Had an interview today – was offered the job.
Drove the truck to the interview cause the garage held my car hostage.
Found out how much my weekly unemployment wages will be.
Had a nice chat with my 6 year old neighbor.
Work
Unemployment – Day 3
I watched two movies starring RPattz.
I wrote my own letters of recommendation.
I walked outside in the slush to post two resumes via snail mail.
Did communicate, via email, with a company that seems interested in potentially offering me a job, but it’s only part-time.
I applied for UI.
The slushy snow temporarily killed my satellite dish and that made me sad.
My boredom is rubbing-off on my dog…or perhaps it’s the other way around.
Life Update
Yesterday USA Rugby went through a restructure. Part of that restructure involved eliminating some positions…mine was one of them. The reason behind this was budget; curse of the non-profit. So I spent the majority of today sitting on my couch looking for jobs (and finalizing Homestead’s taxes). I also went into Boulder this morning and re-activated myself at the temp agency that got me the job at Rugby.
I don’t do unemployment well, I’m much too type-A personality. I know God has a plan and has a place for me. I hope it’s that I get a job soon…preferably in the field of my career and not just a job!
I appreciate all of your prayers and will keep you updated!
Other realizations about my first day of unemployment:
- Job hunting sucks
- I miss my co-workers.
- I’m bored.
- My dog can’t figure out why I was home all day during the middle of the week.
It’s Official
I’d like to introduce you to Homestead Hardwood Floors, LLC.
After meeting with an accountant we took the next big step in creating Homestead by registering it with the state. Now, Homestead is more than just an idea, it’s a limited liability company, the IRS owns us, we have a business checking account and an unwanted line of business credit!
Next steps – finalize the company logo (Hannah, you rock!), create biz cards and a website.
Later steps – acquire more tools and jobs.
Right now Noah is working as a contractor under the Homestead name (as of today).
When I was at the bank yesterday opening the account, the customer service rep was very interested in receiving a quote from Homestead on having floors put in her condo. Which, reminds me, I need to call State Farm again…still need to line-up the liability insurance.
So many little processes…I also have to finish setting-up QuickBooks.
Why Sevens Rugby Should Be Banned
Why Sevens rugby should be banned
February 21, 11:21 AM
by Marla White, LA Equestrian Examiner
Last weekend some friends introduced me to the sport of rugby at the 009 IRB (International Rugby Board) Sevens World Series USA in San Diego. I have to confess I had never seen a rugby match and wasn’t sure what to expect. After watching an entire day of sixteen international teams competing at the top level of the game, I’ve come to the
conclusion that Sevens rugby should be banned.
Sevens rugby, invented by the Scots in the 1960’s, is a faster, shorter game than regular rugby. It involves seven men on each team (instead of 15) and they play two seven-minute halves with a one-minute half time. he play is much faster paced than regular rugby – or any other sport on earth for that matter. There are no timeouts and a tackle doesn’t mark the end of the play. Instead of action grinding to a halt every ten seconds it goes on with building intensity, usually until someone scores.
The teamwork involved is amazing. There are no specialty teams; each player runs, throws, kicks and tackles. The combination of grace, speed and strength required of each player is mesmerizing. And afterwards the players made a point of going around the stadium to sign autographs and take pictures with fans. Some other pro athletes could learn a lot from these generous (and often hunky) men.
The most amazing part of the Sevens USA Tournament is the fans. They come from all over, waving flags of every country from Kenya to Samoa to Scotland and their enthusiasm is unwavering from the first match at 10am until it’s over. It’s not just unwavering, it’s contagious. One game you’re booing the guy next to you while the next you’re buying him (or her) a beer. What’s so amazing is that they cheer for anyone who shows heart and courage. For instance, the entire Petco Park broke into thunderous applause for Mexico when they finally scored against Canada and booed the French player who kicked the ball into the stands in a fit of pique. Of course, that didn’t stop the crowd from playing keep away from the official trying to retrieve the ball.
