You can give 2008 back to the Indians

To paraphrase Pauly Walnuts.

Can't really say that this has been a banner year for me. Although, James is doing really well, so maybe I'm being too harsh.

This jobless thing is driving me slowly crazy. I've applied for 68 jobs since I found out that I was being "released" and I've got 3 emails back saying that the jobs I've applied for have been filled or cancelled.

So there are jobs being posted every day, including Christmas, but I'm getting exactly zero calls or inquiries on my applications. I called the "outplacement" firm (I'm SO getting into these euphemisms.) They don't have my paperwork, but they'll be getting back to me. I asked, "what are you going to do for me?"

Apparently they're going to be helping me with my resume and networking skills. Oh. Do I need that? I used to have a resume writing service and I'd make $100 a pop doing other people's resumes. I have a fairly extensive network. Please tell me I don't have to start going to Rotary Club breakfasts...

But you never know. I was out of the loop when everyone stopped wearing pantyhose, maybe my stuff is rusty.

Of course I had no expectations that anyone would be doing anything before next week. But with 65 still active job inquiries, it's hard not to be just a hair paranoid.

At any rate, I am sitting here in my Minnie Mouse pjs, wishing that someone would make me breakfast.

It's really all over

B0y! I can say that about so much.

Christmas is really all over. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Christmas? I hate the fact that everyone over-compensates for whatever they missed in the year. While I love the family, I hate the get together that we have every year. We trudge up to KY, exchange presents in a ritual that is getting more and more intense and then turn around and come home again to an empty, quiet house. James and I enjoyed our holiday together though. I made a traditional dinner and we watched Holiday Inn.

The other thing that's really all over is my career at BellSouth and the Death Star. I wiped clean my computer. I deleted documents and email that I've had for over 5 years. I removed cookies from my browser. I compressed and defragged the disks. I've got my Out-of-Office assistant sending a message out to all who didn't get the memo, that I'm gone and there aren't a lot of options if you need soemthing from me.

There is something really, really final about zero emails in your inbox and no personal folders.

I've got all of my important stuff on a thumb drive. Examples of my work in PowerPoint, spreadsheets, 16 iterations of my resume, plus a resume or two for friends and relatives. Cover letters, budgets, account information. It's all on that drive. I should probably upload the stuff onto the hard drive huh? Yeah, after my nap maybe.

So that's it. It ends with a wimper, not a bang.

Where did the day go?

I got up this AM and felt pretty decent. Not great, but for the first time in a week, I didn't feel the need to bring the box of Kleenex with me all over the house.

I didn't have much to do for work, it's Christmas week and whoever remains has to use their vacation time or lose it, so I have a feeling that those of us who are leaving are going to close the door with a minimum of fanfare. Our HR person wants us to do some reports for the five days in Dec that we're on quota. Why bother? I mean really. Just more paperwork to do for no good reason. Whatever. I'm short-timing it.

I saw my therapist today and I don't know if I'm blue about the job thing, or if it's my cold, but she said that I was a completely different person. Very subdued. I do wind-down occasionally. I need my Energizer replaced!

Summer might come with her daughter for a few days after Christmas. We've got King Tut through May and we saw some of it in Dallas, but I'm not opposed to seeing more of it at the civic center, especially with her daughter, that should be cool. I just hope we don't have heinous crowds. I hate being pushed and shoved.

At any rate, just trying to get my game face on for Christmas. I went to the grocery store today. I usually go on Sunday, but I didn't feel like leaving the house, so I went today while I was out. The Kroger at Toco Hills has a bunch of Kosher stuff, including a Rabbi with a hairnet on his beard cutting meat at the butcher shop. It was nice, but I wouldn't want to shop their regularly. They might have a bunch of Kosher stuff, but I like my new age, organics better.

Traffic was a mess no matter where I went and it took forever go get from Decatur back to Chamblee. There's no good reason for this!

So we're snug as bugs in our rugs here in the basement. I've got the heat up to 70.

Fun?

Howdy hi neighboreenos!

I sat down to start writing a manual and Scissors hit it right on the head, there's no way I can do it without really getting involved and I'm just a bit too under the weather to deal with it.

I got an idea to do book proposals and sample chapter submissions of the two unfinished novels I have. Hopefully I'll get some decent response, either helpful critique or encouragement, that will tell me that I'm on the right track with the chick lit thing.

About two years ago I submitted a proposal and sample chapter to Harlequin of a changed up "Bed and Breakfast Man" (as in changed the names) and got a very nice personalized letter saying that it was good, but not right for their particular imprint. (I misunderstood the idea of the imprint. They wanted a romance from beginning through old age, in 150k words. Not really where I was going with my work.)

I have had some terrible writers block and I've hit this wall before. I get inspired, write a storm and then just stop. A couple of years later, KAZAM, it's back. So who knows, maybe I'm due soon.

I thought that my Celexa was dampening my "fun" but it's not that. I've gone on the wagon with mindless shopping and eating and such and there's nothing really to fill the void. When I rehabbed my condo in '94 I had projects to fill my time. When I was spending money, I would plan house projects, buy new outfits and plan vacations. Now that I've decided to live cheaply, a huge part of my imagination is turned off.

We went to the library, but it was hard to find books that appealed to me. When I flew to Pittsburgh every other week I'd read about 10 new books a month. I'd buy them wherever I could find them. Now, I'm mindful. I borrow books, and there aren't that many I want to read.

I was hoping going back to school would jump-start me, but that's off now. I got my refund check in the mail today.

Okay, maybe after Christmas and after I'm released from the Death Star I'll perk up.

All my love to my readers. May everyone feel better and have a wonderful Yule, Christmas, Kwanza and Channukah.

I feel like crap, must be Christmas

James brought home a cold. He felt like crap for about 72 hours, I'm going on a week. Last night we went out for Chinese food because the place around the corner from our house makes a wicked spicy hot noodle soup. It's like of like war mein, but red with chili paste. Our waitress, who speaks very little English said, "Korean." Uh huh. So I ate a little bit of it last night, ending with the spoonful of soup that burned all the way down my esophagus, taking the rest home to eat for lunch just now. The spices release endorphins, which make me feel better, and the irritate my mucus membranes which unstuff my sinuses. So yea!

As Christmas approaches things in the job area are slowing down. I do check the USAjobs board daily and pretty much find something to apply for every day. Government takes a long time, and I suspect that if it's a numbers game, you've got to do about 100 submissions before you even get noticed. Not only that but the rigamorole you've got to do is insane. Some jobs require a questionaire with essay questions on it. Some you have to fax your transcripts in. Some jobs they're only considering the first 50 applicants, so no matter how qualified you are, if you aren't in the first 50 submissions, you don't get a crack at the job. But I have nothing but time on my hands and a whole lot of nothing to do with it, so why not jump through the flaming hoops? It might pay off. They have to hire someone, why not me?

Not only did they fire the BellSouth Account Executives, they fired the Technical Service Consultants. It's madness I tells you! Our job as AE's is to understand what the customer needs, work with TSC to design and price it, and to submit the orders through the correct systems.

The people who ostensibly will be doing this when we go are CSS/FMS (I don't know what the letters stand for.) At some point training in the old BellSouth systems, products, pricing tools and contracts was offered, but most folks decided to let those of us who were the experts just go ahead and do the job for them.

You can see where this is going right? So we're all gone as of the 29th. In fact we have a party planned. We're going into the office to clean our desks and turn in our IDs, Entry Cards, Laptops, Blackberries, company owned cell phones, credit cards and do our 'exit interviews.' Why are they bothering with an exit interview?

