It's a Bust!

Well this whole day was a waste!!!! I wish I could just fast forward the remainder of the day and be done with it.
My "second" interview was terrible. I had a sneaky feeling that this company was trying to get sales people and I ended up being right. In fact, I nearly skipped the entire thing but Sgt Dad talked me into going anyway. When I got there I felt as though I was sitting in an Amway or Mary Kay presentation. Finally at the end of the "interview" they covered the "positions" they were "filling". EVERYONE they hire- to include "office staff" must get insurance licenses and do field work which means going to peoples homes to sell them supplemental insurance and working "retail hours". At the end of their multi-media presentation I was mad! What a phenomenal waste of my time. I told the guy in my first "interview" that I wasn't interested in a stressful job and wanted to be available for my children. What part of that sounds like I want to go into people's homes to sell them insurance and work until 9 pm???? How would that make me available for my kids??? So when they pulled each of us aside to ask us more in depth questions I let them know how irritated I was and informed them that I had NO interest in sales nor in working until 9pm. GRRR!
Then when we went to housing today (as we were told to do) the woman we were working with was in training. So, the manager "helped" us and of course had no information and told us to come back in the morning. I'm sure had we spoken with the woman who knew our case we would have had a more fruitful meeting.
The one bright spot today is we are planning on furniture shopping this evening. Some of you already knew that we discarded our sofa and loveseat before leaving NY and need replacements. We also need a computer desk or two. For those I will check thrift shops and yard sales. The sofa and loveseat need to be new. I wouldn't want to get home with one infused with cat urine- or worse. We'll soon see how bad sticker shock is up here.
Speaking of sticker shock- I spent over $17 buying lunch for Oldest Son and myself at Arby's last week! Yikes! Things are not cheap up here. We haven't shopped for vehicles yet. We are thinking that we'll make what we have last or buy clunkers. We are strongly considering a vehicle purchase for the boys to use. It would be nice if they had their own wheels.
Time to attempt the crossword for the day. See ya!

Breaking In

Well, Oldest Son endured his first practice. We had to stop and buy Aleve and Icy Hot. His pointer finger is either jammed or broken and this is just the first day. Hopefully it's just jammed. A broken finger would be the end of his football season I think. I'm glad to see him getting involved though.
Tomorrow I go for my second interview with the insurance company. Hopefully I'll know more about the position after tomorrow and whether or not I want to pursue it further. We also should get a solid move-in date for our home! I can't wait! I'm so ready to get to "normal" life
That's about it for the day- no big news.
See ya!

Fishing is to Alaska as Sunbathing is to Hawaii

My family attempted salmon fishing this evening. Oh those wily fish! We could see schools of them taunting us but they wouldn't oblige us by biting our lures. Oh no! They teased and jumped and swam but no biting. I guess we probably looked much like the cast of City Slickers out there attempting to fish. I found us under dressed- all the other fisher people were wearing rubber waders while we were wearing jeans and sneakers! After about two hours of unsuccessful casting we joined the ranks of those leaving without fish. We'll try again and as God as my witness (to quote one of my favorite heroines) we shall catch a fish! (hopefully it will be a keeper)
During our unsuccessful attempts at fishing we spotted a bald eagle! That was very exciting. I was amazed at how large it was and I have to admit that while I was quite thrilled to see it in it's natural environment, I was jealously watching the fish and wanting it to stay away from my fishing spot! Unfortunately in the rush to leave for our fishing attempt I had forgotten to grab my camera. So- no pics! If only there was a way for me to upload my memories as photos...
In other news, I bumped in the woman from the housing office at the shoppette this evening and she told me that she checked on our house today and to come see her Tuesday! Yippie! And what a sweetie that she is staying on top of that for us! Such a rarity to see someone who really enjoys her job! I will be running into her quite often over the next few months as her son is also a football player.
Speaking of football, Oldest Son is all set to start practice on Monday. We ran around today getting all the gear from his school, purchasing his cleats and other protective gear. So, he's all set and now he's got something to do and will be making new friends before school starts. I'm sure this will be quite beneficial to his mental well being.
No news on my job-hunt as yet. I'm not terribly worried. I don't really want to start working for another two weeks anyway. I'd like to be all moved in before I have to start putting my mind into a new job. I'm still hoping to hear back from UAA. I think I'll send a follow up email. Maybe initiative will put me over the top.
That's all she wrote for today!

