About 2 months ago I applied for a job in the finance department of another hospital in the system. About 2 weeks later I heard back from them stating that they weren't interviewing yet, and that they had already received a number of highly qualified applicants. Aka, I shouldn't expect to hear back from them.

I did, last week.

I have an interview Wednesday.

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Theme: International Travel

You have the summer and plenty of money to travel abroad. Where all would you go?

Normally I'd say Europe, but I think I'd want to go to India.

What foods would you be sure you got to eat?

Lots of local stuff, and I'd want to learn how to make some of it.

What landmarks would you be sure you got to see?

Don't know.

What airline would you use?

Can't I take an ocean liner?

Would your knowledge of other languages influence where you went? (i.e. would you be more likely to go to France if you spoke French)

No. It would make some things easier, but I don't want to go overseas just so I can have McDonalds. I want local flavor, in whatever language it comes in!


Theme: USA Road Trip

Who would you take with you on a road trip? Tigs and Lucy

What states would you visit? I suppose I'd want to go to Washington, and hit as many states along the way as I could.

What national parks and/or monuments would you go see? Any that we pass

Las Vegas: Overrated or a Must-See? Only for Star Trek The Experience which is apparently closing this year :-(

How long would you be gone? 2 months would do it I think.

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And because you all wanted to see it, ( the new water heater )

I figured it was going to happen. I mean, I work in a hospital, and half the department has some illness, be it the GI bug, the flu, or an upper respiratory ailment. I've been doing my best, using the alcohol gel, washing my hands, not getting coughed on, avoiding the sick people, going to bed early, drinking lots of OJ. *sigh* And yet I've managed to get the respiratory thing.

Couldn't pick a better time for it. Monday is agility class, Tuesday I'm election judging, Wednesday is the housing inspection and school. Thursday is school, and oh yeah, Valentines Day.

In happier news I'm cooking a roast.

Doesn't it look yummy? Now I only have to wait 6 more hours before it's done...

I feel like I should update. So here goes. I've spent more time on my economics class then I really expected to have to. Not that it's hard; just time consuming, especially with all of the online components. But I'm almost done. At this point there is one test and a power point presentation to do. I'm going to start working on the presentation tonight while Lucy and tigergladys are at Rally. I really hope the test gets posted sooner rather then later, as this weekend is Pet Expo, and I know exactly how much free time I'm going to have (none). Either way it should all be wrapped up by the end of the week. And then next week I start up with my accounting classes.

Saturday Tigs and I again went house hunting. We had picked out 5 houses to look at this time around, but on Friday I drove by all of them. One was located just down the road from where we live now, but was practically right under the beltway, and perched on a busy road across from a gas station. Another one (the biggest of the bunch) was in a neighbourhood that was too run down and unsafe feeling. So even before we looked inside we crossed them off the list. Remember what the top three words in real estate are: Location! Location! Location!

The remaining houses were as follows (as described by Tigs):

• House #1 needed every wire in it replaced, as the electricity has not been updated since it was built in the 50's. (And all the windows, and the whole kitchen, and the furnace, and the basement had a giant crack in it, and it didn't come with a hot water heater...) Every time I walked into a room I thought "Thousands of dollars of repairs in here! Akkkk!"

• House #2 was very clearly used by its former occupants as a base of operations for their Christian-themed cult. (you could tell because of the descriptive murals they had painted all over the walls). It was in AWFUL shape. (I guess the cult didn't end well?) It also had tons of asbestos in the basement. (Where you put the cult members who have invoked your wrath?) And every single room had been converted into a bedroom. Including the kitchen.

• House #3 was GREAT - good shape, all new appliances, nice layout, fenced in yard, great neighborhood, etc etc etc. Want to move into it tomorrow. But of course it's $20K over our budget.


Nice hua? I'd link to it, but I don't want you buying it out from under us! :-P

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I currently have a very tired puppy on my lap. Since she grumbles every time I move I will now share some links.

Star Trek XI teaser trailer. Not bad. Kinda neat to see the construction of the good old 1701

This is a friend of Lucy's doing zoomies in the obedience ring. I can see Lucy doing this...

If your D&D group was a bunch of goblins this is what it would be like. You can start here. The art gets better!

Do you have a whole lot of books you've read, and don't want to keep? I bet someone else wants them! And you'll get new books out of it! Works for CDs & DVDs too.

Tonight for dinner I made shepherds pie!  Only instead of meat I used quorn grounds.  Yum!


YUM!!

I wrote that one of the things I wanted to do this weekend was to buy a wooden sphere and turn it into a planet. I didn't think I would get to do that, but I did! After I got all the stuff done I needed to get done of course.

So how does one go about making a planet. Well, there is one tried and true way...