So what happens on Dec 30? A bunch of CSS/FMS realized that they are so far from screwed that it takes the light from screwed 10 years to find them. As it is I have a group in Phoenix calling me all day long asking for service quotes and location confirmations because they hired a bunch of kids to call into our customers to win them back to the death star, but they don't have any computer systems or pricing tools. (What is the point I ask you?) I also have a couple of CSSs calling me asking me to help them with the pricing tool, since it's the first time they've used it. They also want to know where to get the contracts, what the promotions are, how do they get into the customer contract system, in general they see the iceberg ahead and they're trying to steer clear.

So I have a cunundrum. Do I just smile and bide my time, waving good-bye from shore with my other penguine friends, or do I actually do something helpful like write a manual with quick and dirty information on how to deal with everything?

I'm kind of bored and I'm running for sainthood, so I'm thinking very seriously of putting something together for the poor souls. On the other hand, what would be more rewarding than having my customers call me on my personal cell phone (which is the number they all have) with reports of the carnage? What to do? What to do?

My Day

7:30: The alarm goes off and James gets his day started. I usually loll around in bed, listening to NPR and snoozing.

8:00: I get out of bed and jump into my gym clothes. It's off to the gym to do the bare minimum of exercise to keep me from turning into Jabba the Hut. It's not working all that well.

9:00: Back home. I go downstairs and check my email, check the job boards, apply to jobs and boot up my work computer to see what's going on there.

10:00: People's Court comes on. I turn on the TV and get breakfast. Usually coffee and a bagel. Yum! Lots and lots of Free Cell and Blast Billiards fill my time.

11:00: If it's a Law and Order CI that I haven't seen 200 times, I might watch that, if I have errands to run I go upstairs to shower and such.

12:00: Either I'm out at the grocery store, the post office or any other reason to leave the house. If I'm not leaving the house, then I watch assorted inferior court shows and continue to play on the computer. Most of the afternoon continues in this fashion.

4:00: Oprah or Judge Judy, it just depends on which one looks better.

5:00: Dr. Phil, or Dragnet and Adam 12. I usually start dinner around this time. Things I've been known to cook:

Jambalaya from a Box
Columbian Snapper, from scratch
Baked chicken and rice
Pork chops, sweet potatoes and rice
Red Beans and Rice with sausage
Japanese Curry
Meat in mojo with black beans and rice
Steak and baked potatoes
Meatloaf
Spaghetti and meatballs
Lasagne

Sound good? Meh.

6:15: James comes home and we eat dinner. I change things up a bit and watch television for the rest of the evening.

God, I hope I get a job soon.

Vacation in Place

I canceled my vacation. Why? Let them pay me for it. I wasn't going to go anywhere anyway, so I'll just vacation in place. I've informed all the people that I work with that I'm o-u-t and fat chance getting me to help with anything. Instead I've given them the webform address to file their own orders, the customer service numbers and email address. If I'm so darn expendable, they can start making due without me now.

Oh, that sounded bitter. I'm really not. I spoke with my boss Walter today. He said that his boss is really thrown for a loop about getting canned. She's the one that was so willing to throw us to the wolves, but it's not so funny when it happens to her. His counterpart was also let go; she cried in his office. Cried? Really? Over a phone company job?

I guess I might have been that upset too, about ten years ago when I gave a shit. In the intervening time I've learned not to invest in my career. Seriously, it doesn't pay.

One of the folks on my team went overboard learning all the new products, pricing tools, services, etc. I didn't even try. I had enough going on with the stuff I knew, I called myself the "Keeper of the Old Knowledge." At the end of the day, we're both just as unemployed, and I didn't waste any time or brain cells trying to learn a bunch of new stuff.

I'm networking like crazy. It helps that I have no pride and I'll take pretty much anything. I'm aiming for Executive/Admin assistant jobs. I can use all my skills, but again, no harming my brain cells.

I've applied for jobs at Delta, Coke, Home Depot, Lockheed, the Federal Government, Atlanta Public Schools, Kaiser, and pretty much every hospital in a 10 mile radius. They're posting jobs, but I don't think they'll be doing much hiring until after the holidays. Of course this is making me paranoid crazy. I just think that I should be getting some calls, but no. Crickets.

I called the outplacement firm that's part of my separation benefits. They can't talk to me until after seven days. There's a seven day revocation period. Uh. Okay. I'm not revoking anything. I sure hope they don't.

I'm still processing the whole thing. I think that once I get a new job, that I'll actually get that, "I've won the lottery" feeling that I know I should be feeling.

Redundant. Surplus. Laid Off. Jobless. Unempolyed. A statistic.

Just as I thought, this morning I was "surplussed." No room for me at the phone company any more. Before you feel sorry for me, I got the good package. My last day will be December 29. They'll keep my benefits going for 6 months, then I can do Cobra. Hopefully, I'll get a job before then.

On Thursday I went to the IRS to do the document verification and fingerprinting portion of the long, drawn out process of becoming a federal employee.

This was really weird. There were two positions, one a Tax Examiner the other a clerk scanning documents all day. The Tax Examiner is a permanent position, but seasonal. So you have the job, and benefits, but you only work 8 months out of the year. I'd rather get the Budget Analyst position, which is full time, permanent, but beggars can't be choosers. I don't think I'll do the clerk job, even if they offer it to me. It sounds too horrible.

At any rate there were about 50 of us at each of the two sessions, the AM session for the Tax Examiner position and the PM session for the clerk position. You show up 30 minutes early and stand around with 49 other applicants. Most wearing their interview clothes. Why? I don't know. No interviews going on on fingerprinting day. They lead us into a training room and we sat, going through the 5 forms you need to have filled out and brought with you (one set for each job.) You go through them for an hour while an HR person explains what's needed. They supply forms for those who left them at home, those who didn't fill them out correctly and for those who didn't read the part of the email instructing them to download the forms. The we line up, get our forms checked, our I-9 filled out by having our 2 forms of ID checked and we're herded down to the room with the electronic fingerprinting equipment. Then I went home. Did some work, drove back to the IRS and did it all over again for the second job. Good times.

I've talked to a lot of people about my lay off. I'm okay with it. One of my co-workers wanted to see if she could get more money by making a stink about the fact that we might have been discriminated against. I believe that we were (being the ex-BellSouth folks) but at the end of the day, I don't care. I'm happy to go. That company stank. If I end up being a secretary somewhere, that's all good.

Oh, and if you have any leads, pass them on. I'll take what I can get!

Gevalt what a schelp!

James and I drove back and forth to Texas to be with my family for Thanksgiving.

After pricing airfare and discovering that a ticket would be $450 apiece, we Mapquested the location and discovered that it is an 800 mile drive. Even though we decided to make the drive when gas was still $4.00 per gallon, it was much cheaper than flying (and probably more enjoyable) so that's what we did.

I've always enjoyed road trips. I like them even more now because when I drive, James reads to me, so it's entertaining, educational and a great way for us to spend time together.

While I used to enjoy flying, it's a total chore these days. Flying on Thanksgiving...I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. Last year we flew out on Thanksgiving day. This used to be a great day to fly. Totally empty flights are a thing of history now. Even on Thanksgiving day, the airport was a disaster.

I prepared by going into the office to get my satellite radio. I plugged it in and discovered that it had died. I've had it for about 5 years and it was a Sirius Orbiter. I believe that the unit was previously made in Soviet Russia. It was huge, heavy and would heat up to about 250 degrees. First the display went, then it just died altogether. I shopped on-line for a new one, but I wasn't sure that it would come in time for the big trip, so then I went out to find one. I tried Circuit City first, but in calling around I discovered that they've all gone out of business in our area, I was hoping to get a deal but they only sold off their merchandise on one day, not the long, drawn out Linens and Things Dutch auction that's going on.

I went to Radio Shack and they only had two models. I knew that there was a $30 unit and that's what I was after. The cheapest one they had was $70, so I decided to try Wal-Mart and lo and behold, I got one for $29. Done and done.

