Been a while, huh?  What did I even write last?  I remember starting several entries and never finishing them.  Did manage to post a thing or two about the cutest granddaughter on the planet, but really, time has been tight.

Started a “year in review” post too.  Here’s a bullet list of the highlights.

January – Cold.  Working, driving to finish a project that has a jello-like requirements document.

February – Trip to Cancun.  Trip from hell.   Air travel delays, lost luggage, stolen property.  Lost a day in Mexico and some valuable jewelry.

March – Notified I was being laid off, given 6 months notice.

April – start job search.  Still working like a mad fool.  I blame being in shock.

May – blank. Again, I blame shock.

June – Tour de Cure.  Rode my 3^rd Century (100+ miles in one day.)  this year, teaming up with some friends gets us through the course in 5 hours, 53 minutes of actual “ass in the saddle” time.  Time on course was closer to 7:30.

July – Eric & Kelly get married.  IT was the hottest week of the summer – by far.  150 people absolutely swamped the cooling systems at both the church and reception hall.  We muddled on.

August – 2 family reunions – both weekend long events.  Cindy & I also marked our 30^th wedding anniversary.

September – the 6^th was my last day of work.   29.5 years of work in the same organization all done.  Had several interviews for positions locally, but no solid leads as yet.

October – pick up contract work (12 months) with a local radio manufacturer.  Pay is pitiful, no vacation, no holidays, no sick days, but the work environment is good.

November – Little Avery Jennine finally appears, making parents of Zach & Jill and new grandparents of Cindy & I.  There were some minor difficulties along the way, but the little peanut came through it all just fin-e.

December – Talk about wheels of progress grinding slowly – a place I interviewed with in August wants to (finally) do a third interview.  A week after the interview, they made an offer that beat the hell out of what I was making on that contract job.  Put in my notice 12/23 that I’d be done 1/6.  Due to start the new gig 1/16.

January -  Left the contract position.  Killed the week+ in between jobs by bolting off to Cancun again.  This time we got caught for an extra day on the return leg.  I managed to catch an ear infection (probably from snorkeling at Xelha), but in Mexico you can get antibiotics without a prescription!  Hit up a local bodega for some ear drops and things weren’t too bad.  Showed up for my 2^nd ‘first day of work’ in 3 months and get to be “the new guy” aaaallllll over again.

And here I sit, kinda tired of reading IEC/EN/IECEE specs & regulations.  My first real in the field training will be 1/24 & 1/26 where I learn to strike fear in the hearts of QA managers  in local factories when I get to call them and announce that their semi-annual factory inspection is due – I’ll be there in 30 minutes.

Also need to get my ass to the gym.  Haven’t been there in 6 months and it shows.  My pants are a leetle too tight.  Rather than buy new, bigger pants, I’ll re-introduce myself to sweating.  Be nice to get ready for summer, this years Tour de Cure, maybe the Philly Livestrong ride, and tons of commuting to work.

For the record, my new place of employment is literally across the street from my gym.  The new plan come spring is ride to the Y, get in cardio & weights, cool down & shower up, pedal very easy across the street and start the work day.  For longer rides I’ll take the long way home instead of the very, very short (4 miles) direct route.

Will there be more & better blogging this year?  I hope so.  I’m trying this one from my new work laptop using Word’s direct link to WordPress. The new machine has all the spiffy new Windows 7 and Office 2010 tools.  It’s taking some getting used to, but I’m starting to like it.

Better run- – more later.  Really!

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Miss Avery at T + 1 hour

Great-grandma (my mom) getting her first bit of quality time with the peanut

Miss Avery Jennine made her rather raucous appearance in the wee early hours of Nov. 20, 2011. Her initial stats were a healthy 7lb, 3oz and 20.5″ long.

She gave everyone a bit of a scare while nursing during the night. Jill noticed her lips & tongue turned blue. Little Avery was hustled into the “Special Care Nursery” (NICU) and put on oxygen boost in a little tent. Her oxygen sat numbers recovered nicely. She kept having episodes of low O2 Sat numbers, mostly while she was nursing. After a day or so and having run most every test known to man, everyone came to the conclusion that the problem was a combination of position and neck strength. With a little coaching the kids learned which positions were best for little Avery. It kinda came down to not letting her chin get pinched down to her chest. That helped keep her airway open and really resolved the low oxygen issue.

Jill was officially released from the hospital on Tuesday the 22nd. She and Zach stayed at the hospital the entire time, either crashing in a nursing room or grabbing the “family” room in the NICU. We did talk them into going home once or twice to grab a real shower, a fresh set of clothes and a real meal. We even got them out of the hospital long enough to have Thanksgiving dinner. You see, the NICU’s policy was that a baby had to have 72 consecutive hours free of any low oxygen issues before they would release her. Avery’s last episode was 4pm Monday, meaning she could be released 4pm Thanksgiving day. Along about 1pm the kids had a talk (by phone) with Avery’s doctor. In the conversation the doctor said that she was against doing any late in the day releases and the hospital was very firm about their 72 hour, no low oxygen rule. All that meant that Avery wouldn’t be released till Friday morning. Reading between the lines, it meant that the doctor wasn’t leaving her house and/or Thanksgiving dinner to come in and sign the release papers.

But. Friday did come; our little peanut did get released and is now home safe, sound and doing really well. So far she nurses like a champ, has a great appetite and pretty much only cries when she’s hungry or needs a little burping. I forgot just how tiny newborns really are. What’s really amazing is just how quickly they steal your heart.

Oh. You probably want pictures, huh?

Well, hell. Either WordPress isn’t letting me add pics to this post or I’m having some firewall issues. Imma try to add pics at home tonight. For now, just know that grand daughter #1 has landed. Pics at 11.

