Jobs

When we last talked about jobs, I was doing a temporary assignment for the State of Arizona in the unemployment office opening and sorting mail.  I started in May 2020 and it was supposed to be a 2 month assignment.  

I'm still there (but not much longer).  A month ago my hours were cut to 4.5 hours a day (work slowed down; some days hours longer if there is work to do) and the department moved 15 minutes further away (by the State Capital, Myra).  Longer commute and we park in the basement. Its nice because the car doesn't get heated up in the sun, but its freaky in the basement. I'm a bit claustrophobic and I keep imagining everything collapsing on top of me when I'm parking. 

So as a result I've been looking for other jobs.  

In my work over the last year regarding unemployment, two reasons  other than Covid seemed to be very prevalent in someone losing their jobs. The two reasons were attendance issues and not being a good fit.  Attendance is not a problem for me.  I rarely (never) call out.  Regarding a good fit I carefully look at each job I apply for and see if I have matching qualities, if the job is close by, and if it is something I want to do.  

So for the past month I have been diligently looking for jobs.  I've probably applied for about 30-50 jobs.  I tried to apply to at least 1 job a day if I had matching qualifications.  I don't hear from the majority of jobs I've applied for, but below represent the ones I have heard from and my take on them.  

1.  Auto dealership looking for a file clerk/data entry position.  Listed as entry level. Sounded interesting until the lady who called for an interview said I would often be lifting 50 pound boxes and have to climb ladders to retrieve boxes to store data in.  I said physically I couldn't do that job (if the job posting had mentioned that, I wouldn't have applied for the job).  

2.  Position looking for data entry as entry level breaking into the healthcare field.  Found out in the interview no data entry was involved but heavy phone/call center with calling people to see if they got their durable medical equipment after their hospital discharge. I don't like being on phones all day so I politely declined proceeding with the rest of the interview. 

3.  Position looking for again medical data entry through a staffing agency that was a direct hire.  Seemed like a wonderful opportunity but they wanted me to use present supervisors and past supervisors as references on the initial job application. I was not going to do that so I didn't proceed with filling out the application.  

4.  Doctor's office advertising for a medical transcriptionist but really wanted a scribe. At the interview when I realized they were looking for a scribe (one that goes into the room with the doctor to see the patient) rather than a transcriptionist (one that types up what the doctor has dictated on a tape or similar device) I said I wouldn't be a good fit.  

5.  This one frustrated me the most.  Applied for a temporary job doing data entry for the health department in the vaccine department, specifically in relation to the Covid vaccine.  Sending requests of vaccination records out, that sort of thing.  100% data entry, no phones, and they said work could be repetitive and tedious.  That didn't bother me.  Opening and sorting mail is repetitive and tedious.  So I got a call from the staffing agency but the minute she found out I worked for the state of Arizona as a temp and used a certain software system for keeping track of my hours, she said she couldn't talk to me any more (my assignment currently is through another temp agency).  Apparently there is some sort of "gentlemen's agreement" between staffing agencies who staff government jobs here that they will not "steal" employees away from another agency.  I cannot apply for any jobs through this agency until my current assignment ends.  I can't even resign my job with 2 weeks notice and then apply for a job through this agency.  The assignment has to be completely done and I'm released from it.  I understand policy and procedure but its frustrating.  (Now I can work other positions from other staffing agencies, not just a government job here in Arizona).  So I have to wait it out until this assignment ends (open ended time for its completion) before I can work with this agency on a government temp job.

6.  The one I really wanted but "got away from me."  This one was also data entry working for a company that did background checks.  Again it was listed as tedious and monotonous which I thought I could handle.  Had the interview, sat down with one of the employees who showed me the ropes of what they do and thought I really want this job.  Ten minutes away from where we live.  Easy commute.  Its been 4 weeks and I haven't heard anything so I'm pretty sure I got eliminated.  I can pretty much guess my age was a factor. Lots of young people.  I get it.  But again its frustrating.

