Silly flowers

Daffy-down dilly came to town
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown.

(Random nursery rhyme that my mom taught me.) Anyway, I planted these in the little flower bed next to our front door. These two flowers amuse me because they didn't bloom facing the sun like most flowers. Nope, they're facing the side of the house. It's not showing in this picture, but normally the sun reflects off the siding very brightly, so I guess it makes sense to the flowers. They get more light off the side of the house, but it makes it difficult for me to see them and enjoy them. May need to cut them and put them in a vase in the house.

Tales from interviewing hell...

Well, I promised Mel that I would blog about my lovely experience interviewing with Professional Staffing Group. All I can say is, oh my!

I kind of had a negative vibe going into it. Last Friday I had posted my resume on Monster and three search firms/staffing agencies called me to set up interviews. One was Wednesday, one was Thursday, and one is next week. Two of the people I spoke with actually took some time to hear what I was interested in, etc. With PSG, not so much. They just wanted to get me in their door. I figured I would give them a shot anyway.

So I get there with plenty of time. Find their building and then walk around a bit. My first impression when I saw their office was to call them from the sidewalk to cancel. I almost wish that I had.

I’ve worked with temp agencies before. Most have your standard office set-up. Reception area in front, offices in the back. Then they’ll also have a quiet space set aside for employees (like me) to take the various skill tests- Word, Excel, PowerPoint, typing, and any other specialty programs. Not this place.

PSG’s office was primarily a big open room. There were 30 employees all working at small desks. They were in 3 groups of 5 desks facing each other, so pods of 10. Everyone was on the phone on a headset. Lots of noise. I asked about it afterwards and one group focused on Boston, one on the suburbs, and the last was about half financial/legal and the other half creative. In the front there were 21 (I think) desks/cubes set up for prospective employees such as myself to do our testing.

So I walk in the door and it took me a minute to visually find the reception desk. There were too many bodies and stuff and I wasn’t sure if that was reception or if it was part of the company’s inner-workings. So I check in and she sets me at one of the testing stations to fill out my application paperwork and take the tests. Meanwhile, from time to time, a bell was rung and then everyone would start clapping. During my hour and 45 minutes there the bell was rung about 10 times. I asked about it later. Anytime one of the employees got a new client or set up a temp with a client they would ring the bell. Also at one point there was a gong. This is for when someone who was in a long-term assignment became permanent.

Anyway, I’m done taking my tests amongst lots of distractions. I let them know I’m done and am waiting for my scores to be printed out. Someone picks up my scores and then collects me and brings me back to a small office. He then presents me with this, “as our gift to you.” Um, thanks. A notebook. Just what I always wanted! I think I’ll have to alter the cover. Then maybe I’ll get some use out of it.

So I’m in the office and I do meet with one of their staffing people. She seemed nice enough. However, at this point I’m interested in direct placement. Yes, they do this, but it isn’t their main focus so she’s trying to push me into agreeing to do temp or temp-to-perm assignments. I left agreeing to check in with her next week, but I don’t have high hopes of them finding me anything.

In more positive news, the firm that I met with on Wednesday has an interview for me on Tuesday as well as phone interviews with two other companies on Tuesday and Wednesday. And one of those companies responded that of the three resumes that had been sent to them, mine looked the best. Woo hoo! Go me! I find this whole interview process really tiring and stressful, but I am glad to be going on interviews. I’m not sure if any of these three positions are really what I want to be doing, but the money on all of them will be good.

Observations on a warm spring day

Had an interview in Boston today. Took the T and wasn't sure how long it would take to get to Government Center, so gave myself plenty of time. Plus I knew it would be good to get out of the house or else I would risk losing track of time and then being late. So I got there with over an hour to kill.


Currently in the middle of City Hall Plaza is the Big Apple Circus. I was there when I show got out and then the cast came out to take some publicity shots. The photo is crappy, but that's because I took it with my phone. Must start carrying my camera around with me. The second one amuses me because it's crew members on top of the big top waving.

