So I had an opportunity to go to a free class on resume writing today. Well, no that's not accurate. It was actually a resume critique workshop. Because I got there just 2 minutes early I was the last one to be reviewed. And I mean that. She literally took each person who was there and went over their resume with them individually, giving them pointers to make it more effective.
The worst part is that I had set my knitting bag next to the front door before I left the house, but in my rush this morning forgot to grab it. So there I sat for hours just waiting my turn without a book, a knitting project or anything. Grrrr.....
As I was waiting I got to thinking about my employment history and realized that I haven't had to apply for a job, interview or even present a resume in more than 20 years. It seems every job I've had in that time frame has come about because someone I knew personally was looking for an employee and asked me to take the job.
But the good news about being the last is that I felt she might have given me a little bit more time than everyone else. My resume was pretty good she said but there were some words I had used more than once and she said that was an HR no-no. So I will go over it with a fine toothed comb and my list of synonyms. I'm hoping that will get my foot in the door with some of the jobs out there.
I've already applied for several positions and I think the most frustrating part is just not hearing from the employer. No "thanks but no thanks", no acknowledgment of the application and resume, nothing. It's been a long time since I've even been in the market for a job so I'm going to continue to push to find the perfect fit for me.
But in today's job market, that might just take awhile.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Another pair finished
Wheh! I just finished another pair of hand-knit socks. I'm terrible about making one sock, getting bored, then moving on to a different pattern/yarn. Later, when I try to go back and finish the second sock I discover I've forgotten what I did with the pattern. Or I make a pair of socks, put them away, then pull them out months later for a gift and realize how much I love the pattern, and again, realize I have no idea what pattern it was. I'm hoping to use this as a way of recording said pattern.
Here are the latest socks. Knitted with Deborah Norville's Serenity Sock Yarn using this Vanilla Latte pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vanilla-latte-socks. I just love the color. It reminds me of Mardi Gras. And it's called Harlequin so that's kind of appropriate.
And these are the socks I knit for my sister Laurie for her birthday. I adore this yarn. It was warm, silky, and luxurious. It's called Truly from Sensations which I believe is a Joann's brand. I wanted a pattern that would 'dress' the socks up a bit so chose this pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-skyp-socks
Finally, these are socks/slippers I made for my mom for her birthday. They are just simple knitted top down socks but using another Deborah Norville yarn. The yarn on the skein was very nice feeling but once knit up I was unimpressed with the stretch and overall feel of the sock. My mom seemed to love them though so that's all that matters.
I just started another pair of socks and realized I had better get going on my list of knitting projects I promised to family and friends. Again, I think I'll post my list here as a reminder of what I have to finish:
Julia - Grey ear warmers
Julia - Ear warmers with black 'sparkly' yarn
Kaysin - New baby hats
Kaysin - Baby 'beard' hat
Hayden - Toddler 'beard' hat
Jill - Beard hat for Mike
Sabrina - Black beret (like Asia's)
Good golly! I better get to knittin'!!!
And these are the socks I knit for my sister Laurie for her birthday. I adore this yarn. It was warm, silky, and luxurious. It's called Truly from Sensations which I believe is a Joann's brand. I wanted a pattern that would 'dress' the socks up a bit so chose this pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/simple-skyp-socks
Finally, these are socks/slippers I made for my mom for her birthday. They are just simple knitted top down socks but using another Deborah Norville yarn. The yarn on the skein was very nice feeling but once knit up I was unimpressed with the stretch and overall feel of the sock. My mom seemed to love them though so that's all that matters.
I just started another pair of socks and realized I had better get going on my list of knitting projects I promised to family and friends. Again, I think I'll post my list here as a reminder of what I have to finish:
Julia - Grey ear warmers
Julia - Ear warmers with black 'sparkly' yarn
Kaysin - New baby hats
Kaysin - Baby 'beard' hat
Hayden - Toddler 'beard' hat
Jill - Beard hat for Mike
Sabrina - Black beret (like Asia's)
Good golly! I better get to knittin'!!!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Generosity
Many may know that I'm currently underemployed or soon to be unemployed. In other words, my job is winding down to nothing in the next few weeks to one month. Fortunately I know I am able to collect unemployment. The problem is the amount I'll get is significantly less than my current take home pay. And I'm barely making it now. Yikes!
But I've always had a positive attitude and know that there is something better out there for me. I am just going to have to be proactive and find it...and fast.
That being said, I dragged my butt home from work yesterday and decided to tackle the clean up from Sunday's dinner. Now here's a secret I'm not terribly proud to be sharing. It usually takes me all week to get things cleaned up from the dinner. I'm usually so beat by the time everyone leaves Sunday that I just leave everything.