Then we went to the library to get some books to read. We got a Stanley Bing book, always fabulous, and James found an interesting account of the days of the old neighborhoods in Bejing prior to the Olympics.

The outbound trip started on Tuesday, and not knowing how my endurance would hold up, I made reservations for us to stay at Sam's Town casino in Shreveport. It was about 9 hours from Atlanta as the crow flies on Interstate 20. Good choice. Great room, okay buffet, crappy gambling, but all in all a very good experience.

It was only 3 hours to Dallas from there. My family is as they always are, a bit out there. My mother was in pain due to her sciatica acting up. This did not prevent her from preparing the traditional Thanksgiving meal. My sister insisted on charting out our every movement to insure maximum time utilization. She did score us free tickets to the Tutankhamen exhibition at their local museum. It was an okay show, but there are a bunch of them touring the US now, including one here in Atlanta, so the relics are a bit spread thin. We then went to Richardson, TX for some great Chinese food, so all in all, props to Judy for orchestrating the whole thing.

The hotel in Texas was okay, Courtyard. I'm a silver member Marriott person, so I got one night free, and the other two were paid with my Rewards card from work, so we didn't pay anything for the 3 night stay. The place is fine but the beds are too soft. You'd get in and the mattress would curl up around you. Ow! My back!

We left Saturday morning and drove from 7 am Central time until 10 PM Eastern time to get home. All in one straight shot. We might have shaved an hour or so from our time, had it not been foggy and wet the entire trip. Here's a clue people. Do NOT use your high beams in fog. Idiots.

So I fell onto my very solid, hard mattress and slept well for the first time in four nights. Boy did I need it.

I got some communication from Georgia State. They are only taking 43 credits, leaving me with 77 to do. I don't think I'm going to get my Accounting degree. It's too much of a hassle, and as a friend of my observed, "with all the bank lay offs, there are a lot of unemployed finance and accounting folks around."

I do want to point out that there's this awesome site called SoloGig. They have contract work posted there. I've applied for year long gigs there. I might try that route should I be jobless tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

A Visit to the Office

I went to Lenox/Piedmont to see if I could get a haircut at the local beauty college, but they were full of housewives getting their holiday hairdo's put together. I had a couple of errands to run, pick up some jeans that I had altered at the tailors, run into the office and pick up my satellite radio for our road trip to Texas, stuff like that.

My visit to the office was surreal, and it reminded me of why it is that I don't go there any more.

I got off on the 12th floor, after finding a parking space, right across from the door, I didn't even have to go into the parking deck. Marcia, the secretary for the Entertainment group was there, Keith, a guy on some NY accounts was there, and that was about it. I ran into one of the Admins coming out of the elevator, she was moving the new VP into the office of our former VP, a BellSouth guy, who took his golden parachute last month. Did I say surreal?

We traded some stories and wished each other a happy holiday.

I have a message on my desk phone that says, "call me on my cell." After two months, I had 17 messages (my mail box holds 50) every single one of them a hang up. People now know not to look for me at the office.

I got a call from a colleague who relocated to SC, he wanted to know what I knew. Apparently there are some more lay-offs pending and the date of the announcement is supposed to be Dec 1. My manager right out asked me what I had found out about separation packages. How warped is that? My manager is asking me about stuff he should be on top of.

I am strangely calm. Although I had an anxiety attack last night. As a person on anti-anxiety medication, it was an odd experience. Usually, my anxiety attack manifests itself in feeling exhausted, yet unable to sleep due to some dumb tune going through my head (in this case a Family Guy ditty about vasectomy.) Other symptoms include heavy breathing and a rapid heart rate. This time I had the tune and the sleeplessness, it was as though I knew I was anxious, but I couldn't feel it. So strange.

I guess we'll enjoy our holiday, and I'll find out on the Monday after, what the story is.

Gobble, Gobble!

"Real" Housewives of Atlanta

Okay. I've never really been a fan of the "Real Housewives" franchise, but since this iteration takes place in my current hometown, I was curious.

What we have is a collection of incredibly vile, selfish and self-serving women, who have more money than brains.

A couple of the wives aren't all that bad. Lisa has her own businesses and is married to a football player. At least her projects aren't vanity endeavors in that they generate more money than they cost.

DeShawn seems nice enough, although she has a "foundation" and that's where she spends the free time that she has between managing her mansion (seriously) dealing with her children and throwing parties.

I'm conflicted about NeNe. She's loud, obnoxious and in a way vulnerable and likable. She's the girlfriend who toes the line between fun and embarrassing. Also, she desperately needs to start wearing a bra. Girl, whenever you go out. If you can't wear it under the halter-top, tube top or tank-top, then don't wear that top!

Sheree is a bitter soon-to-be divorcee. She too was married to a football player and has confused his achievements with her own. She is desperate to be recognized for something of her own, but truly is just living off of her settlement and child support.

Kim is the one that I think is just the worst. She is the mistress of some guy she calls Big Papa (EW!) who is rich, probably married and must have the world's worst taste in women. She fancies herself a singer, although she is tone-deaf. Her children are horrible, spoiled brats. She seems to have three cars, although she only needs one.

All of these women seem to spend their time shopping for clothing and purses that will impress each other. None of them cooks, preferring to employ "private chefs" just to cook family meals. (!)

I'm not proud of the fact that these women facinate me. I'm sure they all view themselves as aspirational figures. Quite the contrary, they are off-putting to the n'th degree. I can't believe that grown women actually desire to continue to live in a high school scenario.

None of these women is what I would consider real. Fake boobs, fake hair, fake jobs, fake emotions. It's something that I have struggled with for a long time. I feel that in many ways these women have taken the Feminist Movement and completely twisted it. They are caracatures of strong, independent women who are also prostitutes.

Where did this whole, "I'm so fine I can get a man to support me in style" thing come from? I can understand it from forty years ago, but with all of the options that are open to us today, I don't understand why anyone would WANT to be "kept."

Kim is the worst. She is PROUD to be a hooker. She dresses slutty, she gets cosmetic procedures on camera (Botox Party!) She is crude and frankly only the worst kind of man would want a woman like her. All I can think is that she can suck a bowling ball through a garden hose because she's not pretty, or likeable or anything positive. I wouldn't let her sit on my sofa without a plastic cover on it. I don't want crabs.

I still watch, it's pornography. I watch, facinated, knowing that if I had to do what they do, for the money that they get, that it's completely out of the question. At the end of the day, Timex or Rolex, it's still the same time. I might be shopping at Target instead of Dior, but I have self-respect.

Going downtown

Last Friday I went to orientation, where I toured the campus, listened to some speakers and signed up for classes. They are still evaluating my transcripts (all nine of them) to see what can transfer. On Friday it was 30 hours, today it was 52 hours. We're getting there. I signed up for Business Law, Computer Information Systems and Accounting 2. I wanted to be sure that I was signed up for the right stuff, so I made an appointment to meet with an advisor today. I headed downtown at around 9:30 for my 10:00 appointment. As I came down Peachtree, looking for Broad St about 5 emergency vehicles screamed down the various side streets. County cops, GHP, Atlanta City Cops, fire engines, fire/rescue, SWAT, you name it. Streets were blocked off and all the news helicopers were flying around, a real scene.

Turns out some guy was running through the MARTA station with a knife, a MARTA cop chased him down, he got stabbed and that's when other cops shot the guy with the knife. Thankfully, everyone is still alive, recuperating in the hospital, but I'd say that the response was a bit overkill for the situation. People I visited in the building actually saw the action from their windows, that's how close I was to all of this.

As it turns out, I only needed about 5 minutes to get all sorted out. None of my MBA classes will count towards the business classes that are required for the BBA in Accounting. So I'll be taking the undergrad versions of classes that I took as a grad student. We weighed the options and decided that although I could get into the graduate program, for what I want to do, an undergrad degree with a CPA as the goal is the best way to approach it.

