Interviews...

Since my last post, I got two interviews! It happened really fast, and I'm kinda still in shock.

I had an interview on Monday with Gibbs Smith Publishers who are based out of Layton. It went pretty well and I have a new random question for the interview files... "Are you allergic to cats?" This publishing company is based out of an old barn and they have several office pets that kind of prowl around and wander in and out. It seems like a pretty nice place to work, except that it's only 20 minutes from my parents' house so I don't know if I could justify moving out if they hire me. The interview seemed to go well; I started talking with the executive vice president in charge of editing and she made me spell accommodate (I don't remember if I put in two ms or not...) and we talked about my resume. She basically went over everything I put in it, very thorough. Then she brought in the managing editor and she made me tell her how to use an elipse, how to use a dash, and how to use a colon. They finished by telling me they would like to email me a document for me to edit as a trial.

Then today, I had a phone interview with Ernst & Young, a financial company in Denver (yay). I've never had a phone interview before so that was really weird. I was probably not as prepared with knowledge about the company and position as I should have been but it seemed to go pretty well. They said they would let me know by next week if they wanted to bring me in for an interview in person. And she asked the dreaded question about expected salary. I never know what to say so I kind of ballparked around 30000 and she said that they were probably going to be paying in the mid to high 20s and she didn't want to put me through the interview process if I couldn't work with that. I hope I didn't mess up because of that, but on the other hand, that doesn't seem like very much money...

What are you guys doing about the salary question? Has anybody even asked you yet? Am I expecting too much?

See you guys on the 30th at Chelsi's reception :D

Soups the el prego woman won't eat. . . and other useless thoughts

Amelia, I will write for you. I've always wanted to do that kind of thing.

Here are two pumpkin soup recipes. They are both good, though I definately prefer the curry soup. But I haven't wanted either since I've been preggers. In fact, it's one of the first things I noticed not liking when I was first pregnant. That was more than a week before I actually knew that I was. Weird. Well, here are the recipes:

Pumpkin Curry Soup
2 Tblsp. butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground white pepper (I use black)
2 lg. garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cup chicken broth
12 0z. evaporated milk
15 oz. canned pumpkin

1. Melt butter on medium heat. Add onion & garlic. Cook 2-3 minutes 'til tender.
2. Stir in curry, salt, & pepper. Cook 1 minute.
3. Add broth & pumpkin. Boil. Reduce to low.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 - 20 minutes.
5. Stir in evaporated milk.
6. In batches, transfer mixture to blender. Cover, and blend 'til smooth. Serve warm.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup
1/4 cup butter
1 small chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tsp. brown sugar, packed
14 1/2 oz. (1 can) chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
15 oz pumpkin
12 oz. evaporated milk
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1. Melt butter with onion, garlic, and sugar. Cook 1-2 minutes 'til soft.
2. Add broth, water, salkt, & pepper. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce heat to low, stirring occastionally still. Cook 15 minutes.
4. Stir in pumpkin, milk, & cinnamon. Cook another 5 minutes.
5. In batches, transfer to blender, cover, and blend 'til smooth.


Well, everyone, I have five weeks of preggerancy left. It's not too bad. I'm hot all the time, and my back hurts, but otherwise, it's perfectly agreeable.

Mandy, my advice to you-- don't be afraid to leave Utah. Just don't go to Nevada. It's an ugly state. And hot. Go east. Skip Kansas. I hear it's really flat there. No, go to Tennessee. No, too country. Try Illinois. That's a happy medium, probably. Just don't go to Nevada. Wyoming's better than Nevada. And Denver-- now Colorado's a very nice state. It's like Utah, except for more mountainy. Overall, I mean. It averages out to have more mountains there. Oh-oh-- you should go to Vale or Veil in Colorado. Lots of Celebrities hang out there. You could offer to ghostwrite or edit their memoirs. That's a good idea!

My office chair tilts. I was unaware of this until. . . today. Apparently I must have played with some mysterious switch on it, and now it tilts. Who knew?

I got Lisa's wedding invitation in the mail! It's beautiful! I like Chelsi's better. Totally. But Lisa's invitation is fit for her. It's. . . how to describe it. . . dark khaki or over-creamed cappuccino brown. Something. She's getting married in two weeks tomorrow, which is the same day my good husband gets home. Now here's a coincidence-- two friends, getting married on special days for me: Lisa on the 8th, the day my hubby gets back; and Chelsie, on next Friday, the 30th-- my birthday! That's kinda cool! What are the chances?

Well, toodles for now, ya'll!

Welcome to the land of limbo! It sucks.

I am in Limbo! Not the caribbean party game with lots of drinks with umbrellas, but the terrible place where I have to make decisions about my life and where I want to live. I've decided I don't want to stay in Utah but I don't want to move away either, thereby earning me a place in limbo.

Actually, it hasn't been too bad a week. I put in an application at Gibbs Smith Publishing company in Layton through the USU Career Services website and their VP emailed me back almost immediately asking why I want to be an editor and what my interests are. And today I got a phone call from Ernst & Young, an accounting firm in Denver, to set up a phone interview for the proofreader position I applied for last week.