So why should this sport be banned? Because it’s addictive! We’ve already made plans to return to San Diego next year for the 2010 USA Sevens. In the meantime, I’m Googling away to find out where I can get my next rugby fix.
Locally, you can see rugby on TV at The Springbok Bar & Grill at their Los Angeles or Long Beach locations. If you are more adventurous and want to play, Los Angles has a rugby club that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary – who knew?
Bring on the refund!
Each year my goal is to have our taxes finalized before the end of February. I am pleased to announce that that is the case this year! And we will be getting money back too. Yay! Although, next year will be an entirely different story, I’m sure, with Homestead.
Speaking of Homestead, we finally met with an accountant last night. He gave us a lot of good information on what we need to do to get Homestead up and running. That’s one of my projects today — more figuring on our taxes, income, and insurance needs. Wish me luck!
Halloween
Halloween came twice this year, as it normally does for us. Last Saturday we went to a Halloween party where Noah was dressed as a very convincing Urkel-esq nerd, and I wore cow-polk attire. Then on the actual day of Halloween my work continued it’s tradition of dressing up. This time I wore my full motorcycle riding outfit, impressed many a co-worker (thanks Sandy). There were also 3 Racing Sausages, Clark Kent on the verge of becoming Superman, not one but two Sarah Palin’s and a Catholic school girl. The rest of my office is boring and decided not to dress up. There was supposed to be a contest, but it never happened.
As far as Trick-or-Treaters go, this year we had 16. Still not many, but a steady increase from our tally last year.
2008 – 16
2007 – 13
2006 – 10
Notice a pattern??? So, in about 10 years we’ll have a decent amount of kids come by our house. 🙂
Homestead
In light of Noah’s departure from Floorcrafters a few months ago, and after much prayer (continuing) we have decided to create our own company. Of course, this is not going to be a quick process – I’m much too anal for that; and until the company has a chance to make a name for itself, Noah will continue to work for someone else.
However, we are in the process of creating Homestead Hardwood Floors. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? So far I am still researching the back-end of things (what type of company to create: General Partnership, LLC, Ltd, etc), licenses required by the state/cities/counties, how much insurance will cost, equipment, tax liabilities, etc. Yet, we have successfully reserved the company name with the state and purchased a domain name (no website yet, so don’t go trying to punch URL combinations into your browser window).
As things progress I will keep you posted. Please continue to pray for us as we take on this new venture.
From the Mountains, to the Prairies
<<Note: pictures are not yet uploaded to the website but may be viewed on my Facebook or Myspace accounts.>>
It’s always hard to go back to work after a long weekend…especially so when you make a stretch a 3-day holiday weekend into 6, and in Noah’s case start a new job.
First the job…Floorcrafters laid-off Noah last week claiming financial hardships due to the current economic situation. So now, Noah is working for a former boss (one he worked for in CA who now lives in CO) and looking for stable work. I am looking for ways to catch Floorcrafters breaking DOL regulations. So far I think I have them in 2 areas, but Noah doesn’t want to burn bridges. Meh.
That lovely news came 2 days before my birthday (Happy birthday to me!), 1 day after we bought airplane tickets to fly out to California for Noah’s brother’s wedding in October and on the eve of our road trip to Wyoming and South Dakota. More on the road trip – it’s a much better story and not so depressing. 🙂
Our friend Sandy came to visit from California over Labor Day weekend for a) my birthday, b) because she likes Colorado and wanted to get a change of scenery for a while, and c) it was a good excuse to stretch a long weekend. She got in Wednesday night and Friday morning we left home for South Dakota. Mind you, there is a whole lotta nothing in-between here and there…just field and field of hay and 1 or 2 trees. Seriously no trees until you get to the Black Hills (check out the pictures, there’s one of a lone tree in the middle of the prairie).
Since we left early, we got into Rapid City with plenty of daylight. Although we didn’t quite make it into town before we Noah was pulled over by a local trooper. Apparently the speed limit was 65, not 75. Oops. Because we were “touristas” the trooper let Noah go with a warning, but not before he asked Noah to go sit in his car. Sandy and I remained in our vehicle and were desperately trying to figure out why Noah needed to go sit in the cop’s car. Very odd indeed. We snuck a picture of the cop behind our car. Turns out, the cop had some news crew riding along with him and the whole thing was on video. The trooper even asked Noah if he wanted to say anything to the camera…Noah respectfully declined.
