American Size

It never ceases to amaze me, the food portion sizes here.

I just couldn't stop myself from taking a picture of Kevin's cookie at Barnes & Nobles. He'd been so good this morning, he deserved a cookie. Problem was: this was the smallest size available:



What's a mom to do? Help eat of course :-)

Geslaagde rust

Zaaalig lang, lang weekend.

Ik had me voorgenomen om het een dagje of twee kalmer aan te doen..en het zijn vier dagen geworden...mag ook wel eens.

Niet veel gedaan, behalve veel tijd met Kevin doorgebracht en wat gekokkereld.
Eerst donderdag Thanksgiving bij vrienden: Hele middag niks doen behalve eten, keuvelen en drinken (al dan niet in die volgorde). Vrijdag uitgeslapen en dan met Kevin naar het bos. Lange wandeling in prachtig herfstweer met knisperende blaadjes onder de voeten en kabbelende beekjes ernaast. Het perfecte anti-stress middel.



Zaterdag met Kevin wat gewinkeld -naar zijn favoriet 'Borders' voor een seizoenale chocolademelk en verhaaltjes, gevold door samen thuis pizza maken.
En vandaag een ritje naar 'Tinsel town', een tijdelijke ijspiste (bij Koka Booth Amphitheatre) met kerstversiering en crafts. Het laatste was een beetje een tegenvaller, maar de zwanen en reigers in het Regency Park ernaast maakten veel goed.

Ik zal nog moeten oppassen of ik wen te veel aan dit thuisblijven en voor Kevin zorgen ;-)

Dagje Rust

Ik kijk uit naar een dagje verdiende rust morgen.

Het is de voorbije dagen zodanig druk geweest: met al het solliciteren, het interviewen, het surfen en beantwoorden van de jobboards, het lunchen met kennisen en vooral ook het zorgen voor Kevin nu hij de hele dag thuis is (uit financiele overweging voor een tijdje).

Normaal gezien kookte ik de vorige jaren altijd voor Thanksgiving. Maar aangezien John's zus & familie dit jaar niet op bezoek komen hoef ik geen massa-maaltijd klaar te maken. Gelukkig Maar. 't Is altijd wel heel leuk om hen te zien, maar toch ook veel werk, waar ik nu eigenlijk geen zin in heb.

Wij zijn uitgenodigd om bij vrienden Thanksgiving te komen vieren, en hebben dat met veel plezier aangenomen. Ze hebben gevraagd om 'iets van thuis' mee te brengen, dus ik heb vanavond 15 potjes chocolademousse gemaakt. Daar kan niks mee mislopen en dat lust iederen meestal graag. Dus nu zit al mijn Thanksgiving koken erop en ga ik in mijn luie stoel zitten voor tenminste 1 dag (of twee...we zien wel).

Bunco

One of the things I have been introduced to recently is 'Bunco'. A group of neighborhood ladies has a monthly get-together to play Bunco. Or rather I should say, the ladies use playing Bunco as an excuse to get together and socialize...and there's nothing wrong with that (apart from maybe the fact that Bunco is actually a pretty boring and simplistic dice game, with no requirements on the intelligence front. it's pure chance...and my competitive spirit doesn't always appreciate that fact. I might suggest switching to a more interesting game), but that does leave plenty of time for socializing and getting to know folks in the neighborhood a bit better.

Last week, I hosted the Bunco night. Funnily enough, all 10 of us ended up just talking and eating and we didn't play Bunco at all (a fact that did not cause me any distress :-). Since I had the time, I'd made a pretty extensive menu of appetizers, finger food and desserts. I love cooking and this was the perfect excuse to go all out. I made all items from scratch according to good old Belgian habits, a fact that surprised most of my fellow neighbors.

Two dishes got most praise: Belgian chocolate mousse (of course) and Tex-Mex crap (sorry, meant to write 'crab') dip -a dish I'd have once at a friends and recreated). I used the chocolate mousse recipe from KVLV's 'ons kookboek' and it worked like a charm. The Tex-Mex crab dip is actually super simple, uses ingredients most people have in their pantry here and is very quick to make. It's best served with wedges of pitta bread. Here's the recipe:

-1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
-1 can sweet kernel corn (drained)
-1 can black beans (drained & rinsed)
-1 package imitation crab meat (cut into little pieces)
-mayonnaise - approx. 2 spoonfuls
-cumin - according to taste, approx. 1-2 teaspoons
-shredded mozzarella cheese - approx 1/2 a bag
- salt & pepper
directions: mix everything together and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Smakelijk

Conundrum

Big conundrum. To take the job or not to take the job.

