading. Email me and we can discuss rates.

My child is a lolcat

Ira as a lolcat
Originally uploaded by riblet.

I've been keeping pretty busy these last few weeks. Party planning (success), menu planning (success), mothering (feels like failure, but probably a success) and job hunting (failure for now).

Ira's birthday party went off without a hitch. The weather was nice for hanging out on the deck and playing on the patio. Pizza, cake, presents, pumpkin crafts. Everyone's kids are getting so big. It's pretty fun to see how they grow and who they look like and what kinds of funny kid things they say.

So, Oprah told me that if I want to save money on my grocery bill, I need to plan my menus according to coupons and store ads. I'm trying this and so far it's working out fairly well. I'm kind of bummed that the only store ad I get at home now is Food Source. Not that there's anything wrong with that place (tons of deals to be had), but their ad sucks. It's one page, front and back of things I hardly ever buy. White bread? Cupcakes? Sugar cereal? No thanks. When I can, I'll stop in to see what they have in the way of produce. I bought some organic rainbow chard there for cheaper than the co-op. I go online to see the Safeway and Raley's ads. Safeway also has coupons that you can print online, but they're mostly for brand name things that I don't have a need for. I'm looking at you, Glade Plug-Ins! So far, by constructing our dinners around what is in season and on special, I've been able to significantly cut down on my trips to the grocery store and I no longer have that 3PM panic of "OMG, what am I going to cook for dinner?!" The only potential downside is that there might be a little repetition like leftovers or maybe the same vegetable a few different ways all week. A couple of weeks ago, we had potatoes with every meal. Which isn't bad if you're me and you like potatoes. Speaking of potatoes, I found these adorable videos online of a 91 year old lady cooking depression-era meals. They're all based on potatoes and onions!

Ira had a check up today and the doc says he's doing good, but she always seems so concerned and yet not concerned with his weight. I loved what she said to me while looking at his growth chart. "Oh, I see he's in the very low percentile for weight. We will watch this. As you can see, he's following his own curve, which is good. At 18 months, he was in the .88 percentile for weight and now at 2 years he is in the 1st percentile. He is fine!" Okay, so don't worry? Doc, you need to spell it out for me. His height however, shows a nice increase! In the last 6 months he's grown about 5 inches in height, jumping from the 10th percentile to the 50th. Whew! I just want this kid to grow up to be as tall as his dad.

Nothing new on the job front. I've applied for several marketing jobs and they're just not panning out. I might see if I can get in with the state. I think I can rock a lanyard and white tennies pretty well.