I've contacted my previous schools to get syllabi to show that Data Analysis in Education that I took at SFSU will be a good match for Math 3710, Statistics. Of course, Quantitative Methods that I took for my MBA can't count, even though, it was harder. I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused.

They have this weird thing called Institutional Options. It's very similar to my Ethnic Diversity Cluster that was required for graduation from SFSU. I took San Francisco and Geography of Ethnic Neighborhoods, (an excellent class, BTW.) I'm thinking that either of these would substitute for the Perspectives classes, which are 2 credit courses that cover topics like Pop Music, World Food, Television Violence, you get the idea.

So I don't have to take a second Lab Science (Thank goodness because the first one darn near put me under.) I do have to take American Government. James is still scratching his head over that one. I didn't even have to take it in high school because I tested out of it.

As a person who has been to a LOT of colleges you learn that each one has its own weirdness. As long as I don't have to take a Math class, I think I'll be pretty happy. It's not that I can't do math, its that I don't enjoy it.

Since 9 credits cost the same as 12, I'm debating as to what other class to take. I can't enroll in any Business classes until I've finished the "core program" and none of the other classes meld well with my schedule. I might start slow and kick it into gear later.

Voting in the South

I voted today. Nearly everyone in my family had taken advantage of early voting. I have all the time in the world to go out and do so myself, so why didn't I? Because in Atlanta there were only three places offering early voting, and the waits at each of them were in excess of three hours daily. In the last election 3.5 million people turned out. As of yesterday 2 million voters had already voted, so I figured that we'd roll the dice and brave the early birds voting in our local precinct. Since there are 150 precincts open on election day, versus 3 for early voting, I figured we'd be better off. And I was right.

We arrived in the darkness at the Middle School, waited in line. Although they didn't open the polls, the election workers had everything teed up. We filled out our certificates, and were located on the rolls (electronically!) all we had to do from there was wait for 7:00 AM and vote. We were done by 7:20 and on our way to the deli for breakfast.

I took advantage of my free Starbucks and had potato latkes.

Now all we have to do is wait for the results.

Thrift

If you know me at all you know that I love to shop. Since we're on an austerity plan, I don't get to shop any more, except for groceries. Back in the day, when I took a sabbatical and lived on my savings, I had $20 a week for groceries. I was single then so I'd make a big baked ziti with ground turkey, buy some turkey bologna and hot dogs and a box of corn flakes. I'd supplement these staples with things like .59 chicken hind quarters (leg and thigh) a sack of potatoes, whatever was on sale. I didn't starve, I didn't even mind it much. But it is challenging when you're trying to decide between toilet paper and tomatoes. (I didn't see a tomato for over a year.)

I subscribe to a service called The Grocery Game, it's similar to Coupon Mom. Both give you a list of loss-leader sales at your local supermarket and match coupons. It only requires paying a little bit of attention and I save anywhere between 30% and 50% when I shop. It's fun for me, I try to see how much I can get for my money.

I have stopped going to the expensive salon Midtown. They charge $55 for a haircut and $135 for color and highlights. I have returned to the Aveda Institute, where haircuts are $15 (done by a student) and I'm going back to color in a box. The good news is that I was able to drive there, get my cut, hit two grocery stores (one for my favorite sponges, BOGO-Buy One Get One free) and still get home in under two hours. If I go to midtown it takes bout 3 to 3.5 hours, with no grocery stops.

Anyhoo, I got lamb chops for $11 at Kroger! They're marinating as we speak and will be grilled for dinner. It makes me want to break open a bottle of red wine, I'm so excited. I also got some tenderloins. I actually waited for the guy with the big basket of meat to mark down what I wanted.

I notice that commercials are using the thrift/value proposition now. "Times are tough, that's why a grilled cheese sandwich made with Kraft singles is so budget friendly." My value proposition is "Times are tough, that's why if you want to eat well you have to wait for them to mark down the meat." Although I like grilled cheese too.

I've rediscovered ramen. You know, it's pretty good. And .17 per serving.

Another Friday

Some times I feel like I'm on a treadmill. Not the kind at the gym, that would actually do me some good, but the kind where you just schlep along, with the illusion of moving forward, but in fact, just killing time until it's time to get off.

Friday represents this for me. It's like, yea, Friday, but then I realize that I've spent another week, doing not much of anything. What did I accomplish, except to remain employed, to do the laundry and to fight back the big chunks of dirt in the house.

We're hacking down a considerable debt. I wish I knew exactly where we racked it up. It's probably from the last seven years, which included the sale and purchase of 3 houses, four moves, multiple luxurious vacations, a two-year sabbatical, three new computers, three new vehicles, and thousands of restaurant meals. I guess it's not so mysterious where the debt came from after all.

I like to think that I'm financially savvy, but I work in sales and you kind of get weird about money. At the end of the year you get your W-2 and there's a six-figure number on it, but the government takes its share, you fund your retirement, you buy a shit-load of insurance and voila, you end up taking home about 60% of what you've earned. Meanwhile, you've been spending like a Texas millionaire.

So this is the year of austerity. We got on board with this about six months ago. We saved a bit in an emergency fund and started paying down the debt, and whammo, we got hammered with household repairs. Some stuff on the house you can put off, you can't put off the replacement of a sewer-pipe. People asked me:

1. Doesn't the city pay for that?
2. Doesn't your insurance pay for that?

The answer: No. If the sewer-pipe is on your property, its yours to maintain. If the sewer-pipe failed because of lack of maintenance, then your insurance won't cover it. The good news (if you can call it that) is that if the sewer-pipe backs up, floods the basement, causes mold to grow and contaminates the carpeting, THEN the insurance will pay. You'll pardon me for being happy that we didn't have that level of sewer-pipe drama.

So what does it cost to dig up your freshly landscaped yard, haul out a collapsed iron sewer-pipe and to replace it with a new PVC pipe? About $7000 and a big patch of your lawn. I don't think I can't explain the trauma of an enormous backhoe digging up a newly planted centipede/zorsia lawn. In a drought. I just can't.

And so there is debt. I flash-back to our rather cool basement apartment some days, knowing that we should have stayed put there. We had plenty of space for the two of us. Yes, the little dog in the apartment above us drove us to distraction with his barking and clickity-clack of his nails on the hardwood floors, but when the neighbors waterpipe broke and flooded our utility room, it wasn't our problem.

We had no business buying our house. Atlanta hasn't been a hot housing market since the 1996 Olympics, in fact, it's the number-one area of the country for foreclosures and mortgage fraud. But I fell in love with the house, or rather its potential. Let's just call it a money pit, and leave it at that.

There's good news. We have an FHA, conventional loan with a low payment. Our neighborhood is slowly going up in value, we owe less on the house than it's worth. With the deductions we get from the house, the mortgage is only a couple hundred dollars more than the apartment and we have twice the room.

But getting to my point I measure my days, not in coffee spoons, but in amount of debt we pay off. I HATE wishing my days away to get to the next paycheck. But really, in economic times like this, isn't that what we all do? I am very grateful that I have it all covered and enough left over to properly pay down the debt.

I guess there's no point in regret. I need to embrace the decisions that I've made, be happy about the good ones, learn from the bad ones.

On Yom Kippur we atone, but also, we need to forgive, those who do us wrong, but also ourselves. What's done is done and we're making the best of it.

Company in the Basement

I've got company in the basement, the market. I think that it's interesting that nearly everyone I know believed that passing the big bail-out was going to somehow make the economy better, or if not better, at least protect his or her job. I'd laugh if it wasn't so horrific.

Congress has been trying to sell that trickle-down crap since Reagan. Well, for sure I know that shit runs downhill, and that's about what you can count on with trickle-down economics.

