PFO

For those who haven't been on the recieving end of enough of these, PFO stands for Please-F-off. It is used to refer to those rejection letters that are terribly polite, but still reject you outright. Terms like "difficult decision" and "many excellent candidates" and "highly qualified" are tossed onto the page with gay abandon.

I've got a goodly pile. I have two favorites. One favorite is from Schrock when I was applying for a post-doc position in his lab. He said there was a possibility, but it would be 6 months later than when I wished to start. It was from him personally, not his admin. I'm rather sad about that one, as a week after my email account with that PFO email in it was deleted, Schrock won the Nobel prize in Chemistry. The other was from the University of Calgary when I was applying for scholarships "Congratulations" it started and continued with "on already having a major scholarship" and then PFO.

Today I got a pure FO letter. It sucked. It was from a job I was uniquely qualified (actually over qualified) for. I interviewed, but I did not "meet selection criteria".

Anyhow, it was just the latest in a stream of Bob-doesn't-get-a-job sagas. I'm stuck (albeit by choice) in a small city with few prospects. The prospects I had have withered and died. I adore research and there is very little out there for me here. 2 of my 3 job prospects are dead and the last job is a teaching position.

blech

In other news, Bump learned how to laugh. It's a kinda scary sound, but I think she's happy.

Zombie will be so jealous

For a Christmas present (recieved last weekend), I got a book written by bigfoot.

As an update on my life, I have a job interview this Friday (in the wrong damn city), a job to apply to mid-March (very good chance I would get that) and a teaching position most likely offered for the summer.

The summer is not a problem, as Mr Bob is taking the semester off (with pay-love Canada), but we need us some childcare in September. This will not be easy. Our friends in a similiar position are already on 10 waitlists. We are on one so far.

Huuuge

I left the house (without the baby thanks to a breast pump and Mr Bob) this morning and went to the gym where I got to hear the following exchange: (note huge is pronounce huu-ge with a long hew sound and the voice has to drop half an octave)

Guy1: Hey
Guy2: Hey, you getting huge?
Guy1: Trying, trying to get huge
Guy3 (comes out of change room): Hey, we going to go get huge?
Guy2: Let's do it!
Guy1: See ya.
Guy2: We should work out together some time next week. to get huge!

I missed the rest of the conversation as I was busy bashing my head against the wall hoping the thumping sound would drown them out.

What a lovely sunny day

I knew there was a reason I lived in this part of Canada.

In the bad news front I got glasses and now my house is really dirty.

Um..it's dark out

And I haven't actually gotten dressed yet..

Yes we have pictures

Marian practising her smiles

Bob and Marian in the NICU Christmas morning

Marian sleeping

So our house now runs on Marian time. Mr Bob is off work over Christmas, which is quite nice. We basically hang around and feed Marian and hold Marian. She is quite patient with her parents and murmers and squawks before any crying happens. What she wants when she squawks is pretty simple (milk or rarely a burp) and whatever Marian wants, Marian gets. This is pretty much my philosophy for the first few months.

We went out for lunch today and have gone on walks (sometimes just 10 minutes) most every day. We even made it to a New Years party for a few hours. She is (so far) a very easy baby. She takes a lot of time and I often don't get dressed until 2, but that is just fine.

Marian is named after my grandma Mary (who lived right next door to us from the time I was 10 until she passed away when I was 23. She was great.) and Astrid is a name that Mr Bob really liked.

Happy New Year to you all!

Hey, Look what I got for Christmas!

Marian Astrid

Dec 20, 2008, 10 pm, 7 lbs

She spent the first few days in the NICU, but was released to our room on Christmas day and released from the hospital boxing day. She is a champion eater and we are both quite taken with her.