major tom

So I handed in my official resignation at work. My official last day is this coming Friday. So, what to do? Well, its sounding like I'm probably going to go right back to work in nearly the same job but as an independent contractor. This works great for me because it gives me a stead ypaycheck until I find work in new York. It also allows me to continue working on and hopefully transitioning some of my current projects rather than have them die on the vine. There's only so much you can do with documentation, after all. So, counting down... of course the contracting thing is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, so I can't go counting on that cash flow just yet.

On top of that, as soon as my new boss came up with the contracting as an option I got a response and subsequently had a phone interview with a game design company in New York who is looking for someone like me to be their IT infrastructure guy. I'm just afraid I scared them away with my suggested salary requirement. Have not heard from them in over a week now. We'll see what develops there. I'd like to work for them, but since its a smaller shop than I'm used to (30 full time staff vs. the bajillions of people working at my current company) they might not even be able to offer a competitive salary in my range. I mean, I can mae a super great case but if they just can't afford it, they can't afford it. I just hope they come back to the table.

Today we had our first open house and it sounds like a few people came and there is at least THAT much interest. No telling how much is just people who like going to open houses for recreation. Hopefully something will come out of it. We got out of the house and took Andrea's dad to lunch and afterwards Andrea, her brother, Felix and I all went to the beach for a couple hours. The first time Felix went to the beach he was content to stay in the very very shallow water and play in the wet sand or ty to bury our blanket. This time he had a great time being carried into the deeper water (only up to my waist) by mom and dad and splash around. I spent most of the time crouched so the water was up to my shoulders/his middle. He played around with us in the water quite a bit. As scared of water as I was as a kid, I'm very conscious of doing things that might freak him out. I'd like to avoid giving him that sort of negative experience. I don't know where my initial fears of deep water came from, but as a result I did get dunked by more than one swimming instructor. Looking back, I realize they were probably jr. high kids or high school kids working a summer job, but back then I thought they were adults, so it was a very damaging experience for me. Anyway, Felix is such a physical kid that I don't want to prematurely turn him off of any avenues for expending his energy.

And in two weeks we fly out to NY to look for apartments, nannies, jobs, etc.

birthday massacre

Saturday we had Felix's birthday party and family and friends were there at the park for grilling and food and a pinata. I haven't been to aikido classes in almost a year but I pulled out my trusty jo and the kids had at the pinata with it. Unfortunately it was so solidly constructed that even after knocking the legs off it's main candy cargo compartment there was no sign of the prizes within. Finally I stepped in (the kids were getting TIRED from beating on this thing) and delivered a standard body strike (I think I executed with decent form) and the anticipated candy explosion finally happened. Suddenly the kids were no longer tired but were anxiously scrabbling around on the ground for the brightly wrapped sugar bombs.

The weather was perfect - mid 80s, breezy, no rain.

And we managed to give back almost all of the remaining baby stuff; good luck to you all planning on having another baby!

I got a little burned on the back of my neck, legs, and arms. Felix did not get burned. He does, however, have a farmer's tan, just like his dad :)

Today we took Felix for his 1-yr dr. appointment with vaccinations and blood labs. ugh. It turns out he's only 20.45lbs (only about 1 pound, or a little over 1 pound since his 6 months appt.) which puts him in the 16th percentile for weight. The doctor said, "well, we expect the weight gain to drop around this time because he's so active...what kind of milk is he drinking?" and I'm like, "Uh...breast milk...what else would he be drinking? He drinks a lot of water." "You should start him on whole cows milk now. How much water is he drinking? You can just give him whole milk from now on." I made a joke, "No skim milk for you,k kiddo!" and she said something like, "Yes, you'll have to get different milks now. Most parents are happy once they can finally giove the baby the family milk...What do you drink now?" to which I repsonded, "We don't drink milk...but I guess we'll start buying it now. He has had soymilk a few timesa and he likes that, but there's sugar in it, so he doesn't get much."

