There is a Boy

Cindy's daughter, Carina, came to stay a week with us. She brought her son, Cael with her. You see him above with a huge tomato from the garden. Cindy waited until he got here to pick that thing. They got here on Saturday, so I had some time to play before I went back for my second week at work.

The frog swimming pool is very cute. When you plug the hose into the back, you get a little shower of water in the front. Cael is still a little young to fully appreciate the shower effect. But he obviously has a love for frogs. To see more of Cael with the frogs, click on the link. He was singing a happy frog song, but wouldn't repeat it for the camera. Too bad. It was pretty cute.

Eric bought a huge fish tank with plans of Cael enjoying the fish. But the huge fish tank is up the stairs in Eric's office. Cael couldn't really go up there without accompaniment. So Eric moved his old smaller tank downstairs and included the special fish that he and Cael had picked up. This is Goldie. I told Cael I wanted a picture of him with Goldie. This is his pose.

We had a good time with our two visitors. One was exceptionally loud. He's just two and a half and loves to screech at all hours. The other visitor rode in to work with me a few days. She is lovely and a joy to travel with. I'm getting to know Caitlin pretty well. It was very good to spend one-on-one time with Carina.

I went for my interview on Wednesday. It was supposed to be tomorrow. I was supposed to buy a suit and have my hair done and look all East-Coast-Professional. But the VP wanted to interview earlier. I am his second choice at this point. He likes the woman he interviewed who is working on her MBA. I wonder how long she would stay. I'm okay with this. I have a prospect of a four week temp job in a nearby town. That sounds perfect to me. I hope I'm not second choice again, but you never know. The best thing about the interview was that I met the woman who currently holds that position. She is leaving to care for a soon-to-be grandchild. We have become friendly, she visited me twice in my office in McLean, bringing all kinds of information to further acquaint me with Booz Allen. I'm going to her going away tea next Thursday if I don't have a job by then. I'm going to go shopping for a suit on Monday and Tuesday. I found one that I really liked at Nordstrom's, but didn't buy it. The pant legs were long enough for Cindy. And the interview was the next day. I could get it now and it would be ready for the tea.

Settling in. At last.

Sister's Keeper

Karen had read a book by Jodi Picoult while on a boat in Alaska. I've seen this name before and, really, who could miss it when it is three times the size of the book title. She is always on the best-sellers list. Why. Karen wasn't too sold on the book she read, but she said it was engrossing enough for her to want to finish it. So, I got this book, My Sister's Keeper, based on my sister's shaky recommendation.

The story is about a girl whose life has been devoted to supplying various body parts and fluids used to keep her sister alive. Her sister has some very severe form of leukemia. I'm not sure what this story is like if you read it yourself. I loved the listening experience of this book. It is told from several people's point of view: The mother, the father, each of the sisters, a brother, and a few other key characters. There was a different reader for each character. The readers did a good job of telling their character's point of view. One Amazon review said all of Picoult's characters speak with the same "voice". I suppose their different voices and speech patterns hid that from me.

I was reading this in bed. Don't do that if you really want to know what's going on. I kept falling asleep. That just meant that I had to rewind and listen all over again the next day. One of those sleeping through periods landed me almost at the end of the book. And I didn't like that end. It was waaay too contrived. I was so disappointed. But I went back to find out what happened between. It was better. Now it's only contrived and a bit trite. Maybe predictable if you don't fall asleep while listening. It is still worth reading, but get it from a library or borrow it from a friend. It isn't worth paying for.

Going to the Dogs

Yes, my life is going totally to the dogs. These lounging ladies are the bane of my walking existence. Look at them lying across a doorway into the television room. They also lay in front of the door from my room and the door into the dining room, the entrance to the house once you pass the door from my room. They appear to be everywhere.

One of the joys of my life in Arlington is the weekly farmer's market at the courthouse. See the line on the far right? It continues around the van to unknown depths, since my picture is poor. But look at the sign I captured while trying to get a picture of Cindy in line - no dogs allowed during the farmer's market. Coooooool.

