It’s been a busy few weeks
Blowing Out The Candles
Marin is now officially three years old! She picked out an ice cream cake for her birthday. It was pink with a grey kitten on it which I was pleasantly surprised about since at the shop it was brown in their cake book. But that is what she picked so I went with it to make her happy. The cake was very good. It had been a while since I had an ice cream cake. Yummy!
Marin's Cake Blowing Out The Candles
She received lots of gifts: more Legos, Kai Lan toys, coloring books and a bunch of games. She is starting to really get into the games. She has a Little Pet Shop board game I bought at a garage sale for probably 50 cents. We have gotten our money’s worth and then some on that game! For her birthday I bought her a Spongebob memory game and a Mickey Mouse yahtzee game. She is still learning the concept of yahtzee since its for 4 yr and up ages but she is good at the memory game. She has beaten me several times playing it and I don’t even let her win. It’s pretty embarrassing when a 3 yr old beats me fair and square. She had her annual checkup with her doctor. She weighs 35 pounds and is 37.5 inches tall. The doc told me she needs to be eating more fish and fruit. Good luck on the fruit! Marin does not like fruit even though she ate it when she was younger. I think her mind set is “Why do I need fruit to satisfy my sweet tooth when I can just eat candy?!” So I am trying to get the candy out of the house so she only has the fruit option. Let’s see how that works…(if you could see my face right now you know I don’t look optimistic!) But I think the fish part is somewhat doable. We went to Fish City Grill the other night and I asked her what she wanted to eat...of course she said mac n’ cheese because that is always her answer (I don’t know why I ask anymore)…so I started naming the items off the kids menu. To my surprise she chose catfish! I didn’t even have to coerce her into it. I’m thinking she eats fish at school and I am none the wiser about it. So I was very happy to know she likes fish…of course it has to be fried which defeats a little of our purpose but she is still getting the nutrients of fish! I decided to start buying fish sticks to put in line for her dinners. She tried some last night and loved them and now I think I will try and see if she likes tuna. So far so good on fish…fruit is definitely going to be the bigger battle.
We are starting to get involved in our HOA lately. We joined a committee for activities and communications for the neighborhood. We have another meeting tomorrow night at our house. We are planning a Spring Fling in April. I’m in charge of volleyball and horseshoes. Hopefully it will be a success.
I am enjoying the winter Olympics! Eric and I always love watching the games. Of course, my favorite is the figure skating but I like the skiing and snowboarding events, too. We want to actually attend an Olympics one day but don’t know when that will be. We seriously thought about the London games in 2012 but it’s just so expensive and such a short amount of time to save up the money needed to go since you have to make reservations way ahead of time. Maybe someday…
New Granite Sink
We have been on a home improvement kick lately. A couple of weeks ago we replaced our sink with a single basin sink and a new faucet. I was so tired of the double basin because I couldn’t fit any big dishes or pots in it and those items are the only ones I actually hand wash…everything else gets put in the dishwasher. So I am very happy with that purchase. This past weekend we just spontaneously decided to paint the office. Eric was already moving his desk to a different spot so I just told him he ought to move it to the middle of the room so we could paint. We always talked about doing it but never really planned it through so this was a perfect opportunity. We also chunked the ugly black curtains that were in there and bought new ones that look really good with the wall color. We will probably paint the guest room at some point. Next in line will be French doors to replace the sliding patio door in the back of the house. And then my big project that I feel is a must is making a true bar area out of that opening in our kitchen that looks into the breakfast nook. I can’t believe the builders didn’t just go forward with that so it would actually be functional. It will take some time and money so that is on a backburner for a little while.
Marin showing off the new curtains in the office
Having Fun In The Snow
We had eight inches of snow a couple of weeks ago. Like everyone else, we all decided to have a little fun in the snow.
She’s A Little Weathered, But Doing Fine!
Canon i550
We purchased the Canon i550 inkjet printer about 7-8 years ago. It is the only color printer that we own. We rarely have a need for printing anything in color, but when we do, I can depend on this bad boy. Like most inkjet printers, the heads occasionally clog up when not used for a long period of time. What set this one apart is that I can usually unclog the heads without a problem. The actual print head is separate from the ink cartridges which allows me to completely remove it and clean with warm water. That's right water! Even with the circuits on the heads! I just let it complete dry before putting it back into the printer. However, I must warn you. This printer is the only one that the warm water trick has worked. I have turned several printers (mostly Epson brand) into what I like to call "page counters" trying the warm water trick. Another plus of this printer (the main reason I originally purchased) is the low cost of ink. It takes 4 ink cartridges each cost individually about $10 or about ~$35 for all 4 in a bundle. Angela found some on the eBay daily deal site for $20 (all 4 colors), so we ended up getting a couple extra sets. Anyways...just had to use it again tonight to print out some labels for Marin's birthday party at school and it worked out perfectly.
Marin is turning 3!
Coloring Away!
Up For Auction
I finally got around to selling my old phone, or at least posting it on eBay. We'll see if it gets any bidders.
Marin is loving her new bed. I will have to put her old one on craiglist, maybe next week.
