Three Hundred Twenty-First Entry

A lot has happened since I've last posted.

In an environmentally responsible move, I quit my job at Lea & Braze Engineering, and accepted a position at OptiSolar Inc. as a Civil Engineer. At OptiSolar, I performed much of the same tasks I did at the last couple of jobs, except this time for solar power plants. It was a nice change from working on the greed and excess driven world of high-end single family custom homes. Unfortunately, OptiSolar sold off it Business Development division to First Solar, and I was one of the casualties of the deal, which was finalized last Friday. So, last Friday I was informed of my layoff. I'm OK with it. I get a decent "severance" thanks to the gubment, and in addition, I get unemployment. But hopefully, I will not be on unemployment for too long. I'm sure staying at home all day, every day will get really old, really fast.

I was one of two folks out of seven from my group to get the chop on Friday, not to mention the dozens of other folks from different departments that were let go the same day. There were no incidents, no one was yelling or anything. There really isn't much that throwing a hissy can do to get you your job back. It was a big relief for me, especially since there had been speculation all week about impending doom for the company and specifically our group. I lost sleep all last week stressing about it. I'm sleeping fine now. I'm even still on the working sleep schedule; I got up this morning at seven. Not bad, eh?

The worst part about leaving on Friday was saying goodbye to my coworkers. Three, in particular, I had worked with at the last company. They are a good group of guys, and I'm glad they survived the merger. They've got a great opportunity to work for a juggernaut of the solar industry, and hopefully they do well.

So, I'm unemployed. I've decided to take this week relatively easy. I'm updating my resume today, but I won't start looking for work until the end of this week. If anyone would like to review my resume, please let me know! It's been a long time since I've had anyone look at it. but for now, I'm just going to cruise on into Easter, pig out on candy and chocolate, have some pizza and taco bell, and get into job searching next week. By the way, I've given up sweets, fast food and pizza for lent(that should explain the last sentence.)

I would like to thank everyone who emailed, texted and called me since I broke the news about my sudden unemployment. Thanks for your concern and the job leads!
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I'm going to make a lasagna for Easter. I'm salivating just thinking about it! The last one I made was a great success. I was thinking of also making some tapas dishes from the new tapas cookbook I recently acquired. Everything in that book looks delicious! Especially the baked stuffed onion....mmmmm....I'll have to take a pic when I do make it.

Last week was a big week for Claim Jumper. I went three times last week! Sunday, Thursday and Saturday. Each visit was a very good time!
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I'd like to ask for an opinion...at what point is it OK to expand your resume to two sheets? It is my personal belief that after ten years in any given industry, you have earned the right to expand a resume to two sheets. Any thoughts?
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I got an email a few weeks ago with this video. It is quite adult content so be careful who you watch it in front of. Also, if balloon animal sex offends you, please do not click the link! It just has to be shared...
Balloon Animals!!