Its truly been an education this time for job searches.  Half of it lies with what is advertised for the job and what is expected of the job when (if) you get contacted.  And again like I said above, age is a factor.   

I didn't give up.  I kept applying.  I kept working the reduced hours at the unemployment office and I just waited (and prayed).  

And take hark! Good news!  

This past weekend I saw a temp job for an imaging specialist.  Simple requirements.  I applied and I got it pending my background check, which I'm thinking I'll pass with flying colors!  It is a 5 month contract but the company uses a lot of temps so my recruiter said there could be possibly more assignments after this or even a temp to hire type position.  And its 15 minutes from the home with significantly more money than I'm making now! Thank you Lord (I knew He would take care of me, it was just a matter of time, even if it took a long time; He always provides).  I start next week after my background check clears.    

When I was applying diligently for jobs I applied for a job for the State of Arizona in the Child Protective Services division.  I figured I wouldn't be called for an interview based on my age but lo and behold I did.  I had just accepted the temp position I'm starting next week so I turned down the request for the interview.  I wouldn't have gotten it anyway.  I've learned a lot about working for the State as a temp this past year.  My age and ethnicity would have not worked in my favor.  And there is a lot of favoritism within their system.  Enough said.

I believe I am right where God wants me to be! 

So, looking forward to new adventures!  And I'll let you all know how it goes down the line!  Super excited for this new position!

random corgi pictures

 I accidentally deleted my last post about odd assortment of pictures.  I know I can try to restore it, but I'm not going to, LOL. 

Instead, you are going to get random corgi pictures! Lucky you!

Redecorating his crate yet again.  

Using the ledge as a pillow.

Looking at his tennis ball that he shoved under the pool fence.  In a minute he'll bark for me to go and get it.  Look for that post about tennis balls coming soon.

Just chillin'

Spending sometime in the sun/shade; probably looking at a bird flying by.

Surveying his domain.

Getting a treat at puppy class.

Have a great rest of the week and the weekend ahead! Next week's post - jobs!

Wally Burger

We have been living in Phoenix now for five years and had driven by Wally Burger a lot before we tried it.  It is located in a strip mall close to a Target store very close to where we live.  The strip mall has an appliance store, cake decorating store, Great Clips hair cutting store, a Payless Shoes that went out of business, a smoke shop and Wally Burger.  

Wally Burger has been voted best hamburger in the Phoenix area for several years and they really are very good.  

The theme inside the small restaurant is super heroes and there is a lot of Avenger memorabilia all around the store.  It is simple in the tables there for sit down eating, but lots of room for small groups like church groups to gather.

We ate there with son/family a few months back.  Grandson (wee one) likes the Avengers and has all the action figures.  Sonic is his hero but Avengers come in as a close second.  

After he ate and we adults were chatting, I gave him my cell phone set on pictures and told him to take pictures around the store.  He took close to 30 pictures (don't worry I'm not sharing all of them) but here are some that he took.  At the time he was about 4-1/2 years old.  I think he did pretty well taking them.

Spiderman with Captain America's shield in the background. 

The Incredible Hulk.

Groot and Rocket Racoon.

Not sure - if anyone knows, let me know in the comments.

The burgers are served on Hawaiian rolls.  You can get a Keto bun or no bun option.  They are high in calories, but we treat ourselves to Wally Burger about once every 2-3 months.

This is what I usually get.  The Beef Burger Combo.  One patty with choice of toppings and cheese at no extra cost with French fries and a 20 ounce drink. 

Yummy!! 

One time after getting our hair cut at Great Clips we walked down to Wally Burger a few storefronts away.  When we saw this sign, we knew we had to eat there soon and that's what began our love of their hamburgers and their place.  I'm not 100% sure but I think the owner of the shop who is there a lot cooking is the preacher at this church.  We'll check the church out some day.

