You know, usually at some point during the day something will happen and I'll think "I'll have to mention that on my blog".

I never do - because I never remember what happened.

I do recall that I woke up at 5 (which is far too early). I think I fell asleep again - but in retrospect I did have some odd dreams before my alarm went off. I don't remember what they were, I just remember that they existed and they were very strange. I'm talking about the kind of dream where suddenly two days later someone will say or do something and it will trigger a memory that doesn't make much sense.

This afternoon turned into meeting after meeting after meeting. None of them were wastes of time - but still I didn't feel like I got much done.

After work, it was off to the gym. Today was body pump at the co-ed gym. This is one class that I prefer to do at the women's only gym for a couple of reasons. First of all, every once in a while at the co-ed gym you get a "strong" guy in the class who ignores the weight recommendations for warm-up, which drives me up the wall. The maximum weight you're supposed to have for warm-up is 5 kg on either side of the bar. I was in a class where the guy in front of me had 20 kg on either side of the bar. He made it through most of the warm-up and then for the squat track (where you're supposed to increase your weight) he went down to 10 kg on either side of the bar. (I do between 11 and 12.5 depending on how lazy I am that day.) Someday one of these guys is going to really hurt himself, and I'd rather not watch.

The other reason I prefer a women's only gym for pump is that the co-ed rooms are larger - which seems to result in having people in the class who are completely doing their own thing and not doing what everyone else is doing. Pump is relatively stationary, but if someone is making up their own class, they can be moving - and not in the same direction as anyone else.

St. Patrick's Day

I completely forgot it was St. Patrick's Day today. Luckily Google reminded me while I was eating breakfast.

Anyway, because it was St. Patrick's Day, Wanda decided to make potato soup and green lemon meringue pie (without the meringue) as per family tradition.

It's March Break here, which means that schools are closed, so I didn't have Sparks tonight. I arrived home at 5:30 or so, and Wanda was very confused. I'm sure I told her about it, but apparently she's been living here long enough to completely tune me out.

Anyway, I arrived home long before supper was ready, and much to my shock Wanda let me stay in the kitchen while she was cooking. (Usually it makes her nervous - or possibly annoyed as I go around shutting the cupboard doors behind her.)

The end result was very enjoyable though. I haven't had homemade potato soup in years - probably not since I moved to Ottawa.

Let this be a lesson to me

Some (all?) of you will not be surprised by this, but sometimes I can be very foolish.

Last night, for example, I wasn't ready for the weekend to be over, so I started reading a book and spent a lot of energy trying not to fall asleep. (Note: There has never been an instance where a book I was reading before falling asleep disappeared before I woke up.)

Of course, when I finally decided to allow myself to fall asleep, I was unable to do so. The worst part is that it's my own fault.

Anyway, after work I went to the gym. I haven't gotten back to my pre-Christmas routine, but I try to make it on Mondays and Wednesdays. Today was a beautiful sunny day - which unfortunately resulted in the group fitness room at the gym being really, really hot. It was exhausting- but I'm still glad I went.

Random occurrences

I usually meet up with some friends at church every week. However, in Lent we do something different - we do a Lenten journey. This consists of going to a different church every week in Lent.

Today after the service, I heard my sister talking to someone she obviously knew. I turned around, and there were my cousin and her daughter. It was an odd coincidence -the daughter lives in Ottawa, but my cousin was just in town for a week.

This afternoon I was inspired by the sunshine to hang my laundry out on the clothesline. I usually don't start hanging them outside until May, so usually I don't have to worry about the clothesline being shorter than usual due to the foot of snow that still remains on one side.

They didn't totally dry (I finished some of them in the dryer), but it was still nice to dry them partially outside.

Zzzzz

Unlike some people (hi Wanda!) I can't sleep in very late. I'm almost always awake by 7 (if not earlier).

When I was unemployed, I still got up early. I'd eat breakfast, review the new job postings, set up networking meetings, and procrastinate (not in that order...except breakfast). Then I would eat lunch - and invariably I would be exhausted. If I didn't have anything scheduled for the afternoon, I had to take a nap. I didn't usually sleep for long - it was more like rest time than an actual nap - but it became part of my daily routine.

Of course, that stopped when I started my current job. (They tend to frown on sleeping at your desk.)

However, today the switch to daylight savings time plus general fatigue caught up with me, and I took a nap.

I'm a little more rested than I was, but I still feel like I could sleep for a week or two.

Not sure where I was going

And ... this is why I haven't been writing every day. Today was a day where nothing unusual happened. Work, boxing, lounging around at home.

I'm on my second time through level 3 of boxing. The first time through each level is always confusing - there's new skills to master, and it takes a while for your body to figure out how to move. Subsequent times are still challenging - there's a lot to remember, and it's still a really good workout - but not as bad as the first time through.