Anyway, here are some of my other observations. (Love people watching!)
1) One thing I like about cities is the ability to flowers from stands on the street. It's probably a good thing I don't live in the city or else I would always be buying flowers.
2) Business wear- It got very warm sitting there in a suit. Would hate to have to wear one in the middle of summer. Also hate nylons. They were slipping and the crotch was a few inches below my actual crotch with no way to pull them up. (Also, realizing not a fan of the word "crotch".) Bought some new springish clothes yesterday and I was really wishing I was wearing them.
3) Andrew- saw someone with a patch on his bag that said "2,000 miler". Unfortunately he was walking away from me and he was too far away by the time I realized what the patch said to ask when he hiked.

In other news, took a test called the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey. It rates you in 7 different categories- Influencing, Organizing, Helping, Creating, Analyzing, Producing and Adventuring. As stated in the name, it rates you in both interests and skills. Apparently I'm way too harsh on myself and my standards of skills are too high because I was consistently ranking myself very low. Anyway, my Creating category was much higher than the others and my next two highest were Producing and Adventuring. Here are some suggested careers that I might want to develop- realtor, insurance agent, carpenter, and ski instructor. Those were just the ones that amused me. It also suggested landscape architect, commercial artist and musician. I think I'm pretty much going to take it all with a grain of salt. Good to know, but I don't think I'll be making any drastic life changes as a result of this test. Next up is the Myers-Briggs.

And finally (wow, lots of topics here!) here's a work in progress of the new site. Any thoughts/comments/other? I already suggested to Andrew changing the order of the celebrity photos, with the order being Heidi, Margie, Karen, Bazzill- that sound about right for in order of "fame"? How about for options- fabric swatches or pictures of the toolbelts in different fabrics? Which would better sell them? Oh, and Andrew, yesterday you had a comment about the picture changing when moused over. Today it's gone and Mel didn't know the pic did that until I told her. Maybe put that at the top, taking away what you have their now? I don't think the debut info is really necessary, and cost/ordering info will be on the purchase page. Right? Everyone should feel free to disagree with me on things. Looking for multiple opinions.

It's Finally Done

My Christmas Album is finally done! Now if only I could get my 2005 album done and start on 2006 I would be in great shape. I had big plans of cranking out a bunhc of pages today, but that just didn't happen. Last week I was also going to get a lot done, but so muhc for that idea.

In other news, I have three interviews this week with search firms- one tomorrow and two on Thursday. Hopefully they'll start sending me out on bunhces of interviews.

In apartment news, meeting with another realtor on Friday. I keep flip flopping between which apartment I like best from the ones we saw on Saturday. Each had its own set of pros and cons. We had a couple questions about each place and waiting to hear back to see what the answers are.

Apartment hunting

We need to let our current landlord know by the 15th if we will be renewing our lease or moving out. If we choose to stay, we can only stay for one more year due to scheduled constrution on the building. So, today we went and looked at three apartments. If you care, go to Preservation Properties and the listing numbers are 12075, 12644, and 12622. (We couldn't get that third number to work. I'm hoping it will eventually work.)

Anyway, apartment hunting sucks. Each place has its pros and cons. The first and third both had washer and dryer, the second might be getting a hookup in 6 months or so. (Of course by that point we would have sold our old washer and dryer.) The last one has storage space in the basement. It also has a small office. The second probably wouldn't have quite enough space and we might need to pay for storage. The first one however, has a huge living/dining room as well as decent sized bedrooms and tons of closets. We could easily fit all of our stuff in this place. Only problem is that the windows are tiny. It seemed really dark when we were there. This could be because it was grey out and the blinds were angled poorly, but I'm not sure. Did I mention I hate apartment hunting?

EDITED TO ADD:
I just checked and I realized my comments weren't necessariliy corresponding to the correct apartments. I had the first two numbers reversed. So it's the second and third listings with the washer/dryer and number 2 has the huge kitchen/living/dining.

How I Spent my Friday

We've had a week of nice weather, so yesterday Chris and I decided to take advantage of the 75 degree temperature and head outside. A few weeks ago I had seen something on Boston.com about The Keystone Arch Bridges in Chester, MA. So, we drove the two hours to Chester to go for a walk.

It was roughly a five-mile walk plus some detours to check out the bridges. These used to be old railway bridges, but the line was changed and most of them are no longer in use. The walk went on an old carriage round, through the woods, and along the old train line. We also took our own detours following the current line.