Since I follow them on Facebook, I saw over the last several months two incidents when they were open on Sunday afternoons from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a limited menu to raise money for local charities.  I guess volunteers man it during this time and all proceeds go to the charity chosen.  Last Sunday was such an event.  We had just eaten there Saturday, so didn't participate in this fundraiser but hopefully the next one.  The previous one raised $1000 for the Phoenix Rescue Mission, something near and dear to my heart.   

If you are ever in Phoenix and want to try a Wally Burger, let me know.  And if you aren't into burgers, they have a very extensive menu including pizzas, salads, sandwiches, deep fried desserts and so much more.  Would love for you to be our guests :)

Prep time

Maybe it is us, but when we are making a recipe, especially a new one, our prep time is never what the recipe says it will be.  In fact, it is usually at least double the prep time if not sometimes three times the prep time.

For example, a few weeks ago we made this new to us recipe, Zucchini Tomato Casserole.  As you can see in the picture below the prep time says 10 minutes.  

Here are the directions (which you can also get from the link above as well as the ingredients).  

• Preheat oven to 375˚F.
• Grease a 9-inch baking dish with a little butter. Set aside.
• Prepare the cream cheese mixture by combining cream cheese, milk, basil, and ground nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside.
• Layer half of the zucchini slices on the bottom of the baking dish.
• Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.
• Add a layer of sliced tomatoes over the zucchini slices.
• Sprinkle with half of the garlic and half of the fresh basil.
• Add a layer of HALF of the cream cheese blend over the tomatoes; sprinkle with half of the shredded Italian cheese.
• Repeat one more layer of zucchini slices; add a bit of salt and pepper.
• Repeat one more layer of tomato slices; add the rest of the garlic and fresh basil.
• Spread a layer of the remaining cream cheese mixture and sprinkle the rest of the shredded Italian cheese.
• Dot with slices of butter.
• Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until mixture is bubbly, browned, and veggies are tender.
• Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes.
• Garnish with fresh basil; cut and serve.

The zucchini was cut into round slices and the recipe called for 2 zucchinis to yield the needed 6-7 cups needed.  We got 4 pretty good size zucchinis and it took 3 of them to get the 7 cups.  The tomatoes were cut into slices.   The recipe called for heirloom tomatoes.  We couldn't find them at the store so we got beefsteak ones and they worked fine.

So hubby and me were making the recipe together.  I cut the zucchini and tomatoes and at the same time he was doing step #3 on the directions above, preparing the cream cheese mixture.  Before we had started, we got out all the ingredients we would need.

Then after the cream cheese mixture was made and the zucchini/tomatoes cut, we started assembling the casserole, steps 4 through 12.  He primarily assembled while I handed him things he needed.  

All in all, it took us 40 minutes to get it ready to go into the oven.

Not the 10 minute prep time listed.

Here's the finished product out of the oven.  

The recipe said it was for six servings but we cut it into four servings and had some sausage with it.  We had leftovers the next day.  

It was good and tasty and we'll make it again.  Next time we'll serve it with chicken I think for variety.  

As I always do when we make a new recipe, I write down notes on it for the next time we make something.  Notes like "needs a bit more spicing" or "consider using frozen veggies instead of fresh".  Things like that.  This one I wrote "40 minutes to prep".  

And this happens constantly and continually with us.  I wonder who comes up with these prep times?? Or are we slow preppers?  

polar opposites

 

Being a musician is so exhausting!! 

Winslow likes to be very near to hubby so when hubby was practicing guitar, Winslow had to get in on the act too.  Almost looks like he is playing with the pedals! 

Hubby said it was very challenging playing but he worked around Winslow.