I applied for a particular job a while back. They just now are getting to the professional reference check and background check...slow application process I suppose. They notified me of a flag that popped up under the Crimlink + National Sex Offender Registry and it was their policy to bring it to my attention. Turns out there is someone in Missouri with the same first name, middle initial, and last name as me. Luckily, our name was the only thing we had in common! I used to occasionally get a letter about owing someone money. I would always call the number and they would ask if my last 4 digits of my social were XXXX. I would say no, and they would take me off the list. I suppose I have a fairly common name, or at least when it comes to certain types of folk. I have yet to receive a check in the mail and it was meant for a different Eric Bridges! Good news is everything else checked out on my background check...I graduated from SFA in 2001, no criminal records, credit report good, and I am still alive according to the Social Security Administration!
So I got that going for me...which is nice!
...So I got THAT going for me...which is nice.
Bill Murray, Caddyshack
Marin’s New Bed
Angela found a new bed for Marin last week. She found it off of craigslist and I was the lucky one that got to pick it up. Turns out a twin size bed will fit in an MDX with the rear seats down and the front seats moved up a bit. The lady kept it in great condition and with all of the pieces! I have put together several furniture items throughout the years and you can definitely tell a quality difference between them. This is a pretty solid bed, so it should last her for 4 or 5 years…at least that is the plan. Here are some picks, I gave myself a pat on the back since I had to put it together without any instructions and only a faint memory of a picture from the craigslist listing from a week prior.
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We are still sticking with the Tinkerbell theme. |
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 She LOVES the slide! |
 She had a routine of pouring herself a cup of tea, climbing up the ladder to the bed, sliding down the slide, and repeat. |
 And soon it was bedtime. She did very well the first night (last night). We asked her this morning if she liked her new bed and she responded with, “I like it.” |
Job Hunt
I am still going strong with the job hunt. I had 3 interviews this week, so it was a better week than most. One was a very brief interview with a head hunter/recruiter that was looking for a .NET developer position for a friend. I don’t think she typically handles technical jobs, so she really didn’t know what to ask me. She just kept saying, “Oh, I think you are perfect for what he is looking for.” So we will see what happens with that one. Another interview was with a small growing company needing mostly a programmer, but also someone that can get their infrastructure in order (as far as IT). We will see how that goes, but I am a little uneasy with the size of the company. He had 15 employees at the end of last year. He is “restructuring” and is now hiring employee number 4. (I was employee #4 at Marketplace Software and we see where that got me.) The last interview, which was actually the first of the week, was with a large company that contracts out technical services to other companies. I applied for a .NET Developer position. The interview was a technical interview which consisted of 2 guys taking turns asking questions about object oriented programming, .NET and SQL. Specifically about polymorphism, abstract classes, inheritance, implementation, .NET controls, stored procedures and SQL functions. And yes, finally someone that doesn’t care if you natively use VB or C# (pronounced “C Sharp”)! For those of you not familiar with the difference between VB and C#, I will give you an example. The difference is mostly syntax (meaning how items are written out). The two code snippets below do the exact same thing.
| for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) { WriteLine(i); } |
For i As Integer = 1 To 10 WriteLine(i) Next |
C# |
VB |
Can you tell what the program writes out? Doesn’t one of examples seem to make better “sense”? I think so, and I think it’s VB (Visual Basic). Yet 3 out of 4 companies will want a C# guy. Turns out 95% of C# programmers only have about 1 year experience right now (I was told this by a recruiter after they went through 150+ resumes looking for 3-5 years, not my statistics).
Here is another tip I have found while looking for work…craigslist! Two of the three interviews this week were from a posting on craigslist. Plus, I have found a couple of contract opportunities as well. I just finished one small project for a guy I ran across on craigslist. He was very happy with the work and has already given me another small project. And guess what language…you got it, C#…gotta do what you gotta do!
Changing It Up A Bit
I have finally got around to changing the site…again. The previous site used BlogEngine.net which was a quick and simple solution that served its purpose. However, the old site did not have many built in options not to mention I never got the email working correctly. The new site uses WordPress as the engine, which is very popular and mainstream. Most, if not all, of my friends use WordPress as a blog engine. Luckily when I signed up for hosting I chose a provider that offered IIS 7 because PHP (the technology that WordPress uses) is included in the new IIS. So I can not only host sites that I have created in Microsoft .NET (Wish List and My Resume), but I can also host site created in PHP like this one. NOTE: There will be some broken links to some of the images in the post until I can finish moving them over.
As Angela had mentioned in a previous post, I am no longer employed with Marketplace Software. The work itself was fun and the job wasn’t too bad either (working from home with flexible hours). The company was growing/expanding and doing well. Unfortunately, things caught up too quickly. When a payroll check was withdrawn from our account a week after receiving it, the downward spiral started. As of now, the owner of the company is working frantically alone to finish the next version of the software and has become unresponsive to employees and customers.
On a better note, Marin is doing wonderful! Although, she is getting to the stage where she says “No”…ohhhh booooyyyy. We had a Sunday Fun-Day at Lake Lavon yesterday. We swam, cooked out, and relaxed on blankets under a shade tree. We will have to do it again soon.
Daddy/Daughter Day
Daycare is closed to observe Independence Day so Marin gets to spend the day with me!