Weekly Round Up: Poetry and a Twist

A weekly round up.  Normally I say that the round up is "eats, workouts, watches, and reads", but this time around it's going to be "puppy poetry, watches, a lotta reads, and...hmm...there's something else that's new...huh there's something else that's happened that I need to tell you but I can't remember what it is right now...let me start writing the post and maybe it will come to me".

Puppy Poetry

When we first got Doggo, she would not let me brush her.  Then out of the blue she suddenly started to tolerate it, and thank goodness because shedding season has started.  I find myself reciting Baa Baa Black Sheep on the regular, or our version, which is Baa Baa Black Shep(herd).

I'm not a poet by nature, but as long as one sentence counts as a poem, I did have a small collection of "Stepdog poems" that I shared in her memorial post.  Doggo now has her first official poem:

My girl is sweet, and she has pretty feet.

Doggo has made progress by leaps and bounds in her training classes.  This weekend it was time to level up with a new challenge: a professionally supervised doggy playdate!  We took her to the doggy daycare place where we've been getting training for an evaluation to see how she behaves around other dogs.  She passed their test and was admitted into the small dog play group.  We got to watch her on a webcam playing with the other dogs and having the time of her little puppy life.  It costs $20 for a half day of doggy play, and offhand I can't think of a better example of money bringing happiness.  Someone has a regular weekend play date going forward.

Watching

A few months ago, my beloved Unspooled podcast did an episode on Terminator 2 which kicked off a Schwarzenegger movie spree.  I started with Twins, then Junior, then Kindergarten Cop, and a few weeks ago the Hubs and I saw True Lies.

Last weekend we finally got around to Terminator and this weekend we saw Terminator 2.  I just wanted to record that (1) these movies were excellent as remembered and (2) even though the kids would rather do anything else besides watch movies with us, even they were lured in by Terminator so it was an ultra rare family movie.

Reading

Friends, you know I've got books to dish on!

I went through a long streak where I was mostly reading Thrillers With a Twist.  Technically there is nothing wrong with that in the same way that technically there is nothing wrong with having the same thing for dinner every night, but it did get a bit stale.  To my credit I've branched out quite a bit in my reading and it's been forever since I've had Gasp!  The Twist that No One Saw Coming!

In possibly related news, it's also been forever since I've read a book recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy.  But when she touted a thriller called The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini, something made me sit up and take notice.

The book started strong, and had some cute Hitchcock references, and I was eating it up like catnip.  But then it started to drag a bit and the Hitchcock stuff became cloying.  To add insult to injury, another book came along and grabbed my attention.  I wasn't ready to DNF Woman on the Ledge just yet, but I was teetering on the edge of hate reading.  Gah, why was I wasting my time on this stupid book when I had another nice fat fish on the hook?

And then Gasp!  The Twist that No One Saw Coming!  It's so cliched to say, but out of nowhere I found myself respecting this run of the mill thriller.  So I'll leave it there - if you're in the market for a Thriller You Can Respect, this might be your book.

So what was this book that came along and stole my attention?  Well, my girl Nicole read Pete and Alice in Maine, which was a book that I liked except for the last chapter.  Nicole went into Pete and Alice looking for something like Lucy by the Sea and came up short.  I've been hearing Nicole talk up the Lucy Barton books for quite a while...and it finally clicked that it was time for me to check them out.

When I read I'm looking for a whale of a story where Things Happen and solid characters that I can get behind and root for.  My Name is Lucy Barton has the later and not the former - we hear about Lucy's life and get to know her, but if no one minds me saying so, nothing really happens.

And nothing needed to happen.  By page two I was hooked.

As soon as I finished the last page, I immediately jumped on Libby and checked out book #2, Oh William!  This is a longer book where More Stuff Happens, but mainly we get to hang out with Lucy and William and that's all that is needed to make another exquisite book.

After Oh William! I'm taking a pause to read another Linda Castillo Amish murder mystery (Breaking Silence), and as soon as that's done I'll be making a date with Lucy by the Sea.

That Other Thing

Oh yes, I finally remembered that other thing that's happened that I needed to tell you about.  It feels like such an anti-climax to tell you that after two years of looking and a lot of grousing on the blog about it, I got another job.

I was at the point where every interview felt like a bad date and I'd stopped looking.  I firmly resigned myself to staying at my current job and being bored out of my mind for the next year while I mull leaving the rat race (yes I want out, I'm just being a responsible adult and/or I'm scared to take this big step).

So anyways, there was a Big Deal VP at my current company who left soon after I started and as far as I know he didn't know my name.  Except that he did so when one of his VP Buddies at another company was looking for someone who does what I do (an accountant who specializes in payroll), he told her where she could find what she was looking for.  She slid into my DM's on LinkedIn.

At first there was nothing special about this company except that it had a cute name.  My first convo with the VP and the recruiter were boring as mud.  They both asked what kind of money I was looking for, and I flat out told them what I was making plus $10k.  I figured that would end the conversation, but they sent me to talk to more of their folks.  That was where the magic started to happen and I found myself sitting up and saying "whoa you people are not like all the other people."  Then I got to talk to the Veep again and finally the CFO.  I found myself feeling "hey you guys are fun and I know what you need and I can do that for you" feels.

The CFO asked me to 'splain my salary number, which I did very bluntly.  I knew in my heart that this was the last I would be hearing from them.

Two days later the recruiter emailed to ask if we could have a call so that she could "give me an update".  Yep, I can smell a Dear John call from a mile away.  Either she was going to tell me that I hadn't gotten the job or she was going to make a lowball offer.

Nope.  Gasp! In the Twist that No One Saw Coming! they offered my number plus $5k plus some stock options.

Perks include not having to pay an arm and a leg for health insurance, lotsa vacation, and a $300 per quarter personal stipend to do whatever with.

Here's how they shake out on my list:

They don't have unlimited PTO, and between you and me what the company does is boring, but I guess I can let that slide.

Anyways, I'll be starting the new gig in a few weeks.  My current company asked if there was anything that they could do to keep me, but accepted defeat gracefully.  I've offered to help out until they can replace me (always leave on good terms/always make a play to squeeze an extra paycheck or two out of your previous employer). 

So nothing has changed except that I might possibly enjoy my job again during what I'm planning on being my last year in the workforce.  I'll keep you posted.  I'm still in a daze that after all this time I finally got a job.  Life is weird.

Peace out!  Who's read the Lucy Barton books?