We all got our stock statements a couple of days ago. I didn't even open mine. There's no point. I feel great about my portfolio though. It's strong, and I believe that it will all go up. If not, I'll always be able to make money, so in the grand scheme of things, I have my health, I have a great husband and if we all have to start over, so be it.

People are sheep when it comes to economics and the economy. They credit their savvy when the market is up, and they blame the economy when their investments tank. Here's a clue, if you know about it, and you're Joe Lunchbox you're already too late. There's a story that J.P. Morgan knew it was time to get out of the market in 1929 when his elevator operator was giving him stock tips.

About ten years ago I was with my folks visiting some friends in Phoenix and we were having lunch with a long-time friend of the family. The joke is that both the husband and the wife are medical professionals, one a doctor, the other a therapist and as much money as they've made, they've lost twice that to a cocaine addicted financial adviser, terrible investments and plain fraud. They wouldn't know a stock tip if it bit them on the ass. So we ladies are eating our goat cheese salads and Mrs. Professional starts telling me about what a great investment Enron is. I wasn't under a rock, I knew that lots of people were really excited by Enron and the growth of its stock and had jumped on the bandwagon. I had tried to understand what the company did, but the more I read, the less I understood and I gave it a miss. Turns out that the little voice in my head whispering "Emperor's New Clothes" was dead-on.

A high tide raises all boats. It's easy to look smart when you can't make a bad investment. People flipping houses in California in 2005 could do the dumbest things and still make money. They weren't smarter than the average bear. They were just in the right place at the right time.

I did something really stupid in 1999. I took a loan against my 401(k) to buy a house in Florida. Except the 401(k) was my MCI WorldCom stock and the house was $140,000 on a water lot. When I sold the house in 2002 I sold it for $260,000. The MCI stock was worth zero. Was I smart? No. I was lucky.

The same people who were worth $1 Million according to their MCI WorldCom stock holdings in 1997, were broke and unemployed in 2003. Only five years between smart and stupid.

Very few people are smart enough to beat the market. The rest of us should put the dough in an indexed stock fund, make the same investment every month with dollar cost averaging and hope to hell that the miracle of compounding interest will save our soft, white asses when we're ready to retire.

Laughing all the way to the bank

hSo Wells Fargo beat Citigroup to the punch and bought Wachovia, all without the help of Uncle Sucker. Ha, ha, ha. I'm sure that Citigroup was sure that the government was Uncle Chump (and they are) and would do anything not to have another financial institution go under, meanwhile, in the marketplace, Wells used their own money and bought them outright.

That's the free market, and sometimes, it works. Of course if the government continues to reward the fat cats who were the idiots that got us into this mess, then why not take stupid risks?

I was channel surfing the other night and Fox News had some Bettman Archive footage on, and I paused because I love that stuff, and learned that although it seemed that Roosevelt saved the US during the depression actually, in the world according to Fox, he and the democrats set the economy back at least two years. (Or something like that, I got disgusted and turned the channel.)

James and I were discussing some social ideas at the dinner table. If you (I) were in charge of the world, how would you handle the issue of Welfare, the unemployed and the impoverished? (This should give you insight into our marriage, we actually talk about stuff like this.)

I hate Welfare as an entitlement because it seems to sap initiative from the people who are on it. It's not really enough to allow a family to live well, but it's too much to incent the head of that family to go out into the workforce. Welfare also does nothing to prepare its recipients to move from Welfare to work. Why should I give up food, housing, a stipend, health care and free child care to work at Burger Circus, especially when I lose my health benefits? See, no incentive.

I believe that everyone is entitled to education, health care and a safety net in case of financial disaster. That's what Welfare should be, a safety net, not a way of life. If an able bodied person gets a government subsidy, then that person should work. Even if it's in a make work program like the WPA. We got some really nice stuff out of the WPA. My high school was built as a WPA project. Hoover Dam. TVA. Some great art. Between the CCC and the WPA this country got real pretty and electrified.

James brought up the workhouse in England, I mentioned The Great Chain of Being, and we decided that if there were people out there who just refused to work, we shouldn't let them die, but the accommodations wouldn't be so great and neither would the food. James stops short of the Sheriff Joe Arroyo plan of pink underwear, tents in the desert and bologna sandwiches breakfast, lunch and dinner. More like a cot and school lunch. You won't die, but you might want to.

So, we've got corporate Welfare, where if the government bails out the big, corporate interests, they have no incentive to do a good job, and we've got individual Welfare, where the recipients have no incentive to do any kind of job. Good times. Good Times.

Gas-gas-gas

Actually the lead story every night is about the gas shortage. The Colonial Pipeline has been off-line since Hurricane Ike and it's the source of all of our gas here in the ATL.

They started up again yesterday, but they're saying it will be the middle of October before we're back to normal.

I met with my former manager for lunch today, she drove 20 miles to meet me, although I offered to meet her half-way. She said she needed to come south to find gas. I'll just bet.

Being in the Bible belt a lot of people are saying that it's the coming of the Apocalypse. No gas, bank failures, markets in free-fall, housing market in the toilet, just waiting for the four horsemen. That's not the Apocalypse, that's just W.

Got Gas?

This is the strangest thing ever. Here in Atlanta there is a gas shortage. This morning on my way to an appointment I passed a QT selling regular unleaded for $3.97 at around noon. There were lines of cars backed up to the street. On my way back to the basement at around one, they were all out of gas.

I filled up last week and I don't drive that much, so I'm good. I encourage James to start looking for gas when he gets down to about a half a tank.

Last week there was a big wreck on 85 that stopped all traffic for about two hours. As bad as that was, dozens of people ran out of gas because of idling in traffic for so long. It's times like these that make me happy that I work from home.

The EPA has allowed stations to start selling less-clean gas, which makes me wonder how that's going to affect engines, but I suppose people have to get where they're going.

A while back James did this blog where he studied the effects of a severe gas shortage and its effects on society. Kind of interesting if you ask me.

People have taken to following tanker trucks around. Kind of awkward if they're full of milk.

Keep on trucking folks!

What I swore I'd never do again

First of all, a shout out to Scissors. Microsoft, like all fortunes, started with a few crimes. A bit of DOS stealing, snaking Windows from Xerox, that sort of thing.

As for Bell Labs, it was a prestige organization. Bell funded some eggheads to "do science." Very little of it was applicable to actual communications, but it's all very interesting.

As for Lucent (Avaya, ATT Systems, etc.) That's a joke. The old AT&T Equipment used to be ubiquitous, if it wasn't Northern Telecom (now Nortel) it was AT&T. Businesses would buy telephone systems from one of the big two manufacturers and they'd stay that way forever.

Now Cisco, with their IP phones is taking over the market. BellSouth used to have a great relationship with Nortel so in the South you'll find lots and lots of that equipment embedded here.

Avaya is going strong, they have a stronghold at the top of the market with big switches and call center equipment.

Lucent now manufactures large telephone company Central Office equipment. We're all still scratching our heads. I remember in the day that if you went into a C.O. you'd see acres of old switching equipment, rows of clacking switches, blinking lights, old mag tape readers and boxes taking up all the floor space. It's a joke now, with fiber and micro-technologies, all of this is now in once cabinet with some Cisco blades in it. I wouldn't say that the future of telephone equipment was in the C.O., but go Lucent. Love that 5ESS.

Now, to what I swore I'd never do again. Going back to school. When I do a job search I do M.B.A./Atlanta, GA. Usually what I get back is finance and accounting related. I had some of that when I went to Grad School, but it was a smattering of everything and an intensity in not much.

Since our goal is to go to Canada, it occurs to me that if I really want to get out of sales, (and I really, really do,) that what I need to do is to is get some other kind of marketable skill.

