The Seattle to Portland (”STP”) bike ride attracts more than 10,000 riders each year for its 206-mile adventure. Chris has ridden it five or six times, and this year was no exception – he and several family members rode last weekend. I’m an official roadie which means I drive down in a truck and bring a cooler of root beer and snacks, and drive them home.

Here’s Chris coming across the finish line (it’s difficult to get a good action shot with my camera):

He is the only one I managed to catch coming across the finish line, everyone else got snapshots after they had dismounted. It started to rain pretty heavily just after he came in, as evidenced by my father-in-law’s glasses.

Here’s our entire group of riders, looking pretty proud of themselves:

Kids. They are so cute when they are small. And then they grow up.  Every now and then my kids have to flex their humor muscles, and this morning I saw evidence that one of the boys was feeling rather witty yesterday and was in possession of at least one PostIt Note.

laundry soap

I make soap, and that means I have abundant soap scraps — I turn these into (free) laundry soap because why waste perfectly usable soap??  The resulting mix cleans well but does have a rather odd consistency. Rather like firm egg whites. Or, apparently, troll snot.

(on a positive note, this is proof that the kids do their own laundry. That’s a good thing, no matter how they feel about the soap.)

Early Friday morning we headed out to the northernmost tip of Ozette Lake and hiked a 9-mile loop – three miles through the woods, three along the beach, and three back in through the woods.  We camped just off the beach and thoroughly enjoyed the views all along the hike.

Hiking along the beach, where we found crabs, clams, starfish, snails, hermit crabs, chiton, limpet, mussels, baby flounder-type fish (can’t remember what they are called), a few sea pens, bull kelp, and seaweed.

Our campsite, just a few yards off the beach.

A juvenile bald eagle, watching his/her parents fly slowly around. It looked like a flying lesson; the parents were chattering and chirping as they flew while the juvenile kept a sharp eye on them.

And yes, I brought some light knitting.

It looks much more impressive in person…  Trust me when I tell you that this is a nasty contusion, courtesy of a line drive at last night’s softball game, hit by a guy that swung a home run earlier in the game. The guy’s quite a slugger. The swelling is better today, but my lower leg is still tight. And even more concerning is that the center area where the ball hit is numb…  That can’t be good…  The muscle surrounding it is pretty well bruised and twinges when I walk, and it will likely turn some lovely colors in a couple of days.

But I held the runner at first.

It’s a good thing my reproductive train has left the station or I’d be getting worried that I could be next. I have three friends / relatives that are expecting babies this year and three weddings (which, I hear, often lead to babies).

You know what this means, don’t you?

I get to make stuff for little feetsies, tiny noggins, and wee bodies!

My sister already got her baby gift but there’s still two to knit for on my list; one boy, one girl. Olivia helped me pick this skein of yarn for the little girl:

Isn’t that cute? Lovely pink, raspberry, and burgundy shades. And the name couldn’t be more perfect – “Love’s Heartbeat.” Wound up, the colors become more variegated:

I’ll use the solid for coordinating edges. I can’t go into too much detail here because there’s a chance the recipient could run across my blog and ruin the surprise.

Now, what to make for the boy??

Went out to the yard with Jordan to gather some of these

to go with dinner (meatloaf, yum!) and Jordan managed to bring in one of these

Not sure what kind of bug this is — I don’t think it’s a spider (the body is all wrong). Any guesses?

Wow, really?

Ed McMahon on Tuesday.

Farrah Fawcett this morning.

And now:  Michael Jackson.

What a crazy week for celebrities!

You were not driving the bus I needed, but when you saw me running down the sidewalk as my bus pulled away, you stopped in the street and honked at me. I was frustrated, tired, and cranky at having chased my bus down the block — but you opened your door and said, “Hop on! We’ll catch him at the next stop!” You listened to me rant a bit about how my regular driver has been running a little early – just one or two minutes, but it’s enough to make me miss it (as, in fact, I missed it the day before). I have a very narrow window in which to catch my bus after work. You chuckled with me when I said the only way I’d be able to guarantee catching the bus was if I took up jogging, which wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime. And sure enough, at the next stop we caught up to the other bus and I was able to transfer, ensuring that I arrived at home on time.

Mr. Bus Driver, thank you. Thank you for caring when you saw me running, when so many others just laughed at my predicament. Thank you for humoring me as we rattled down 3rd Avenue, me fretting over whether the street lights would cooperate, whether we’d have a delay with the wheelchair lift, whether the other driver would just race off into the sunset and leave me to an additional forty-five minute delay downtown. Thank you, thank you. You made my evening!

I know that unemployment is high and that the job market is therefore fierce. I understand that people are desperate for a job, any job, and this means folks are willing to take positions well below their previous employment just to bring some money in the door, such as ex-managers working in fast food because even McD’s pays more than minimum wage. I know that people are losing their houses and condos because they can’t afford their balloon payments. I even understand that to get unemployment you have to prove that you are looking for a job. I get it.

But please, please: don’t waste my time by applying for a job that you are in no way qualified for, or are so over-qualified for as to be ludicrous. Now, before you judge me and call me callous, allow me to give you an example.

We have an opening on our administrative staff for a person to coordinate all of the daily logistics on research projects. This entails lots of phone calls, team coordination, photocopying, making travel arrangements, typing up reports, serving treats, etc. It’s entry-level. It’s clearly administrative support. We listed the salary we are willing to pay, and itemized the daily duties of this position.We didn’t make it sound glamorous or anything, just the facts.

And yet, and yet…  I just got a resume from a person that has, for the last fourteen years, been a west coast VICE PRESIDENT for a major retailer. Come on, really? This person is going to buy donuts and coffee for twelve consultants and stand at the photocopier for three hours trying to put together fourteen report binders and drive them to the FedEx office before they close and squeeze in some data entry while waiting? I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not undervalueing this position, I have a lot of admiration for the person that has filled these shoes for the past few years. But it is administrative support; always has been, always will be. It’s working your backside off trying to orchestrate a bunch of engineers. It’s dealing with changing travel plans and delayed deliveries. It’s attempting to nail down project managers and principals and get them committed to a week-long workshop. It’s trying to type notes written by people with penmanship so atrocious you can’t even tell what language they are writing.

So please, before clicking the “submit resume” button, take the time to actually read the job description and be honest as to whether or not you are qualified for the job and willing to work for the posted salary. I know it only takes a second to send a resume via email, but it takes me several minutes to review, score, and catalog each one.  Employers spend a lot of time and money placing ads and reviewing applicants. By the time I get to an applicant that is qualified for the job, I’m so brain-dead from reading about executives and CEO’s that I’m likely to overlook the good ones.  Be respectful to a prospective employer, or your resume may get deleted without a second chance.

Thank you for listening.