Apparently she thinks he isn't putting on weight because he's very active and because we are not giving him a steady diet of cow milk and sugary juices. He eats fruit, veggies, meats, breads, and yogurt by the ton (and poops it by the half-ton), so I don't know that he's really under weight. I was a little surprised that he only gained about a pound, but then again, he has gone from barely crawling at 6 months to full-on monkey status (crawling, rolling, hopping, climbing, swinging...just not walking upright) at 1 year. He sure seems bigger. Jus tyesterday after his bath I was holding him up in front of the full-length mirror and for the first time realized how long his legs are. You don't notice so much when he's clothed and playing because his knees are always bent and he has pants and diaper, and all his gear on, but seeing him all straightened out, the kid has looong legs. His legs are as long as his head and torso together, it seems like. But he's only in the 30 something percentile for height, I think. So who knows. I still think that these percentile scores aren't necessarily a good developmental judgement considering how obese Americans, and American children specifically, are these days. Are these global scores or just American scores? And wouldn't it make more sense to have height, weight, and head circumference correlated and maybe combined into a single score? I mean, what does it say, developmentally? If you are just looking for tracking your single child's development, what's the point in comparing it to other kids? I guess after reading/listening to Freakanomics I question the usefulness of these % scores. I mean, they never really tell us what they mean or what they are deducing from them, or even if those deductions are actually logical. What's to say that Felix isn't in the 16th percentile in weight for his age because most kids between 6 amd 12 months put on a lot of weight due to their parents starting to feed them "adult" foods like Big Macs and Coca Cola? And Juice...my god, juice...sugar water.

One of the gifts Felix got was an electronic talking nursery rhymes book, which had your standard marketing on it, pictures of a right-aged child using said toy. On this box the child was obese, I mean like puffy, drooping cheeks, porcine, obese. The kid didn't even look happy. It was shocking. That was the model that the advertising people put on this product. I wonder if that's what they thought represented the "everychild". I wonder if they did research and found that that model DID represent the everychild. What does that say about the usefulness of the growth percentiles?

Anyway, on to the massacre...pinata massacre on Saturday, Felix massacre on Monday morning. After getting his three immunizations, which was heart wrenching, we took him up to the lab where they drew blood. On children, they draw blood by pricking their finger with a lancet and then milking wound into little vials. So, Felix is sitting on my lap and I'm holding him still and the lab tech pierces his finger then starts sopping up the blood with an alcohol nap, probably to keep him from clotting, and then proceeds to squeeze his finger and scrape it with these little plastic vials. She finishes up with this first vial and then, trying to cap it with the same hand, slips and tosses the entire vial of blood on my shirt, face, and pants. I was less upset about the blood on my clothes than I was about the fact that she had just wasted a vial of Felix's blood and would now have to do it again, prolonging his agony (and it was agony, believe me). Poor little guy. We left looking like there had been a massacre. I went hime to change my shirt instead of being dropped off at work, so I was an hour later than I had planned on. Poor Felix.
Happy Birthday little guy...

sale sale sale

Ok, so we survived the yard sale and came out OK. We moved a ton of stuff and still had some stuff left over. I got rid of 75% of my assorted computer gizmos and related junk. I haven't had time to tinker with any of the less than 100% complete computers in years anyway. Some people got some good goddamn deals, I tell ya.

And, to top it off, we put an add on Craigslist saying that we would have leftovers for free affter the sale. Let me tell you...it was like out of a movie. 4:30pm rolled up on us like the fuzz busting a good old whorehouse. Cars skidding to a halt and people rushing up and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on. Andrea says, "everything on that table is free." and heads inside and I stop her and ask, "Are we giving the table away for free?" "What? NO." "Well, then I think we better get it inside."

Sure enough, within about 10 minutes only the most despicable dregs of our sale were left on the boulevard. I chucked that stuff into the dumpster an hour later.

And tonight we signed on the dotted line to put our house on the market. Go baby go.

Tomorrow I think I will and in my notice at work. So much is happening in such a compressed amount of time. It is a truly bizarre space to be in. When I'm at work all i can do is look for another job. When I'm home, all i can do is think about work and all the stuff I'd like to accomplish or wrap up before I'm gone. It's weird to consider that I will possibly be unemployed for a period of time. How weird and scary is that? If things work out in a particular order, we could be homeless as well (although that would actually be a GOOD thing).

In a way, it would be really nice if we were just able to cut ties and make the leap to NY. The only real anchor is the house. If I didn't have that mortgage to worry about, we could just pull up stakes and go. Sigh. On the up side, 1 way airline tickets are pretty cheap if you buy them a couple weeks in advance. Obviously round-trip is cheaper if you know your return date and buy with similar lead time, but in the event that I have t fly out to NY early, or if I stay longer and then flay back here at a different date...

Who knows. details details. I don't like the idea of splitting the family up if its not absolutely necessary.

gar-bage sale

So, day one of our yard/porch sale (since we have no garage) was pretty successful. We still have a lot of the stuff we really wanted to get rid of, but you can tell that people were coming in from the Craigslist posting. I kept wondering why everyone was asking "So, moving to New York, huh?"