One of the nice things about being in an advanced level is that I know a lot of the people in my class. There are multiple classes at each level, but by the time you get to level 3 there are only 5 classes - and if, like me, you need a class that starts at 6:30 or later on a weekday, there are only 2 classes. As a result, I've been in previous classes with several of the people I'm in class with now. Everyone is quite friendly, and we typically discuss the class in the locker room while getting changed and taking off the hand wraps.

If you're wondering what my point is, so am I. Let's go with "boxing is fun" and "I need sleep".

Just don't tell Joel

Today's new thing has been in the works for a couple of weeks.

I've mentioned before that I was laid off in 2007. At the time, I got a good severance package as well as outplacement help.

Since the company I worked for has since filed for bankruptcy protection, I know quite a few people who have been laid off with no severance and no outplacement help. I also know people who are looking for a new job, although they are still employed.

In the interests of helping some of them get started, I hosted a meeting to share some of what I learned.

Four of my former colleagues showed up, and they seemed to find it useful. Hopefully it will help.

No swimming here

It's very useful to have a job where you can work from home. I took advantage of that today because I had two appointments for people to come and give me suggestions for how to keep my basement from turning into a swimming pool every time it rains.

I liked the first one more - he did a better job of explaining what the possible problems were and how to fix them. I have a bit more investigating to do, but I plan to make a decision this week.

Time for a resolution

A couple of times in the last week I've thought about posting something but haven't - mostly due to laziness. As a result, I'm making a resolution - for the next month I'm going to be posting something every day.

I'm not guaranteeing a new thing every day, just a new post.

And ... apparently I have nothing to talk about.

Let's see. I had Sparks tonight. We're off next week (since it's March break), and everyone was a bit squirrelly, including the leaders. We were making firefighter puppets, and after the girls finished colouring, the other leader and I thought that the meeting must be over. It was actually 35 minutes into our one-hour meeting. Sigh. Believe me, everyone can use having a week off.

The time change hasn't been too bad so far - usually I hate it because I end up exhausted - but I am tired - and I keep waking up early. (Should I be? I get confused by "spring forward, fall back".)

You ever feel like you are not getting very far?

Sorry, I didn't mean to disappear ... and yet here we are. I won't bore you with the excuses.

Today a colleague and I had a meeting downtown. I had to get moving early enough to get downtown for a 9:00 meeting. I arrived at around 8:45, and my colleague was waiting for me. We stood around and chatted with the security guard until 9:05, at which point my colleague realized that our meeting had been rescheduled for noon. (I hadn't done any organizing of the meeting, I just showed up when I was told to.)

In other words, I showed up 3 hours early for a meeting.

After we realized we were there early, I went home and worked for a couple of hours before returning for the noon meeting.

After that, I went in to work for the afternoon before heading downtown again for my boxing class. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have gone downtown three times in one day.

Skiing

I haven't gone cross country skiing in a couple of years. Last winter between the massive amount of snow and the trip to Botswana in January, I didn't get there. This year I basically just didn't get there.

I enjoy cross country skiing on occasion, but it's hard to find a weekend day where there is decent snow on the ground, the weather is nice, and I'm not busy doing something else. (After work it is too dark to go unless you are going with someone else and you know the trails well).

Usually I drive to one of the NCC trails in the greenbelt and ski there.

Today there was a fresh snowfall and the weather was beautiful but I didn't want to drive to an organized trail, so I walked to the end of my street and went cross country skiing in the greenbelt behind my house. It's a short stretch, but I wanted something short since I haven't gone in so long.

You want me to do that backwards?

I've talked about boxing before, but I'm not sure if I've explained how my boxing training works.

A typical class starts with stretches and a warmup. After that, you rotate around the stations (2 or 3 minutes at each one, depending on the week). The stations for level 3 and up are: heavy bag, heavy bag, speed bag, skipping, skipping, shadow boxing, heavy bag, heavy bag, reflex bag, skipping, skipping, and speed bag. (For level 1 & 2, the reflex bag is replaced with another shadow boxing station.) There is some variation from week to week, but that's the basic routine.

One other thing that I don't think I've mentioned is that I'm (naturally) the world's worst skipper. My class is on the observation deck around a pool. I hit myself in the face. I hit my arms. I get the rope wrapped around my neck. I get the rope caught on the railing of balcony.

I hate shadow boxing after skipping because I look like someone whipped me.

Starting in level 1, we learned crossovers. (In the video below, she starts doing crossovers at around 1:37. Note that I wear considerably more clothes while skipping than she does.) It took me 2 or 3 sessions to get one crossover. The most I've ever done in a row is 18, and that was once - usually I can only get 2 or 3.

Starting in level 2, we learned some backward skipping. I'm just as good at it as I am at forward skipping. :) In level 3, we started backwards crossovers. Friday I successfully did a backwards crossover. In fact, I did two in a row (although the second one was pretty shaky).

