I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love my new job. A continual, free-flowing, bucketful of shared ideas, theories, and excitement over the latest and greatest (what’s your SecondLife avatar wearing?) is something I never really had before and am very much enjoying. While there still may be crazy deadlines, there’s a lot less stress overall.

The downside of the new job is the pay scale. It’s hard enough re-adjusting all your budgets and spending when you’ve accepted a significant pay cut, then I had to go and through heading back to university into the mix.

After finishing paying off my horrific student loan and relegating the entire experience to a locked box in the recesses of my mind, I’d forgotten how expensive university was. The last time I attended (post student loan), I was fortunate enough to have a tuition reimbursement program to rely on for some of the costs. If nothing else, it helped pay for tuition and books for half of the year. The new job doesn’t have a tuition reimbursement program for support staff weenies such as myself. To make it into a faculty position here, I need to – at minimum – complete a Master’s *sigh*

Mom’s advice was, as always, to cut back some more. Of course, she provides this advice AFTER her birthday has rolled around and her present is firmly in hand. Guess my sister will be the first to feel the cutbacks happening in this household. Her birthday’s tomorrow and she’ll get an e-card and phone call instead of something in the mail. I’ll tell her the cut backs were mom’s suggestion.

Someone out there – well, someone at my current job – loves me though. One, who shall remain nameless, wrote a reference letter for my university application. This would be the same gentleman who let it be known around campus that I’d be willing to do development work on my own time (weekends and evenings) for a fee. A few hours later I was being solicited for estimates and project bids. Which then meant I had to register a trade name with the gov’t (done) and have to open a business bank account (on my to do list this week).

On Friday, I won my very first contract. It’s small, but it’ll pay for a course over the winter semester and will help pay for the new roof that were having installed on the house next weekend. Drew’s sweat equity can only take us so far on the roof installation – eventually we have to pay for materials…

Now that the first blush of excitement is off being the winning contract bid, I do have to be careful not to get carried away. After all, I want a work/life balance and I’ll need to save some time to attend classes and work on papers, projects, etc.

In the meantime, I’m glad the hubby loves me because we may be subsisting on Ramen noodles and Kraft dinner soon. Actually, it’s not THAT bad, but it does mean that the rickety 1990 car we’re driving has to stay on the road at least another 1-2 years (if it doesn’t fall apart in the meantime).

Gin, if you’re out there – your son arrived yesterday safe and sound and Drew hasn’t yet put him to work. Lucky boy!

Technorati Tags: student, budget, work

I know, it’s Thursday. No T13 today though. Work. Swamped. School’s back in a few weeks…

You know the drill.

Over the weekend Robin dropped by for a visit. Over the course of many bottles of water and rants about the heat, the topic of poligamy and some recent documentaries surrounding the phenomenon was raised. I can’t remember how or why we started discussing it – but I defintely remember the giggles that ensued.

Due to his dyslexia Drew sometimes pronounces things differently than normal. He has a tendency to pronouce them as he reads them – so probably becomes probadly, etc. Occassionally he’ll make up entirely new words, such as poligmatism.

So, there you have it, the members of the community in Bountiful, BC (also here) don’t need to challenge the Charter or Rights and freedoms to gain permission to continue to live a poligamist lifestyle in Canada (already allowed limited status), they need only fall back on the newly discovered disorder poligmatism. This rare sight disorder that stops one from differentiating one wife from another. I can hear the defence now: “Honest officer, I thought they were all the same woman!” and “What’s wrong with carrying on the family tradition of renewing our wedding vows every year using a new name for the bride?”

Perhaps we shouldn’t take the topic so lightly but sometimes, when it comes to politics in Canada, we have to laugh to keep from crying.

Welcome to the 33rd edition of the screaming pages Thursday Thirteen. The school year is quickly approaching and with it all the summer project deadlines.

Thirteen deadlines I have to meet…     I need to finish formatting my help files so I can load them into WebCT by the end of the day (EOD) today. Custom tool icons need to be completed and uploaded into WebCT by EOD today. I need to gather up all of the resource documentation my co-workers developed for instructors and students and upload it into WebCT by EOD today. My course site templates have to be finished by 8:00 am Friday, July 27 (*gulp* tomorrow). Which is necessary because we’re replicating the templates and building 7 separate course sites with a shared look and feel. That, of course, happens at 8:00 am on Friday. Testing on the replicated course sites has to be completed by EOD Friday, July 27th so I have sufficient time to work on the customer materials for each individual course. I have to track down a librarian to review the individual course annotated bibliographies with me. I’ll need to know which of the books and resources requested by the course development SME’s and instructors are available and which are on back-order or won’t be ordered. This information has to go into the individual course sites. Course specific assignments and assessments (where available) need to be added into the individual course sites. Oh, and I can’t forget the individual course outlines need to be loaded and course schedules have to be coded. And those 7 individual course sites? They need need to be finished by Friday, August 10. Instructors have until Friday, August 17th to review their courses and request changes and modifications. While Instructors are reviewing their courses, I’ll be building my Second Life avatar and learning how to move around in the system. I figure if the boys can spend weeks playing with it as I’m building course sites, then I can have a week to help with the *ahem* research process. Or so it goes in my grand plan / fantasy life. Courses (if necessary) are revised. All revisions need to be completed by Friday, August 24 because school starts on August 27. Once this batch of sites are up, the real work begins – all those course sites, and a dozen or so other courses, need to be redeveloped for complete online delivery. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Technorati Tags: thursday thirteen, t13, meme, deadline

