Month: March 2003

To everyone who said the job market would improve if we went to war: Ptbtbtbtbtbbtb.

Actually, I found a job listing today and I think I’d be perfect for the job. I have the right background, and I know they’d be happy hiring me. I just hope that my resume stands out against all the thousands I’m sure they’ll receive. Looking over the corporate website I got very excited about the company, too. So if any of you faithful readers of the Dump know anyone who works for CCH Incorporated, could you drop me a line? They have a referral program so if one of you recommends me and I get hired, that’s $5000 in your pocket and all you’d need to do to thank me is buy me lunch. For a week. ($5000. Wow, what I could do with that.)

Oh MAN is that going to get me some Google hits or what???! Actually, the topic is hot cross buns, and their origins. I bought some yesterday, because as Catholics we need to have a “food” other than the Communion wafer. I’ve always been jealous that many Jewish holidays have specific foods associated with it. I guess these buns are ours.

So anyway, I don’t know what I’m talking about, which is normal. But I did look up the origins of the hot cross bun, and the two sites I looked at (I didn’t say it was extensive research) both said they were originally a pagan food, I believe to celebrate spring. And one pointed out that the cross is a pagan symbol for the 4 seasons. So once again (see: Christmas trees) we’ve taken something pagan and made it Christian.

Okay, I just saw a sign for the new specialty license plates. To hell with the Cape and the Islands one, or even the one we used to have with the kiddie drawings on it.

Now I can get one with a smiley face! I am SO going to save up for this!

All you have to do is fill out an application – when the organization has enough, they’ll give them to the RMV to begin production. They think they’ll have enough by this fall, but I’m guessing they’ll have enough by mid-summer. Who doesn’t want a smiley face plate? Visit Embrace the FACE for info and the forms.

Man, what would we do without coffee? I remember back when I didn’t like the taste of it…but when did I cross that line from not liking it to liking it? I know I didn’t drink it in college, I was more of a Diet Coke kind of person. I actually wasn’t a caffeine fan. So at some point after college I must have started liking it. I know that my first job after graduation we had a Mr. Coffee machine and regular Creamora. This was a 2-person operation, so nothing fancy for us, like, say, real cream, and they hadn’t yet invented Creamora Royale, which is actually very good.

While I think about that, I’ll give you a beverage review for what I have in front of me right now. It’s NectarFizz by Nantucket Nectars. I’m drinking the blackberry fizz, because when in doubt, buy the purple one. So it’s 10% real fruit juice, lightly carbonated, with 100% vitamin C. And it’s pretty tasty. Actually, it’s very similar to that other fizzy juice/soda, Clearly Canadian. I don’t think you could tell them apart in a taste test unless you were a HUGE fan of one or the other. Hey, I just like supporting the Juice Guys; if I can buy from a Massachusetts company, I will.

I not only barbecued a steak for dinner, we ate outside. It probably would be better to eat lunch outside, given that once the sun was going down it dropped at least 10 or 15 degrees in half an hour. But it doesn’t matter – we ate outside and it was heavenly. Blue blue blue skies, the color you never get in the summer because of the damned smog and humidity. The back yard has dried up a lot in the past two days, so Junior got to run around for a while. Oh, and today we went with my parent’s to buy his (belated) birthday present – a new bike. We needed to upgrade him from his original 12 in bike to a 16 inch. He ended up with a red Huffy from WalMart. Maybe he’ll be more into it this year, but last year he wasn’t much into riding his bike, so we certainly weren’t going to pay a lot of money for a lot of bells and whistles. Plenty of time for that with his next bike, anyway. At five, we’re just going to work on getting the training wheels off.