We had advertised that we were going from 11am to 4pm. At about 10am Andrea and Glen we starting to get everything set up. By 10:15am there was a swarm of people sifting through our stuff. By the time 11am rolled around the surge had ebbed and we were a bit dazed. A steady stream of people, mostly looking for some of the things that had been swept up in the first mad rush, came by. It felt great, like we really stood a chance of getting rid of most of our stuff AND making a tiny little profit at the same time. But then the initial surge was over, whether they were mostly craiglist people or just passers by, and the adrenaline ebbed, and then THOSE people started showing up. You know them...garage sale assholes. They drive expensive cars and have deep dark tans and usually ponytails (on the guys) or expensive-yet-badly-done dye jobs. They haggle when haggling is not even needed, when its not even tasteful. They had no rhyme or reason to their garage sale purchases except that they got a deal. These are the people who, when looking through your collection of vintage fur coats that you are obviously selling for MUCH less than they would find in even the most bargain basement thrift shop, they still ask for more off, even if its just a dollar. They ask because they feel like they can, like they've got you over a barrel. And they know you are torn between standing firm on that one dollar but they might also be offering to buy something that you know nobody else probably will. You know, maybe it is the gall to ask for that one dollar that keeps them driving a Lexus, but I can't help but to feel that for them, it doesn't matter what they're buying, its the making a deal, the getting of someone to submit to their will that motivates the to buy the most random assortment of shit, and then haggle over it.

You know these people. They are the ones who will peruse your collection of DVDs and comment on how they can "get this stuff cheaper on ebay." Then go log on, asshole. You pay no shipping and handling here and your gratification is almost instant. Further more, we're not selling because we need the money to pay for kidney transplants, we're selling because we need to de-clutter and perhaps supplement our moving fund. Cripes. It only takes on really bad garage sale asshole to sour a day for me.

And, incidentally, it appears I have not completely forgotten how to speak spanish. A large portion of our customers have been hispanic, many of whom spoke little english. Granted, mostly just saying numbers and pointing at things, or clarifying "Para todos" or "cada uno". But still...helpful. At least I know I can still count to 100 en espanol.

Hopefully we'll do as well on day 2. I need to post to craigslist again and also set up a posting on freecycle to let people know that they can get stuff for free after we're done.

Pirate is NOT the new Ninja

I discovered Ask a Ninja today.
enjoy

here's the new recruit

Well, this morning I spent about 40 minutes making calls to HR and 401K and did the paycheck math and figured out my absolutely optimum "last day". Then, of course, I reported my findings to the CEO of the relocation enterprise. I won't be announcing to my employer when intend to vacate until sometime next week, when me new boss has officially started. He already knows my plans (in the elevator today he offered to link me up with a guy he knows out east who might be hiring) just, like everyone else, does not know the specifics. Originally I was going to hang on to my job until i found a new one to go to, but that's just not in the cards. There's something called money at play here, namely the large sums of it we are going to need to actually move, so while I steady paycheck is nice, what we're really going to need is some rapid infusions of lump sums like all those weeks of vacation I've never used and all that 401K (heh, if left alone, in 60 years it might be a tidy sum, but as far as 401K goes, its not exactly a retirement savings just yet) that isn't really all that much, but could mean the world in terms of securing housing, paying a mortgage (until the house sells), and allowing us to float at least until Andrea starts getting paid.

So, the title...I posted my resume online and I mentioned before frequently getting called by headhunters, recruiters, etc. Sometimes you can tell its a guy in a bullpen who has a list of search terms and is matching words from resumes to words in job postings and trying to insert himself in between them to pick up some finders fee. Ok, it goes with the territory, and in some ways it feels great, in some ways not so great. It feels great when you get called by someone who seems to think that you really are a good candidate for a particular job, especially if its one that you haven't seen, or that isn't posted, or maybe even there isn't a posting but someone saw your resume and thought, "This guy has potential, I think I might be able to get him in here...or maybe there." I've run across a couple individuals that I think are really seeing some value in my compilation of skills. I've gotten calls from people who clearly are just trying to cram a peg into a hole and pocket the cash. My response to them is short, "Sorry, that's too far away. I don't have a car." or "For a short term contract such as this I would need to earn $90/hr to make it worth my while."

But I'll just say I have some prospects. Every day is like a roller coaster though, the emotional ups and downs. I had a phone interview the other day, my first, and I keep going over in my head, "I should have said this..." and then thinking, "God, that would be a really interesting job...if only it weren't so far away from the city. Even if they offer I don't think I can take it." Grrr.