I've decided on accounting.

What? Accounting? I already hear the jokes. When I first worked for the phone company I was hired in as a customer service rep. The union and the company offered job placement and aptitude testing and I took them up on it. It was a five week course and I took all kinds of tests. When I went to speak with the counselor she told me, "You have an aptitude and interest in accounting. You already have a bachelors degree, so what if we paid for your M.B.A.?" At first I was resistant, business....ew! But the counselor pointed out that the program met only Friday evenings and Saturdays and that I would complete the program in less than two years. I agreed and I got my degree. So what changed? Nothing.

I worked in Sales and have done since I got my degree in 1994. Has it helped. It's helped me. I can have high level discussions with different departments, and if I've needed a job it's something the hiring manager can check the box on. So I can't complain. However, just an M.B.A. isn't worth a whole lot.

What employers are looking for are Accountants, Finance or Marketing folks, with years of experience and the degree.

It's a man's world and brother (and sister) don't you forget it. Men have told women for years that they would be promoted, if only they had the right education or experience. Then they'd hire some guy who had neither.

Early in my career I was persuaded to do my job in addition to the job of a colleague who was going out on maternity leave. I was promised a promotion and a raise if I did a good job. Like a moron, I did it. I worked my tail off and interestingly enough, I did get promoted. But I was never respected because I was willing to audition for the job. Every time I was promoted people expected me to do the work of at least two people, and because I was so eager to prove myself worthy, I'd do it.

Finally, I caught on and I looked around. People do just fine in business and don't slave away at their jobs. I moved from support to sales and have done pretty well.

Transitioning from sales to some other department proves to be a problem though. First of all, if you're any good at sales, your boss doesn't want you to leave. Secondly, if you've been doing sales you're making an artificially high salary and it's hard to match it. Third, the longer you're in sales the longer you're away from your education, the more forget and the less you know about the latest and greatest stuff.

So I looked into going back to school to get a Bachelors in Accounting. Georgia State has a program and every Accounting core class is offered at night. The company should pay for it, but it's a state school, so if push comes to shove I can pay for it myself.

When I get out I hope to get a job working for an accounting firm, one of the big 4 or however many are left. If I specialize in tax and/or Sar/Ox I can do my job in Canada. And make a nice chunk of change doing it.

So that's the plan.

I always said I'd never go back to school because it buys into that whole, "I need more training" thing that women believe, but I think that in this case that it will be a good thing.

I'd love some feedback!

More news from the front

So are we in a recession yet?

I started working, for real, full time in 1984, so it's nearly 25 years, a quarter of a century since I entered the work force.

In the wake of all the investment bank failures, company bankruptcies and general business lunacy I was thinking about how different it all was only 25 years ago.

I started my career at MCI. I had dropped out of school and had moved to San Francisco with my family. I was looking for a job and I answered an ad for MCI, they were looking for part time customer service people at $6.00 per hour. I got the job. I remember distinctly thinking, "this will do until something better comes along." It kind of looks like the joke's on me.

So not only is MCI no longer in business, but IBM has materially changed what they do, the big eight accounting firms are on their way to be the big two (PriceCoopersWaterhouseAndersonChickenOfTheSea.) Merrill Lynch (which has a pretty big part in the destruction of MCI) is now Bank of America, Lehman Brothers is just gone and AIG is circling the drain. If you had told me any of this when I started working I wouldn't have believed you.

There's a good reason for that. You actually have to work in a corporation before you can appreciate the dysfunction of the business world.

There are things I had to experience twice to believe that they happened the first time. I think that there's a pervasive myth out there that the heads of business are these geniuses who have amazing instincts are super-intelligent and who have their fingers on the pulse of...something. Lies. All of it lies.

Business doesn't prosper because of it's management, but in spite of it. It's all The Emperor's New Clothes. There's no killer ap, there's no big idea, there's a whole lot of mediocre white guys at the helms of big corporations and they have no idea what's going on any more than you or I do.

My family is from Pittsburgh, home of many self-made men. Men who took advantage of a changing world and built fortunes that have lasted generations. But really, where is US Steel these days? They're USX now, and they've closed most of the mills in the US. Most steel is imported from eastern Europe now. Where's MicroSoft going to be in ten years? They can't have the monopoly forever.

It took monopolies to make these big corporations. AT&T was a giant, a cumbersome, personnel-heavy, monolith. And why not? Who was competing with them? Telegraph? You must be joking.

It's a fact that AT&T actually stopped technology. Would it surprise you to know that wireless technologies have been available since the Carterphone Decision in 1968. When the Internet was young the engineers had to BEG AT&T to get on board with providing the network for data transmissions because no one at Ma Bell could envision what anyone would do with the capability. All that bragging about Telstar and Bell Labs and there was no real innovation until the Modified Final Judgement in 1984, caused by MCI, which is where I came in.

What's changing? Why are all of these huge, venerable corporations crumbling? Is it bad leadership? No. The leadership hasn't changed much. Business was probably more ruthless before the SEC and government agencies started poking their noses in. I'd say that Sarbanes-Oxley might have something to do with it. Business is like sausage and law, you really don't want to see what goes into it. Once Sar-Ox pulled back the curtain, we all saw that there wasn't a great and all powerful wizard, but just a middle-aged guy, working the levers like hell trying to keep the illusion going.

My money is still in the Standard and Poors 500, with a couple of bucks in Argentinian grain (as a hedge.) It'll all come back. I've seen it before and it always does. We forget the lessons of the past, sort of like Groundhog Day. If you just sit above it all, you can watch as people claim that this time the sky really is falling, meanwhile, you can just do what you do knowing that what goes up, comes down, and what is down, must go up.

People still live in Florida, even after Ivan, Wilma, Andrew and other alphabetical demons. The casinos in Biloxi couldn't wait to re-open. People in California pay half a million dollars for a salt box on a fault, can't afford to insure it and are fool-hardy enough to think of their homes as investments.

My goal is to make money when I can, to do as good a job as possible under the circumstances and to have as much fun as possible in the meantime.

Nice Hat!

I've decided to join the Red Hat Society. Since I'm a few years away from fifty, I'm actually a Pink Hat Lady, but that's cool. I joined with an Internet membership, but I'm hoping someone will approach me locally so I know where I can meet the other ladies for cocktails and Bunko.

Where you been?

I've been out in the sunlight lately!


I took James to the dentist-always an adventure. I've been to the grocery store. But the best place I've been this week has been the lunch I had with some former co-workers at a wonderful lunch spot in Sandy Springs called Joli Kobe.


One lady had recently quit her job, a combination of total disgust with the company and the desire to stay home with her son. No one in their right mind WANTS to stay home with small children, but if your option is either pay someone 2/3 of your salary to watch your kid while you work, you had better LOVE your job, and frankly I don't know too many people at my job who feel that way.


I certainly don't. Although it was a very busy week and I had that really competent feeling that I get when I'm churning out the pricing, contracts and orders while being fabulous at talking with my customers. Example?


Customer: I know we have an installation today, what is the name of the tech who will be dispatching and what time will he arrive?


Me (after stifling laughter): Uh, it doesn't work that way. You know how we're famous for "our tech will be out sometime between now and Christmas?" Then. And his name is Bubba.


You know, being hilariously straight up about the situation, because really, how can anyone keep a straight face?


The bulbs in our ceiling fixtures keep burning out. We replaced the former owners, mismatched, hideola, bug-filled fixtures with some cheap contractor grade lighting. They hold two bulbs apiece. For some reason one burns out immediately and the other flickers menacingly. I can hear Jason in his goalie mask sneaking up on me. Lighting is a big deal in the basement. I have windows, but it's been so overcast and dark lately.