Aside from br the hubby’s birthday on Thursday (his 32nd for my 32nd Thursday Thirteen) it was my friend Robin’s birthday on Monday. Now, being useless at buying gifts, I figured I’d go with what I know. Robin’s really involved with scrapbooking and altered books. Me, I’m in the very beginner stages of scrapbooking but still assumed it couldn’t be that difficult to find a variety of standard scrapbook items for her birthday present. I picked up paper, stickers, photo corners, page protectors, a storage box and a scrapbook album. Now, being the cheapskate Scot that I am, I decided to buy an album for me when I noticed they were on sale…

Of course, I bought two of the same colour albums.

Once I arrived home from the store, I promptly stored most of Robin’s gift away but put both of the photo albums on the shelf. Then, in a fit of madness, I attempted to work on a few pages containing bits and pieces a past fishing and camping trips. I’m a fits and starts type of scrapbooker. I’ll spend hours on a few pages, then close the book and not look at it again for weeks. No dedication to the cause apparently.

But I digress, this story is about Robin and me, not just me.

I’m a last minute wrapper. I’m sure having to dig under my bed for the rubbermaid box containing all our gift bags and wrapping paper has something to do with it. If I hold off long enough and act pathetic enough, the hubby will crawl under the bed, battle the dust bunnies, and return victorious with bags, tags, paper, tape, etc.

I waited. Drew retrieved. I gathered up all of the items I’d purchased. Since I’m a lazy wrapper, I put all of the small items in the storage box I’d purchased and then promptly dropped the box in a gift bag. We didn’t have a bag large enough to fit the album and page protectors, so I grabbed the album off the shelf and conned Drew into wrapping it for me. Presents wrapped and birthday card signed, I was all prepped for the grand opening and all the ensuing “oohing” and “ahhing” that goes with it.

Despite Robin’s birthday being on the Monday, I didn’t have a chance to see her before our weekly Friday get together (karaoke). I arrived at the bar with gifts in tow. Robin was, as usual, late. Upon arrival, she dug right into her gifts – first opening her card, then the storage box/supplies/gift bag combo. Finally, she dug into the wrapping paper and found herself the proud owner of a new scrapbook album and page protectors.

Or so we thought.

Robin opened the album and to my immediate mortification said “Cool, recycled memories”. I’d pulled the album I’d been working on off the shelf and wrapped it instead of the blank one I’d bought for Robin. Of course she insisted on viewing my pathetic attempts at putting a few pages together. All the bar regulars also got a good glimpse when they trotted over to our table to see what Robin had received for gifts. Lobster red, I kept insisting that there really was a blank book for Robin and that I’d accidentally wrapped the wrong one.

I don’t think anyone other than Robin believed me.

The bartender and karaoke hostesses shared the story around the bar. There was nowhere to hide.

Drew decided at this moment that he was too tired to hang around until the end of the night and hit Robin up to drive me home. That way, he could take the truck and haul himself off to bed. Prior to leaving, I asked him to get the correct book for Robin from the office and put it on the kitchen table so I wouldn’t forget to replace mine with the blank one intended for her. Bless his little heart he did exactly as instructed – he even left the lights on so we could see – with the one minor exception of locking me out of the house.

So there we were, standing on the back porch, looking at the kitchen table. I started ringing the door bell and pounding on the door, but not a creature stirred. After five minutes of futile noisemaking, I decided to try the front door. Groping my way around to the front of the house in the dark, I hit on a winner. Immediately after ringing the front doorbell and knocking on the door, the dogs went nuts. Barking, growling, and generally forcing Drew to get out of bed. He dove out of the bedroom door and ran for the back door. “Great” I thought, “I’m at the front and he’s at the back!”. Robin saved me from what could have been a comedy of errors, pointing him in my direction and finally, I was let into the house.

The nightmare was over. Robin was presented with the correct scrapbooking album. We sat out on the back porch babbling away for hours. I’m sure the story will be passed around for generations – or at least to all her friends and family.

The embarrassment and shame will die down soon…

Technorati Tags: birthday, scrapbooking, album, regift, locked out