Susie's Meanderings

New Job!!!

Well, it's official. I'm not going back to sea (at least, not before October) because I'm once again gainfully employed. Now as to the details... well, I'm hoping that will all become more clear on Monday when I start. If anyone has read Citizen Girl... my parents say my description of the interview sounds like it's straight out of that book. Hopefully it won't end the same way however... all I know is it involves training and project management, so I'm spending my weekend with my head buried in "Microsoft Project, Step by Step", at 7 chapters a day, I should finish just in time. But the best part is the project rolls out in Europe and beyond this summer, and I "might have to travel". Yee haw! And here I thought I was bored with the roving life. Silly me.

Pictures!

Okay, I finally got around to uploading my pictures, here are the top 5...And may I say that I'm very glad that I picked the week of the cold snap to be in Hawaii?

Hawaii

For those of you who've missed my little travel missives, I'm back on the road, back where I'm sure I must belong, in someplace warm and sunny with good sushi. Actually three days in and today's the first day I've had sushi (but it was really quite good, the best I've had in a long time) AND the first day we actually made it into the water (it seems very very cold after Tahiti), but it's so much warmer than Seattle. Meanwhile, in the absence of sushi it's been a lot of Korean food, Ramen (NOT the kind you can get 6 for $1 at the supermarket, but the kind that they make fresh in big bowls), and Mochi with red bean paste. Now my parents have arrived and the fun and games are over. From here on out it's up at 6:30 for 7:00 breakfast, to get to Hanauma Bay the moment it opens for a full morning of snorkeling, which will be followed by a 2 mile stroll into town for a dinner of more raw fish. I may be too tired to write much.

Tax Time

Wow, it took a whole day, but my taxes are winging their way electronically to the IRS as I type. My enthusiasm for the project improved when I realized I was going to get a refund. Viva TurboTax! It was actually kind of fun, poring over my receipts, trying to remember... was Sydney this year, or the year before? Did Tahiti really straddle the New Year? Where is Stavanger? I even found one receipt written entirely in Thai.

There goes the neighborhood

The birds have returned with a vengeance. Though I live on the edge of a lake, apparently I still live in the city, because this morning a horde of English sparrows found my little deck, and looked as shocked as a group of sinners who'd found their way to the pearly gates. Next thing I know, the pigeons will find me, and I'll be hosting a mini Piazza San Marco out of my storage closet. Still, there's no such thing as bad publicity, and today the wrens and chickadees and juncos are all flocking in to be part of the crowd. I'd post pictures, but they all seem to be attuned to the sound of my camera turning on, and fly away at the least provocation.

Memeola

Okay, Jeanne has tagged me, and I must obey. And for an interesting discussion of memes, here's meme central

Four jobs I’ve had:
1) Waitress
2) High School Teacher
3) Administrative Assistant
4) Computer Trainer (that kind of counts as two...)

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1) Moonstruck
2) the Baz Luhrman Romeo and Juliet
3) Sabrina (the one with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart)
4) Anchorman

Four places I’ve lived:
1) Liverpool
2) Paris
3) Dallas
4) Seattle

Four TV shows I love :
1) CSI
2) 30 minute meals
3) Numbers (how does one make a backwards s?)
4) My name is Earl

Four places I’ve vacationed:
1) Hawaii
2) Venice
3) Kenya
4) Bandon

Four of my favorite foods:
1) Stinky cheese
2) Chocolate (the darker the better)
3) My Mom's pie (any kind, she makes the best in the world)
4) all forms of bread and cheese (pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas...)

Four sites I visit daily:
1) Flickr
2) Cooksillustrated.com
3) Neopets (only so I can stay current with my nieces and nephews, who email me there...really, it's not the games)
4) Aaron's Liberry..what can I say? He comes first in the alphabet...and he makes me laugh.

Four places I would rather be right now:

1) Bora Bora
2) London
3) Venice
4) Paris

and I can't tag anyone, because everyone else has been taken....

Wired

So I came back from my daily hour at the library to discover the lovely UPS man had delivered my DSL Modem. Yipee! So I trudged through the (apparently required) CD assisted set-up, which included lots and lots of flash video showing me how to un-plug my phone from the wall, insert a filter, and plug my phone back into it....it has further added all sorts of toolbars to Internet explorer (though not, I'm pleased to note, to Firefox) and now I'm surfing happily, AND the birds have decided to take pity on me and return to the deck to partake of my seedy largesse.

Bird Boycott

So I went home for a few days, and neglected to leave food out for the birds who have been crowding my deck in a feeding frenzy. I did leave a perfectly nice bird feeder up for them, but unfortunately, it got a little clogged in the rain, and since then, the birds won't have anything to do with me, even though I've all but coated my little deck in seed.
Anyway, I'm back at the library (which I have to say, is a very active and lively library...it's always a trick to find parking here), since my neighbor, who was so generously sharing his/her wireless internet, has decided to cease his/her generosity to the world at large. Sigh. My DSL is supposed to arrive Friday, and then what will I do for entertainment.