/dev/zero

It’s been an interesting week. Had a job interview last Friday that left me feeling pretty sure I got the job. By the end of the day the recruiting firm let me know I did get the job, and for a grand more than the initial listing for the position. They were supposed to have an actual offer letter to me on Monday, but the manager has been out of the office all week. The recruiters contacted the customer’s HR dept and they hadn’t gotten the paperwork from the manager yet, so I still don’t have it. They also need to do a background check, but I told them I’m OK with giving notice at my current place with a contingent offer letter. There’s nothing in my background that will cause a problem.
Meanwhile, I don’t have an actual offer yet, so I’m not giving notice.
I also have a job interview with UT Austin next week in their computer services dept. Since I haven’t signed any offers yet, I’m going to go ahead and take the interview. It’s more in line with what I really want to do (system administration, rather than tech support) and the pay is almost $10k more. Pluses: what I want to do with my career, stable firm (can’t get much more stable than the largest state university in the country), more money, closer to my folks. Drawbacks: moving away from some very good friends here in DFW.

Meanwhile, at my current $POE, a water pipe burst in another suite on Wed night, flooding out half our tech floor, including my desk. I had to work from the NOC Thurs morning. At least this time I had my laptop with me so I didn’t have to spend an hour setting up all my tools on yet another PC that isn’t my normal workstation. Friday morning I got to put my desk back together, but luckily both Thurs and Friday were quiet days, calls-wise.

Today, my parents are coming to town to go out to dinner to celebrate Dad’s retirement. We’re going to go to some place in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Apparently Dad also wants to go shopping for some casual western wear. I dont’ know why he needs to come up here to DFW for that. Surely there’s plenty of places in Austin to buy that stuff, but oh well. I know where I can take him. Not sure why he’s suddenly interested in acquiring some western wear either.
However, them coming to visit means I need to do some mad cleaning. I think it’s almost a blessing that Kestrel has to work today; it means she’ll be out of my way while I run around the house stuffing things into closets and getting them off the floor.
The lawn is edged and mowed and I’m exhausted and drenched in sweat. But I still have the kitchen, living room and front bathroom to clean. Back to work.

We spent the day getting all the boxes out of the living room. For the first time since we moved in we can sit on the couch.
I got the stereo wired up and we were able to sit down and watch a movie. (I was only intending to check that I had the DVD player, stereo, TV and speakers all correctly wired for sound and video, but we ended up watching it all the way through.)
By god, this place will actually be ready for visitors soon.

Quick weekend update, ’cause I got lazy and didn’t get started until 0100.

Friday night, stopped on the way home to get contact lens cleaning stuff and roach killing stuff.

Just finished dinner with Kestrell. Going to play some WoW, then bed.

Your car dies.

We were on our way to a movie (any movie, to get out of the heat and kill some time before a party) after meeting her parents for lunch. I pulled into the Parks Mall and saw the LifeWay Christian Center and remembered I wanted a new Bible, as the only one I’ve got is falling apart (from age more than use). She wanted a copy of the Gnostic Gospels (or more information on them) anyway, so we went in. Did a little shopping, she found a necklace that she liked and I bought it for her.

We got out, got into the car and started it up. Only it was running kinda rough and wouldn’t respond to the gas peddle. It soon died. Repeat a couple more times, then it wouldn’t start at all. It would turn over but not catch.

One fuse was blown, which we replaced (with the help of a nice family who was heading into the store and stopped to see if they could assist us, then ran up to the auto parts store and bought the necessary fuse), but that didn’t fix the problem. It’s looking like perhaps the fuel pump relay has blown (better than the pump itself) or possibly a clogged filter.

Now I have the joy of getting it towed to a mechanic who can diagnose and fix it. And I don’t want to spend any more money than I have to on a car that I am going to replace ASAP.

Kestrel and I went to Mom and Dad’s house on Saturday to help packing things up and generally assist getting the house ready to move out and sell.

Kestrel managed to trip on the step up to the master bedroom and somehow cut her hand. We never did find what she cut herself on. It’s a hardwood floor with no rough edges of any kind and there was no glass or anything on the floor to cut her hand.

I cut out 3 more pieces of plastic to fit the light fixtures in the kitchen (the old ones were yellowed), then went to sand and paint the one remaining area in the garage where the drywall had been repaired and plastered, only to find mold. Yet another thing that will have to be fixed before the house is sold. It never seems to end. Every time they get the house all fixed up and ready to go on the market, something else breaks.

Mom surprised me when she asked if Kestrel and I were staying the night. We had actually brought changes of clothes with us, but with the idea that after working in the house all day we might want to shower and change before going out to dinner.

When bed time rolled around, Mom actually asked if I wanted her to make up the couch.. I asked if she would be offended if I said no and again, she surprised me by saying “No. Dad and I talked about it last night and decided it was OK.” Huh. Mom has changed.

Kestrel is now thoroughly convinced the house is haunted. She thinks whatever is in the house likes Mom though, and doesn’t like her. She thinks whatever it is doesn’t want my parents to move out.

I’m really happy how well Kestrel and my parents get along.

Sunday morning we went to church, even though the mention of it kind of scarred Kestrel. I completely spaced that it was the first Sunday of the month and thus we would be having Communion. Kestrel was comfortable with it and even took communion. That also made me happy.

godmoma, did you get the voice mail Dad and I left?

Where to start…?

After seeing The Lady in the Water¹ yesterday with Kestrel, we met up with chuck_lynn, hubs, vulpine137, techie_, gwyndragon, lllvis, kingdom_key1 and a couple of others who’s names I don’t remember <edit>After checking vulpine137’s LJ entry re: this event, I can fill in masonstone and synapticdreams</edit>. I think Kestrel was the only LJless one there.
Oh, and kingdom_key1, if you’ve added me to your friends list yet, Kestrel figured out why I kept insisting we’d met somewhere before. A couple weeks ago, at California Pizza Kitchen. Heather’s birthday thing.

Happy Birthday to smoofy!

Work has been… work. Two people have been fired recently for being idiots. One I’m not sorry to see go (he was truly an idiot and I don’t know why he hadn’t been fired a long time ago. Especially after he threatened me, his supervisor. But then, those of us with supervisory responsibility don’t have supervisory authority, so what do I know?) one I’m kinda sorry to see go, but not sorry to see the messes he made disappear.

I still don’t have the raise I was promised 3 months ago. Last paycheck I was assured it would be taken care of, with back pay. Is it bad that I was not at all surprised when this paycheck came around and it wasn’t fixed?

I was told I could not take vacation time in Aug, as I won’t have passed one year with $POE until Sep. 20th, and the new rules say you have to have 1 year with the company to draw on your vacation time. So in last night’s shift report I read that one of our newest level 2 employees, who’s been with us barely 2 months, was out on a vacation day.
Color me unimpressed.

I’m loving the new car. Not going to be loving the payment, or the insurance premiums, but the car I love.

1 A movie I highly recommend. I think it’s my first M. Night movie (never did get around to seeing The Village, Signs, The Sixth Sense or any of his others) and I’ve heard some of them sucked, but this one is pretty good. Not scary at all (though it has it’s suspense moments. Decent story, reasonably well acted. Plenty of dry humor.