Oh. There was a product testing outfit I interviewed with back in August. They had an upper management shake-up and decided to hold off on filling the position. I was bummed because it would have been a lateral move pay wise, I knew all the guys in the lab, it was close to home & my gym, and it was a lateral move pay wise (did I mention that?)

Well, yesterday I got a call from the regional manager. Seems upper management is once again interested in filling the position and he’s interested in finishing the interview process we started 4 months ago.

For $12K a more a year, I have no problem giving my current employer 2 weeks notice. I’m here on contract, which means they view me as temporary. If I do get an offer from this interview, I’ll show my supervisor the offer and give him a chance to match it. The 2 week notice part will be implied, but I’ll make it official too, just to be clear. $12K, benefits, holiday pay & 4 weeks vacation? I think he’ll understand.

Just heard from the kids.  Thursdays cervix scratching has produced contractions, but they haven’t progressed into labor.  They’ve just left for the hospital to have Jill’s water broken.   Looks like we’ll be learning our grand daughters name within a day or so.

Can I still call them kids once they become parents?

Today marks the 35th annual “Great American Smokeout”. I quit 2,643 days ago (Aug. 22, 2004 @ 7:00pm, but who’s counting?) which was not that years smokeout day, but I wholeheartedly support the effort & sentiment.

If you know and/or love a smoker, gently urge them to try quitting, again. All they have to do is keep trying to quit – one day it’ll happen. The thing that helped me the most was taking a series of classes offered by my HMO. Those classes armed me with the information I needed to prepare and deal with the hurdles & pitfalls one encounters while breaking that addiction.

Every smoker will quit someday. Just make sure it’s on your own terms, not because it killed you.

On a brighter note – NO GRANDBABY YET!!! I think she’s built a bunker up in Jill’s belly and isn’t going to come out until she’s kindergarten age or something. C’mon wee one – the world isn’t THAT scary a place! (is it?)

Holy Crap! Still alive, busy at work, putting the finishing touches on the bathroom project (finally!)

This contract work where I am is not too bad. The work is good, the people are good, the company is solid. Love to get picked up full time at the end of my contract. Hate to go through the job search cycle again.

To be sure, I am still looking. Haven’t heard back on that in-person interview for the field engineer spot. That outfits website still lists the position as open, so maybe? We’re pushing 2 weeks now though, and I got the impression a decision was going to be quicker. Maybe I’m #2 and they’re waiting for #1′s negotiations & background checks to clear before they close everything out. If that’s the case, I hate being #2. In any sense.

I desperately need to get back to Al Anon too. It would be primarily for my own good, but it might be the kick in the pants Cindy needs to realize that she’s heading down the same path she was on several years ago. She tries to blame me for being closed off & uncommunicative without realizing that her lack of sobriety is the catalyst. Denial is strong in that one.

If you would like to kick my butt in “Words with Friends”, shoot me your player name or Zynga number and I’ll look you up for a game. My kids are kicking my butt right now.

Better run, reports don’t write themselves ya know . . .

Out this morning picking up a few groceries and hitting up Home Depot for a new grout float. 

Saw this VERY manly front loader in the HD lot.  I noticed something on it about breast cancer support.  That thing could support quite a breast.

Guess which way dinner went?

Saw these on the parking lot at work Monday morning.  Lucky for the deer, it really isn’t a huntable area.

Going through all the requisite paperwork for starting a new job.  Much different than it was 30 years ago.  I-9?  Not a road but a form complements of Homeland Security.  Then there’s a background & credit check.

This afternoon I have a drug test.  Anyone want to come over and help me cram for the test?  Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I took anything for fun.  Even the Vicodan when I had my shark bite was absolutely necessary – not recreational.

Anyhow.  Paperwork complete, time to tile.

The interviews Friday morning went pretty well. Felt like I connected with the interviewers, passed all the technical tests. Even remembered what a Smith chart was & what it represented. (It’s a plot of reactance & resistance -vs- frequency. You all remember that from your college days, right?)

The interview session consisted of 4 back to back 45 minute segments. Each interview covered different areas, but there were areas of overlap. They finished with me at noon. As I left their facility and got my phone fired up, I learned that I was getting peppered with messages from another company for a local job. Glad I had my phone powered down.

Once I got home, I responded to the requests from this other outfit (Field Engineer job working on X-Ray equipment). Have a phone interview with them Monday afternoon. Decent paying, interesting job.

Late Friday afternoon I learned that the place I interviewed with that morning will be extending me an offer Monday. This should be good news. But. The position is for a 12 month contract, it pays 20% less than I had been making and there is no guarantee that I’d be extended or picked up permanent after the initial contract.

Once I heard about the pending offer, I contacted the recruiter at TUV (my favorite place) and filled her in on the situation. I told her about the pending offer, my preference to work for her outfit, and also asked her if she had any insight into how much longer this process may take.

My bottom line is this: I’ll accept the contract offer, AFTER I get a copy of the contract to read over. I need to see what the escape clauses are. Because I will keep pursuing these other two positions, hell, ANY other higher paying, direct hire positions. If & when one comes along, I’ll give my two weeks notice and jump ship. It rubs me the wrong way to do that, but the job market has turned mercenary. I need to look out for my own best interests. If this first outfit wants to avoid this kind of situation, they might want to consider direct hire rather than contract.

At any rate, my extended vacation looks to be over. I’ve got a week to pound out some progress on the damn bathroom (counters are coming in Wednesday!!) I’ve also got to re-learn how to get up at 6 or 6:30 and get my day started at a reasonable hour. Sorta unlike staying up typing an entry at 1:20am. So I’d better get off to bed and start practicing, eh?