Tidying up

Today was relatively busy. I had a baby shower to go to this afternoon, so I had to get my errands done in the morning.

My right ankle and thigh are still messed up from yesterday. I finally switched out of sandals into real shoes today, but can't find the arch supports I usually wear in my fall shoes. I wanted to use them, since I figured they would be helpful in getting my foot to recover. However, no luck so far. (I'm pretty sure I brought them to Europe with me back in June, but I have no idea where they went after that.)

Anyway, while I as looking for them, I took the opportunity to tidy up a few things that have been out of place for too long.

A few weeks ago, my regular shampoo was not playing nicely with my hair, so I took my travel kit apart to use that shampoo. It was still sitting on the floor, so I replaced the shampoo and put it away.

I tidied the shoe rack in the front hall closet.

I also tidied some of my dresser - it's usually quite neat, but still needed some clean up.

Not a fan

I've talked about boxing before (many times), but tonight I'm going to tell you about my least favourite part - skipping.

I have zero skipping ability. I'm a lot better than I used to be, but it definitely does not come easily for me.

In my current level, most of our skipping is backwards. I'm just as bad at skipping backwards as I am at skipping forwards, so that's fine.

This week, our skipping rounds consisted of the following (all backwards):
- high knees sprint (10 seconds)
- alternating kick outs* (10 seconds)
- crossed feet ** (10 seconds)
- cross overs (10 seconds)
and then repeat until the 30 second bell, at which time it was 15 seconds on one foot and 15 seconds on the other foot.

Somehow, I managed to injure (pull?) a muscle in my right thigh. That made my skipping look more like: skip on left leg, lifting right knee, skip on right leg, try not to fall over, trip, start over.

For my anti-procrastination task today, I decided to cover the fans that I use in summer with plastic bags and put them downstairs out of the way. (That way the fan blade doesn't get full of dust, so you don't have to take the fan apart and clean it before turning it on next year.)

The only down side to this plan was the part where I had to come back upstairs afterwards. It turns out that muscle that I hurt is important when climbing stairs.

However, I prevailed and the fans are safely away for the winter.

* alternating kick outs - skip on your left foot, with your right foot by your side. Skip on your left foot again, kicking your right foot out in front of you, then repeat on your right foot.

** crossed feet - skip with your feet side by side , then skip with one foot in front of the other, go back to side by side, then put the other foot in front.

Good thing it's garbage day tomorrow

Today my anti-procrastination project was to start organizing the storage room.

I broke down some boxes for recycling. (What are the chances that I will need the box for my hair dryer? Zero? So why do I still have it?)

I also got rid of some garbage (Hmm, these pieces allow me to attach my solar lights to the deck ... but I don't have a deck, and I'm never planning to build one, and if I did build one, I would probably still want the solar lights at the front of the house ... why am I keeping them again?).

It's far from completed - you will be hearing much more about this project - but it's a start.

Wait, the decade is almost over?

Sydney mentioned yesterday that today is 100 days from the end of the year (and decade). (Does that scare anyone else?)

Anyway, she has decided to do something creative every day until the end of the year.

I have decided to join in - with a twist. I am not going to do something creative. Instead, I'm going to do something I have been (or normally would) procrastinate about.

Today, I spent some time shredding some of the papers that needed to be disposed of.

This has been on my to-do list for ages, but (as I discovered today) my shredder has been unplugged for 7 weeks, so obviously it hasn't been happening.

Let's hope no more than 50% of my updates are about shredding.

Miscellaneous

Well, after several consecutive posts last week, I somehow managed to take a break for 6 days. The sad part is that I can't even tell you what I've been doing. Yes, it's that memorable.

Let's see what I remember.

• Fall has definitely arrived. The days are nice and sunny during the day but colder at night. In fact, today my feet are so cold I'm considering wearing socks. (I probably will play the wii for a while instead. That should warm my feet up.)
  