It was interesting to see how there was still snow and ice in some patches. Definitely felt strange given the temperatures and our attire, but they were primarily in shady spots. And this is New England. It can still be cold here. Actually, I’ve pretty much realized that it doesn’t stay consistently nice and warm until after Memorial Day.

So anyway, here are some photos from the walk.

Here we have the map at the start of the trail. It's a good thing I took a picture of this as well as the part of the sign indicating what the numbers meant as there were no other maps to carry and there were times we wanted to investigate where we were and we were able to consult the camera.





Here is Chris and I on top of the first bridge that we came to. The next couple are all of that same bridge from various angles.









Next we came across this retaining wall. It was interesting getting into places to take some of these pictures. These I was leaning against a tree and if I had slipped I would have gone down a rather high cliff.








Next up was another single arch bridge. This was was about 5 feet taller than the first one. We liked how the stones of the buttresses were going at a different angle. I think you can see that in the picture with Chris.








Here's some of that ice I was talking about.











This next bridge we didn't really get to go see that much. It's not officially part of the walk because you need to cross the active rail line to get to it. What's kind of interesting about it is that when they moved the rail line, in this spot it is very close to the old line. The grass you see in the front of the picture is from the edge of the embankment of the new bridge. The bridge in the back is the old one. By this point we were getting kind of tired and didn't want to have to trek through the woods to get pictures and then have to climb back up again. The climbing back up was really what was holding us back.




One more bridge- this one a double keystone. And as you can see, I'm doing my best to keep it standing up.


And finally, just a mixture of other pictures. Some trees that caught my eye, an old abandoned car, a pile of rusty bolts (actually saw similar piles at a couple of different points), and my tattoo/sock combo.

Hey Andrew!

No more long-distance hikes. It seems that when you go hiking, I end up staying at home unemployed. Chris' theory on this is that you want me at home to be taking better care of Milo. Thoughts? Oh, and why am I really dreading telling Dad?

The much awaited early layouts of Chris Breecher

These first pages are from my sophomore year of college- March 1997. It is from an album that I put together for a class of mine. So there’s a bit of a story to the album. Darlene and John Flint were at a Weird Al concert. As part of the show he played “Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota,” and as legend would have it, as he was playing that song, Darlene and John looked at one another and said, “Spring Break.” Naturally, I wanted to join in this expedition. However, Cornell’s spring break (where Darlene and John went to school) was the week after Valpo’s. So how was I going to be able to miss a week of classes after just having two weeks off? Many of my classes graded attendance. So I decided to see if I could do a photography independent study on cheesy road trips. Luckily the photography professor was just odd enough to think that this was a good idea.


In the end John wasn’t able to go so it was Darlene, Steve and Darlene’s friend Mike that went to the trip. Anyway, here’s a spread from that album. As part of the trip I kept a journal. That’s my journaling on the left page. Steve had sent out an email during the trip and I included it on the left. I’ve also included a sugar packet and a match book that Steve decorated since the Happy Chef matchbooks were blank. And we started to call it “Happy Chey” since that’s what it looks like Steve wrote. (Please try to keep in mind that it was probably 4am and we had had very little sleep over the last three days.)

After the Road Trip album I made a similar styled one of my semester in England. I sent weekly emails to friends and family summing up my adventures from the past week and I printed these out and included them in the album amongst pictures, postcards, ticket stubs, brochures, etc.

And now we come to the layouts of 2000 and 2001. By this point I had decided that I disliked traditional photo albums with the pockets and the limitations of direction that photos could go, etc. I liked the 12x12 size because I could fit multiple pictures on a page. I saw the various scrapping stuff at AC Moore but I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it. All of the pages I did were done on the insert papers inside the page protectors. And my adhesive of choice was a glue stick. I never really considered myselft to be "scrapbooking". This was just my form of a photo album.


First up is a layout from a trip to France. There are 5 pages in the album from the trip. To keep a theme throughout the France pictures I have a bit of that patterned paper on each page. My PP bits get smaller and smaller as the pages go on and I start running out of the sheet of paper.



Next is Plimoth Plantation. No patterned paper on this one, but a bit of cardstock. I’m not entirely certain what I was trying to do. However, I do explain my pictures a bit.