Since last week I didn't come close to doing even one, I was pretty happy.

Advice that's worth what you pay for it

I know a lot of people who are either actively job hunting or actively thinking about it.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but a couple of years ago I was laid off, and ended up unemployed for 7 months. (OK, technically it was 7 months and 1 day.)

While I was unemployed, I had access to an outplacement service. In the interests of sharing some of what I learned, here are some key things I would recommend. (Note that the job I got 1.5 years ago was the first job I'd actually applied for or had an interview for in 12 years, so I'm hardly an expert).

1) Figure out what you want to do. A lot of people skip this step, but what happens if you don't know what you're looking for is that you scatter your energy. Pick a direction. (If you pick a direction that turns out to be wrong, that's OK - re-evaluate & pick another direction. At least you're moving.)

2) On your resume, make it as action filled and measurable as possible. What sounds better to you: "Responsible for generating reports on the number of software bugs" or "Compiled data and analyzed problem trends, leading to process improvements that dropped the number of recorded defects by 10%"? They're basically referring to the same task.

3) Again on the resume, hiring managers don't want to know what your assigned tasks were - they want to know what you did with them.

4) Don't know what you're good at? Ask former co-workers.

5) Also, make a list of accomplishments (both on & off the job). What skills did you have to use to accomplish those things? What did you like doing What jobs could you get that would use those same skills and what you enjoyed doing?

6) Network.

7) No, seriously, network. Everyone hates it. A large number of jobs are never advertised, so you need people to know that you are looking. Don't worry, the secret is in #8.

8) Networking? It's not asking if someone is hiring. If you call me up and say, "Colette, I'm looking for a job, is your company hiring", you put me in an awkward position. If we are (but I don't think you're the right person for that job), I'm not going to want to recommend you. If we aren't, the conversation is over. However, even if I don't think you are the right person for that job doesn't mean that I won't want to help you out, or that I won't want to recommend you for a different job in the future.

9) Oops, forgot to put the secret in #8. Networking is talking to people - but not asking for a job.

• "Colette, I'm starting on a job hunt and I'd like to talk to you about what process you went through when you found your current job. "
• "Colette, I'm starting a job hunt. I know you went from working at a large company to working at a small company. I'd like to talk to you about how you found that transition."
• "Colette, I'm investigating the different things that high tech companies are doing in Ottawa and I'd like to talk to you about what the company you now work for is doing."
• "Colette, I'm working on my resume and I'd like to get your opinion on how I can make it stronger."

Any one of those questions will get me talking for 45 minutes. Asking if we're hiring ends will get me to say "no".

10) When networking, ask the person you are talking with if there's anyone else they can recommend you talk to - then follow up with whoever they recommend.

11) Before you start networking, figure out a quick way to introduce yourself. "Hi, I'm Colette. I'm a software developer with experience in the telecommunications and aviation industries, and I'm looking to move into ..." This is also the way to answer a "tell me about yourself" question in an interview.

12) Treat networking like it's your job. (It kind of is.) Dress appropriately, show up on time, stay focused on your objective, and don't run over time (without offering to wrap it up)- the person you're talking to is doing you a favour.

13) If possible, offer something in return. For example, if the person you're meeting with is talking about a problem they're facing at work, offer relevant experience you've had that might help.

14) Send a thank you note (e-mail is probably fine) after the meeting.

15) Networking will boost your confidence, which makes the rest of the job hunt easier. People wouldn't be making time to talk with you if they thought you were an idiot.

16) Proofread your resume. Proofread thank you letters.

17) An interview should, of course, be treated seriously. Prepare answers to common interview questions. Dress slightly better than you would have to dress if you had the job. Show up on time. Turn off the cell phone. Be polite. Look your interviewer in the eye.

18) Interview going badly? I had a horrible interview before I got this job. I knew about 5 minutes in that I wasn't going to get the job, so I treated it as a networking session. I asked about how much overtime people worked. It was a consulting firm, and I asked if their consultants went out to the client sites or if they worked in house. I asked about vacation and salary. It was a chance to get information about the industry.

19) My usual "how to get things done" method - set yourself goals. "I will get a job by June 1" is not a goal you control entirely, but "I will set up and follow through on 1 networking meeting a week" is.

I think that's my full rant for today. Feel free to share suggestions (or questions, which I will answer if I can) in the comments.

Family day

Today I celebrated Family Day. Family day is a new statuatory holiday in Ontario - basically created to give people a day off between New Year`s and Easter. It started last year, but last year I ended up working, so this is the first year I had the day off.

It`s a bit of an odd holiday in the sense that everyone has the day off except federal employees. However, they get Rememberance Day and Easter Monday off (when no one else does), so I won`t lose a lot of sleep feeling bad for them. :)

It was a great day. I basically wasted the whole day doing nothing. Since work has been so busy lately, it was time off I desperately needed.

