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Sunday, September 25, 2016

Pretty garden, movies, interviews and more

IMG_20160924_151237So it's officially fall. First few days were still more summer like but now over the weekend the weather has definitely turned more fall-like. We took advantage of the nice weather and decided to do something outdoors yesterday. Checked out Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY after our friends John & Jana went last week. Their pictures looked really nice so we decided to go this weekend and definitely weren't disappointed. What a neat place. Had fun wandering around and looking at the pretty landscape designs. 

Today we are going to head to the movies in a little bit to see "The Magnificent Seven". Should be a good movie. Probably going to head to lunch somewhere after and maybe catch up on some TiVo shows later. Finished "Stranger Things" on Netflix last night. What a cool series. I can't wait for them to make a second season. How cool!

This past week was filled with more interviews and I have another one coming up tomorrow morning at 9am. Fingers crossed that something positive will come out of these interviews soon. :) I will report back as soon as I have something more concrete to write about. :)

Other than that not too much going on I suppose. This past Monday we went out to lunch with our British friend Robin and hid dad who's visiting him from the UK at the moment. Was a nice lunch.

We will see what this upcoming week brings. I have the one interview scheduled so far. Other than that have a few errands to run, a letter to write, etc. Also just started a new book that I want to continue reading ("A Scone to Die For", Oxford Tearoom Mysteries Book 1, by H.Y. Hanna) Trying to make the most of my time at home while I can. Might as well enjoy myself in between the job search, interview prep and whatnot. :)

Well, off to the movies. Will update when there's more news on the job front. :)  

Letter/Mail Update: Received a letter/owe a reply to: Lotte/Denmark.   

Posted by Hanna at 10:59 AM in Outdoors | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday, September 17, 2016

NYC & the vet

IMG_20160916_124454Decided to take advantage of having Friday free (no scheduled interviews or other appointments) and took the train down to the city. Perfect fall weather. Cool-ish in the morning and nice/sunny later in the day. Had a great day walking along the High Line (a park they created on tracks of an old elevated train-line - really cool), being outside, people watching and whatnot. I love the areas/neighborhoods the High Line runs through. It ends in the Meatpacking District so we wandered around there for a while and eventually made our way into the Village where we found a place to have lunch. It's really difficult picking a place to eat cause there are just SO many places. I think you could literally eat a different place for breakfast, lunch and dinner in NYC and never repeat a place in your whole lifetime. We of course have our favorites we go back to but sometimes we're in the mood to try something new. 

We ended up eating at a place called Upright Brew House on Hudson Street. I had a mozzarella & tomato sandwich with a yummy side salad and Mike got a grilled cheese with fries. Neat selection of beers, ciders and wine. I tried a cranberry mango cider from upstate NY and a sparkling rose wine from France.

Today, Saturday, we had the vet appointment for Mindy at 7.45 am. I was stressing about getting her into the carrier as I had to cancel her last appointment when I couldn't get her into the carrier. I since bought a new carrier on Amazon (this one, a top-loading one) and I have to say - that made all the difference. It was still not fun by all means, but at least I stood a chance this time around.  Managed to get her into the carrier, got her to the vet and back home safely. It wasn't a fun trip, messy and stressful, but at least it's done now. Clean bill of health, updated shots - we're set for another year! 

Just relaxing at home now. Quiet Saturday night in for me. Made myself a big mug of tea and am going to read. Currently about half way through Susanna Kearsley's "Named of the Dragon" and am really enjoying it so far. Not really surprised because I have pretty much liked every book I have read by her. Of course some I like better than others but in general I really enjoy her as an author. 

Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment.  

Posted by Hanna at 06:46 PM in Cats, NYC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Job Hunting & Interviews

PixlrCan't believe that it's already Thursday this week. Somehow this week has flown by completely. It's been a whirlwind of phone interviews, in person interviews, back and forth with the staffing agency and whatnot. 

Of course it's a good thing that my job search is now progressing into the interview state which is making me happy. I applied to various jobs over the last few weeks, both on my own and through a staffing agency (someone I used before at my old job when I had to find employees for my department), hoping that those applications would turn into interviews. Of course not everything did but things are moving along. I pretty much interviewed with one place or another, either over the phone or in person, every day this week. Another interview today at 1pm. And one more set up for Tuesday next week so far.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that one of these things ends up panning out. I do have a favorite among the jobs but I don't want to post about that here just yet. I don't want to jinx it. Let's see how things go first. Job hunting and interviewing can definitely be pretty stressful. It's interesting in some ways too though. Intriguing to see different businesses, how they run and operate etc. Having worked at the same company for the last 14+ years I haven't done a lot of job hunting or interviewing so it's interesting learning about all the processes. I have only been on the other side of it, interviewing and hiring at my old job for my department. 

Well, let's see how things go. I will keep posting as things progress.  This coming Saturday we have another vet appointment scheduled for our cat Mindy. Let's hope I can get her into the carrier this time. Fingers crossed for real for that! I bought a new hard shell carrier that's top loading so hopefully we can get here into there a little easier that way. 