I started off by painting in the oceans, and separating the night from the day. ( Genesis 1.1-5 )

Then I painted in the land ( Genesis 1.9-10 )

Then I added the colors to differentiate deserts and forests ( Genesis 1.11-12 )

And that's how I made a planet. The land masses are based loosely upon this representation of a terraformed Mars.

I also started on a jovian type planet. It's Styrofoam, and takes a bit more effort to get it base coated.

( Doing things with the help of a monster! )

Things I should be doing right now:
Sleeping

So as I mentioned before I got some painting time in recently. First up is the Culexus Assassin.

( Psychic Killer! )

Next up is the Eversor Assassin. This guy is a melee monster. Totally pumped up with combat drugs, he will literally explode when he gets killed.

( Watch the blade! )

Lastly we have the Mordheim Warlock/Necromancer. He's a characterful little fellow, but probably not one you'd want to invite over for dinner.


And in case his magic fails, he can still shoot you. I'm really pleased with this guys face. And I think the dirt on his clothing came out well too.

( Dark magics below! )

I got the car back on Saturday, and it only cost me $20 for my free oil change. But now I have a new oil plug. Isn’t that great? In other car news gas has topped $3/gallon. As an environmentalist I would like to see $5/gallon gas. As a consumer it hurts.

I finished painting two more of the Last Chancers this weekend, and am so close to finishing the last one. I also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up minis. Mostly this means getting rid of mold lines. The next group of minis I want to paint are some D&D Elementals. They were part of the mini set that was released just before the short lived Chainmail game that preceded the pre-painted plastic minis. I figure that I’ll be able to test out some different techniques. I have an elemental for each of the 4 basic elements (earth, air, fire, water). I’m not sure what color to paint the air elemental. It’s a whirlwind, so it probably has a lot of dust and dirt in it… so maybe like a tornado? The water elemental is going to need some greenstuff to smooth out a fairly significant miscast. It looks like the mold didn’t line up during casting, so there is a 1mm shift in the middle of the wave. It’ll be easy to fix though.

( Elementals! )

The one that I’m not really sure about is the earth elemental. I mean, how do you paint something to look like rock and dirt and make it look interesting? I was thinking about maybe putting gems or crystals in it, or maybe having grass growing on it. Any ideas? The fire elemental is going to be fun though! Lots of reds oranges and yellows!

Balticon starts in 4 days and still no schedule. No list of guests. Nothing. *Sigh* Can you say frustrating? I wonder if there will be a panel about solar energy from space. You know, like this!

The fish are doing well. We’ve been holding at 6 neon tetras and a small algae eater named Waldo. He’s the only one with a name, and he got it because every time we look at the tank we do a fish count and end up spending a lot of time finding him. The tetras are all doing well, but the algae eater is getting FAT! We’ve been thinking about getting a second one, because it’s fairly obvious that this one has too much to eat!

( Fishes! )

I can’t name it exactly, but I really enjoy having the fish tank in the living room. It’s definitely added something to the room. Rather like in The Sims actually…

Today after work I’m going to the post office. Due to the agility trial we volunteered at on Saturday I didn’t get to mail off our most recent paperbackswap requests or the lamp I sold on e-bay. Actually the guy who won the lamp (even before he bid) has been a bit of an ass hole about the whole transaction. His communications have been very terse and demanding. Spiteful even. He started with:

Quick question what is the basis for charging $30 to ship something that will not even cost $10 with the insurance included. I'm debating not bidding because of your insane price for shipping.

Tigs handled that one by pointing out the fact that the USPS had just increased all their rates, and that it was a large and heavy package. When he won (damn it), and sent payment he included a note that said

I will provide appropriate feedback after receiving [sic] the item to verify condition and shipping cost.

Then on Sunday he e-mailed me again. Now I had said in the listing that I would mail the item on the Saturday following the receipt of the payment. This is what he sent

Since payment was sent 1 minute after the auction ended on FRIDAY can I assume that you mailed this on Saturday as stated in the description? If so were [sic] is the tracking information that was promised also in your description?

I wanted to reply with “Life got in the way, other things are more important to me then you, it’ll be mailed on Monday. PS Bite me.” I actually sent him something far nicer. I have the feeling that at best he is going to give me neutral feedback. We'll see.

Edited to add
Box mailed. I look forward to seeing what feedback he gives.

Lucy had some suggestions about what I should put on Ebay.



Unfortunately for her, I didn't take her suggestions and I only listed more miniatures.

It rained. It iced. It sleeted/hailed. It snowed.

This was after the temperature was up to maybe 80 this week. Last night we lost power. Last night we lost power half way through baking a pot of corn pudding for dinner.

This is what it looked like at around 7 or so last night. It had just switched to snow.