In other news, my personal life is boring, but for those of you who are interested in this saga, my friend Shelece is going to break up with her boyfriend Ryan! Hooray! If you want stories about why this makes me so excited, just ask and I could fill a blog by myself!

My friend Emily is very pregnant and she assigned me the job of entertaining her because her baby was/is due on the 30 (her doctor changed his mind a month ago and told her it was due on the 15 and so she left work last friday and now her duedate's back to the 30th and she's bored out of her mind!) So what should I do with her? I don't want to do anything strenuous and send her into labor since her dr's out of town until next week, but if I leave her at home she's going to re-upholster her entire living room!

That's basically my life, but I wanted to post and let you know I'm still alive and checking in. I'll let you know how the interview and stuff goes.

raining pumpkins

it's been raining all day today. i love it.

last night i went on a semi-mad baking kick and made pumpkin cookies. i still have some pumpkin left over ... so i was goign to ask JeriLynn if she could share her recipe for pumpkin soup... i want to try it out.

in other news:

all of our printers died last night.

really really died.

they came back to life this morning, but only after several panicky phone calls.

we're printing magazines this week. someday... someday i want to own and produce a magazine. will i be able to recruit some of you guys to write brilliant things for it? please please?



p.s. wilson, how comes the notpron riddle? i'm still quite stuck on level 21.

Dr. Wilson

Hello my pretties. Well maybe I'll just have to post as Ganddaddy West until I become a granddaddy myself. I've invought myself four times now and this blog still refuses to show up for me. I suppose I was born to suffer.
Well, I'm still delivering pizza but I quit my other job. Fortunately, I still make as much as Amelia most nights, so I'm good. I've kind of given up finding a job in the game industry that I'm qualified for, so I'm resigned to finding a tech-writing job now. Kelli will be so happy. Speaking of Kelli, did you ever find out about that naming crisis you were having Chels? We're lucky that we decided to keep the professors out of here - if they saw all the grammatical and spelling atrocities going on they'd have a heart attack. Yes, the plural would have a singular. Wahoo.
So, I haven't posted in forever because we didn't have the internet at my house until my father got here. Of course, all the innovations occur when he needs them. The rest of my family is here too, whereas it's summer. My sister just got married over the weekend and it seems to be catching like the plague. Marriage left and marriage right. So, I've decided that, if I don't end up getting a real job by fall, then I'm going to go back to school. Blech, I know. Well, that's just the way of it. Educate yourself until you can't anymore and then it's sink or swim. I suppose I could always just end up a professor.
Dr. Wilson
bwah ha ha ha!

Jeri's Blog

Hi guys. I decided that since I didn't want to always be writing about myself here, I would use my old 3410 blog for that. It's at: http://abourneman.blogspot.com/

Amelia, will you add that to the list?

Me, Preggers

I think I need to turn the air conditioner on, or something. I can't breathe. It doesn't help that my uterus (*snicker*) is 34 centimeters now, or that my baby is sitting on my ribs, kicking my guts with her feet. I keep having these wacky dreams about labor and my baby. It looks like I'm packing a basketball under my shirt. I really should take a picture and post it. Hold on.
There, now you can see how big I am. That took a lot of effort! Now I'm exhausted, and I really, really need to get to work. If anybody's in town and wants to go to a matinay of Nacho Libre with me, let me know. My husband hasn't written me a letter yet (after two weeks), and I'm a little depressed. I love yous guys!

papyrus = ugly

chelsi's invitation came in the mail today, addressed to shae and i at the office. lucky for me, shae is away at girls' camp or something, so i got to open it first!

and it's gorgeous!

i love your cute photograph, i love the black inside of the envelope. i love the ribbon. i love the cute little oval hole punches.

yesterday i spent over 3 hours punching holes in 300 A2 wedding invitations, 80# gloss cover and 60# transparent vellum. cliche wedding invitation.... and what's more: they wanted the text in Papyrus. that's the second wedding invitation i've done this month in Papyrus. somehow i've refrained from being ill. what is it with these people?

but anyway, i fully appreciate whoever it was that had to score and fold and hole punch your invitations, chelsi. did they do the ribbon too? thankfully i was spared from ribbon on these... but i still had to punch holes.

i'm getting quite an education in paper weights and sizes. pretty soon i'll be able to pick up a piece of cardstock and tell you exactly what weight it is. (maybe) it's exciting.

anyway, happy friday to all.

Jerilyn! I love you. I laughed out loud the entire time I read your post. Good thing I'm the only one in this stupid lab!!!! I want to come see you and I'll help you clean! Is your house within walking distance of mine? Unfortunately I'm still driving impaired. >: I really really hope you can come to my wedding! I'll even make everyone sing Happy Birthday to you! And of course you can bring your Mom!!!! Come one and all! I'm getting endowed on the 23rd and Spence is going tomorrow!! (His Dad is going on a cruise the week before the wedding and he wanted to be here. I'm waiting so he can take me through the veil.) I'm so excited...I can't wait!

