Interviewing

Over the past couple of weeks I have been interviewing potential candidates for intern positions within my department. Mostly I enjoy this job. I find it interesting to meet new people and see how prepared they are and to answer questions and make them feel comfortable about the interview process.

Today I had my first experience of having to tell a candidate no. Actually I did not officially tell her no yet - I copped out and said that we were still interviewing potential candidates and I would let her know next week. This is all true, but I am 95% sure we are not going to hire her. I am the type of person that really wants to see people succeed so it is hard to turn someone away, even though I know they won't be a good fit.

I have a couple more interviews and hope that we can make a decision sometime next week... we have been crazy busy and it will be a huge relief to have someone come in to help shoulder the workload.

Night at the Museum 2

Inventors Digest, the monthly magazine that I work on, is being featured in the movie Night at the Museum 2. For our February issue our editor contacted the creators of the movie and asked if we could feature Larry Daily (Ben Stiller's character in the movie) in our issue about Hollywood and inventions. We were all thrilled when they agreed to this. We just received the issue and I am really excited about it. The cover art turned out great and it is exciting to have such a big name grace our little magazine.

 

Locked Out

Since Daniel and I started driving one car we normally only carry one set of keys between us. Every day as we are walking out the door we always ask each other if we have the keys. Once we have confirmation that one of us has the keys we turn the lock and shut the door behind us.

For some reason this morning, as we were headed out, neither of us asked this important question. I pulled the door shut and we looked at each other with the realization that I had just locked us out of the house and car.

In a futile attempt, Daniel went around back hoping there was a key in our secret hiding spot, knowing that it wasn't there.

Then we discussed our options:
1) Call AAA and have them come unlock the car. Then we would have access to the garage door opener and could get in the house.

2) Call a locksmith and have them come and break the door knob off of our front door.

3) Break one of the paneled windows out of the garage door and crawl through it.

4) Try to use a credit card to break in through the front door.

After discussing we agreed that we would try the credit card first and if that didn't work we would call AAA.

I dug through my purse and found a flexible discount card to Office Max that I don't use... Daniel jimmied the lock in less than a minute. Two thoughts ran through my head: I was glad that it was so easy to get to our keys and head on to work. But it was also a little unnerving that it was that simple to get into the house. When we are home we always throw the dead bolt but for some reason we never do when we leave during the day. I think we will start using the dead bolt more.

Moral of the story: Use the dead bolt AND keep extra keys somewhere.

Outdoor Adventures | 2008 edition

This was the year we worked on our house and did a lot of bike commuting. With the economy in the toilet, it seemed like a good year to spend on two wheels instead of driving our cars everywhere.


January
First Bike Ride of the New Year | Charlotte, NC
AND First Climb of the New Year | Charlotte, NC

March
My Introduction to Bike Commuting | Charlotte, NC

April
Neighborhood Bike Ride | Charlotte, NC

May
Bike Commuting Continues | Charlotte, NC
Wipe Out | Charlotte, NC

June
First Alone Bike Commute | Charlotte, NC 

August
Perseid Meteor Shower | Charlotte, NC 

September
Turkey Creek Campground and Panther Creek Trail | Almond, NC
Biking for Groceries | Charlotte, NC

October
9 Day No Car Experiment | Charlotte, NC
Night Riding | Charlotte, NC
Blood Clot and a Hospital Stay | Charlotte, NC

Unpacking... kind of...

Daniel and I have been in our house for over three years and through our whole renovation process we have managed to use the basement as storage for all of the boxes we have yet to unpack. A part of me feels like we should toss them all since we obviously have not needed them in the past three years but another part of me is glad we haven't tossed them because we are finding all sorts of forgotten things.

So why are we moving and unpacking boxes after three years? Well we are trying to get the house finished and the basement is one of the last big projects. The bathrooms remain top of the list of big projects, but since they must be done in stages we figured we could go ahead with the basement.

We have spent the last couple of days sorting through old boxes, unpacking some and making a massive Goodwill pile. A good percentage of the things in the basement have been transferred upstairs. We don't really have room for this stuff upstairs so this process is a little overwhelming. Now every finished room seems to be overflowing with boxes and stuff... where did it all come from? I will be glad when the basement floors are finished and we can truly unpack and move everything back downstairs.

On a happy note I found my food processor... I almost bought a new one at the store last week, glad I didn't do that.

The Penguin

 

A while back (probably around Thanksgiving), Daniel's younger sister, Emily, and her husband, Josh, mentioned that they were thinking about swinging by our house on the way home from visiting Josh's family in Virginia. We are always up for company, so we of course said they should come.

Emily also mentioned that she had seen The Penguin featured on the Food Network and that she was interested in eating there. Daniel and I had never actually eaten there either, but had had many people recommend it to us so we figured it would be a good place to eat.

When they got here, we spent some time showing the house renovations and explaining the progress to them. Then we headed to The Penguin. We didn't have to wait too long (which is good since the line got kind of crazy after we were seated).

We started off with their famous fried pickles and were not disappointed. The food was great. Atmosphere was perfect. And we had a nice visit discussing our future hopes and dreams. Interestingly we have some similar thoughts on building future houses in the mountains but that is another story.
 

As always we love company and it is always a good excuse to clean our house. We are still plugging away at our projects and dust seems to reign supreme because of this. Realistically I am not sure when we will be finished with the house because Daniel has to take the Professional Engineering Test in April and is supposed to devote 20 hours per week to studying between now and then...

Tiling in Wintertime

For some reason our major tiling projects have fallen during the coldest times in the year. Not that Charlotte is a very cold place, it just seems to be extra cold when we tackle a tiling project.

Two years ago, right before Thanksgiving, we tiled our kitchen. Tiling when it is cold outside is actually a plus because while you are working inside you aren't sweating profusely. However the clean up is a real pain, especially because it is normally late in the day and you are dead tired and having to clean tools outside in frigid temps with little light (thank goodness for headlamps).

So here we are, the first day in 2009 and we are tiling our master bathroom. Today feels like one of the coldest days we have had this winter. This morning the water in the hose was frozen and we had to mix thin set in our bathroom. Then tonight, after ten hours of working, we found ourselves outside cleaning tools and hoping we wouldn't get frost bite or pneumonia.

The good news is that we have made really good progress on our bathroom project. The bad news is we still have a lot of work to do.

When we tiled our kitchen I remember that we had the discussion that tiling must be similar to giving birth... the process is extremely hard on your body (painful) but when you finish and get to enjoy the final result, you forget all of the pain you endured.

As soon as the bathroom is complete, I will post more pics... it will probably be a while though.

 

Shower progress so far...