Left Handed Staircase is my son's band. I can't wait til he makes enough to buy me a mansion and a new car!

Thanks to Steph, I now know...

Neon Genesis Evangelion (find out more)

Find out What Anime Best Suits You by taking the quiz yourself!

A Day at the Fair with Sheepy and Owlchick.

We needed a thing to do, and what better thing than the Western Washington Fair! Using the handy-dandy event planner on the Fair's website, Rob quickly determined that we would go on Sunday rather than Saturday.

Sunday morning, bright and early, we stumbled down the stairs and headed to Puyallup. We had to get there by 10AM because that's when the sheep judging took place. I got a cup of coffee and we found the sheep judging pens.

"Oh, good, we can get a front row seat!" Rob beamed as he shoved aside parents waiting to see their 4-H child competing in order to get two seats right next to the fence.

The event was pretty exciting for us. We picked two sheep we thought looked particularly nice; one was a rich brown colored sheep, and the other was the more classic white with black nose and legs. As the judge had the sheep and their owners move around the pen, stopping to pose, she eventually pointed at some of the competitors and had them stand in the center of the ring. Our two sheep were in the group left standing at the perimeter of the pen.

Rob whispered to me, "This is actually pretty suspenseful since we have no idea what she's looking for...maybe our sheep got eliminated already!"

We turned out to have pretty good sheep-instincts, as the two sheep we found particularly enticing were invited back for the finals. Yay!

The rest of the day went peacefully. We saw all the sheep, the horses, the seeing eye puppies, the crafts and watched some horrifying new rides. We had funnel cakes. It was a beautiful day at the Fair.

Evil Steph. I cannot believe I spent the last two hours at Rate my Kitten. ::flail::

So go and cast a vote for Stirfry! :)

You know, life is full of interesting choices.

I've gotten financial aid for college. Because I'm unemployed, my tuition is waived for the next four quarters, plus I am eligible for a Federal work study postion and get a student loan. Add to that, being on the worker retraining program means I collect my unemployment (until it runs out) without having to look for work. It's a very sweet deal.

The other day, the school district (the one that interviewed me in July) called and asked me to apply for another position. The caller said I was highly recommended, even though the work is unlike the other positions I interviewed for and didn't get.

So here we have, on the one hand the best college deal a girl can get...and a job that sounds really cool that she's sure she'd like. Naturally, I'll go ahead and apply again as there is a chance I'll strike out yet again. But what if this time, they want me? What if this time, I am offered the job?

School is important. I'm interested in the legal field, although not with any desire to become an attorney. I haven't got very much farther to go in reality. I'm working on 19 credits this quarter, which is 4 over full-time, so I have a very full load. All I had to pay for were my books ($300+) and the amount of tuition over the amount specified in the tuition waiver (so, $120 out of pocket; they picked up $660).

The job is that of a communications specialist. I would be designing handouts and brochures and preparing presentations to publicize the good works of the school district to its community. It's a school-year only position, so I'd get summers off, plus breaks in Winter and Spring and all the school holidays off. It pays pretty well, considering how much time off one gets, although I'm not sure where I'd fall in the pay scale. It is less than I made before, but with all that time off, the trade would be worthwhile.

I could continue school in the summer breaks and in the evenings, which would take longer than it would if I stick it out now and of course I'd have to pay my own way, but I'd thought I would be paying for my own education all along anyway. I would be working closer to home; instead of commuting for an hour each way, I'd have a 20 - 30 minute drive.

What should I do? What do you think?

Is there anything more wonderful about the internet than the ability to track a package shipment as it crosses the country? My exercise equipment is on its way. It was in Irvine Texas last night and is on the truck en route from Tacoma to my place as of 11:04AM PDT.

What? You aren't relying on Orbitrek!

Fraid not.

I pin my hopes instead upon this.

Rob is on his way out to the grocery store as penance for this remark during a conversation --

"You're used to failure; you're a woman."

If he does not bring back Ben and Jerry, he will be heading right back out again. Men.

The other day, I cleaned up around my desk and found a red cat collar with a bell on it. It's a legacy from my first cat, Remington. I'd picked the name years before I got a cat, being a great admirer of the show Remington Steele. heh :)

Remington was a gorgeous Siamese mixed with domestic short hair. Even though I raised him from when he was six weeks old, Remington hated humans. He tolerated me, but he hated everyone else; Dave's arms were marked up with scars from where he and Remington wrestled. The vet recommended that we neuter him early, to keep the feline testosterone level down, but it didn't make much difference. The vet started charging me the wild animal handling fee when I took Remington in for his shots. Eventually, because he was so ill tempered, we had all Remington's claws removed -- at which point, he started biting. To show his displeasure at my having a baby, he'd pee in Chris's crib.

