Dogs Rule ... at least tonight and tomorrow night

The Westminster Dog Show is hot! So far the Hound group and Terrier group... now the Non-sporting dogs. More later.

The SCOTTY won the terrier group. The SCOTTISH DEER HOUND won the Hound group. The PULLI won... and can't remember the 4th.... will post the results later gater.

2/10 tuesday night

Well the dog that I didn't expect won best in show. The Brittany Spaniel age 10!!! I was so rooting for the Scotty. I LOVE TERRIERS. But I'll take an Irish Wolfhound rescue dog or a puppy terrier like cairn, westie, wired hair fox terrier, aussie terrier, basically any of them except another Jack Russell. I did my time with a wild dog... the young ones are SO high energy that they run circles around you. Even if you're 29 like I was... he was exhausting and so strong and strong willed... and puppy humped everything in sight until I had him neutered. He never forgave me.... but I'm a responsible pet owner that spent probably 5K in medical care on my Blarney JRT and another 1000 on Natchez our 12 yr old German Shepherd adoptee that lived to be 15. NEXT time, I'm buying pet health insurance. DOGS cost lots to keep, feed and keep healthy.

I want a scruffy mutt terrier, a westie, a cairn, a scotty, a wired hair fox terrier or a huge Irish Wolf Hound (couch potato dog). Chuck wants one of everything.... NOT. We will have to settle on one to adopt AFTER I get a new job. That's our goal and we're sticking to it. .... Unless there is a Irish WH to rescue at the North Texas Irish Festival. THEN all bets are off. I hope to have a new job SOON so that I can afford to adopt a puppy and a young dog too. LOVE 'EM. Watch out BeeGee (the cat) here come the DOGS.

Who let the dogs out..... uff uff, who let the dogs out.... uff, uff
(my fav rap song)

Ciao internet and good night!

Job Searching and Networking via Internet tools!

It's not easy work... Doing a job search takes time, energy, enthusiasm, attention to detail, follow through, follow-ups, note taking, research, communication skills, analysis, reading-reading-reading, connection making, networking and more. Luckily I've cultivated a very large network of friends, family, Toastmasters, co-workers, former bosses, college friends, high school friends etc. I think I can put together a network of 200+ people to help me with my quest for a new job and/or career.

THANK YOU internet!!! Thanks e-mail!!! Thanks to Linked In, Facebook, blogging, web pages that are free from my ISP and more. INTERNET I would like to kiss you today. Also a big round of applause for Microsoft Word, Excel and Internet Explorer. Tools like Yahoo e-mail, calendar, contacts, Google, gmail! They are all terrific. Oh I forgot twitter, bloggers and assorted online only friends!!! Woo Hoo!!

Resume

Click on the title to display my online resume site.

Resume is almost ready!

I'll post it here soon so that readers can help find me a new job. I'm also going to setup a new web page for my job search to post my resume without my home address included.

Strange Cat Noises

My cat likes to sit near me when I'm on a computer, preferably next to the keyboard or on my shoulder. In my home office (spare bedroom) she has to jump up and walk across the printer. Which caused one to break! and so I had to buy a new and better one for less money than the broken laser printer - I got a multi-function printer/fax/copier/scanner from HP. Any way, there's a bed in the room too since it's one of our guest rooms. She likes to sit on the edge of the head of the bed and look out the window which goes almost to the floor. The front bushes cover most of the window but I have raised the blinds about one foot and there is a small area where she can see the world from the window. Tonight she was sitting there and started making a weird growling hissing sort of noise. I looked out of the window and a twin black cat with collar was looking in at her. I guess she wasn't pleased. The visitor cat went on his/her way when I went over to look at it. Cat make strange noises!

Retirement vs. Laid Off - not much difference

I've got a number of friends who received STRONG suggestions that they take "the company's" early retirement package. These are people in their 50s, who still want and/or need to work. The Turk came to visit them too. But they didn't get a choice: take the package OR wait and see if you win/loose the layoff lottery. Not a good choice any way!

We all knew that "the company" was going to do a layoff. I guessed it last year several months back. I knew that when they announced the early retirement program starting in December, with a deadline of acceptance of January 23rd, that a layoff would follow. I just didn't know THE DATE of it.

