RICN

I have started at RICN again in Whitby. They only need me for a couple days a week over the next month. It is a nice place to work, a lovely bunch of people.

Casual Job

What a surprise, I had a call last week from a previous job. They want me to come and work casual. This means of course I will only be called if someone is on holiday or sick so that just might not be very often. But it is a "permanent" casual job, how exciting.

Because it is a hospital and a permanent job, I had to do blood work, tb test, mask fit and I had a tetanus shot (which hurt). I hope I get called for holiday replacement soon, the pay is good.

First Day

I had my first day at my new job. It was so quick to drive in and even nicer I don't have to pay for the parking. I am reorganizing their library. The categories and subcategories have already been designated but I am going to label all the books so that the books are easier to find. There are also all the cds, dvds and vhs to go through.

Everyone is really friendly and we all sit down together and have lunch. It is a very nice working environment.

New Job

I have a new job. It is part-time and only a contract till March but that's no problem. The pay is great. It was a word of mouth type job. The librarian who I worked with at Rouge Valley emailed me saying this office needed a Library Technician to sort out their library. He had been emailed from another librarian from UOIT who heard about the job.

Anyways I emailed the lady back the same day with my resume. She called back and I met with them the next day. It is a small office and a small library. They are using their own classification system but I need to come up with a numbering system to id all the books and binders (lots of binders).

They said they would get back to me in the next few days with a contract. YEAH

Lavenders

Well I had to finally get those lavenders I bought planted. They only cost $1.00 each. In fact, Hugh had to pop out to the grocery store so I had him buy 6 more. So in total, my front bed has 15 lavender plants in it. They are all French Lavender but 3 different varieties: Mulberry Ruffles, BoysenBerry Ruffles and Blueberry Ruffles. They look very nice. I just hope they all last being planted so late in the year. When I saw the lavenders on sale, it reminded me of when I was in England and Detta and I were visiting Ham House. The lavender gardens there were beautiful.

Well I haven't heard about the Environment Canada job. But I have an interview with Clarington Public Library. This position is only a part-time 16 hours a week but with 20 hours at Seneca, it may just be perfect.

Anne arrives home tomorrow. She has been in Italy for the past 2 weeks, touring around with a bunch of her girlfriends. Sounds like they had lots of fun. Kath and her husband are in New Zealand until December. They seem to have been having lots of rain and 2 tsunami warnings but then it is spring. Check out her blog - Kath's Blog.

I am off this weekend to camp with the Pathfinders. We are sleeping indoors, thank goodness. I am supposed to have set up some games, but this past two weeks have been crazy and I am not going to get around to it. I haven't even started to pack, well I guess that's what I am going to head off and do now. I still have to finish painting Detta's room. Just the last coat of the orange but that may have to wait till next week, I am running out of time.

Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving is past. We had a wonderful dinner. I bought a 20lb turkey and there was only 9 of us for dinner. There was roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, oh and stuffing. Though this year I didn't make the stuffing from scratch. Andrew, Lizzie and Joan were with us and Tom came later after work. Joan made a wonderful dessert, Better than pumpkin pie. At least that is what I think it is called. It had this lovely cream filling and then Joan put caramel bits on top with hot caramel sauce - mmm mmm good.









The previous week has flown by. I had a lovely dinner with Tom and Joan on Tuesday evening. The courgettes with breadcrumbs were delicious and there was carrots and beets. The pork chops also were done with breadcrumbs but I believe these were Japanese breadcrumbs. It was all very tasty.

Then on Wednesday, one of my old professors (though she isn't old), asked me if I was still looking for work. She had someone call up looking for a person who could catalogue and she thought of me. Anyways she put the two of us together and I had an interview after work at Environment Canada. It would be a temporary contract through an agency so essentially not a job with the government. But the pay was so low I just couldn't accept it. I emailed her on Thursday to tell her. Come Thursday evening she called me and said if she could get more money for the position would I still be interested. So I said yes. So the short of it is I have registered with a employment agency and will have to wait and see what happens.

Detta and Hugh went out on Saturday and bought the paint for her room. As of today, Detta and I have painted two coats of the purple and one coat of the orange, yes purple and orange. But we chose "nice" purple and orange. I still need to do one more coat of the orange paint. I think Detta wants a stripe, I really shouldn't have suggested it!!

And tonight, there was a call on our home phone from 'Laurie's Cell'. Well I wasn't going to answer the phone because I thought it was one of the children having fun. Miles answered the phone and didn't know who it was so I took it. It seems I dropped my phone while I was at the grocery store. I have a pocket on the side of my purse where I have been keeping my cell phone lately. It won't be there any more. So I drove by the person's house and picked my cell phone. I think I may write the Star about this for their section on the kindness of strangers.