• I went to use my cordless drill on the weekend, and it doesn't work. I have no idea why it decided to break while not actually in use. (Yes, the batteries are charged.) I tried my usual battery-powered appliance fix (i.e. take the battery out for a day or so, then put it back & try again), but that did not do it. That fix is effective over 50% of the time, but sadly, this was not one of those times.
• Sparks starts tonight. You would think I have been ready last week but no, I got organized this afternoon.
  
• If I have 100 things to do, I will get 99 done. If I have 1 thing to do, it's going to be a while (and, in fact, it may never get done). This is not a good trait when job hunting.
• Remember how last November I had a headlight continually go out? It turned out the socket had melted, and had to be replaced. Today I discovered that the other headlight had the same problem. I got that fixed this morning. Could these random electrical problems be in some way related to the fact that my radio/CD player won't play CDs if it's too wet outside?
• I dragged Wanda out apple picking last Wednesday. On Friday, I made an apple/peach pie to use up some peaches that were getting old. It turned out well. On the weekend Wanda and I made 4 apple pies to freeze. I still have a lot of apples left.
  
• I'm having lunch tomorrow with a former co-worker who was laid off a few weeks after me. I'm hoping I will be motivated to go work on my Java course in the morning before I meet her.
  

En Garde!

One of the new things I wanted to do last year was to try fencing. Actually, I've wanted to try it for a long time.

One of the local clubs opens up the first class of the session to anyone who is interested. I had intended to try it last year, but it didn't work out for a bunch of reasons. Today, I finally tried a fencing class.

I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll be signing up for the full class.

We started by running around the room ... a lot. We probably ran around the room 10 or 15 times.

Unfortunately, I'm not a runner. In fact, running a lot makes me cough. Repeatedly. For hours.

That means that I was coughing through the whole class.

After we finished running, we started learning the footwork. The first step (feet in an extended L-shape, stepping forward and back) was similar to boxing footwork, so I didn't find that too hard. (This would have been easier on Monday, when my foot was naturally turned out.) After that, we learned the lunge - extend your arm, then step into a lunge position with your forward foot.

We repeated both of those steps a lot of times, then it was time to put on the fencing jacket, glove, and mask and grab our foils.

There were two styles of fencing jackets - some zipped in the back, some zipped on the side of the front. The one I grabbed zipped in the back. I put the jacket on, then found a helmet that fit. After that, I got a glove and tucked the sleeve of the jacket into the glove. The last step was to get a fencing foil.

We split into pairs, and practiced hitting each other with the foils (so that we'd know it doesn't hurt). Next we practiced stepping forward and hitting our partner. The last step was to lunge forward and hit our partner. We repeated each of these many times. (Too many in a row, in my opinion - I would have preferred we do 10 of 1, then 10 of another. It was very repetitive.)

After we were done with that, we learned a couple of blocks and practiced them with our partner.

The last part of the class involved sparring with our partners. That was definitely the best part of the class.

Another "what's wrong with me" update

Today I had my appointment with the neuro-opthamologist about my eye twitch.

I wasn't super impressed with him. He seemed to have come up with two theories before I got there.

The first theory was that my glasses were the wrong prescription. He checked, and that wasn't the case.

His second theory was basically that I was just tired ... for 3 months, including 2 weeks of vacation, and with my eye twitching up to 40 times a day.

That's the one he ended up going with.

They also tried twice to check me for glaucoma. I find that test almost impossible at the best of time, and they seemed like they were in a hurry, and thus they were unsuccessful.

Like I said, I wasn't super impressed - he seemed to have his options figured out before he talked with me, and he wasn't too interested in hearing what I had to say.

However, my eye stopped twitching a week after I got laid off, so I wasn't too inclined to make a big deal about it.

I have a few theories as to what it could have been:
- something physical in my work environment - a chemical, or something related to the fact that the roof leaked, and the water would drip down through the insulation in the ceiling and land near my desk (and at a bunch of other places)
- something related to the vitamin levels that were low at my checkup in May (which perhaps took a while to build back up to the correct levels)
- I got my new (small) laptop in April. Maybe it took a while for my eyes to adjust.

I hope the doctor is wrong, since I don't recall being particularly tired between April and July.