Yes, Winslow is very spoiled.  Perhaps more than our previous corgi, Koda, and that was one spoiled dog :) 

Koda was such a mellow dog except if he was around motorcycles, buses, trash trucks, and other dogs then he would wildly bark.  We used to call him Cujo during those times.  At home he basically slept a lot of the day away.  He didn't really initiate much play or really wanted to play.  I would walk him 45 minutes to an hour in the morning and in the evening hubby and me would take him for another long walk too so he got plenty of exercise.  He had an amazing sense of time (probably because I was bad and gave him food from the table) so he would nudge me around noontime when I was working at home because he knew that was my break time and he would come around us at about 7:45 p.m. to let us know it was his dinnertime at 8 p.m.  He also knew when hubby was due home from work and would lie at the door waiting for him.  Of course he sometimes did it at 10 o'clock in the morning when hubby wouldn't be home until 5 p.m.  He also laid by the door waiting for son to come home at curfew.  Curfew was 10 p.m. on school nights and he was at the door waiting at about 9:45 p.m.  He was the "perfect" dog.  He was calm enough to sleep on the bed with us at the foot, but would wander up to my pillow after I got out of bed (I was usually the first one up).  Sometimes he would wander up earlier to my pillow when I was still in bed but a gentle "its not time yet" would get him to move back to the foot of the bed. 

So after we lost him and we started at times talking about getting another dog after our year of grieving was over, I was hesitant because I kept saying we would get the dog from hell, like totally opposite.  Kind of like parents have the first "perfect" baby then their second child is the exact opposite.  That was my concern.  

I was right.  Winslow is the exact opposite of Koda.  He is hyper and very energetic.  He wants and initiates play constantly (watch for a post down the line about tennis balls and fetching them).  He is most active between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and its like trying to run down energy on a hyperactive child.  We don't walk him at night because of safety issues so we'll take him to the dog park to release some energy.  He, unlike Koda, likes dogs.  Koda didn't like to be around any other dogs.  Winslow is friendly and likes to play with other furry friends.  We tried to get him to walk on the treadmill and had a trainer come out and help us, but he didn't take to it too well and now he avoids the treadmill room, fearing he'll end up on the treadmill again.  For those who wonder if it is safe on a treadmill, it is for dogs if done the right way and there is even a mobile service here in the Phoenix area that will come to your house, get your dog, and run it on their treadmills in their van.  

I can never imagine him sleeping on the bed with us.  Koda started to at about a year old.  Winslow is 15 months old.  He sleeps in a nice size crate in our room with plenty of room to spread out and I think he sleeps quite contently.  

Koda loved car rides and would sit in my lap faced out towards my window.  Of course if a bus, motorcycle, trash truck or loud vehicle came up by us then he would bark and go crazy, but otherwise he was perfectly content to look out the window for literally hours.  Winslow is getting more used to car rides but he likes to perch on hubby's right arm and look out the front window.  We haven't done many long rides with him yet but plan to slowly build up to them down the road (no pun intended :) 

So, yep, polar opposites.  Both loved, both spoiled (though like I said above I think Winslow is a bit more spoiled).  

Both Koda and Winslow favored hubby over me, but I think Winslow does it more since hubby is home with Winslow now that he is retired and before I was home with Koda and now I'm out working.

One thing I know for sure.  I won't have energy to get another puppy and more than likely Winslow will be our last dog.  

We are getting good at this

BC (before Covid) and BW (before Winslow) we had a nice routine of family get togethers with son/family.  Saturdays we would pick up the wee one (grandson) at around 3 p.m. and have time alone with him at our place until about 6 p.m. when his mom and sister would come over for dinner.  They would leave between 9 and 10 p.m.  Mondays (or whatever son's day off was at the time) the family would come over for dinner and when it was swimming season would swim in the pool.  

Then Covid hit and of course in the beginning we didn't get together but six weeks into it, I had enough of not seeing family so we started getting together and continued the dinners with pretty much the same schedule as before though we missed a few here and there with different things happening.  

