My favorite

I am not afraid to say that Heylove is my favorite in the house right now. She's the only one who still does what I say.

Phew! Haven't been here for a while. What can I say? Job hunt is still going on. I have decided to use my cover letter to start addressing the reason for my 2+ year gap in employment history. At this point, I figure it can't really hurt me more than potential employers thinking that I am so unemployable that no one has chosen to hire me over the past two years. It was probably a mistake not to explain it on the million or so cover letters and resumes that I've sent out over the past few months. So there I go. Slight change in strategy, moving full speed ahead!

Ira has been pretty funny lately. He's decided that I am Dora and he is Boots. These are characters from a kid's show, in case you aren't following. We slip in and out of character when we remember. It's kind of precious to see him develop his imaginary play. It even cracks me up how he remembers so much. Last weekend, Leon got pooped on by a bird in a tree. Ira kept talking about it and laughing. "Mama, dada head poop mess! Twee, tweet, tweet [makes the sign for bird], ftttt [makes farting noise]!" Then he laughs. He is still the funniest guy he knows. He also had a little social break through with meeting new people. He's started introducing him self to other kids. He says "hi, kid!" pats his chest and says "Iwa. Iwa, Iwa, Iwa." It's sweet to see, but he alternates this with a smack, shove or throwing sand. I can never tell which it's going to be. I know the hitting is a phase and it will end someday, but here in the thick of it, it feels like it's been going on forever!

Been making food. Scratch that, been making soup. I made a spinastrone soup (minstrone + spinach) and we had it all week for lunch or dinner. In my imaginary America's Next Top Housewife show, the judges will review my soup and its cost per serving very favorably. I also made some spelt crackers to accompany (for mere pennies) that came out disastrous at first, but the second batch were beautiful. Baking ain't nothing to be effed with. That is why it's important to follow recipes.

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."