I think we need to reconfigure the desk. I have a twenty-five year old Danish modern desk that can double as a table (and it has.) It's not exactly ergonomic; and with both the desktop and work laptop, things do get a bit scrunched up here. Although the new chair is working out great.

So we head into the weekend. I would like to go to the movies, but I don't think that there's anything James wants to see. I'm a film buff and I'm excited to see the remake of The Women. I understand that it's not as good as the original, but what ever is?

À la recherche du temps perdu

Today the blog is dedicated to things I've eaten in my life that I can't find anymore. Why? I'm hungry? Not so much physically hungry, but spiritually hungry. Proust wrote about madelines, I'm writing about Gems.


Gems: These were small, egg-shaped pastries that my Grandma Belle got for me on Murray Avenue in Pittsburgh. Squirrel Hill, the Jewish neighborhood spread out about 5 blocks in each direction from this artery. Murray Avenue is the high street and it was full of kosher shops, bakeries, Mineos Pizza and a place on the corner that over the years has been Rhoda's and Kazinski's where one could get an amazing corned beef sandwich.


How to describe a Gem. It's sort of one of those things, if I could describe it, I could find it! The cake texture is a cross between a brownie and devils food cake. Rich and chocolately but you can get it in other flavors too. The frosting, either luscious chocolate fondant or a white fondant. There's a snap on the top layer of icing, then creamy, then your teeth bump into the slightly rigid and moist cake.


They come in a pink pastry box tied in twine. They nestle in the box in fluted, white, paper circles, curving up slightly to hug the pastry. It (I was never allowed more than one at a time) is served to me on one of Grandma's china plates with a small, silver fork.


I must digress here. How is it that working class people from Pittsburgh come to have such nice things? Years of work and a connection at Kaufmann's (recently purchased by Macy's.) My grandma sold shoes at Kaufmann's until she died in 1969. My aunties all worked there too. I have a really neat collection of china dessert plates and coffee cups, all different patterns, one of my aunties got from buying the samples when they stopped stocking them. So pretty. Let's just say part store discount, part larceny.


Getting back to Gems. You can't find a reference to them at all on the interwebs. It's really annoying. If my mother didn't confirm it for me, I'd thought that I'd dreamed them.


Poncho's Red Chili Burro, enchilada style with extra sauce and extra lettuce: Every Friday night for a decade this was my order at our local Mexican restaurant in South Phoenix, AZ. The place is still there on Central Avenue, between Baseline and Southern. It started as a small take-away stand, and then took over the house; they added the Cantina in the late seventies. The dining rooms are the size of rooms in a house (because they are.) Seven tables in one room, four in another and the back room features 5 tables, one of which butts up to a mural of President Clinton enjoying a plate of nachos. It sort of looks like he's eating with you. This commemorates an actual visit by the president, when he got a hankering for some good Mexican food and his driver took him to the best place in town.


The folks who work there are like family. Ann, our waitress, who retired a couple of years ago. Nelly, a friend of my sister's from grade school, worked her way up to waitress. We chit chat and catch up with them while we nibble fresh chips and salsa or a cheese crisp. I should include the cheese crisp here, since it is only found in Arizona, and I think one of the Biggest Loser people talked about them. It's a quesadilla, but flat, not folded, and crunchy. A very skinny cheese pizza.


My order is always the same. When I visit Phoenix I try to figure out how to get a bunch of orders to carry back. It starts with the chili. All meat, no beans. It could be beef or pork or a mixture of the two. The sauce is red and spicy, but tasty, not hot. The tortilla is big, so when it's all rolled up it folds back upon itself creating thick layers of soft, chewy, deliciousness. It is topped with enchilada sauce, a chili based red-sauce that is mellowed by stock. When done the way I like it, there is longhorn cheese baked on top of the sauce, not crispy, but creating strings of chewiness. The sauce pools on the big plate and shredded lettuce is piled up in a bank on one side of the plate. I mix the sauce and cheese into the lettuce. I must be a pervert but I think this is a wonderful side dish. Sometimes there are a couple of diced tomatoes in there. That's just fine with me.


The burro (not burrito) is a texture thing as much as a taste thing. Chewy, meaty, saucy and a bit of crunch from the lettuce. It all comes together brilliantly. It tastes delicious too.


You can get a decent approximation. The problem is if a place makes red chili, they don't have big enough tortillas to make a good sided burro. Besides, it never quite tastes the same. Usually if they make the chili, they serve it with little tortillas on the side. The enchilada sauce and lettuce is never quite right either. The sauce is too thin, the lettuce is too thick, there's always something off.


I make good enchilada sauce, and I know how to cut the lettuce, but the chili escapes me. I'd love a recipe, and maybe I'll write to them and they'll give it to me. But it will never be the same as going to the restaurant, having them know exactly what I want when I sit down, right down to leaving the pitcher of iced tea so that I can refill my own glass.


Frango: It's actually Frango Do Brasilia. There used to be a Brazilian pizza place on Fillmore St in San Francisco called DiPaula's. They delivered to my job. Since I worked swing shift we'd order from them all the time. One day I was tired of eating pizza (again) and asked them what else they made. Frango. Apparently the list of ingredients include heroin because I was hooked.

Frango, is made with bell peppers, beer, onions and some other things. It's served with yellow rice and sautéed spinach. It's tasty and nutritious.


For years I'd go into Brazilian restaurants looking for this dish. I tried New York, I tried Miami, when I was a teacher I told the Brazilian kids that I'd give them extra credit if they could bring me a recipe.


I was doing some internet research putting in ingredients, the words Frango or DiPaula's and one day I got a hit. DiPaula's became a restaurant called Mozzarella di Buffalata and they moved to a new address. I emailed them and they mailed me back the recipe. I've made it twice. The ingredients seem right. What I thought was saffron, turns out to be turmeric. Apparently Guinness isn't the dark beer they had in mind. Allowing for this, something is missing. James doesn't want me to make it any more because it's just not as good as some other things he likes. I want to keep trying until I get it right. I feel like there's a major component missing. They say to use heavy cream; I think I need to use coconut milk. It reminds me of that episode of the Dick Van Dyke show where Laura gives Millie a recipe for guacamole, but she leaves out the peanut butter. There's something distinctive missing.


Feng Yen Hot Braised Chicken Wings: Feng Yen was a Chinese restaurant in Albany, CA. It was owned by Koreans and kim chee was always on the table. After warming up to hot and sour soup, I branched out on the menu and tried the rice plate, lunch special, Hot Braised Chicken Wings. How to describe this? There are wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, green onion, and white onion strips. The chicken wings have a goodly portion of breast meat on them, so they are big. They French the bone, so all the meat is at the top end, no flappers.


The wings appear to be fried to a crunch on the outside, no batter, just crispy skin. Then the veggies are mixed with garlic and a brown sauce, with some of the red pepper skins in it. It's served with a mound of steamed rice and voila! A wonderful lunch and dinner, that's how big the portion was.


I was successful in tracking this down a long time ago here in Atlanta at the Golden Buddha on Clairmont. One time I got horrible intestinal distress from it there, but who knows what that really was. We went to a different Golden Buddha on Roswell Rd, but the Hot Braised Chicken wings were really Go Buli Chicken (see below.) I was disappointed.



Go Buli Chicken: Go Buli was the other Chinese restaurant. It was in El Cerrito, near the BART station. They served white meat chicken pieces, fried in a batter with a sweet, sticky, garlicky, spicy sauce over wheat noodles. The good news is that I can get this nearly everywhere. Only it's served with rice, not noodles. At one restaurant I can get it with bones, which is harder to eat, but tastier I think. At H-Mart, they serve the chicken with corn chips and rice. Weird, but very good.


