Late May Update
Again, sorry for the lag between posts. Work and grad school have taken up a lot of old Pro’s time. But now I’m at home in the Philly-South of NJ being Dad to my youngest one while The Spouse is traveling in, get this — Argentina and Uruguay in South America for 10 days. It’s a trip she’s taking with a group from the college at which she teaches as an adjunct professor. She’s using it as some sort of educational experience in conjunction with her doctoral program.
I’m going back to work next week, then I’ll take the following week off as my first week of company-forced unpaid leave. (I would have used this week as unpaid leave, but we cannot take such leave during a week in which there’s a paid holiday, in this case, Memorial Day.)
Other stuff:
My bro is getting married to his youngest son’s mom. I haven’t posted about bro lately, but you might remember that he’d had a longstanding relationship with this woman while his late wife was ill. His wife died in March 2008 and the kid was born three months earlier. I’m pretty sure his two older sons are gonna be less than happy. While on the phone with him, he passed it to her, when she asked me how she felt about having her as an SIL. I was taken aback, but blurted out “Fine!” OK, I was lying. But I’m hoping to have a convo with the both of them.
I’m stepping up my search for another gig. My salary at the current job simply isn’t justifying the costs of me maintaining a house in NJ and renting a room in northern VA. And speaking of gigs, I’m using my unpaid leave week to take the Foreign Service Officer’s Test for the U.S. Department of State. The test center is in Philly. (Seems the available seats for this upcoming test period filled up quick in the DMV area.) Look, I’m almost 50 and haven’t been outside of the United States, save Tijuana, Mexico and Nassau, Bahamas. I don’t think San Juan, PR, counts since it is technically is part of the U.S. And the nice thing about foreign service officer gigs is that you can be hired up to your 60th birthday. I can’t wait to show ‘em my passport as ID when I report to the test center.
I’ve gotten into juicing. I bought a $60 Hamilton Beach juicer from Wal Mart (OK, so shoot me!!) a few weeks back and have discovered how great carrot juice tastes. And just yesterday, I made a slamming carrot cake out of the carrot pulp! My thing now is to juice oranges, apples and grapefruit and then blend the juice with a banana and frozen strawberries. It makes a great breakfast smoothie and helps with the weight control.
And speaking of weight, I’m still holding at in the mid-220s range while doing mostly walking in the mornings. I’d like in the short term to drop below 220.
That’s all for now. Peace.