Well, the retirees have had a couple of weeks (at least) to say their good-byes. I didn't get an hour to say mine. I really wanted to be able to say good-bye to my dear friends and co-workers at "the company" where I worked for TWENTY years of my life, Dec 1988 to Jan 2009. I got my freaking GOLD badge and parking pass in December 2008. It got ripped away on January 27, 2009. Rather ironic that I really wanted the privelege of having the stupid gold parking pass to park a few rows closer to the building. VERY IRONIC.

"The company" will not be the same place, ever again. Too many GOOD PEOPLE are walking away or were booted out the revolving door. I keep hearing more and I'm starting to be glad that I was shown the door. At least the anxiety and stress of worrying about when the layoff would come is over. So is the stress of the current reorgs at "the company". It's a totally different place.

Yes, I miss my GOLD BADGE. I freaking earned that little piece of plastic. I gave them at least 15 good years and 5 not so great ones. It averages out to a pretty good career there. But so many of the retirees and laid off people were EXCELLENT folks that were put out the door before their time.

PS. I kept the DART pass. F*** them! I deserve it.

PPS. Remind me when their stock goes up. I need to SELL all my stock in "the company" as why be an owner of a company that kicked me to the curb. SELL SELL SELL!!!

When the Turk Comes to See You...

Here's the excellent article about our layoff that my DH (dear husband) had published in the Dallas Morning News local options section today...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/east_bloom_0201edi.286ce78.html

Friends are the Best

I've had some really nice emails and phone calls from my friends. Lots of sympathy about my job loss. Today one of my BFFs bought me lunch. Two friends came to lunch and both wanted details about my "package" and shared info about what was happening at my former office. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Bits of information keep popping up. The names of people no longer there. The new jobs that people have been slotted into. I'm not sure that I would like working there any more. It seems that people have been haphazardly tossed about into different teams and positions like so many mix and match Legos. The new reality of corporate IT hell. IT wasn't the only area with major cuts. The denizens of bldg 2 who produced a brilliant product that hasn't totally worked out suffered the same or worse cuts than bldg 1. That's just the location that I worked at. There are many more buildings on the sites in Dallas proper.

I'm getting used to being an outsider (to my former company). It's different but the stress and anxiety of wondering what was going to happen and when have all vanished. I'm hopeful that my job situation will work out for the best. I'm not one of those people who say, "Everything happens for a reason." I don't believe in that theory of life. I guess I'm more of the school of chaos theory. There is no such thing as fate or good/bad/mysterious reasons for things to happen. We make our own way in the world. The future happens one day at a time. It's up to me to determine my course of action. I can do it. I'm a survivor and veteran of many crisis' past. So, I'm optimistic that I'll learn some new lessons along the way and somehow things will get better. And I'll be happy that I have friends who care!!!!

Living Through A Historic Day

I can't believe that this day has come finally. It's one of those moments in history that we'll be reminded of again later. Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. I watched his swearing in and speech.

It's the first time that I've cared enough to find a TV and watch this type of event. What does that say about me? Usually I pass on all political speeches. I did hear Bush's post-9/11 speech sitting in our rental car on our honeymoon in Hawaii. The juxtaposition of being at one of the most beautiful beaches and listening to the President address the nation made it one of my personal historic moments.

Today is different. It's a NATIONAL historic day. Our President is now someone who will stand against torture. Hopefully he will bring our long and agonizing war in the Middle East to an end. We all pray that he and his administration can pull our nation out of this devastating economic crisis. We have HIGH HOPES for the future. I pray that we see those hopes become reality.

Two of these things have something in common: water heater, my left foot, my laptop

Do you remember those pictures from your childhood? Which of these things belong together? Well my water heater broke last week and so did my laptop (hard drive, yes, backed-up, being restored by an IT professional as we speak). My foot however was judged to be merely sprained yesterday during my two hour visit to Prima-Care near my home. Thank God, for them, otherwise I might still be hobbling around thinking I might have a broken foot bone. It hurt enough sometimes to be broken. But himself said that it wasn't. I decided to let a DOCTOR decide if it is or not. Yeah!!!