Employed

Well, it seems to have happened. I have a job.

The aforementioned neighbor who's moving away, when I was there for the yard sale, mentioned, "and if you know any graphic designers looking for a job..." I mentioned that, well, I do, actually. And he had my stop by his soon-to-be former place of employment, a Santa Fe print shop.

It became a bit of a flurry of an interview, which culminated in an offer yesterday, to join the local print shop. It's perhaps a bit more production-intensive that my background is (at least of late), so we've agreed to give it a month, and see if I'm suited to be their senior design-type person.

Combined with the housesitting and such, past few days have been a whirlwind of activity, ending my longest summer vacation ever.

dog/house-sitting

This week we are watching house + dog for friends of Janie + Joa. The house is amazing. Designed (+ built) by the owner, it's actually 2 buildings. One is two-stories, with bedroom + bathroom upstairs, kitchen downstairs, and the other is one story, with studio space (he's a sculptor) and office/guest space. All very spare, white plaster, concrete floors, plain wood (it reminds us very much of our trips to visit Steffen in Marfa). In between there is a courtyard, with one of those great, soaring, sail-like awnings, making a neat place to sit. There are great views, and a nice breeze, and only 5 minutes into town.

And, making sure that we water the flowers, get the mail, and eat the spinach, peas and radishes from the garden, is Cain (short for Canine), their Chow-Bernese mix:

plant pictures, because Liz asked for them

Okay, it's hard to take good pictures of plants. And some of them aren't blooming yet. The agastache and scarlet bugler penstemon don't look like much now, but they're supposed to attract hummingbirds, once they bloom.

Message Deleted

Coming home from errands this evening, there were two messages on the answering machine. Still wearing the sunglasses, I accidentally hit delete on the first, a message we'd been saving for months, hoping to either get a recording of it or to finally transcribe it.

It was from last November. A wonderful, inside-the-Beltway kind of moment. It was Barbara, from "Condi Rice's office" looking for General Haig. She left a number. M&D told us we should've called back to tell them it was wrong; when P&T were visiting, we actually did, but got some sort of recording about number couldn't be reached.

A prank, then.

But Barbara called back during the months I was at home. I spoke with her. She was a little dubious at first, but I assured her that the number was a residence, not Al Haig's office, and had been so for quite some time.

So, the other message on the machine? A hang-up. Telemarketers.

The Week In Santa Fe

Well, as I suspected, as we get settled in, there's less and less worthy of posting on a daily basis. Some stuff from the past week, more or less chronologically:

Biking/Bagels — Took my first ride beyond the hill to the bagel shop, for breakfast to accompany the smoked salmon from Mary. I survived. And didn't notice the green chile bagels until the way out.

House-/dogsitting — Looks like we'll be looking after the house and dog of a couple of artist friends of Janie and Joa's. They've got this amazing, custom-designed place on the edge of town that feels like it's the end of the desert. And a big, sweet Bernese/Chow cross. Looks like we'll be out there the middle of next week for about a week, giving us a vacation from this place we hardly have even spent time in.

Gardening — Monica's been over at Janie and Joa's for a couple days this week, helping get the plantings set, fed, and ready for the coming summer.

Computer — Sherry generously passed along her G4 when she upgraded, and we'd been sitting on it until we were settled in the new place. The monitor arrived this week, and so the setup began in earnest. I'm still, in the larger sense, a fan of Apple. But we've had some trying times these past few days. More memory and a retrofit for the wireless is on its way, but I'm feeling optimistic now.

Alias — Missed the season finale (again) but for a good reason. Synopsis, anyone?

Artwork — Everything is unboxed, and our artwork is up. Will try to get pictures, but we're pretty happy with how it all worked out. Took much, much longer that we thought. And it exacted its price in blood.

Wireless — Turns out, the rental office has wireless for residents' use.

True Believers — Headed over on Thursday evening to help hang their show of work from 24 Hour Comic Day. And returned Friday for the opening, a crowded, fun, great time.

Gardening, Part II — Monica hit the local nurseries (all of them) and returned with a wonderful selection to attract hummingbirds and generally decorate our balcony.