Checking in

Interviewing for this job has been consuming all of my time and energy lately! I got through to the second interview, so it's back to studying some more.

Over the weekend I studied in the sun...





Made this dessert from She's on the Run for a cookout my sister-in-law hosted on Memorial day.





Saw a Today show segment on acing a job interview about two hours before my actual interview. I know I tend to be too rehearsed with my responses and that was one of the negative comments the interviewer had about candidates.





I setup my interview station, complete with my resume taped on our computer monitor, the job description taped on the desk and my notes down below. Oh and some water to sip on throughout, which I needed desperately!





I snacked on a sample of these that came in the mail--they were pretty tasty!





And I got my thank you card out to my interviewer right away. I don't believe e-mail thank yous are appropriate, even in this technology savvy society we live in. I did thank my interviewer when confirming the second interview time, but I hope she's impressed when she gets a card from me this week.





Anyone have a funny job interview story to share? I could use some humor since my life has been so serious lately!

I won't be checking in again until Sunday or Monday. My Friday and Saturday will be spent in Madison on a Wisconsin Cheese tour and I can't wait to recap it on the blog and share what I learned and ate with all of you lovely readers! I am so thankful to the Wisconsin Cheese Board for sponsoring this trip. I get to meet some fellow WI bloggers too. :)

Good news and a visit to the Octagon House

My Friday started out with iced coffee and a blueberry lemon scone at work.



As my husband called my cell mid-morning to ask me something, I saw an e-mail come through that caught my eye. It was from the company that rejected my application earlier in the week! A recruiter e-mailed me saying she would love to talk further! I couldn't believe my luck and ran outside to do a little happy dance. Now I am just playing the waiting game--I wrote her back but I suspect she left early for the weekend because she hasn't contacted me back yet. Eek! I have lots of studying to do tomorrow! The only problem is that I don't know if it's for that original position I applied for or another one that I qualified for.

This was my happy face after I found out the news.





Last night, we went to get some more plants from our garden from Home Depot. I had a $10 gift card I earned from Daily Feats, so an early girl tomato plant, cilantro and a sweet red pepper plant cost us only 50 cents!





We are checking in my in-laws' house this weekend and I snapped this picture in their backyard.





I tried the whole wheat tortilla that Qdoba just started offering (finally) and it was pretty good. The burrito definitely tasted healthier.





After the rain cleared out this morning, we headed out to Watertown for a little road trip. Our destination was the Octagon House.





I had been to it before, but it was Craig's first time.





Such a pretty and unique house!





Loved the awesome staircase.





We liked our tour--it lasted for over an hour and it was only us with another couple. We paid $7 each for the tour, which was a fair price.





The first kindergarten building is right behind the Octagon House. It was moved there from another site in town.





This was my favorite piece from inside the Octagon House.





Such a fun little road trip to a really neat destination! Our guide did a great job portraying Harvey, the naughty son in the Richards family.









Afterwards, we drove by some historic houses in Watertown which were really pretty as well.

This one is a bed and breakfast.





And we ended our trip to the area with a stop at the Johnson Creek outlets, where I found the Nike free TR fit shoes I really wanted for only $36.91 with tax! What a great deal. All of their shoes were an extra 30% off this weekend. I lucked out with a good color combo too. I can't wait to try these out at the gym.





How is your holiday weekend going so far?

Celebrating with beer

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my last post! :) The job market is just so frustrating right now. Today was much better.

I started off my morning with a new to me half and half. It was a nice change from my plain half and half.



Craig and I got a free cherry berry chiller from McD's after work tonight. It was pretty tasty!





We went to the library and then I got a much needed car wash. I had major bird poop on my car.





Dinner tonight are these Gardein Chipotle Lime crispy fingers...haven't tried them yet, but I love all Gardein products so they should be good. I'm pairing mine with homemade sweet potato fries.





And I am celebrating winning my fight over the evil insurance company on my worker's comp claim. Hooray! That was such a relief to hear.





My library finds--I don't subscribe to Women's Health and there was an article in one of these that a co-worker recommended to me. I have always wanted to see La Vie en Rose, so I got that to watch over the long weekend.





Time to go flip the fries! Have a wonderful evening!

Bummed

This...



and this...





are what happen when one finds out the job they applied for two days ago already has a qualified candidate and there will be no interview. I am simply bummed. It was a great company and job with an awesome wellness program to boot. But, you know what? There are other jobs and I will keep persevering until I find the job that is meant for me or the career path that is.

I worked really hard on my cover letter and application over the weekend and then poof, it's gone. I really think there was an internal candidate identified even before they posted it to the public. Don't you hate when that happens?

Don't worry, I bought mostly healthy food except for those two items and some cookie dough ice cream at the store tonight. I found this, which made my day! I love anything strawberry rhubarb and it was quite tasty!





I picked up some deli ham because I was at Sendik's and their deli department rocks. Plus it was on sale. I couldn't wait to have a ham and provolone sandwich for dinner on some fresh bread.





I also got some Stonyfield yogurt to make my own greek yogurt with over the weekend! I can't wait to experiment using Paige's or Alysha's methods.





NBC Nightly News had an interesting story tonight about an app that tracks our eating habits from Massive Health. Karma was clearly interested since it had to do with "food food." It showed a map of the US with what we were eating around 10 am, then 10 pm and 1 am. Interesting stuff! People were clearly up at 1 am eating some of the bad foods I posted above! :)





It had been months since I pulled my yoga mat out and went to a class. I missed it and the stretching felt great! I am definitely relaxed and ready for bed now.





The night flew by, so time to read some of your blogs and go on a walk outside with the hubby before bedtime!

Wordless Friday

I'm at work tonight and on a 15 minute break right now. I didn't have time to write anything with these photos, but this is what my Friday looked like. The day also included getting high speed internet installed at our house, a doctor visit this afternoon and a walk around the neighborhood. Finally got my Vitamin D tested, so that number will be interesting to see when the labs come back.












Have a lovely Friday night!

Photography fun

I've been having a pretty good week and it's hard to believe it's nearly over. How has yours been?

I was happy to receive all four flavors of the newest Larabar, ūber, this week. I had purchased the bananas foster flavor a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed that bar.







Tried the roasted nut roll today as a snack and I liked this flavor more than the bananas foster one!





I finally learned how to take a screen shot of my iPhone and took a photo of my favorite podcast, Dishing up Nutrition, which I was listening to on a lunch break.





I went over to my brother's house on Tuesday to give him some info on interviewing for a job and get a copy of his resume. In return, we got three different types of tomato plants from my green thumbed brother! Can't wait to have a garden again!





Last night, I had to make a quick meal for dinner so I poached two eggs up in the poached egg pan I love so much. I can't imagine poaching eggs without it and it's my favorite way to eat them.





My sandwich included lettuce from my bro's garden, tomato, Frank's Red Hot and some cheese.





Then I dashed off to an Advanced Digital Photography class through the Milwaukee rec department. I learned so much in two hours!



I was happy to finally know more about taking pictures with our Canon DSLR. I wish I could share everything I learned, but it's all so very technical. If you've always wanted to learn how to get into manual mode with your camera, take a class and you'll be happy you did! It helped that our teacher was excellent and he is a newspaper photographer, so it's something he does every single day.



We "went on assignment" and he taught us how we would adjust the camera for action, a beach scene, portrait, etc. It was a good approach for helping us learn directly about why we would adjust the camera that way and how pictures can turn out poorly if you don't.



Have you ever taken a photography class? I hadn't taken one since getting an A in my college photography class. That was when film still existed and digital was just coming out on the market! I loved developing film and experimenting with the camera.