He was beautiful, feisty and full of character. We had to take him to the humane society before we left Washington because I knew with his temper he would come back from Hawaii's long quarantine absolutely feral...and with two small children, I couldn't risk having him go ballistic. I cried all the way down and back because I knew no one would want him, despite his beauty, and he'd be put down. There's a Far Side cartoon where a bedraggled couple is entertaining a woman in their totally trashed living room while a cat sits regally before them. The oblivious visitor leans over to pet it saying, "Oh! What a beautiful Siamese...is it friendly?" That was totally Remington. My coworkers loved hearing wild Remington stories; and unfortunately, because they knew the tales, none of them wanted to have him in their house.

So I'd saved his lovely red collar, which he only wore once or twice before getting his teeth caught in it while trying to chew his way out of it. I removed the collar so he would't break his jaw, even though it's the safety kind that comes off if snagged. The plastic snap of the collar still has chew marks on it.

I put the collar on Mittens, thinking the red would look lovely against his fur. Also, since Mittens likes to sniff around outside, but gets freaked out so easily, I want to put on a tag so if he runs in a panic to the wrong house, they'll know where he belongs.

Rob and I think it's the bell that freaked him out. That gentle, tinkling sound that came somewhere behind him...or beside him...or beneath his chin. Mittens didn't mind the collar around his neck -- and it did look really nice -- but for some reason, he became intensely affectionate. He curled up on my lap for most of the day, or followed me and Rob around, and then uncharacteristically, curled up beneath Rob's desk, even though Rob's chair was available for the taking. He slept in our bed instead of jumping up to Phil's top bunk, as he usually does.

The next morning as Mittens wound his way between our legs, purring and kissing our feet, Rob laughed, "I think he's being cuddly cause he wants one of us to take that thing off." So he did, and whoosh! The Real Mittens returned, dashing away like a mad thing up and down the stairs and wrestling with Rob for ownership of the chair.

Rob teased Mittens by dangling the collar and allowing the bell to jingle. Mittens sniffed at it cautiously but didn't seem to perturbed. I might just take the bell off and put the collar back on him. Rob, however, thinks it makes him more docile with the bell, so we'll see. He's already pretty docile -- compared to Remington.

My friend Christie called yesterday. She was laid off from her company on Thursday. I guess Thursday is The Day when it comes to lay offs. I wonder if there's some published data to show that it's the best day of the week to give employees the boot.

I'll be there is a whole study about it. Psychologically, it doesn't ruin the "festive" mood of a workplace Friday. It's far enough from the drudgery of Monday. And the booted employee has the Friday day to come to grips with the reality of unemployment before the first weekend without a Monday to dread.

The Seattle Times is running a series of articles on the Puget Sound ecomony and how hard it is to find work these days. Reading some of the articles, I feel somewhat lucky that I've had four interviews; some of these people haven't had any. One man was laid of from Boeing last year and the paper has been doing periodic follow-up interviews with him and his family. They sold their house and moved into an apartment.

My unemployment benefits run out in December. Unless there is a reinstatement of a current federal program to extend unemployment benefits in depressed areas, I'll lose what measure of income I bring to the family.

Money is such a status symbol, isnt it. I've always been proud of the fact that I've earned everything I own and that I've rarely been in a position to have severe needs. Wants maybe, but my needs have always (even if barely)_been met. So far, Rob hasn't had to pay any of the bills I normally cover, like the mortgage, homeowner's dues and utilities. When my benefits run out, though, unless I have some sort of job, everything will fall upon him.

It's not something I look forward to. I've been dependant before, when I was a stay-at-home mom while Dave was on active duty. I couldn't get a paying job while the boys were so small, so I did volunteer work instead (they provided free day care while the person volunteered). Every purchase I wanted to make, I had to ask for the money and it was embarassing. Dave didn't ever say no, which retrospectively maybe he should have so our finances wouldn't have gone down the toilet, and I never asked for anything I didn't think necessary. Needing my own income is one reason I started selling Princess House; it fit the bill for me. Lorie asked me whether I'd consider doing it again seeing as I'm unemployed...but I don't think it's right for me at this point in my life. I don't have that charm she does so it really is work for me :)

Oh, well. It's a holiday and people have the day off to enjoy. Tomorrow, you all have to go back to work and I'll be sleeping in, and wishing I had somewhere to go too.