The weather has been pretty nice. It feels fall like today. Brisk blue skies, a little breezy and cool. Supposed to get warmer later, mid 70ies F (23C), so should be pretty nice. Maybe we can get down to the city one of these days, pending how the job search and interview schedule continues. 

Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment.  

Posted by Hanna at 10:42 AM in Weather, Work Stories | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, September 11, 2016

9/11, Happy Birthday Dad, Everclear/Taste of Danbury, Art and more

PixlrToday marks the 15th anniversary of 9/11. I had only just moved to the US permanently a bit over a month prior to 9/11, now I have been here for 15 years. Fifteen years, it's so strange to think that it's really been that long. I remember that day as if it was yesterday. And still, there are teenagers who weren't even born and adults who can vote in this election who have no memory of it. It's so bizarre to me. I guess every historical event at one point moves into the past, it's just weird experiencing it first hand.

Today is also my dad's birthday, which of course is a much happier occasion to think about. My parents are currently on vacation in Switzerland & France and seem to be having a really nice time. Got to talk to my dad today and he had a nice day. 

This weekend was the Taste of Greater Danbury. It's an event that we used to go to almost every year but haven't really done so the past few years. They used to have food stands from quite a lot of local restaurants so you could have a chance to sample dishes from various area eateries. But over the years the selection seems to have dwindled so much. This year there were maybe 6 food stands, nothing that stood out whatsoever. The rest of the stands/booths were a completely random mix of vendors, anything from political campaigns to ceiling fans. So odd. 

The reason we decided to go again this year was that for some unknown reason they got Everclear to play. Mike's been a fan of them since the 90ies and I really enjoy their music too. It was really strange seeing a rock show locally within walking distance of where we live. Had a great time watching them play and hanging out with some friends. Curious who they are going to get to play next year but I feel like this will be hard to top. Anyway, if you are interested here are the links for the songs I recorded: Father of Mine, Brown Eyed Girl, I will buy you a new life and Santa Monica. 

Today Mike & I went to New Haven to check out the Yale Center for British Art. It's free and we had never been before so we figured it would be a neat place to spend some time. The area around Yale is actually really nice, where the rest of New Haven is kind of crappy. But we had fun at the museum and found a neat place for lunch called Prime 16. Fun day. Now we are back home, bought some cheese & crackers at the store, and going to catch up on some of our recorded TivO stuff and Netflix. Should be a nice ending to the weekend. 

We will see what next week brings. I have an interview tomorrow at 2pm and also waiting to hear back from one of the staffing agencies about another position. Fingers crossed. Let's hope something works out. :) 

 Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment.  

Posted by Hanna at 06:10 PM in Food and Drink, NYC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Hiking, being outsmarted by a cat and other stuff

PixlrHappy Labor Day weekend to all my US friends. It's kind of weird to me because it's really no different to me than any other day at the moment as we aren't working. It's the first major holiday in forever where I wasn't worried about work, arranging all the schedules, figuring out which customers to call when, worrying about staffing and route scheduling and whatnot. It's really kind of weird. Also most of the CT schools have started back up as of last week. Also kind of surreal for me as I used to keep close track of all the school schedules, organize start up milk deliveries and all that. 

I guess I will see where I end up in the future and if the holidays will have any kind of bearing on my job or not. At Marcus it definitely always meant a lot of extra work whenever a holiday rolled around. This past week I applied at a bunch of different positions (at a Dutch cheese company, a pet relocation company, a rug importer among others) and also saw a job at a honey importer that I want to apply to. So far no interviews but we will see how things go. Something will happen sooner or later, just have to keep looking and stay confident and positive. 

This past Wednesday I had a vet appointment scheduled for Mindy, to update her shots etc. Well that didn't go quite as planned. I should have known that Mindy was not going to be cooperative. I couldn't get her into the carrier. She was so mad, hissing/growling, I was sure I would have ended up scratched to pieces if I continued trying. So I had to call the vet and cancel the appointment. I since ordered a top loading hard shell carrier (the one we had was a soft material with a front loading door) so I am hoping it will be easier to get her into that. Will need to assemble the carrier over the next few days and then make a new appointment for her. Wish me luck! 

Yesterday we went for a nice hike at Bear Mountain Reservation. It's right here in Danbury but for some unknown reason we had never been there before. It was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, especially the part that led down to the lake (quite steep) but all in all we had fun. Nice to be able to spend some time outdoors. 

The weather has actually been pretty nice these past few days. It's supposed to rain as the storm makes it way up the coast but so far it's not even cloudy. We are inland so I think we will be lucky and hopefully won't really have too much of an issue. Heading out for lunch in a bit and later will relax at home watching movies or catching up on TiVo. We will probably end up doing the same tomorrow on the holiday. Then back to the job search on Tuesday. 

 Letter/Mail Update: All caught up with my mail at the moment.  

Posted by Hanna at 11:33 AM in Cats, Nature, Outdoors | Permalink | Comments (0)