Whirlwind of activity

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. June has been a whirlwind of activity. I was home in Colorado for 10 days for a wedding and to visit family. I had a great visit minus some yucky stomach bug! The wedding was absolutely wonderful, the best I've been to in a long time! I'll try and post some pictures later.

I saw Max, Jenn, and Tim. All are doing well. Max is talking up a storm of mostly understandable english. Tim became his favorite uncle however "Uncle Tim" sounds a lot like "all done" so it was a bit confusing! I really wished they lived closer so I could see him more often.

Once I returned home I launched head long into preparing for our house hunting trip this weekend. I've spent hours and hours this week going through listing and prioritizing them. I gave the Realtor a list of our top 25 house yesterday morning. Lucky he deals with this sort of thing all the time due to the base. Last night I was up past 1am getting all of our stuff ready to go and printing stuff for the mortgage lady. This was really a bad time for Sean to have a business trip. He flies back in at 2pm today and we leave again for Ohio at 9:30pm. Lucky him! I've have my laptop while in OH so I'll try and post how things are going.

Keeping Tally

I feel like I should be keeping a daily tally of how many head hunters call me a day. I get 1 - 5 calls a day for jobs in MA. I have to keep telling people that I'm relocating or I just don't bother to call or e-mail back. However they can be quite persistent. Some will just keep calling or e-mailing until you give them a response. Last week I put in Bold letters at the top of resume that I was relocating to Dayton, but it is like they can't read or don't read it. Quite annoying! So I guess if you any of you out there is looking for a job in the Boston area there appear to be plenty!

Comfort Movies

I had a horrid day yesterday. I won't bore everyone with all the details it was just a lot of little things that built up. However I cheered myself up last night with watching one of my favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice (BBC production...not the new one which is awful in my opinion). I'm not sure what it is about this movie but I always feel better after I watch some or all of it. I watched most of part 1 last night as it is a 6 hour movie. I've watched it so many times that I can almost recite all of the lines. My other comfort movie is 10 Things I Hate About You. Both are excellent movies that I would recommend highly to all my female friends....as they are mostly chick flicks. Although Sean will halfway watch while he is doing something else. Anyone have any comfort movies they would like to share? I'm not sure if this is just a chick thing or not.....

Oh and bonus...Colin Firth is super hot in this movie (especially in the scene above)

Wine and Cheese birthday extravaganza

I had an excellent birthday party! All the wines and cheeses were so yummy. Above are some picture from the festive events. Thanks everyone for coming and a special thanks to Sean, Shari, Robyn, and Natalie for all your planning and hard work!

Top picture: Me and my two cakes
2nd: The spread
3rd: Me and Sean
Last: Amy, Me, and Jessie

The Big 25!

Today is my 25th birthday! It is a little strange to think about being 25. On one hand it is just another day but then on the other I'm half way to 30. So far my birthday is turning out to be excellent! I may have a lead on a job possibility with my current company in Dayton Oh. I talk with the manager out there today and I'm going to meet up and talk with him when we are out there for our house hunting trip. My co-workers took me out for Indian! I love Indian and the food was excellent today. We even got my boss to come and try Indian. I think he liked it alright.

Tonight Shari and Sean are throwing me a surprise-ish birthday party with help from Natalie and Robyn. I know it is happening and I know who is coming but that is about all I know. I'm sure it will be fantastic! I'll post some pictures later. I even bought a new top to wear to the party!

One other highlight was my brother calling and singing me happy birthday! It was too cute!

A different view on African Aid

I read this interview today with a Kenyan economic expert. The expert stated that all the aide that western countries are giving to Africa is really doing more damage than good. When I started the article I was thinking how could this be? Wouldn't Africa starve without our aid? After finishing the article I think the expert has some very good points and makes perfect since. I think in the future I will think twice before I donate money to an African cause. I highly recommend you give this article a quick read.

I found another article that I wanted to include.
BBC news - Why aid doesn't work

Thanks

I just wanted to thank everyone for being so encouraging yesterday! I will keep you'll posted about the job progress.