Jack in the Box Chicken Supreme: Not the one they have now, the original. A round chicken patty fried crispy, whole-wheat bun, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of jack cheese, garlic mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato slices. I worked at Jack in the Box when the sandwich was introduced and BOY did I like it. My favorite time of day to eat this was in the morning on my way to school. I could drive through and get one fresh and hot at about 7:30am on my way to ASU. Why they tinkered with it I don't know. I thought it was great. The spurt of oil as you bite into the hot chicken, the cool veggies and mayo. What a great sandwich.


Okay, surprisingly, I'm not hungry. Why are some things ephemeral like the dishes mentioned above? Is it possible that nothing will measure up to my memory of how good they were? I've been back to Poncho's and the burro is exactly as I remember it. The recipe I got for Frango do Brasilia has not yet been a success. I suppose that for every dish that got away, a new dish comes into my life.

Tacos at Taqueria Del Sol. Vietnamese duck dumplings at Com. Pho, anywhere. Bi Bim Bap and King Dumplings at the H-Mart.

I suppose I'm lucky. It's better to have loved and lost than never to have had Frango do Brasilia.

Escape from the Basement!

I got out of the basement this weekend!

My husband and I drove to North Carolina to have a small McDonalds birthday celebration with our 2 year-old Godson, then off to other parts of North Carolina to visit some old friends. We drove about 700 miles over the past two days. I had a great time though so the heck with the money we spent on gas. James entertained me by reading to me while I drove. I love road trips!

This weekend we are preparing for a visit from the contingent from Tennessee. James has known these folks since he was a wee shaver and I get to know them through him. We always have a great time together. Last year we were invited up to their part of the world and we spent the day in Dollywood. Which was fantastic! If you're looking for a nice weekend getaway, Dollywood is something you should see. But I digress.

So this weekend is DragonCon in Atlanta. Also there's a Black Gay Pride thing going on downtown (I might have dreamt that, I was sort of snoozing through the alarm.) I'm not even going to get into the fact that it's a 3-day weekend and that there has been perpetual weekend freeway maintenance on I-85. Let's just say that getting downtown, and being downtown is going to be a nightmare.

Anyhoo, the gang are coming down for DragonCon, a comic, sci-fi, anime geekfest of epic proportions. My part in this is to be the cordial hostess, provide a hearty hot breakfast and launder the towels. It's a good thing we have tankless hot water, that's all I can say. James is going to the WNBA basketball game Friday night, but he'll be geeking along with the rest of them for the remainder of the weekend.

Throw into that mix that a good friend of ours will be at DragonCon for 24-hours and you can see that I've got my hands full! I really want to try to meet up with Jill, but given the situation, I'm not sure that it wouldn't be more of a pain than it was worth, for both of us. If you've only got 24-hours I'm thinking that you'll want to be doing things at it, not trying to figure out how to get from it to a neutral place to have a cup of coffee.

And in other news…

After having dinner at our local pizza joint, James and I traveled the back roads of Chamblee and discovered that a bunch of new, adorable shops and restaurants have opened up on N. Peachtree St. If you aren't from Atlanta, it's a local joke that there are about 200 streets with Peachtree as part of the street name. Except that while being a joke, it's also true. We are heartened by the addition of quaint, local shops and we expect to patronize them.

This is part of a revitalization plan. The city of Chamblee is a marketing machine! A bit of history. We are next to Doraville, which houses a GM plant where they make…trucks? At any rate, both auto-plants were closed. The Ford plant in south Atlanta, and the Doraville Works, which are slated to be closed any day.

So, as a hold over from more factory-centric times, the end of Peachtree Street that our neighborhood resides on was previously called Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, even though the main Peachtree St, the one referenced by Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, runs right into it. A few weeks ago new street signs went up and now we're off of Peachtree St. You see? So much tonier already. They still need to fix the big signs on 285 (aka The Watermelon 500) but we are coming up in the world.

There was a big store out there, Brandsmart. A giant, Florida-based two-story warehouse where you can buy electronics and appliances. It resembles a coliseum in that there is the main floor where they sell small appliances, irons, waffle-makers, computer cables, etc, and then there is a second level that rings the edge of the building, where they have the washers, stoves, refrigerators and car stereos. We bought our digital camera there.

There was still some land so a NJ based Korean Supermarket, H-Mart is in the process of building a new store there. The nearest H-Mart is all the way up in Gwinnett, so I'm THRILLED. They are super-cheap and they have the best produce. 7 kinds of Bok-Choy! Fresh herbs, lemongrass, tamarind, Asian pears, long-beans, eggplants, pretty much anything you can imagine. The fish is fresh because they have tanks where the fish are swimming around. You can tong up a live blue crab. When you buy fish you have a choice of how you want it. Whole? Guts removed? Filleted?

The meat department has cuts that are familiar to folks in Asia, but different from those in an American grocery store. There is an aisle just for noodles. There's a kim chee section. A food court. But I'm waxing ridiculous now. I have been to Japan and Korea and this store is just like one you'd see there, only instead of being on 5 different levels, it all on one, glorious level. As big as a Super Wal-Mart, but with your choice of 16 kinds of rice cookers. I'm still waiting to see the Hello Kitty washer that I saw in Japan.

So the H-Mart progresses and it should open by the end of the year. Now we hear that the GM Plant has been sold and we're going to get a development of condos, shops, restaurants. Ka-Ching! Property values are rising.

We are in Chamblee, a neighborhood affectionately referred to as being "inside the perimeter." The Perimeter? Yes, if you are within the confines of 285 you are ITP, if you are outside…well, not as attractive. So our 45 year-old neighborhood is enjoying gentrification. The old, established residents are seeing their neighbors turn into young families, Asian families, DINKs (dual income, no kids, like James and I) and gay folks. My kind of place. The colonial houses are being renovated, yards are being landscaped and it's the kind of place where if you go for a walk at around 6, you'll see everyone with a stroller and a couple of dogs out for a stretch.

The gist of the thing being that property values are up in our part of the world. What used to be kind of dreary and old looking will be pretty and new soon, but not so much that there's no character. My gym is an old converted warehouse. There are loft apartments opposite the train tracks. Our closest grocery store will be an Asian specialty market. And that's a good thing.

Because "Tales from the Basement" was taken

So this is my third blog. I used to have a Diaryland and a LiveJournal and now I have a blog spot. I'm so stoked.

The reason for the blog is because I am desperate for an outlet. I used to be able to talk to people at work, but now that I am working remotely, from home, I'm the only people at work!

I am employed by one of the largest, private companies in the country. We call it the Death Star. I've been in telecommuncations for most of my career, with the exception of two years as a high school teacher. I am convinced that dealing with horrible children has robbed me of a decade of healthy life.

Currently my day involves waking up and deciding if I should shower upon rising, or if I should jump into gym clothes and shower after working out. Then I make breakfast and carry it to my work space in our finished basement.

I turn on the laptop, fiddle with the keys, tunnel in via the VPN and voilal, I'm connected. People who need to talk to me call me on my cell phone. I get good reception down here, considering that the place is a cement bunker.

Errands consist of random trips to the grocery store, the bank, the gym, and the nail salon for eye-brow waxing. Occasionally I'll make an appearance in the office, but if I do, I'm usually alone up there.

I save money on gas and restaurant meals, but other than that, I can't get too excited about the working from home thing.

I watch court shows and Law and Order all day and frankly my big concern is that I'll be even more bored once we start up again with reruns.

The money is good, but the job is precarious. I report to people in Tampa, FL, and considering that I'm in Atlanta, it's not an ideal situation. Right now I'm hoping that I get laid off with a nice package. That way I can pay my bills and have some time to find another job.

I've been applying for Government positions. It's a numbers game, you have to apply to a bunch of them. I've had positions cancelled after having a submission in for over two months. Remind me why I think I might fit in well with the Government?

So now you have an idea of what life is like down here.

Stay tuned for another installment of Basement Adventures!