Getting Settled

Well yesterday I got Oldest Son registered for football and practice starts Monday. All of the coaches seem very experienced and happy to have him join the team. I have to admit I was much relieved that these boys didn't look like NFLers already. Those southern boys were HUGE! Of course the last time Oldest Son played football he was a freshmen so he was quite a bit smaller. Today we have to go back to the school so he can be issued his equipment and Monday he starts twice a day practices. I am hoping that getting involved will pull him out of his self-inflicted doldrums. I am loathe to see him so sad.
Last night we had dinner with our friends from Japan. It was SO nice to be in a home again and eat a home cooked meal! It was also very nice to rekindle an old friendship. It's always a nice to suprise to run into someone you once knew- and liked! How dreadful it would be to run into someone that you had gladly left behind! Happily there are very few people that fall into that category.
Today we are going to attempt silver tail salmon fishing. Sgt Dad and I have no clue on what to do with the fish once it's caught. I hope the gentleman escorting us will be able to show us how to clean a fish. Alaska has some complicated and rigid regulations regarding fishing so I hope this guy knows the rules pretty well also. I sure don't want to pay a steep fine for ignorance. Hopefully I'll have some great fishing pictures to post tomorrow.
If all goes well, next weekend I'll be posting from my new home. I guess I better start figuring out where to get internet access. We tossed our sofa and loveseat before leaving NY so sometime this week we need to find a replacement. It's nice to get new stuff but shopping for large ticket items is such a pain because you always have to go to more than one store. I do realize I'm a woman and should love shopping- and I do but not shopping all day for one specific item. I can window shop and browse all day long but if I have something specific to purchase I don't enjoy going all over for it. Strange?? Someone should explain that to me.
That should cover all the news. I've got to get the boys up and showered we have lots of errands to run before fishing this afternoon.
See ya!

Civilization

Well, Anchorage is civilized after all. I found the "real" mall! Yeah! It's called the 5th Avenue Mall. It has all the stores one would expect from a major shopping mall. The only drawback I guess is parking. It's a big parking garage that is not free. Oh well, it will be nice in the dead of winter not having to hike a mile in the elements! It's probably as big or bigger than Marketplace but it goes up instead of being spread out. I know it seems simple and materialistic but I feel so much better knowing there is a "real" mall. I generally do most of my shopping at the PX and Commissary but it's nice to just go and shop sometimes. I also discovered all the tourist shops today. I can't wait to go exploring those.
I'm sure you're all on pins and needles waiting to hear the results of my interview. Well, I wasn't hired on the spot but that rarely happens. I guess I did very well and actually would not be surprised to be offered the position. I would think that unless someone with a background in an educational environment had interview I would be the top candidate. I am certainly well qualified for the position. We'll see how it goes. If it's the right job for me, I'll get it.
I totally lost my train of thought so that's it for today. See ya!

I Return to the Land of Muggles

Well I have a confession to make. I am a Harry Potter fan. I dragged my middle son, in the dead of night, to Borders to await the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series and waited and hour and 45 minutes for my turn to purchase the book. I was surprised that the majority of fans were college age. I thought from the media reports that it would mainly be youngsters around the age of 13. I was number 755 to purchase the book from this borders. I was surprised that there were so many fans. Not that I thought Alaskans didn't read, just that they wouldn't be interested in this book. When I got home at 2:20am from purchasing the book, I went straight to bed. I figured I would enjoy the book more after sleeping. When I awake after noon on Saturday, I dug right in and a mere 26 hours later I had finished the entire novel.

The book was excellent. I am amazed that any person could plan out 7 books with such intricately intertwined story lines! I will not post any spoilers here but I should warn you readers that there is alot more death in this volume and about half a dozen curse words. Nothing shocking and with parental guidance there shouldn't be a problem for children who are fans of the story. I must say this also- God bless JK Rowling for the epilogue. I'm sorry that the ride is over but it is a complete and whole story now. Everything comes together beautifully in the end.

Jumping tracks now- I have an interview tomorrow morning and I'm a bit nervous. I really didn't expect to start interviewing and looking in earnest for a job until I got moved into my new home. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.

So we have to "move" out of the hotel tomorrow unless someone checks out unexpectedly. Then we have our next reservation from Saturday all the way through to our (hopeful) move-in day. If all goes well we will move into our home here on the 1st of August. I am so ready to get settled.
In other news, I have an interview with the University of Alaska on Monday for an admin assistant position. Since I am hoping to continue my own higher education I am very interested in working for the university. I'll let you all know how it goes. I think I need to buy a pair of shoes and I'm debating whether or not slacks are a good image for an interview. I may purchase some kind of casual business suite for interviews. I guess it all depends on how rich I feel when I go shoe shopping.
I posted a couple pictures today. One is a cute one of Lexi all curled up with Sgt Dad. She looked so cute all cuddled up under the covers. The other is of the scarf I managed to knit. I need to add the tassles to complete it. It's not perfect which you all know drives me crazy but I think it's good enough and will keep me warm this winter.
The boys have school physicals on Tuesday and football practice should start on the 30th. Next week should be very busy with all kinds of paperwork and finalizing our move in dates. I guess I need to get serious about figuring out our telecommunications needs.....