Today I went there and bought multicolored mini-tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, gooseberries, corn fresh off the stock, chanterelles, baby crimini mushrooms, mango peaches, an heirloom tomato, a boneless pork roast from a properly raised pig, a whole truely free range chicken and legs from properly fed and raised chickens. Cindy bought berries and peaches at the long line place and bread. The line was very short today. Hurray! The food was amazing at dinner tonight. Thanks to farmer's market, it is pretty easy to eat well here.

You may think that I have it rough with the dogs that block all my doorways. But look at what I saw this morning as I looked up the stairs to Eric and Cindy's room. These damn dogs are determined to kill someone. Don't they know that if something happens to us, they will be shown to the nearest dog "shelter" ASAP? That is, if I am the one who survives.

Peggy's Got a Job!

Yes, a job. For now I am doing temp work. I went in last Wednesday to see the Kelly Services woman at Booz Allen Hamilton about just doing temp work. I took a computer test the same day and scored very high - go figure. I would have had to seek asylum someplace if I had done poorly. Then I got a call the following Tuesday to start work the next day. Seems the temp who was in that job had a horrible toothache and was not often there. Tsk. First rule is to be there or decline the job. My rule, that is. I think that's the only rule.

I am working as an Executive Assistant. Read secretary. My first job is with a Senior Vice President at Booz Allen. This is the company where my sister-in-law works. I called my friends who do this kind of work to get advice and they both seemed to think I'd be okay. I'm okay. It gets to be a little boring at times because I'm only temping for the guy. This is interspersed with moments of horror when he asks me about stuff that I do not have A clue about. My favorite was when he asked for reservations at "Don Dominico's" in 10 minutes. No idea. I did my favorite thing, Googled. It is really Da Domenicos. I had called them in two minutes. Mind you, I don't know ANYthing in this area. What would I have done without the Internet? Without my best friend, Google?

I have an interview in a couple of weeks to work for a VP in the same firm. That might be more interesting. At least I won't have to pull out my Ipod to keep me awake.

And what have I been listening to? I read Modern Times by Paul Johnson. This is a very long book, so I read a couple of mysteries inbetween sections. This book was split into 6 sections by Audible. That means that it is very, very long. And why not? The subtitle is something like the history of the world from 1920 to 1990. That's a lot to cover. He does have a bias. This time we are leaning to the right. That's not the usual for me, but don't you think you need to be balanced in what you read?

I found it to be very interesting. In fact, it was sometimes difficult to switch to a mystery when a section ended. But I know my mind will drift if I listen to the same book for 37 hours. One very good thing is that he writes about non-European countries. I'd forgotten what was happening in India and Pakistan in the 70's. It's fascinating to hear that, now that India has started to do so well. It may be that I had a totally wrong impression of Indira Gandhi. Johnson did not care for her one bit. All this means is that I have to read more on the topic. Maybe I'll find a good book that tells about India's history for the last 60 years. Maybe something with a different perspective. Lean to the left, lean to the right.

All in all, I would recommend this book as a good starting place, or a place to give a broad overview/refresher of modern world history. One review I read on Amazon was very amusing. I guess a high school student had an assignment to read a section of this book. He found it very tough going because it was filled with French. The poor student was about to miss his deadline because the book was too much for him. But not for my friends.

One of the books I read in the middle of Modern Times was The Spies of Warsaw. This does it. No more Alan Furst. His story is an interesting little slice of life in the run up to WWII. Not a mystery, not a thriller, just a story. That goes nowhere. The last book I read by Furst was read inside out, I'd started on the second half of the book by mistake. It made no difference. I'm sure that would have been the same for this book. What kind of story is he telling that can be read in any direction? One the you would not want to waste your money on.

The Best Defense is yet another courtroom story by Kate Wilhelm. I did enjoy this one. I always like her stories, which are set in Eugene, Oregon. I think this one was on sale by Audible. It's one of her earlier stories, so the protagonist, Barbara Holloway, is moving in with her father at the end of the book and I could have sworn she was already there. This book starts out with a murderer who is impossible to defend. Can anyone tell how this will turn out? Even if it would be pointless for Barbara to lose, how she gets to the end is interesting.

So much to do before my interview on 8/25. Do you know that people don't wear jeans to the office here? The women wear suits! Culture shock all over the place. I swear I will try to hold on my Southern California roots. Maybe I'll have a pink streak put in my hair.