House is for sale!

Anyone want to buy a house?? We finally have the house clean enough and signed with a realtor last week and the garage sale is over and done with.

On the job front -- I had 2 face-to-face interviews last week, and a phone interview with a third company this week. I'm pretty sure the 2 companies will come through with a job offer, and the third one is too early in the process to tell. I've had a couple of pre-screening emails from several other companies. And I'm still putting in applications to new job postings every day, just to be safe.

I'm looking forward to the process being over soon. Each of the two companies require a drug test. I'm not surprised that the big corporation company requires one, but I was surprised that the smaller 16-person company does too. Either way, I'm unconcerned since I'll pass without a problem (though I did make sure to skip the poppyseed encrusted tuna that sounded wonderful at the restaurant for dinner tonight just to be sure).

We've signed the lease for an apartment, and the el is just a block from our front door. Both the companies that I've interviewed with have el stops right next to their buildings so it would be door-to-door curbside service every morning which would be awesome.

I know which company I hope to work for, but there are still several details to be worked out which would seriously affect my decision so I'm not going to post anything about that yet (in case either company reads this). And that may sound silly, but I'm read articles that said prospective employers are googling prospective employees a lot lately, and looking for blogs to get a feel for the person. :-) So if you're a prospective employer and reading this.... *wave* HIRE ME! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

Job Search Irony

I have to admit I find it very ironic to be filling in a web application to apply for a job as a Web Developer and have the company's website keep crashing in the middle of it. I'll give them points for consistency -- and it always crashed at the same spot. But I couldn't submit my application because the site wasn't working.

And I wonder, is it even legal to demand a social security number on the first page of an online job application? Or is it really a phishing scam that is pretending to be a job posted on career builders? I decided not to apply to one, just in case.

Contractor Hell

Is it a rule that contractors have to be bad? A plumber was scheduled to come out and do a couple of minor repairs to get the house ready to sell. They were supposed to arrive between 1 and 4:30. About 4, I call to make sure they're coming and am told that the plumber is running late but would definitely be there. At 5:30, call and are told the plumber is running late but would definitely be there. Well, 9pm rolls around and still no plumber so off to bed. Of course, took the afternoon off from work the next day to meet the plumber. So call the company the next day and the woman agrees that was really bad service and says the manager had stepped away and would be back in a couple minutes and she would have the manager call. Guess What?! Never heard back from them.


So, next is the landscaper. Leave messages to schedule a landscaping company to come out to do some touching up of the flower beds and pull out a dead tree. Company never calls back.


Today, scheduled a handyman to come at 4:30 (fortunately AFTER work this time) and do some minor repairs around the house. Well, it is currently 10 minutes to 9 and he hasn't shown up, nor has he called. So far, still don't have the plumbing repairs done, the landscaping done, OR the handyman jobs done. Now a different landscaper is scheduled to show up tomorrow. Anyone want to start placing odds whether this will go through or not? Ihad thought I'd be able to start showing the house next week to the people that have expressed interest, but now stuck spinning wheels with the unreliable contractors.


Later when I get the info, I'm going to come back in and update this with the contractors' names and start a hall of shame.

Time to get back into blogging groove

It's been a year and a half, and lots has changed. With the latest adventures, maybe I'll try to get back into this. Although this was supposed to encourage my creativity, I ended up backing off of sewing for quite a while. I'm still not sewing much, but now it's because I was introduced to the wide world of World of Warcraft which sucks up all my free time.

However, I will be forced back into the sewing room for a couple projects. I have to make a small hobo bag type person out of a fun white paisly print for a friend, and I committed to making a duck costume for my niece.

Unfortunately, my sewing room is over 1/2 packed up since we are in the process of preparing the house to sell and to move to Chicago. With this big adventure, I should have all sorts of things to blog about -- gripes about house prep, attempting to sell the house, the move, the attempts to find a job for me, and the grand adventure of figuring out how to survive in Chicago. :-D

I've started sending my resume out to web developer positions in Chicago, but the only bites so far are for head hunter/ recruiters that don't seem to notice the Objective "A full-time web developer position in CHICAGO". I've been offered all sorts of opportunities in my own home town and several nearby towns. Sorry guys, that's the completely wrong state. I don't feel like commuting 5 hours each way each day after I move.