melvania

So we sort of knew that this year would be Darrin's last year at his current job, but we didn't quite expect it to happen till the end of the year. At the start of this year, he dropped back to three days a week to free up the other two days for web work. But, sadly, whether it's economy fears or something else, he &Josh haven't had many jobs. In fact they just had their first job for the year about a week ago, and it was only a small update on something they'd done last year, so only two hours work for Darrin.

So then suddenly two weeks ago, Darrin got an email about a new job opening up at Bradford College in the city. The position sounds like it was made for him (well, all except the wearing a tie part, but the rest of it is good). And he'd be earning twice as much as he is now, so yeah, big step up.

He thought about it for a couple days, and then decided he'd apply for it. So the next week or so he was writing a resume, getting Josh to check it for phrasing & me to check it for grammar/punctuation, and he sent it off last Wednesday. Friday he got an email from them & he rang them back, and they set up an interview for Tuesday.

Now here comes my part in all this. He got home Friday and found his 'nice' shirt from our wedding, but it's too heavy to wear at this time of year. And he couldn't find his dress pants. So off to the op shops I went on Saturday morning. Found a shirt, found a pair of pants, found a tie, all together $12. But then I brought them home and the mayhem started. The shirt didn't have a collar. I hadn't even noticed. And the pants - the zipper was shot. I hadn't even checked that. (Mental note - start checking zippers on pants in op shops.) So I went off again after lunch to get a new zipper from Spotlight and another shirt from the op shop. So he had a shirt, he had pants, he had a tie.

He went in on the train on Tuesday morning for an 11:00 interview. By 11:20 he'd sent me a text saying he thought it went pretty well. He was home by about noon, and within about half an hour he'd gotten a phone call offering him the job. Which he readily accepted. (I sat here watching him talk on the phone, say a lot of yeses, and give me a big thumbs up.)

So since he's already working only three days a week at SEHS, Bradford is letting him start next week, just working Tuesdays & Thursdays for now. And he's finishing up at SEHS in about four weeks, during the school holidays. As far as I know his boss hasn't had a heart attack yet, but there's still time....

Of course the female half of the staff at SEHS is upset because now I won't be bringing Caleb (and the new bub) in to visit all the time.

I am writing this from keyboard number FOUR.

I had a glass of lemonade (what Aussies call stuff like 7-up, Sprite, etc.) sitting next to my computer. I forgot about it. I went off to do dishes or something. Next thing I know is Darrin telling me Caleb's gotten to my drink and spilled it. Of course I didn't think about the fact it was right next to my keyboard, till I sat down later and some of my keys were acting funny. So I tipped the keyboard upside down and banged it, and I got wet. And then more of the keys were acting funny. Argh.

So for the next few days till payday, I had to use a laptop. And when I bought a new keyboard last Friday, I decided to spend twice as much for a Logitech one, rather than the same one I'd bought before (which happened to fall on the floor with the help of a toddler and immediately broke one of the little feet on the bottom, oh, and he pretty easily pulled off the 'enter' key as well). And I didn't notice till I got home that the box said 'spill resistant,' so here's hoping.

Anyone wanna have a guess what I got through Freecycle yesterday?