and made me do it. :) Yeah, I succumbed, dug out my headset, downloaded new drivers for it, and then downloaded Gizmo.

I need to warn that I spend so much of my worklife on the phone that I prefer text when I'm not working, it's less rattling for me. BUT, there are times when only the human voice will do.

So, if you're so inclined, my ID there is ms_snarky.

The company I posted about yesterday has asked me to interview on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, my favorite lender in life has opened a branch in Dallas, and the branch manager I work with as a broker (in Novato) has emailed her to expect my call.

Thanks to all of you for the good wishes.

I think your rain-making is working. I mean, I don't know about the skies on YOUR side of the Metroplex, but here in Grand Prairie, the sky has gone from blue to dark grey in about sixty seconds, and lightning is painting streaks across the treetops.

Taken from

When Fuzzy and I bailed on the bay area and moved to Texas, the plan was that I was going to do contract work for my old company and concentrate on writing. Well, the writing is starting to click, but the not-so-pretty electric bill has made me think that it's time to dip my toe back in the corporate waters. At least for a while.

So, today I went online to Monster and MortgageBoard and CareerBuilder to update my resumes and see what was there, and I found an underwriting position (something I've wanted to move into for a while, but chickened out of a couple years ago) that is not only local, and a perfect match for my skills and experience, but is offered by the company that trained me, which CEO is a personal friend of my mother. And the post is dated today.

Taking it as a sign, I emailed my chirpy cover letter and resume off to the recruiter, and then sent a less formal and more chirpy email off to the CEO. And now, I ask that all of you offer positive thoughts, and suchlike, because while I've never had a problem getting a job, this is the first time in a long time that I've WANTED a position.

(Also, I'm betting my writing will be better and flow easier because productivity breeds productivity, and frankly, I feel like I've been stagnating.)

Thanks in advance.

It took us all weekend of nattering back and forth to finally figure out when and where to see Batman Begins. It was playing every half hour at the theater less than a mile from our house, but that theater doesn't have stadium seating. Finally we decided to drive into Dallas (MapQuest said it was a 29-minute drive, but we did it in 20) for the 10:40 PM show at the IMAX theater, thinking it would be a reasonable choice on a Sunday evening. We got there about an hour early, and were about 15th in line…ended up with center back row seats (no, no annoying vents making noise), and it was quite comfy. There were two children under the age of five in the theater though, and while they were well-behaved, especially considering the time and their ages, I still think this was a questionable choice of film for a child that young.

The movie itself? Quite enjoyable. Christian Bale rocks my world, Katie Holmes was bearable, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are always good, and Rutger Hauer's appearance was nicely done. Gary Oldman as Gordon threw me for a bit, but then the popcorn hit my blood stream and I bought it. Liam Neeson…well, he has wonderful eyes, even if he isn't really cast well in this part. I didn't HATE him, but he could have done better.

The sets were really cool, and I'm glad I read the free 'zine they hand out at the theater so I knew what influences to look for. The script was full of wonderful quotable lines, and nice moments of humor to undercut the darkness just a little.

I'm half-disappointed that there are no previews on the IMAX cuts of major films, but otoh, they started it on time, at 10:40, and we left while the credits were still rolling, and it was 1:03 AM on the car clock when we got in.

Tired, but pleased.
Bed now.

(And you can all faint at me posting here directly, and not to the blog, but it doesn't FIT in the blog.)

It's 's birthday, and has been all day, and I'm a horrible friend, because even though I knew that, I got so focussed on a project that I FORGOT to wish her a happy birthday. As someone who REVELS in celebrating her own birthday, this is doubly horrid.

ANYWAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY , I hope there was cake.

I've migrated my blog at MissMeliss.com from Movable Type to WordPress, and as soon as they've updated the feed address for readers are likely to get five or so entries en masse.

Just a heads-up.

I looked at and another cataloguing program called Collectorz, and have decided that the latter is more what I want, first because it supports the Symbol Spark barcode scanner that Fuzzy 'liberated' from his office, and second because it has support for comic books, dvds, and cd's as well as normal books.

(I tested the latter by downloading the free trial, and it likes my scanner just fine, which is always helpful.)

I suspect that with these programs, as with pretty much everything it all comes down to YMMV.