I guess we'll see if it comes back. If it does, I'm going to a different doctor.

At least I hurt myself in interesting ways

I didn't go to the gym today.

When I got up on Saturday, my foot was a little ... off. It didn't really hurt, but it just seemed like something wasn't exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Saturday was the annual community corn roast, and I had volunteered to help out. I showed up at 11 to help set up. I helped out for about 1.5 hours, then headed off to the grocery store.

Once I got the groceries home, I had a couple of hours to kill, then I headed off to work in the kitchen at the corn roast at 4. The concession area stayed open until 10, which meant I was on my feet pretty much constantly for the 6 hours I was there.

My feet (and legs) were sore when I left, but in a tired way, not in an injured way.

When I got up Sunday morning, I was fine, except that my right foot wasn't going in the same direction as the rest of me. As I walked, it was turned out at about 45 degrees.

Again, it didn't hurt, it was just ... really odd.

When I wear proper shoes, my foot is aligned properly and all is well, so I suspect it will fix itself in a few days. I probably did something to it at boxing, and compounded it by standing on it for 8 hours the next day.

Still, it seemed best to skip the gym.

So ... apparently summer is over?

Somehow fall always manages to surprise me.

I'm not really sure why. I suspect the non-summery weather we've had the last two years has something to do with it - this year summer didn't think about starting until August, and last year it didn't arrive at all - but it happened even before that, so that's not the whole story.

I tend to be pretty busy during the school year, and much less busy during the summer. I like the activities I do, but I also apparently really enjoy having more flexibility during the summer. (I could do less during the year, but if I don't have a good reason to leave the house in February, I won't.)

And let's face it, there are really two things I do during the rest of the year that I don't do in the summer - Sparks and boxing. That's, at most, 4 hours out of my week.

That doesn't mean that I didn't regret a bit that boxing started last week or that Sparks registration was tonight.

I enjoy them both, and I know that in a couple of weeks I'll be back into my regular schedule. Right now, though, I wish it were still summer.

Remember this?

Well, I never did go to the doctor about my toe. I kept it taped for 4 weeks, then took the tape off. It still hurt, so the tape went back on for another week. It's fine now.

I had my consultation today for the mass on my thyroid. This involved going to the Riverside Hospital. I've been here for almost 15 years, and I've only been inside one of the hospital locations (and that was probably 1996).

Anyway, my appointment was a 3. I got there about 30 minutes early, since I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and find the right place. I settled in for a long wait, but it actually was only a couple of minutes before the nurse called me in to get blood pressure, height, etc. After that, it was back to the waiting room for another couple of minutes before the doctor called me in.

The mass is partially fluid, so the biopsy will be in the radiology department so that they can do an ultrasound to make sure they're hitting the solid part. He's cautiously optimistic that it's nothing to worry about (but, of course, it will take the biopsy to really determine what's going on).

Get in the ring

I've talked about Choosy Beggars before. The thing about that site is that it's entertaining, but it also makes me believe that I can make whatever they are talking about. That happened this week. As a result, I was inspired to make onion rings.

They turned out well. Admittedly, I got distracted eating the rings off the first pan, so the second pan got a bit - well, let's say extra crispy. I also substituted various ingredients, but that's typical for me - I rarely make a recipe exactly as written - possibly because I never look at the recipe before going grocery shpping. Still, they were a success.

From Raphael to Carracci

Back in June, Wanda and I went to see Chicago at the NAC. On the back of the program was an add for a special exhibition at the National Gallery - From Raphael to Carracci, The Art of Papal Rome. The first time I went to the Vatican Museums, I was walking through the Raphael rooms, and I had to walk across the room to figure out whether the thing I was looking at was a painting or a sculpture. It's amazing to me how some of Raphael's work looks three-dimensional. Anyway, I decided I wanted to go to the exhibition.

It closes on Monday. Keep in mind that I've been unemployed for the last month, and thus have had lots of time to go. However, today I went to see a special exhibiton at the National Gallery.