Now, that we knew what the speed limit was (there were no signs…seriously folks) we continued on our merry way, checked into the hotel and then back-tracked to Mount Rushmore. Rushmore was beyond neat, I got got to kiss Teddy’s giant head, Sandy shot Lincoln and Noah picked Jefferson’s nose. Just as cool as the carving was were the mountain goats walking around the roads and parking structure. It is very possible I took the same amount or more pictures of them than the mountain we paid to see. After Rushmore we drove to Crazy Horse. Not worth the money you pay to get in…but at least we can tell our grandkids…great-grandkids (? – whoever is alive when the mountain is actually finished) that we contributed to its completion.
Day 2 we went to Wall, got our free ice water, then headed out to the Badlands. It was very hot and very windy…seemed fitting for such a neat/desolate area. Lava didn’t like the heat at all. The plains were neat, I took a video of the wind blowing the hay/prairie grass like ripples in water, but I would not want to live there. Or on any prairie for that matter. I need trees and mountains…the ability to know whether I’m looking East or West. That morning when we were preparing to leave the hotel, Sandy and I thought we were looking East, only to have the GPS inform us that our “East” was actually “North”. Stupid flat land. We drove by a soddy (in the pictures), but were too cheap to pay to go into the buildings. Our last stop for the day was Cabela’s. I also just found out they’re building one in CO. Yup, that’s right. It’s okay to be jealous, I know you are. 🙂
Day 3 was spent driving to Sturgis with a stop at a joke of a petrified forest (kinda crazy to believe that South Dakota was once a lush forest with marshes). Sandy and I asked the woman at the gift center if any of the trees were still standing or just piles of material on the ground. She said you can never find petrified trees still standing. We told her about the petrified forest in NorCal. She was shocked and somewhat annoyed that we didn’t want to pay to see their piles. Sturgis was um…not what we expected…neither was Deadwood. So we drove through both towns and continued on to Devil’s Tower.
Now Devil’s Tower is worth the money you pay to get into the park! Wow was that thing cool! Of course we would never climb it, but we did hike around it’s base (1.3 miles) and took lots of pictures! Saw some deer, chipmunks, people working their way to the top of the rock. Be sure to check out those pictures!
Funny thing…on our way back to CO we stopped in some podunk town in WY for dinner. We planned on Pizza Hut but the GPS location was a dirt lot. Apparently pizza isn’t too popular, so we settled on Subway. That’s not the funny part. This is, while paying for her food Sandy realized she did not have her ID. Turns out she left it at a gas station in South Dakota when Noah and her walked to it (next to the hotel) to buy some wine coolers the night before. Ooops. This was Sunday, and with Monday being a holiday there was no way it could be shipped to CO in time for Sandy to use it to board her flight Tuesday night. So what other choice did we have but to turn around and drive back into South Dakota (we were about 2 hours out of the state) and back through Deadwood. The added 4 hours got us in at a nice 2am Monday morning, but that extra leg gave us the opportunity to avoid deer in the road and watch lightning in the distance. Thanks Sandy! 🙂 Good thing it was a holiday and none of us had anything strenuous to do that day.
So that’s our trip in a nut shell. Next “vacation” – California in October. But I’m sure I’ll find something to blog about before then.
Rugby in the Olympics
As Olympic fever strikes the globe, I am jumping on the bandwagon by pushing a cause close and dear to my wallet heart.
This is a video put together by the International Rugby Board (the organization that oversees USA Rugby). Rugby has only been included as a sport in four Olympic Games (1900, 1908, 1920, 1924). The United States earned gold in both the 1920 and 1924 games.
Unfortunately, the YouTube video was creating problems with our website, so you will have to just browse to this link to view the clip until I come up with another method of embedding.