Apparently I then branched out into stickers. They seem to have thrown up on this page a bit.


And finally, the sin of decorative scissors. Not entirely certain what I was thinking here.

I'm a blacker baby, so why don't you kill me?

Yup. That’s right. I’m a blacker. I just wasn’t inspired to write about anything. So here’s my utterly boring story about the weekend.

In an effort to save some money we cut our cable from Standard to Basic. This should save us $35 a month. However, it means that we are now limited to about 20 channels- the basic networks, about 3 different PBS channels, the Waltham channel, Waltham High channel, etc.

This weekend I realized that I am now doomed on weekends. All that was on was sports! I hate sports! I tried watching candlepin bowling, the least sporty of the options, but it was pretty bad. Finally I found Real Simple on PBS.

I suppose I could have gone and spent my time doing something more productive, but I was really just wanting to watch something while I ate my lunch. I have a feeling we’ll be going through Netflix a little bit more now!

Oh, another story that I thought of as I just titled this entry. (Yes, I titled it after typing the entry. Stop looking at me like I’m weird.)

Think back to about 1994 or 95. It was my senior year of high school. Brett Warwick and his friend Dan (last name eluding me) would always make random videos. So one day during some theatre event, maybe a cast party, they played their video for “Loser 3-Legged Jeans.” It was the two of them dancing around the Super Park to the tune of Loser by Beck. Anyway, since my title was a take on this song, I thought of the video. In fact, pretty much any time I hear that song I think of that video.

Opinions Wanted...

So Andrew is redoing my website for me. Making it look more professional, getting it off of Geocities, etc. Every so often he asks me questions about content, target audience, what I want to use it for, etc. Today he sent me this image and this comment/question.

"So after working for two months on a layout for your web page, I've FINALLY come up with something I don't hate. Honestly, I've been shuffling things and changing them and scrapping them completely about 25 times. I have a folder of bad ideas. So anyway, do you think I should keep going with this one, or keep working?"

At first when I saw it I thought it looked a little too simplistic. (And I have no idea what he wants to put on the inside. I'm guessing that when clicking on links that's where stuff shows up, but here it looks a little plain.) However, then after looking at it longer I think it's grown on me. I really like the font, and I love the little sketch of the toolbelt. He did a good job with that! Anyway, I am opening this up to any suggestions. Also, if you have any positive comments to say about your Toolbelt I'd love to include your comments on the site.

Happy Anniversary Andrew!

First off, very surprised to see that Andrew was reading my blog. I had sent him links in the past to entries that I thought might be of interest to him, but then I saw that he checked it out and responded with no prompting by me. Yippee!

Anyway, on March 1, 2004 Andrew was in Georgia starting his hike of the Appalachian Trail. I'm very proud of him for having walked over 2,000 miles. I also enjoyed being able to visit him along the trail as he hiked through New England. At the end of April he heads off to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, (through CA, OR, and WA) from Mexico to Canada. I wish we could go visit him along the way, but finances just won't allow it. However, once again I'll be his computer support, uploading pictures and journal entries for him. Looking forward to hearing all of the stories.

Whatcha readin'?

Last fall Andrew was doing some purging and offered up many of his books to his friends and family. He sent around a list of the titles he had available and I picked a few that were of interest. He also decided I could use some other books, many of which I added to my own purge pile and donated to the library.

Well one of the books I chose was The DaVinci Code. In December Chris decided to give it a read and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Now with the movie coming out soon he told me I better hurry up and read it so that we can go see the movie. So last night I started. And I didn’t want to stop. But I made myself close the book and go to bed. Now I’m eagerly awaiting my lunch break so that I can read some more.

I imagine I’ll be done with it relatively soon, so have any other book suggestions?

Tah Dah!

Why is it that when I plan out a layout it seems to take me hours to make it, yet when I don't plan I'm usually done within one hour? Should have cleaned the scanner off better before scanning in my pictures. Many of them have schmutz on them. Oh well.