I enjoyed it. There were more preliminary sketches than I would have liked, but generally it was quite enjoyable. We got the audio guides, which were useful, but (as is typical in audio guides) had more standing-around-and-waiting-for-the-commentary-to-start music than I would have liked.

In other news, apparetnly the National Gallery charges $6 to see the permanetnt collection now. It used to be free - but it's been at least 5 years since I've been there.

Dumplings

I started today with a runny nose and cough. This isn't unusual for me in the mornings, but it was more severe than usual. I was having trouble lying down (when I did, I started coughing like crazy), so I sat up in bed to read.

For the record, this was around 6:15. Around 6:45, there was a "pop" and the bedside lamp went out. Replacing bulbs didn't improve anything, so I guess I need a new lamp. I can't complain - I've probably had this one for 12 years or so - but that meant I got out of bed before 7, which hadn't really been part of my plan for the day.

I had breakfast, then updated my resume for my meeting tomorrow. After that, I headed to the gym. When I got back, I had lunch, then spent a lazy afternoon reading a book. (Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs, if anyone is curious.)

Eventually, I decided it was time to work on the to-do list, so I washed the windows. (Well, technically I skipped the outside of one window - it's behind bushes and it's hard to get a ladder in there.

After that, it was time for something I had been procrastinating on - I started making Plum Knaddle (i.e. plum dumplings). This was a traditional food in my mom's family. The origins of the food are hazy (as are the origins of my mom's ancestors - they come from "the old country"). However, years ago I brought this to work and one of my co-workers who was raised in Eastern Europe recognized it.

Ingredients:
6 potatoes
1 egg
flour
1/4 pound butter
pinch of salt
plums (12 - 20)
sugar
butter

Peel the potatoes, then boil. When they are soft, mash them and measure how much you have. Add an equal amount of flour, the egg, and the salt. Knead well. Roll out dough on a floured board to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut into 4 inch squares and place a plum in the centre of each. Bring the corners together and press until you have a watertight dumpling.

To cook:
Drop a few at a time into boiling, salted water and cook 15 minutes. Make sure they don't sink to the bottom.

Drain the dumplings as they are done.

To eat, cut open and sprinkle with sugar and melted butter

Nothing new here

I've now hit the point where I just want to get a job.

Of course, that's not realistic - I need to keep applying for jobs, plus I've got a bunch of doctor's appointments in September, and thus it's probably better if I start a new job after that.

I don't want to be realistic, though, I want to be employed. I'm sick of not knowing. (If I knew now that I'd have a job October 1, I'd be fine. If I knew it would be November 1, that would be fine. Sitting around is not good for me.)

A lot of former co-workers have gone the consulting route, but I'd prefer not to go that way for a few reasons. I'd miss things like health insurance and vacation. Yes, you can pay for those yourself and factor that in to your consulting rate, but that doesn't seem to be how it's working for people. Also, that seems to be putting yourself into perpetual job-hunt mode, and since I do not enjoy job hunting, that's probably not a good idea.

I'm working through my ... apathy? Boredom? Sick of job hunting-ness? I went to a salary negotiation workshop yesterday, and a behavioural interviewing workshop today. They were both very good. (My test interview told me I talk to fast and trip over my words - my observation, not anyone else's - but this is not new. Also, I say "um" a lot, and close my eyes when I'm thinking.)

I have an appointment on Thursday to talk with one of the consultants about my resume. I'm also planning to spend some time on Thursday working on the java course I started last week.

This frustration is also kind of foolish, because it's not like I've applied for hundred of jobs. Right now, the tally stands at 7. And I've only been out of work for a month, so it's not like it has been ages. I just wish something were happening.

I know that eventually things will come together. I also know that once things start happening, you can get a job very quickly. And I know that I'm good at what I do. I'm just impatient.

I am slowly going crazy....

On Tuesday, I met a friend for lunch. On the way there, the fan and air conditioner in my car stopped getting along.

Specifically, what happened was that when I had the fan on speeds 1, 2, or 3, the a/c worked but the fan didn't. When I had the fan on speed 4, the a/c turned itself off, but the fan worked. (If the a/c was off, fan speeds 1-3 still didn't work.)