On another note, we have our housing inspection tomorrow so we can go on the market on Monday. I've been completing projects at record pace, though not many of them are really impactful on the result of our inspection, I don't think. I mean, I dug out the inspection of this place from last year and literally nothing has changed except we've put a little wear and tear on, I started insulating the attic, and our crap is still everywhere. But still, last night I used almost all of my power tools and quickly installed sort of railing/slats thing out of 2x4s to somewhat close the stairwell in the basement. It wasn't an R&R but was a "safety" thing that our own buyers inspection guy pointed out last year. You know, the more I look at this house and the initial truth in sale report from last year...we sort of wasted money on the buyers inspection. GRANTED, what we were paying for was piece of mind, but still, in a city that requires a truth in sales inspection I think the buyer inspection should cost a hell of a lot less. Its a bit of a racket, especially since those guys aren't even certified by anyone. Not anyone who matters least wise, and they offer like, no warranty, on most of the inspection. Its really a purchase agreement placebo if you ask me. Anyway...so I've been getting handy and we've been getting ready to vacate. You know, all things considered, I think we're just going to have to clean and tidy up anything that has to remain here and this place should do OK. I mean, WE bought it not so long ago, right? The two houses nearby sold in under a month on the market.

We'll see.

ahooy!

So, as I suspected, at about mid-day my phone and email started filling up as all the recruiters started sifting through their in-boxes and resume search results from the past week while they were off on vacation. So, I feel better about my job prospects but I am curious about some things. For instance, I have gotten called by more than one recruiter about the exact same job posting. Does this mean that there's a limited pool of applicants coming up on the resume search for this position? Should i take it as a sign that I may have some leverage on this particular job posting? Or does it just mean that everyone is plowing through the same pile of resumes, of which mine is one of thousands? Who can say...

Family Date nite

We all, Andrea, Felix, and I, were invited to have dinner with my sister and her new guy whom she is dating. He lives in the cities here, not even very far from our house. So he had decided that he was going to teach her how to eat sushi. We met them at Midori's, a family run japanese restaurant near our house. I guess we are the first family contact. When I mentioned that I would have to get a sitter, she responded without hesitation, "No no, bring Felix." Wha...? OK.

So we arrived on time and they were already there. We met the guy and he seemed very normal, very nice, respectful. We got a table and sat down and we did some small talk and he seemed to be a very good conversationalist, very comfortable in his own skin, and very comfortable in the presence of Felix in a Public place. After a few minutes Felix decided to show his true colors and became an attention hogging hambone. From that point on I was mostly distracted by Felix, stuffing my grilled salmon, rice, and veggies into his mouth with my chopsticks. I think Suzanne and Andrea and Jon talked about stuff. They seemed to all be having a fabulous time. I do recall giving Suzanne pointers on the proper use of chopsticks.

Seemed like a nice guy.

location, location, location!

Have I mentioned how every day I get emails and phone calls from recruiters who want to place me in positions here, in Minneapolis? Sometimes its the same recruiter who I have already told several times that I'm only interested in positions in new York.

So, Andrea told me to remove our local contact info from my resume and resubmit it. She found that people in New York wouldn't even look at her resume when the yha a non-new york address. makes sense I guess. Nobody wants to waste time on people who are not local or who are going to want relocation assistance. Anyway, so I change my street location, etc to just plain "New York, NY" and when required (for resume posting sites) to enter a valid street address I put our friends' address in Jersey City. Voila. Posted resume last night and this morning I've gotten three phone calls and several emails for positions in New York/New Jersey area.

Now the big issue is that they positions are either "Start as soon as you can" or "When will you know you actual availability?" This morning's hour long recruiter conversation included "Would you be able to come out for interviews sooner than your current planned trip, if necessary?"

The guy I spoke to this morning inspired a lot of confidence, as it is his job, of course. I am the wheat that he must harvest and then convince someone to buy, I', the cattle, I'm the commodity. The fact that someone thinks they can sell me, make money, and also not screw me (one would ASSUME) in the deal is a nice feeling, though. Very personable guy, so I would hope that he's successful. He's going to call me back today or tomorrow with some stuff. His advice, "Ok, focus on selling your house, I'll see what I can work up here. I'd like to get your paperwork in front of some of my customers. I've got some ideas. I can get you taken care of."

So, at least it FEELS like I've got someone on my side. i know he's really on his side, but if he has any good sense, which I expect he does, he knows that its always a good idea to do right by people because it can benefit him in the future as well as the initial commission he might make off of me (from the employer) if he gets me placed.

So, sell the house, find an apartment, find childcare, actually move...figure out where all the money we are going to need to pull this off is going to come from...that's all I have to worry about now...heh...RIGHT!

And the worst part is, we're looking at apartment listing all teh time but these all seem to be similar to the job situation: Move in now, or Aug 1. Nobody is looking for renters any further down the road than that, it seems.