As I thought might happen, I got a job offer from the company I'd been interviewing with, but I'm very, very hesitant to take it. On one hand, it's a good offer, decent salary and seems like a great, smart group of people at a company in a growing industry segment. On the other hand, it's an individual contributor role (contrary to my last jobs) , there's no bonus plan (contrary to my last jobs), it's a longer commute and the salary is lower than before too.....so I'm not terribly keen. ...yet, of course financially it'd be nice to have a proper income again..and I could keep looking for another job while I start this one...but then, it's awfully hard to be looking properly for another job when you're starting a new one and need to put a lot of energy into the new role....you get my dilemma....

I'm leaning towards declining. I have several other leads that I'm working right now, which makes me positive that I will have other options, tough of course, that's not 100% guaranteed...still, I'm thinking it's too early to compromise, and based on discussions with several search agencies, they all seemed to think that with my background I should be able to get a really good position within the next 2 months time, and they know the job market better than I do...I just hope I'm not being too arrogant in thinking I can land something better in the short term...guess time will tell.

One of the upsides of my current situation is that I've been able to take the time to talk to a lot of people in depth, and it's actually yielded a pleasant side effect. Many of those folks aren't marketers. One is a keynote speaker who's written a book, another is an ideation consultant, another is a small business owner, etc.....one of the common threads is that they can all use marketing help. In talking to them, I was able to share some ideas of how they could cost-effectively improve their visibility to help grow their business. Nothing earth-shattering for people with marketing experience, but pretty novel for people who've never run such programs. And it felt really good to be able to help these friends....it makes me think that at some point in the future, I might want to explore that as a business: providing marketing support for small and medium-size business. I know I have the strategy skills, I'm experienced enoujgh with all the different elements in the marketing mix (marcom, PR, digital, product marketing, channel marketing, adertising, etc.) to offer comprehensive advise, I'd need to beef up on my design-skills to be able to do that myself (but I could always use design freelancers for that part of the projects)......and I'd give me the opportunity to set my own hours and potentially work from home, but still have the variety of working with lot's of different people and business... a very appealing idea for maybe 10 years down the line when I'm tired of the ratrace.....

Fall time

I don't exactly have a favorite season, but I am always impressed by the fall colors here. I was driving to a coffee shop near the mall the other day on a road that meanders through the country side and I was struck by the beauty and simplicity of the landscape. Not that I would like to live in the counry-side, I'd choke from boredom pretty quickly. I'm definitely more of city girl, but there is something earthy and feel-good about getting closer to nature on a regular basis.
I took some quick snaps with my cameraphone through the windshield. Doesn't capture it fully, but does a decent job (don't worry- I wasn't driving fast at the time).



I'm also proud of myself. I sold a desk yesterday through craigslist. We'd had the desk for ages. It was an old-style, heavy oak desk that my husband used to use. Still nice, but not our current contemporary style. It had been standing in our attick gathering dust since the move. We'd moved it to the garage recently and had been wanting to get rid of it, but neither had the time, desire or inclination.



With a little more time on my hand these last weeks, I took the opportunity to take pictures & measurements of the desk, write a little description and post it on craigslist. I hadn't used craigslist before, but know a couple of friends who'd had good success with it. If you're not familiar with it, it's a free online classifieds site for everything (from appartments, to furniture, art, jobs, partners, etc.). It worked like a charm. Minutes after I'd posted the ad, I already had a response. I traded emails, and by noon the next day, the desk was sold and picked up. Hurrah for craigslist. I don't mind giving them a plug here. It's such a nice service. Connecting local demand & suppy of things - and totally free. I believe it was actually started in San Francisco by a guy named Craig. Very cute story.

After the success with craigslist here, I was curious and checked out their international profile a bit further. Turns out they do have a belgian version too, but it's not very popular. It doesn't have a lot of postings. I wonder why, if there's a competiting site that established itself earlier, or if it's just that it hasn't gotten much visibility yet?