Job, Baking, Knitting & Misc

Well it has been an age. I didn't get the job. The other person has 6+ years as a parttimer over me so she got the job. I was very disappointed but on the upside I saved paying an extra $20.00 a month in parking. And there are quite a few other jobs that I need to apply for.

My niece, Lisa is getting married in a few weeks. The wedding showers are flying in. My sisters and I are having one on Sundayfor her and then there are two more. I am not sure I am going to go to all these. So I am at the moment making some butter tart squares (from Canadian Living). I have made a number of substitutions which include Splenda sugar, Splenda brown sugar and 'I can't believe its butter' light. And I did add walnuts instead of pecans. I just took them out of the oven and they look delicious. I can't wait for them to cool down so I can try a piece. Now I just have to figure out how many WW points they are.

A few things I forgot to mention from my trip to Ireland. Patricia and Kenny's son, Paul, is off to Brazil in a couple of weeks. He will be there for 2 years. Paul has been there before, a couple of times but what an adventure. The other thing I forgot to mention is Patricia has the same car as me. Patricia's is red and mine is blue. I thought that was very funny, we both have great taste. Unfortunately our lease will be up in January, we probably will return it.
I have decided I must finish a few knitting projects. I have a little baby jacket I had finished knitting. I just need to sew it together, the part I dislike the most. I tried putting it on round needles since the sleeves are raglan but it didn't work. It is very pretty though, I can't wait to see it finished. I also have to finish the hat for Barbara's baby. It is purple and pink, very striking. Anne also let me know that Al's niece loved the hat I knit for her baby. It is always nice to hear what people think.

Interview and Detta's foot

Well I had an interview today for a Technical Services Technician position. I was very nervous as usual. I think it went well though but they are going to let everyone know on Friday. Only 3 people applied for the position.

Detta's foot is still hurting her. We went to the doctor yesterday and then had a X-ray done. The doctor said he would call if there was any problem. We haven't had any calls yet so no news must mean good news. So we had to call the skating club and arrange for a refund. I am so glad I asked for a doctor's note!! Now we will have to see if she will be okay for soccer camp next week. Some how I don't think her foot will be well enough for running on.

Job Interview

The informal '30 minute' job interview I had yesterday didn't seem to go so well. It was all very rushed. In fact I was only in there for 20 minutes. It was a teleinterview with some staff from Ottawa. Well you never know but I didn't come away with a good feeling about it. On my way out the interviewer said they would be making their decision last night so hopefully I will hear something today.

On a better note, Detta did her first testing towards her next level of skating. She had to do three dances: Canasta Tango; Baby Blue; and Dutch Waltz. Detta passed all three. I am so pleased for her. She had to dance with a partner. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. It was so nice to see Detta skating with a partner. Though to my untrained eye, all three dances looked the same. Detta did try to explain the differences, edges and all that!! Now Detta needs to practice her skills for next set of testing.

In Two Days

Wow so much has happened in two days. I had my interview at the Canadian Information for Health Information (CIHI) on Thursday afternoon. It went really well. In fact when I got back from London last night, there was a phone message and email waiting for me. I have been asked back for a second interview next Thursday!!

I had a great visit with Margot. Her garden is beautiful. So green and lots of spring flowers. In my picture you can even see the fiddleheads. I also visited her garden centre. It's called Trillium Gardens Perennials. It is lovely. In fact I had to buy a bunch of plants for my garden.I went to the memorial service for Heather's Dad, Brian Moore. There were lots of people there including Kim and Pete, Karen and Ross, Lynda and Tim. It was a very nice service. Heather, her brother, Andrew and sister, Sarah all spoke. Also Brian's cousin spoke. It was nice to hear about Brian as a child. We all ended up going back to Lynda's house for dinner. Lynda is such a good cook. It was so nice getting together. Hugh and I will have to see them again. They all missed Hugh.

Job Interview & Lunches

My job interview with the ILC went very well. Hopefully I will hear back for a 2nd interview. He said it would be early May which is next week already. I have applied for a few other jobs so I am still waiting to hear from them.

Had a late breakfast with Anne & Lizzy at Mars restaurant. I had a very nice western omelette. We even had a very friendly police office sit with us. I think the presence of my beautiful niece attracted him.

It has been nice having two days off a week. I have been meeting all of my sisters, Anne, Joan and Kath for lunch. Last week Detta who was off sick for the day and I went and met Joan for lunch. We went to Wendy's, Joan and I had salads. Detta even had ice cream! The week before that I met Joan and we went for an all day breakfast. It was really good. The restaurant is by the 401 and Brock St. in Whitby. I will have to take Hugh there. The week before that I went and met Kath at her school and we had lunch. Now I will have to go and meet Hugh for lunch. He knows of a good sushi place.

I have started the reducing part of the baby hat. The green and pink look really good together. I am finding it hard to put down. I can't wait to see it finished.