Inspired

First of all, last week's contest. The winner is Peter for his explanation. (The Easter bunny was early, and his basket was full, so he was dragging it. He got tired of dragging it, so he took the eggs and threw them around (into the neighbours' yards) and then hopped away when the basket was empty.) Peter, your gift will be in the mail as soon as I find your address. :) Thanks to all of you who gave me explanations. They all made me smile. (Also, who is the "Anonymous" who is claiming they sound like Daniel? It's a mystery.)

Let's move on to this week, shall we?

Somewhere around the beginning of the year, I stumbled across Choosy Beggars. It's a website about cooking, and it's very entertaining. In fact, it makes me want to cook which - as we all know - is unusual for me.

A while ago, they had a recipe for kibbeh. It sounded really good. Today, I made kibbeh. It's tasty (but, deep down, it's still meatloaf).
However, to quote Homer Simpson, we can't go this far and not go a little further, so I also made homemade pitas. And hummus.




Admittedly, the pitas turned out more like flat bread, but they are very tasty.

Perhaps I should be building an ark

I've decided that I need to update more often, even if I'm not actually doing new things. (Sorry, I blame work.) Let me tell you about my day - or at least the portion that happened before my alarm went off.

I don't believe I've ever talked about this, but I have no problems washing dishes. I don't dry them - I stack them in the drainboard, and they stay there until a) I have to kill some time in the kitchen, or b) I need to use them again.

So it's winter, and naturally there is snow outside. We didn't get our usual January thaw, but yesterday it started raining.

This morning at 4 a.m. (exactly) I heard rattling in the drainboard. I was very puzzled. And sleepy, let's not forget that.

I got up, and asked my sister what on earth she was doing. She told me that the basement was leaking.

I went downstairs. There was water on the floor - not over the whole basement, but enough to get my feet wet as I walked around.

I helped Wanda get all of her stuff off the floor. (One would think that perhaps that the floor wouldn't be the best place to store stuff, but apparently Wanda disagrees.) While she finished up, I went upstairs and made up another bed for her.

I don't know what happened exactly. My theory is that the rain plus the melting snow caused water to leak in the windows. It rained all day today, and everything is dry now.

I still don't know how rattling dishes was supposed to help.

Another contest

This is the scene in my backyard. There is a long, relatively straight furrow in the snow, with rabbit tracks going out from the end.

My theory is that someone went rabbit bowling (i.e. using a rabbit as a bowling ball), and when the rabbit stopped rolling, he simply jumped away.

What is your theory? Explain how these tracks in the snow happened in the comments (before Saturday, Feb. 14). The most interesting explanation will get a prize.

A follow up

Back in November or so, I mentioned that I was thinking about buying a new table. In January I ordered a table, chairs, buffet, and hutch. They arrived today.

I didn't do anything new, I just felt like sharing

Mmm, chocolate

I really wanted something sweet this evening. Due to someone (Wanda) eating all of the cookies, there was nothing in the house*.

Luckily, a couple of days ago I saw an article on how to make a cake in a mug on wikihow. Today I made a cake in a mug. I went for the second recipe. It puffed up while cooking, then went back down.

It was good, but I think I overcooked mine - it was a little dry in places.

* In the interest of full disclosure, she is the one who makes the cookies

Look at me cooking

I think I've mentioned that I've been working a lot. We had a big deadline on Friday, so this weekend I'm mostly not working. (OK, there were a couple of e-mails, but that's it.)

As a result, this weekend I made homemade pierogies.

I started by peeling (& boiling) enough potatoes to make about 2 or 3 cups of mashed potatoes.

While they were cooking, I made the dough:

You beat 2 eggs with 1/2 cup of oil until they're light in colour, then add 1.5 cups warm water and 1.5 tbsp salt. Next, you gradually add 5 cups flour and knead until it's a soft dough. (I started by using the mixer, but finished kneading it by hand.) Cover the dough, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Luckily, while the dough is resting, you can grate the cheese. When the potatoes are soft, mash them, then add the grated cheese. Let it melt, then mix. Let them cool a bit so they don't burn your hands during the next step.

Next, stop eating the cheesy mashed potatoes. You can eat the leftovers later.

Roll out the dough, then cut in diamonds. (The recipe says to cut with a round cookie cutter, but I'm too lazy for that - diamonds work just as well, you just end up with triangles instead of half circles.

Put a scoop of the potato mixture on each diamond, then fold into triangles and seal the edges.

Put them in a container separated by waxed paper, and freeze (if you don't plan to eat them immediately).

To cook, boil a pot of salted water, drop the pierogies in and stir. Let them boil for about 10 minutes, then strain. (You want to let them cook several minutes after they float to the top.) After that, you can fry them in butter & onions if you want.