THE HODGEPODGE OF RANDOM STUFF

Let's see ... I've got a few minutes here ... so let's rock together.

Been busy around here prepping Susie for a job interview.

She loves her current job, she's happier than she's ever been in a job setting.

But two weeks ago a friend called her to say that the friend's brother worked for an up and coming business that needed someone like Susie to fill a position there.

Susie sent them a resume via email and had received a phone call within three hours setting up an interview.

She went on the interview just for the heck of it ... really for practice more than anything.

Right then they told her she was the most qualified of all the applicants they had talked to. But they still had two more interviews after her.

Last Friday, they called her and said they wanted a second interview with her THAT DAY. She went in her casual Friday clothes with the attitude that she didn't want the job and was just doing this more for fun than anything.

On Monday she received a call that they had decided on her for the position and that an offer package would be delivered to her by the end of the day.

She received the package.

They were offering her exactly $1,500 a year more than what she currently makes.

This place is about 20 minutes further away than her current job. That $1500 would literally go towards her gas.

Susie and I both understand that the offer was just the beginning of the negotiation phase.

And had it been more than gas money, she probably would have played the game like a good little soldier.

But this was an insult to her. We were not going to settle for less than $20,000 more than what she's making now.

Mainly because one of the guys she interviewed with said the position would pay her approximately $12,500-$15,000 more than what she's making.

Rather than go through a long, drawn-out negotiation phase being conducted through email, we crafted a letter last night thanking them for their consideration but that they're not on the same page as she is when it comes to financial compensation and she doubts they would ever find a mutual compromise that would satisfy them both.

Had the lady offered $5,000 more than what she currently makes, that would have been a good starting point.

But we both felt that this lady would be nickle and diming her the whole way.

We'll see what happens today when the lady gets Susie's rejection letter.

Susie got the feeling this lady doesn't take no for an answer and she definitely wants Susie and doesn't want to start this whole interviewing process again.

The lady, the owner of the company, walked away with $3 million last year in profits.

She could easily pay Susie what Susie wants.

But Susie doesn't want the job now and so this may get kinda hairy.

I'm excited about it but then again, I'm just the puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes by writing the letters, etc.

Susie thinks I'm disappointed that she's not taking the job but nothing could be further from the truth.

All I wanted was for her to go on the interview and have fun. Don't take it seriously and see what that nets you.

It netted her the job.

And a big boost to her self-esteem.

And that's all that matters to me.

Our neighbors agreed to watch Andrew so we could have a night on the town alone.

We went to this fancy restaurant in town where our bill came to $99.55.

Then we went to see "Superbad" which was a cute movie. I was worried Susie wouldn't care for all the raunchiness but she was laughing louder than anyone in the theater at the hijinks.

During the movie, a thunderstorm knocked the power out. The emergency lights came on, a girl came in and said they were working to get the generator started and to sit tight.

So everyone's talking and you hear a guy from the back yell "Hey Meghan!"

A teenage girl near the front stood up and looked around.

"Enjoying the movie?" he yelled.

She nodded her head yes in confusion.

"Cool! See you in Bible Study on Sunday!"

Which was funny to the rest of the crowd because the movie is full of the types of words you'd hear from drunken sailors with Tourette's who keep accidentally hitting their thumbs with hammers.

Not a whole lot more news from here. Andrew started school ... he's now in the first grade but for several of his classes they move him to the second grade and his spelling class he's in the third grade.

I put him to bed the other night and he wanted to read a Little Critters book before bed.

I said okay, thinking he would just stare at the pictures for 10 minutes and then go to sleep.

He read it out loud, cover to cover, just as fast as you're reading this.

The only word he needed my help on was "misbehaving".

He blew my steenking mind.