Obviously, this couldn't continue - it's not so bad when it's just hot out, but it is a problem when trying to defrost the winter, and would become a major problem when it gets cold out. I called the garage I usually take my car in to and made an appointment for today.

This morning, I got up early to take the car in. I got them to drop me off at ITO, and I started a computer-based Java course. The way this place works is you do the test first (so you know where you're starting from), then do the training, then you have to get 90% on the test 3 times in a row to get a certificate. I got 52% on the test before I did any of the training.

You'd think this would make the training easier, but it actually makes it harder, because many of the concepts are familiar to me. That means I start skimming the material, and I miss the stuff I don't already know.

However, I made it through 3/4 of the first module. At that point, I stopped to go and meet one-on-on with one of the consultants to get resume feedback. By the time my meeting was over, it was 11:30, so I walked to a fast-food place for lunch.

When lunch was over, I headed back to ITO and read a bit until I thought I was ready to do more training. I then finished the first module and went through the second module.

At that point, my brain was full, and I didn't want to do any more training, but my car wasn't yet ready, so I did the test for the third module, just to see where I was. I got 74%. On some of the subsections, I got 100%, on others 0%. It's pretty obvious which ones I have encountered before.

Anyway, before I was forced to start reading the course again, I got a call that my car was ready, so I walked back to the garage to pick it up. It was less than a mile, so it was certainly walking distance.

I got the car, and then decided to stop at the tire place on the way home to get them to fix the tire that has a slow leak in it. End result? I took my car to two different garages in one day - oh, and my tire had a screw in it.

Everything was fixed, but the day was filled with far more waiting around than I can handle in a reasonable manner. I also hadn't eaten properly (or enough), and I certainly hadn't had as much water as I normally do, so I wasn't feeling all that well.

I ate as soon as I got home and took a nap to decompress, then I headed to the gym for Combat. I felt pretty bad when I got there, but (as I knew I would) I felt much better when I left.

Tomorrow will hopefully be full of a lot less sitting around and waiting.

Preservation

I think I've mentioned before that I have a vegetable garden. It usually turns out poorly - only tomatoes and cucumbers grow well. My priority is the tomatoes, so I'm not too upset by that.

This year, the only thing that grew was the tomatoes. The last 3 weeks have been hot and sunny, and the tomatoes are going crazy. In order to use some of them (and hopefully dispose of some of the fruit flies that have again invaded my kitchen), today I canned tomatoes. I sterilized 4 pint jars. After that, I boiled water and put the tomatoes in the boiling water for a minute or so, then took them out and put them into cold water. This makes them easy to skin, so I skinned them and put them in the jars, pressing down on each one to remove the air from the jar. When the jars had about 1/2 an inch of space left in them, I put in 1/2 tsp of coarse salt. Next I put the lids on the jars and put them in the canner, then processed them for 20 minutes.

When they were done, I took them out, set them on the counter, and waited for them to seal. When they did, I tightened the lids and they were done.

I've made tomato juice before, and that is much better when it's homemade. Hopefully the canned tomatoes will be as good.

Stop me if I'm babbling

You would think that since I'm unemployed, I'd be updating more. You would be wrong.

I started the week by attending a Business and Technology trends workshop at ITO. It is a three-day course - well, actually 2.5 days - that talks about different areas of high tech work in Ottawa, as well as different strategies for finding a job. One of the interesting things about the course was deconstructing company web sites to find out more about the company. For example, reading the news page might tell you more about their specific products (and thus the skills used to make their products, which might tell you whether you should apply or not). They also talked about reading all of the job postings, not just those you are qualified for. The purpose of this is, for example, if they are hiring an architect for a C++ product and you aren't qualified to be the architect (but an be a C++ developer), you can send in a resume and essentially beat the rush. Since companies often hire without posting jobs, your resume will be on file in case they decide to find a C++ developer without posting the job.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, but it was an interesting approach that complemented the approach that the last outplacement place I dealt with suggested (which was much heavier on face-to-face networking).

