Bonanza of Minutia

Despite well-meanng advice, I haven't made much of an attempt to find a new job. I have continued to learn, and there is no doubt I know significantly more than I did at the start. I have made a few phone calls recently that I wouldn't have made earlier, and have sent out a few faxes and emails that didn't need so much correction, but for the most part my writing still requires heavy reworking. I am still not at a point where I have skills that would make me truly marketable.

The week before last we had a madatory celebratory dinner that ran til 11:30 PM (read: I got to bed at 1 AM) in a week where I was overloaded. I still am furious, but I just had 1,5 extra days off and I am OK for the moment. My scheduling this week is going to be tight because of the vacation days, but perhaps I can rack up a little comp time for the move. Last week, I wound up back in the office Thanksgiving morning, which I was supposed to have off - doing recalculations for a project I thought I had finished weeks ago. The higher up who had signed off on the project was speeding away to Switzerland, but his failure to process my "It won't work like this" meant I was in the office wanting to scream "Happy $%&$ Thanksgiving" under my breath from 7:30 to noon Thursday.

But then I was swept off to little America by my sister mg or the Mooslet and MG and all was right with the world . . .

Everyone else at the office is a bit swamped, too. We've been offered "too many" projects, and the normal down-time of the year (sauere Gurken Zeit) is going to be anything but - apparantly it was last year as well, and that was one of the reasons I got hired. So here we are.

But we are in good health, my parents and in-laws are in good health, my sister is here, and we are moving. There are things I want (even more than better kitchen tiles) that we haven't gotten yet - but for the next 15 minutes, I have a bit of space from it and a little peace.

off to write some Christmas cards in my 15 minutes - take care ya'll

Backblog Part I - House Hunting Links

A great deal going on here, without a whole lot of forward movement. How can that be?

We are looking to

1. buy a "Bleibe" (house or apartment, not yet decided)
2. replace my Dell which is just a few final boot-ups from paperweight city
3. buy a car
4. perhaps move somewhere else while continuing to rent

I have been really inspired by Christina G.'s recent post on American food, and will try to add links to useful sites we are using in to resolve problems 1-4.

It's a lot to do and Mr. Moose, a.k.a. My German, spends a lot of time with his nose tucked into ImmobilienScout and the newspaper, the BNN.

The local classifieds listings can be read in a weekly paper called Sperrmüll, but all the hip kids know that the listings can be accessed from your (for a fee) by computer at Quoka.de.

I have also run across Kijiji, but can't offer an evaluation. There wasn't much there that was helpful for us, but this is true of Craigslist as well.

Here is a web site on which houses are sold without a makler - but the geography is wrong for us.

Here is a nifty apartment we found, but the distribution of the rooms wouldn't work for us and the street is not terribly desirable. . . but it's so cute!!