Luckily at this point (just after noon) most everything is melting away. It's still cold out, being about 35 degrees or so, but with luck this will be winter's last gasp before spring officially takes over next week.

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1. Are you a fan of soup?

Oh yes!!

2. What is your favourite kind of soup?

Pumpkin soup is up there, but my all time favourite must be clam chowder in a bread bowl

3. Are you a fan of nuts?

Some

4. What is your favourite kind of nut or dish containing nuts?

honey roasted peanuts

5. If you had to eliminate either soup or nuts from your diet for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Nuts, I couldn't live without soup!

We were denied preapproval for an auto loan. Mind you, this was not due to poor credit, but rather to the fact that we are considered new to the area. This doesn’t mean we’ll be denied a loan, just that we have to bring them 2 pay stubs and an offer from the dealership before they’ll give it to us. So onto plans B (other bank), C (online), & D (dealership).
Doing payroll (my main job function) gives me a fascinating view into peoples psychology. There are the people that wouldn’t really notice if you took $10 out of their paycheck every 2 weeks, and then there are the people who will quibble if the computer assigns them their lunch break at a time that they didn’t actually take it. Some people get very very anal about it. On one hand it’s frustrating because there is only so much I can modify within the computer, and on the other hand, I want someone who is completely anal about things to be the one taking care of me in a situation that requires me to be cut open.

Speaking of being cut open, last night I managed to slice into my thumb with an x-acto knife while I was finishing up sculpting a new head for an ogre from the old chainmail game. Somewhere along the line I managed to lose it’s head, and it’s been sitting, decapitated in my mini case for years. I decided to do something about it. Honestly, I’m kinda glad I lost the head, cause it was pretty ugly, not that what I sculpted is anywhere near attractive! I mean, it is an ogre! Actually I went more for troll, and in the end it came out looking more like a gorilla/Neanderthal. Well, I’ll let you decide what it looks like.





Poll #918213 What does this look like to you?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What does this look like to you?

( I've also sculpted a hamster.  )

( And I converted this guy to hold a flamer. )

It's done... and here are the final steps in getting there!

Priming


( The rest of the pictures are under here! )

Now that it's done it's time to part ways with it. I am selling it on E-bay.

Sorry no update yesterday. Honestly I didn't do much with it. I was really tired, and mostly wanted to read a little and then go to bed. Today I feel a little silly about it, cause all I reall could have done last night was to prime it, which I did today.

( Click and see! )

I've also touched up the putty work on the seat and primed it too. You may have noticed it's not glued to the top of the building. There are a couple of reasons for this. It's easier to work with as a separate piece. It'll be a little easier to ship the beast, and to store it for whoever ends up with it.

Remember, this is the primer, so there are still some small spots of white showing through. As soon as it dries (maybe tonight) I'll deal with those, and then it's on to painting it up!

I need a terrain building icon...

Progress marches on! Or something like that...

I started off tonight glueing the roof on to Amon Hen. And I used a stack of books to press it down.
( Squashed between worlds )

While that was drying I puttied up the seat itself. Priya helped:
( Hamster shown for scale )

Then I applied the putty over the rest of the structure.
( Looks like icing )

And once again it needs the night to dry.

Some more progress. Added the columns and the base tonight, plus spackled almost the whole thing. One of the columns came off the base as I as texturing it, so I re-glued it, and am now letting it dry till tomorrow before I do more to it.

( And cause I know you only want to see the pictures )

As you can see, there is a lot of cleaning up to be done. However I am right on track schedule wise. Tomorrow I'll finish the spackle and clean up the really bad areas. Friday should be final assembly and maybe even priming it. Saturday I'll paint it. Sunday should be detail work!

A little progress was made tonight with the further assembly of the main structure. However in putting some of these pieces together I found that the plans left a fairly large gap next to the stairs.
( Can you see the hole? )
So I cut some scrap pieces to fit, and then continued on my way.
( More pics )
Then I cut out the pieces for the seat itself. The plans just have the 4 eagles, but I figured that there should actually be a seat of some sort, so I added a little ledge for someone to perch on. It's just big enough for a hobbit to crawl onto and hide.
( The Seat! )
Now the glue needs to dry.

My goal is to have the Seat of Seeing done by the end of the weekend. Lucy attempted to help out tonight, but puppies and small models held together with wet glue don't mix very well.

Here is tonight's progress:
( Would you sit in the Seat of Seeing and look for yourself? )

Tomorrow should see further progress. I need to pick up some texturing putty. This means a trip to the craft store, but probably not tomorrow, as we have puppy class. Plus I won't be ready putty until Wednesday anyway.

"Ok, this has to be straight."
( Lucy the architect! )
We're submitting her application to WETA tomorrow! ;-)