After work Monday is spent gathering up dishes and piling them up in the kitchen, breaking down the extra tables and chairs, and sweeping the dining/living area. That's about as much as I can handle the first day.On Tuesday I do 1-2 sinks full (or is it sink fulls) of dishes. Not having a working dishwasher means everything has to be washed by hand. Wednesday is much the same as Tuesday with the exception of actually putting stuff away. By Thursday mostly everything is back to normal.
This time I'm well ahead of the game. I had help putting stuff away on Sunday and was able to wash up the cooking utensils as I cooked so there wasn't much to wash except serving dishes and glassware. So last night was 2 sinks full of glassware washed and put away. Several serving dishes were left in the sink to soak and I should be able to finish those up tonight. Yippee!
The best part was walking into the bathroom to take a relaxing hot bath before bed and discovering one of my guests had stashed a $20 bill in my jewelry caddy. Sneaking little bugger. It was totally unexpected and great appreciated. I don't know if it was someone's way of paying for their e-cookbook, contributing to dinner, or just being generous. No matter what it was for, I was deeply touched especially with the current job situation.
I have the best friends on earth!
But I've always had a positive attitude and know that there is something better out there for me. I am just going to have to be proactive and find it...and fast.
That being said, I dragged my butt home from work yesterday and decided to tackle the clean up from Sunday's dinner. Now here's a secret I'm not terribly proud to be sharing. It usually takes me all week to get things cleaned up from the dinner. I'm usually so beat by the time everyone leaves Sunday that I just leave everything.
After work Monday is spent gathering up dishes and piling them up in the kitchen, breaking down the extra tables and chairs, and sweeping the dining/living area. That's about as much as I can handle the first day.On Tuesday I do 1-2 sinks full (or is it sink fulls) of dishes. Not having a working dishwasher means everything has to be washed by hand. Wednesday is much the same as Tuesday with the exception of actually putting stuff away. By Thursday mostly everything is back to normal.
This time I'm well ahead of the game. I had help putting stuff away on Sunday and was able to wash up the cooking utensils as I cooked so there wasn't much to wash except serving dishes and glassware. So last night was 2 sinks full of glassware washed and put away. Several serving dishes were left in the sink to soak and I should be able to finish those up tonight. Yippee!
The best part was walking into the bathroom to take a relaxing hot bath before bed and discovering one of my guests had stashed a $20 bill in my jewelry caddy. Sneaking little bugger. It was totally unexpected and great appreciated. I don't know if it was someone's way of paying for their e-cookbook, contributing to dinner, or just being generous. No matter what it was for, I was deeply touched especially with the current job situation.
I have the best friends on earth!
Monday, January 28, 2013
FoSaP for January - Austrian
You're probably wondering why I chose Austrian food for January. Well the date fell on the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart so I just had to do Austrian. Plus, I wasn't all that familiar with Austrian cuisine so figured I would get an education at the same time.
Here's the menu I presented:
Appetizers
Onion Tart (onions baked in custard encased in a pastry shell)
Liptauer Kase (farmer's cheese with capers, onions, paprika, and caraway seeds)
Main Course
Red cabbage salad with apples, pecans and cranberry vinaigrette
Wiener Fiakergulasch (Viennese Goulash)
Spaetzle
Gebackene Kohlsprossen (Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and ham baked in custard)
Dessert
Apple Strudel
Because I was able to get a lot of the prep work done early, this was probably one of the most relaxing dinners I've done. Okay, so the Spaetzle was a challenge, but still. Not having made it before I didn't know what consistency the batter should be. And trying to push it through the holes of a colander? I think I used every colander in the house before I finally figured out the right consistency of the batter and right size holes. Wheh! I also think it helped that I took two dishes out of the menu since I almost always have waaaaaay too much food. This was just right!
After presenting everyone with a cookbook celebrating three years of monthly dinners, we even had time to play a couple of games. Did you know there's a food item called Jussipussi?
Appetizers
Onion Tart (onions baked in custard encased in a pastry shell)
Liptauer Kase (farmer's cheese with capers, onions, paprika, and caraway seeds)
Main Course
Red cabbage salad with apples, pecans and cranberry vinaigrette
Wiener Fiakergulasch (Viennese Goulash)
Spaetzle
Gebackene Kohlsprossen (Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and ham baked in custard)
Dessert
Apple Strudel
Because I was able to get a lot of the prep work done early, this was probably one of the most relaxing dinners I've done. Okay, so the Spaetzle was a challenge, but still. Not having made it before I didn't know what consistency the batter should be. And trying to push it through the holes of a colander? I think I used every colander in the house before I finally figured out the right consistency of the batter and right size holes. Wheh! I also think it helped that I took two dishes out of the menu since I almost always have waaaaaay too much food. This was just right!
 |
| Liptauer Kase |
 |
| Red cabbage and apple salad with pecans |
 |
| Apple Strudel |
After presenting everyone with a cookbook celebrating three years of monthly dinners, we even had time to play a couple of games. Did you know there's a food item called Jussipussi?