One of the other people in the workshop and I have been reviewing each other's resumes, and I think both of our resumes are much stronger as a result.

On Monday, I am signed up for the resume course, so hopefully that will be helpful as well.

This has also been a good week for talking with friends. Two of the people I worked with in my last job e-mailed or called me this week, I had lunch with a friend yesterday, and today I went in to my previous employer (i.e. the one I got laid off from 2 years ago) to have coffee with some friends there. The place is like a ghost town now. It's really sad (but coffee was fun). I brought in a plain cheesecake with brownie bits baked in to it. I called it an experimental cheesecake, but really all of them are experimental. I rarely make the same thing twice. It was good, though, and the guys appreciated it.

On a completely different topic, I'm glad today is my last day for the eyedrops for my eye infection, because for the last day I have gotten progressively worse at remembering to use them.

Changing topics yet again, Blogger has been acting weirdly for me lately. When I cut and paste web links, it treats them as text. Also, I am completely incapable of commenting on Sydney's blog. (I can comment on other blogs, and other people can comment on her blog, so I don't know what is going on.)

My doctor gets lonely if I'm not there every week

When my mom was here, I started having problems with my right eye. It would feel like there was something in my eye except, of course, there wasn't. The feeling would last from 30 minutes to 2 hours, then it would go away.

Last Thursday, I went to the doctor and found out I had an eye infection. I got antibiotic drops to put in the eye. It started feeling better immediately.

I had to apply the drops for a week, so this Thursday morning was my last application.

Friday afternoon I got the same feeling in my left eye. My doctor's office was closed for the day, so I went to the after-hours clinic associated with my doctor. I could have gone to a walk-in clinic, but this way my doctor automatically gets the information about my visit.

The verdict? More eye drops, 4 times a day, for another week. The problem now is that I have to do both eyes, which means I have to spend a minute 4 times a day with both eyes closed. So far I haven't walked in to anything, but I suspect it's coming. (Sure, I could just sit still, but that's not usually how it works.)

What to do?

(Edited to update the list)

I've been unemployed for a week now. It's interesting.

I was unemployed for 7 months 2 years ago. I don't recall really being bored for months. I suspect that was because I had been laid off from a company that had been going through layoffs every few months for 6 or 8 years (depending on how you count). By the time I was laid off, I was very burnt out. It took me several months before I was emotionally ready to look for a job. I was trying earlier, but I just couldn't get it together.

While I'm pretty optimistic that I will find a job more quickly this time, I also am getting bored far more quickly, so I've made a to-do list for non-job-hunting-related things.

Here it is:
Shred old papers
Clean out filing cabinet
Clean out furnace room
Clean off old computer
Dispose of old computer
Trim hedges by front walkway
Trim (other) hedges (OK, my sister did the trimming, but I nagged her. Still counts.)
Build a new composter
Wash windows (inside)
Wash windows (outside)
Make baby quilts
Get rid of old video tapes
Get rid of old cell phones
Patch hole by thermostat (which has been there for 2 years, since the thermostat was changed)

I'm trying to work towards one of these things most days, and so far it's going well. Today I dragged Wanda outside, and we started trimming the hedges by the front walkway. The hedge trimmer battery died, so we didn't finish, but we did make a good start at it.

Of course, there's the general gardening and house maintenance as well, but hopefully I will be able to make a good dent in this list before I go back to work - although I'd be OK with going back to work quickly, even if it meant I didn't finish the list.

Piecing it together

I know a couple of people who are pregnant, so this weekend I made two baby quilts.

I've done this before, but it has been a few years. It didn't take as long as I remember (possibly because I was motivated to get it done this weekend).

I'm not a perfectionist, so the resulting quilts are not perfect, but that's fine - they're intended to be used on a daily basis - to set on the floor for the baby to lie on, to cover up when reading a story, or whatever.

The unusual part of this project was that I didn't buy anything - not even thread. Everything I used was something I already had.

I'm happy with how they turned out. I would have liked to put a border of blue around the second quilt (to match the inner blue between the squares) but I didn't have enough blue, so that didn't happen.