15 Years of Hair

So when I was getting my haircut on Friday, I was talking with my stylist about some of the styles and colors I’ve had over the years. She requested that I bring pictures the next time I come in. This got my mind thinking that it would make a fun layout. So I started looking through my pictures trying to find good ones and figure out what to include. At first I thought I wanted to start with 1993. I have a picture taken about a week before I dyed my hair for the first time. (For quite some time that was the last picture of me with natural colored hair.) But then I was thinking that “13 Years of Hair” was a really random number. So now I think I’m going to do 15 years, starting with my perm in 8th grade. I was thinking I really wanted to focus on my recent hair (recent being since high school) but I think it will be fine.

Now I’ve got it all planned out. I know what pictures to use. I even sketched out my idea. For some reason lately I’ve been sketching layouts out ahead of time. Maybe it’s my way of working on scrapbooking stuff at work. Plan it all out so that I know what I’m doing when I get home. Now I just need to scan and resize pictures and get it all put together. Maybe I’ll be productive tonight and you’ll be able to see the fruits of my labour!

New Hair

So I had an appointment this morning for a haircut. I went there having no idea what I wanted to do with my hair, but knowing I needed to get it cut. So I left it completely up to my hairdresser as long as it wouldn't take any work. (I'm pretty much a wash and go kind of gal.) Here's what I got.

Recognize Anyone?

My tape on the famous Ali Edwards Christmas Card Layout. Sorry I had to crop out some of your family members. 1 3/8" is really small. And this was after I had scanned in and reduced the pics.

V-Day, Part Two

So Chris gets home from work and I'm just setting out his gift (MacGyver season one) and his card. He says, "Doh, I forgot to get you a card. I promise I'll get you one tomorrow." Nope, sorry. No deal. Go make me one. So I went up to my craft room and set out various valentines/love themed embellishments and even two brand new sheets of paper that I got with mel on Saturday. And this is what he came up with. I like it. And he cut the heart on his first try. I'm impressed with that!

Happy Valentine's Day

I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. One year I wnet to London with Andrew and we were gone over V-day. It hadn't even occurred to me until I told chris the dates that I would be gone and he was upset. Oh well.

Anyway, like I said, not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. However, I do love the Old Navy holiday tees for only $5! I'm hoping to go tomorrow to see if I can score any other colors on sale.

Music Tag

So I saw this on Tracy's blog and thought it was a fun quiz. Hey Christy, what's she think of people she doesn't know checking out her blog?

Open iTunes/iPod or Windows Media Player to answer the following questions about your music collection.

How many songs? 3323 (8.4 days, 11.21 GB). It's got all of Chris' music but probably only about a third of my CDs. My brother had to buy himself a second hard drive because he has so much music!

Sort by song title:
First Song: 'Cause I Like it That Way- SHe DAISY
Last Song: Zor and Zam- The Monkees

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: Apparently there is a 1 second blank track by the Dixie Chicks, but since I don't think that one really counts, 4 seconds, Low Clouds (2) by James
Longest Song: 18 minutes, 36 seconds- Alice's Restaurant Massacree- Arlo Guthrie

Sort by album:
First Album: 10 Things I hate About You Soundtrack (Love this!!!)
Last Album: Zoot Suit Riot- Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Top Five Most Played Songs: This is only because we had to wipe the computer clean not too long ago, not necessarily because these were really the most played...
The Lucky One- Alison Krauss (4 plays)
I'll Be That Girl- Barenaked Ladies (3 plays)
Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key- Billy Bragg and Wilco (3 plays)
Hold on to Me- John Michael Montgomery (3 plays)
End Credits- Braveheart Soundtrack (3 plays)
The Alison Krauss and the Billy Bragg have multiple plays because Chris was testing them when reloading the music. But like I said earlier, the music is only recently back on the computer so these numbers aren't accurate.


First song that comes up on Shuffle: Galileo by Simmons Sirens- a cappella group

How many songs come up when you search for "sex"?: 1- She Thinks my Tractor's Sexy- Kenny Chesney :)

How many songs come up when you search for "death"?: 1- The Death Of St. Jimmy- Green Day

How many songs come up when you search for "love"?: 196

How many songs come up when you search for "you"?: 436

I refuse to tag anyone, but if you're up for it, play along!

Time to cast your vote

Which one do you like better to go on my scrap shelves?

Branas or
Bastant
They are essentially the same size and they are the same price. Currently I have dark shelves, but I think in the future I want to go with lighter shelves.