In October I realized the wee one was afraid of Winslow.  Now Winslow has incredibly high energy and a very excited bark and he jumped a lot as a puppy (we have worked on that so he doesn't now) but it frightened the wee one.  Took me a few months to arrive to that conclusion that he was afraid of Winslow and after doing some reading, I found it wasn't that uncommon so we started crating Winslow while we were eating and then afterward I would go and play with the wee one in another room, Winslow came out for a bit and then went back into the crate when it was time to go home.  Things worked out good and the wee one relaxed being here.  I figured down the road we would work on getting him to be less afraid of Winslow and we worked on controlling Winslow's behavior like his barking and his jumping up on people.

Then in November the family was over for dinner and my DIL was sneezing and coughing through the whole dinner.  I finally asked her if she was okay (I'm thinking Covid) but she said "I think I'm allergic to Winslow."  Apparently she had symptoms before when she was over but they weren't bad and during summer/swimming season we would eat inside, swim outside, sometimes Winslow being outside, sometimes not.  So her symptoms were easier to control then.  

Of course I felt bad for her misery with her allergies so we devised to still get together but at their house on the same routine of Saturdays and Monday nights.  Saturdays we pick up fast food and bring it to their place and spend some time with them.  

Mondays we decided to cook and bring a meal over.  We've gotten pretty good at planning things that will travel well and how to pack them up to transport them. It can be challenging to come up with things that all can eat (kids are a bit picky here and there and son has some dietary issues where he can't eat red meat).  If I plan an "adult meal" that I know the kids won't enjoy then we stop and get 2 medium pizzas from Domino's.  Here you can get a medium 1 topping pizza for 5.99.  Grandson likes cheese, step granddaughter likes pepperoni.  So one for each of them.

This past Monday on the menu was:

Avocado Ranch salad kit (it was good)

Two bags of it fit into the lid of a disposable aluminum pan that we didn't need the lid for whatever we were transporting before.

Barbeque chicken made in the crockpot.  Super simple recipe.  Basically barbecue sauce poured over the chicken and cooked for 4-6 hours on low.

Chicken rice.  Two packages of the Knorr chicken rice.  

Stove Top stuffing.  Made in the microwave (comes out really good).  

We bring along paper plates and plastic utensils and we are good to go.  We only live 10 minutes apart so the food stays warm while driving over there.  

Its not the perfect system but presently it is working.  We high five each other and say "we could be caterers" (not really).  

Swimming season is just around the corner so not sure how we will work it out this year with DIL coming over.  Grandson had been coming over a few times to spend time here with  us (Winslow in crate at times) and it had gone well.  

DIL is thinking of taking a Benadryl before they come over.  She was allergic to a cat they had but their Jack Russell mix she is not allergic to (perhaps because it doesn't shed).  

In the meantime, despite the efforts, we always agree it is good to get together and spend time with each other!

(Side note.  I was informed from FeedBurner who manages the follow the blogs by email feature, that they are phasing this out by July.  So I added the followers blog button to my blog so you can follow it if you so desire and thereby get notices when I do a post.  Sorry for all the confusion).  

The Thumb

A few months ago son was potentially looking for another job.

I won't bore you with the details.

But something I enjoy doing is research and researching jobs seemed like a good thing to do.

So on Craigslist I started reading what was available.

And found a listing for a cook at The Thumb.

Now names intrigue me.

Names of blogs.

Names of restaurants.

Just names in general.

So when I saw The Thumb listed of course I had to check it out further.

It really is interesting.

A gas station but so much more, kind of in the middle of nowhere here.

You can get an oil change and other work on your car while you wait.

A meal, a store, and so much more. 

Lots of coolers here made out of interesting things.  Like this.

You could do your Christmas shopping here. You would find something for everyone on your list.

Not sure what this was but it did get my attention.

Another cooler.

An aquarium.

And food! With breakfast served all day!

Wine -- a favorite of mine!!

Cards galore!

Toys!!

Play some chess while waiting for your car

Lots of services available.

 Very interesting place.  A little drive for us but we enjoy our drives.  We'll eat there sometime soon and discover it a bit more :)