Everyone should be getting a wedding invitation if you haven't already. I hope you all approve! Being a tech writer, there was much tribulation in picking one. I HATED them all....THEN there was font choices. Woah. Speaking of, they were supposed to use the same font as the inside of the invitation for our names on the outside, with just the J in script. They messed up. :( And they wouldn't print just one for me to approve! Hello!!!?? What kind of business are they running?!! Anyway, I whimpered slightly and worried when I got 500 of them...but I think it looks good still. Do you all approve?

I'm getting married in 15 days...can you beleive it?! Remember when it was 135? It's gone by so fast....well, except the whole sex thing... ;)

I showed Spence Ray B. West: The Bloody Truth the other night. I'm so happy I have that!! I know it's a comedy, but I'll cherish it for a long time. It made me homesick for everyone though...which means you have to come to my wedding!!!! And I'd like everyone to stay a while...it's going to be a party, not a reception! Bring dates if you're worried about not knowing anyone! (Or your mom in Jerilyn's case.)

Well I'd best get back to writing thank you cards. Love you all!

*kisses*
Chels

Hello everyone! It's so great to read all your posts. I just love it.

Chelsi, I got your invitation today, and it's beautiful! I'm so excited for you! When are you getting endowed? I'm going to try hard to come to your reception (I can't resist seeing a pretty dress) because I should be heading south anyways that day. It just depends. Can I bring my mother? She wanted to spend my birthday with me (I think). If I'm not there, I'm stuck in Ephraim.

Elsie, I'm so jealous of you being in Switzerland. I hope you're getting fat off croissants and cheese and milk for me! I'm sorry we didn't get together beforehand. Jay left for Fort Lewis on the 6th, so we were crazy busy getting ready for that, and then we had his sister's wedding. That's a different story. I had, like, six billion mood swings and I think I cried the entire time. Not necessarily out of joy (though it was a joyous occasion), but rather out of self-pity. My sister-in-law made the most beautiful bride ever and everything was perfect. I was so jealous, and I get so sentimental about weddings. Oh yeah, the pregnancy thing may have factored into the mood swings too. But it was a good time too because we (the wedding party) waited outside the temple for an hour an a half while the bride got cinched back into her perfectly fitted ivory gown. The only reason this was fun was because I got to see lots of other brides and their dresses, and you guys all know me and wedding dresses. It's one of my eternal loves. :)

So I'm getting so big and I'm having a hard time bending over. My house is a disaster and I really want to get it clean so bad, but I just don't have a lot of energy most days. I'm about 34 weeks along now, which means that I will be a mother in about six weeks. It could happen sooner (but no sooner than four more weeks, otherwise Jay won't be here), or it could happen a little later. But six weeks is the aim. You guys can start putting in your guesses. My guess is July 19th. I don't know why, but it sounds like a good date to me.

If anyone's bored, they can come help me clean my house. I really need it. I did my dishes for the first time in a week today (okay, so I was gone for four of those days). I think when I finish this post, I'll clean some more because I can't concentrate to do much else. Except listen to NPR. Which I love. Thanks to broadband I can listen to KUER 90.1, not some dinky station like KUSU (which is a service of our lovely college of HASS, but it doesn't have the Diane Rehm show or Radio West).

Also, if you come see me, I have a ton of icecream. It's from the wedding. I'm assuming there's a gallon left, and I shouldn't eat it. Also, if you come see me, you can watch my belly boil. It's hard to miss anymore. My little girl's a shaker! I'm excited to see what she looks like. She'll probably look just like me except with Jay's lips. Wouldn't that be funny? If I had Photoshop, I would put Jay's lips on a picture of me. He he he.

Keep posting everyone. I love hearing how you're doing!

miscellany and humidity

good summer, so far.

it's hot. there are bugs everywhere. i love it. well, okay, not the bugs.

i still love my job. it's great fun. layers and layers of responsibility, but really fun.

nothing much else is going on... i'm trying to find time to write more.

yeah.

blog-related update:

i've rearranged the profile for the actual owner of the blog, just a smidge. now, anyone who logs in under the main account will post under the name 'Great Granddaddy West' instead of posting as me. If you want your own account, just make one, then log in as grandaddy west, add yourself to the members list, log out again, log in as you, and then accept the invitation. that should do it. make sense? sorry that's been kind of sloppily handled.

i hope everyone else is having a lovely summer also. anyone read any fabulous books lately?

I hope nepotism is alive and well

I have a job interview for a tech writing position. Normally they only hire engineers out of college but the funny thing is, engineers don't want to be tech writers generally (and vice versa). So they get these engineers, they pay for them to move out here, they work them for a year and the engineers find other jobs (they have to work at least a year or pay back the moving expenses) with a years worth of experience on their resume ... only they usually put it as engineering experience instead of tech writing experience.
So my aunt works in HR and is seriosuly getting tired of the high turnover and engineers who know nothing about writing that have to be trained to think like a tech writer and she got this idea. Hey, it would be easier to train a tech writer all the engineering stuff they need to know and keep them here for several years than training new engineers to be tech writers every year.
So she had me give her my resume and transcripts, she passed it on to the head engineering guy and I actually have an interview. My interview is on June 21st. It is for the INL and has excellent bennefits (from what I understand) and I can think of a lot of other places where it would suck more to work there.