Now back to the goats. I have strange fascination with farm animals, always have I guess. So while I think most of you thought I was kidding about the goats...I wasn't entirely. I did some research and here and the highlights:

1. To get the cashmere you can just comb your goats not shear.
2. The goats are profitable in 3 ways: cashmere, meat, and weed control
People actually rent their goats out to eat down fields of weeds. Can you imagine having your lawn maintained by a bunch of goats!
3. There are consultants that you can pay to help you set up a cashmere goat business.
4. An extremely sturdy fence is required to keep the goats contained.

While I'm still for the goat plan, I had no luck convincing Sean. He told me that only if I made 30,000 more a year than I do now. Because he thinks it would cost that much to get it up and running. I told him that the idea was to not work anymore, just raise goats. He also pointed out that we wouldn't be living there long enough to make the business viable and how would be move the goats....while I'm not giving up, I think the goats will have to wait!

Job search

I'm feeling a little discouraged by my job search. I imagine my expectation are too high. I've sent out at least 5 resumes over the last couple of weeks and haven't heard anything back. Waiting is the tough part. I guess I thought it would quicker or easier or something. If I was staying around here or willing to move somewhere else I think things would be looking at lot better. I get at 2-3 phone calls from head hunters everyday for jobs in the Boston area. Yesterday I got a call from a Woman at Amazon in Seattle wanting to talk to me.

I'm beginning to think now might be a good time for me to start my own business....or something. I wonder if I would be any good at retail! Or perhaps, it a good time to start raising cashmere goats. I wonder how much land you would need to raise goats....

Visions of the future

I came into the bedroom last night to get ready for bed and Sean and Quincy were cuddling together on the bed. Quincy was making himself quite comfortable in my spot. He is allowed on the bed but only when we invite him up and there is sheet covering the comforter and pillows. They looked so cute and content (except Quincy was giving me the don't make me get down yet...this is my spot eyeball) I suddenly had visions of a King sized bed full of animals and children. Sean has been talking about upgrading to a King bed for sometime....I'm not sold on the idea since I'm not sure I want Quincy sleeping with us nightly. Besides a bigger bed just seems like an invitation for other people and animals to join in. Although the image looks cozy....I think my sleep would suffer. Charlie already wakes me up at least once a night!

Today's Smile: Puggles

A Puggle is a mix between a Pug and a Beagle. They are so cute. They get closer to a Beagle in size. They are suppose to have the good qualities of each breed. I met one the other day on Newbury St. and it was the cutest thing. I was going to tell Sean about it and before I could he says to me "I was thinking that our next dog might be a puggle" and I said "OMG I saw one the other day and it was so cute and nice. It was a little crazy...perhaps it is a sign. To see more picture of the little guy click here.

Reunion of Bestfriends

My best friend of 23 years, Natalie, is visiting right now from Colorado for the week. I'm super excited to have her here right now! She is staying through my birthday on Friday. I can't take any time off from work so she will be doing some site seeing on her own in Boston this week. Today she was going to go to the aquarium! Hopefully she is staying dry in this yucky weather today. Hopefully the rest of the week will be nicer for her! We don't have any big plan for this week other than to talk talk and talk some more about everything that has been going on in our lives. Also she is helping Sean and I with our Tennis skills since she is coaching Tennis this year. She actually said that we weren't horrible. I wonder if she needs to have her eyes checked!

Pics of puerto Rico

Enjoy! Top one, the beach and light house at the Punta Tuna. Second one, Sean and I at the Bacardi factory. Last one, flower in El Yunque Rain Forest.

losing my mind lately

I think I may be losing my mind lately. I keep having this problem where I type an e-mail or blog post or something of that nature and I substitute different words in. I have to go back and read all things very carefully because the word I typed is usually not even close to what I meant. Like I mean to type have and type not. Those words are not even close. They don't start with the same letter! and don't mean any where close to the same thing. Do you think my body is trying to tell me something...like get more sleep, or stop taking tons of allergy medicine, or take more allergy medicine, or something else that is unknown to me.

I have a hug pile of Kleenex on my desk and I'm waiting for a call back from my doctor about getting a stronger Rx for my allergies. I can't seem to focus on anything. I'm being waiting to hear back all week about the resumes I submitted last week to Raytheon and Ball. But nothing! I mean I don't think I should worry too much since this week was a holiday week but I was really hoping to hear something. I guess I will submit some more resumes this weekend. Job searching totally sucks and is probably contributing to my total basket case behavior!