Three Years?!?!
Three years!?!? Yep, it was January, 2010 that I decided to make pasta from scratch. Being single, I sometimes find it hard to justify spending a bunch of time and money cooking for just myself. So, not wanting my efforts to go to waste, I invited a few friends over to share in the pasta. My original thought was to just have 6-8 people over for food, wine and conversation. If things went well, I would try to make it a monthly event.
Well that germ of an idea led to 3 years of monthly gatherings with as few as 8 people and as many as 27 people all sharing in the common love of food and friends. I wanted to do the dinners on an evening each month that would generally work for the most people so I picked Sunday. Then I decided the fourth Sunday would work well for most months. Next, what would I call these dinners? Well, how about an acronym? So FoSaP or the Fourth Sunday at Paula's was born. I do all the cooking and serving but many guests bring wine or booze or in some other help out. I really appreciate that.
My goal has been to do something each month that is new to me. For instance, make pasta from scratch, grind and stuff sausages, make tamales, things of this sort. Many times I found the effort and energy worthy of a fantastic dining experience, but other times I found that the commercially produced item was better and often times cheaper. Two things in particular that stand out were tortillas and french bread.
The most amazing thing is that I never seem to run out of ideas for these dinners. Sometimes it's a particular food item that I will focus on like chocolate or corn. Other times it's a cuisine. Many times I see something on a cooking show that will spark my interest and then I'm off and running. I have found incredible cookbooks from the library, amazing videos from YouTube, and my favorite recipe website at www.food.com (formerly recipezcar). Now that Pinterest is starting to take the internet by storm, I've even browsed that site as well for inspiration.
To celebrate three years of these dinners, I created a cookbook with the recipes used or anticipated each month. I started on it about 6 months ago and was really worried I wouldn't get it together in time for the anniversary but I did it! Unfortunately the cost to print and bind the books was just too much to offer them to each household but I did print two of them so people could look them over. I gave these two away as gifts and everyone else got a booklet with the first 14 or so pages (cover, acknowledgement, introduction and table of contents) and a disc with the pdf file of the book. This way people could view and/or print whatever struck their fancy.
Probably the one weakness I have with these dinners is taking photos. I'm usually busy fixing, prepping, or finishing up and forget to get the camera out. If I were really going to put together a cookbook that is one thing I really need to focus on.
I was so happy to create and share these books with everyone. These friends have brought so much joy to my life that I just couldn't imagine not having them in it. I only wish I could have offered a fully printed copy of the book to each person. Maybe if I win the lottery.....
Well that germ of an idea led to 3 years of monthly gatherings with as few as 8 people and as many as 27 people all sharing in the common love of food and friends. I wanted to do the dinners on an evening each month that would generally work for the most people so I picked Sunday. Then I decided the fourth Sunday would work well for most months. Next, what would I call these dinners? Well, how about an acronym? So FoSaP or the Fourth Sunday at Paula's was born. I do all the cooking and serving but many guests bring wine or booze or in some other help out. I really appreciate that.
My goal has been to do something each month that is new to me. For instance, make pasta from scratch, grind and stuff sausages, make tamales, things of this sort. Many times I found the effort and energy worthy of a fantastic dining experience, but other times I found that the commercially produced item was better and often times cheaper. Two things in particular that stand out were tortillas and french bread.
The most amazing thing is that I never seem to run out of ideas for these dinners. Sometimes it's a particular food item that I will focus on like chocolate or corn. Other times it's a cuisine. Many times I see something on a cooking show that will spark my interest and then I'm off and running. I have found incredible cookbooks from the library, amazing videos from YouTube, and my favorite recipe website at www.food.com (formerly recipezcar). Now that Pinterest is starting to take the internet by storm, I've even browsed that site as well for inspiration.
To celebrate three years of these dinners, I created a cookbook with the recipes used or anticipated each month. I started on it about 6 months ago and was really worried I wouldn't get it together in time for the anniversary but I did it! Unfortunately the cost to print and bind the books was just too much to offer them to each household but I did print two of them so people could look them over. I gave these two away as gifts and everyone else got a booklet with the first 14 or so pages (cover, acknowledgement, introduction and table of contents) and a disc with the pdf file of the book. This way people could view and/or print whatever struck their fancy.
I was so happy to create and share these books with everyone. These friends have brought so much joy to my life that I just couldn't imagine not having them in it. I only wish I could have offered a fully printed copy of the book to each person. Maybe if I win the lottery.....
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